Image Studies

Image Studies

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Image Studies

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Image Studies: Theory & Practice
Sunil Manghani
Routledge, 2013, ISBN: 978-0-415-57340-5

>> Table of Contents & List of Illustrations

>> How to Use This Book & Introduction

Image Studies offers an engaging introduction to visual and image studies. In order to better understand images and visual culture the book bridges between theory and practice; asking the reader to think critically about images and image practices, but also simultaneously to engage with image-making processes. Looking across a range of domains and disciplines, we find the image is never a single, static thing. Rather, the image can be a concept, an object, a picture, or medium – and all these things combined. At the heart of the book is the idea of an ecology of images, through which we can examine the full ‘life’ of an image – to understand how an image resonates within a complex set of contexts, processes and uses.

Each chapter includes a series of key features, which include:

(1) The use of extracts from key texts in the field, and/or short entries written specifically for the book by a range of authors.

(2)  A wide range of illustrations.

(3)  Keywords which link to the online glossary (see Intertext).

(4) Creative tasks with accompanying questions and commentary (see Create).

(5) Chapter summaries and suggested further reading (available here; see also Library).

Part One covers theoretical perspectives on the image, supplemented with practical entries on making, researching and writing with images. Part Two explores specific image practices and domains, with chapters on drawing and painting; photography; visual culture; scientific imaging; and informational images. A wide range of illustrations complement the text throughout and each chapter includes creative tasks, keywords (linked to an online resource), summaries and suggested further reading. In addition, each of the main chapters include selected readings by notable authors across a range of subject areas, including: Art History, Business, Cognitive Science, Communication Studies, Infographics, Neuroscience, Photography, Physics, Science Studies, Social Semiotics, Statistics, and Visual Culture.

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Study Materials

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LECTURE SLIDES: a set of Prezi lecture slides on a variety of topics:

What Is Visual Culture?
Reproduction & Montage
Photobooks, Art & Visual Critique
Public Pictures – Photography & Social Commentary
Photographic Memory

Further Reading

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The following suggested reading is divided into sections corresponding to the main chapters of Image Studies: Theory & Practice: General | Understanding Images | Image & Text | Drawing & Painting | Photography | Visual Culture | Scientific Imaging | Image & Information. See also the Library section, which provides links to various materials.

NB. Suggestions always welcome for materials to be added to the list below and/or to the Library.

General

Berger, John (1972) Ways of Seeing.London: Penguin Books.

Debray, Régis (1996) Media Manifestos: On the Technological Transmission of Cultural Forms, trans. by Eric Rauth. London: Verso.

Elkins, James (2003) Visual Studies: A Skeptical Introduction.New York: Routledge.

Elkins, James (ed.) (2009) Visual Literacy. New York: Routledge.

Manghani, Sunil, Piper, Arthur and Simons, Jon (eds.) (2006) Images: A Reader. London: Sage.

Mitchell, W.J.T. (1987) Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Mitchell, W.J.T. (1994) Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Mitchell, W.J.T. (2005) What Do Pictures Want? The Lives and Loves of Images. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Stafford, Barbara Maria (1996) Good Looking: Essays on the Virtue of Images. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Sturken, Marita and Cartwright, Lisa (2009) Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture, 2nd Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Taylor, Mark C. and Saarinen, Esa (1994) Imagologies: Media Philosophy. London: Routledge.

Understanding Images

Aumont, Jacques (1997) The Image, trans. by Claire Pajackowska. London: British Film Institute.

Belting, Hans (2005) ‘Image, Medium, Body: A New Approach to Iconology’, Critical Inquiry, Vol. 31, pp.302-319.

Elkins, James (1999) The Domain of Images. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Elkins, James (ed.) (2007) Visual Practices Across the University. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag.

Elkins, James and Naef, Maja (ed.) (2011) What is an Image? University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press.

Manghani, Sunil, Piper, Arthur and Simons, Jon (eds.) (2006) Images: A Reader. London: Sage.

Messaris, Paul (1994) Visual Literacy: Image, Mind, and Reality. Colorado: Westview.

Mitchell, W.J.T. (1987) Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Mitchell, W.J.T. (1994) Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Mitchell, W.J.T. (2005) What Do Pictures Want? The Lives and Loves of Images. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Sontag, Susan (1979) On Photography. London: Penguin Books.

Stafford, Barbara Maria (1996) Good Looking: Essays on the Virtue of Images. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Image & Text

Barthes, Roland (1977) ‘The Rhetoric of the Image’ inImage Music Text, trans. by Stephen Heath. London: Fontana, pp.32-51.

Curtis, Neal (ed) (2010) The Pictorial Turn. London: Routledge.

Elkins, James (1999) The Domain of Images. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Elkins, James (ed.) (2009) Visual Literacy. New York: Routledge.

Foucault, Michel (1983) This is Not a Pipe, trans. by James Harkness. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Goodman, Nelson (1968) Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols. London: Oxford University Press.

Hunt, J.D., Lomas, D., and Corris, M. (2010) Art, Word and Image: Two Thousand Years of Visual/Textual Interaction. London: Reaktion Books.

Jay, Martin (1994) Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth-Century French Thought. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Latour, Bruno and Weibel, Peter (ed.) (2002) Iconoclash: Beyond the Image Wars in Science, Religion, and Art. Karlsruhe: ZKM | Center for Art and Media

McCloud, Scott (1994) Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperPerennial.

Manghani, Sunil, Piper, Arthur and Simons, Jon (eds.) (2006) Images: A Reader. London: Sage.

Mitchell, W.J.T. (1987) Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Mitchell, W.J.T. (1994) Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Drawing & Painting

Bal, Mieke (1991). Reading ‘Rembrandt’: Beyond the Word-Image Opposition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bal, Mieke and Bryson, Norman (1991) ‘Semiotics and art history’, Art Bulletin, 73, pp.174-2008.

Bann, Stephen (1970) Experimental Painting: Construction, Abstraction, Destruction, Reduction. London: Studio Vista.

Barthes, Roland (1985) The Responsibility of Forms: Critical Essays on Music, Art, and Representation, trans. by Richard Howard. New York: Hill and Wang.

Berger, John (2005) Berger on Drawing. Cork: Occasional Press.

Berger, John (2011) Bento’s Sketchbook. London: Verso.

Derrida, Jacques (1987) The Truth in Painting, trans. by Geoff Bennington and Ian McLeod.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Didi-Huberman, Georges (2005) Confronting Images: Questioning the Ends of a Certain History of Art, trans. by John Goodman. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press.

Duff, Leo and Davies, Jo (ed.) (2005) Drawing – The Process. Bristol: Intellect.

Elkins, James (1998) On Pictures and the Words That Fail Them. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Elkins, James (2000) What Painting Is: How to Think Abut Oil Painting, Using the Language of Alchemy. New York: Routledge.

Garner, Steve (ed.) (2008) Writing on Drawing: Essays on Drawing Practice and Research. Bristol: Intellect.

Klee, Paul (1953 [1925]) Pedagogical Sketchbook, trans. by Sibyl Moholy-Nagy. London: Faber and Faber.

Rosand, David (2002) Drawing Acts: Studies in Graphic Expression. Cambridge: Cambridge Universtiy Press.

Photography

Ades, Dawn (1986) Photomontage. London: Thames and Hudson.

Batchen, Geoffrey (1999) Burning with Desire: the Conception of Photography. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Berger, John and Mohr, Jean (1995) Another Way of Telling. New York: Vintage International.

Bolter, Jay David and Grusin, Richard (2000) Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Cubitt, Sean (1998) Digital Aesthetics. London: Sage.

Elkins, James (2011) What Photography Is. New York: Routledge.

Evans, Jesscia (ed.) (1997) The Camerawork Essays: Context and Meaning in Photography. London: Rivers Oram Press.

Mitchell, W.T.J. (1994) ‘The Photographic Essay: Four Case Studies’ in Picture Theory. Chicago: Chicago University Press, pp.281-322.

Mitchell, William J. (1994) The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Modrak, Rebakah and Anthes, Bill (2010) Reframing Photography: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge.

Parr, Martin and Badger, Gerry (2004) The Photobook: A History (Volume 1). London: Phaidon Press.

Parr, Martin and Badger, Gerry (2006) The Photobook: A History (Volume 2). London: Phaidon Press.

Roberts, John (1998) The Art of Interruption: Realism, Photography and the Everyday.

Scott, Clive (1999) The Spoken Image: Photography and Language. London: Reaktion Books.

Sontag, Susan (1979) On Photography. London: Penguin Books.

Wells, Liz (ed.) (2000) Photography: A Critical Introduction, second edition. London: Routledge.

Visual Culture

Benjamin, Walter (1992) ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ in Illuminations, trans. by Harry Zohn. London: Fontana Press, pp.211-244.

Berger, John (1972) Ways of Seeing.London: Penguin Books.

Bordo, Susan (1997) Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images from Plato to O.J..California: University of California Press.

Bryson, Norman, Holly, Michael Ann and Moxey, Keith (eds.) (1994) Visual Culture: Images and Interpretations.Hannover: Wesleyan University Press.

Davis, Whitney (2011) A General Theory of Visual Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Elkins, James (2003) Visual Studies: A Skeptical Introduction.New York: Routledge.

Evans, Jessica and Hall, Stuart (eds.) (1999) Visual Culture: The Reader.London: Sage.

Foster, Hal (Ed.) (1988) Vision and Visuality.Seattle: Bay Press.

Fuery, Patrick and Fuery, Kelli (2003) Visual Cultures and Critical Theory.London: Arnold.

Howells, Richard and Negreiros, Joaquim (2011) Visual Culture. Second Edition. Cambridge: Polity.

Mirzoeff, Nicholas (ed.) (2002) Visual Culture Reader.Second Edition. London: Routledge.

Mirzoeff, Nicholas (2009) An Introduction to Visual Culture.Second Edition. London: Routledge.

Mitchell, W.J.T. (2005) What Do Pictures Want? The Live and Loves of Images. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Rogoff, Irit (2002) ‘Studying Visual Culture’ in Nicholas Mirzoeff (ed.) Visual Culture Reader. Second Edition. London: Routledge, pp.24-36.

Rose, Gillian (2012) Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials. 3rd Edition. London: Sage.

Sturken, Marita and Cartwright, Lisa (2009) Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture, 2nd Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Scientific Imaging

Chen, Chaomei (2003) Mapping Scientific Frontiers: The Quest for Knowledge Visualization. London: Springer.

Elkins, James (ed.) (2007) Visual Practices Across the University. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag.

Elkins, James (2008) Six Stories from the End of Representation: Images in Painting, Photography, Astronomy, Microscopy, Particle Physics, and Quantum Mechanics, 1980-2000. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Ford, Brian (1992) Images of Science: A History of Scientific Illustration. London: The British Library.

Frankel, Felice (2002) Envisioning Science: The Design and Craft of the Science Image. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.            

Galison, Peter (1997) Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Galison, Peter (2002) ‘Images Scatter into Data, Data Gather into Images’ in Latour and Weibel (ed.) Iconoclash: Beyond the Image Wars in Science, Religion and Art. MIT Press, pp.300-323.

Kemp, Martin (2006) Seen/Unseen: Art, Science, and Intuition from Leonardo to the Hubble Telescope. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pauwels, Luc (ed.) (2006) Visual Cultures of Science: Rethinking Representational Practices in Knowledge Building and Science Communication. Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College Press.

Snow, C.P. (1998) The Two Cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sturken, Marita and Cartwright, Lisa (2009) ‘Scientific Looking, Looking at Science’ in Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture, 2nd Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.347-387.

Zeki, Semir (1999) Inner Vision. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Image & Information

Bergström, Bo (2008) Essentials of Visual Communication. London: Laurence King Publishing.

Bertin, Jacques (2011) Semiology of Graphics: Diagrams, Networks, Maps, trans. by William J. Berg. Redlands, California: Esri Press.

Cleveland, William S. (1993) Visualizing Data. New Jersey: Hobart Press.

Few, Stephen (2009) Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis. Oakland: Analytics Press.

Floch, Jean-Marie (2000) Visual Identities. London: Continuum.

Fry, Ben (2008) Visualizing Data.Sebastopol: O’Reilly.

Ingold, Tim (2007) Lines: A Brief History. London: Routledge.

Kress, Gunther (2010) Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. London: Routledge.

Kress, Gunther and van Leeuwen, Theo (2006b) Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. Second Edition. London: Routledge.

Knight, Carolyn and Glaser, Jessica (2009) Diagrams: Innovative Solutions for Graphic Designers. Mies: RotorVision.

Lima, Manuel (2011) Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information. New York: Princeton Architectural Press

McCandless (2009) Information is Beautiful. London: Collins.

Meyer, Eric K. (1997) Designing Infographics: Theory, Creative Techniques and Practical Solutions. Indianapolis: Hayden Books.

Segaran, Toby and Hammerbacher, Jeff (eds.) (2009) Beautiful Data: The Stories Behind Elegant Data Solutions. Sebastopol: O’Reilly.

Spence, Robert (2001) Information Visualization. London: Addison-Wesley.

Steele, Julie and Iliinsky, Noah (eds.) (2010) Beautiful Visualization: Looking at Data Through the Eyes of Experts. Sebastopol: O’Reilly.

Steele, Julie and Iliinsky, Noah (2011) Designing Data Visualizations. Beijing: O’Reilly.

Tufte, Edward R. (1990) Envisioning Information. Connecticut: Graphics Press.

Tufte, Edward R. (1997) Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. Connecticut: Graphics Press.

Tufte, Edward R. (2004) The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Second Edition. Connecticut: Graphics Press.

Yau, Nathan (2011) Visualize This: The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.

Image Theory – Encyclopedia Entry

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An entry on Image Theory appears in the revised multi-volume Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, edited by Michael Kelly (published by Oxford University Press). The entry is divided into 7 main sections: Philosophical precedents; Image and power; the Pictorial turn; Image as thought; Image analysis; Image domains; and Image studies.

Read Entry: Image Theory.pdf [PDF]

The following excerpts are taken from the beginning and end of the entry:

‘A much-cited line from Raymond Williams’ Keywords (Fontana, 1988) is that the word ‘culture’ is ‘one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language’. Although he does not state what those other complicated words might be, we might readily include the word ‘image’. Williams himself offers only a short entry on the concept of the image, but like the word ‘culture’ we could equally point to its varied historical development (in different contexts), and also, importantly in how the term is adopted across a range of distinct intellectual disciplines and in a variety of ways that are not always compatible.’

[…]

‘Image Studies. In defining ‘Image Studies’ we can ask the deceptively simple question: ‘What is an image?’ – which we soon acknowledge is no simple matter. If anything, the image does not exist in any singular sense, but is always a plural term (Elkins and Naef, 2011). It is perhaps not surprising one of the central concerns of writers has been to categorize images into different groupings that attempt to account for the full range of visual and non-visual images. W.J.T. Mitchell’s (1987) canonical essay, ‘What is an Image?’, proposes a family tree of images (to include graphic, optical, perceptual, mental and verbal images), while James Elkins’ Domain of Images (1999) puts forward a diffuse genealogy of image types. In both cases, these taxonomies are an attempt to give an inclusive account of what might be included in an expanded understanding of the image. Hans Belting (2005) offers an explicit development of Mitchell’s account of a ‘family of images’, arguing: ‘Images are neither on the wall (or on the screen) nor in the head alone. They do not exist by themselves, but they happen … They happen via transmission and perception’. In consolidating these accounts, Images Studies (Manghani, 2013), seeks to establish an interdisciplinary approach to the study of images, which looks across a range of domains and disciplines. The approach it sets out is to think both critically about images and image practices, and simultaneously to engage with image-making processes. At the heart of the book is the idea of an ‘ecology of images’, through which we can examine the full ‘life’ of an image as it resonates within a complex set of contexts, processes and uses. Elsewhere, under the banner of Bildwissenschaft [image science], and notably through the prolific work of the publicly funded Eikones project (at the University of Basel), a broad consortium of researchers has been brought together to plot new pathways, including the intersection between science and visual culture. Overall, image studies seeks to offer critical frameworks within which interdisciplinary research can take place. In the last decade or so, alongside developments in visual culture studies, image studies – if not fully established in institutional terms – has taken up its place within intellectual debates and scholarship.’

 

Images: Critical and Primary Sources

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Images: Critical and Primary Sources
Sunil Manghani (ed.)
Berg, 2013, ISBN: 9780857850843

Images: Critical and Primary Sources is a major multi-volume work of reference that brings together seminal writings on the image. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the essays range across the domains of philosophy, history, art, aesthetics, literature, science, anthropology, critical theory and cultural studies. The essays reveal a wide set of perspectives, problematics and approaches, helping to frame a rich, encompassing view of what we can broadly term ‘image studies’. The four volumes are arranged thematically, each separately introduced and with the essays structured into specific sections for easy reference. 

Volume 1: Understanding Images establishes conceptual, historical, ideological and philosophical framings for understanding and defining the image; followed in Volume 2: The Pictorial Turn with a focus on the most enduring and constitutive question of the image: its relationship to, with and against text and textuality. Volume 3: Image Theory offers representative materials covering key theoretical approaches for analyzing, interpreting and critiquing the image. Finally, Volume 4: Image Cultures examines a wide range of social and cultural contexts of the image, which covers aspects of visual evidence, image and memory, visual methodologies, scientific imaging and the practical engagement of image-makers.

Images: Critical and Primary Sources offers a major scholarly resource for any researchers involved in the study of the image and visual culture.

Images: A Reader

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Images: A Reader
S.Manghani, A.Piper & J.Simons (eds.)
Sage, 2006, ISBN: 978-1412900454.

Images: A Reader makes for a useful companion to Image Studies, with a selection of over 80 key entries taken from writings ranging across the domains of philosophy, art, literature, science, critical theory and cultural studies. Many of the original sources are cited in Image Studies (where the entries appear in the bibliography they have been highlighted in bold to help cross-reference between the two books).

Images: A Reader is divided into three parts:

(1) Historical and Philosophical Precedents sets the background for contemporary debates about images.

(2) Theories of Images provides key texts of the major approaches through which images are conceptualised.

(3) Image Culture introduces some of the more recent debates about images and today’s visual environment.

The selection of over 80 key readings, across the domains of philosophy, art, literature, science, critical theory and cultural studies tells the story of images through intellectual history from the Bible to the present. By including both well-established writings and more recent, innovative research, the Reader outlines crucial developments in contemporary discourses about images.