Costello Diarmuid - Four arts of photography : an essay in philosophy

1. Chapter 01
2. Chapter 02
3. Chapter 03
4. Chapter 04
5. Chapter 06
6. Chapter 08

Series editors: Dominic McIver Lopes (University of British Columbia) and Berys Gaut (University of St Andrews)

Wileys New Directions in Aesthetics series highlights ambitious single- and multiple-author books that confront the most intriguing and pressing problems in aesthetics and the philosophy of art today. Each book is written in a way that advances understanding of the subject at hand and is accessible to upper-undergraduate and graduate students.

1. Interpretation and Construction: Art, Speech, and the Law

   Robert Stecker

2. Art as Performance

   David Davies

3. The Performance of Reading: An Essay in the Philosophy of Literature

   Peter Kivy

4. The Art of Theater

   James R. Hamilton

5. Cultural Appropriation and the Arts

   James O. Young

6. Photography and Philosophy: Essays on the Pencil of Nature

   Edited by Scott Walden

7. Art and Ethical Criticism

   Edited by Garry L. Hagberg

8. Mirrors to One Another: Emotion and Value in Jane Austen and David Hume

   Eva Dadlez

9. Comic Relief: A Comprehensive Philosophy of Humor

   John Morreall

10. The Art of Videogames

    Grant Tavinor

11. Once-Told Tales: An Essay In Literary Aesthetics

    Peter Kivy

12. The Art of Comics: A Philosophical Approach

    Aaron Meskin and Roy T. Cook

13. The Aesthetics of Wine

    Douglas Burnham and Ole Martin Skilles

14. The Possibility of Culture: Pleasure and Moral Development in Kants Aesthetics

    Bradley Murray

15. Four Arts of Photography

    Dominic McIver Lopes

DOMINIC McIVER LOPES

With commentary by

DIARMUID COSTELLO AND CYNTHIA A. FREELAND

This edition first published 2016
2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc

Registered office
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

Editorial offices
350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK
The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell.

The right of Dominic McIver Lopes to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data applied for

9781119053170 (Hardback)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover image: Amanda Means

For Turner Wigginton

James Welling, Flower 009, 2006. Chromogenic print mounted to acrylic, 116.8 94 cm.

Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner, New York/London.

• Clarence H. White, Landscape with Figure
• Thomas Gainsborough, Portrait of David Garrick
• Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of an Elderly Man
• Bill Brandt, Nude, East Sussex Coast
• Andr Kertsz, Buy Bud, Long Island
• Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #3
• Gerhard Richter, Betty
• Lotte Jacobi, Photogenic
• Shirine Gill, Untitled No. 1

Dominic McIver Lopes is Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of Understanding Pictures and Sight and Sensibility: Evaluating Pictures, as well as books on computer art and the nature of art. His first camera was a Kodak Instamatic 124, which he used to document his familys migration from Scotland to Canada.

Diarmuid Costello is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick. He co-directed the Arts and Humanities Research Council project on Aesthetics after Photography, and has co-edited issues of Art History, the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, and Critical Inquiry on photography. He is now working on a book titled On Photography for Routledge. He grew up on the smell of D76 and Neutol WA, and supported himself through art school as a photographer.

Cynthia A. Freeland is Moores Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Houston. She is currently (20152017) serving as president of the American Society for Aesthetics. Her publications include work on ancient philosophy and feminist theory as well as aesthetics, and her most recent book is Portraits and Persons. Her photo stream can be viewed on Flickr, where she is known as Philosopher Queen.

Philosophers cultivate the virtue of cool detachment, but philosophers of art must make a special effort to keep their aesthetic passions in check. Neutrality clears space for multiple perspectives and frank confrontations, but it can be fragile. Slight errors in emphasis, hasty generalizations, too obvious assumptions, and slips of imagination can mislead catastrophically. We must therefore curb our enthusiasms. Yet, I confess I have a soft spot for photography.

My first book, Understanding Pictures, took on drawing and photography as our two principal modes of imaging, and I thought an article that I subsequently wrote about the aesthetics of photography would be my final say on the topic.