IN the age of selfies, where millions of photographs displayed and shared have an outstretched arm in the frame, we are at risk of forgetting that photography is an art form.Technology has democratised the selection of what is worthy of display. Today, there is seemingly no human activity not observed and shared by anyone who has the time (or inclination) to look.In her essay "On Photography", Susan Sontag predicted the rise of the selfie when she wrote that new camera technology held the power to democratise all experiences by translating them into images.But she maintained that books were the most influential way of arranging photographs, thereby guaranteeing them longevity, if not immortality, and a wider public. In a book, a photograph can be offered to the public as a collectable object."The photograph in a book is, obviously, the image of an image. But since it is, to begin with, a printed, smooth object, a photograph loses much less of its essential quality when reproduced in...
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