Books

Place: Towards a Geophilosophy of Photography

Monograph:
2021, Leiden University Press, Leiden

"In this lively and highly original book, Ali Shobeiri documents the many ways in which photography is all about place. Offering acute observations on everything from the photographer to the photographic image, and from the camera to the spectator, Shobeiri sets forth all the ways, major and minor, in which photography is (in his words) ‘comprised of places.’ Proceeding from the basic premise that places are not just locations or sites but are vibrant ways of being in space and time, he demonstrates that photography presents to us the many transmogrifications of places as they are perceived, remembered, and transformed in their ‘processual, omnilocal, mutating, and lived manifestations.’ Lucidly written, this breakthrough book allows us to see that the scope and import of photography is far more extensive than we have ever imagined – and that place, the central thread of this captivating and convincing text, has been given new life through photography. The result is nothing short of the creation of a new and unique field of inquiry: the geophilosophy of photography."

Edward S. Casey, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Stony Brook University

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