The Engine of Visualization

Photography extends our human ability to produce images, which are understood as surface markings - here induced by light. Through an approach to photography that is both analytic and consistently sensitive to photo history, Maynard places photography among modern imaging technologies, such as those familiar in medicine, and addresses some provocative questions. Technologies amplify but they also suppress. What does photography suppress? How should we think about depictive fidelity? What problems do the new digital technologies bring in their wake? What accounts for the persistent ambivalence regarding photographic art? Although Maynard's particular focus is photography, much of his discussion illuminates issues concerning other technologies and other kinds of images.