Photography - Arts for Health

This mini-monograph Photography looks at photography and health with a distinctive anthropological lens running through discussion and analysis. The text is carefully constructed insofar as all the concepts build throughout the work, so an intelligent reader can pick it knowing nothing about the subject whatsoever, and if it is read sequentially (which is recommended), as the concepts subtly build throughout, the reader can learn photographic theory to a high level. It is, in this sense, sophisticated and carefully crafted. This monograph draws together the subject of photography and health extensively in a way not hitherto attempted in a single volume, based on original research and novel, rigorous, groundbreaking secondary analysis. The overall result is a world leading text, though compact at just under 70K.

Photography is ubiquitous. The visual image is the predominant form of communication. Arguably it is a very democratic medium, since billions of people all over the planet take photographs on their phones, and digital storage means that expensive printing is not necessary and therefore the practice is not prohibitive. Photography is important to political and social movements and connects people in emotionally meaningful relationships. This book explores the myriad ways in which photographs can be used: to document events, places or things; to consolidate personal identity; to pose a challenge to an idea or regime; to animate the inanimate (in other words, to breathe life into objects); to capture the fleeting and transitory; to create stories; to reveal what may be taken for granted, including seeing social practices; to enhance our perception and allow us to notice previously unnoticed details; to consolidate relationships; to represent the overlooked or marginalised; to commemorate; to authenticate; to tantalise. All these modes of photography have different possibilities, different intentions and different effects.