Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book introduces and offers an overview of conceptual issues relating to photography and to ways of thinking about photographs. It considers the photograph as an artefact used in a range of different ways and circumstances, and photography as a set of practices that take place in particular contexts. There is a margin for notes throughout the book. Key references to core reading, and also to archive sources, appear in the margin so one can follow up the issues and ideas which have been introduced. References are repeated in a consolidated bibliography at the end. The front cover operates within a marketing context, with each edition branded through a new image that represents some aspect of the concerns of the publication. As a point of principle, people have always selected images by non-mainstream photographers.