After Photography

"After Photography" examines the myriad ways in which the digital revolution has fundamentally altered the way we receive visual information, from photographs of news events taken by ordinary people on mobile phones to the widespread use of image surveillance. In a world beset by critical problems and ambiguous boundaries, Fred Ritchin argues that it is time to explore the possibilities created by digital innovations and to use them to understand our rapidly changing world.Ritchin investigates the future of visual media as the digital revolution transforms images into a hypertextual medium, fundamentally changing the way we conceptualise the world. Simultaneously, the increased manipulation of photographs makes photography suspect as reliable documentation. In the tradition of John Berger and Susan Sontag, Ritchin analyses photography's failings and reveals untapped potentials for the medium.