We say the camera doesn't lie, but we also know that pictures distort and deceive. In Picture Perfect, Kiku Adatto brilliantly examines the use and abuse of images today. Ranging from family albums to Facebook, political campaigns to popular movies, images of war to pictures of protest. Adatto reveals how the line between the person and the pose, the real and the fake, news and entertainment is increasingly blurred. New technologies make it easier than ever to capture, manipulate, and spread images. But even in the age of the Internet, we still seek authentic pictures and believe in the camera's promise to document, witness, and interpret our lives.
Price: $29.95
Pages: 304
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Publication Date:
11 May 2008
ISBN: 9780691124407
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Process / Campaigns & Elections, Elections and referenda / suffrage, ART / Art & Politics, PHOTOGRAPHY / Photojournalism, Political campaigning and advertising, The arts: general topics, Photojournalism and documentary photography
"In this engrossing analysis of modern imagery, Adatto chronicles the rise of America's 'photo-op culture' and the explosion of social networking sites, image-conscious photography and the guerilla war between gaffe-seeking journalists and self-aware politicians. This book is an admirable analysis of the role of the image in modern culture and an eloquent defense of why words still matter."
Kiku Adatto is a Scholar in Residence at Harvard University's Humanities Center. Her writings on culture, politics, and the media have appeared in many publications, including the New York Times, the New Republicand the Huffington Post.
