Scissors, Paper, Stone: Expressions of Memory in Contemporary Photographic Art

by Martha Langford

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Book cover for Scissors, Paper, Stone

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Finalist: Raymond Klibansky Book Prize Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada (2008) Making a connection between photography and memory is almost automatic. Should it be? In Scissors, Paper, Stone Martha Langford explores the nature of memory and art. She challenges the conventional emphasis on the camera as a tool of perception by arguing that photographic works are products of the mind - picturing memory is, first and foremost, the expression of a mental process. Langford organizes the book around the conceit of the child's game scissors, paper, stone, using it to ground her discussion of the tensions between remembering and forgetting, the intersection of memory and imagination, and the relationship between memory and history. Scissors, Paper, Stone explores the great variety of photographic art produced by Canadian artists as expressions of memory. Their work, including images by Carl Beam, Carole Conde and Karl Beveridge, Donigan Cumming, Stan Denniston, Robert Houle, Robert Minden, Michael Snow, Diana Thorneycroft, Jeff Wall, and Jin-me Yoon, is presented as part of a rich interdisciplinary study of contemporary photography and how it has shaped modern memory.
  • ISBN10 077357686X
  • ISBN13 9780773576865
  • Publish Date 14 May 2014 (first published 27 June 2007)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint McGill-Queen's University Press
  • Format eBook
  • Pages 365
  • Language English