---

Do we understand a photograph differently if we encounter it in a newspaper rather than a book? In a photo album as opposed to framed on a museum wall? The "Public" Life of Photographs explores how the various ways that photographs have been made available to the public have influenced their reception. The reproducibility of photography has been the necessary tool in the creation ofa mass visual culture. This generously illustrated book explores historical instances of the "public" life of photographic images-tracing the steps from the creation of photographs to their reception. The contributors examine the emergence of photography as mass culture: through studios and public spaces; by the press; through editorial strategies promoting popular and vernacular photography; and through the dissemination of photographic images in the art world. They discuss such topics as how photographic images became objects of appropriation and collection; the faith in photographic truthfulness; Life magazine´s traveling exhibitions and their effect on the magazine´s "media hegemony"; and the curatorial challenges of making vernacular photographs accessible in an artistic environment.

---

Geoffrey Batchen, Nathalie Boulouch, Heather Diack, André Gunthert, Sophie Hackett, Vincent Lavoie, Olivier Lugon, Mary Panzer, Joel Snyder

---