Impure Vision

In the seventies, a group of American photographers challenged the established, modernist mode of photographic expression. Instead of viewing the camera as an objective, optical device and photographs as mechanically reproducible artistic products, the proponents of the new staged photography' seized the possibilities of conveying holistic life experiences by employing a full range of sensory impressions. In Impure Vision, photography theorist Moa Goysdotter analyses the work of four of the leading names in this new genre -- Les Krims, Duane Michals, Arthur Tress, and Lucas Samaras. Applying new perspectives to Seventies' art photography, she sheds fresh light on the four artists' critiques of purist ideals, and looks closely at their efforts to transcend the limitations of the purely visual effect of photography. Impure vision not only tells the history of American staged photography in a broad perspective, drawing on theories and methods new to the field, but also puts forward new approaches to photography history and theory in general.

Moa Goysdotter is a researcher and lecturer in photography history and theory in the Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences at Lund University in Sweden.