Mark Durden

La fotografía hoy es un estudio apasionante y accesible de la fotografía como expresión artística que abarca desde la década de 1960 hasta nstros díasLa fotografía hoy es un estudio apasionante y accesible de la fotografía como expresión artística que abarca desde la década de 1960 hasta nstros días, desde su impacto en el arte pop y el arte conceptual hasta las extraordinarias transformaciones que ha experimentado en la era digital.

A fully illustrated major new survey of contemporary photography A lively and accessible survey of photography as art since the 1960s, exploring how, in the hands of some of the world's greatest photographic artists, it has developed into a respected and versatile artistic medium. This major new survey of contemporary photography considers the work of 80-100 photographers through eleven thematic chapters on subjects such as street photography, portraiture, landscape photography and documentary. It traces the development of photography as an art form in each of these genres individually and also looks at the ties and links between them. What is revealed is a complex story with numerous tangents. Mark Durden's narrative, combined with rich illustrative content and an easily accessible design, guides a clear path through this story, showcasing the work of great individual photographers while also being able to place this into the larger narrative of the medium's development.

Artists’ fascination with pop culture and commodity aesthetics has led to the development of some of the most significant and popular art of the last fifty years. Yet while much of this art has concerned itself with the celebration of commodities as objects of desire, relatively little attention has been given to the human cost underpinning such cultures of excess. Variable Capital counters this trend and examines the way in which contemporary artists have critically responded to the seductive allure of globalised commodity consumption. Taking its title from a term Karl Marx used to explain how value is produced in a commodity, the book charts the strategies artists have employed to redirect attention toward the apparently invisible processes of exploitation and alienation underlying production. The book, in accompaniment to an exhibition presented by the Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool, examines the work of a range of international artists including Common Culture, Hans Op de Beeck, Richard Dedomenici, Alexander Gerdel, Richard Hughes, Melanie Jackson, Louise Lawler, Ken Probst, Wang Qingsong, Julian Rosenfeldt, Santiago Sierra, Larry Sultan, Brian Ulrich and Andy Warhol. Much of the work discussed is characterised by a willingness to engineer awkward and embarrassing situations, challenging the viewer with uncomfortable realities. Many of the artists achieve this by humorously subverting familiar objects and rituals to displace, critique and emphasise the ridiculous. This art is not redemptive, but a vehicle by which the often absurd and brutal logic of commodification is revealed.