Colberg, Jorg (2017). Understanding Photobooks. The Form and Content of the Photographic Book. Routledge.
Book description: A user-friendly guide to engaging with the photographic book— or, as it is widely known, the photobook. Despite its importance as a central medium in which many photographers showcase their work today, there is surprisingly little information on the mechanics of the photobook: what exactly it does and how it does it. Written for makers and artists, this book will help you develop a better understanding of the images, concept, sequence, design, and production of the photobook. With an awareness of the connections between these elements, you’ll be able to evaluate photobooks more clearly and easily, ultimately allowing for a deeper and more rewarding experience of the work.
Shannon, Elizabeth (2010). The Rise of the Photobook in the Twenty-First Century. St Andrews Journal of Art History and Museum Studies, 14, 55-62
Abstract: This article attempts to delineate the history and form of the photographic book, departing from the rise in interest in books containing photography from scholars, photographers and the art market. The author offers a summary of several definitions of photobooks according to the most salient publications to date and challenges them by addressing questions concerning the form and the prevailing emphasis on the aesthetic viewpoint. The article is helpful since it covers the most salient scholarly writing on photobooks and offers a lot of canonical examples, as well as lesser-known approaches to the phenomena.
Berger, John (1972). Ways of seeing. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Book description: The book was originally published in 1972 and was based on the highly acclaimed BBC television series of the same name. It is considered seminal work in the field of visual studies. While the book doesn’t deal with the practice of collage and does not aim to be a Photobook, Berger juxtaposes his written reflections on the images with a series of pictures that sometimes just try to illustrate his points of view; in other cases, their collection and arrangement propose thinking by they own as it happens in Chapter 2.
Bordwell, David; Thompson, Kristin; and Smith, Jeff. (2003; 12th edition: 2020). Film Art: An Introduction. MacGraw Hill
Book description: Film Art is considered the best-selling and most widely respected introduction to the analysis of cinema. Using examples from many periods and countries, the authors help students develop a core set of analytical skills that will enrich their understanding of any film, in any genre. In-depth examples deepen students’ appreciation for how creative choices by filmmakers affect what viewers experience and how they respond. Chapter 5 “The Shot: Cinematography” deals with types of shots and camera angles, introducing different examples to explain this fundamental theoretical vocabulary.
Dondis, Donis A. (1973). A Primer of Visual Literacy. MIT Press
Book description: Developing the visual sense is something like learning a language, with its own special alphabet, lexicon, and syntax. People find it necessary to be verbally literate whether they are “writers”: or not; they should find it equally necessary to be visually literate, “artists” or not. This primer is designed to teach students the interconnected arts of visual communication. The subject is presented, not as a foreign language, but as a native one that the student “knows” but cannot yet “read.” Chapter 2 “Composition: The Syntactical Guidelines for Visual Literacy” deals with key concepts such as balance or visual stress, basic for composing images, and Chapter 3 “The Basic Elements of Visual Communication” explains essential notions related to the basic elements of the image such as the dot, the line, colour or texture.
DeLaure, Marilyn and Fink, Moritz (Eds.) (2017). Culture Jamming. Activism and the Art of Cultural Resistance. New York: New York University Press
Book description: Coined in the 1980s, “culture jamming” refers to an array of tactics deployed by activists to critique, subvert, and otherwise “jam” the workings of consumer culture. Ranging from media hoaxes and advertising parodies to flash mobs and street art, these actions seek to interrupt the flow of dominant, capitalistic messages that permeate our daily lives. Employed by Occupy Wall Street protesters and the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot alike, culture jamming scrambles the signal, injects the unexpected, and spurs audiences to think critically and challenge the status quo. The essays, interviews, and creative work assembled in this unique volume explore the shifting contours of culture jamming by plumbing its history, mapping its transformations, testing its force, and assessing its efficacy.
Dery, Mark (1993). Culture Jamming. Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs. New Jersey: Open Pamphlet Magazine Series.
Description: Mark Dery is considered one of the first figures to define culture jamming. This expression commonly refers to a range of tactics used to critique and subvert the workings of consumer culture. In 1993, he wrote this seminal essay. He aimed to outline the main traits of this subcultural movement and trace its theoretical roots. For this reason, he situates culture jamming on a historical continuum of artistic resistance, including artistic movements (Dada, Surrealism), pop and appropriation art, Situationist détournement, alternative perspectives media practices, and graffiti art. Dery writes, “Part artistic terrorists, part vernacular critics, culture jammers, like [Umberto] Eco’s ‘communications guerrillas,’ introduce noise into the signal as it passes from transmitter to receiver, encouraging idiosyncratic, unintended interpretations.”
Image Theory 