The Picture Not Taken
On Life and Photography
New York Review Books · Print & ebook · October 29, 2024
An ecologically minded collection of essays in the vein of Rebecca Solnit and Susan Sontag, covering everything from the equipment of photography to the difficulties of perception itself.
We earn from qualifying purchases.
- Who it’s for
- Benjamin Swett considers how photography intersects with memory, the natural world, love, and loss.
- Genres
- Photography Writing, Photography Criticism, Artist Essays
- Published
- New York Review Books, October 29, 2024
Nearest books
Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved.
The Unforgettable PhotographGeorge Lange, Scott Mowbray66% match
More Than a Rock, 2nd EditionGuy Tal62% matchShares Photography Writing and Photography Criticism
Blind CornersMichael Collins, Will Self61% matchShares Photography Criticism
The Lay of the LandJoe Greer60% matchShares Photography Writing
BodyNathalie Herschdorfer59% match
STILLMary Jo Hoffman59% matchShares Photography Writing
Extraordinary Everyday PhotographyBrenda Tharp, Jed Manwaring58% match
Blind SpotTeju Cole58% matchShares Photography Writing
For younger readers: Phenomenal Moments: Revealing the Hidden Science Around US, National Geographic Kids Guide to Photography, Looking Back
Start with three books, and this one can be the first.
Members get a new edition every morning: a route out from their books to essays, research and talks, with the reason for each.
Start with this bookAbout this book
An ecologically minded collection of essays in the vein of Rebecca Solnit and Susan Sontag, covering everything from the equipment of photography to the difficulties of perception itself.
Continue reading
In The Picture Not Taken, the photographer and writer Benjamin Swett considers the intersections between photography, memory, the natural world, and the course of life in essays on subjects that include family snapshots, images of racial violence, the shape of abiding love, and the experience of unforseen and irremediable loss. In these beautifully written, deeply affecting pages, Swett moves with a wonderful improvisatory freedom among his chosen themes. The Picture Not Taken is a book of transfixing pieces that possesses the intensity and integrity and heft of the wholly new.
Photography and Memory
Benjamin Swett considers how photography intersects with memory, the natural world, love, and loss.
Come here for
- Essays on family snapshots and images of racial violence
- Reflections on memory, the natural world, and loss
Expect
- The equipment of photography and the difficulties of perception
- Essays moving among family snapshots, racial violence, and abiding love
Where it sits
| Photography Criticism | 55% |
|---|---|
| Photography Writing | 53% |
| Artist Essays | 34% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Artist Essays
- Artists' Lives
- Photography Writing
- Authors
- Benjamin Swett
- Publisher
- New York Review Books
- Published
- October 29, 2024
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- Artist Essays