Photography: The Key Concepts
Citation
Bate, David. Photography: The Key Concepts. Second edition. London: Bloomsbury Academic (Berg), 2016 [first edition: 2009]. xxiii + 288 pp. + 9 unnumbered pp. of plates. ISBN: 978-0-85785-493-3 (paperback), 978-0-85785-492-6 (hardback). LCCN: 2015031557.
Tier justification
Tier 2: university-press monograph by a named academic author. David Bate has a publication record in photographic theory (academic title not confirmed from session-fetched sources, 2026-05-20). Publisher is Bloomsbury Academic (formerly Berg Publishers), a major academic press. The book belongs to the “Key Concepts” (Berg) series — an academic reference series confirmed from OpenLibrary series field “Key concepts (Berg (Firm))” — equivalent in standing to other Bloomsbury Academic titles. The LCCN 2015031557 confirms Library of Congress cataloging. The book has been issued in two editions (first 2009, second 2016), confirmed from OpenLibrary; claims about adoption in curricula are not confirmed from session-fetched sources.
Relevance
A standard textbook-level treatment of photography theory, covering the major analytical frameworks used in contemporary photography studies: theory, documentary, portraiture, landscape, still life, art photography, and global photography. The Family of Man features in the literature on which Bate draws (including Turner, Stimson, and Barthes, all of whom this project cites directly). While not a monograph dedicated to the exhibition, the book provides the pedagogical / theoretical map within which the exhibition is standardly located in 2010s academic photography curricula. The chapter “Snapshots and institutions” is particularly relevant to understanding how The Family of Man is positioned as a formative institutional act in 20th-century photography.
Key excerpts / pages
Metadata confirmed from OpenLibrary edition record (key: /books/OL27206202M, fetched 2026-05-20 via https://openlibrary.org/books/OL27206202M.json):
- Full title: “Photography: the key concepts”
- Subtitle: “the key concepts”
- Edition: “Second edition.”
- By statement: “David Bate”
- Publisher: not specified in OpenLibrary record; series records show “Key concepts (Berg (Firm))” — Berg is now Bloomsbury Academic; source records include
bwb:9780857854926andbwb:9780857854933(bwb = Baker & Taylor, confirming the book was commercially released), LC classification TR146.B337 2016 - ISBN 10: 0857854933 (paperback), 0857854925 (hardback)
- ISBN 13: 9780857854933 (paperback), 9780857854926 (hardback)
- Pages: 288 (plus xxiii front matter and 9 unnumbered plates pages, confirmed from
paginationfield: “xxiii, 288 pages, 9 unnumbered pages of plates”) - LCCN: 2015031557
- OCLC: 920680432, 1200755321
- Publish date: 2016
- Publish country: enk (England / UK)
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents confirmed from OpenLibrary record (10 chapter-level entries):
- Theory
- Snapshots and institutions
- Documentary and storytelling
- Seeing portraits
- Landscapes
- The object of still life
- Art photography
- Global photography
- The scopic drive: the visual field
- Memory and history
OpenLibrary work record also confirmed: OL20026154W (fetched 2026-05-20), subjects: “Photography”, “ART / Criticism”, “PHOTOGRAPHY / General”, “PHOTOGRAPHY / Criticism”, “Media studies”, “Cultural studies”, “Photography & photographs”.
Body text not read this round. Bloomsbury publisher page (https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/photography-9780857854926/) returned Cloudflare challenge; body not accessed.
Notes
- Verified: false — OpenLibrary record confirmed with full edition metadata; body text not read (publisher page blocked, 2026-05-20).
- First edition (2009) ISBN: 978-0-415-44615-0 (pbk) / 978-0-415-44614-3 (hbk) — not a separate source entry here; the 2016 second edition is the current standard text.
- The “Global photography” chapter is the section most directly relevant to the world-tour dimension of the project. The “Documentary and storytelling” chapter is relevant to the photographic genre claims that the exhibition made.
- This book joins the existing
src-wells-critical-introduction(Wells, Routledge) as a standard academic photography studies text. Together they represent the pedagogical mainstream within which The Family of Man is taught in universities in the 2010s. - Perspective: photography theory / visual culture. Written from a broadly post-structuralist / cultural-studies standpoint. The “Key Concepts” format means claims are synthetic and survey-oriented rather than primary research.