The Critical Image: Essays on Contemporary Photography
Citation
Squiers, Carol, ed. The Critical Image: Essays on Contemporary Photography. Seattle: Bay Press, 1990. 246 pp. ISBN 0-941920-14-3 (cloth); 0-941920-15-1 (paper).
Relevance
An edited anthology collecting major essays from the critical-theoretical tradition that reassessed documentary and humanist photography. Contributors include figures central to the reassessment of The Family of Man: Abigail Solomon-Godeau (also src-solomon-godeau-1991-photography-at-dock), Allan Sekula, and Rosalind Krauss among others. The anthology is a key secondary source for mapping which critical arguments had reached a broad scholarly audience by 1990 — the moment immediately before Sandeen’s historical study (src-sandeen-1995) and the Clervaux inauguration (1994).
Bay Press was an independent scholarly press specializing in critical theory and cultural studies; contributors include recognized Tier-2 authorities. Qualifies at Tier 2 for this reason.
Key excerpts / pages
- Access status (2026-04-30): Internet Archive URL (
https://archive.org/details/criticalimageess00squi) fetched successfully. The fetch returned: editor (Carol Squiers, 1948–), title (The Critical Image: Essays on Contemporary Photography), year (1990), publisher (Bay Press, Seattle), ISBNs (0941920143; 0941920151), page count (246 pages). The fetch also returned partial table-of-contents information noting essays on photography and simulation, photojournalism, urban projections, documentary practices, surrealism, and sexuality/AIDS representation, and an interview with John Tagg. - Verbatim from Internet Archive metadata (fetched 2026-04-30): “The Critical image : essays on contemporary photography” with editor “Squiers, Carol, 1948-“ and publisher “Bay Press, Seattle.”
- Contributors named in the WebSearch result (not independently verified against the Internet Archive table of contents): Rosalind Krauss, Fred Ritchin, Carole S. Vance, Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Andy Grundberg, Rosalyn Deutsche, Christian Metz. These contributor names are from a WebSearch snippet, not from a directly fetched table of contents page; treat as provisional.
- No verbatim text from the essays quoted; body text access-restricted (controlled-digital-lending).
- Specific essays engaging directly with The Family of Man NOT confirmed from a primary fetch in this round.
Notes
- The Internet Archive record was successfully fetched and confirmed the core bibliographic data (editor, title, year, publisher, ISBNs, page count). This is a confirmed fetch for metadata.
- Contributor list (Krauss, Ritchin, Vance, Solomon-Godeau, Grundberg, Deutsche, Metz) is from a WebSearch snippet; NOT verified against the book’s table of contents in this round. Do not assert specific essay titles or page ranges for contributors without a CDL borrow or physical copy check.
- The book was noted as having “some content may be lost due to the binding of the book” (scan quality note from Internet Archive); this may affect future CDL borrow usability.
- Cross-reference to
src-solomon-godeau-1991-photography-at-dock: Solomon-Godeau’s essay in this anthology is part of the same critical project as her 1991 book. - Cross-reference to
src-sekula-1981,src-sekula-1984-photography-against-the-grain: if Sekula contributed an essay, it would extend the materialist-critique strand documented in those entries. - Cross-reference to
src-sandeen-1995: this anthology is part of the critical context within which Sandeen’s historical argument intervened. verified: false: Internet Archive metadata confirmed (fetched); body text and table of contents not read (CDL only). Contributor list carried from WebSearch snippet, not from a fetched ToC.