Photography: A Critical Introduction
Citation
Wells, Liz, ed. Photography: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge, 1996. 328 pp. ISBN 0-415-12559-6 (paperback); 0-415-12558-8 (hardcover).
Relevance
The foundational Routledge textbook in photography studies. First published December 1996, it synthesised the critical-theoretical tradition developed in October, by Sontag, Sekula, Solomon-Godeau, and others into a pedagogically structured anthology. By assembling these critical approaches in a Routledge textbook, Wells gave the 1970s–1990s critical reassessment of documentary and humanist photography — including the critical tradition surrounding The Family of Man — its standard form for university teaching in the UK and internationally.
The first edition is the 1990s entry point for this tradition in the curriculum; subsequent editions (2nd ed. 2000, 3rd ed. 2004, 4th ed. 2009, 5th ed. 2015, 6th ed. 2021) confirm its canonical status.
Tier 2: Routledge (Taylor & Francis) academic press, named-editor scholarly anthology.
Key excerpts / pages
- Access status (2026-04-30): No direct URL fetched for the first edition. AbeBooks page for ISBN 0415125598 confirmed the ISBN and first-edition publication year (1996) via WebSearch result. The Routledge publisher page for the current (6th) edition was found but not fetched (permission context). The AbeBooks URL above points to a bookseller listing, not a publisher page, and was not fetched directly.
- Page count (328 pp.) and ISBNs confirmed from WebSearch result citing the 1996 first edition. Publisher (Routledge), year (December 1996), and editor (Liz Wells) confirmed from multiple concordant search results.
- Chapter structure from the 6th edition (confirmed by WebSearch result): the current edition covers documentary, personal photography, the body, advertising, and photography as art; the 1996 chapter structure is NOT confirmed independently in this round and may differ.
- Verbatim quote from the WebSearch result (not from a directly fetched page): “When Photography: A Critical Introduction first appeared in 1996, it did something no other textbook had managed: it treated photography as a serious academic discipline worthy of rigorous theoretical inquiry.”
- Specific chapter engagement with The Family of Man NOT confirmed from a primary fetch in this round.
Notes
verified: false: No direct fetch of the 1996 first edition. Bibliographic data (ISBNs, year, page count, publisher, editor) confirmed from concordant WebSearch results. Chapter structure for the first edition NOT verified; the 6th-edition chapter list may not reflect the 1996 edition.- Do not cite specific page numbers from Wells 1996 without a physical copy or CDL borrow.
- Cross-reference to
src-sandeen-1995: Wells’s textbook and Sandeen’s monograph appeared within a year of each other and represent the moment when critical FoM scholarship entered both academic publishing and the curriculum. - Cross-reference to
src-sontag-1977,src-sekula-1981,src-solomon-godeau-1991-photography-at-dock,src-batchen-1997-burning-with-desire: the critical tradition synthesized by Wells. - The current edition (6th, 2021, ISBN 9780367222758) is in print; earlier editions are available second-hand. For research use, specify the edition consulted.