Photography after Photography

"Abigail Solomon-Godeau is one of the best, if not the best, critical historians of photography in the country as well as one of the most sophisticated and theoretically astute feminist art historians writing today." - Linda Nochlin, author of Women, Art, and Power and Other Essays

"Abigail Solomon-Godeau is one of photography's most astute long-standing contemporary commentators. In Photography after Photography, she continues the crucial work of examining the situations and stakes of representation. Essays written over the last two decades take up case studies as diverse as Cindy Sherman and Abu Ghraib; Solomon-Godeau reminds us that no image can truly be seen without a consideration of the power structures that shape it. Feminism informs every word of this powerful examination of culture, rigorously specific in its examples, yet expansive in its reach." - Johanna Burton, editor of MIT's 2006 October Files, Cindy Sherman

"Solomon-Godeau shines when applying deconstructive feminist analysis to broader questions of representation in visual culture, and the market forces that collude to elevate an artist’s reputation to master status." - Wendy Vogel, Camera Austria

"With its refusal to separate photography from power and patronage, Abigail Solomon-Godeau's Photography After Photography arrives at an auspicious moment.. . . Bringing a wealth of information to bear on photographic meaning, Solomon-Godeau explores her topics in historical context. In doing so, she demonstrates that the way many photographs are understood today has little to do with the circumstance of their creation, or the manner in which they were originally distributed and viewed."  - Dore Bowen, Art in America

"While Solomon-Godeau’s overarching goal is to offer a feminist critique of the art world — particularly of critical discourse around art — in some of her essays she also discusses topics that fall outside this lens, such as the role of desire in photography and images of torture. In this sense, the anthology reflects the range of Solomon-Godeau’s practice and interest as an art critic and scholar." - Ela Bittencourt, Hyperallergic

"Solomon-Godeau’s essays are lucid and make for captivating reading. . . . It is fitting for Solomon-Godeau to present a collection that spans such a broad range of topics in a manner that is cohesive, challenging, and attentive to photography’s complex formal and cultural history." - Will Carroll, ASAP/Journal