A New History Of Photography

T.S. Eliot observed: “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.”

A simple truth: we reflect ideas that influence us. What we love—our fixations and our obsessions—all are to be seen in the things we do and can be found in the things we create. History is a repository for those influences. In history we clearly see the obsessions and reasonings of bygone eras. But the telling of history is not a static enterprise. History evolves over time to explain the past to a contemporary audience eager to explain the origin of its own obsessions and perceptions. As our influences become codified and embodied in the canons we create, we emphasize ways to comprehend the present by way of reconfiguring the past. Ken Schles examines the photographic work he’s made over the last 25 years and recognizes within it a slew of antecendents and influences.

173 pages; 107 plates. Limited Edition
2008, White Press, distributed by Schaden.com. Inquiries can be made here.