Rexer Introduction

Good evening from Milwaukee, 

Lyle Rexer: Fifteen Pictures to Understand Photography: Introduction

Rexer’s introduction perfectly sums up all the ways in which photographs exist in today’s world. They can exist in a multitude of forms, have different purposes, and even exist in different states. “They can be bodiless as a dream and as solid and poignant as a tombstone” (14). 

He mentions how images need writing now more than ever not because they have become too abstract, but because of how images have saturated our vision. Without the written word, they can suffer, and become part of the meaningless backdrop of temporary space. 

He later discusses the ever-present methods of defining images that surround photography, and how “Alertness to these contradictions informs any encounter with photography today” (23). Throughout the intro, we are indeed introduced to ideas we must be aware of as image makers, and how that understanding will be deepened throughout analysis of Rexer’s chosen 15 images  with the end goal of understanding photography.