Having held the posts of course leader on both the Visual Arts and History of Art and Visual Culture courses at the University of Gloucestershire, UK, Richard Salkeld is now senior lecturer in the university's Art and Design department, teaching undergraduate students of photography.

• Chapter 1: What is a photograph?Invention: the marriage of chemistry and opticsTime and lightUses and applicationsThe camera: an evolutionCase study: Chuck CloseChapter 2: Reading the signsWhere do meanings come from?Language: words, sounds and imagesSemiotics: the study of signsIdeology: ideas, practices and beliefsCase study: Anthony BarrettChapter 3: Truth and liesWhat is ‘real’?Representation and realityFacts and fictionCase study: Thomas HoepkerChapter 4: IdentityPeople and portraitsSignifying identityLookingThe bodyCase study: Marc GarangerChapter 5: Big Brother is watching youThe modern worldThe bad, the mad and the ‘other’Surveillance society: the PanopticonWho is looking at whom?Public spaces – private livesCase study: Shizuka YokomizoChapter 6: AestheticsBut is it art?Photography cannot be artWhat is art?Photography as art – the history of an ideaInto postmodernism Case study: Richard BillinghamConclusionBibliographyReferencesIndexPicture creditsAcknowledgements