Photographer as Autobiographer

Arnaud Schmitt is a Full Professor at the University of Bordeaux, France. He has published two books and multiple articles on autofiction and autobiography.

“To me, that’s what makes autobiographies by photographers interesting: not their faith in photography but their suspicion of it, and the transfer of their suspicion of photography’s representation onto autobiography’s representation.” (Charles Reeve, Biography, Vol. 46 (2), 2023)“This book’s exploration of how literary life writing and artistically composed, strategically positioned images combine to intensify the representation and impact of photographers’ life stories is a timely intervention into this captivating hybrid genre, and a valuable contribution to life writing studies … . Schmitt’s wide-ranging, interdisciplinary insights, which collectively initiate critical discussions on the diversity and complexity of interchanges among memoirist, text, visual image, and reader, constitute a firm platform for more specialised analyses of creatively illustrated life narratives.” (Merril Howie, Life Writing, June 19, 2023)

• Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: The I of the Photographer: A Historical Perspective.- Chapter 3: A Structural Approach to Photographers’ Memoirs.- Chapter 4: A Cognitive Approach to Photographers’ Memoirs.- Chapter 5: Hold Still.- Chapter 6: Conclusion.