Asko Lehmuskallio – författare

This book presents a transcultural and generative introduction to the field of visual studies. Aimed primarily, but not exclusively, at students and scholars in the social sciences, it explores the multiple meanings of images and visual culture in human life.

Divided into three parts, the first section departs from a framework of the look as a medium for understanding imaging practices and offers a critical analysis of the changing ways in which vision has been understood across epochs and cultures and the politics attached. The second section opens with an expanded understanding of images, addressing their affective, sensory and performative roles. It then discusses semiotic tensions between the icon and the index and the role of social interaction in the visual field and ends with an analysis of immersive viewing in a creative juxtaposition between distinct, culturally situated, imaging practices. Building on the previous sections, the third part provides a series of applications in specific terrains, such as on the significance of faces, on cameras and their environments, the visual culture of death, x-ray imagery and the meaning and role of shadows. Insisting on the role of the look as a medium for studying the visual field, this book reminds us of the importance of images not only as representations of the world but also as proper co-travellers and companions of our journeys on the earth.

The book serves as an ideal introductory text for courses across the social sciences by directing the reader’s attention to the generativity and interactivity of imaging practices.

This book presents a transcultural and generative introduction to the field of visual studies. Aimed primarily, but not exclusively, at students and scholars in the social sciences, it explores the multiple meanings of images and visual culture in human life.

Divided into three parts, the first section departs from a framework of the look as a medium for understanding imaging practices and offers a critical analysis of the changing ways in which vision has been understood across epochs and cultures and the politics attached. The second section opens with an expanded understanding of images, addressing their affective, sensory and performative roles. It then discusses semiotic tensions between the icon and the index and the role of social interaction in the visual field and ends with an analysis of immersive viewing in a creative juxtaposition between distinct, culturally situated, imaging practices. Building on the previous sections, the third part provides a series of applications in specific terrains, such as on the significance of faces, on cameras and their environments, the visual culture of death, x-ray imagery and the meaning and role of shadows. Insisting on the role of the look as a medium for studying the visual field, this book reminds us of the importance of images not only as representations of the world but also as proper co-travellers and companions of our journeys on the earth.

The book serves as an ideal introductory text for courses across the social sciences by directing the reader’s attention to the generativity and interactivity of imaging practices.

Digital Photography and Everyday Life: Empirical studies on material visual practices explores the role that digital photography plays within everyday life.

With contributors from ten different countries and backgrounds in a range of academic disciplines - including anthropology, media studies and visual culture - this collection takes a uniquely broad perspective on photography by situating the image-making process in wider discussions on the materiality and visuality of photographic practices and explores these through empirical case studies.

By focusing on material visual practices, the book presents a comprehensive overview of some of the main challenges digital photography is bringing to everyday life. It explores how the digitization of photography has a wide-reaching impact on the use of the medium, as well as on the kinds of images that can be produced and the ways in which camera technology is developed. The exploration goes beyond mere images to think about cameras, mediations and technologies as key elements in the development of visual digital cultures.

Digital Photography and Everyday Life will be of great interest to students and scholars of Photography, Contemporary Art, Visual Culture and Media Studies, as well as those studying Communication, Cultural Anthropology, and Science and Technology Studies.

Digital Photography and Everyday Life: Empirical studies on material visual practices explores the role that digital photography plays within everyday life.

With contributors from ten different countries and backgrounds in a range of academic disciplines - including anthropology, media studies and visual culture - this collection takes a uniquely broad perspective on photography by situating the image-making process in wider discussions on the materiality and visuality of photographic practices and explores these through empirical case studies.

By focusing on material visual practices, the book presents a comprehensive overview of some of the main challenges digital photography is bringing to everyday life. It explores how the digitization of photography has a wide-reaching impact on the use of the medium, as well as on the kinds of images that can be produced and the ways in which camera technology is developed. The exploration goes beyond mere images to think about cameras, mediations and technologies as key elements in the development of visual digital cultures.

Digital Photography and Everyday Life will be of great interest to students and scholars of Photography, Contemporary Art, Visual Culture and Media Studies, as well as those studying Communication, Cultural Anthropology, and Science and Technology Studies.