This useful collection includes over a century of the very best writing on photography. Vicki Goldberg has brought together more than 75 essays and excerpts that cover a vast and provocative range of topics. We have the first-hand accounts of photographers, from Fox Talbot to Alfred Stieglitz to Ansel Adams, and the thoughts of leading critics and philosophers, from Baudelaire to George Bernard Shaw to Susan Sontag. Some of the pieces illuminate important aspects of photographic history; others give unique insights in particular photographers; and some are just for fun. Together, they offer a lively approach to the history, art, and philosophy of photography.

本书集结左拉论述马奈及其作品的几乎所有文字。左拉通过对马奈及其作品的论述，阐述其美学学说的基本思想。这些文章最初于马奈画展前一年结集出版，论述严肃、客观而富有条理，为一个当时不被理解并受到攻击的艺术家进行了辩护，构成了左拉作为文艺批评者为捍卫自然主义美学立场进行的一场睿智的文字争鸣。在这本书中，左拉那充满热情、极其感人的篇章，让左拉和马奈这两个被历史紧密联系起来的名字永不分开。