Blind Corners: Essays on Photography\u00a0is the debut collection of essays from celebrated photographer Michael Collins, the first contemporary art photographer to be exhibited at The British Museum. For many years, Collins has wondered what exactly it is that he finds so mysterious and compelling about photography.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a lengthy and considered introduction, writer Will Self says: \u201cWhile I\u2019ve felt nothing but disgust for photography of all kinds for well over a decade now, nevertheless, Michael Collins \u2026 persuades me not only of its significance as an art form, but also of the beauty of individual photographs: indeed, that they partake of the auratic, not despite the age of art\u2019s technological reproducibility, but precisely because of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s exactly what Collins addresses in this series of linked essays. He offers a reappraisal of the key photographic genres that he believes are worthy of greater understanding, considering both the humble and the ubiquitous in what is, in effect, a survey of the role of photography within the wider field of the history. From restoring abandoned photos discarded by families no longer interested in their past, to a comprehensive history of the studio portrait, Collins asks what it is about photography that is so enduringly fascinating. Reassuringly, he also offers some sound reasons why it is still important.<\/p>\n
Self describes Collins as \u201calways the still and silent man\u201d standing alongside his tripod-mounted camera waiting for the opportune moment to push the button, open the shutter and let the full light of reality flood in.\u201d Many of these essays talk about that very thing, the process of waiting for the precise moment to capture an image and tell a story. <\/p>\n
Of course, the conundrum of photography is what went before? And what came after the moment when the shutter clicked? That is the authorial (or directorial) decision that creates, or recreates, history. Unlike the oft-quoted, but now patently untrue, adage that \u2018the camera never lies\u2019, Collins acknowledges that \u201cphotography is an unreliable witness \u2026 to draw on the Russian proverb, photography lies like an eyewitness\u201d.<\/p>\n
One of the most moving essays is \u2018Personal picture show\u2019 that tells the story of photographer Mike Disfarmer who died alone in his studio with \u201chis corpse lying on newspaper\u201d. And Collins\u2019 writing about key moments in the development of photography, such as the camera obscura and the daguerreotype, and their assigned place \u2018in the shadows\u2019 of art history, is fascinating.<\/p>\n