A collection of essays, articles and reviews of photography by Marina Vaizey published in the past decade.Photography is the one art form in which we all participate.We all take photographs, are photographed, and look at photographs. A striking phenomenon of the post war period, the last half century or so, has been the proliferation of collections of photography in museums and galleries of all kinds, the integration of photography with the other fine arts, and the complementary increase of scholarship, publications and the attention of universities. Thus the expansion of photography in the visual universe has been both commercial, critical There have been auction prices for individual prints that have reached millions of dollars, and increasing attention not only to all of the categories of photography from documentation and reportage to what we might call art in all its guises. In Britain for example the variety of approaches is clear in the great national collections. The Victoria and Albert museum collected photography as part of its documentation of art, architecture and fashion, but also formed the first national collection of photography for its aesthetic values.The Science Museum, London's National Portrait Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland, the National Monuments Record are other great collections. It is however only in the past ten years that Tate has established posts for dedicated curators in the field. The Museum of Modern Art in New York established in 1929, started to collect modern photography in 1930 and established its department in 1940. Both the Centre Pompidou and the Musee d'Orsay in Paris collect, curate and exhibit photography as a core part of their activity. So the histories are various.What is clear however is that both historic and contemporary photography, however the ramifications of the digital age we now inhabit, is of inescapable importance in how we view and understand the world around us. And that this significance is now universally recognised. MV

The Theatre of Apparitions is a highly anticipated body of work by one of the most original image-makers of our times, whose remarkable artistic trajectory spans the past 40 years. This book is the culmination of his ongoing study of the connections between photography, drawing, the mind and the body. Created between the years 2004 and 2008, these 90-odd black-and-white images encourage viewers to delve deep into the darkest part of their psyches. The images in this new monograph were inspired by the simple act of drawing on windows - a practice that Ballen observed first-hand in many communities. From there, he started to experiment using different spray paints on glass and then `drawing on' or removing the paint with a sharp object to let natural light through. Finally, he photographed the results with a macro lens using black-and-white film. These black, dimensionless spaces effectively operate as canvases onto which Ballen projects pictorially his thoughts and emotions, creating, in effect, a theatre of the mind. The plates are separated into seven chapters or `acts', with each one introduced by a text written by Ballen himself. Carving out a realm that is both earthly and otherworldly, physical and spiritual, his work transcends all traditional concepts of photography.