Customer Reviews

Warren Neidich: Blow-Up: Photography, Cinema and the Brain

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Warren Neidich, photographer, has here authored a book that in itself rises to a new art form: the publication of writing that would--from logic to grammar--earn a solid F in freshman comp. To wit: abstruse claims lie completely unsubstantiated; language obfuscates meaning; examples are hacked up on the Procrustean bed to fit argument. Stunningly, the author claims the "structure" of this work is "spiral," thus relieving himself of the burden of ordered thought.

But let us transcend and move on as best we can. It seems the book's seminal argument is that the progress of visual technology has altered and continues to alter the individual's neural modes of perception--and thus, society's. Well, OK--please pass the butter? It would be lovely if the author's new contributions to this old saw were made accessible, thus gaining, perhaps, the recognition of both the scientific and art theory communities.

The great, abiding irony is that Neidich dispenses his wisdom from the [basically misunderstood here] Romantic perspective of The Artist--that of the visionary transmitting the hitherto not-perceived. Neither the world of art nor that of academe will grant Dr. Neidich the latitude he seeks to preempt in this self-indulgent book.