Blind Corners: Essays on Photography is 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.
In a lengthy and considered introduction, writer Will Self says: “While I’ve felt nothing but disgust for photography of all kinds for well over a decade now, nevertheless, Michael Collins … 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’s technological reproducibility, but precisely because of it.”
And that’s 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.
Self describes Collins as “always the still and silent man” 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.” 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.
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 ‘the camera never lies’, Collins acknowledges that “photography is an unreliable witness … to draw on the Russian proverb, photography lies like an eyewitness”.
One of the most moving essays is ‘Personal picture show’ that tells the story of photographer Mike Disfarmer who died alone in his studio with “his corpse lying on newspaper”. And Collins’ writing about key moments in the development of photography, such as the camera obscura and the daguerreotype, and their assigned place ‘in the shadows’ of art history, is fascinating.
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Collins says that “ultimately photography is about the art of looking” and that’s what this book is really about. How do we look and what do we see? In the final essay, entitled ‘Blind Corners’, Collins says “photography is known as the art of fixing a shadow, but nothing is fixed, not least meaning”. This is a wonderful read for anyone who has ever picked up a camera or looked closely at a photograph and wondered about its back story. It’s also beautifully presented in this small hardback by Notting Hill Editions. A perfect gift for the photographer in your life.
Blind Corners: Essays on Photography, Michael Collins
Publisher: Notting Hill Editions
ISBN: 9781912559657
Pages: 192
Format: Hardback
Publication Date: 20 May 2025
Price: £15.99
