This is an original edition by Julian Stallabrass that compiles and anthologizes a series of essays on photography, thus realizing the idea and initiative of Heracles Papaioannou and University Studio Press for a unique work.

Through the essays in the edition, the author explores photography as a medium and as an act, highlighting the active role of the artist. The first essay thoroughly presents the work of Sebastiao Salgado and documentary photography, the second analyzes the evolution of street photography in Paris, its peak, and its gradual decline in the second half of the 20th century. The author then analyzes the entry of contemporary photography into the museum arena, through the example of Jeff Wall, and counters the apparent neutrality of the popular "expressionless" portrait photography, using the work of Rineke Dijkstra as a basis and relating it to that of Diane Arbus and Richard Avedon. The work of Lisa Barnard serves as a sharp example of the role of drone imagery and new technologies in modern military operations, while the adaptation by Oliver Chanarin and David Broomberg of Bertolt Brecht's historical, anti-war book The War Primer on National Socialism becomes an occasion to comment on whether and when art addresses politics in a substantial or non-substantial way.

The last essay is an unpublished text and concerns the photographs of Richard Mosse from the conflict zones of the civil war in Congo, which provide the impetus to discuss how contemporary art can superficially criticize and essentially disarm, with the spearhead being spectacular aestheticization.