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

Through the essays in this edition, the author explores photography as a medium and as an act, highlighting the active role of the artist. The first essay extensively examines the work of Sebastiao Salgado and documentary photography, while the second analyzes the evolution of street photography in Paris, its peak and gradual decline in the second half of the 20th century. The author then delves into the entry of contemporary photography into the museum arena, using the example of Jeff Wall, and challenges the apparent neutrality of popular "expressionless" portrait photography, basing his analysis on the work of Rineke Dijkstra and relating it to that of Diane Arbus and Richard Avedon. Lisa Barnard's work serves as a sharp example of the role of drone imagery and new technologies in modern warfare, while the adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's historical anti-war book, War Primer, by Oliver Chanarin and David Broomberg, becomes an opportunity to discuss whether and when art deals with politics in a substantial way.

The last essay is an unpublished text and focuses on Richard Mosse's photographs from the war zones of the Congo civil war, which prompt a discussion on how contemporary art can superficially criticize and essentially disarm, with a focus on spectacular aestheticization.