If you are studying photography as a student (or even just as a keen photographer) this is the book for you. For students this is the source book and sacred reference for a constant stream of Distinctions. So cool to have all the best reference sources in one handy book. Need to write a seriously arty and learned essay? No problem, a good hour of skimming and all the references and quotes are yours!
The real joy of this book though is that it's a real voyage of discovery, and jumping off point, for those of us who actually take that study seriously. It's a superb read, a distillation of much photographic and semiotic wisdom into one book, and through that read it leads, internet-like, to a myriad links to other sources and essays.
If you have any interest in photographic analysis, and to be honest, you'd hardly be reading this review otherwise, buy it.