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Believing Is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography Hardcover – 1 Sept. 2011

by Errol Morris (Author)

4.4 89 ratings

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Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year

Academy Award-wining filmmaker Errol Morris investigates the hidden truths behind a series of documentary photographs.

In Believing Is Seeing Academy Award-winning director Errol Morris turns his eye to the nature of truth in photography. In his inimitable style, Morris untangles the mysteries behind an eclectic range of documentary photographs, from the ambrotype of three children found clasped in the hands of an unknown soldier at Gettysburg to the indelible portraits of the WPA photography project. Each essay in the book presents the reader with a conundrum and investigates the relationship between photographs and the real world they supposedly record.

During the Crimean War, Roger Fenton took two nearly identical photographs of the Valley of the Shadow of Death-one of a road covered with cannonballs, the other of the same road without cannonballs. Susan Sontag later claimed that Fenton posed the first photograph, prompting Morris to return to Crimea to investigate. Can we recover the truth behind Fenton's intentions in a photograph taken 150 years ago?

In the midst of the Great Depression and one of the worst droughts on record, FDR's Farm Service Administration sent several photographers, including Arthur Rothstein, Dorothea Lange, and Walker Evans, to document rural poverty. When Rothstein was discovered to have moved the cow skull in his now-iconic photograph, fiscal conservatives-furious over taxpayer money funding an artistic project-claimed the photographs were liberal propaganda. What is the difference between journalistic evidence, fine art, and staged propaganda?

During the Israeli-Lebanese war in 2006, no fewer than four different photojournalists took photographs in Beirut of toys lying in the rubble of bombings, provoking accusations of posing and anti-Israeli bias at the news organizations. Why were there so many similar photographs? And were the accusers objecting to the photos themselves or to the conclusions readers drew from them?

With his keen sense of irony, skepticism, and humor, Morris reveals in these and many other investigations how photographs can obscure as much as they reveal and how what we see is often determined by our beliefs. Part detective story, part philosophical meditation, Believing Is Seeing is a highly original exploration of photography and perception from one of America's most provocative observers.

Print length

310 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Pr
Publication date

1 Sept. 2011
Dimensions

19.05 x 2.59 x 23.88 cm
ISBN-10

1594203016
ISBN-13

978-1594203015
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Errol Morris
33
Hardcover
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Product description

About the Author

Errol Morris is a world-renowned filmmaker-the Academy Award- winning director of The Fog of War and the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" Award. His other films include Standard Operating Procedure; Mr. Death; Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control; A Brief History of Time; and The Thin Blue Line.

Errol Morris is a world-renowned filmmaker-the Academy Award- winning director ofThe Fog of War and the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" Award. His other films includeStandard Operating Procedure; Mr. Death; Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control; A Brief History of Time; andThe Thin Blue Line.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Pr (1 Sept. 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 310 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1594203016
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1594203015
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 19.05 x 2.59 x 23.88 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 1,360,820 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 305 in Photography Criticism & Essays
- 1,090 in History of Photography

Customer reviews:
4.4 89 ratings

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Errol Morris

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Roger Ebert has said, "After twenty years of reviewing films, I haven't found another filmmaker who intrigues me more...Errol Morris is like a magician, and as great a filmmaker as Hitchcock or Fellini."

Morris' films have won many awards, including an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, an Emmy, the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival, the Silver Bear at Berlin International Film Festival, the Golden Horse at the Taiwan International Film Festival and the Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America. His documentaries have repeatedly appeared on many ten best lists and have been honored by the National Society of Film Critics and the National Board of Review. His work was the subject of a full retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1999.

Morris has received five fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2007, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was a graduate student at Princeton University and the University of California-Berkeley.

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pippa1847

Fascinating and funny

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 October 2012

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Errol Morris clearly has an intellect worth engaging but what comes through just as strongly is his sense of humour. A wonderful storyteller, he turns each of the chapters into a thriller, with a dark wit underlying the lot. It makes what could have been heavy going into a joy to read.

There are four sections, each covering a major topic on the implications of photography. And in each section, Morris uses a set of images to demonstrate his point of view.

These include;
the intentions of the photographer
what photographs reveal and conceal
captioning, propaganda and fraud, and
photography and memory.

After reading a variety of photographic theory, it is wonderful to have such a skilled practitioner re-examine photography and turn some of the basic interpretations on their head. This is a timely treatise on the nature of photography.

I highly recommend it to any photographer or documentary film director, and anyone else interested in the theory of photography and documentation.

5 people found this helpful

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JoJo

really interesting read!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 February 2014

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This book is well writte in every way, its author follows several cases that are mysteries of photograph and has researched and written them well. He investigates each case from all angles, and each case is interesting and easy for the reader.

One person found this helpful

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nick moran

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 November 2017

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Exceptional read.Very enjoyable.

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David Travis

A book to get you thinking about the purpose of photography

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 March 2016

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I found this book un-put-down-able. The chapters read like detective mysteries and the author really gets you thinking about the purpose of photography and what matters when making a photograph.

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Mr. Opinion

Read the first 2 chapters, The rest is optional.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 April 2020

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The book starts off interesting with Morris’ investigation of the Valley of the Shadow of Death photo, then continues strong with his look into at the infamous Abu Ghraib photos, but then descends into a tedious trudge. The last section on a Civil War era photo felt like filler (which I didn’t make it through), and the section on the FSA meandered in circles dragging on an on. I found myself questioning why this was a book several times while reading. A large portion of the text are transcripts of conversations –– Word for word transcripts. The entire book could have probably been summed up in a 1 hr cable program. Bit of a disappointment.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 June 2012

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I found this an excellent and thought provoking book. Anyone with an interest in identifying clues in old photographs and documentary images will find this a fascinating book.One of the most satisfying books I have read for ages.

3 people found this helpful

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claire

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 December 2015

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Came in time for my daughter to finish reading it for her essay

One person found this helpful

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CMSN

Good, but ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 October 2011

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Having seen the outstanding 'The Fog of War' (2003) by Errol Morris I didn't hesitate to buy Believing is Seeing. Indeed it is very well researched and relevant. However, I feel it is more of a book whose material will be referred to in footnotes rather than standing alone like "Camera Luciada' (Barthes). It becomes -for me - more of a record and document than being a revelation.

2 people found this helpful

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