TO PHOTOGRAPH IS TO LEARN HOW TO DIE: AN ESSAY WITH DIGRESSIONS

Essay. The Ice Plant, 2024. Paperback, 248 pages. 4.5"x6.7"

From the press: To Photograph Is To Learn How To Die is a book-length essay about the essential usefulness of the practice of making photographs. Drawing on the writings of Wallace Stevens and dozens of other poets, artists, musicians and thinkers, American photographer Tim Carpenter argues passionately — in one main essay and a series of lively digressions — that photography is unique among the arts in its capacity for easing the fundamental ache of our mortality; for managing the breach that separates the self from all that is not the self; for enriching one’s sense of freedom and personhood; and for cultivating meaning in an otherwise meaningless reality. Printed in three colors that reflect the various ‘voices’ of the book, the typographically innovative text design follows several channels of thought, allowing for various approaches to reading. A unique and instructive contribution to the literature on photography, Carpenter’s research offers both a timely polemic and a timeless resource for those who use a camera.