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In the tradition of John Berger and Susan Sontag, Fred Ritchin analyzes photography’s failings and reveals untapped potentials for this evolving medium.

One of our most influential commentators on photography investigates the future of visual media as the digital revolution transforms images, changing the way we conceptualize the world. From photos of news events taken on cell phones to the widespread use of image surveillance, digital media has fundamentally altered the way we receive visual information. Simultaneously, the increased manipulation of photographs has made photography suspect as reliable documentation, raising questions about its role in recounting personal and public histories.

In a world beset by critical problems and ambiguous boundaries, Ritchin argues that it is time to begin energetically exploring possibilities created by technological innovations, and to use them to better understand our rapidly changing world.

Fred Ritchin is Professor of Photography and Imaging at New York University. Previously the picture editor of the New York Times Magazine, executive editor of Camera Arts magazine, and founding director of the Photojournalism and Documentary Photography Program at the International Center of Photography, Ritchin has written and lectured internationally on media for many years. The author of In Our Own Image: The Coming Revolution in Photography, his essays also have appeared in books such as In Our Time: The World as Seen by Magnum Photographers, Sahel: The End of the Road, and Under Fire: Great Photographers and Writers in Vietnam. Ritchin is also the director of PixelPress (www.pixelpress.org), an organization that works at the intersection of new media, documentary, and human rights, collaborating with humanitarian organizations on campaigns such as the one to end polio globally or to advance the Millennium Development Goals. He lives with his family in New York City.