This is an original edition by Julian Stallabrass that gathers and anthologizes a series of essays on photography, thereby realizing the idea and initiative of Heracles Papaioannou and University Studio Press for a special work.

Through the essays in this edition, the author discusses photography as a medium and an act, highlighting the active role of the artist. The first essay thoroughly examines the work of Sebastiao Salgado and documentary photography, the second analyzes the evolution of street photography in Paris, its peak, and the gradual decline in the second half of the 20th century. Next, the author analyzes the entry of contemporary photography into the museum sphere, using Jeff Wall as an example, and challenges the apparent neutrality of popular "expressionless" portrait photography, using the work of Rineke Dijkstra as a basis 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 contemporary military operations, while the adaptation by Oliver Chanarin and David Broomberg of the Alphabet of War, Bertolt Brecht's historical, anti-war book on National Socialism, serves as a basis for discussing whether and when art engages with politics in a substantive way or not.

The final essay is an unpublished text concerning Richard Mosse's photographs from the war zones of the civil war in Congo, which prompt a discussion on how contemporary art can superficially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