‘unique, totally relevant, and helps define a medium’, Ralph Gibson

This online edition was reviewed and selectively updated by Angela Nicholson.

Compiled by an international team of over 140 contributors, this is the first Oxford Companion to deal with the subject of photography. It appears at a watershed in the medium's history, as digital imaging increasingly dominates the global photography scene. Providing a wide range of technical information, the Companion also presents, in a concise and readily accessible form, the mass of recent scholarship on photography as a social and artistic practice. There are over 800 biographical entries, both on photographers and on others who have influenced photographic culture from the 19th century to the present. The Companion is stunningly illustrated, with many pictures published here for the first time.

This is essential reading for anyone with an interest in photography and the visual arts; it will also appeal to readers interested in the social history of the last 150 years.