The Disappearing Act

When Susan Sontag first proposed the idea of an "ecology of images," she meant it as an exhortation to be vigilant against the vast surplus of pictures threatening our ability to truly see. Today, beyond the deep anxieties over a diminishing attention economy, concern focuses on the environmental cost of storing and circulating the digital images that confront us with unprecedented speed. Against the disposable rapidity demanded by digital media, Peter Szendy emphasizes the labor and time required for images to develop and come into view. This inquisitive essay takes us from mimicry in the animal kingdom to the history of the shadow, Pliny's story about the birth of painting to Nabokov's butterflies, the first use of slo-mo in film to the first aerial photograph. Praise for Peter Szendy:"From book to book, Peter Szendy is in the process of constructing one of the most singular philosophical oeuvres of our time."- Laurent de Sutter, Focus vif"A writer of exquisite sensitivity and wit, as well as of impeccable clarity."- Gil Anidjar, Columbia University