The Ethics of Seeing : Photography and Twentieth-Century German History

Throughout Germany's tumultuous twentieth century, photography was an indispensable form of documentation. Whether acting as artists, witnesses, or reformers, both professional and amateur photographers chronicled social worlds through successive periods of radical upheaval. The Ethics of Seeing brings together an international group of scholars to explore the complex relationship between the visual and the historic in German history. Emphasizing the transformation of the visual arena and the ways in which ordinary people made sense of world events, these revealing case studies illustrate photography's multilayered role as a new form of representation, a means to subjective experience, and a fresh mode of narrating the past.

“The Ethics of Seeing gathers together very useful and highly readable contributions to the history of German photography. These stimulating essays give a broad perspective on the German twentieth century, and in many cases address important gaps in the historical record.” - Simon Ward, Durham University

“This is a profoundly important contribution to the field. It analyzes an impressively wide range of photographic materials - including artistic, scientific, vernacular, queer, colonial, institutional, and journalistic sources - in a way that enriches art history while also addressing the specific concerns of historians working in visual culture.” - Donna West Brett, The University of Sydney