ABSTRACT
In 2008, with the publication of Why Photography Matters as Art as Never Before, Michael Fried resumes the discussions initiated in "Art and Objecthood" (1967), in particular the idea of "absorption" or antiteatrality of art, supposed characteristic of Modernist art as opposed to the minimalism/ literalist art. Fried discusses the issue of "presence", arguing for anti-theatricality, considering "absorption" as the main quality in the photographic works of Thomas Struth, Thomas Demand, Candida Höfer among others, especially in chapter 9, translated here. From a detailed description and the formal analysis of the images, Fried finds parameters to consolidate his main argument: the ability of photographs to "absorb".
keywords:
contemporary photography; anti theatricality; absorption; art theory; Michael Fried
