LAUSR

Indeed, readers in the visual social sciences have much to gain from philosophical and art historical perspectives as alternative entry points to their own preferred research topics. At times, reading this book brought me up short, often due to unexamined avenues of thought and difficulties with ambiguous terms central to perception, such as vision, visuality, interpretation and the like. This book covers a broad range of historical, philosophical and theoretical ground, providing a journey of discovery that, at times, was ‘a formative process [that] involves pain. Knowledge is like a wound; consciousness is formed through the wound’ (177). Andrews urges an increased awareness of the ‘showing-off’ perspective, the problematic status of visual/photographic representation and agency, problems that reoccur with regularity, regardless of the current popularity or criticism of the ‘selfie’.