John Berger, Capire una fotografia, 2024

Although photography was invented two centuries ago, we still haven’t decided whether it is essentially a reproduction or an interpretation: whether the shot captures a trace of reality as it appears, or whether it is primarily the exercise of human choice. Throughout his career, John Berger has continually grappled with these and other enigmas, always finding answers that are less a definitive end point than a path to further discoveries.

In the twenty-four essays collected here and selected by Geoff Dyer, his profound connoisseur and admirer, Berger explores with equal curiosity the work of great photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Margaret Bourke-White, Sebastião Salgado, and Jean Mohr, as well as the lives of those photographed, the images that became historical documents, and the private snapshots. His gaze is perpetually searching for parallels and contradictions that reveal photography’s underlying dialogue with painting and cinema—how far is Che Guevara’s portrait of his corpse from Mantegna’s Dead Christ?—but also the ambiguities of a “political” tool, one that we can use or be used against us—think of John Heartfield’s photomontages in which Nazi propaganda images become satirical works.

Understanding a Photograph is a book composed of over half a century of analysis, commentary, insights, and reflections: one of the most original and insightful perspectives, capable of describing and immortalizing the space between the lens and the outside world.