The most comprehensive reference to the art, history, and science of photography to date, this volume is the result of nearly a decade of research and development.

It brings together historical, artistic, and technical perspectives on photography in a single, coherent framework, combining scholarly rigor with an engaging and carefully designed reading experience.

Edited under the guidance of curator, writer, and art historian Nathalie Herschdorfer, and developed in consultation with an international panel of 150 specialists, the publication is based entirely on new scholarship by seventy-seven researchers from sixteen countries. More than 1,200 concise yet substantial entries address photographers, images, agencies, genres, movements, exhibitions, publications, collectors, techniques, and processes. The entries range from canonical figures and key works to technical innovations and lesser-known practices, and are complemented by over 300 photographs and diagrams illustrating artworks, artist portraits, exhibitions, installations, and publications.