Points of note from "The Photograph" by Graham Clarke

The book has fascinating illustrations and introduced the work of the major photographers of 19th and 20th centuries.
I picked up less from the accompanying text:
- Many of the comments seemed self evident e.g. images of attractive individuals have most success for commercial purposes.
- The analysis seemed rather narrowly focussed on what appeared to be "aesthetic" qualities and artistic theories, to the exclusion of functional qualities e.g. the image sold newspapers and magazines. I was surprised that there was no mention of National Geographic Magazine which I assumed has been an influence on Landscape and Cityscape subjects amongst US photographers.
- the artistic analysis was often unfulfilled e.g. there were several topics where "no general trend or theme is identifiable".
I found the most enlightenment photographically in the last chapter "Cabinet of Curiosities". The explanations by Henri Cartier Bresson and Garry Winogrand of their approach to subjects became far clearer to me than it did before.