In What Photography Is, James Elkins Examines The Strange And Alluring Power Of Photography In The Same Provocative And Evocative Manner That He Explored Oil Painting In His Best-selling What Painting Is. Elkins Argues That Photography Is Also About Meaninglessness--its Apparently Endless Capacity To Show Us Things That We Do Not Want Or Need To See--and Pain--extremely Powerful Images That Can Sear Into Our Consciousness Permanently. Extensively Illustrated With A Surprising Range Of Images, Elkins Demonstrates That What Makes Photography Uniquely Powerful Is Its Ability To Express The Difficulty--physically, Psychologically, Emotionally, And Aethstically--of The Act Of Seeing. Writing -- Selenite, Ice, Salt -- From The Green River To The Brunswick Peninsula -- A Drop Of Water, World Trade Center Dust -- The Rapatronic Camera -- Lingqi. James Elkins. Includes Bibliographical References.