What We Are Reading Today: ‘Photography as a Way of Life’ by Brendan Fay

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Photography as a Way of Life’ by Brendan Fay
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Updated 06 July 2026 21:46
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Photography as a Way of Life’ by Brendan Fay

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Photography as a Way of Life’ by Brendan Fay

Minor White, Aaron Siskind, and Harry Callahan carved out a new role for photographers and their art in the decades after World War Two. “Photography as a Way of Life” traces how these influential teachers and theorists reimagined the medium as a livelihood and a life’s work.

Together with growing markets for snapshots and photojournalism, the postwar years saw the emergence of photography as an established field of study in higher education. In this beautifully produced book, Brendan Fay takes readers from the late 1940s through the 1970s to explore how White, Siskind, and Callahan transformed the ways photography was taught, shown, and understood. 

Inclined toward abstraction and personally expressive images, they modeled a commitment to art in the face of commercial and professional pressures.