This book considers a fascinating paradigm in contemporary photography, and the many ways it engages many of today’s most important photographers.

Serious photographers have long been suspicious of images that are too beautiful, too “photogenic,” or too controlled. Recently, however, there has been a renewed interest in these questions, and in overtly composed images that go beyond simple representation. This volume collects compelling work by many artists working in this area, including Thomas Demand, Stan Douglas, Roe Ethridge, Peter Holzhauer, Barbara Probst, Jeff Wall, and Christopher Williams. Dozens of color reproductions show how these artists contend with the relationship between the world as they find it and the composed image through landscape, portraiture, and still life. Raising as many questions as it answers, this provocative book presents photography as a dynamic and compelling medium for both its practitioners and its audience.