Sally Stein has long investigated the role of photography in relation to broader questions of culture and society. This first collection of her selected essays, Close-ups from Afar, brings together essential writings from over five decades, cumulatively demonstrating Stein’s distinctive critical approach to the history and proliferation of photography and its role within mass media and contemporary culture.

In this richly illustrated volume, Stein turns her astute eye to diverse topics including the rise of colour photography, the place of California in the history of the medium’s development, and women and photography between feminism’s ‘waves’, as well as insightful considerations of a host of photographers from Jacob Riis to Helmut Newton, Ansel Adams to Dorothea Lange, Susan Meiselas to Dawoud Bey. She has consistently sought to challenge readers to think afresh about the social uses of photography and their broader contexts and far-reaching effects.