A. D. Coleman (born December 29, 1943) is an influential American photography critic, historian, and essayist. He is regarded as one of the first major critics to focus exclusively on photography as an art form. Coleman began his career in the late 1960s, writing for publications such as The New York Times, where he was the first photo critic. He later contributed to various other prominent journals and magazines.
Throughout his career, Coleman has been a vocal advocate for recognizing photography as a significant medium of artistic expression. He has authored numerous books and essays on photography, exploring its cultural impact, aesthetics, and technical aspects. His notable works include The Grotesque in Photography and Light Readings: A Photography Critic’s Writings.
A. D. Coleman Quotes
“The simple fact is this: There are no neutral photographs.”
— A. D. Coleman
“Any photographer worth his/her salt – that is, any photographer of professional caliber, in control of the craft, regardless of imagistic bent – can make virtually anything look good. Which means, of course, that she or he can make virtually anything look bad – or look just about any way at all. After all, that is the real work of photography: making things look, deciding how a thing is to appear in the image.”
— A. D. Coleman
“Photographs are of course about their makers, and are to be read for what they disclose in that regard no less than for what they reveal of the world as their makers comprehend, invent, and describe it.”
— A. D. Coleman
“The past is always with us, in the form of our photographs, which we feel as we might a rosary, wearing them smooth with the fingering of our eyes.”
— A. D. Coleman
“It is no coincidence that one cardinal rule in brainwashing is to remove from the victim all photographs of himself and people he has known.”
— A. D. Coleman
“We’ve spent now about 150 years trying to convince ourselves that photographs are reliable evidence, some unimpeachable slice of the real world. That was a myth from the very beginning.”
— A. D. Coleman
“What a photograph shows us is how a particular thing could be seen, or could be made to look – at a specific moment, in a specific context, by a specific photographer employing specific tools.”
— A. D. Coleman
“The battle for the acceptance of photography as Art was not only counter-productive but counter-revolutionary. The most important photography is most emphatically not Art.”
— A. D. Coleman
