Sheona Beaumont addresses the untold story of biblical subjects in photography. She argues that stories, characters, and symbols from the Bible are found to pervade photographic practices and ideas, across the worlds of advertising and reportage, the book and the gallery, in theoretical discourse and in the words of photographers themselves. Beaumont engages interpretative tools from biblical reception studies, art history, and visual culture criticism in order to present four terms for describing photography's latent spirituality: the index, the icon, the tableau, and the vision. Throughout her journey she includes lively discussion of selected fine art photography dealing with the Bible in surprising ways, from images by William Henry Fox Talbot in the 19th century to David Mach in the 21st. Far from telling a secular story, photography and the conditions of its representations are exposed in theological depth.; Beaumont skillfully interweaves discussion of the images and theology, arguing for the dynamic and potent voice of the Bible in photography and enriching visual culture criticism with a renewed religious understanding.

Features 55 photographs with biblical themes, in full-colour illustration

Table of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroduction: What You See Is What You GetPart 1: Between Image and Word in the Interdisciplinary LandscapeChapter 1: Interpretative Positions from Biblical HermeneuticsChapter 2: Interpretative Positions from Art History and Visual Culture CriticismChapter 3: Problems, Paradigms, and the CMYK ModelPart 2: The Theology of the Real in Photography and the BibleChapter 4: Index: Landscapes, Witnessing, and Documentary TraditionsChapter 5: Icon: Identifying with Characters and PortraitsChapter 6: Tableau: Storying the World in Scene and NarrativeChapter 7: Vision: Shooting the Spiritual and the ApocalypticConclusion: Seeing is BelievingBibliography