The Image Centre (IMC) books are a scholarly publication series published in partnership with MIT Press. It is composed of three streams and aims to disseminate inquiries into the histories, practices, dissemination, and reception of photographs.
The first stream, Critical Ideas, gathers articles from different scholars and aims to reflect the latest state of research in the history and theory of photography. The “Public” Life of Photographs (2016) initiated this stream and questions the role of circulation in our understanding of photographs.
The second stream, Essentials, translates fundamental texts in other languages into English or proposes critical editions of out-of-print seminal books about photography. The Eye of History: When Images Take Positions by Georges Didi-Huberman was the first volume in this stream in 2018.
The third stream, Collections and Archives, aims to highlight the IMC's collections and give a point of view on a particular photographer or subject. Documentary in Dispute: The Original Manuscript of Changing New York by Berenice Abbott and Elizabeth McCausland by Sarah Miller initiated this stream, reproducing previously unseen material and offering new insights about Abbott’s and McCausland’s book.
Co-published by The Image Centre and MIT Press.