Illusions of Stillness and Movement: An Introduction to Film and Photography

Illusions of Stillness and Movement: An Introduction to Film and Photography is a collection of readings, interviews, historical surveys, visual analyses, and theoretical discussions on the relationship between photography and film.

The book provides an interdisciplinary, theoretical framework and a historical context for understanding the full impact of media on contemporary culture. It examines the distinct ways we understand the meaning of cinematic and photographicù from the perspective of the artistic humanities to see what distinguishes and what connects the two.

Students learn how photography and cinema work together to create stories, and bring unnoticed elements and hidden meanings to the forefront of the viewing experience. They explore photographic realism, the limits media impose on users in terms of realistic representation, and the notion of photographic truth in the digital age.

Illusions of Stillness and Movement can be used in introductory courses on film and photography, classes on the history and theory of cinema and photography, and those that address visual culture.

Lucia Ricciardelli is an assistant professor in the School of Film and Photography at Montana State University in Bozeman, where she teaches, photography, film and documentary studies and mentors graduate students in the M.F.A. program in Science and Natural History Filmmaking. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna, Italy, she also holds a Ph.D. in the History of Art and Architecture from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Currently, she is performing a transnational comparative study of American and Italian documentary filmmaking practices, investigating the ways in which public concerns are mediated by nonfiction film in different national contex.