Gil Pasternak is Reader in Social and Political Photographic Cultures in the Photographic History Research Centre (PHRC) at De Montfort University (UK). A member of the advisory board for the journals Photography & Culture and Jewish Film & New Media, earlier in life he worked as photojournalist, photography archivist and fine art photographer, and in 2016 he was consultant for the BBC film Smile! The Nation's Family Album (2017).

Introduction: Photography Studies' Prehistory, Formation and Evolution, Gil Pasternak Part I: Histories and Approaches: Studying Photography in Shifting Academic Landscapes, Gil Pasternak 1. A Canonical History of Photography, Marta Braun 2. The Social History of Photography, Douglas Nickel 3. The Eye-Witness of Humanity: Changing Approaches to Photography's Relationship to Society and Culture, Melissa Miles 4. Photographic Itineraries in Time and Space: Photographs as Material Objects, Costanza Caraffa 5. Forces and Forms: Theories and Methods in the History of Photography, Jae Emerling Part II: Inter/disciplinary Concerns Disciplining Photography and Reframing Disciplinary Interests, Gil Pasternak 6. Photography in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: Intersections, Research Modes and Prospects, Luc Pauwels 7. After Photography as Contemporary Art, Benedict Burbridge 8. Photography After Philosophy, Daniel Rubinstein 9. Photography and the Business of Doing History, Elizabeth Edwards 10. Archaeology and Photography, Christina Riggs Part III: Issues and Debates: Enduring Concerns in Photography Studies, Gil Pasternak 11. Politics and Photography: Being Together, With Photographs, Gil Pasternak 12. Photography and the Making of Modern Science, Jennifer Tucker 13. Photography as a Cultural Industry: A Historical-Theoretical Overview, Paul Frosh 14. Site of Ongoing Struggle: Race and Gender in Studies of Photography, Sarah Parsons 15. Objects of Denigration and Desire: Taking the Amateur Photographer Seriously, Annebella Pollen 16. Photography Meets Social Media: Image Making and Sharing in a Continually Networked Present, Martin Hand Part IV: Culture and Geopolitics: Global and Local Forces in Photography Studies, Gil Pasternak 17. Australian Photographic Histories after Colonialism, Jane Lydon 18. Beyond Orientalism: Towards a History of Indigenista Photography in the Arab World, Stephen Sheehi 19. Photography's Appearances in China, Oliver Moore 20. From Authenticity to Intimacy: Practicing Photography and Studying its History in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, Eva Pluharová-Grigiene 21. Photographic Histories and Practices in Southern Africa, Darren Newbury 22. American Photographic Indicators: Addressing the Photo-Political State of a Contested Union, Louis Kaplan Part V: Uses and Interactions: Photography's Changing Faces, Gil Pasternak 23. Viewing and Display: Pre-photography to the 1970s, Margaret Denny 24. Representing News with Photographs: A Visual Economy, Thierry Gervais 25. Photographs at/of/and Museums, Susan A. Crane 26. "Working Objects in Their Own Time": Photographs in Archives, Joan M. Schwartz 27. Domestic Collections, Martha Langford 28. Future Technology in Photography: From Capture to Use of Images, David Frohlich