Although photographers from the first adopted the conventions art—in the way they composed pictures and in the genres they exploited—they promised something more. Photographs were real.Most viewers believed this to be true and photographs were given enormous circulation in books, newspapers, posters, and other media. They changed how we look at almost every aspect of our world. Photographs have made icons of leaders, exposed social injustice, glamorized merchandise, trashed celebrities, and undermined the will to win wars. In this stunningly beautiful and revelatory book, Stephen Bulger shows how fragments of light and shadow captured on paper and digital screens have changed the world itself.

The Stephen Bulger Gallery in is the pre-eminent venue for photography in Toronto. STEPHEN BULGER is the president of the Board for the Association of International of Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD), which is based in Washington, D.C. He is also co-founder and current member of the Board of CONTACT, Toronto’s annual photography festival.