SOURCE: “Questions of Looking,” in American Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 2, June, 1994, pp. 276-89.

In the following excerpt, Kozol offers a positive assessment of Signatures of the Visible, despite finding several shortcomings in the work.

In recent decades, interdisciplinary studies of the popular world have brought forth new research on photography, film, and television.¹ In the study of visual media, questions arise about how images encode meanings as well as about the complex social experiences of looking. Moving beyond analyses of visual media as transparent reflections of the social world, cultural theories provide methods for examining factors such as the interactions between narrative and visual experience, or studying the social contexts in which visual media are consumed.

Consider two examples that challenge American studies scholars to address the social context, ideological meanings, and political contestations of visual culture. According to Walter Benjamin, capitalism transforms the prostitute into a commodity through...