SOURCE: Thompson, Peter. “The Painter's Palette and the Camera's Lens.” Washington Post Book World 10, no. 13 (30 March 1980): 8.

In the following review, Thompson disagrees with Malcolm's theories about photography in Diana & Nikon. Thompson feels a photographer's work should be considered artistic when viewed within the whole body of an artist's career.

The 11 essays in Janet Malcolm's Diana & Nikon are very close to reviews. They were written from 1975 to 1979 for The New Yorker and The New York Times and were transferred intact into book form. Characteristic of reviews for those publications, 10 of the 11 essays are tied to specific events: the publication of new photographic books or the exhibition of works by known photographers at major galleries and museums. The exhibited and published works with which Janet Malcolm deals are, in order, those of Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, Irving Penn, Garry Winogrand, Richard Avedon, Herta Hilscher-Wittgenstein, Donald McCullin, William Eggleston, Robert Frank...