The annual series of lectures held at Melbourne’s Centre for Contemporary Photography are a lively tradition on the city’s cultural calendar, and are noted for both their critical currency and diversity of voices. This collection of essays and images, selected from lectures and exhibitions held at CCP from 2000–4, continues the allied tradition of publications that record selected papers from the series. Its time-frame also marks Daniel Palmer’s energetic tenure as coordinator of the lectures, during which time the Centre played host to a wide range of critics, practitioners, curators and academics.

From the many lectures, forums, artists’ talks and conversations held at CCP in this five-year period, Palmer has selected six contributions for publication in Photogenic. This tight editing has resulted in a less expansive volume than its immediate predecessor, Value Added Goods: Essays on Contemporary Photography, Art and Ideas (2002), which featured the work of nineteen contributions from lectures held at CCP in 1996–99. It would be unfair, however, to judge Photogenic on whether its editorial selection accounts for the breadth of discussion across the lecture series, especially since the selection of texts is so conceptually elegant. Palmer has combined papers that engage with a common concern: the persistence of the real in relation to photography. ‘Each writer,’ he argues, ‘seems drawn to photography’s power to inspire belief in what is shown in front of the lens.’