When Susan Sontag first proposed the idea of an "ecology of images " she meant it as an
exhortation to be vigilant against the vast surplus of pictures threatening our ability to
truly see. Today beyond the deep anxieties over a diminishing attention economy concern
focuses on the environmental cost of storing and circulating the digital images that confront
us with unprecedented speed. Against the disposable rapidity demanded by digital media Peter
Szendy emphasizes the labor and time required for images to develop and come into view. This
inquisitive essay takes us from mimicry in the animal kingdom to the history of the shadow
Pliny’s story about the birth of painting to Nabokov’s butterflies the first use of slo-mo in
film to the first aerial photograph. Praise for Peter Szendy: "From book to book Peter
Szendy is in the process of constructing one of the most singular philosophical oeuvres of our
time." - Laurent de Sutter Focus vif "A writer of exquisite sensitivity and wit as well as
of impeccable clarity." - Gil Anidjar Columbia University
