Estelle Jussim: An Interview

Estelle Jussim (1928-2004) was regarded as one of the most influential voices in photography and media. An art historian and a communications theorist, Jussim wrote extensively about photographers, movements, and institutions, incorporating postmodern, deconstructionist, and feminist viewpoints in her many writings without being hemmed in by any one critical ideology.  Jussim was the award-winning author of Slave to Beauty and the pioneering Visual Communication and the Graphic Arts, which charted new ground in the investigation of the meaning of images. 

In this interview with Amy Amdur, Jussim talks about her intense interest in still photography, her disillusionment with semiotics, and her ambition to create new paths for the history of photography.  "Many writers of photography think you must talk only about the images," she notes. "I happen to think that people are very complex and we derive what we do from ideas.  Everything we do is conceptual."

A historical interview originally recorded in 1979.