In these seven essays, revised, rewritten, and expanded from his lectures, David Travis presents his thoughts on some of his favorite subjects: Weston, Stieglitz, Kertesz, Brassai, and Strand. His knowledge is such (often enriched by firsthand acquaintance) that he can, and does, discuss more than images or personalities; he understands what informs the work, from what milieu it derives, under what influences it matured, how it evolved, and how it succeeded. He is an art historian willing to venture far beyond the periphery of traditional academic fences; to discuss number theory (quite literally), the mathematics of G. H. Hardy, the poetry of Rimbaud Valery, Rilke, and Goethe, the philosophy of Nietzsche, the extravagance of Henry Miller.