Look: contemporary Australian photography since 1980

Anne Marsh's massive new book Look: contemporary Australian photography since 1980 was launched last night at CCP. Look is 400 pages and includes hundreds of full-colour illustrations, all organised according to thematic chapters: identity, life, experiment, space and environment. Marsh has also written five short essays that elaborate the ideas used to organise the photographic illustrations. The essays provide a great context for the pictures, flagging the critical, curatorial and commercial factors that have helped shape recent Australian photographic practice. It's lush and perfect for xmas. Also, as with such surveys, it is great to go through and see how Marsh's selection of 190 artists and their photographs stacks up against your own wish list of great Australian photographs from the last 30 years!