The Lure of the Image
Fotomuseum Winterthur/De Mutiis Marco/Gwendolyn Fässler/Doris Gassert/Alessandra Nappo

The Lure of the Image explores the seductive powers of contemporary digital forms of photography: How do images bait or beguile us, capture and control us as they circulate online? The artistic positions and essays assembled in this book engage with visual phenomena that serve as vehicles for online communication, criticism, and humor, highlighting the crucial role images play in shaping our digital social, cultural, and political landscapes. From Tinder profiles to beauty filters, from ASMR to memes and emoji, and from “cute” to “cursed” images, the book navigates the complex mechanisms of the lure exerted by networked visual culture. It sheds light on how images and their underlying structures—from algorithms to datasets—direct our attention, provoke emotions, and influence opinion, significantly impacting how we perceive, interpret, and move through both our online and our offline worlds. james taylor-foster is a writer and curator of design and digital culture with a training in architecture.