I hope to show that the camera is not merely a mute passive chronicler of events and that photography does not just passively reflect culture but can provide the vision and impetus that promote social and political change and development For example it is difficult to imagine the cultural changes of the Italian Renaissance of the fifteenth century without recognising the central role of the development of perspective in bringing about new visual means of representation Similarly photography has made a major contribution to the bringing about of the media culture that characterises our own era while at the same time it has assumed the ironic role of bringing the harsh realities of the world to the coffeetable