Good Looking: Essays on the Virtue of Images
Worth buying if: You follow Barbara Maria Stafford’s intersections of art, science, and perception.
Skip it if: You need a step-by-step design manual or image-editing techniques.
Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780262692106. The Amazon link uses this ISBN, so the product page should open to the edition shown here.
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Summary
Good Looking collects Stafford’s essays on how pictures shape perception, knowledge, and attention across art, science, and visual culture. This 1998 MIT Press volume champions the “virtue of images” with close analysis and cross-disciplinary reach.
Why this book now
In a screen-saturated moment, Stafford’s arguments refine how we think about attention, persuasion, and visual literacy.
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Best for readers who...
Good fit if you want...
- You follow Barbara Maria Stafford’s intersections of art, science, and perception.
- You want essay-driven inquiry into visual culture, not a how-to on making images.
- You need a step-by-step design manual or image-editing techniques.
- You prefer narrative art history over theoretical, analytic essays.
- You need the newest edition, freshest examples, or the most current framing.
Decided it fits?
Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780262692106
Worth buying if: You follow Barbara Maria Stafford’s intersections of art, science, and perception.
Skip it if: You need a step-by-step design manual or image-editing techniques.
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.
Reader guide
Cues to help you decide faster.
Reading commitment
Light Short sit-downs
At 288 pages, this MIT Press essay collection rewards steady, note-taking reading over quick skims.
What stands out here
The 1998 MIT Press edition gathers Stafford’s essays under the unifying theme of the “virtue of images,” giving coherence to her visual arguments.
Best way to approach it
Take it one essay at a time, pausing to consider examples and terms, letting Stafford’s ideas about perception and attention accumulate.
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Exact edition: ISBN-13 9780262692106
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.