a groundbreaking work on how the topic of scale provides an entirely new understanding of inca material culture

although questions of form and style are fundamental to art history, the issue of scale has been surprisingly neglected. yet, scale and scaled relationships are essential to the visual cultures of many societies from around the world, especially in the andes. in scale and the incas, andrew hamilton presents a groundbreaking theoretical framework for analyzing scale, and then applies this approach to inca art, architecture, and belief systems.

the incas were one of humanity's great civilizations, but their lack of a written language has prevented widespread appreciation of their sophisticated intellectual tradition. expansive in scope, this book examines many famous works of inca art including machu picchu and the dumbarton oaks tunic, more enigmatic artifacts like the sayhuite stone and capacocha offerings, and a range of relatively unknown objects in diverse media including fiber, wood, feathers, stone, and metalwork. ultimately, hamilton demonstrates how the incas used scale as an effective mode of expression in their vast multilingual and multiethnic empire.

lavishly illustrated with stunning color plates created by the author, the book's pages depict artifacts alongside scale markers and silhouettes of hands and bodies, allowing readers to gauge scale in multiple ways. the pioneering visual and theoretical arguments of scale andthe incas not only rewrite understandings of inca art, but also provide a benchmark for future studies of scale in art from other cultures.

the miracle of analogy is the first of a two-volume reconceptualization of photography. it argues that photography originates in what is seen, rather than in the human eye or the camera lens, and that it is the world's primary way of revealing itself to us. neither an index, representation, nor copy, as conventional studies would have it, the photographic image is an analogy. this principle obtains at every level of its being: a photograph analogizes its referent, the negative from which it is generated, every other print that is struck from that negative, and all of its digital "offspring."

photography is also unstoppably developmental, both at the level of the individual image and of medium. the photograph moves through time, in search of other "kin," some of which may be visual, but others of which may be literary, architectural, philosophical, or literary. finally, photography develops with us, and in response to us. it assumes historically legible forms, but when we divest them of their saving power, as we always seem to do, it goes elsewhere.

the present volume focuses on the nineteenth century and some of its contemporary progeny. it begins with the camera obscura, which morphed into chemical photography and lives on in digital form, and ends with walter benjamin. key figures discussed along the way include nic phore ni pce, louis daguerre, william fox-talbot, jeff wall, and joan fontcuberta.