The media studies scholar Rainer Bellenbaum presents his current book Cinematographic Action: From the Film Avant-Garde to Exhibition Film (b_books, Berlin, 2013).

It is not just present-day mobile phones that can both take and show photos. The early cinematographers, the Lumier brothers, also distinguished themselves through comparably reciprocal functions and qualities: taking pictures, film development, projection. Anyone who sees something also wants to show it – and showing means presenting it. Cinematography has thus always been a form of activity that goes beyond production and passive consumption. Cinematographic action can be understood as a multilayered mixture of imagination, performance and presentation.

Rainer Bellenbaum (born 1957), media-studies scholar, lives and works as a film and art critic in Berlin and Vienna. Artistic short films and cooperation (since 1983), camera work, research and reporting for TV among others (1986–2005), author for art magazines (Texte zur Kunst, Springerin, Camera Austria) and book publications (since 2004).