Photography has become an increasingly pervasive medium of choice in contemporary art practice and is even employed at times by artists who do not necessarily consider themselves to be photographers. How did this come to be? The Last Picture Show addresses the emergence of this phenomenon of artists using photography by tracing the development of conceptual trends in postwar photographic practice from its first glimmerings in the 60s to its rise to art-world prominence in the work of the artists of the late 70s and early 80s. Bringing together a newly commissioned body of scholarship with reprints of important historical texts, The Last Picture Show seeks to define the legacy that has produced a rich body of photographic practice in the art world today. Pictures by Vito Acconci, Bas Jan Ader, Giovani Anselmo, John Baldessari, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Joseph Beuys, Mel Bochner, Christian Boltanski, Marcel Broodthaers, Sarah Charlesworth, Bruce Conner, Jan Dibbets, Valie Export, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Gilbert & George, Dan Graham, Douglas Huebler, Yves Klein, Imi Knoebel, Sylvia Kolbowski, Barbara Kruger, David Lamelas, Sherrie Levine, Sol Lewitt, Richard Long, Gordon Matta Clark, Ana Mendietta, Mario Merz, Nasreen Mohamedi, Bruce Nauman, Hélio Oiticica, Dennis Oppenheim, Giuseppe Penone, Giulio Paolini, Sigmar Polke, Adrian Piper, Richard Prince, Charles Ray, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Robert Smithson, Ger van Elk, Jeff Wall, Andy Warhol, William Wegman, James Welling and Hannah Wilke. Edited by Douglas Fogle with essays by Douglas Fogle, Kate Bush, Richard Flood, Geoffrey Batchen, Stefan Gronnert and Pamela Lee, a foreword by Kathy Halbreich.