With Orientations photographiques, Arnaud Claass continues his exploration of real images and mental images. His writing mixes observations drawn from daily life with considerations on the art of seeing. He considers the diversity of practices of looking as a celebration of things, as journalism or social engagement, as museum ambition or, on the contrary, as deliberate indifference towards the art institution. Addressing contemporary works as well as pioneering works of historical modernisms, he questions the unclassifiable strangeness of photography, its capacity to tell the enigma of the world and, paradoxically, to resist the flood of images. In passing he meditates on recent theoretical texts by authors already on their way to becoming classics. At the end of the volume, the Reflections on the case of Vivian Maier offer a close reading of the photographer's work, examining its stylistic aspects as well as the fascinating problems raised by its revelation and dissemination.