Dayanita Singh: Go Away Closer, Hayward Gallery

A brilliant photographer who wants to be seen as a poet

In the 25 years she has spent taking photographs, Dayanita Singh has accumulated a huge body of evocative and memorable images. For instance, there’s the girl lying face down on a bed (main picture), dressed in what looks like her school uniform. She lies awkwardly, her legs stretched diagonally across to the edge of the mattress, presumably so that her shoes won’t dirty the sheets. Why didn’t she take her shoes off?

Gallery: Only in England - Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr

GALLERY: ONLY IN ENGLAND Two photographers of English social mores on show in the Science Museum

Two photographers of English social mores in the Science Museum's new space for photography and digital technologies

Tony Ray-Jones is one of the hidden greats of British social documentary photography. A huge influence on photographers working today, he documented the English at play with great empathy and often surreal humour. Touring seaside resorts during the latter half of the Sixties, his acute observations of English social customs and eccentricities were, he says, intended to capture a distinctly English way of life “before it became too Americanised”.

The Fine Art of Shooting Conductors

THE FINE ART OF SHOOTING CONDUCTORS Chris Christodoulou celebrates his 33rd year at the Proms with a sumptuous gallery of favourite portraits

Chris Christodoulou celebrates his 33rd year at the Proms with a sumptuous gallery of favourite portraits

Chris Christodoulou has been photographing conductors at the BBC Proms since 1981. Many attending the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall may well have attempted to spot him. They can give up on that game herewith. As he explains to theartsdesk, the venue with its many curtains and nooks allows him to work discreetly. (If you want to know what he looks like, see below right.) We have been featuring Chris’s pictures in an annual gallery since 2010. This year we have asked him what makes a good picture of a conductor, and how he goes about securing it.

Performers: A Season in Photographs

PERFORMERS: A SEASON IN PHOTOGRAPHS Laurie Lewis, the pre-eminent photographer of opera and ballet, shares an exclusive record of the 2012-13 season

Laurie Lewis, the pre-eminent photographer of opera and ballet, shares an exclusive record of the 2012-13 season

A stage performance in any art form communicates through sound and motion. A photographer's task is to capture the dramatic experience in the silence and stillness of the 2D image. In the worlds of ballet and opera, none does it with more commitment to truth and drama than the great Laurie Lewis. To mark the end of the 2012-13 season, we present 25 images selected by the photographer exclusively for theartsdesk.

Death in the Making: Photographs of War by Robert Capa, Atlas Gallery

D-DAY SPECIAL: ROBERT CAPA The photographer who took 11 famous images on Omaha Beach

Little quiet on the western front as the co-founder of Magnum shoots classic images of conflict

How writers change their tune. When Robert Capa died in Vietnam in 1954, having trodden on a landmine, Ernest Hemingway was chief among those paying tribute. “It is bad luck for everybody that the percentages caught up with him,” he wrote. “It is especially bad for Capa. He was so much alive that it is a hard long day to think of him as dead.” Spool back, however, to Omaha Beach, 69 years ago to the month, when they came under enemy fire.

The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women, BBC Four

THE MAN WHO SHOT BEAUTIFUL WOMEN, BBC FOUR The welcome return of the legacy of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld

The welcome return of the legacy of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld

You can only marvel at the family intrigues that virtually closed down the legacy of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld in the years following his death in 1969. "Destroy, destruct, separate, divide,” was the emphatic double-phrased imperative with which one of his granddaughters described the “family legacy” in The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women, the BBC Four documentary that’s itself the work of another descendant, grandson Remy Blumenfeld, who wrote and produced this film by Nick Watson.

PUNK+ - Sheila Rock's portraits from the frontline

PUNK+ - SHEILA ROCK'S PORTRAITS FROM THE FRONTLINE Introducing the definitive collection of punk images by the American photographer who witnessed a revolution

Introducing the definitive collection of punk images by the American photographer who witnessed a revolution

The historians of punk are in full flow. Jon Savage's book England's Dreaming and the BBC Four's documentary series Punk Britannia have documented much of what needs to be said. But punk was as much a visual statement of intent as a musical one, which is why a new book of photographs by Sheila Rock is such a welcome addition to the punk library. Rock was there at the start, taking pictures for NME, Smash Hits and, most importantly, The Face, where her images did much to establish its commitment to style. 

Rock and Pop: Raw Power at 40

ROCK AND POP: RAW POWER AT 40 Limited edition prints by the court photographer of glam Mick Rock mark the anniversary of Iggy Pop's iconic album

Limited edition prints by the court photographer of glam Mick Rock mark the anniversary of Iggy Pop's iconic album

Mick Rock was the court photographer of glam. Among the (un)usual suspects found in his lens were Lou Reed, David Bowie and Freddie Mercury. But no one played up for his camera quite like Iggy Pop.The proof is in the six images released today as limited-edition art prints to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Raw Power. Each of the editions is overlaid with handwritten lyrics from "Raw Power" and "Death Trip", and are individually hand signed by both Rock and Pop.

Man Ray Portraits, National Portrait Gallery

TAD AT 5 - ON VISUAL ART: MAN RAY PORTRAITS, NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY Unforgettable images from the great days of modernist Paris

Unforgettable images from the great days of modernist Paris

Travelling through Canada by train – more decades ago than I care to divulge here – I bought a book of Man Ray photographs at Banff in the heart of the Rockies. I spent the rest of the journey with one eye on the majestic mountains, and the other glued to the luminous, edgy, ineffably stylish images of the American surrealist in Paris.

Juergen Teller: Woo!, ICA

JUERGEN TELLER: WOO!, ICA The German photographer's often confrontational images are ameliorated by warmth, wit and charm

The German photographer's often confrontational images are ameliorated by warmth, wit and charm

Crossover isn’t the half of it. Not since Helmut Newton has a photographer operated so successfully in both the worlds of celebrity high fashion and the world of art. In Juergen Teller’s case there is an emotional warmth that is particularly engaging, meaning the art world’s embrace is free of the occasional smugness that comes with its acceptance of the success in the “real” world of someone like Mario Testino. Teller makes everything highly personal, and we respond subliminally to his attachment to whatever he is photographing.