The Critical Eye provides a comprehensive approach to the critical understanding of photography through an in-depth discussion of fifteen photographs and their contexts-historical, generic, biographical, and aesthetic. Lyle Rexer argues that by concentrating on just a few carefully chosen works it is possible to understand the history, development, and contemporary situation of photography.

Looking at images by photographers such as Roland Fischer, Myoung Ho Lee, Zanele Muholi, and Ernest Cole, The Critical Eye addresses a wide range of issues involved in photography, from authorial self-consciousness to the role of the audience, and with every chapter it seeks to link the history of photography to current practice.