Daniel Morgan’s work focuses largely on the intersection between cinema and aesthetics. He has written extensively on the history of film theory and philosophy; trends in media theory; film and politics; animation; non-fiction film; experimental media; and questions of film style.
Morgan’s first book, Late Godard and the Possibilities of Cinema (University of California Press, 2012), examines the films and videos of Jean-Luc Godard since the late 1980s, especially Soigne ta droite (1987), Nouvelle vague (1990), and Allemagne 90 neuf zéro (1991)—as well as the video series, Histoire(s) du cinéma (1988-1998). He argues the importance of philosophical aesthetics for an understanding of Godard’s late work while also giving attention to broader topics concerning film and politics, the representation of history, nature in cinema, and how film relates to other media.
His second book, The Lure of the Image: Epistemic Fantasies of the Moving Camera (University of Chicago Press, 2021), is the first sustained study of major theatrical challenges raised by camera movements. It argues against the most common way that camera movements are understood, with viewers feeling as if they are in the world of the film even though this is not actually true, and describes a dynamic between camera and viewer based around an epistemic fantasy that camera movements can place us within the world of the world itself. The Lure of the Image also presents a new model of relation between spectator and moving camera.
Morgan is currently working on a range of projects. These include a study of writers on film and art from 1966-1975, especially involving debates around cinema, politics, and modernism; a research project on ways that we become embarrassed while watching media, and what that tells us about spectatorship; and an investigation into radical aesthetical practices in times of political reaction.
He has also served as editor for a range of books and special issues of journals.