Allan Douglass Coleman (b. 1943), professionally known as A. D. Coleman, is an American photography critic, historian, curator, and educator who played a pivotal role in establishing photography as a subject of serious critical and scholarly discourse during the late twentieth century. By 1996, Coleman had become one of the most influential voices in photographic criticism, recognized for his rigorous analyses of documentary photography, contemporary photographic practice, and the evolving relationship between photography and society.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Coleman earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Hunter College (now Lehman College) in 1964. His background in literature strongly influenced his writing style, which combined close visual analysis with broader cultural and historical interpretation. Rather than approaching photography solely from an aesthetic perspective, Coleman examined photographs as cultural texts embedded within political, social, and technological contexts.
By the mid-1990s, Coleman had expanded his influence beyond print criticism through teaching, lecturing, and curatorial work. In 1995, he founded The Nearby Café, an online publication that became an important platform for critical discussions of photography and visual culture, demonstrating his early engagement with digital forms of publishing. In 1996, he published two major collections of essays—Critical Focus: Photography in the International Image Community and Tarnished Silver: Essays and Lectures 1979–1989—which consolidated nearly two decades of scholarship on photography and visual communication.