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This is the abstract for my research paper, Pursuing the Archiving of History. The full text is accessible by clicking here
ABSTRACT
Within my practice I am attempting to represent the industrial legacy of the 19th and early 20th centuries using photography as a key instrument of my methodology.
In my artistic research I am observing the implications that come with using the medium of photography as opposed to others, such us moving image, to document my chosen subject. I will investigate how photography works as a historical document and how by tracing its past functions we can gain an understanding of its contemporary role and the validity of it being my chosen methodology.
Nowadays with the ever-constant changes of technology and digital imaging, the role of photography as a narrative has been questioned. The advances of digital imaging have meant that the object world can be reassembled in a computer in the shape of a photograph. This image making practice may seem to signal the end of photography as narrative. How can we still claim that photography is a valid record of our visible world? I will explore how photography has come to be considered an indexical sign and how effectively it communicates its meaning through approach and context reactivating our memory function.
I will use this essay to attempt to trace the use of photography as a historical document by taking a look at some of the written theories that define traditional photography as well as looking at practitioners that bring us near the objectivism of this medium employing, as my main example, the work of Bernd and Hilla Becker. I will further investigate the contemporary use of “late photography”, images that have been captured after the event has taken place, through the work of Robert Polidori. Both these practices are not the stereotypical photojournalism, they are not war photographers but they are two fine examples, from different times in photography’s history, that share a documentary methodology. Their field of enquiry, methodology and subject matter are closer related to my own work.
With the investigation of these practices I will attempt to prove that photography, traditional or digital, has an affirming place in the narrative of our current times, noting that photography is much more than the technology used in its creation. It is still able to provide us with an understanding of ‘what has been’ by relying on its indexical nature, its methodology and viewing context, for it is a practice that stems from our very social and cultural roots, one that is embedded in history and human endeavour.
Can photography be a faithful record of our time?
Within my practice I am attempting to represent the industrial legacy of the 19th and early 20th centuries using photography as a key instrument of my methodology.
In my artistic research I am observing the implications that come with using the medium of photography as opposed to others, such us moving image, to document my chosen subject. I will investigate how photography works as a document and how by tracing its past functions we can gain an understanding of its contemporary role and the validity of it being my chosen methodology.
To understand the strength of photography as a way of documenting our culture and environment we can look at its very origins. Approximately nineteen years after the introduction of the first practical photographic process, a Frenchman known as Nadar perfected the technique of using glass negatives and albumen printing paper. He captured the first ever aerial photograph from a balloon tethered over the Bievre Valley in 1858. From these experimental beginnings photography has been used to document our environment with a political and anthropological function, something that has been observed by many theorists.
Photography is also an art form that has followed different art tendencies that have used subjectivity as a main characteristic. Throughout its history there have always been purists that went back to the initial aesthetics of photography, bringing back its objectivism and reaffirming the confidence of photography as a document of truth. Nowadays with the ever-constant changes of technology and digital photography, the argument of photography as a faithful document has been re-awakened. Can photography be a trusted document of our current times? Has digital photography loss the attribute ‘real’?
I will use this essay to attempt to trace the use of photography as a historical document by taking a look at some of the written theories that define traditional photography as well as looking at practitioners and movements that take us near the objectivism of this medium. I will further investigate the contemporary use of “late photography”- images that have been captured after the event has taken place. With the investigation of these practices I will attempt to prove whether traditional photography, as well as digital, has an affirming place in the narrative of our current times.
I would like my project to identify the influence of industrialism in art.
How it has changed the perspectives of artist and their environment. How
technological advances in the late 19th and 20th centuries have informed
and influenced our current technological era. I will be creating work that
looks into this era and will be using the left over structures to develop a
personal visualization of what that time now means to our modern
society.
Click HERE to download my essay
