Philosophy Research Seminar: Dr Dawn Wilson
| Dates: | 21 March 2018 |
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| Times: | 15:15 - 17:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Social Sciences |
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Title: Composing and Performing: Photographers Creating Art
Abstract: ‘I can look at a fine art photograph and sometimes I can hear music.’ The photographer Ansel Adams was a classically trained pianist and saw analogy between art photography and music: ‘The negative is comparable to the composer’s score and the print to its performance’; ‘The negative comes to life only when performed as a print’; ‘Each performance differs in subtle ways.’
I argue that Adams is right in some respects, but wrong in others. It is true that some art photography can be fruitfully understood in the composer-performer paradigm and Adams is right that prints are like performances. However, his claim that a negative is like a score is incorrect and symptomatic of a widely held misconception about the nature of photography. I offer an original account of the photographic production process which corrects this misconception and I argue that the analogy between photography and music can unlock significant new ways to understand art photography.
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Boardroom
Arthur Lewis Building
Manchester
