Saturday, October 14 - 1:45PM to 2:35PM
Embassy Suites, River G-J
In Search of Research
Photography has long been used to search the world. The word "search" means to circle something, to surround it in order to capture or understand it. Most of the visible, surface world had been searched by explorers, scientists, and artists (in particular photographers) by the 1950s Starting in the 1960s with re-photograhic projects, things were beginning to be circled again in order to measure change—a symptom of the Anthropocene, a time when the human footprint was everywhere and beginning to trample over previous footsteps. Now we're in a phase of re-search, which means "the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions"— in other words, to search yet again through photographic projects. But is there an end to such recursive, re-iterative photography? Perhaps not, as we are changing the world around us so radically and at such a fast pace, and in part doing so by the very act of photography itself. And that opens wider the opportunity for photography itself to be an active agent of change, versus the eye of a witness.
Dialogue and critique are important to the SPE mission.
Please join the conversation.