When looking at the photobook as medium, it becomes apparent that the photobook has mostly been discussed as a presentation and storage tool but not as a medium of its own. Approaching the...Show moreWhen looking at the photobook as medium, it becomes apparent that the photobook has mostly been discussed as a presentation and storage tool but not as a medium of its own. Approaching the photobook as a medium from a historical perspective, it is interesting that the photobook, when discussed in an academic framework, has been theorized in matter of style and substance, looking at the evolution of the design and content of the photobook, but not in audience experience. At first glance, walking as a physical act and the reader-like walking through a photobook share the superficial characteristic of the possibility of freedom, as both the chosen path through the photobook and through walking is steered by the reader-spectator’s unique personality and life experience, which is not completely controlled by the author-artist and as such can have an unpredictable outcome. In this thesis, I aim to substantiate this claim. The reader-spectator’s hand turning the photobook’s pages are reminiscent of the wanderer’s feet exploring a path. To underline this argument, the act of walking is interpreted as metaphor. Where in an installation or exhibition space the spectator approached the artworks literally through their feet, now the reader-spectator approaches the photobook with their hands. In approaching the reader-spectator experience from this perspective, this research becomes also an investigation of the medium of the photobook.Show less
This thesis analyses the role of measurement in in surveillance. Aiming to answer the question of Which is the role of measurement in surveillance photography? First considering how measurement has...Show moreThis thesis analyses the role of measurement in in surveillance. Aiming to answer the question of Which is the role of measurement in surveillance photography? First considering how measurement has been instrumentalised to control the population by establishing standard dimensions, that serve to categorise and to catalogue individuals, and formulating the categories of deviant and normal. In the first chapter, I draw from John Tagg's analysis of documentary photography, who defends that evidence photography is necessarily attached to a power discourse. I defend that the specificities of photography as a static media do not only allow for the measurement of individuals and spaces but, photography has historically played an important role in creating these distinctions. In the second chapter, it takes into account the role of measurement in space, more specifically regards to the notion of ´Visual Nominalism´ coined by media theorist, Lev Manovich, who elaborates on how technologies of linear perspective, such as photography, have allowed placing an individual in an exact point in space. Parallel to this, in the light of these theories , I analyse how contemporary photographers, on the subject of surveillance, adopt the visual language of measurement in photography to deal with notions of control in contemporary society, exposing, this time, in a visual way, how the language of dominance is far from inherent but has been carefully constructed. Both in relation to space and to individuals the specific qualities of photography allow for control through measurement.Show less
