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Photography as Writing of the Self

Photography as Writing of the Self

Panayotis Papadimitropoulos (University of Ioannina, Greece)
Copyright: © 2023 |Pages: 21
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5337-7.ch007
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Abstract

This chapter aims to re-examine the issue of subjectivity in photographic practices. The first part focuses on photographers who introduce autobiographical texts in their work extending the subject of autobiography in photography to existential issues. New concepts in the field of autobiographical photography are introduced, such as the “photographer-as-subject” and “a photographic know thyself.” In the second part, the author's project “In and Out @ Ioannina.gr,” based on the layout of the polyptych, being an experimental attempt to holistically capture the city, is set under scrutiny. Details of everyday life, thoughts, rough notes, readings from book pages and images from the TV screen are photographed in order to reveal traits of the “photographer-as-human.” The photographic continuum of the city is scanned, depicting a complex and significantly subjective portrait of the city, of the photographer, and of the medium of photography itself. The aesthetics of the abundance of images is applied in this project.
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Introduction

The fact that the human being can have the “I” in his representations raises him infinitely above all other living beings on earth. (Kant, 1798/2006, p. 15).

In the present text I examine the artistic aspect of photography: not so much when the photograph functions as a record, as a window upon the world, but rather when it functions as a mirror of the practitioner, delving deeper into the relationships that photography has with subjectivity. I attempt to relate the core of photographic practice with the photographer’s identity, mainly considering the part that the author’s humanity plays in constructing their imagery. Moreover, drawing examples from the genre of documentary street photography, I survey the boundaries between autobiography and subjectivity from dual vantage points: that of the photographer as an onlooker of the works of their peers, and that of the photographer as a practitioner.

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