SNAPSHOT PHOTOGRAPHY: A PHATIC, SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED, MNEMONIC TECHNOLOGY Alistair Joseph Parker BA (Hons), MA Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA) Lancaster University This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2017 Dedication Dedications Dedicated to my wife Irene Thank you for your love, encouragement, and understanding. “Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely, “and go on until you come to the end: then stop.”– Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland “Not to take photographs of one’s children, particularly when small, is a sign of parental indifference.” Susan Sontag, On Photography i Dedication Declaration This dissertation is the result of my own work. It has not been previously submitted, in part or whole, to any university or institution for any degree, diploma, or other qualification. Signed:______________________________________________________________ Date:_________________________________________________________________ Alistair Joseph Parker BA (Hons), MA Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA) Lancaster University Copyright: Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) ii Alistair Joseph Parker BA Hons, MA Snapshot Photography: A Phatic, Socially Constructed Mnemonic Technology This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2016 Abstract This practice related research study explores my cognitive response to a biographical snapshot photograph celebrating my first day at school. The experience triggered an exploration of the relationship between snapshot photographs and memory. The finding of a second almost identical snapshot photograph of my son taken twenty years later by me prompted me to question why my father and I should take almost identical snapshots. I argue that the invention of photography was driven by the desire to capture the images created by the camera obscura by mark-making with the pencil of light as an aid memoir. I argue that the desire to externalise memory using mnemonic technology is innate with primal origins in parietal art and lithic technologies. The discourse explores the cultural evolution of technology through Jaques Derrida’s theory of originary technicity and Bernard Stiegler’s concept of the cultural evolution of technology by epiphylogenesis and the notion of the externalisation of memory as prosthesis. I explore the emergence of snapshot photography from the canon of photography through the theories of cultural evolution, technological momentum, and social constructivism, together with psycho-social notions of desire, ritual, performativity and intentionality in the establishment of snapshot photography as a ubiquitous ingrained social practice. The research is informed by a studio practice element that uses the adventures of Lewis Carroll’s, Alice as a conceptual framework to explore a journey of agency, self and auto didactical knowledge acquisition. I discuss the search for an appropriate methodological framework for art practice based research My practice is a catalyst for enquiry; a project usually starts with an artefact that forms the locus of a question, the search for the answer to those questions, often iii Alistair Joseph Parker BA Hons, MA Snapshot Photography: A Phatic, Socially Constructed Mnemonic Technology This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2016 leading epistemically, to unexpected places and relationships. The mode and manner of my enquiry are rhizomatous, pragmatic and serendipitous; the relationship between practice and theory is flexible, one informing the other. Through practice, I explore the deconstruction and textualisation of the visual metaphor of memory through the rhetorical devices of ekphrasis and memory texts and a visualisation of the nature and originary technicity of snapshot photography and an exploration of self and place. The thesis for this study is founded on the premise that snapshot photography is a socially constructed, phatic, mnemonic mark-making technology with origins in parietal forms of visual expression. iv Acknowledgements Acknowledgements I am indebted to my supervisors Andrew Quick, and Charlie Gere for their guidance, encouragement, and forbearance. Thank you to the staff at LICA and the new friends at Lancaster University I met on my journey of self-discovery. I am indebted to for your friendship, help, advice and words of encouragement. Thank you to Myra Boyle for proof reading my words, I am obliged. The design and layout of this Thesis are based on a Word template design by Kayla Friedman and Malcolm Morgan of University of Cambridge, UK. http://tinyurl.com/jzwl5zs v Contents Contents PREFACE .................................................................................................................................. 10 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 13 1.1 BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................. 14 1.2 CONCEPTUALISATION ..................................................................................................... 22 1.3 AIMS AND APPROACH ..................................................................................................... 25 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .................................................................................................... 27 1.5 THESIS STATEMENT ......................................................................................................... 27 2 REVIEW ................................................................................................................................. 28 2.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 28 2.2 A BRIEF HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY - THE BIRTH OF THE SNAPSHOT ........................ 30 2.3 ORIGINARY TECHNICITY - PHOTOGRAPHY AS A TECHNOLOGY ................................... 35 2.4 THE SNAPSHOT, DESIRE AND SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION ................................................ 42 3 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................... 48 3.1 CONSIDERING METHODOLOGIES .................................................................................... 48 3.2 CHOOSING A METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK ........................................................... 50 3.3 THE ROLE OF PRACTICE .................................................................................................. 51 4 PRACTICE: SHADOWS ON THE WALL: RHIZOMATOUS THOUGHTS ........... 53 4.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 53 4.2 THINKING PRACTICE ....................................................................................................... 56 4.3 FRAGMENTS OF MEMORY – NEGATIVE SPACES ............................................................. 68 4.4 MEMORY - MAPS, TEXTS AND EKPHRASIS ..................................................................... 72 4.5 REPETITION: THE HANDPRINTS ON THE WALL ............................................................. 73 5 A BRIEF HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY ...................................................................... 77 5.1 1839 AND ALL THAT ........................................................................................................ 79 5.2 WILLIAM HENRY FOX-TALBOT ....................................................................................... 84 5.3 THE CAMERA OBSCURA .................................................................................................. 87 5.4 THE RACE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY ...................................................................................... 92 6 THE BIRTH OF SNAPSHOT PHOTOGRAPHY ........................................................... 97 6.1 WHAT IS A SNAPSHOT? ................................................................................................... 97 6.2 THE EMERGENCE OF SNAPSHOT PHOTOGRAPHY .......................................................... 99 vi Contents 6.3 THE KODAK: JUST PRESS THE BUTTON… ..................................................................... 108 6.4 THE BROWNIE: AND THE PROLETARIANIZATION OF PHOTOGRAPHY ....................... 115 6.5 THOUGHTS ON MEMORY .............................................................................................. 120 6.6 THE SNAPSHOT PARADOX ............................................................................................ 122 6.7 SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................... 124 7 READING THE PHOTOGRAPH ................................................................................... 125 7.1 READING THE PHOTOGRAPH ........................................................................................ 133 7.2 CRITICAL REFLECTION .................................................................................................. 144 8 ORIGINARY TECHNICITY: MEMORY, PROSTHESIS, HOMO PICTOR .......... 149 8.1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 149 8.2 ORIGINARY TECHNICITY AND THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION