Becoming Second Nature: Dan Holdsworth and the Sublime

'Becoming Second Nature: Dan Holdsworth and the Sublime' is a 4000-word chapter commissioned by Photoworks, and is the first monograph dedicated to the work of UK photographer Dan Holdsworth. The monograph was jointly published by Photoworks and Steidl (UK and Germany) in January 2006. Becoming Second Nature represents the first extended analysis of the oeuvre of this photographer (whose images are in the permanent collection of the Tate Modern, Tate Britain, National Portrait Gallery and elsewhere).

The chapter seeks to determine the extent to which the aesthetic category of the sublime retains value as an interpretative device for artistic practices in the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century. The article provides a condensed approach to the notion of the sublime, tracing its roots from Longinus, through Burke and Kant and seeks to apply nuanced versions of the sublime to a body of photographic practice. In addition, it engages with debates in contemporary photographic criticism around questions of representation (Scruton) and the instantaneous view (Fluss).