Toward a Materialist Photography: The Body of Work

This article moves toward a materialist photography in response to a recent photographic exhibition by Giles Duley. Duley's work is made under the auspices of a ‘humanitarian project’, a notion problematised by its display in the context of the art gallery, and by the photograph as the final product in a process that is also the property of the photographer. I use this work as a starting point for moving photographic discourse beyond consideration of the final image and author to explore the materiality of the photographic apparatus and its event. Key to this task is the work of Ariella Azoulay (2015) and Judith Butler (2010) who have approached photography as, respectively, an event and as extended materiality. It also borrows on some definitions of matter and materiality from Karen Barad (2012). Barad moves the question of materiality into a field of political interaction, taking account of all participatory elements.