Ben Campion

I am a PhD researcher in the department, specialising in aesthetics and the philosophy of art. My current research focuses on philosophical issues surrounding photography, especially the role creative agency plays in a medium typically understood as mechanical or automatic.

I also work as an editorial assistant for the British Journal of Aesthetics and I co-edit the BJA's sister journal, Debates in Aesthetics.

I am a postgraduate member of the managing committee for the Centre for Research in Philosophy, Literature, and the Arts.

Publications

2025. 'Videogame Photography and Spectator Gaming: a Flusserian Perspective', British Journal of Aesthetics.
2024. 'Wilson's Multi-stage Account and the Dilemma of Videogame Photography', Debates in Aesthetics. *Awarded the 2024 Debates in Aesthetics Essay Prize*

Talks and Conference Presentations

September 2025: Causality and Intention in Photography: Analysing James Welling's Flowers Prints. 2025 BSA Conference, St Anne's College, Oxford.
June 2025: Photographic Visualisation: A Challenge from Machine-Learning. 2025 ESA Conference, Athens, Greece.
November 2024: The Future of Photography and the Future of the Philosophy of Photography: AI and the Orthodoxy/New Theory Debate. The Developing Room's Ninth Graduate Student Colloquium, Rutgers University, New Jersey.
October 2024: Artificial Intelligence and the Aesthetic Value of Photography. M4C Research Festival, Birmingham.
June 2024: What is Photographic about Videogame Photography? 2024 ESA Conference, Naples, Italy.
December 2023: Response to Heather Widdows' 'Myself and my Selfie'. Philosophy Christmas Lecture, University of Warwick. [Invited]
November 2023: Photography and 'the Photographic' in Videogame Screenshots. World Philosophy Day Talk, University of Hull. [Invited]
October 2023: Videogame Photography Returns: Photography and the Photographic. Philosophy Department Work in Progress Seminar, University of Warwick.

October 2023: Collaboration and Trust in Photography. 2023 British Postgraduate Philosophy Association Conference, University of York.
October 2023: Photographic Style and Photographic Subjects in Sebastião Salgado’s Images of the Developing World. M4C Research Festival 2023, Birmingham.
September 2023: Collaboration and Trust in Photography. 2023 Postgraduate Welcome Conference, University of Warick.
June 2023: Understanding the Relation of Action and Knowledge in Flusser’s Theory of Photography. 2023 ESA Conference, Budapest, Hungary.
June 2023: Photographic Style and Photographic Subjects in Sebastião Salgado’s Images of the Developing World. Philosophy and Race Research Celebration, University of Warwick.
May 2023: Intention, Knowledge, and Embodied Action in Schneider’s Photographic Performance. 8th BSA Postgradaute Conference: Aesthetics and the Body, University of Kent.
May 2023: Understanding the Relationship between Knolwedge and Action in Flusser's Theory of Photography. Philosophy Department Work in Progress Seminar, University of Warwick.
January 2023: Workshop on Debates in Aesthetics Photography Special Issue. Philosophy and Photography Lab. [Invited]
November 2022: Between Anscombe and Flusser: Inside the 'Black Box' of Photography. World Philosophy Day Talk, University of Hull. [Invited]
October 2022: The New Theory of Photography and the Dilemma of Videogame Imagery. Philosophy Department Work in Progress Seminar, University of Warwick.

Email: ben.campion@warwick.ac.uk