Past Equality and Welfare Events

Ben Campion (PhD)

Title: “The New Theory of Photography and the Dilemma of Videogame Imagery”

 Abstract:

Indicative of a growing interest among artists and theorists in the relationship between photography and videogames, a recent major exhibition at The Photographer’s Gallery, London, includes works which are produced utilising videogame graphics. The production of these images by photographers and their display in a gallery dedicated to photography raises a pertinent question: are these images photographic images? In this talk, I will argue that this question poses a dilemma to a group of contemporary philosophical views on photography called the ‘new theory’. One of the goals of new theory is to provide a theoretical basis for accepting a greater amount of work by photographers as photography than previous theories had allowed. I will suggest that considering videogame images a form of photography threatens this goal, as one can either accept that they are photographs—a claim which I argue threatens the theoretical foundations of new theory—or deny that they are photographs, thereby threatening new theory’s ability to account for photographic practice.