Is Photography Over?

[Marco B]

Hi all,

I already posted this yesterday in another thread, but I think it deserves its own place.

The San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art (SFMOMA) seems to have had an interesting big panel discussion last year with the above title spanning two days , and including some interesting people from the world of photography and art, for example a couple of curators of major museums in the US, speaking about photography and its recent changes.

Although I have just scratched the surface, and listened the first hour, there are some really interesting and entertaining musings being made by these people... Despite a total of a few hours for all the videos (you can listen to it without image like an MP3, the talking does the job), it seems well worth the watch / listening time.

As the introduction text says:

"Given the nature of contemporary art practice, the condition of visual culture, the advent of new technologies, and many other factors, what is at stake today in seeing something as a photograph? What is the value of continuing to speak of photography as a specific practice or discipline? Is photography over? In April 2010, SFMOMA convened a range of major thinkers and practitioners to write brief responses to this question and to convene for a two-day summit on the state of the medium."

Is Photography Over?
http://www.sfmoma.org/multimedia/videos/416
http://www.sfmoma.org/multimedia/videos/417
http://www.sfmoma.org/multimedia/videos/418
http://www.sfmoma.org/multimedia/videos/419
http://www.sfmoma.org/multimedia/videos/421
http://www.sfmoma.org/multimedia/videos/420

Video links are in the proper order for viewing, ignore the mix up of 420 and 421, this order is right according to the video titles.

Enjoy!

Marco

 

[Marco B]

I especially had to laugh at the "Spanish pig" comparison / analogy ("Photography is the pig") in part 2 (video 418) of day 1.

 

[Ian Grant]

One of the links doen't work Marco.

It probably easier to download from here.

I look forward to watching while the wife's away for a couple of days

Ian

 

[Marco B]

One of the links doen't work Marco.

It probably easier to download from here.

Which one? I've tried them all, and I can access all?

Maybe it is a temporary "hiccup" of your internet connection (or to many APUG'ers trying to access the videos on the SFMOMA site at the same time )

 

[Ian Grant]

You may be right Marco, I got a message saying this page doesn't exist with the 3rd or 4th link but it works now.

It's worth noting that some files are around 280-300 mb, and so unless you have good broadband may take a while to download

Thanks Marco, well worth a listen.

Ian

 

[Christopher Walrath]

With all due respect, Marco.

I appreciate your time on this but I'm not going to waste mine.

Over?

 

[SuzanneR]

This sounded familiar, and I realized I had come across several blog posts about this last spring. If you are having trouble downloading the video, here's a link to their blog.

http://blog.sfmoma.org/2010/04/is-photography-over-friday-afternoon-session-report-1/
http://blog.sfmoma.org/2010/04/is-photography-over-finally-over/

And this link has participant texts from the symposium. Interesting stuff.

http://www.sfmoma.org/pages/research_projects_photography_over

 

[Ian Grant]

Thanks Suzanne, I've downloaded the PDFs. I'm still waiting for the first large video file to finish downloading, been 32hrs 40mins so far but that's a reflection of Turkish Broadband in general, in the UK it'd just a few minutes

Ian

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

Ian , if you invest 30 dollars per month in Turkey , you can download 10 megabyte per second not minute.
You are frequently throwing shit to Turkey per every two or three posts when you are living here.
If England is a heaven for you , why you are living here ?

Umut

 

[Pinholemaster]

Thanks.

 

[Marco B]

I'm still waiting for the first large video file to finish downloading, been 32hrs 40mins so far but that's a reflection of Turkish Broadband in general, in the UK it'd just a few minutes

Slightly a pity that they didn't make some audio podcasts in MP3 available as well. Although it is nice to see some faces with the voices, the audio of the talks is the most interesting part. After all, it is just a plenary discussion with a group of people sitting behind a table and public in the room, and no images / examples of photos or so shown, so no real need for image.

 

[Bruce Watson]

Is photography "over"?

Yawn.

 

[hpulley]

Is oil painting over? Wood carving?

 

[Jeff Kubach]

Interesting none the less!

Jeff

 

[Marco B]

With all due respect, Marco.

I appreciate your time on this but I'm not going to waste mine.

Over?

Is photography "over"?

Yawn.

Really, that was what I thought too the first time I read the discussion topic :confused:, but the talks are entertaining, and they seem to have managed to put together a quite interesting bunch of people with some skills in doing talks, and some sense of humour as well... so it is not as bad as you guys may think. It is certainly one of the better "discussions" I have heard or seen on these topics. But I wouldn't even know for sure if calling it a "discussion" does the talks fully justice, as much of it more heads in the direction of a kind of philosophical musings about art and the status of photography in general.

Give it a try and actually do listen to the talks before judging...