J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with David Campany
Episode #18 Summary:
Curator, writer and educator, David Campany, wove an erudite and revelatory, ‘bi-lingual’ manifesto in text and image on the elusive medium we call photography in his ninth book, On Photographs.
Episode Notes
Sandwiched between endpapers featuring the 1938 Photogram, Stars, by artist Alexander Rodchenko, 120 photographs by known and anonymous artists reflect how one can think about images - underscoring their uncontainable hybrid nature. His compelling text ignites curiosity, excavates and illuminates intention and process, inviting the reader/viewer to ponder what and how they see.
In this book group, David Campany discusses, among other things:
The paradox of the malleability of an image and it’s fixed singularity
The boundary-defying work of women artists who have been largely ignored by traditional canons of art history
The symbiotic relationship of text and image
Scale and materiality
The experimental spirit of the Bauhaus
The meaning between photos
The muteness of images
Photoshop as a beauty parlor
References/Resources from this episode:
Traveling exhibition: https://davidcampany.com/a-handful-of-dust/
Visual IN Dialog https://davidcampany.com/da-dialogue/
www.instagram.com/dialogue_aandd/,
Roland Barthes essay Leaving the Movie Theater,
Victor Burgin essay, Seeing Sense
Published by MIT Press