Photography and the senses. Seduce, deceive, touch. Meeting with art historian Dr. Dorota Luczak - UAM.
S. Staszic Museum in Pila, 18 Browarna St. / 4.07.2024 (Thursday), god18.00
The precursors of photography called the camera lens a mechanical eye, which is free from the psychophysiological conditions of human vision. The mechanical eye was supposed to see more accurately and reliably, to perceive what remained invisible and inaccessible to the human, naked eye. In this way, photography became the ideal tool of sight-centrism, a culture that privileges vision in the acquisition of knowledge and knowledge of the world. Photography has always deceived with the illusion of being able to see what was supposed to be in front of the camera lens. It has seduced both with its attractive pictorial visibility, colorful vistas of distant lands, and by displaying alluring bodies accessible to the voyeuristic gaze of the observer. It seems, therefore, that the intertwining of photography and sight is not only inseparable, but inevitably dominates reflection on photography.
In the proposed lecture, I intend, on the one hand, to look at the sources of this intertwining, and on the other hand, to offer an alternative reflection on photography and the senses. The essential theme of the meeting will become the relationship between photography and the sense of touch. The touch shown by female and male photographers, which removes the dominance of the voyeuristic gaze; but also the touch of photography itself. For photography is not only an image that represents images, but also remains a material, tangible object, whether we are talking about 19th century daguerreotypes or contemporary cell phone photos.
Dr. Dorota Luczak .
Adam Mickiewicz University.
Dorota Łuczak - PhD in art history, assistant professor at the Institute of Art History at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, editor of the journal "Artium Quaestiones". She has received scholarships from the Corbridge Trust (Cambridge University), the French Government, the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, and the Lanckoroński Foundation. Her research is primarily concerned with the history and theory of 20th and 21st century photography, including but not limited to scientific photography. She is the author of the monograph Foto-oko. The Photographic Vision in the Face of Ocularocentrism in the Art of the First Half of the Twentieth Century, and co-author of the monumental first anthology of Polish texts on photography Polish Photographers, Critics and Theorists on Photography 1839-1989. She has published texts on modern and contemporary art and photography in monographs and exhibition catalogs, as well as in the pages of prestigious journals such as: "History of Photography," "Artium Quaestiones," "Art and Documentation," "Comparisons," and "Photography Quarterly."