Beyond Photographic Time
Friday, October 4, 2013, at 18:30
Concordia University, EV-1.605
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Henry VIII, 1999, gelatin silver print. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Paul Wombell
Guest Curator, Mois de la photo à Montréal 2013
Photography is generally defined by the invention in 1826 of the semi-permanent record of light and time that has left a trace on some form of light sensitive material. This trace takes the form of a miniature two-dimensional space from which we can discern recognized events, people and places. This is called a photographic image. It is accepted that photographic images did not exist before 1826 and also that photography cannot depict future events. Once a photographic image has been made it is only about the past, a past that abruptly stops in 1826. Photographic time is the fixed period from the moment of photography's invention until the present moment of exposure – currently, a 187-year period. Some photographers have questioned this notion of photographic time by making images that suggest they were taken much earlier than the invention of photography, while others have made images to suggest that they were taken sometime in the future. Paul Wombell will talk about these photographers that are questioning the prevailing and limited view of photographic time.
Paul Wombell is an independent curator and writer on photography living in London (U.K.). He has been the Director of Impressions Gallery, York (1986–94), Director of The Photographers’ Gallery, London (1994–2005) and Festival Director of the Hereford Photography Festival (2006–07). From 2007 he has curated exhibitions for the annual photographic festival PHotoEspaña in Madrid and for FotoGrafia Festival Internazionale di Roma. Most recently, he organized the one-person exhibition Calves and Thighs: Juergen Teller (2010) in Madrid and the group exhibition Field (2012) in Rome. He regularly writes for international photographic publications. He as edited nine books on photography; the most recent being The 70s: Photography and Everyday Life (2009), co- edited with Sergio Mah, and End Times: Jill Greenberg (2012). He assisted Brancolini Grimaldi in opening their new gallery in London in 2011 and curated the first twelve months of their exhibition programme. At present he is the Guest Curator of the 2013 Le Mois de la photo à Montréal under the theme Drone: The Automated Image. He is also the artistic director of the new photographic mission on the French landscape.
