An Archive of Light

Abstract

This thesis explores the concept of light as both a tool and subject of contemporary art practice. Light and its relationship to photography is investigated from an historical, cultural and conceptual angle in order to position the work An Archive of Light within a contemporary paradigm. The methodology of this research is that of the photographic process as archive. Central to this investigation of light is a refining of the relationship between light and photography, with a proposal made that the central tenant of the photographic image is its reliance on light. Through examining historical examples, photography will be repositioned as a medium that ‘represents’ light as its subject. This positioning opens up a critique of the relationship between representation and the photographic image, and an argument made that releasing photography from the constraints of representation opens up a whole scope of engagement with the medium. This assertion is supported by historical and contemporary examples of photographic practitioners that reposition photography’s relationship to the photographic image. The photographic in relation to abstraction, the image as object and the photograph as an index of itself is explored throughout this exegesis.