Photography as Performative Process

Author(s): RICHARD SHUSTERMAN

Source: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism , WINTER 2012, Vol. 70, No. 1,
SPECIAL ISSUE: THE MEDIA OF PHOTOGRAPHY (WINTER 2012), pp. 67-77
Published by: Wiley on behalf of The American Society for Aesthetics

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/42635857

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 RICHARD SHUSTERMAN

Photography as Performative Process

i Heterogeneity and novelty are familiar themes

in theorizing photography. Faced with its in-
Photography pervades our lives. Its multiple and tractable diversity (that he described as an "un-
wide-ranging roles make it not only ubiquitous classifiable" "disorder"), Roland Barthes won-
but also immensely diverse. There are photo IDs, dered whether photography had an essence but
all sorts and styles of advertising images, docu- then argued that its "essence . . . can only be (if it
mentary shots of news and sports events, criminal exists at all) the New of which it has been the ad-
"wanted" posters, scientific photographs to serve vent."2 Walter Benjamin even more influentially
either as heuristics in the process of discovery or as characterized photography in terms of its trans-
evidentiary tools for proof and teaching, portrait formational novelty. Besides generating the fur-
shots of individuals, families, or other groups (in- ther novelty of cinema, photography's powers of
cluding school or conference pictures), candidly mechanical reproduction "transformed the entire
intimate photos reserved for someone special, per- nature of art" by shifting art from its original es-
sonal travel photos (now typically in digital form sentially ritualistic use (with its auratic cult value
and shared with friends through some Internet of the authentic original) to an "absolute empha-
network), and then there is art photography, which sis on its exhibition value" instead. Moreover, its
is what concerns me here and which constitutes a
automatic mechanism of capturing attractive, ac-
diversely mixed genre in itself. curate pictorial images likewise removed the tra-
ditional need for skilled artistic hands to create
A distinctively modern art (one not to be found
in Hegel's famous nineteenth-century classifica-
them: "For the first time in the process of picto-
tory rankings), photography's association with rial reproduction, photography freed the hand of
newness is not merely temporal, but indeed the re- most important artistic functions which hence-
flects a tendency toward continuing innovation. forth devolved only upon the eye looking into a
Its original photochemical film technique engen- lens."3
dered new forms such as movies and videos, but Givenit such heterogeneous and innovative ten-
dencies, I dare not presume that there must be
also led to the new varieties of digital photography
that dispense with the photochemistry of film aand distinct and permanent essence of photography
instead use sensors that convert light into elec-whose identity it is my duty as theorist to define.
trical charges that are then digitally analyzed and
If there is such an essence, I hope this article will
shed light on it, but my purpose here is rather
converted back into images. Photography's artistic
uses display continuing innovation, such as the to highlight a dimension of photographic art that
dis-
has been largely neglected but that can constitute
tinctive trend that began in the late 1970s of creat-
ing very large-scale photographs expressly meant the locus of real aesthetic experience and value.
This dimension concerns the performative process
for posting on the gallery wall and typically "sum-
moning a confrontational experience on the part of making a photograph of a human subject and
of the spectator that sharply contrasts with the thesorts of artistic performances and aesthetic
habitual processes of appropriation and projec- experiences that this process involves.4 These per-
tion whereby photographic images are normally formances and experiences have a clearly somatic
received and consumed."1 aspect that I initially failed to recognize despite my

© 2012 The American Society for Aesthetics

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68 The Media of Photography

aspects
interest in developing of artistic cr
a somaesthetic p
on art.5 There is likewise
rience. a Thesesalient can drambe
sion to the photographic
photographer's performati mise-e
that also escaped me,era, despite and his my subject havin w
a general theory text of art and asprocess,
dramatizat bu
import of these somatic
subject's and posing, dramatic self-p
photography only beforerecently
the camera within the mise-en-scène
became of the evi
photographic situation
through collaborations with and in critical communi-
photograp
and curators interested in somaesthetic
cation with the photographer. Indeed, if commu-
nicative expression in artistic dimension
realized that photography's creation contributes o
dramatic, performative process
significantly to the value (and it
of aesthetic experience,
then the communicative
for enhanced artistic use and interaction between pho-
aesthetic
is occluded by our tographer
one-sided
and subject in the process
concentrat
of setting up
photograph itself and (a
taking static object),
the shot could provide a rich source for with
such experiential value.
tend to identify photographic art.
I argue, however,Why thathave thesean aesthetic aspects of photogra-
important di
can be made betweenphy as process photography
been neglected? It is not enough to an
tograph.8 Although posit our one-sided
thepreoccupation
photograph with the pho- (w
hard-copy print or tographinas the digital
sole explanation of this
display)
neglect, be- is
standard end product of may
cause that preoccupation photography
itself be partly the
ventionally recognized
result of other reasons as thatthe
discourage goal
attention an
photographic art, there
to photography is more
as performative to ph
process. I there-
than the photograph. To
fore devote a brief appreciate
concluding section to discussing th
tion and see that those
the other reasons.
photograph and it
perception are only part of a larger com
ements that constitutes photography as
and as an art, we iifirst need to examine
elements, which include the photograph
In its simplest form, the
get that he photographs, thephotographic situation
photogra
treated here involves a photographer, contex
ment, and the spatiotemporal a human
in which the target is posed
subject who knowingly and willinglyand pho
serves as the
photographic target, the to
In reducing photography camera the
(with its neces-
photo
diminish its aesthetic scopeequipment),
sary accessory photographic and and power
the
ing the elementsscene
thator context
canin whichmanifest
the photography ses- ar
sion takes place.10
and provide aesthetic What I wish to highlight as Mo
experience.
the photographic
the essential meaning of process
the of performance
photogra is es-
sentially what goes on in the often
in philosophical discussions) process of setting up,
gets
the object photographed,
preparing, and taking so the photographic
reducing shots in a th
ics of photographyphotography
to the session. Although the technique of
photograph r
ing it to the aesthetics of the
film photography involves an object
further process of (t
real-world referent)
developing the actually outside
film to produce a negative (or pos- t
itive) image, thisbeyond
graph, hence allegedly procedure does not involve
photog the
this would leave artistic
the aesthetic
process and interaction between value
photogra- of
pher and subject whose neglected aesthetic poten-
phy gravely in question.9
Given the diversity of
tial I explore in thisphotographic
article.11 For the same reason, ar
although art photography alsoart
my analysis to photographic includes that
the subse- tak
quent critical process human
ing, voluntary individual of selecting which shots are
subject
tographic target.worth
By that
exhibiting and whatI themean a hum
best ways to mount
who is both aware or show
that them are, sheI do notis discuss that process pho
being
and is also willing
here butto be.
instead In
focus on articulatin
the aesthetic experience
ments of the artistic
of photographyphotographic
before the existence of the photo- proc
gest how some of graph them
that is its product.can display s

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Shusterman Photography as Performative Process 69

i. Taking a photographic shot,Becauselike any action

we typically associate somatic effort with
we perform, always involves large
some bodilymovements,
and strenuous action. we are apt to ig-
At the bare minimum one must nore the use
sort ofa somaesthetic
body skills part of fine-motor
to activate the camera's shutter release,
control that are involvedusually
in mastering the art of
by an action involving one'soperating
fingers. a camera,But eventhere
in everyday snapshots.
are obviously further somaticMoreover,
skills,inlike certainproperly
kinds of art photography, the
steadying the camera in one's hands to
photographer's ensure
somatic efforts a can be much more
clear shot and also being abledemanding.
to maneuver effec-
tively one's photographic equipment along
Besides the somatic with
skill of controlling one's
one's own bodily position, posture, and
camera, posture, and balance
balance, there is also the pho-
so that one can best aim the camera
tographer's skill in to get
winning the of the
the confidence
desired optical image. Taking a picture
person is is
photographed. This a important
bod- for mak-
ily act that requires a certain
ingeffort and
the subject feel more compe-
comfortable and coop-
erative rather
tence of somatic self-use, despite the than guarded and ill at ease, thus
advertising
myth that photographic technology
rendering her more issuitable
so mag-for photography's
ically simple that even a child ordual
dominant dumb
aims of not brute
only portraying the
can produce an excellent photo.
real, but This need
also producing for
aesthetic objects and ex-
somatic skill despite photography's
periences, even frommechanical
people who in real life are
magic is comically thematized in Buster
painfully Keaton's
unattractive. Susan Sontag thus praises
The Cameraman (Edward Sedgwick, 1928),
Diane Arbus's frontal where
photographs of "freaks and
the hero clumsily struggles with
pariahs" his photographic
for capturing "subjects . . . one would not
equipment, knocking out windows
expect to surrender and doors
themselves so amiably and
with his tripod, while his generously
pet monkeyto the camera man-

ages to load and aim the camera with

to pose, consider-
the photographer has had
ably less clumsiness and more success, producing
confidence," and this requires social
have a in
some excellent footage of fighting somaesthetic
New York'sdimension.12 Fo
Chinatown. photographer's body language must
In real life, I have witnessed many comic in- ening; it must be friendly, even in a
stances of the photographer's need for somatic but not intrusive. Her somatic styl
play a quality of keen attentivene
control and awareness, such as friends losing their
balance and falling off a curb or into a pool as regarding the person photographed
they backed up to get a better shot, eyes locked attention and interest are merely
on the optical image in the camera, hands tightlyprofessional and thus not really gen
grasping the camera itself. Some people like pho-stantively ethical sense). This qualit
tography but dislike taking pictures because and of interest, somaesthetically pro
its somatic constraints; they prefer having theirphotographer and perceived by the
hands unencumbered and their gaze free to sur- only implicitly by both parties), wi
vey the horizon rather than narrowly fixed onin a posture, gesture, and facial expre
small aperture or screen held in their hands. There The photographer's expression of
are good evolutionary reasons why one would in- attentive interest is not simply n
stinctively want to have one's hands free for ac-putting a subject at ease, but fur
tion and one's gaze free to survey the horizon and
stimulus in engaging the subject's ow
thus more readily able to identify friends, prey,terest and heightened focus on the
and predators at a distance. Though many peo- situation or event. It is as if the p
ple, on the contrary, love to use cameras and feel
quality of attention and presence in
empowered by wielding them, it is obvious that tographed subject as well, thus raisi
handling, looking through a camera, and takingof a presence that can then be captured
good shot involve sensorimotor skills that need to
ing photograph, a presence that tra
be learned. Some people need considerable prac- ordinary faces into beautifully ex
tice to master the control of breathing and steadi-
The masterful Richard Avedon descr
ness of hands to keep the camera firmly fixed cess
to of contagion where the subjects
take a clear picture, and some never master it. "to be photographed as they would

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 70 The Media of Photography

or a fortune teller- Barthes

to knows
find hisoutimage
howwill th
ulti
in the hope of feeling trolledbetter
by the photographer
through and
theth
rative experience equipment, of self-exposure befor
so there is the added an
matic observer: no real control of the self that wil
his creative posing, "the anguish" o
I have to engage them. Otherwise there's nothing to whether one will be reborn as an "a
photograph. The concentration has to come from me dividual" or "a good sort"; and this
and involve them. Sometimes the force of it grows so bates the discomfort or awkwardne
strong that sounds in the studio go unheard. Time stops. A further difficulty is how to or
somatically
We share a brief, intense intimacy. But . . . when the sit- in the pose to achiev
ting is over . . . there's nothing left except the photo-
wants to convey. It is not easy to c
graph . . . the photograph and a kind of embarrassment.14cial and postural expression, espec
cannot use a mirror but must inste
This experience of deeply felt and focused com- proprioception. Barthes provides a
municative expression structured through thescription of this effort to strike th
mise-en-scène of the photographic process is a don't know how to work on my ski
form of aesthetic experience whose transfiguring I decide to 'let drift' over my lips a
intensity can indeed leave its participants embar-
smile which I mean to be indefina
rassed once the drama of the shooting is over andI might suggest, along with the q
they return to their everyday selves and routine.nature, my amused consciousness
Of course, photography that seeks veracity and photographic ritual."18 For Barthes
drama by catching its subject up close yet totally
essential and discomforting parad
unaware involves an altogether different sort of of photographic posing or self-pre
photographic skill. Its secrecy generally includes
is the desire for the photographi
a dimension of somatic virtuosity in order to keep
incide with my ('profound') self,"
the camera (or at least its use) concealed. Think, that "'myself' never coincides with
for example, of how Walker Evans secretly took "Photograph is the advent of mys
his close-up, frontal shots of New York subway Second, the posing subject is mad
passengers, "with the lens of his camera peering ject, not only in the actual photogr
between two buttons of his topcoat," so that he in the very process of objectifying
could catch them unaware that they were being the camera, by representing or re
considered as photographic objects and thus cap- through one's pose. Such a proces
ture a look free from any posing, posturing, or fesses, makes him "invariably suffe
self-consciousness. Some prefer such candid shots; tion of inauthenticity, sometimes o
others find them ethically suspect. But there is lit-
"I am neither subject nor object bu
tle doubt that people display a different demeanor feels he is becoming an object."21
when they know they are being photographed, make it difficult to achieve an attr
and often there is something awkward, artificial, The subject who poses for a phot
or false about it.15 fore has an important aesthetic role
escape these feelings of inauthentic
iL Overcoming the awkwardness of posing also her pose less awkward, forced, and
requires from the photographic subject a certainit positively, to render herself mo
talent or effort, no matter how skillful the pho-
cally attractive by being more vita
tographer is at making his subject feel natural cally present. Though Barthes hims
and uninhibited in exposing herself to the cam- skill, he recognized it in his mother,
era. Barthes poignantly confesses his own complex
through which "she 'let' herself be
problems as a posing subject. On the one hand,in a free and natural way that wo
as soon as he knows that he is "observed by the
"essential identity," even when the
lens," Barthes feels the need to reconstitute him-tographs did not fully capture it: "
over this ideal of placing herself in f
self "in the process of posing

(an Iinevitable
make another body for myself, transform action)
myselfwith discretio
in advance into an image."16 On the
a touch other
of hand,theatricalism
the tense

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Shusterman Photography as Performative Process 71

sulkiness) harmony of understanding, even a sense of inti-

as I do with mine: she did notmate collaborative
suppose expression. I suspect that there
herself."22
Knowing the camera's power are to
implicit
make hints aorperma-
diminished analogues of such
nent and widely reproducible feelings
image, in the
theparticipatory
personpleasures
at of snapshots
in everyday popular photographic
whom the camera is directed instinctively recom- art. In the hur-
ried,expression
poses his image, transforms his pressured flow oforlifepos-
and its hectic activities
in which individuals
ture, and typically arrests his movement are bentto
in order on achieving their
own ends himself,
strike an effective pose. He stylizes and meeting their even duties, one pauses
if only minimally and barely and poses for a photographic
self-consciously, moment while one's
for
the camera. Barthes laments companion
this posing effect
(in tourism, as
in partying, in business or
a betrayal of personal identity,family
as affairs) also pauses and concentrates her at-
the objectifying
tention onof
of a subject, as the transformation making
an the best of this shared moment
indefin-
by taking a snapshot
able essence of lived, inner identity into athat both she and the posing
frozen
external image that traps and subject
stifles (or subjects)
his felt can enjoy.
flow The performative
of subjectivity. But the problemprocesshereof photography
(as Barthes provides a heightened,
almost seems to recognize) may framedbe moment
that of he
enjoying
takessomething together
and underlying
himself or his identity too seriously that sharing by an intentionally
and essentially.
collaborative creative
With a more creative, fluid attitude, one act that
can witnesses
see it.
the camera's invitation to pose as an opportunity
iii. The camera
to create a new look, a new posture, is the essential
a new element element in the
in the construction of the self photographic
whose identity is not
situation that turns the encounter
a fixed essence but an ongoing project
between whose and
photographer con- the voluntary subject
tinuous construction can either reinforce habitual into a scene of posing that so often renders the
modes of being or creatively seek new ones. In subject ill at ease despite her willingness to be
some forms of art photography, the subject can photographed. This is not merely the feeling of
be creatively spurred to creative self-fashioning, wanting to project a certain look to the public,
to experiment with different poses, costumes, ex- to be seen by others in a specific way that may
pressions, attitudes; and the special situation of an not be precisely the way one actually is or feels
art photography session provides a circumscribed, at that moment. Such a desire is present in many
protected stage to try out such experiments and kinds of social situations where we perform the
then resume one's habitual modes of being and role playing of self-presentation in everyday life
self-presentation if one prefers them (or requires without feeling especially self-conscious. But the
them) for dealing with the needs of everyday life. camera thematizes this self-presentation, making
For purposes of analysis, I have separately ar- it explicit by focusing on framing a particular mo-
ticulated the somaesthetic skills and aesthetic ex- ment of such self-presentation and fixing it in a
perience of photographer and subject. But as the permanent image that objectifies and defines the
discussion of Arbus and Avedon has already sug- self in terms of that experiential moment, an image
gested, the somatic comportment and aesthetic ex-
that can be indefinitely reproduced and circulated
perience of photographer and subject (though ob-
as a representation of what the self really is.
viously distinguishable and often very different) The camera thus creates a particular pressure
cannot be completely separated because what is of posing not only because it typically requires the
involved is an essentially communicative, partici-subject to arrest her movement (or at least con-
patory process, an interactive dance of pose and trol it) to ensure that her image is captured clearly
gestures, even if the subject's movement is con- but also because it raises the stakes of one's self-
fined to positioning of the head and facial expres-
presentation by harboring the threat of perma-
sions. In cases where there is excellently empa- nently representing the self as an object in ways
thetic communication, subject and photographer that the self as subject may not want to be rep-
can inspire each other toward creative improvisa- resented or defined. Though experience itself is
tions in the mise-en-scène and realization of the elusively evanescent and significantly subjective,
shot, and they can thus enjoy a powerfully shared the photograph has the powers of durability, fixity,
aesthetic experience of creativity, a pleasurable and objectivity that belong to real physical things.

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 72 The Media of Photography

of picture-taking, which
These powers constitute one must be reason
the sole activ- w
ity resulting
riential process of in accredited works of art in which
photography is obs
a single movement,
photograph as object. In a touch
thusof the finger, pro-
framin
ment and giving duces a complete
it work."25 The instantaneous actpub
permanence,
of shutter release likewise suggests
tation, and wide-ranging reproducib that there is
no sustained duration
culation, the camera of effort involved as one or
intensifies ma
would expect in a performative
moment; it dramatizes it in process.26 precisel These
which I argue that all neglect
reasons, however, art the dramatiz
complex performa-
putting them in tivean
processintensifying
that occurs before the shutter release fra
and the camera's
giving them a sense of ensuing mechanism of producing
heightened rea
ness.23 the photographic image. But that prior process-
involving the mise-en-scène performative activ-
iv. The performative process of having a subject ity of the photographer and the posing subject- is
pose for the camera always involves posing that necessary for achieving the desired optical image
subject in some setting- a situational or environ- in the camera lens that one then seeks to fix in the
mental background that, if successful, can enhance
photographic image.
the interest and quality of the photographic act The fact that this performative process is onto-
and resulting photograph. Important situations logically complex and difficult to demarcate in its
(such as a wedding or a funeral) can give special experiential dimensions provides further reasons
meaning and gravitas to a work of photography for its neglect. The process is complex in that it
and provide a characteristic background with rele- involves the action and thought of both the pho-
vant props imbued with situational meaning. If the
tographer and the subject; it is difficult to define
posing subject can be likened to an actor, then de-
not only because it involves the elusive experien-
termining the background can be likened to stage
tial flow of these two subjectivities but also be-
setting. If the photography studio offers only a cause its physical actions of positioning and pos-
limited range of situations and backgrounds, then
ing are typically performed without a formal script
it compensates by providing better control of the or scenario that defines the mise-en-scène, clearly
settings it does provide (for example, by regulat- demarcating its essential components and struc-
ing conditions of light and temperature and pre- ture.27 Moreover, as an experiential event, the per-
venting excessive noise, crowds, or other factors formance is transient and cannot strictly speaking
that would interfere with producing a desired im-
be perfectly repeated, if we admit that the sub-
age of the subject). Here again, in the choice and
ject's expression and state of consciousness (if not
regulation of situations or backgrounds, there is
also the photographer's posture and feelings) will
considerable room for aesthetic mise-en-scène-
always change in some way, even if only through
an artistic dramatization that intensifies experi-
the recognition that one is repeating the mise-en-
ence through formal framing or stage setting well
scène of a prior shooting. Though the photograph
before the photographer decides to release documents
the in some way the performative process
mechanism that produces the photograph. through which it is engendered, it only documents
a particular moment in that process and does so
m from a particular angle and in terms of its visual
qualities. But the performative process itself in-
Besides our preoccupation with the photograph cludes also other sensory, semantic, and affective
as object, other factors contribute to obscuring qualities that have aesthetic import and whose re-
the aesthetic significance of photography as per-sources for aesthetic experience in photography
formative process. First, the automatic mechanismshould not be ignored.
involved in making a photograph- the fact that Still another likely reason for such neglect
is that the photographer and the subject- who
pressing the release of the camera shutter requires
no special skill or thought and that the camera are the best (and often the only) candidates
mechanism automatically does all the rest to pro-for observing and appreciating the performative
duce a realistic photograph- diminishes the senseprocess- may be too absorbed in performing the
of photography as a performance achievement.24 process to pay proper attention to its aesthetic
Thus, Susan Sontag speaks of "the effortlessness qualities and potential. Because our powers of

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Shusterman Photography as Performative Process 73

consciousness are limited, the efficacy

while itsof actions
performative, temporal dim
neglected. reflexive at-
is often harmed if we also pay distinct
tention to the precise feelings that we recall,
We should have or the
however, that photography's
qualities that we experience in early
performing
history had strong those
links to theater as well as
actions. So it is understandabletofor photographer
painting. Daguerre, an influential photography
and subject to execute the performative process
pioneer in Paris, "was running a panorama the-
without thematizing its actions and qualities
ater animated by lightin ex-
shows and movements in
plicit, reflective consciousness, even if
the Place duthey
Château" implic-
when he began his photo-
itly feel them and use them tographic
guide work,and while inspire
Baudelaire condemned pho-
their performance. tography for "committing a double sacrilege and
If such "parsimony of consciousness"
insulting at one is and athepsy-
same time the divine art
chological commonplace, it has an analogue
of painting and the noble art orofathe actor."32 To
corollary in the familiar notion of photography's
dismiss aesthetic dis-
performative, dramatizing
tance-namely, that a certain psychological
process as not really belonging dis-to photography
tance or detachment from an object or event
per se but instead pertainingaids merely to theater is
the appreciation of its aesthetic features.
not only When
wrong historically- it errs conceptually in
one is in the performative moment,
presuming thatone is by
photographic art exists in a pure
definition very close to it; when one is
form, unmarked by looking
other arts that helped engen-
at a photograph, one is by definition
der it. distanced
from the real moment taken by Walter the Benjamin's
photograph, influential views on pho-
a moment that has already passedtography, oras died.
formulated "Aes-
in his most famous and
thetic distance seems built into the essay
oft-cited very "Theexperi-
Work of Art in the Age of
ence of looking at photographs," writes
Mechanical Sontag.28
Reproduction," can generate a fur-
For such reasons, she and Barthes
ther line link photogra-
of reasoning for theory's ignoring the
phy very closely with death. "All photographs
aesthetics of photography's are performative process
momento mori," Sontag claims: while"To focusingtakeon the a pho- as the sole site
photograph
tograph is to participate in another person's
for photography's aesthetic(or experience. Benjamin
thing's) mortality - Precisely by(whomslicing
Sontag describesoutas this "photography's most
moment and freezing it, all photographs
original and important testify
critic") argued that pho-
to time's relentless melt."29 For Barthes,
tography's epoch-making becausetransformation of art
the photograph presents "the absolute past reproduction
through mechanical of the involved chang-
pose," it constitutes "an image ingwhich
art's essential produces
nature from cult value to ex-
Death while trying to preserve life."30
hibition value.33 If art originally emerged from
"magic" and religiousrecep-
The history of photography's theoretical ritual "with ceremonial ob-
tion provides two other reasons jects
for destined
neglect to serve ofin a cult"
its whose transcen-
dent the
art of performative process. From qualityoutset,
imbued artworks pho- with an elevated
tography was seen as an analoguesense ofand "aura" andrival"uniqueto existence," then pho-
the art of painting. If Baudelaire
tography described
(as "the first truly "the revolutionary means
photographic industry [as] the refuge of
of reproduction") every
"emancipates the work of art
would-be painter, every painter fromtoo ill-endowed
its parasitical dependence on ritual" and "the
or too lazy to complete his studies,"
unique value of and thus work" that has its
the 'authentic'
"art's most mortal enemy," others defended
role in ritual or cultic use, forpho- "to ask for the [one]
tography for liberating paintingauthenticfromprint makesthe no duty
sense."34
of mimetic exactness that the photograph
Art's essential nature, could
Benjamin claims, was
more easily and better provide instead.31
therefore transformed As paint-from emphasizing "cult
ing is grouped with the nontemporal,
value" (where thenonper- work could serve effectively
formative arts, whose end product
even whenis a flat
hidden from viewob-but recognized as
ject portraying a two-dimensional
being kept image and
in its hallowed is to instead em-
place)
immediately grasped without unfolding
phasizing "the exhibitionin time, value of a work," be-
cause the work's
so photography (through association with "fitness for exhibition increased"
paint-
ing) came to be identified entirely
throughwith its two-
photography's new powers of "mechani-
dimensional end product or photograph
cal reproduction."35 as objectWhat gets widely exhibited

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 74 The Media of Photography

through such mechanical reprodu

long duration of these shots they grew as it were
photographic into the (or
print picture and in this wayever
now, presented anincr
digital extreme opposite
photographic to the figures on aSo
image). snapshot."
if ar
tially And this absorption
lost
its function as of the subject, Benjamin
ritual fur-
(which
mative process),therbut instead
suggests, had a counterpart in theis const
photogra-
"absolute emphasis on and
pher's absorption exhibition
his ability to make his sub-valu
might argue that the
jects feel art
comfortably of
"at home," forphotogr
example, by
deployingthe
be identified with the camera with "discrete reserve." If
photograph (
Benjamin gives the impression
bition value is manifest), whilethat such early
its p
photography (rarely
experiential process provided a profound, sustained ex-
exhibite
perience
inner experiential of performative process, thendifficu
dimensions, this kind
should be conversely
of experience could dismissed as i
still be available today if one
anachronistic.36 only took the time, care, and effort to develop this
Despite the apparent force
dimension of photographic art. of this
there remains a distinctive ritualistic element in I close this article by cautioning against two
photography. Many ritual events (weddings, grad- possible misunderstandings. In arguing that there
uations, baptisms, conference meetings, award cer- is more to photography than the photograph and
emonies, and so on) expressly include the taking that photography can be aesthetically appreciated
of posed pictures that serve not simply to recall as performative process, I do not mean to neglect
the event in future times, but also to mark out andor diminish the undeniable aesthetic importance
heighten the current moment as one worth savor- of photographs. Photography is a mixed art serv-
ing in present experience by putting that moment ing multiple ends, and its diverse values are best
in a formal frame or mise-en-scène that drama- appreciated in a framework of pragmatic plural-
tizes its qualitative presence and meaning. Though ism. Second, I do not believe that photography
is unique among the arts in offering an aesthetic
serving as the relentless motor of exhibition value,
photography still displays a ritual dimension experience
of not only of its standard artistic end
performative, dramatizing process. Is it mere product
co- but also of its creative process. Portrait
incidence that contemporary cultures still stronglypainting provides a very clear analogue of the sort
shaped by rich aesthetic traditions of ritual (suchof collaborative performative process that I have
as Japan's) display an especially strong tendency described in photography, and, in fact, it seems
to perform the process of taking photographs in some ways somatically far more demanding on
with a dedication and style suggestive of ritual both subject and artist, which may be why some
performance? artists now prefer to paint from photographs of
Moreover, a closer look at Benjamin's views their subjects. To highlight a neglected aspect of
on photography reveals that he indeed recognized the art of photography is not to erect that aspect
the photograph's power to maintain art's auratic into the distinctive, defining essence of that art, if
"cult value," for instance, in "the cult of remem- it indeed has one.39
brance of loved ones, absent or dead."37 In an ear-
lier, less familiar essay explicitly devoted to pho-
RICHARD SHUSTERMAN

tography, he insists on this "magical value" and College of Arts and Letters
"auratic appearance," affirming that the portrait Florida Atlantic University
subjects of "early photography" indeed "hadBoca an Raton, Florida 33431
aura about them."38 But this was destroyed when
internet: shusterl@fau.edu
photography was "invaded on all sides by busi-
nessmen" who, "more concerned with eventual
saleability than with understanding," pandered to1. Jean-François Chevrier, "The Adventures of the Pic-
"changing lights of fashion" and reduced the ture ex- Form in the History of Photography," trans. Michael
perienced time and absorption of posing toward Gilson, in The Last Picture Show: Artists Using Photogra-
phy, 1960-1982 (Minneapolis: Walker Art Center), exhibi-
the momentary "snapshot." Benjamin also praises
tion catalogue curated by Douglas Fogle, pp. 113-127, at
early photography for the way it required its sub-
p. 116. Michael Fried cites and develops Chevrier's insight
jects "to live inside rather than outside the mo-
in Why Photography Matters as Art as Never Before (Yale
ment" of the photographic shoot: "During the University Press, 2008). Susan Sontag claims that earlier

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 Shusterman Photography as Performative Process 75

"the book has been the most influential way of

thetics: Principles arranging
and Scope," Journal of Aesthetic Educa-
(and usually miniaturizing) photographs,"
tion 40 (2006): in herand
104-117; influen-
the articles of the special issue
tial On Photography (New York: Farrar, Straus
devoted to andinGiroux,
somaesthetics Action , Criticism, and Theory
1977), p. 4. for Music Education 9 (2010). The article there by Fred
2. Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Pho- Maus is especially illuminating. See also the somaesthetic
tography , trans. Richard Howard (New York: Hill and Wang, anthology Penser en corps: soma-esthétique, art et philoso-
1981), p. 4. Later, however, when Barthes focuses his discus- phie, ed. Barbara Formis (Paris: L'harmattan, 2009). For
sion of photography on the photograph, he describes its a full bibliography of work on somaesthetics by authors
"very essence" in terms of reference to the past. "What I
other than me, see http://www.fau.edu/humanitieschair/
intentionalize in a photograph is neither Art nor Communi-
Somaesthetics_Bibliography_Others.php.
cation, it is reference 6. See Richard Shusterman, "Art as Dramatization," The
would therefore be 'That has been"' Journal
(pp. 76-77). As
of Aesthetics an
and Art"em-
Criticism 59 (2001): 361-372.
anation of past reality ," he continues, "the
7. Since Photograph
June 201 0, 1 have been... is
working with the Parisian
without future (this is its pathos, its melancholy)"
artist Yann Toma on a series (pp. 88,
of photographic works in the
90). Barthes's paradoxical identification of "Radiant
genre he calls photography's
Flux," in which he tries to capture
essence with both future and pastand might be mitigated
visually represent bycamera) the invisible
(with lights and
insisting on a distinction between photography
aura of the person and posing the pho-
for him, an aura he conceives and
tograph. In this article, I will argueperceives
for this distinction
as a temporally changingbutenergetic force emanat-
primarily for reasons other than this ing paradox of Barthes.
from the person's body. He builds on the etymological
3. Walter Benjamin, "The Work meaning
of Art in the Age
of "photography" of with light, but also on
as drawing
Mechanical Reproduction," in Illuminations
the work of Man , Ray,
trans. Harry
the first known photographer to use
Zohn (New York: Schocken, 1969), this pp.technique
227, 225, 219.called "Space Writing" of 1935.
in his series
4. David Davies, Art as Performance (Oxford: I describe Toma's work and our collaboration in my (illus-
Blackwell, 2004), has argued for the far more extreme claim
trated) essay "A Philosopher in Darkness and in Light," in
Lucidité. Vues de l'intérieur / Lucidity. Inward Views: Le
that artworks in general (not just in photography) are not
the physical objects with which they are commonly identi-Mois de la Photo à Montréal 2011, ed. Anne-Marie Ni-
nacs (Montreal: Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal, 2011).
fied but rather the actual performances of artists that create
such objects and that to appreciate those objects properly Some photographs of our collaboration have been pub-
always requires relating them to the actual performance lished as part of a French article and interview on my work
that (according to this theory) is the work. I do not sub- in somaesthetics (see http://www.tales-magazine.fr/style-
scribe to this radically revisionist ontological and aesthetic
harmony-life-vision/richard_shusterman). For further dis-
theory that departs too much from our established (and cussion of this collaboration and its relationship to so-
far more complex) conceptual scheme to be convincing. In
maesthetics, see Richard Shusterman, Thinking Through the
arguing for the artistic dimension and aesthetic value of Essays in Somaesthetics (Cambridge University Press,
Body:
the (dramatic, somatic) performative process of photogra- forthcoming).
phy, I am not urging that this process deprive the photo- 8. In his historically rich and instructive book, Patrick
graph of its artwork status by usurping its role as the stan-
Maynard also insists on distinguishing photography as some-
dard end product of photography. Nor am I arguing that thing different from and more than the photograph. But he
the photograph must be evaluated in terms of the perfor- uses this distinction to argue his central thesis that "pho-
mance that engenders it: process and product can be judgedtography is a kind of technology" or, more precisely, "a
separately and with different evaluative verdicts. My mod-branching family of technologies" or "set of technological
est position is rather that photography is a complex procedures"
art rather than to argue, as I do here, for the aes-
that offers various objects for aesthetic appreciation (such
thetic dimensions of the performative and experiential pro-
as photographs and photographic performance processes cess of photographic art. See Patrick Maynard, The Engine
or events) and that these objects are differently individu-
of Visualization : Thinking Through Photography (Cornell
ated for our purposes of aesthetic appreciation. Our indi-University Press, 1997), pp. x, 3, 9.
viduation of the performative process of a photo session 9. Both continental and analytic theorists often insist on
would diverge sharply from the way we identify a partic- the photograph's direct and transparent presentation of the
ular photographic image or a photographic print thatobject
re- it renders (rather than being a mediated represen-
tation of it) because it results from a mechanical, causal
sults from a particular moment or part of that performative
process. process. Barthes describes the photograph as "pure deic-
5. For an introductory outline of the somaesthetictic language; ... a photograph is always invisible: it is not it
project, see Richard Shusterman, "Somaesthetics: A Dis-that we see," but "its referent," the object photographed
ciplinary Proposal," The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criti- (Barthes, Camera Lucida , pp. 5, 6). Sontag speaks of such
cism 57 (1999): 299-313; for the most comprehensive discus- transparency in terms of the photograph's "identity of image
sion, see my Body Consciousness: A Philosophy of Mindful- and object," its presenting "a piece of the world" through
ness and Somaesthetics (Cambridge University Press, 2008)."mechanical genesis"; hence in appreciating photography,
For discussions relating somaesthetics to the arts, see, for ex-
the object or "what the photographic is of is always of pri-
ample, Martin Jay, "Somaesthetics and Democracy: Dewey mary importance" (Sontag, On Photography, pp. 98, 158).
and Contemporary Body Art," Journal of Aesthetic Ed- Roger Scruton, from the perspective of analytic aesthetics,
ucation 36 (2002): 55-68; Peter Arnold, "Somaesthetics, claims, "the photograph is transparent to its subject, and
if it holds our interest, it does so because it acts as a sur-
Education, and the Art of Dance," Journal of Aesthetic Edu-
cation 39 (2005): 48-64; Eric Mullis, "Performative Somaes-
rogate for the thing which it shows." This is because the

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 76 The Media of Photography

23. See Richard Shusterman, "Art

relationship of the photograph toas Dramatization."
its genera In
his influential work
"causal not intentional"; on photography,"photograph
hence Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
resentational art." (of See the Bauhaus)
his speaks of how this art can produce a
"Photography an
tion," in The Aesthetic "heightened reality of an everyday object." See his Paint-
Understanding (Lon
1983), pp. 103, 114. ing, Photography, Film , trans.
Kendall Janet Seligman (1925;
Walton repr.
also spe
tograph's transparency MIT Press, in 1987), p."Transparent
62. Pictu
ture of Photographic 24. Sontag writes, "The sales pitch for
Realism," the first Kodak,
Noûs 18 (19
a useful analytic reconstruction in 1888, was: 'You press the button, we do andthe rest.' respon
The
argument, see Dominic purchaser was guaranteed
Mclver that the picture would be 'without "The
Lopes,
Photographic Transparency," error'" (Sontag, On Photography,Mind p. 53). 36 (200
10. The photographer 25. Sontag,
and On Photography,
the p. subject 164. photo
in principle, be the 26. It is interestingperson,
same that in contrast to the art ot paint-
though p
different functions. ing, whose noun has a gerund form suggesting action over
11. Digital photography, time, photography does whichnot. Though we immediate
do use the verb
photographic image, "to photograph,"
does we more oftenrequire
not speak of "taking/making the a pr
oping and fixing the photograph"
image or "taking a but
picture." does allow fu
processes such as enlarging 27. One structural issue and
of demarcation is when the per-
cropping th
image. formative process begins. Clearly, the photographer can plan
12. Sontag, On Photography , p. 38. the setting, the camera settings, the desired poses, or outfit
13. For more on somatic style and its relation to qualities of the subject well before he meets with the subject at the
of character, including ethical qualities, see Richard Shus- chosen photographic setting. This perhaps means that the
terman, "Somatic Style," The Journal of Aesthetics and Art performative process can begin without the photographic
Criticism 69 (2011): 143-155. target or subject, even though some such subject will always
14. This quote from Avedon is taken trom Sontag, Un be implied.
Photography, p. 187. 28. Sontag, On Photography, p. 21 .
15. See Sontag, On Photography , pp. 36-37, for these 29. Sontag, On Photography, p. 15.
points. Important ethical issues can also arise when sub- 30. Barthes, Camera Lucida, p. 92.
jects know they are posing for the camera. For example, the 31. See Charles Baudelaire, "The Salon of 1859," in
photographer may abuse the confidence and trust that the Art in Paris, 1845-1862, trans. Jonathan Mayne (London:
posing subject grants him and exploit the subject's openness Phaidon, 1965), pp. 153-154. Delacroix offered early praise
and cooperation by creating a photograph that presents the of photography for its benefits to painting in providing a
subject in a way she does not want to be presented, in a far clearer vision of real objects than drawing could, while
permanent, infinitely reproducible and displayable image Weston in the following century argued that photography
that violates the subject's own self-image. Arthur Danto was a great gift to painting by relieving it of "public de-
notes how Richard Avedon cruelly violates the trust of a mands" for "representation," by making "realistic painting
transvestite subject- the psychologically delicate and phys- superfluous," so painting could focus on other goals than
ically "willowy" Candy Darling- by photographing "her" exact representation. See Edward Weston, "Photography-
"in makeup and garter belt, and with her long hair" but in Not Pictorial," Camera Craft 37 (1930): 313-320.
frontal nudity with the penis displayed, making her look not 32. Barthes links photography to theater, though not in
like the delicate feminine personality she identified herself terms of aesthetics of experiential process; he does so in-
with but rather as "a sexual freak." Danto rightly describes stead through "the singular intermediary ... of Death." Just
this as an "exceedingly cruel image" that is ethically suspect, as "the first actors separated themselves from the commu-
and he goes on to argue more generally (using the further nity by playing the role of the Dead" (a theme he sees con-
example of Avedon's portrait of Isaiah Berlin) that Avedon tinued in the makeup and masks of traditional theater), so
"has no interest in the sitter's wishes" but selfishly "asserts "the Photograph ... is ... a figuration of the motionless and
his autonomy over the subject." See Arthur Danto, "The made-up face beneath which we see the dead" (Barthes,
Naked Truth," in Aesthetics and Ethics: Essays at the Inter- Camera Lucida, pp. 31-32). See Baudelaire, "The Salon of
section , ed. Jerrold Levinson (Cambridge University Press, 1859," p. 154.
2001), pp. 257-282, at pp. 270, 274-275. Danto's analysis 33. Sontag, On Photography, p. 76.
suggests that the intense engagement and intimacy Ave- 34. Benjamin, "The Work of Art," p. 225.
don describes as having with his subjects is essentially ex- 35. Benjamin, "The Work of Art," pp. 220, 221, 224, 225.
ploitative or even feigned rather than ethically honest. This 36. Benjamin's remarks on photography's reproductive
predatory, manipulative falseness may well explain Ave- powers are rich and polysemically suggestive. He does not
don's feeling of "embarrassment" once "the sitting is over" merely assert that photography provides a revolutionary
and he has the photograph that he (rather than the sitter) way of mechanically reproducing existing artworks that
wanted. were already produced by other means (such as painting
16. Barthes, Camera Lucida , p. 10. or lithography), but also suggests that it further provides a
17. Barthes, Camera Lucida , p. 11. way to create (and reproduce) new artworks by mechani-
18. Barthes, Camera Lucida, p. 11. cally reproducing and fixing visual images seen through the
19. Barthes, Camera Lucida, p. 12. camera but not yet represented through other pictorial me-
20. Barthes, Camera Lucida, p. 13. dia: "photography freed the hand of the most important
21. Barthes, Camera Lucida, p. 14. artistic functions which henceforth devolved only upon the
22. Barthes, Camera Lucida, pp. 66-67. eye looking into a lens," thus letting the camera create the

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Shusterman Photography as Performative Process 77

citations
pictorial work by reproducing and fixing the are fromimage
pictorial pages 7, 8, 17, 18, 19,
Diarmuid
seen by the eye (Benjamin, "The Work of Art," Costello
p. 219). for reminding me of
37. Benjamin, "The Work of Art," article.
p. 219.
38. See Walter Benjamin, "A Short39.History
I thankof Photog-
the guest editors of this special
raphy," trans. Stanley Mitchell, Screen 13 (1972),
ful comments in 5-26. Mythis article.
revising

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