AFTERGLOW: PERFORMANCE ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY
Th e title of this article does not call for a historical survey of the
relationship between photography and performance art. Neither is
my intention to pretend to worry about the complexity of the relation
shared by the two. Let us not also venture into a trajectory which
leads to abyss. Let’s fi rst consider a photograph in its purest sense. A
photograph is an image produced using a mechanical device called
camera. And what are we expected to see in that image produced by
this mechanical device is, a residue of something that has occurred.
So, what actually are we confronting or made to confront is a frozen
moment-a moment that is history now, and this proof of that history
ought to justify the occurrence of the occurred, the gone, in the shape
of an image produced. Here, the question that could be immediately
raised may be: does a photographic proof of an event provide ample
evidence of something which is not there now? To answer this
question, we have to look at the twofold function of a photograph:fi rstly, we have to consider the purpose of
a photographic image serving as a record of
an event that has disappeared in time from
the moment it took place and left a trace of
its existence. As a record of something, from
the beginning itself, it serves a purpose of a
commandment, and possesses the right to
express and represent its subject the way it
wants. To say that a photograph commands
has to be seen in two ways: while looking at
a photographic image, we are fully aware of
the fact that we are looking at an image of
something, not the way we desire to look, but
the way we are made to look, therefore, from
the beginning itself, the image we are looking
at refl ects the photographers choice of the
subject, not ours. Th us, a photographic image
commands our eye to focus on the subject
captured; it narrows our vision to not to look,
even not to think to look, beyond the surface.
Th is is because the camera is not meant to
represent something in particular, but to point
to it. Secondly, the very nature of photography
can only represent through resemblance for
the reason that a photograph only acts as a
visual reminder of its subject (Roger Scruton).