Full Description
New perspectives on humor within photography
Despite the ubiquitous presence of photographic humor in art and popular media, the phenomenon has as yet received very little scholarly attention. Focusing on staged humor rather than on comic effects of snapshot photography, this volume brings together leading scholars in the field addressing humor performed in front of the camera, often specifically created for the camera, and the performative joke-work done by the medium itself. A first section explores how photography, due to its "shattering" qualities, turns into a privileged medium for eliciting humorous effects and how humor can be discerned within the photographic event. A second section discusses the toolbox of photographic trickery (photomontage, double exposure and cinematic movement) that allows photography to mock itself. The book closes with a section on photographic wit in conceptual art, both in canonized and more locally distinct practices.
With artists' pages from Paulien Oltheten, Lieven Segers and David Helbich
This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).
Contributors: Kevin Atherton (National College of Art and Design, Dublin), Anna Corrigan and Susana S. Martins (Universidade NOVA de Lisboa), Hilde D'haeyere (KASK School of Arts of University College Ghent), Heather Diack (University of Miami), Louis Kaplan (University of Toronto), Ann Kristin Krahn (Braunschweig University of the Arts), Sandra Križić Roban (Institute of Art History, Zagreb), Esther Leslie (Birkbeck University of London), Johan Pas (Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp), Katarzyna Ruchel-Stockmans (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Contents
Artist's pages by Paulien Oltheten
Acknowledgements
Introduction Mieke Bleyen & Liesbeth Decan
Part IFinding Humor in the Photographic Event
Photography and Laughter's Shattered Articulation Esther Leslie Falling as Art: On Orchestrated Accidents in Photographic Practice in Poland Katarzyna Ruchel-Stockmans Adding a Giggle: Lee Friedlander's Practice of the "Shadow Self-Portrait" Ann Kristin Krahn Performing the Performance Documentation Kevin Artheron
Part IIMaking Fun of Photography through Tricks and Montage
Ghosts Just for Laughs: Spirit Photography and Debunking Humor Louis Kaplan Comedy Performs Photography: Imaginations of Photography in Silent Film Comedies Hilde D'haeyere Feminism, Laughter, and Photomontage: Comedic Effect and Grete Stern's Sueños Anna Corrigan & Susana S. Martins
Part IIIPhotographic Wit in Conceptual Art
Keeping a Straight Face: Photography and the Performance of Conceptual Art Heather Diack "No Photographs Allowed": Conceptual Wit in Some Belgian Photo-based Artists' Books Johan Pas Laughter Protocol: Elements of Humor in Proto- and Conceptual Photography in Croatia Sandra Križić Roban
About the Authors Artist's pages by Lieven Segers Artist's pages by David Helbich Colophon
