Philosophy

Final Major Project Posts
  • Ethics of Photography – Participation August 8, 2019
    Ethics has two broad modes of definition – personal and organisational. In everyday use, the word ‘ethics’ gets used in many different ways. For example, sometimes ...
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  • Ethics of Photography – Nature August 7, 2019
    Whilst it is a little bit more in the background right now, I am continuing to work on the Ethics project. As a reminder, I ...
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  • Deleuze, Time and Archives July 12, 2019
    Gilles Deleuze is both an influential, original philosopher – and a hard one to totally ‘get’. Frankly, before the MA I had paid only passing ...
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  • Cambodia Project Ethics June 17, 2019
    There are several layers in any ethical discussion of photographs. I am researching new ways to address these issues, with global relevance. This includes research ...
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  • Notes on Paul Martin Lester’s ‘Visual Ethics’ June 9, 2019
    Preface Lester considers six philosophical ethics ideas as a way to ‘judge’ photography: Categorical imperative – Kant, role-based rules Utilitarianism – useful to the many Golden Mean – Aristotle, ...
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  • FMP Week One Reflections June 9, 2019
    Well, here we go. the end of the first week of Final Major Project, although (based on my CRJ writings), it does seem to have ...
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  • Beauty and Utility May 27, 2019
    This follows on my comments on Harmony and ‘Environmental Aesthetics‘, as well as the post on ‘What is Good‘. Perhaps my overriding point in those posts ...
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  • Environmental Aesthetics May 24, 2019
    I posted a short item on Facebook, as follows: Tea Okakura Kakuso, in his 1906 The Book of Tea, builds the case that a better understanding of ...
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  • What is ‘Truth’? May 23, 2019
    When we talk of a picture being ‘accurate’, we are using a variety of the concept of ‘truth’. Its meaning depends on the context that ...
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  • What is ‘Good’? May 18, 2019
    Sir William David Ross (1877 – 1971) was a Scottish philosopher who is known for his translations of Aristotle and his work in ethics. He developed a ...
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Informing Contexts Posts
  • Week Twelve Reflections – Gilbert Ryle April 29, 2019
    My practice has changed, and my understanding of photography has deepened. So, a good end to Informing Contexts. As this is also the end of ...
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  • Realism and Imagination April 20, 2019
    This week has been focused on completing the Critical Review. The recent Oral Presentation was well received, although I knew that for the CR, I ...
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  • Marx and Aesthetics April 8, 2019
    Karl Marx (1818-1883) has continued to be influential in many schools of philosophy, including aesthetics – even though he did not publish a specific treatise ...
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  • Baudrillard and Simulacrum March 29, 2019
    Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) wrote: ‘Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being, or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin ...
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  • Charles Baudelaire March 27, 2019
    Charles Pierre Baudelaire (1821 – 1867) was a French poet, essayist, art critic, and a translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His work reflected the changing ...
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  • Responses & Responsibilities March 16, 2019
    James Elkins, in What Photography Is (2011), analyses photographs from 1905 of Lingqi, the Chinese ‘death by a thousand cuts’. (chapter 6, pg 177-220). I ...
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  • And When I am Formulated, Sprawling on a Pin March 14, 2019
    And I have known the eyes already, known them all, The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, And when I am formulated, sprawling on a ...
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  • The Vernacular Landscape – and Intention March 2, 2019
    I do not consider landscape central to my practice, though like many others who started in photography with a lot of travel images, the genre ...
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  • The Explicit and the Implicit Gaze February 23, 2019
    Ansel Adams famously said ‘There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.’ (Sheff Interview, 1983) There are always two gazes for every photograph, ...
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  • Facts and Ethics February 12, 2019
    Was chatting yesterday about Wittgenstein with a friend of mine who is a Professor of Inter-Disciplinary Applied Ethics at Leeds. Wittgenstein wrote, in the Tractatus, that ‘The ...
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  • Week Two Reflections February 10, 2019
    Whilst I am enjoying the research and writing, I admit to an increasing unease with some of the academic theories of photography. Hence my posts ...
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  • Congruence February 9, 2019
    In my post on Index and Icon, I noted the idea of congruence – defined when two things are in agreement, have harmony, conformity, or correspondence ...
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  • Walter Benjamin – The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction February 3, 2019
    Walter Benjamin’s work is refreshing, in his attempt to deal with photography as a unique medium, rather than transpose the traditions of painting and sculpture ...
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  • Photography, Photographies February 3, 2019
    This week’s task: Post a brief commentary below that identifies the inherent characteristics and contexts of the ‘photographic’ nature of your own practice. Specifically refer to ...
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  • IC Week One Reflections February 2, 2019
    It has been a good start to the new module, with a good range of intellectual content, and helpful first online discussions with Michelle and ...
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  • Reflections on my Photographic Practice January 22, 2019
    Robert Frank said, “Above all, life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference”. I provided  a reasonably thorough review of my photography in my ...
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Positions & Practice Posts
Surfaces & Strategies Posts
Sustainable Prospects Posts