The Photograph as visual embodiment of experience

Abstract

Most research concerning vernacular photography focuses on representation (what photographs show), meaning (what photographs mean) and distribution (where and how photographs circulate). The proposed presentation focuses on a fourth, almost invisible, aspect of vernacular photography that is largely understudied: that of the photographic process—the act of taking a photograph and its relationship to experience. To investigate the relationship between photography, reproduction and experience, I conducted a research project that examined how visitors use their photographic cameras, smart phones and tablets in an art museum. The research project in discussion was executed in 2014 as part of a Smithsonian Institute Fellowship in Museum Practice. The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (in collaboration with the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access) was used as a research site. Observation, in-depth interviews with visitors and photo-elicitation were used to examine the relationship between art experience and photography. Emphasis was placed not only on the reported potential uses of museum photography, but also on the participants’ movements, interactions, feelings and thoughts during the photographic process. The data of the research suggest that the use of photography has an effect on the actual museum experience. Despite the fact that a few participants rejected the use of cameras in art museums as an additional, unnecessary and damaging lens to the museum experience, the majority of participants had positive attitudes regarding museum photography. Most visitors/ photographers admitted that photography could not possibly capture the “essence” of an artwork or an aesthetic experience, but talked instead of using photography for visually capturing an “embodied” experience with a museum object. They saw photography as a way to better engage with the museum environment and visually represent a personal, physical, sensory and mental connection with an artwork, museum object or person.