LECTURE 10

Title
Maintaining a dialogue on photography is easier than ever before

Audience:
Anyone interested in understanding why it is important to keep the channels of communication open to maintain an ongoing dialogue on photography and why this is easier now than ever.

Subject matter:
Photography is a medium that has exercised a major influence on art and society. Its language and tools constantly evolve by being intimately linked to technology. This generates a need for users to constantly update their knowledge and a way of doing so is by maintaining an ongoing dialogue with other photographers. This dialogue enables serious analysis on how to use tools and to promote languages.

Since the invention of photography, photographers produced work groups to analyze the creative possibilities of the medium. In the beginning, they formed photography clubs, then collectives, and later magazines and books appeared, along with schools, museums, colloquiums, festivals, research centers, etc.

An illustrative example useful in understanding this need is analyzing the work of Pedro Meyer as a pioneer in founding the Consejo Mexicano de Fotografía [Mexican Photography Council], the Latin American Photography Colloquiums, the El Taller de los Lunes [Monday Workshop], zonezero.com and now, the Pedro Meyer Foundation. The intention of all of these undertakings has been to stimulate a dialogue on the medium, its technological advances, its social and cultural impact, and to keep a community informed and productive.

The rise of the Internet, webcams and the possibility of easy movement over long distances make this exchange much easier than ever before. Nowadays, languages are swiftly mutating and new forms of communication are established in the media of communication and art. Therefore, it is important for photographers to be up-to-date and to be engaged in a dialogue, for they work with a medium that defines how society sees and perceives itself.

This is a time in which almost everyone takes photos. There are cameras all over! Everything is recorded! Documentary photographers are being displaced; art is changing its forms. Analyzing how photos are produced, distributed, and what they say is important. Understanding what a photographer means and what position he has in society, communication, and in art is important, as well as necessary to be on the cutting edge of new technologies and forms of creation.

With all the cameras, programs, computers, and new prints released on the market every year, it is difficult for a photographer to stay up-to-date. Therefore, these communities are beneficial, for in a group everyone can exchange ideas and enrich his knowledge.

It is important to know what forums of communication currently exist and how to join them to exchange ideas that make us advance as individuals and that the media and its language also promote, so that society can evolve in the ways it communicates.

The question is: what is the responsibility of each individual in staying up-to-date and what are we going to do so that our community does so as well?

Duration:
About an hour.

Speaker Profile:
A historian, curator, editor or photographer.

Materials:
A video projector and computer, depending on the speaker’s needs.