This research project is an enquiry into the ontology of the photographic image by utilizing the methods of autoethnography and experimentational research.
By examining the dominant theories around photography, a paradox that seems to be imbedded in the photographic process is revealed. On the one hand photography as imitative art with a high level of accuracy and an indexical relationship to the object is considered to offer a true rendition of reality, and on the other hand it is considered to obfuscate reality, to cast a veil of abstraction, partly because the photographic process requires a practice-lead understanding, as the very nature of the working of the photographic process prohibits any transparency.
The different theories of representation that span throughout the history of the medium are complex and dynamic and are in their majority based on what essentially Plato defined as ‘the old quarrel between philosophy and poetry (art)’. In recent years Deleuze and Gauttari’s proposition of art being a different process to science – but one that is equally capable of establishing truth, allow for a different approach to the ontology of photography.
By examining the theories behind the ontology of photography and by making work that is based on the photographic process but without having a specific photographic subject, rather the very process of photography itself, I intend to investigate the ontology of photography and whether the photographic practice itself can provide the means to understand photography’s ontology in itself. Can photography be a truth process? Can photography lead to new knowledge? What is the relationship between philosophy and art in relation to photography as a unique method of representation ?

Practice-based research project comprised of following artifacts:

3 works of silverpoint drawings that investigate the notion of trace in the theories that surround photography
5 large-scale carvings of pictures unto glass, which investigate the notion of the ‘indexical nature of photographs’
2 pieces of exposed photographic paper with process inks and
a series of 12 pieces of 4x5 inch Polaroid material depicting the range of scales in tonality and texture that is owed in exposure
the recipe of making a solution of liquid silver, that is based in the process of the Kallitype
a beaker that shows the remaining of the solution of liquid silver that was held inside and finally
2 slide projectors, one showing a series of 80 slides in lupe containing samples of colour process inks and one showing a 35 mm slide that is covered in liquid silver

The project was shown in the MacLellen Galleries in September 2010