Discussion: Reimagining the language of photography
Graham Wilson Graham Wilson

Discussion: Reimagining the language of photography

Photography’s vocabulary is steeped in the imagery of military conflict and the hunt. This is not accidental. When the medium emerged in the nineteenth century, the people who adopted it often moved in the same social worlds as soldiers, explorers, and sportsmen. Many were men of means who hunted game and collected trophies, and they brought that language with them into their new pastime. Cameras themselves were often large, tripod-mounted devices that to the untrained eye resembled surveying or gunnery equipment. In colonial and military contexts, this resemblance was more than superficial: cameras were used for reconnaissance, mapping, and documenting occupied territories. From its early decades, photography was described in terms of aiming, targeting, loading, and shooting – metaphors that framed the act as one of pursuit, precision, and control.

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