PHOTOGRAPHIC DISPLAY IN RESPONSE TO
THE HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN SOUND By Michael Finnissy
June 2019
Mahsa Salali | Curator
The installation included a slide show of photos with descriptions, a selection of printed photos and also sections of my interviews with Michael Finnissy that have been edited to a 60min audio which will be played on loop during the exhibition. I’m thrilled to have had the privilege of working with Michael Finnissy on this exciting project. The idea of this installation first started after I heard that Annie Li was going to perform the full five and a half hour The History of Photography in Sound - the first female pianist and the fourth person in the world to perform the complete cycle. From then I was so interested to hear about Michael’s inspiration, his love for photography and the adaptation of the art of photography to this monumental piano piece.
The piece is not just inspired by particular photographs, but is more broadly about the art of photography, the process of creating an image, the history of how the art developed and how we preserve, observe and digest this art form. Initially when I suggested to Michael the idea of a small exhibition of photographs, he asked me to curate this from my perspective only, not as what he intended to do, nor as what I or him want the audience to see. Therefore this collection of images is part of my own research journey. Some images have direct links to different movements of HoPiS and others are related either to: the history of photography, its powerful impact in terms of the documentation of cultural or political moments and the art itself as it has developed over the past century and a half. “The History of Photography in Sound is enough of an ambiguous title […] each of the 11 sections has a title and a subtitle, which is also slightly mysterious or appears to be direct but winds up being a bit ambiguous” M.Finnissy 2019 |