The reading begins by presenting the beginnings of the controversy concerning the immediacy of live performance versus the stillness and permanence of photography. At first the two seem completely incompatible, and some artists would argue that this still holds true. While I certainly don’t think the still image outright replaces the performance, its existence is still essential to our understanding and remembrance of performances of the past. Many artists realized this fact, and as a result now use photography extensively and in many different ways in creating and documenting their performances. For some photography even becomes their central concern in their work. Hayley Newman in particular explores the relationship between performance and photographic documentation by creating photos of performances she did not actually execute. In doing so, she causes questioning of the importance of the actual performance to its documentation. These photographs make the viewer ask how much of a difference there is between her work and the photos of the 60’s and 70’s when there is no viewing experience to refer back to.
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