Photography has become so fundamental to the way we see that 'photography' and 'seeing' are becoming more and more synonymous. The ubiquity of photography is, perhaps ironically, a challenge to curators, practitioners, and critics.
Trevor PaglenRead
People like to say that my work is about making the invisible visible, but that's a misunderstanding. It's about showing what invisibility looks like.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of revealing and understanding the concept of invisibility rather than merely making invisible things visible.
Trevor Paglen's quote draws attention to the nuances of perception and representation in art. He suggests that his work goes beyond simply depicting what is unseen; instead, it aims to explore and illuminate the essence of invisibility itself. This reframing challenges audiences to confront their assumptions about visibility and invites deeper contemplation of how the invisible shapes our understanding of the world.
Themes
InvisibilityArtPerceptionRepresentationUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about contemporary art at a gallery, this quote can be used to highlight the deeper themes in Paglen's work.
More from Trevor Paglen
All quotes →The Internet was supposed to be the greatest tool of global communications and means of sharing knowledge in human history. And it is. But it has also become the most effective instrument of mass surveillance and potentially one of the greatest instruments of totalitarianism in the history of the world.
Trevor PaglenRead
What would the infrastructure of the Internet look like if mass surveillance wasn't its business model?
Trevor PaglenRead
Perhaps 'photography' has become so all-pervasive that it no longer makes sense to think about it as a discreet practice or field of inquiry. In other words, perhaps 'photography,' as a meaningful cultural trope, is over.
Trevor PaglenRead
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