Why Photography?

From M3...

tex·ture [teks-cher]
noun, verb, -tured, -tur·ing.

–noun
1. the visual and especially tactile quality of a surface: rough texture.
2. an essential or characteristic quality; essence.
3. the quality given, as to a musical or literary work, by the combination or interrelation of parts or elements.

In photography, texture plays a vital role to the quality and composition of the image, just as pattern, light and tone do. And though it is obvious as to how photography helps capture the physical texture of materials, it may be less obvious as to how it captures texture as history.

I chose photography because of the inherent characteristic of a photograph as an index, a trace of the past. It is proof to the existence of something. Photography I believe is appropriate when studying the history of Galt, from its inception until the present time. The photograph allows me to capture solitary instants within the flux of time that when brought together provide the viewer with an aspect of time.

Previous Abstract

date | 13.02.09
working title | the texture of a town

Texture – more than just the tactile characteristic of a surface – refers to the multitude of facets contained within any one place, whether it is a single street or an entire city. The threads of history – success, tragedy, progress, development, industry – intertwine to create a story that solely and inherently belongs to that particular site. This texture of a place refers to “the quality given, as to a musical or literary work, by the combination or interrelation of parts or elements,” or more simply put, its essence.

Within the framework of the photograph, texture as tactile quality and texture as essence are unified. Through a historical, as well as, photographic investigation of the town and its history, this thesis attempts to tell the story of Galt, Ontario – from exponential growth and success, through neglect and decay to recovery.

This paragraph will be a quick description of the town’s history, starting from its beginnings almost 200 years ago, through impressive growth, producing top-quality materials for the war effort, textiles and machine parts continuing through to the implementation and success of the steam and electric rail.

Then it will mention post-war Galt and the closing of the rail system. It will finish with mention of the amalgamation with Preston and Hespeler in 1973 to create Cambridge, the official cessation of the existence of Galt.

A quick mention of improvement projects and businesses/ cultural institutions that have invested money in the area recently, such as the School of Architecture, Biennale etc.

The photographs contained within this work are not intended to pass judgment, but rather, to act as accompanying material in the narrative of how a mid-sized city in southwestern Ontario came to be.

“The photograph does not call up the past
(nothing Proustian in a photograph).
The effect it produces upon me is not to restore what has been abolished
(by time, by distance) but to attest that what I see has indeed existed.”
- Roland Barthes