Off Camera

Steven Humblet (ed.), 2021

'Off Camera' is a visual essay in four chapters, dealing with the impact of photography on the broader field of visual arts. Each chapter is devoted to one conceptualization of ‘the photographic’: photography as a form of fossilization, the importance of the chemical substrate, the role of the optical lens and the acknowledgment of photography as a procedure. The aim is to show how these four different photographic concepts directly or indirectly influenced the broader field of contemporary art. Each chapter therefore is build upon a confrontation between works of photographers and those of visual artists. Three texts - a conversation with Joanna Zylinska, Markus Kramer and Marc De Blieck - accompany the visual essay.

The book contains work by Thomas Ruff, Penelope Umbrico, Walead Beshty, Robert Rauschenberg, Clare Strand, Dirk Braeckman, Ann Veronica Janssen, Wade Guyton, Asta Gröting, Marie Lund, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Bernard Voïta, Jochen Lempert, Marc De Blieck, Jan Dibbets and many others…