Paradox of Chance (2023)

The involvement of a mechanical device is a unique and fundamental characteristic of photography. The result of this interplay between the device and a human operator is easily dependent on chance due to this mechanical operation and automation. While Vilém Flusser advocates ‘freedom’ of photography by eliminating chance, this photo project attempts to explore the motif of chance vs control in photography. Combining philosophy and visual aesthetics, the project creates a dialogue with its audience about the medium and its objectivity.

Exhibition view at University of Europe for Applied Sciences

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The Role of a Photographer in the Paradox of Chance

Thesis written by Weeteng Poh (M.A Photography )

I. Introduction

In 1980, Sophie Calle started following strangers on the street and photographing them without their knowledge. However, there was a random man whom she was following one day and coincidentally, he reappeared in her life the very same day, introduced to her by chance by her friends.  Similarly, in her project Michael (2015), Bieke Depoorter met a stranger on the streets and forged a friendship with him in an unconventional manner. She began to document his life until he went missing one day while she continued to investigate his disappearance in her works. The coincidences of these works made them more fascinating than ordinary documentary series. Photography is used as a visual language to illustrate this phenomena where chance is the metaphor. Horace Walpole called it serendipity, a conjunction of intellectual acuity and happenstance, when powers of observation and reasoning are brought to bear on an accidental encounter.¹

Yet, another interpretation  of chance can be understood via a different angle. The word ‘chance’ originate with a Latin root relating to the falling of a dice. For Jacques Lacan, the process of allowing chance to is something that is part of his psychoanalysis of the ‘Real’, when it is something that we cannot control or predict. Chance is not an attribute that exist in our world. In Ecrits (1966), he wrote that ‘chance exists only within a linguistic determination, no matter how we consider it, whether in combination with automatism or encounter.’² Since he believed that language shapes our interpretation of our reality, the understanding of chance is explained just for linguistic purposes. Hence, artists should let go of control and play around between intention and uncertainty.

In order to determine the extent how chance is interpreted and used by photographers, we will first understand the nature of the medium that allows the presence of chance. The following chapters in the paper look at the characteristics of photography that unavoidably include chance in the process. Yet, such circumstances seems to be criticised as a careless display of the photographer. The concept of chance has been explained in a more technical manner. First, the topic of seeing is discussed through the subjectivity and objectivity of the medium and how chance comes into play. The subjectivity comes from the talent of the photographer and the objectivity refers to the medium of photography that may create a different result from the intention. Then,  we move on to the next chapter where we look into the mechanical nature of photography that embraces this objectivity. We explore how photographers allow themselves to set up the arrangements or procedures for chance occurrence. We look at examples where chance is used both intentionally and accidentally and how the nature of photography allows such incidents to take place.

With the philosophy of allowing chance to be part of the practice, we move on to the last chapter and discuss how this development of photography practice leads to a new photographic genre know as snapshots which relies on chance in the production and selection. We discuss how these snapshots elevated into the art world and affect our photographic practice. Through these chapters, we will constantly revert back to the role of photographer in such context. The main objective is to evaluate the integrity of  the work of the photographer by looking at the extent which chance allows the nature of the medium to exert its authority in the process.

II. Objectivity & Intention

The involvement of a ‘mechanical operation’ or automation exists in much greater extent in the field of photography due to its unique characteristic of involving a mechanical device (camera). The interplay of this and a human operator allows the opportunities for accidents and unexpected human errors, which may bring unpleasant or surprising results. George Brecht in Chance Imagery (1966) had defined the word to mean the cause or system of causes, responsible for a given effect which is unknown or unlooked.³ mainly from either ‘consciously unknown causes’ or ‘mechanical operation where human control is omitted.’⁴

In photography, chance plays a bigger role than other visual medium like painting or literature.³ Within photography, the use of it also creates a different meaning for individual genres. For example, the use of chance in fashion photography is less likely to generate the serendipitous effect that it occurs in street photography. Hence, a closer look at how it plays within the field of photography is necessary in order not to dismiss its role in creation of images and understand how the medium propelled the use of chance.

As photography moved into the category of art, the question of intention becomes crucial in the works that were presented and the use of chance seems juvenile in this process of creating art.  In ‘Towards a Philosophy of photography’, Vilém Flusser advocates the message that  photographers should have control of their cameras and the need to have clear intention of what they want to do with the camera. He mentioned the importance of the role of photographer and emphasises that human should not be run by machines. ‘The camera does the will of photographer but the photographer has to will what the camera can do’⁵ affirms that the photographer should ultimately be in control and on top of the hierarchy above the apparatus.

A divine intervention, a random occurrence or an unaccountable accident – these negative concepts of chance sets a limit to any thought of intention from the artist, an undeniable source of creation in any artworks. Yet, artists and photographers have not shy from using chance in their works of art, both consciously and inadvertently. The remaining of the paper, we will look at how the use of chance is unavoidable to the study and practice of the medium and hence, reevaluate how one can approach and understand photography for its uniqueness in the art world. The question is – how can we interpret the meaning of the work in a medium that is susceptible to chance? To what extent can we let the image speaks for itself and ignore the involvement of the photographer or should we embrace the results that exist from the technicality of the camera? And, does the later diminishes the role of the photographer over the former?

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