Queer Methodology for Photography

Book excerpt: This book presents new ways of approaching photographic discourse from a queer perspective, offering discussions on what a queering methodology for photography may entail by drawing links between artistic strategies in photographic practice and key theoretical concepts from photography theory, queer theory, critical theory, and philosophy. With different examples of conceptual perspectives, including representation, formalism, and mediumlessness, it seeks to diversify queer methodology for photography. While primarily addressing photography, this book is entwined with broader philosophical questions concerning identity, difference, and the creations of systems of thought that limit the possibilities of existence to binary categorisation. It proposes a new concept of the photographic image that addresses its materiality, in the form of the poetic and the political, in relationship to a generative principle that is named as a queer quality: the photograph’s ability to voice queer concerns also beyond its role as representation. This book will be of interest to scholars working in photography, art history, queer studies, new materialism, and posthumanism.