Photography and a certain memory of the theater

Abstract

Theatre ephemeral condition has always been a permanent challenge to the construction of its memory, and it is quite understandable the use of photography since the first decades of its existence in the second half of the nineteenth century in order to combat its fading. This type of image has thus conditioned the access of the public to the theatre and was responsible for shaping various concepts of theatrical practice over the following decades. In the 21st century, and in a period of clear affirmation of visual culture, it is already impossible that photography has not contaminated with its viral load a space that is so close to it, from its origins, in the exploration of pose and representation.

However, the understanding of the status of photography in this context by its main operators, whether from the producer point of view or from that of the observer, remains in a certain twilight. If the photographic record of the theatre is unquestionable, it is necessary to know the details of this practice and to check the awareness that its agents have of the reach of the same and, above all, to evaluate the photograph in the double condition of document and monument.

This article aims to recognize the disciplinary territory of theatre photography as an autonomous space for the convergence of both the photographic and theatrical gaze and to explore their possibilities of relationship and different kinds of approach.