Magical Thinking & the Contemporary Photographic Language of Empathy
Joan Alexander; Faculty of Arts; Doctoral College; University of Ulster
Spectrality as empathy
This poster was presented at a conference at Falmouth University in July 2025, titled ‘(Un)Sustainable Photography?’ . The title is posed as a query – about the possibility, effect and terminology of Sustainable photography.
It’s a rich question. For my practice, ‘sustainable photography’ refers to using foraged, compostable materials to make prints, however this sits within my use of cameras, a sizable cloud of digital storage and a range of other unsustainable things.
In terms of material sustainability, it’s a nominal and inadequate term – one that remains open to criticism of hypocrisy, privilege and greenwashing.
What tentatively could be said of sustainability within my practice -through anthotpyes or cameraless images for example -is not what it is or uses but what it does.
It situates me as a photographer within an expanded practice, it sustains a mentality rather than is sustainable. For the first time it gives shape to any use of the word embodied I’ve been tempted to use when describing some of my work.
The call for papers and posters asked; “As we navigate the world of accelerating climate change and collapsing natural systems, we must continue to ask the question:
“How do those involved in photography think about their role and their practice?”.
In response, I summarised this current work into poster format to distil ideas that are forming the basis of my PhD methodology. The research is composed of an entanglement between grief, endings, ghost stories, nature and photography. The project is folded into a new materialist framework and autoethnographic methodology to reimagine spirit photography and explore the importance of the “work of grief” within contemporary photographic discourse.
I’m beginning to unroll the circling ideas into a preliminary chapter list:
Natural Magic
Magical Thinking
Spirit photography
The medium and the death mask
Living Dyingly
Work of grief
Strange temporalities
Etymological Glossaries
The light haptic/ heavy index- holding space for latent images, exposure time, negatives, and projection; the latent, exposing, negative and projected.
Threshold of shore, cave, and other sites of absence- holding place latent images, exposure time, negatives, and projection.
©Joan Alexander 2025
Research blog
Magical Thinking & the Contemporary Photographic Language of Empathy
Joan Alexander; Faculty of Arts; Doctoral College; University of Ulster
Spectrality as empathy
This poster was presented at a conference at Falmouth University in July 2025, titled ‘(Un)Sustainable Photography?’ . The title is posed as a query – about the possibility, effect and terminology of Sustainable photography.
It’s a rich question. For my practice, ‘sustainable photography’ refers to using foraged, compostable materials to make prints, however this sits within my use of cameras, a sizable cloud of digital storage and a range of other unsustainable things.
In terms of material sustainability, it’s a nominal and inadequate term – one that remains open to criticism of hypocrisy, privilege and greenwashing.
What tentatively could be said of sustainability within my practice -through anthotpyes or cameraless images for example -is not what it is or uses but what it does.
It situates me as a photographer within an expanded practice, it sustains a mentality rather than is sustainable. For the first time it gives shape to any use of the word embodied I’ve been tempted to use when describing some of my work.
The call for papers and posters asked; “As we navigate the world of accelerating climate change and collapsing natural systems, we must continue to ask the question:
“How do those involved in photography think about their role and their practice?”.
In response, I summarised this current work into poster format to distil ideas that are forming the basis of my PhD methodology. The research is composed of an entanglement between grief, endings, ghost stories, nature and photography. The project is folded into a new materialist framework and autoethnographic methodology to reimagine spirit photography and explore the importance of the “work of grief” within contemporary photographic discourse.
I’m beginning to unroll the circling ideas into a preliminary chapter list:
Natural Magic
Magical Thinking
Spirit photography
The medium and the death mask
Living Dyingly
Work of grief
Strange temporalities
Etymological Glossaries
The light haptic/ heavy index- holding space for latent images, exposure time, negatives, and projection; the latent, exposing, negative and projected.
Threshold of shore, cave, and other sites of absence- holding place latent images, exposure time, negatives, and projection.
©Joan Alexander 2025
Joan Alexander 