ABSTRACT
This chapter examines in more detail the various and at times contradictory ideologies of authorship that continue to inform the art world’s valorization of individual photographers. It engages with key moments in the history and theory of photography for what they reveal about assumptions in photographic authorship. The chapter presents an alternative approach to photographic authorship inspired by the work of photography theorist Ariella Azoulay, who asks the people to understand the potential for collaborative meaning-making within the nature of the medium itself. It touches on the merging of artistic identities discussed by Green, but focuses on how the camera's mechanical nature has underpinned distinctively anti-subjective, contextually dependent collaborative approaches. Ultimately, to focus on collaborative efforts in photography is to question the people understanding of the medium as art. Green mentions that the photographs of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Wrapped Coast, Little Bay, Australia were taken by Harry Shunk, who was brought out to Sydney for the purpose.
