The Participation of Time in Photography

Photographic discourse focused on the relationship between photography and time is predominantly characterized by ontological enquiries in regards to instantaneity, temporality, indexicality, or cinema. In this chapter, time within participatory photographic practices is considered in terms of its social condition, or as process. A process that is contingent on the interplay of relations between the photographer, subject and the medium, and the context of their engagement before, during and after the moment of photographic exposure. Time is understood not only in terms of conceptions of sequence or duration, but as a process of engaging in the social world which is determined by the inter-subjectivity, power relations, and exercise of agency by individuals and institutions. Time is seen as both a resource and a praxis that is employed as a methodological tool within a particular framework, setting, or encounter. Critical examination of the work of Wendy Ewald, Eugenie Dolberg, and Eric Gottesman ground the discussion as it unfolds to encompass the implications of time as process in relation to the ethics and aesthetics of participatory practices.