Georgina Campbell

Photographer
The Grandfather Paradox
Public Story
The Grandfather Paradox
Copyright Georgina Campbell 2024
Updated Oct 2010
Topics Art, camera-less imaging, scanner camera, scanner,, typology, vintage camera

“The paradox is this: suppose a man traveled
back in time and killed his grandfather before the
latter met the traveler’s grandmother. As a
result, one of the traveler’s parents (and by
extension, the traveler himself) would never
have been conceived. This would imply that he
could not have travelled back in time after all,
which in turn implies the grandfather would still
be alive, and the traveler would have been
conceived, allowing him to travel back in time
and kill his grandfather. Thus each possibility
seems to imply its own negation, a type of
logical paradox.”

“The Grandfather Paradox: Parallel”, is a collection of hybrid photographic works that utilize both digital and traditional photographic techniques. The images examine the demise of silver based photography processes in the digital age. Presented as a typology of old cameras, the images are about mixing old and new technologies while acknowledging various aspects of photography’s historical developments. Created with a flatbed scanner, instead of a camera, the subjects have been documented as a photographic typology. The flatbed scanner has now become a device for image capture in its own right removing the camera from its own story. This series of images places the camera in the spotlight as the subject for our consideration at once both historical artifact no longer useful but also the optical grandfather to the digital devices that replace it. Each work depicts a different model from the artists own collection of vintage cameras.

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