Photographic emplacement: entanglement of materiality and place in photography

Since its conception, photography has been probing into the material, social and emotional characters of places. While some photographs make us reflect on existing places, others feature how some places are inherently constructed through photographic means. The nexus between photography and place becomes more complex when photos are not merely representational means but constitutive parts of photo installations. In such cases, the materiality and spatiality of photographs become indispensable features in their signifying practices. By discussing the photographs used in Men in Bathtub (2017), a photo installation created by visual artist Vita Buivid as part of a group exhibition called Too Much as Not Enough, this essay examines the intersection of materiality and place through the notion of “photographic emplacement”: the putting-into position of the subject matter, both in front of the lens and within the photograph. To do this, it draws on three constitutive elements of place: location, locale, and sense of place.