Symposium: Photography as Art: Why Jeff Wall matters today

Jeff Wall sparked intense discussion about photography as art within artistic circles right from his first exhibition in 1978. By the 1990s, he had legitimized recognition of photography as art to the point that the question today is how his art conversely has influenced photography. Wall and his oeuvre are the starting point of the book Why Photography Matters as Art as Never Before (2008) by art historian Michael Fried, who focuses on Wall’s large format tableaus drawing on the art historical principal of history painting, as well as on Wall’s mise-en-scène in his fine art photography. Wall himself has led development of how his work is perceived through his critical pieces on fellow contemporary artists, his interviews, and artist statements. The symposium focuses on these reciprocal discussions, linking them to current art historical research into the latest fine art photography.