To Be Determined: Photography and the Future

How photography transforms the future as much as the past

This book proposes a radical concept: that the photograph is as much an object of the future as it is of the past. Exploring a familiar medium through a new lens, the book asserts that photographic technologies, processes, experiences and products are geared toward a world to come, not a world that has been. Written as a sequence of short interlinking essays, To Be Determined takes its cue from Czech-born philosopher Vilém Flusser in its quest to reconceive the tools of photography and show how they inform the world around us. Moving between contemporary photography and fine art, the book proposes that artists and photographers who question photography’s capacities can also alter our understanding of the medium and change our perception of our own agency, and our capacity to see, think and act.
Duncan Wooldridge (born 1981) is an artist, writer and teacher at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London (UAL). He is the author of John Hilliard: Not Black and White (Ridinghouse) and is a regular contributor to 1000 Words, Foam and Over.