Still Shakespeare and the Photography of Performance

Description

Still Shakespeare and the Photography of Performance examines the place of photography in the reception of the Shakespeare canon since the invention of the camera, looking at how photographic images have shaped perceptions of historicity, performance, and Shakespearean character, and how their dissemination has affected Shakespearean authority. Barnden reveals how photography has conditioned the reception of Shakespeare's works in two key ways. Firstly, as a form of performance documentation, photographs shape the way individual performances are remembered and their positioning in relation to traditional and iconoclastic interpretations of the text. Secondly, photographs are vehicles of Shakespearean iconography, encouraging certain compositions and interpretations. Exploring both theatrical and staged art photographs, Still Shakespeare demonstrates the role of photography as a contributor to the calcification of Shakespearean quotation, advertising, and iconography, and to the attrition of the relationship between image and text whereby images become attached to narratives far beyond their original context.

Sally Barnden is a Research Associate on the AHRC-funded project 'Shakespeare in the Royal Collections' at King's College London. Her research on Shakespeare performance and still photography inspired the 'Still Shakespeare' animation project, a collaboration with Film London Artists' Moving Image Network. Her work has been published in Shakespeare Bulletin and Theatre Journal.

'... Shakespeare and the Photography of Performance is a fascinating book for this photoshopping age ... Still Shakespeare offers an enlightening and engaging introduction to the study of Shakespeare photography that should appeal to performance historians and theatre creators alike.' Daniel Yabut, Cahiers Elisabethains: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies