The Claude glass became popular in the 18th century because it gave all landscapes viewed through this black and slightly convex mirror a picturesque quality. To Sonia Mangiapane (1978) it is an early example of using artifice to create an image. She finds it particularly noteworthy that tourism and photography both emerged at the same, around 1840.
The title of her presentation at Prospects, Trophies (2023), refers to the desire to shoot an image, much like a tourist taking a snapshot. Mangiapane remarks: “The image from a camera, or a Claude glass, itself becomes the memory. This causes us to forget the physical experience of ‘being somewhere’.” In other words, the image has become more important than the moment itself. Therefore Mangiapane prefers the term ‘photographic time’. Instead of simply referring to the short moment during which the light enters the camera, this concept covers the entire process, starting with the development of an idea for an image and only ending in the final print.
Photography literally means writing with light. In Mangiapane’s practice this mainly takes place in the darkroom, where she subjects some of her camera-made photographs to a second stage of manipulation. While projecting the image onto photosensitive paper, she uses coloured filters, light sources, and other converters to deregulate the existing image. Developing a photograph over a longer period of time will lead to the opposite of a snapshot. By thus exploring what a photograph might be, Mangiapane is creating space for a poetic interpretation of the medium.
Text: Jorne Vriens
Translation from Dutch to English: Marie Louise Schoondergang