From the unease of presence to medial reinvention : A reading of Rosalind Krauss’s photographic theory

Abstract

This article presents a reading of Rosalind Krauss’s photographic theory, often of an unexpected radicalism, by examining two moments in her work. In the first one, centered on “Notes on the Index” (1977), Krauss shifts the photographic approach toward the site-specific, and we aim to show how, along with an innovative analysis  of the indexical, she grants photography a medial preeminence among the emerging practices of the period. In the second one, based on the article “Reinventing the Medium” (1999), and amidst the post-medium debate, the exemplary nature of photography is grounded in its heterogeneous character and its constant reinvention. This highlights a theory that has consistently conceived of photography as the preferred site for thinking about the medium.