The Queen Mary Annual Catalan Lecture 2025
Photography: from Alchemy to Algorithms
Joan Fontcuberta
Room 1.28, Arts One Building, Queen Mary University of London (Find us: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/about/howtofindus/mileend/)29 October 2025 ·6.15 pm
Open to all (register via Eventbrite)
We are delighted to invite you to the Queen Mary Catalan Annual Lecture 2025, featuring internationally renowned artist and theorist Joan Fontcuberta, who will explore the evolution of photography from its origins to the digital age.
In the words of the artist:
"Photography began in the mystery of alchemy and has now culminated in another kind of magic: that of algorithms. At first, photography was made with light and chemistry; today it is made with computation and data. When the camera and the eye are replaced at the heart of visual culture by neural networks and Artificial Intelligence, it becomes necessary to reconsider the role of images which, until now, have helped to shape our sensibility.
Through a series of personal artistic projects, Joan Fontcuberta will illustrate this transition: from an alchemical photography to an algorithmic one, from a literary language to a mathematical one—in short, from metaphor to statistics."
