Aesthetic Philosophy

Photography is different from the other arts because it is more data and evidence than vision and argument. Its creative range is more restricted, but its impact more profound. On the other hand, the notion that the photographer is a chronicler of historical events is also misleading.  History and science are ultimately subject to interpretation.  And while it is true that only recorded and retold events will become part of our cultural heritage, it is also true that there cannot be one historical path.  To associate photographs only with facts and claims of objectivity is to deny the existence of multiple narratives, of both seen and unseen realities, and of the salvific and demonic nature of existence.
Photography lies between the light of imagination and the grain of truth. Like the ancient discipline of rhetoric, it is a discourse of the implied, the unproven, and the impossible.  Artists ignore proofs, and philosophers make syllogistic arguments, proving every point. Rhetoricians use the enthymeme, offering partial evidence, bound by intuition, and implying and suggesting realities that otherwise can not be seen. 
For me the good photograph makes the enthymatic argument; the photographer neither claiming truth nor looking away. It is almost necessary for a photographic image to call attention to itself to remind the viewer that the destination is not the puzzle inside the semi-gloss surface. If the world exceeds our ability to know, why dwell on what we see?  If flesh breaks down into cells, molecules and atoms, what is gained producing a portrait that obscures pixels, film grain and the pores of the paper?  For the enthymatic photograph, shading and color and grain and pixels are metaphors that help us leap, not to an imaginary landscape, but to an unseen reality. 

Thomas Roach 

	ThomasRoachPhotography

 

 

Biographical Information

           Thomas Roach is a tenured associate professor in Communication and Creative Arts at Purdue University Calumet. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and a Master of Arts degree in English, both from Northern Illinois University, and a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from Northwestern University.  Since his arrival at Purdue in 1987, he has taught public relations, interviewing, journalism, public speaking, and classical rhetoric, as well as photography.  He has published several book chapters and articles on the news media, public opinion, and rhetorical strategy.  He has three articles, including one on “Technical Communication,” in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Rhetoric.
            His interest in photography began with a high school photography class where he made his own box camera and was introduced to black and white darkroom techniques.  While attending NIU, he took undergraduate and graduate courses in art history and color photography.
            Thomas published photographs in suburban Chicago newspapers from 1978 to 1980. Between 1980 and 1984 he served as Media Coordinator for Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet where he took photographs for internal and external publications.  In the 1990s he occasionally engaged in freelance advertising photography.  Today his exclusive interest is fine art photography. He uses a Leica digital camera and a Mamiya RB 67 for film.  He currently teaches a location photography course at Purdue University Calumet.
           The photography of Thomas Roach was featured in the June, 2006 Focus magazine. He also received a Merit Award in the B&W Magazine 2008 Single Image Contest. Thomas has participated in several photography shows, including one-person shows for the Northern Indiana Arts Association (2005) and Calmer House Gallery (2005-2007).