Lecture: On the Εthics of Photographic Portraiture
PHILOSOPHY TALKS: SCOTT WALDEN
In collaboration with the Hellenic Photographic Society of Heraklion
Scott Walden is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Nassau Community College in New York and holder of the Michelis Chair at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Crete, acad. year 2026–2027. He is the editor of the volume Photography and Philosophy: Essays on the Pencil of Nature and his research focuses on issues in the philosophy of art and mind, with an emphasis on photography. His philosophical interests are reflected in his photographic work, which has been honored with the Duke and Duchess of York Prize in Photography (2007) from the Canada Council for the Arts (2007).
Lecture:
6 May 2026
18:00 – 19:30
Synopsis: Arthur Danto famously condemns Richard Avedon for depicting the transgender Warhol associate Candy Darling in a way that violates her desire to be presented as female, contrasting this portrait with one by Peter Hujar that instead respects her desire. In this talk, Scott Walden interprets Jerry Fodor’s understanding of art as involving a Kantian ethical component, one that requires that the artist and their audience to treat one another as ends. He then extends this ethical requirement to the relationship between a portraitist and their subject and concludes that Danto is wrong to condemn Avedon for violating Candy Darling’s desires, but right to condemn him for treating her as a means.
The lecture will be given in English.
