This PhD project proposes the idea of ‘attractions’ as a tool for the critical analysis and reassessment of moving images. The term ‘attraction’ is not a description of textual features, but an interpretation of a dynamic interchange between the spectator and the screen. My methodology for this research examines the structuring principles of ‘attractions’, focusing on the single shot looped film. I reflect upon its relationship with narrative, its modes of temporality and its method of audience address. My practical enquiry develops moving image works that incorporate these principles and attempt to reconfigure the perceptions of time through the movement of objects and things. In my written component, I accordingly expand and develop an understanding of the term ‘attractions’ to include practices that resist narrative integration, practices ranging from the ‘pre-cinematic’ devices of the nineteenth century, through the avant-garde filmmakers of the 1970s, and finally to contemporary digital developments. The moving image loop has become a common mode of gallery presentation. However, there have been few enquiries into its mode of spectator address. I do not believe that adequate distinctions have been drawn between practices of narrative integration and practices that demonstrate ‘attractional’ principles. This research therefore considers the articulation of temporality, questions of narration, and the structural determinants shaping the moving image. I attempt to redefine these practices and to provide new answers by pointing to neglected connections between practices of narrative and practices of ‘attraction’.

This PhD by practice sets out to reformulate the meeting between photographer and subject, from one that is commonly constructed as a power relationship to an empathic meeting between subjectivities. It is an attempt to re-engage with the original promise of photography –that of connecting with the ‘soul’ of the other. I take a phenomenological perspective, applying recent research in the field of neuroscience and psychology to throw new light on processes at play, both when we view photographically reproduced human faces and when we come face to face with others in the meeting preceding photographic portraits. My original contribution to knowledge consists of beginning to construct a theory as to why certain photographic portraits invoke an embodied reaction, whilst others leave us cold. What is it that makes us look again and again at particular photographic portraits? I propose that emotional contagion is an important factor both when making and viewing photograpic portraiture. It was not within the scope of this thesis by practice to explore this proposition, but it is an area suitable for further research. I use the practice as a testing ground, letting each new step develop out of my reflections on the previous work, using a qualitative methodology. I approach the face-to-face meeting through the writing of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and phenomenology, and make a series of experimentations, letting the practice twist and turn upon itself. I strip away and interchange the components of the photographic portrait one by one, project by project, letting my practice respond experimentally to both the theoretical research and the situation in which it is conceived. I move from still to moving and back again, through performance, text and sound, in an attempt to find that elusive embodied connection between subject matter and audience.

In my last four years of PhD by practice at the Royal College of Art, I have conducted extensive research on archival photography including materials held at the Museum der Weltkulturen, Frankfurt am Main; the Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies (IICHS) , Tehran; and the International Institute of Social History (IISH), Amsterdam. My project started with the fortuitous encounter with a photograph taken by Iranian photographer Hengameh Golestan on the morning of March 8, 1979. The photograph shows women marching in the streets of Teheran in protest against the introduction of the compulsory Islamic dress code. In 1936 Reza Shah had decreed a ban on the headscarf as part oh his westernising project. Over forty years later following the 1979 Revolution, Ruhollah Khomeini reversed this decision by ordering that women should now cover their hair. This ‘found image’ presented me with a glimpse into the occulted history of my own country and the opportunity to advance towards a deeper learning and understanding of the event of March 8, 1979 a significant date in the history of feminism in Iran. In what follows I revisit the history of Iran since the 1979 revolution with a particular inflexion on the role women played in that history. However, as my project develops , I gradually move away from the socio-historical facts to investigate the legacy of the revolution on the representations of women in photography, film and literature as well as the creation of an imaginary space of self representation. To this end my writing moves constantly between the documentary, the analytical and the personal. In parallel I have made photographs and video works which are explorations of the veil as object of fascination and desire as well as symbol of repression.