Snježana Šimić is a PhD candidate at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris (EHESS/Cral). Her research focuses on the temporality of photography and during the last couple of years, she has published several papers on this subject.
She also holds a Master degree in Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art from Sorbonne University, and a Master double degree in Philosophy and French Language and Literature from University of Zagreb.

Photography, Temporality and Aesthetic Experience

The research project analyzes the photographic apparatus, its functioning and images that are its product. The aim is to explore the temporal dimension of photography, the concepts of time through photographic image and an interaction between aesthetic and temporal experience. The basic theoretical framework will be the phenomenological approach or, what can be also called in the contemporary image theory- perception based approach.
Historically speaking, the invention of photography profoundly influenced our understanding and conceptions of time as well as our attitude to (social and individual) past. Photography also played an important role in modern and contemporary art and imposed different aesthetic paradigms. Technical devices such as photographic camera opened the question about the specificity of artistic medium and a non-intentional character of photographic image. While reconsidering some of the main theoretical conclusions, this study argues that intersecting of non-intentional, impersonal moment of photography with that intentional and artistic one, enables a unique experience of time due to several reasons that are discussed in detail.