Distinctions Between Photographs Matter: Theorising the Artistic Legitimisation of Photography in Italy

The paper investigates the collective efforts at legitimising photography as art by focusing on field-members' discourses. The analysis draws on in-depth face-to-face interviews with photography professionals and ethnographic data collected in Italy. Field actors adopt a strategy of discursive theorisation, namely differentiation, to promote the artistic legitimisation of photography. Differentiation is the discursive opposition between worthy and un-worthy individuals, groups and cultural products, sustained by referencing an artistic ideology. The analysis stresses how differentiation pertains to several analytical dimensions at the intersection of the social worlds of photography and art, and points out its limitations in legitimising photography when actors adopt differing legitimising principles.