Sasha Richman | In Search of Meaning in a World of Images: Photographic Imaginaries in the Works of Willem Frederik Hermans, Wright Morris, and Michel Tournier

Sasha Richman | University of Groningen, University of Strasbourg (double PhD) | In Search of Meaning in a World of Images: Photographic Imaginaries in the Works of Willem Frederik Hermans, Wright Morris, and Michel Tournier | Supervisors: Prof. dr. Mathijs Sanders (RUG), Prof. dr. Patrick Werly (Strasbourg) | 1 November 2021 – 31 October 2025

This project proposes a comparative study of photography in the works of Dutch writer Willem Frederik Hermans, American writer and photographer Wright Morris, and French writer Michel Tournier. The intermedial study aims to understand how photography, as a motif, a means, and a practice, informs the writers’ notions of realism and reality. By examining the role and representation of the motif of photography, the possible relationships between photography’s use as a motif and its use in each writer’s respective ‘photo-text’ books that combine photographic images with text, the proposed research aims to understand how the works raise new questions about thinking and conceptualizing representation and photography.