“When I made the first series, one of the things I was most amazed by was how intolerant philosophers seemed.”

A Rolleiflex Camera

That’s photographer Steve Pyke, well-known in our community for his two series of photographs of philosophers (which span about two decades), interviewed by philosopher Alex King (Simon Fraser University) at Aesthetics for Birds.

Here’s the context for the quote:

Alex King: It’s so interesting to hear you talk about this. You have an outsider’s perspective on what philosophy culture is like, on what philosophers look like and what we are like, how we comport ourselves and how we interact with each other. And you see how we change over time. It reminds me of families. People who see their children all the time tend not to notice how much they’ve changed because it only happens incrementally. But people who see, say, their young cousins only once every few years are often shocked at how much they’ve grown and changed…

Steve Pyke:The analogy you make to family is nice. It really is a family, the family of philosophers. And as with any family, there’s a lot of infighting. Maybe more than most families, because for you there are real philosophical points to be making.

When I made the first series, one of the things I was most amazed by was how intolerant philosophers seemed. I realized that this happened because their time was precious, and to have spent time with this “child,” their philosophy, to have nurtured it and brought it through, to have written a paper, had it accepted and published, and then to have somebody deny what they thought…

Alex King: It’s true, our work is often very personal to us.

Steve Pyke: Yes, and I’ve not noticed it appear in the same way seen that in anything else. It hasn’t existed for me outside of academia.

Alex King: You don’t think that’s true in the Arts?

Steve Pyke: Not in the same way. In the arts, a lot of the judging is outside of your tribe: curators, galleries, even museums. Philosophers are judged more from within. Also, much of philosophy is not for public consumption, or at least, it sort of is but sort of isn’t. You’re ultimately making things for your own family and they’re the ones judging you. The Arts function in a different way.

The interview covers how the philosophers in the series were selected, whether philosophers were different from other of Pyke’s subjects, the various documents involved in the creation of the series, plans for a third series, and more. It also features several of Pyke’s photographs. Check it out here.