Abstract

This dissertation examines the link between photographs taken by photographers who walk to
take pictures and walking artists who take pictures as a visual record of their art. The
interconnection between photography and walking underwent a major reconfiguration in the
1960s when walking became an autonomous form of art while, at virtually the same moment,
American, British, and European street photographers were walking to produce documentary
photographs injected with a new subjective approach. My research program was initiated at Tate
Archives where a messy snapshot taken in 1967 by Hamish Fulton drew my thinking into sharp
focus. Here was the inception of walking as art in a street photograph. This snapshot is given
close visual analysis as the central photographic document for this thesis. A conversation with
Fulton concentrated on this picture, which had laid dormant for four decades. Close visual
analysis of this photograph sets the direction of the thesis toward qualitative investigation,
underpinned by historical findings and theoretical insight. This methodology is applied to select
photos and art projects from the 1960s to the near present. Genres include street photography,
conceptual art, performance art and land art. This thesis is structured around a dual perspective of
photography/walking as well as walking/photography. It offers new insight into the
interdependency of photography and walking and argues that this relationship underwent a major
change and institutional challenge around 1967. My study has been enriched by my interaction
with a network of walking artists and my own research-practice.