James Kelly

This thesis examines the evolution of observation in modern art and literature by comparing distinct approaches: the technologically mediated observation embodied in Stephen Gill’s photobook The Pillar and the immersive, experiential nature writing of J.A. Baker in The Peregrine. Drawing on Jonathan Crary’s Techniques of the Observer, Jörg Colberg’s insights on photobook sequencing, and Karl Ove Knausgaard’s reflective essay Birdland, the study explores how contemporary practices of seeing are constructed by both technological systems and embodied experience. Gill’s work, which employs trail cameras to capture fleeting wildlife moments, demonstrates how deliberate editorial choices such as sequencing, framing, and archival indexing transform detached, automated documentation into a narrative that conveys emotion and symbolic depth. In contrast, Baker’s prose offers a profoundly personal account of nature, dissolving the boundaries between observer and observed through detailed, sensory-rich descriptions. By interrogating the tension between objectivity and subjectivity, and between presence and absence, this thesis argues that modern observation is inherently mediated by cultural, technological, and environmental forces. In an age marked by rapid technological change and ecological crisis, the study contends that a new paradigm of observation is needed, one that reconciles automated recording with the human drive for immersive, reciprocal engagement with the natural world.