Week 11: Photographing Silence — Capturing the Empty Stage at Gallagher Academy Concert Chamber

This week, the project moved further into visual production through a photography session at the Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts. After several weeks of podcast recording and interview-based research, this stage allowed me to return to one of the project’s original media outputs: the photobook.

I was invited by staff members to attend the weekly Lunchtime Recital Series, which is regularly held on Wednesdays at the Concert Chamber of Gallagher Academy. The event creates a valuable platform for emerging artists, giving young performers the opportunity to bring their voices and musical practice onto the stage and present with the audience. For my project, this setting was especially meaningful because it offered a more accessible way of encountering classical music and live performance. Rather than placing classical performing arts only within distant or highly formal spaces, the Lunchtime Recital Series shows how performance can exist within a regular university environment, opening up new possibilities for audience engagement and artistic visibility.

After the event, I was given permission to take photographs inside the venue. I also had the opportunity to speak with pianist Francis Cowan, and we discussed the possibility of further collaboration through the podcast. This became an important extension of the project, as his work with young artists, collaborative piano, and performance education connects closely with my interest in how emerging artistic voices can be supported and brought closer to audiences.

The photographs I took during this session aimed to capture the quiet moments around the stage. I was particularly interested in what remains after the audience leaves and when there are no more performers under the spotlight. In these moments, the stage becomes empty, but not meaningless. There is an emotional absence in the room that still carries the trace of what has just happened.

This sense of emptiness is something I wanted to explore visually. When there are no performers on stage and no audience in the seats, the space begins to suggest a deeper question: if artistic expression no longer has an audience, where does it go? In a way, this silence reflects the broader condition of classical performing arts today. These art forms continue to carry history, discipline, and emotional depth, yet they also face the constant challenge of remaining visible within contemporary society. Through photography, I hope to enlarge this layer of silence.

This week’s photography work will contribute an important part to the final output. More details and visual reflections will be developed and presented in the final project.