guest room: charmaine toh & philippe pirotte

Guest Room fosters collaboration and sparks creative exchange. For this edition, curator Dr. Charmaine Toh joins forces with curator and art historian Philippe Pirotte to explore the following theme:

"Black Box"

"Photography has always evolved with new techniques – from the chemical to the digital, from analog processes to networked circulation. Yet at its core, image-making often carries a sense of mystery. Light, lenses, chemistry, and now screens all transform the world into pictures, but the exact alchemy can feel elusive. Processes unfold in ways we don’t fully see, operating like “black boxes” where outcomes emerge from hidden interactions of material, time, and chance.

This obscurity matters. It shapes how we understand the photograph, how its meanings shift, and how certain aspects remain concealed. Opacity is often treated as a shortcoming – a loss of clarity or truth. But it can also be a strength. Caribbean writer and philosopher Édouard Glissant spoke of the 'right to opacity' as a refusal of control and legibility. Not everything needs to be transparent or explained. In photography, opacity can signal resistance: images that resist easy interpretation, processes that refuse resolution, or practices that cultivate uncertainty rather than mastery.

We invite photographers who engage with these hidden dimensions of image-making. How do unseen processes alter photography’s relationship to memory or truth? What is at stake in the aspects that remain mysterious? And how might opacity itself become a creative or political tool – offering ambiguity, refusal, or shelter in a world that demands constant clarity?"