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narrative projects is pleased to present The Mind’s Eye: The Photographs ofDerek Parfit, an archive of images captured by one of the most unusual andinfluential philosophers of our time. This exhibition, the first ever of Parfit’sphotographs,willexaminehis idiosyncraticmethodandpractice, introducingapreviously unpublished oeuvre that complicates the legacy of this century’smostoriginalmoralphilosopher.What makes me the same person throughout my life, and a different personfromyou?Andwhat is the importanceof these facts? Inpursuitofanswers tothesetwoquestionsandtheirimplicationsforthepracticeofethicallife,DerekParfit upturned generations of philosophical work on ethics, rationality, andidentity. His two books are widely regarded as among the most importantcontributions tomoral philosophy in thepast century,with an early review inThe Sunday Times proclaiming “something close to a work of genius.”Precognizantofhisown impact,Parfitwrites in1984: Ibelievethatmostofushave false beliefs about our ownnature, and our identity over time, and that,whenweseethetruth,weoughttochangesomeofourbeliefsaboutwhatwehavereasontodo.(ReasonsandPersons,p.281,1984)

TheMind’sEyeThePhotographsofDerekParfit

11thMay–30thJune2018

Privateview11thMay,6-8pm

Parfitwasalsoaprolificandsophisticatedphotographer,returningeachyearfordecadestoSt.PetersburgandVenicetocaptureimagesofarchitecture,water,fog, and light.With a painterly sensibility and anuncommon feeling for color,Parfit's photographs provide compelling new insights into his philosophicalwork, and reveal a sensitive and finely developed aesthetic neither publishednorexhibitedduringhislifetime.Compensating for an unusual neural condition – aphantasia, the inability toformorretainmentalimages–ParfitbegantometiculouslycapturetheetherealarchitecturallandscapesofVeniceandSt.Petersburg,placeshecouldnotcalltomindwithouttheaidofhisphotographs.Overthecourseofhislife,thispracticedeveloped intowork of true artistry. As curator Olivier Berggruenwrites, “hisawareness of space… has a tactilitywhich is akin to the experiments of 19th-centuryBritishpainterssuchasTurnerandWhistler,whoseworkssimilarlyjointhepalpablewiththeabstractandatmospheric.”(BLAUMagazin,2018)Parfit’swritingis“densewithscience-fictionalthoughtexperiments,allurgingashifttowardamoreimpersonal,non-physical,andselflessviewofhumanlife.”(LarissaMacFarquhar, The New Yorker, 2011) This debut exhibition of Parfit’sphotographsoffersvisualrealizationsofanidealizedworld,anddrawsfromoneoftheonlyvisualarchivesinhistorytosurviveamajorphilosopher–arareandbeautifulepiloguetothelifeofoneofthiscentury'smostoriginalminds.AbouttheArtistDerekParfit(1942–2017)isregardedasoneofthemostinfluentialphilosophersof themodern era. His two books,Reasons and Persons (1984) andOnWhatMatters (2011)havebeencalled themost importantcontributions toethics inoveracentury.HewasaFellowatAllSoulsCollege,Oxford,andheldteachingpositionsatHarvard,NewYorkUniversity,andRutgers.In2014hewaslaureateoftheRolfSchockPrizeinLogic,modernphilosophy’shighesthonor.TheMind’sEye:ThePhotographsofDerekParfitisorganizedbyOwenLaubwithSamuelSokolsky-Tifft.Forfurtherinformationorhigh-resolutionimages,pleasecontact:DariaKirsanovadaria@narrativeprojects.com