Derek Parfit’s Photography

For many years, Derek Parfit was a duomaniac, obsessed with photography as well as philosophy. Oxford, his hometown, was the subject of many of his photographs. But he also would make annual trips to Venice and Saint Petersburg (Leningrad), where he would repeatedly take shots of the same buildings, usually at sunrise and sunset. “I may be somewhat unusual,” he said, “in the fact that I never get tired or sated with what I love most, so that I don’t need or want variety.” Back in the UK, he would spend a great deal of time and money manipulating his photos to produce the perfect image. Below is a selection of the small number of pictures with which he was satisfied.