Thinking Photography (Again)
An international conference on Photography Studies
University of Durham, UK
7-9 July 2005
Call for Papers
Keynote Speakers
Victor Burgin, Goldsmiths College, London
John Tagg, SUNY Binghamton
Louis Kaplan, University of Toronto
Shawn Michelle Smith, University of Saint Louis
Over the past few years, Photography Studies has successfully established itself
as a burgeoning and diverse field of enquiry. It has laid down a substantial
and necessary theoretical foundation, which has given rise to productive
interpretations of photographic images, and furthered our understanding of the
role, function, use and misuse of the image in modern culture. However, with
the increasing maturity of Photography Studies has come the emergence of a
critical orthodoxy. We have become familiar, and perhaps too comfortable with,
the analytical tools at our disposal. It is no longer enough simply to invoke
Benjamin or Barthes. Rather, the time has now come to reassess the ideas and
assumptions which structure the field. The aim of the conference is to trigger
this reassessment of Photography Theory, in the hope of further stimulating its
development. We invite proposals for papers examining the following issues.
Alternatively, you may wish to put forward your own paper or panel proposal.
a.. Photography Theory's Sacred Cows. Why Barthes? Why Benjamin? Why Derrida?
Why Sontag?
b.. Travelling Concepts and Cultural Specificity
c.. Favourite topoi (memory, trauma, death) - how and why?
d.. Theorising the image versus analysing the image
e.. The death and resurrection of the author
f.. Currents and influences. English Studies, Art History, Visual Culture: who
shapes photography's disciplinary spaces?
g.. Digital culture: continuity or rupture?
h.. The history of Photography Studies
A brief CV and abstracts of 500-600 words for a presentation of 20 minutes
should be submitted by 15 September 2004, to the following address:
[log in to unmask] The programme will be finalised by 30 October 2004. For
further information, please contact the Photography Studies team at Durham,
Jonathan Long, Andrea Noble and Edward Welch ([log in to unmask]).
http://www.dur.ac.uk/SMEL/MAPI.htm
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