cfp: Survey Photography and Cultural Heritage in Europe (1851-1945)

[Michael Pritchard]

A call for papers has been made for a workshop organised byProfessor Elizabeth Edwards and Dr Ewa Manikowska and titled: Survey Photography and Cultural Heritage in Europe (1851-1945):  Expanding the Field. The large-scale application of photography to the recording and preservation of cultural heritage is a transnational movement that appeared at a very particular cultural moment. This focuses on the phenomenon of survey photography in the same historical period,  from Britain in the age of High Empire across Europe to the multi-ethnic territories of the western borderlands of the former Russian Empire. While there are striking links between the survey images produced in such distinct cultural and political contexts, there are also similarities and differences in the patterns underlying their production, use, dissemination, impact and the networks of survey actors.  This workshop emerges from the conviction of a need to establish a new research agenda at the intersection of the cultural history, history of photography,  and the concept of national heritage. Thus, the core aims of the workshop are to explore the practices and politics of photographic survey and to indicate and delineate the topics, chronology and methodology of survey photography seen as a European phenomenon (both in its transnational and local aspects) closely linked to the Western concepts of culture, identity and memory.

We invite papers both general and based on specific case-studies from the period between 1851 and 1945, which consider survey and record photography in its wider European context and which contribute to an understanding of its wider definition, analysis and understanding. The workshop will discuss survey photography:

-          as a response to specific historical moments;

-          as a local and transnational phenomenon;

-          as a codification of national heritages;

-          as a scientific and an amateur practice;

-          as a geographical practice;

-          as a response to imperial expansion/consolidation;

-          as definition of group identities through the visualisation of cultural heritage;

-          through its institutions and actors;

-          through its specific photographic practices;

-          through the photographic survey archive;

The workshop will take the form of pre-circulated papers (all papers to be submitted by the end of February 2015). Participants will be asked to use their papers as the basis of a 20 or 30 minute presentation (depending on final schedule) addressing the issues of the workshop.

The number of speakers is limited to 20. Applicants will be notified of the chosen proposals by 30 November 2014. The workshop will take place on 14–15 April 2015 in the Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Accommodation costs can be covered when necessary.

Survey Photography and Cultural Heritage in Europe (1851-1945):  Expanding the Field

(A workshop organized by Prof. Elizabeth Edwards and Dr. Ewa Manikowska

Warsaw, Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences, 14–15 April 2015)

Abstract of no more than 300 words should be sent by 15 October 2014 to:

Dr Manikowska ([e-mail]) & Professor Edwards ([e-mail])