Registration and programme announced: The Business of War Photography conference

[Pippa Oldfield]

This two day international conference examines war photography as the result of pragmatic and strategic transactions and interactions concerning business, militarism and consumption. International speakers, including scholars, curators, picture editors and artists, will address the ways in which issues of supply and demand have shaped the field of war photography, and how this field has articulated with other forms of industrialised and commercial activity.

Speakers include Colin Harding (National Media Museum); Kevin Hamilton and Ned O'Gorman (University of Illinois); Anthony Penrose (Lee Miller Archives); Patricia Nelson (Stockholm School of Economics); Lívia Bonadio (Telegraph Magazine); and chairs include David Campbell (independent), Hilary Roberts (Research Curator of Photography, Imperial War Museum), and Janet Stewart (Director of Centre for Visual Arts and Cultures, Durham University).

The diverse papers encompass a range of geographic regions and modes of conflict from the early twentieth century to the present day, and reflect upon the relevance to war photography of commerce, industry, the military and marketing, as well as the role of workers, publishers, politicians, strategists, purchasers and consumers.

Subjects addressed include the British Army's use of Facebook; pictorial magazines of the Chinese Communist Party; photographic postcards from the First World War in Luxembourg; photo-albums of Finnish soldiers in the Continuation War 1941–1944; and contemporary sniper photographs in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

For full details of programme, abstracts, speakers, and how to register, visit Durham University School of Modern Languages and Cultures. 

Registration now open:

The Business of War Photography: Producing and Consuming Images of Conflict 

Durham University and Durham Light Infantry Museum & Durham Art Gallery, UK
31 July & 1 August 2014

Register by 14 July / £55 

Organisers and partners

The Business of War Photography is co-convened by Dr. Tom Allbeson and Pippa Oldfield, Head of Programme at Impressions Gallery and Doctoral Fellow at Durham University. The conference is presented in association with the Centre for Visual Arts and Cultures at Durham University, in partnership with Durham Light Infantry Museum & Durham Art Gallery and Impressions Gallery, Bradford. A limited number of concessionary places are supported by Royal Historical Society.

Location
The conference is held at Collingwood College, Durham University, UK. The opening session and an evening reception are held at Durham Light Infantry Museum & Durham Art Gallery, with the opportunity to view the photographic exhibition The Home Front by Melanie Friend, an Impressions Gallery touring exhibition curated by Pippa Oldfield.
 
Contact
Please address enquiries to [e-mail]