What is the shape and size of a photographic history that is written from the point of view of having no photographs? When photographs are destroyed, lost, repressed, or never intended to be permanent, it leaves a gap in what we usually refer to as our main research material.
By chance or by design, photographs disappear every day. They might be destroyed, or lost, or designed to fade. They might be rendered undiscoverable through complicated bureaucracy, secrecy, or algorithms. Contemplating the space left without photographs, a veritable foil to the enormity of the image archive, can enrich our understanding of photographic history and methodology.
In this 10th annual conference of the PHRC we will feature papers interrogating photographic histories that are not image led; photographic histories that excavate imageless histories. Each of these will consider topics that address themes like:
- Disappearing or fading photographs by design or by accident
- Histories of archival findings and losses
- Suppression of photographs
- Photography as auxiliary to other things
- Historiographical considerations of a photography without images
- Methodological innovations to reconstruct photographic cultures when images are not available, or never were
- Photographs rendered as data
Photographic History Research Centre (PHRC)
Leicester and online
13-14 June 2022
Details, programme and registration: https://photographichistory.wordpress.com/annual-conference-2022/
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