Blogs

This study day aims to gather researchers around the subject of the printed image since the 1880s. With particular attention to material bibliography and production techniques, we seek to better understand how illustrations contribute to the formation of meaning and discourses within different contexts from illustrated newspapers to etiquette manuals, from scientific journals to children’s books.

Straddling the disciplines of literary studies, art history, bibliography, and library sciences, the field of illustrated print culture is a privileged inroad to social history. We are inspired by the foundational work of Richard Benson’s The Printed Picture (MoMA, 2008) as well as recent scholarly interest in vernacular media, such as Sarah Mirseyedi and Gerry Beegan’s important contributions on the development of photomechanical reproduction and Thierry Gervais’ edited volume The “Public” Life of Photographs (The MIT Press, 2016). Heeding the call of rare books specialist Roger Gaskell, who has identified the need to develop a “bibliography of images,” we invite contributions in French and English that address any aspect of mass-produced visual materials as well as the diverse industrial or manual processes that enabled their production.

The Image on the Page: A Study Day Around Illustrated Print Culture
Friday 13 October 2023
Concordia University (Montréal, Canada)
Proposals for 20-minute papers (in English or French) can be sent to stephanie.hornstein@concordia.ca before 15 July 2023.

They should include a title followed by an abstract (200 words max.) and a short biography (100 words max.). 

Organizing committee:

• Stéphanie Hornstein, PhD candidate, Department of Art History, Concordia University and Concordia Library’s Researcher-in-Residence 2022-2023.
• Michel Hardy-Vallée, PhD (art history), Visiting scholar, Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art, Concordia University.

Complete CFP and info here:  https://library.concordia.ca/about/news/#guid=https://library.concordia.ca/about/news/%23i28_Apr_2023_11:44:00_EDT

Image: Gabor Szilasi, Photos chez l'imprimeur, 1966. Fonds Ministère de la Culture et des Communications, Office du film du Québec, BAnQ Vieux-Montréal, Montréal. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

In one of his recent statements, Noam Chomsky presented a truly pessimistic diagnosis of our times: the very beginning of the 21st century led us towards the crisis of democracy. Nowadays, we need to confront the system in which property relations play a decisive role in our social network. Power, according to Chomsky, is inevitably associated with wealth. In consequence, the rules of democratic societies are no longer valid, since the capital helps to avoid them.

The need to look at the problem of power in a broader way, which would go beyond the context of political domination, has already become strongly present in contemporary humanities. This topic became the subject of interest of the authorities of our academic discourse (especially Michel Foucault, Pierre Nora or Bruno Latour). Chomsky, however, in the aforementioned statement, also raised a second issue, which is especially important in our attempts to analyse today’s iconosphere: the phenomenon of the so-called ‘fake news’. At this point, his thought meets the observations of Giorgio Agamben. The recognition of the condition of our times made by both scholars is accompanied by the observations regarding the crisis of images. Paradoxically, despite the gradual loss of faith in the image (progressing with the growing awareness of the ways of manipulating it and using it as a means of persuasion) the thesis of Hans Belting, claiming that “we live in images and understand the world in images” still remains in force. After all, armed conflicts and trade wars are followed by the stream of provocative photographs. This spectacle of suffering was considered as a product created for consumption (Susan Sontag) or as a fast stream of “photo-shocks” (Roland Barthes).

We are strongly convinced that the tension growing on the axis power versus photography is the key issue for the research focusing on contemporary visual culture. Therefore, in the next issue of “Daguerreotype. Studies in the history and theory of photography” we would like to invite you to present your answer to the question of how photographic strategies place themselves in the complicated network of power, history, and memory. Let us ask ourselves what role photography can play in the game between those mighty opponents: is it stronger than only a defenceless pawn?

We invite you to send texts regarding the following problems:

• Blame(less?) photography: photographs as the means of ethical persuasion, ideological propaganda and/or a tool of violence
• Photography as a form of intervention: are the attempts to construct an unconventional “counter-history” (to use the term coined by the Polish historian Ewa Domańska) always doomed to failure? Can photography serve as a medium of re-figuring an abusive narrative? Or maybe the image, replacing the body, only replaces the actual participation, creating the illusion of participation in the social debate?
• The transgressive dimension of photography: in what kind of traps can photography fall into? When the strategies of visual rebellion, which were supposed to overcome the dominant power, eventually take its place? How does the reading and meaning of the photograph change depending on the place of its exposure, the field of exploitation or the status and role of the author?
• Photography through the prism of feminist discourse: photographs as tools for self-identification, the emancipation of body and contestation of social roles imposed by the system
• Photography and archiving/museum strategies: when organizing can be understood as control over the past, in which only the narratives of winners are present? When and how is curatorial practice an intervention that breaks the status quo and reminds the non-normative attitudes?

The issue of relationship between photography and power requires a broad, interdisciplinary perspective. Therefore, we invite scholars which work in different fields, such as anthropology, social and cultural studies, philosophy or art history, to join this discussion. Our intention is to present both theoretical essays, as well as case studies in our journal. The starting point of each paper can be located in the field of documentary, creative photography or photojournalism, but may also include analysis of examples from the private sphere or from the world of advertisement. Although the tension in the relations of photography and power is particularly noticeable in the era of the digital image, we are open for the reflection which refers to the roots of the photographic medium, which would be close to the title of our magazine and its traditions.

On behalf of the editorial team,

Małgorzata Maria Grąbczewska and Weronika Kobylińska-Bunsch

The deadline for sending the final articles is: 28th February 2019

Please prepare the text according to our editorial guidelines (you can also check our website dagerotyp.com) and then send to the address: dagerotyp@shf.org.pl  (if you won’t receive a confirmation from us, please send the text again)

We encourage our potential authors to consult the topics of the articles with the editorial board before sending the final text.

CFP
No. 2 (26) / 2019: Photography and power

Library and Archives Canada (LAC), in collaboration with the Atelier de Restauration et de Conservation des Photographies de la Ville de Paris, is pleased to pilot its first enhanced e-book, Lingua Franca: A Common Language for Conservators of Photographic Materials.

“Lingua Franca: a language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different.”

It contains bilingual definitions of photographic processes, condition issues, treatment options, preventative care and technical studies. It also provides commonly used terms briefly defined and illustrated with photographs, videos and interactive features such as links to collection items, podcasts, videos, blogs and Flickr albums.

Conservation professionals, teachers, students, and anyone interested in the field of photography can access it for free on iTunes or in HTML version on our website.

This English-French visual glossary of photo conservation terms contributes to LAC’s continued efforts to be at the leading edge of archival and library science and new technologies. If you have questions or comments about Lingua Franca, please email us.

Bibliothèque et Archives Canada publie son premier livre électronique enrichi

Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, en collaboration avec l’Atelier de restauration et de conservation des photographies de la Ville de Paris, est fier de publier Lingua franca : Un langage commun pour les restaurateurs de documents photographiques.

Une lingua franca est une langue véhiculaire employée par des locuteurs de langues maternelles différentes pour se comprendre. 

Ce livre électronique enrichi fournit des définitions bilingues de nombreux procédés photographiques, états de conservation, traitements, techniques d’examen et soins préventifs. Il propose également des termes couramment utilisés, accompagnés de courtes définitions et d’exemples illustrés prenant la forme de photographies et d’éléments interactifs : liens vers des articles de la collection, baladodiffusions, vidéos, billets de blogue et albums Flickr.

Les professionnels de la restauration, les enseignants, les étudiants et les amateurs de photographie peuvent consulter le livre gratuitement sur iTunes ou en format HTML sur notre site Web.

Ce glossaire visuel français-anglais sur la restauration de photographies s’inscrit dans les efforts continus de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada pour rester à l’avant-garde des sciences et de la technologie en matière d’archivistique et de bibliothéconomie. Vous pouvez nous faire parvenir vos questions et vos commentaires concernant Lingua franca par courriel.