Tag: Photography Network

CFP: “Photography Beyond the Vault” Photography Network Symposium 2025

PHOTOGRAPHY BEYOND THE VAULT
PN VIRTUAL SYMPOSIUM, DECEMBER 4–6, 2025

https://www.photographynetwork.net/symposium-2025-call-for-papers

Photography Network’s fifth annual symposium will consider the subject of photography collections and the institutions that shape them. When Rosalind Krauss published her 1982 essay “Photography’s Discursive Spaces,” questioning the categorical shifts of historic photographs from archives to art museums, the effects of the 1970s “Photo Boom” were still unfolding. Today, a half century after the founding of influential galleries, museums, and academic programs focused on photography, the medium is fully ensconced in the global art market and public collections through countless prints, negatives, books, magazines, and many other materials. At the same time, this history centers on the United States and western Europe, and within these geopolitical regions, scholars and critics have long noted how particular sets of photographs are privileged for preservation and study over others. Collecting photographs became a way to value and prioritize certain stories over others. 

Drawing inspiration from the Nepal Picture Library, a digital archive of over 120,000 photographs that strives to create a broad and inclusive visual archive of Nepali social and cultural history, this symposium seeks to present a current appraisal of changes to photography collections around the globe. Our keynote speaker will be NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati, Co-Founder and Director of photo.circle, a platform for photography in Nepal including the Nepal Picture Library, and the organizer of Photo Kathmandu—an international photography festival that serves as an alternative platform for conversations between visual storytellers and local audiences. 

For our 2025 virtual symposium, we invite proposals that critically examine how the institutional frameworks of photographic history and practice—often shaped by Western models of scholarship, archiving, and pedagogy—are unevenly applied across global contexts, and that explore how alternative or locally grounded approaches can challenge, expand, or reconfigure dominant narratives in the field. How can photography collections of the future improve and how can we better serve these collections?
Proposals might consider: 
Alternative collecting, preservation, or display practices
Issues of access to and ownership of photographs
Legacies of colonialism and histories of resistance in photography collections
Absence, loss, and destruction of photographs 
Digitization, databases, and AI as tools 
Artists in the archives and archives as art
Photography’s “discursive spaces” today

Submission Information: 

Photography Network invites proposals across disciplines and a broad range of subjects that reflect the geographic and thematic diversity of the field. Practitioners and scholars at any stage of their careers are welcome to submit their research. We also welcome international scholars but note that the symposium will be in English.

The symposium organizers encourage a variety of presentational styles. In addition to proposals for individual, 15-minute papers, we also seek alternative-format presentations (e.g., workshops and roundtables). Applicants may submit up to 2 proposals, provided that one is in an alternative format. Sessions will be organized around accepted submissions, rather than prescribed themes.

To be considered for a panel or alternative-format presentation, please prepare: 
(1) a 250-word abstract with a clear indication of format, and
(2) a two-page resume or CV.
All files should be named “[LAST NAME]–CV” or “[LAST NAME]–ABSTRACT.”
Email completed materials by August 15 to photographynetworksymposium@gmail.com. Notifications of accepted proposals will be emailed by August 31. The symposium will be held online December 4–6. 2025. 
Note: Accepted presenters must be Photography Network members in good standing at the time of the symposium. We have a sliding scale membership: $20 (Student/Unaffiliated), $40 (Affiliated), or $100 (Senior). We also have free need-based memberships. Please visit Photography Network’s membership page for more information on how to join and email any questions to photographynetworkboard@gmail.com.

CFP: 2024 Photography Network Symposium “In Relation: Photography’s Communities”

October 25–27, 2024
Tucson, Arizona + virtual (hybrid)
Proposal due date: May 15, 2024

Photography Network will convene its fourth annual symposium in the Sonoran Desert Borderlands city of Tucson, Arizona in partnership with the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona. Grounded in the themes that arise in three CCP-organized exhibitions of Latinx photography that will be on view this fall (Louis Carlos Bernal: Retrospectiva, curated by Elizabeth Ferrer; Chicana Photographers LA, curated by Sybil Venegas; and Laura Aguilar: Nudes in Nature, curated by Sybil Venegas and Christopher Velasco), “In Relation” will consider how communities are made visible, defined, and constituted through photography. In her book Latinx Photography in the United States: A Visual History (2021), Elizabeth Ferrer writes: “As the photographer/subject relationship shifted from outsider/insider to insider/insider [in the late twentieth century], the photograph became less an ethnographic document than an autonomous and self-validating form of individual and community expression.” This shift highlights questions of agency, circulation, diaspora, and storytelling that are relevant to the practice and institutional interpretation of photography. Taking this idea as a point of departure, we invite proposals that broadly respond to the following questions and themes:

● How have artists, especially those from Latinx communities, used photography to probe issues of visibility, belonging, and representation? How do their artistic practices constitute forms of activism?
● Who has the right to tell stories for whom?
● How does the circulation of photographs create—or restrict—communities of subjects and viewers?
● How have borders—in the US and beyond—shaped histories of photography, and how has photography from borderlands challenged state-imposed divisions?
● What alternate models might exist for interpreting photographs and photographic practices that transcend simplistic binaries such as “insider” versus “outsider”?
● What do authentically relational, community-centered curatorial practices look like? How are methodologies such as community advisory councils rethinking the notion of curatorial voice and storytelling?

Submission Information

Photography Network invites proposals across disciplines and a broad range of subjects that reflect the geographic and thematic diversity of the field. Practitioners and scholars at any stage of their careers are welcome to submit their research. We also welcome international scholars but note that the conference will be in English.

The symposium organizers encourage a variety of presentational styles. In addition to proposals for individual, 20-minute papers relating to the themes outlined above, we also seek submissions for a workshop on the topic of community-centered exhibition development and for a roundtable featuring presentations from artist activists .
Please prepare for submission:
(1) a 250-word abstract with a clear indication of format, and
(2) a two-page resume or CV.

All files should be named “[LAST NAME]–CV” or “[LAST NAME]–ABSTRACT.”

Email completed materials by May 15 to the Photography Network Symposium organizing committee: Josie Johnson, Emilia Mickevicius, and Anne Cross at photographynetworksymposium@gmail.com. Notifications of accepted proposals will be emailed by mid-June. The schedule and registration information will be available by July 1 and the symposium will be held October 25–27, 2024.

Note: All are welcome to apply. Accepted presenters must be Photography Network members in good standing at the time of the symposium. We have a sliding scale membership: $20 (student/unaffiliated), $40 (affiliated), or $100 (sustaining). We also have free need-based memberships. Please visit the Photography Network’s membership page (www.photographynetwork.net/memberregistration) for more information on how to join.

CFP: Photography Network Virtual Symposium

Photography’s Frameworks
Photography Network Virtual Symposium
October 12–14, 2023

Photography Network’s third annual symposium will be held virtually and hosted jointly with the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. In honor of the UWC’s New Archival Visions Programme—an initiative to activate the university’s archival holdings through research, fellowships, and curatorial projects—this symposium considers the subject of frameworks in the study of photography.

In recent years, “framing” and “reframing” have become buzzwords for describing new approaches to the study of photography, including the 2018 volume Photography Reframed: New Visions in Photographic Culture, the ReFrame project at the Harvard Art Museums launched in 2021, and the ongoing archival initiative, “Framing the Field: Photography’s Histories in American Institutions.” Projects like the Art Institute of Chicago’s 2023 Field Guide to Photography and Media exhibition and catalogue and the recent Vision & Justice initiative encourage reflection on how histories of photography have been constructed and how certain interventions can be made to create a more equitable field moving forward. Such interventions might also draw on “reframing” projects from the global south that interrogate colonial and metropolitan categories and temporal schemas in the history of global photography, such as the 2020 Kronos special issue on “Other Lives of the Image” and the 2019 publication Ambivalent: Photography and Visibility in African History.

This symposium aims to gather these types of initiatives into one space for shared reflection and future collaboration. Using the construction of a “framework” in reference to both conceptual schema and physical structures, we ask how larger patterns of social, ideological, material, economic, and environmental forces have shaped and continue to shape photographs as objects in circulation and in archival repositories. How have past theoretical, methodological, and institutional frameworks structured, and in many instances limited, the field? What work have these frames performed in the creation and interpretation of photographs and their histories? Which frameworks have been overlooked, and what types of interventions can make the most impactful changes?

While papers should seek to address these questions, our definition of “framework” is capacious and inclusive. Proposals might therefore consider critical approaches to frameworks that include:

• Archival: private art collections, public collections (schools, universities, museums, government agencies), informal private holdings, artist collectives, and activist archives (including national liberation, anti-colonial and anti-apartheid collections)
• Colonial, postcolonial and decolonial: state-sponsored photography, anthropological studies, tourist photography, humanitarian photography, documentary discourses
• Cultural: linguistic, religious, or ethnic practices and beliefs
• Dysfunctional: decay or erasure of contexts, allowing for slippage, appropriation, and reinterpretation of photography
• Ethical: displaying, discussing, and teaching certain images; scientific, anthropological, and legal rationales

Submission Information

Photography Network invites proposals across disciplines and a broad range of subjects that reflect the geographic and thematic diversity of the field. Practitioners and scholars at any stage of their careers are welcome to submit their research. We also welcome international scholars but note that the conference will be in English.

The symposium organizers encourage a variety of presentational styles. In addition to proposals for individual, 20-minute papers, we also seek alternative-format presentations (e.g., workshops and roundtables). We will also host a Lightning Round for new research on any topic from students, curators, academics, and practitioners. Applicants may submit up to 2 proposals, provided that one is in an alternative format; you are welcome to apply only to the Lightning Round. Sessions will be organized around accepted submissions, rather than prescribed themes.

To be considered for a panel or alternative-format presentation, please prepare:
(1) a 250-word abstract with a clear indication of format, and
(2) a three-page resume or CV.

To be considered only for the Lightning Round, please prepare:
(1) a 100-word abstract clearly labeled as a Lightning Round proposal and
(2) a three-page resume or CV.

All files should be named “[LAST NAME]–CV” or “[LAST NAME]–ABSTRACT.”

Email completed materials by June 15 to the Photography Network Symposium organizing committee: Katherine Bussard, Patricia Hayes, Josie Johnson, Caroline Riley, and Jessica Stark at photographynetworksymposium@gmail.com.

Notifications of accepted proposals will be emailed by July 19. The schedule will be announced by August 1 and the symposium will be held October 12–14, 2023.

Note: All are welcome to apply. Accepted presenters must be Photography Network members in good standing at the time of the symposium. We have a sliding scale membership: $20 (student/unaffiliated), $40 (Affiliated), or $100 (Senior). We also have free need-based memberships. Please visit the Photography Network’s membership page (www.photographynetwork.net/memberregistration) for more information on how to join.

SYMP: Intersecting Photographies @ Howard University

Registration is now open for Photography Network’s Second Annual Symposium (October 13-15, 2022) in Washington, DC. Register now!

(With apologies for cross-posting)

“Intersecting Photographies,” will be held at Howard University in Washington, DC, from October 13-15. We hope that many of you will take an interest in the presentations and conversations that will be fostered there, from an artist conversation between LaToya Ruby Frazier and Leslie Ureña to a keynote by Tina Campt, a pecha kucha featuring lightning talks to six panels presenting more in-depth research questions. To view the complete schedule online, which also includes an awards ceremony, receptions, and Saturday workshops hosted at DC-area institutions by local experts, please view our Symposium page.

You must be a Photography Network Member to register for the symposium, with annual dues beginning as low as $20. Click on the registration button and follow the instructions to register for the In-Person ($50) or Online ($20) experience. We apologize that our website does not offer the capability of joining or renewing your membership and registering for the symposium in a single transaction.

Photography Network is a 501(C)3 and College Art Association Affiliated Society whose purpose is to foster discussion, research, and new approaches to the study and practice of photography in its relation to art, culture, society, and history. Through a range of programming, Photography Network (PN) cultivates a spirit of community and exchange with the aim of advancing innovation in the field.

We encourage you to register early for the symposium. We do not have a registration cap, but availability is limited at the three DC-area hotels with whom we have made arrangements for discounted rates. Additionally, three of the four optional Saturday workshops will be collections-focused at area institutions including the Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, and National Museum of American History, where space is necessarily limited; the fourth, with the National Museum of the American Indian, will be held over Zoom to accommodate those participating in the symposium remotely.

If you encounter any problems during the registration process, please reach out to us at photographynetworksymposium@gmail.com. We thank the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation for their generous support of this program.

Best,
Monica Bravo and Caroline Riley
Photography Network Co-Chairs