St.-Petersburg, Russia, May 15 - 16, 2015
Deadline: Mar 31, 2015

In the course of the 180 years after the official announcement of
photographic technology, photography has become an inseparable part of
our everyday practices. The thickening visual environment contains
millions of photographic images that adhere to iconographies formed by
photographic media including, but not limited to, film, video, pictures
produced by optical measurement systems, or computer generated images
that take the issue beyond the technologically photographic domain.
These images tend to be perceived as depictions of reality. Yet at the
same time they influence the way we think about the world, communicate,
memorize the past and imagine the future. Understanding photography thus
can not be content with the notion of it being a passive "mirror with a
memory" but needs to take into account how much it can be, is and was
used to create realities.

The shift in humanities in the second half of XX century has led to
opening of new domains of science research and new interpretations of
familiar phenomena. The latter were to include not only photographic
images already appropriated by art historical discourse but also
photographic practices of the everyday. Visual and cultural studies
regard photography as a complex field of images, practices, objects,
meanings and representations. Recent publications in Russian language,
including national and international authors, newly developed visual
studies courses on university programs show the increasing interest to
this area of study and research in Russia.

The conference is intended as platform for multidisciplinary research
within the domain of visual studies/cultural studies approach to
photography. We wish to consider not only contemporary technologies of
image creation but also contemporary meanings and interpretations of
photographic images - including reframing of the XIX-XX century
material.

We invite researchers in theory and history of photography, visual
anthropology, psychology, semiotics, sociology, philosophy, art theory,
as well as curators and artists.

Possible themes to be explored at the conference are advised within, but
not limited to the following:

- photography and the everyday
- power and control applied with photographic images
- personal and collective memory in photography
- mass production and uniqueness
- photography's influence of knowledge
- digital media
- social myths and photography
- constructing reality and identity by means of visual representation
- documental vs.art photography

Please send your applications to fotokonf2015@gmail.com by 30 March
2015. Applications should include name, organization, contact
coordinates, title and short summary of your paper (250-400 words).

There is no participation fee. The organizing committee would be happy
to cooperate in seeking financial support for participants travel
expenses and in finding accommodation. We consider the possibility of
on-line participation.

Languages of the conference are Russian and English.
Conference materials are planned for publication.

Organizing committee:
Maria Gourieva (St.-Petersburg State Institute for Culture)
Ekaterina Bogachevskaya (St.-Petersburg State University)
Friedrich Tietjen (University of Vienna)