Session at XIth International IAWIS/AIERTI Conference, IMAGES AND TEXTS REPRODUCED

Photography, Reproduction and Text

Although most often described as a metaphorical window upon the world, in fact photography has been involved with reproduction since its inception. In particular, it has repeatedly concerned itself with the reproduction of text. WHF Talbot, one of the inventors of the medium, experimented with photographic reproduction of sculpture, prints and text, and Nicéphore Nièpce, another of the inventors, initially saw photography as a means of reproducing engravings. Anna Atkins, who created the very first photographic book, reproduced words as images on each page. When images literally represent texts, questions about originality and reproduction, and about the definition of image and of text, collapse into each other and boundaries between categories are elided.

During the 1920s and 30s, avant garde photographers made images representing advertising signage and other texts, or comprised of typographic collage fragments. Benjamin’s concerns about the loss of aura resultant from photographic reproduction would seem not to apply to such images reproducing text – or to photographic prints as multiples. During the 1980s, in part derived from readings of Benjamin, photographic appropriations were frequently coupled with reproduction of texts. More recently, the development of social media has led to overlapping image and text through communications platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.

This session invites papers on topics addressing all aspects of photographic reproduction and photographic rendering of text, from any time period. How does photography of text, and reproductive photography in general transform perception and reception of both image and text? How have traditional narratives of photography presented and obscured the medium’s role in reproducing text as well as presenting images? What differences are there between texts in (or as) images and texts with images? Are there epistemological differences between photographs read as image and those read—all or in part—and text?

session chair, Ellen Handy

Guidelines for Submitting a Paper Proposal
1. Send your 250 words proposals, in English or in French, using form on conference website.
2. You can add links to 1-3 image(s) and a short bibliography.
3. Anyone can send a proposal, but you will have to be a member of the IAWIS/AIERTI to be part of the program of the conference.
5. You can choose to give your papers in English or in French.

The Call for papers is open from the 15th May to the 31st August 2016