Urban Encounters: Photography, Ethnography and the City
Conference, Exhibition, Workshops

16 & 17 May 2008

Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross SE14 6NW

This two-day conference at Goldsmiths, University of London, will bring
together international photographers, artists and academics researching the
city. The speakers reflect an interdisciplinary range of photographic,
theoretical and research areas, and through six panels will explore the
nature of past and contemporary photographic approaches to the
representation and evocation of city life. The theme of Œthe encounter¹ is
explored, not only in the way photographers experience the city, but also
through discursive encounters between urban social science and visual
practice. There is an associated exhibition, photographic workshop and
curated urban walks programme co-ordinated by Photofusion and the Centre for
Urban and Community Research (CUCR).

Urban Encounters Conference Panels

Day one
Keynote: Liam Kennedy

1. Urban landscapes: mapping memories

This session will explore the cultural geographies of landscape in relation
to photographic theory and practice. The presentations will focus on the
changing nature of landscape photography, both as a spatial and cultural
practice. Key questions addressed are:

How does landscape photography produce knowledge of space and ethnographies
of place?
To what extent is landscape photography being redefined by the
theoretical contributions of archaeology and geography?
How might an urban landscape practice rethink itself in relation to cultural
sociology?
What role does the urban landscape play as counterpoint to the landscape of
the suburban? 
Panellists: Paul Goodwin, Ingrid Pollard, Gregor Stephan, Susan
Schwartzenberg.

2. Architecture and photography

This session will focus on the relationship between architectural theory and
photographic practice. We will look at how architectural photographers
negotiate the complex task of producing meaningful images about urban
architectural space, and how collective experiences and lives are visually
evoked within such spaces. Key questions addressed are:

How do narratives of community coalesce with architectural space?
How might interior architecture manifest itself within a visual arts
context?
Beyond buildings: is architectural photography just about the materiality of
buildings?
What role do architectural photography archives play in understanding the
multiple pasts of a city?
How do we understand architectural photography in the context of built
spaces vs. found spaces?
Panellists: Michael Keith, Rosy Martin, Isidro Ramirez, Gary Van Zante.

3. Urban Portraiture and identities

This session will focus on the challenges of portraiture within the urban
domain. Through a discussion of the psychologies and sociologies of self,
the panellists will delineate key themes within a theory of photographic
portraiture. The session will explore portraiture as a mediated practice
concerned with the active construction of identities and will address the
following key questions:

What role does psychological and psychoanalytic theory play within an
understanding of portrait photography?
Is there a 'sociology of portraiture', and in what ways might this be
framed?
What is the relationship between self and environment?
If the 'essential self' is dead, what remains?
How does photography explore the street as the site where identities are
tried on and tried out?
Panellists: Les Back, Melanie Manchot, Daniel Meadows, Othello de Souza.

Day two
Keynote: to be confirmed

4. Street photography

In this session we will focus on recent developments within street
photography, particularly with reference to its re-emergence as an important
part of fine art and gallery practice. Panellists will discuss the
historical context of street photography, and why both a theoretical and
practical reconsideration of the genre has led to such a renaissance of
diverse forms in recent years. Key questions addressed are:
What is the relationship between street photography and the social history
of the city?
What are the ethical and legal constraints faced by street photographers
within London?
Why has there been such a significant upsurge in street photography practice
in recent years?
What role does street photography play within a visual history of the city?
What is the relationship between street photography and the everyday?
Panellists: Paul Lowe, Paul Reas, Kirsten Campbell, Paul Halliday.

5. Visual Ethnographies and the urban encounter

This session will address the central question of whether urban photography
might be thought of as a form of visual ethnography. The panellists will
debate the changing nature of urban visual practice set against a blurring
of the boundaries between visual practice and research-based urban
sociology. Key questions addressed are:
What does urban photography tell us about the social world and how does this
constitute a form of knowledge?
Many visual artists have, and increasingly are, locating their practices
within a discussion of the ethnographic poetics of their work. Is this
wishful thinking, or does it point towards a conceptual shift?
Is an urban photographer a sociologist with a camera?
How does urban photographic work explore the layered identities and memories
of a place?
Panellists: Gabrielle Bendiner -Viani, Simon Rowe & Ben Gidley, Peter
Coles.

6. Emerging forms

In this session, panellists will debate the changing nature of urban
photography within visual arts and urban research practice. Panellists will
map out personal ideas about where the future of their urban photographic
practice and research might lead them. Questions addressed are:
Why has urban photography become such an important part of contemporary
visual arts practice, and what role might interdisciplinarity play within
the development of the field?
What are the possibilities for inter-textuality within urban photography?
What possibilities exist for curating/exhibiting/installing urban
photography? What are the possible locales for this work?
Can urban photographic practice be seen as a form in which to engage public
dialogue about the city in new ways?
Panellists: Britt Hatzius, Theresa Mikuria, Mandy-Lee Jandrell, Caroline
Knowles & Michael Tan.

Cost: GBP 120 (GBP 80 students, Photofusion and LIP members)
Conference details and booking from www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/cucr/
Exhibition and workshop details available at www.photofusion.org