Keynote Speaker: Dr. Verónica Tell, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The history of photography has been mainly narrated from the academic and artistic centers of the global north, particularly from the United States and Europe. However, in recent times a twist in this narrative has begun to emerge. In 2003, Christopher Pinney and Nicolas Peterson published the book Photography's Other Histories in which they argued for a departure from the idea that photography is a technology exclusive to the Western world, and proposed looking at the medium as one that rapidly spread beyond the West and that was appropriated by different viewers and creators around the world. Since then, new research has appeared inviting us to review this narrative. Little by little these new perspectives have been building upon a more inclusive vision of a medium that radically changed the history of visuality since the 19th century. Recent publications such as Global Photography. A Critical History (2020) and Global Photographies: Memories—History—Archives (2018) have embraced this global turn. Others, such as Photography, History, Difference (2015) have put the history of the medium in dialogue with the notions of history and difference. Taking as a point of departure these proposals, Other Histories of Photography is a conference that invites to decentralize the history of the photography and that aims at collectively contributing to a different a more plural narrative.

This conference is an invitation to build on these ideas in order to expand the narratives that have been in force until now. What kind of repercussions did the arrival of photography have in places outside the hegemonic centers? How has this medium been understood and appropriated in the Global South? What happens when we broaden historical viewpoints both geographically and conceptually? How do contemporary practices dialogue with the colonial legacy widely documented through photography? Is it possible to rewrite and expand the history of the medium? How have notions of race, gender, class, and ethnicity shaped photography’s history? We invite presentations that deal with these and other similar questions and that contribute to a plural and diverse narrative. We are particularly open to proposals that study little explored or ignored histories of photography, as well as theoretical proposals that seek to rethink the way of approaching the medium from the global south.

Please include in your proposal:
- Title and abstract (300 words max.)
- Short bio and institutional affiliation (300 words max.)

Deadline for submitting proposals: February 28th, 2023
Send your proposal to juani-souniandes.edu.co

Final presentations should be 15 minutes long. We accept proposals in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Selected participants will be notified by April 15th, 2023.