The Democratic Image

Date :21/04/2007 until 22/04/2007
Event Costs: Event rate £75 / £55
Location: The Mechanics Centre, Princess St, Manchester

Photography and Globalisation - Major International Symposium 21-22 April

©2004 John Perivolaris

The Democratic Image symposium is the final event in the Look 07 celebration of photography calendar. Bringing together world-renowned writers, thinkers and practitioners, this unmissable event explores how photography is changing and goes to the heart of major debates in photography by seeking to evaluate the state of photography in a globalised, digital world.

During two days of discussion and related photographic events, leading practitioners, critics, curators, editors, activists, representatives of leading institutions, and representative community groups will ask: Who is taking photographs? Who is looking at them? Who decides what we see?

The keynote on Saturday will be by Pedro Meyer, an internationally renowned photographer, pioneer of digital photography, and founder-director of ZoneZero.com (perhaps the world's leading photography website) will provide a visionary introduction to the potential of digital photography to extend the parameters of the medium and enable the visual media to become a truly democratic representation of global identities.

This is followed by YOU ARE HERE, a session exploring the limits of accessibility made possible by digitisation and how such limits might relate to processs of democracy as a highly contested term. Bill Thompson (Writer/Blogger) explores how the land lies proposing that, although technology is offering us new forms of expression and distribution, these do not implicitly imply a process of political democratisation. Suvendu Chaterjee (Photographer, DRIK, Kolkata, India) will explore his experience of working in heavily westernised technological framework and will investigate the extent to which technology is allowing under-represented communities in the majority world the chance of self-representation. Celina Dunlop (Picture Editor, The Economist) will investigate the changing role of picture libraries and the media in representing the contemporary world.

After lunch Mark Sealy (Autograph ABP/inIVA) will provide a second keynote observing that democracy is a Euro-centric construct, through an address entitled: Slave Encounters - Images of Blacks before 1839, and that photography has always related to power and index and mainly has been used to promote a colonising view of subaltern identities

Following on from Mark's address Mark Haworth-Booth (University of the Arts, London & V&A) will chair and respond to presentations by TIffany Fairey/Anna Blackman (PhotoVoice, London) and Geert van Kesteren (Magnum, author of Why Mister, Why?).

Through community-based documentary photography projects around the world, PhotoVoice is enabling those who would traditionally have been the subjects of photographers, such as refugees, street children, orphans, HIV/ AIDS sufferers and special needs groups visually to represent their own lives. PhotoVoice emerged out of a creative partnership between Anna Blackman and Tiffany Fairey whilst both were studying for MA degrees in Social Anthropology at Edinburgh University. Sharing a background and interest in documentary photojournalism, they decided to integrate participatory photography into their MA dissertations, independently establishing the Street Vision project in Vietnam and the Rose Class project in Nepal in 1998. These two projects became the two founding initiatives of an organisation that is now an award-winning international charity.

Born in Amsterdam, Geert van Kesteren first worked as a photojournalist in Iraq during Operation "Desert Fox" in 1998. He returned to Iraq in April 2003 and spent several months working on assignment for Newsweek and Stern magazines. His work has been published in many other international magazines, and has led to two books: Mwendanjangula! Aids in Zambia and Why Mister, Why?, about his experiences in Iraq. In 2004, he received the Visa d'or at the Festival Visa in Perpignan

A round table discussion will draw the first day of the symposium to a close.

Delegates will then be invited to attend a reception at Cornerhouse gallery which will be showing Do Not Refreeze: Photography Behind the Berlin Wall. The exhibition which is part of the LOOK 07 programme of activities, shows work produced by photographers working in East Germany before the fall of the Iron Curtain. The exhibition shows how photographers were able to produce critical work under the restrictions imposed by the state machinery of the GDR.

Sunday's programme starts with a presentation by Marysa Dowling (Photographic artist and educator) and Elizia Volkmann (Artist, educator and researcher).

Marysa Dowling’s work as both a photographic artist and educator is concerned with the interaction between individuals and social groups. Through collaboration, investigation and experimentation, her photography-based projects explore the ways in which we represent ourselves in relation to others. Dowling explores our sense of place, our perception of others and the identities we assume. She concentrates on relationships, family and community as interdependent elements. Further presentation to be confirmed.

Exploring ideas around self identity, Volkmann's work has increasingly become interested in how digital technology has contributed to the devaluing of images and the rapid increase in the velocity of their traffic in our accelerated digital age. Through online communities like MySpace rather than print; images have become a currency in themselves as opposed to a commodity. This is also mirrored by the relationship people have with their own image in an age mass affirmation.

Break-out sessions follow offering a chance to see how practitioners from citizen journalists, self-publishers, the online community and artists are developing work and content around issues of self representation and democracy.

After lunch the HOW INSTITUTIONS ARE ADAPTING session brings together speakers who are trying to deal with issues digitisation and democracy at an institutional level. Chaired by Francis Hodgson (Head of Photographs, Sotheby's), the session will look at whether in an age of personalised and on-demand experience traditional institutions such as galleries and publications are becoming increasingly anachronistic and how this is affecting the cultural value of photography.
Addressing these questions will be; Sarah Fisher (Arts Council England); Clare Grafik (Curator, Photographers' Gallery); Paul Herrmann (Director, Redeye) and Greg Hobson (Curator of Photographs, National Media Museum).

Rounding off the event a panel discussion featuring speakers from the both days will make concluding remarks about the issues raised during the symposium.

A blog will be launched in partnership with Photographers' Gallery and openDemocracy.net around the 11th April with a keynote by David Levi Strauss.

EVENT TIMES Saturday registration 9-10am Event closes 5.30pm
Sunday start 10am Finish 5.40pm Tickets are available by clicking the link below or by phone (0845 094 5184) with a rate of £75 for the event (£55 concessions)

The Democratic Image is a Look07 event www.look07.com in partnership with Redeye – The Photography Network, Photographers Gallery and OpenDemocracy.net.

Funded through Arts Council, Manchester City Council, AGMA and the Prince Claus Fund.

Please Note: People who are in receipt of benefits can book by clicking the student rate of £55 on the ticket order page.

For institutional bookings or other booking enquiries please email julian@redeye.org.uk or call 0845 094 5184