This seminar will build on Christopher’s September 29 lecture, “Citizens of Photography: Demotic Visual Practices in South Asia”, to consider his broader Photo Demos project, and the associated pamphlet series.
Readings to be completed for the seminar will be circulated in advance.
Registrants are encouraged to bring questions and comments, and to help produce a friendly and intellectually rich discussion.
Image: Photography by Christopher Pinney
Readings
We ask that you read the following materials in advance, which we hope will form the basis for a lively discussion with Christopher and other participants:
- Christopher Pinney, “Seven Theses on Photography”, 2012 (PDF).
- The PhotoDemos Pamphlet Series (online publication):
People
Christopher Pinney
Christopher Pinney is Professor of Anthropology and Visual Culture at University College London. Pinney’s research has a strong geographic focus in central India: initial ethnographic research was concerned with village-resident factory workers. Subsequently he researched popular photographic practices and the consumption of Hindu chromolithographs in the same area. His publications combine contemporary ethnography with the historical archaeology of particular media, including his seminal books Camera Indica: The Social Life of Indian Photographs (1998) and Photos of the Gods: The Printed Image and Political Struggle in India (2004). His publications include Photography’s Other Histories (2003, edited with Nicolas Peterson), The Coming of Photography in India (2008), Photography and Anthropology (2011) and the Camera Artisan: Studio Photography from Central India (2013, with Suresh Punjabi). Most recently, he has been leading a collaborative project funded by the European Research Council, titled “Citizens of the Camera: Photography and the Political Imagination”.