The Negative

Wednesday, 6 September 2023
6:00PM - 7:30PM (AEST)
Nelson Meers Foundation Auditorium, Chau Chak Wing Museum
This event has ended.
An artwork showing torn up fragments of a photograph

A conversation between artists and scholars about the materials and processes of photographic transformation.

Guilio Paolini Incipit 1975, torn photograph, canvas, wood, in acrylic frame, purchased with funds from the JW Power Bequest 1976, JW Power Collection, PW1976.93.

This panel considers the negative as a site of transformation for representation and image-making. Our speakers will explore the photographic medium’s materiality, processes and performative qualities through practice and theory. 

Co-presented by the Chau Chak Wing Museum, Photographic Cultures at the University of Sydney and the Power Institute.

People

A bearded man with a dark jacket looks at the camera.
Geoffrey Batchen

Geoffrey Batchen is Professor of the History of Art, Trinity College, University of Oxford. He is a specialist in the history of photography.

A woman wearing a black shirt looks at the camera with arms crossed. She is standing next to an abstract artwork.
Justine Varga

Justine Varga is an artist whose work examines the conventions of photography, exploring its process, materiality and relationship with time.
Photo: Peter Morgan

James Tylor

James Tylor is a multi-disciplinary visual artist whose practice explores Australian environment, culture and social history through the perspectives of his multicultural heritage that comprises Nunga (Kaurna Miyurna), Māori (Te Arawa) and European (English, Scottish, Irish, Dutch and Norwegian) ancestry.

A photograph of a woman looking to the left.
Anne Ferran

Working primarily with photography, Anne Ferran’s practice engages with colonial histories and the absence of women and children from the historical record.

Photo: Les Blakebrough