Today, it is easy to take photographs, and everyone is a photographer with a camera in their phone. Photography is so widely spread that it is difficult to say what it actually is. At the same time, photography is a subject at HDK-Valand, with education offered at both undergraduate and advanced levels. Furthermore, photography is a specialization within the artistic research education, and it holds a prominent position within the institution’s senior research.
The description of the photography subject on the department’s website reflects both a broad and narrow definition of the medium. It is a text that the photography collegium has written collaboratively, revised, and worked through over the years. Based on this text – and with connections to my own research – the docent lecture aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the subject of photography within this specific context. The focus is directed both at the students’ work and at the photographic practices represented among the teachers and researchers.
In addition to this year’s degree exhibition at Röda Sten Konsthall, the empirical material is drawn from the photography collegium’s office – a place filled with artefacts, traces, and deposits from the photographic culture that shapes the subject of photography at HDK-Valand.
Finally, the lecture will highlight examples of photographic practices and perspectives that are not included and will reflect on future challenges.
The lecture is free of charge and open for all.
