Photography is a site of contestation. Contestations are in play among perception, framing, projection, construction of reality etc. Photography depicts stories within stories. Photography as a political act transcends the boundaries of personal and social, therefore underlines its political message. The panel aims to decipher the idea of political photography. At what point, human, social objects become political. The panel puts framing analysis as its theoretical scaffolding. Framing reveals how photography is also a political tool across diverse political spectrum. Thereby sometimes what is in the frame reflects the diverse content from what is not in the frame of the same subject/event. Does framing construct social reality? The panel emphasizes on the contextualization of photography. Without it, photography loses its sheen as documentation of time and becomes a-historical. The panel argues that photography is a process, as well as an end itself. As Walter Benjamin talked about the age of mechanical reproduction, photography suffers most as an art, but reaches out to the masses. The panel also incorporates forms of video photography et al. In the age of AI, fake photos, post-truth etc. the act of performance as well as representation by photography at times offers contending visions. Narrative(s) of street-photography is a commentary of the political in any spatial entity. Protests, agitations, movements, sit-ins, breaking barriers are also not far behind! Nevertheless beyond the photography-quotidian, the panel contends that war photography captures devastation of war, plight of humanity in vivo (live) unlike other media.
The panel invites papers on the following sub-themes, but not limited to:
Political Photography: Line of Differentiation
Political Meaning-Making of Human Objects
Stories within Stories in Photography
Photography constructs Social Reality
Capturing the Time: High and Low
Historicizing the Facts
War Photography: Connecting with People in Grief