Paper short abstract:

‘Revisited’ is a comparative research involving collaborations with indigenous communities in Central Australia, the Brazilian Amazon, and Far Eastern Siberia. The project employs photography as a collaborative mode of knowledge-production which affords plural articulations around complex themes.

Paper long abstract:

‘Revisited’ (forthcoming, SPECTOR books, Spring 2024) is a tripartite comparative research project spanning a decade of collaborations with indigenous communities in Central Australia, the Brazilian Amazon, and Far Eastern Siberia. Based in archival research and the reframing of dominant historical narratives through the repatriation and repurposing of photographic images with indigenous descendants, the project employs photography as a collaborative mode of knowledge-production which affords plural articulations around complex themes such as trauma, belonging, and hope.

In this talk, I focus on three photographic encounters from the ‘Revisited’ research project, which center on the collaborative making of individual portraits in dialogue with relevant archival images. By concretely unfolding these encounters, including aesthetical and technical choices made before, during, and after the encounters, I discuss how artistic approaches to photographic portraiture may challenge and nuance anthropological epistemologies through collaboration and dialogue, which in turn foster unanticipated questions and reflections.

The presentation will involve screening of photographs, behind-the-scenes/backstage film, and excerpts from exhibitions of the work in various museums and galleries.

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