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- Convenor:
-
James Kapalo
(University College Cork)
Send message to Convenor
- Format:
- Panel
- Location:
- Omikron room
- Sessions:
- Thursday 7 September, -
Time zone: Europe/Vilnius
Short Abstract:
This panel addresses the impact that photography, and the various practices and techniques associated with the technology of photography, has had in shaping religions since its invention in the 19th century.
Long Abstract:
This panel addresses the impact that the photographic medium, together with the various practices and techniques associated with the technology of photography, has had in shaping religions since its invention in the 19th century. While photography has been adopted by many religious communities as a way of materialising communal memory, presenting values and beliefs, and generating the presence of the supernatural, other religious groups have rejected or restricted its use perceiving danger in its seemingly peculiar power to capture reality. The global medium of photography has been the subject to dynamic and culturally-specific adaptation representing one of the most pervasion technologies adopted and adapted by religious actors.
The various technological innovations and interventions, from photocollage, cropping, over-painting to digital editing, have allowed religious communities to experiment and innovate, creating new visual, material and digital religious cultures whilst the increasing accessibility and affordability of photography in the 20th century democratised the production of religious images which became easily reproduceable on a mass scale allowing photography to be become a powerful force for spreading new religions and reinvigorating existing ones. Photography also became a means of controlling religious groups from their use by the police to create the image of the illegal sectarian or in the course of surveillance operations. The work that photographs do in religious communities and in society relies on their character as both visual images and material objects. This panel invites papers that explore not only how photographs are viewed, but how they are made, altered, used, kept, lost and destroyed.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 7 September, 2023, -Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the impact of photography on the production of icons in the twentieth century. Using the case of the Archangelist movement in Moldova, I illustrate how their use of photo-icons pushed beyond the accepted boundaries of the use of icons in the establishment of a saintly identity.
Paper long abstract:
The Orthodox tradition of icon painting, whilst claiming an unchanging pedigree, has nevertheless evolved over centuries to incorporate new pictorial formats, new materials and visual techniques of communication. These changes in the way that saints are depicted have had quite profound implications for the relationship between representation and saintly identity in Orthodox Christian belief. This paper explores the impact of photography on the production and power of icons in the twentieth century. Using the case of the Archangelist movement in Moldova, I illustrate how photo-icons produced by the leaders and members of this religious movement pushed beyond the established boundaries of the use of icons in the establishment of a saintly identity, breaking canonical rules on the representation of saints. Through the application of photographic technologies and techniques of intervention, Archangelists iconographers maintained the formal and aesthetic characteristics of icons whilst strengthening the indexical, physical relationship between living persons and their iconic representations. I argue therefore that photography allowed for the production of a new type of image that could effectively express the ontological complexity of a new type of living saint in the persons of the Archangelic leaders of the movement.
Paper short abstract:
Wedding photography provides its own norms and conventions that express specific values not only regarding representation but also in processes of production and reception. The current paper asks how do these norms and conventions express, confirm, adapt, and transform religious and secular values?
Paper long abstract:
Wedding photography can be described as a genre with its own stylistic norms and conventions that express specific values not only in their representation but also in the different practices of production and reception. During the production process the photographer often spends some time alone with the newlyweds in a specific place which they have agreed on beforehand to stage and take photos of the couple. After the wedding the pictures are exhibited and received in different contexts. They are framed and hung on the walls of the couple's, their friends' and family members' homes. The couples review the pictures and organise an album to remember the "happiest" day of their lives, show the album to people who weren't able to attend the reception, or look at the photos together with the wedding guests to collectively remember the day. These photographic practices have ritualistic dimensions that are shared across many cultures in religious and secular settings. Therefore the current paper asks how do stylistic norms and conventions of wedding photography express, confirm, adapt, and transform religious and secular values?
The research question is part of a larger research project funded by EU Horizon (Marie Skłodowska Curie fellowship, www.promising-images.eu). The interdisciplinary study applies a multi-methodological approach that includes 25 narrative-biographical interviews with religious and non-religious couples in Italy, Germany, and Switzerland. During the video recorded conversations, methodologically rooted in visual anthropology, the couples view and comment on their wedding photos and reconstruct their wedding day. The research shows that as a result of wedding photography's stylistic norms and conventions, religious and cultural differences are levelled-out and converge in representation as well as in production and reception practices. The presentation includes clips from the interviews.
Audio-visual equipments: sound and image