This conference will look at the way our relation to photography since the 19th century has been played out and negotiated in the theater, both in theory and practice. To what extent does photography — its materiality, representations, discourses and mythologies — provide material for creation, invention and reflection for the stage? How can photography’s own modes of representations and imaginary be taken up by the theater, to be embodied and expanded, and to articulate questions about self-identity, otherness, our understanding of the world and of the stage itself? To what extent do writers, practitioners and theoreticians of the theater rely on photography to fuel their own creative process? In what ways can the stage be considered one of the places where photography’s role and evolution can be observed, engaged with and understood?

Topics for the conference:

Papers are invited to look more specifically at the following questions:

  1. The presence and representation of photography as medium and practice in theatrical works (plays and performances).
  2. The role of photography in the evolutions of modern and contemporary theater’s theory and practice.
  3. Pictures, practices, and metaphors of photography as a way to negotiate the theater's own engagement with the world.
  4. Photography exhibition or publication as a part of theater programming.
  5. The link between theater and photography in art theory. 

The conference is expected to be held in French and English.

Proposals for papers:

Proposals including a title, a 500-word abstract, and a short biography with relevant publications should be sent by April 10th, 2017 to colloque.photo.theatre at gmail.com. The title of a document should identify the submitter’s last name. For papers presented in English, an abstract in French will have to be provided by October 1, and a slide presentation with an outline of the paper, also in French, by November 1.

 Advisory committee:

  • Didier Aubert (THALIM/ARIAS/CNRS, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris 3)
  • Anne-Françoise Benhamou (ENS Université de recherche Paris Sciences Lettres)
  • Mildred Galland-Szymkowiak (CNRS, THALIM/ARIAS)
  • Brigitte Joinnault (THALIM/ARIAS/CNRS, Université Côte d’Azur, CTEL (EA 6307))
  • Jean-Marc Larrue (CRILQC, CRIalt, Université de Montréal)
  • Marie-Christine Lesage (École supérieure de théâtre, Université du Québec à Montréal)
  • Servanne Monjour (Théolinium, Université de Montréal)
  • Magali Nachtergael (Pléiade (EA 7338), Université de Paris 13)
  • Julie Noirot (Université Lyon 2, Passages 20-21 (EA 4160))
  • Julie Sermon (Université Lyon 2, Passages 20-21 (EA 4160))

Organization:

  • Brigitte Joinnault (THALIM/ARIAS/CNRS, Université Côte d’Azur, CTEL (EA 6307))
  • Servanne Monjour (Théolinium, Université de Montréal)
  • Julie Noirot (Université Lyon 2, Passages 20-21 (EA 4160)).