The workshop explores the institutional, disciplinary, and material condition, as well as the ontological fluidity of photography in Twentieth-century East Asia. We aim to facilitate an interdisciplinary cross-fertilisation of photography’s manifold contours. Moreover, we will address the trans-regional, trans-Asian, and trans-cultural nature of photography in ideas and practices, and its role in shaping different forms of knowledge. Attendance of the workshop (from February 17 to 19 with full online access) is free of charge, but pre-registration is required. Invited guest speakers include Oliver Moore (Groningen), Ayelet Zohar (Tel Aviv), Maki Fukuoka (Leeds), Franz Prichard (Princeton) and Thy Phu (Toronto).

Day 1 17/02/2022 (Online via Zoom/CATS Hörsaal 010.01.05, Voßstrasse 2)

14:00–14:15 Welcome remarks

14:15–15:15 Keynote lecture
Anti-Photography and Opaque Images: Towards an Alternative Narrative on the Genealogy of East-Asian Photography, from Meiji to Contemporary Practices
Ayelet Zohar (Tel Aviv University)
Moderation: Sarah E. Fraser (Heidelberg University)

15:15–15:30 Coffee break

15:30–17:00 Panel 1: Memory/everyday life (a)
Chair: Barbara Mittler (Heidelberg University)

  • Shaowen Zhang (Harvard University), Colour Dictionary: Revolutionary China’s Souvenir Photographs
  • Mi Zhou (University of St Andrews), The Lens of Everyday Life: Amateur Photography and Modern Life in 1930s China
  • Minna Lee (Princeton University), Fractured Memories, Divided Frames: Revisiting Park Chankyong’s Black Box (1997)

17:00–17:15 Coffee break

17:15–18:45 Panel 2: Discursive spaces/situated knowledge
Chair: Maki Fukuoka (University of Leeds)

  • Celio H. Barreto Ramos (Seneca College), Margaret’s Letter: A Digital Media Shared Experience
  • Xinyue Yuan (UC Irvine), Night Excursions to West Lake: Photography and Expositions in Modern China, 1911-1929
  • Yi Liu (UC San Diego), “A Vast Territory with Rich Resources” (dida wubo): Reframing Nature through Photographic Objects in the 1950s

18:45–19:00 Coffee break

19:00–20:00 Book launch
Photography’s appearances in China: over- and underestimated
Oliver Moore (University of Groningen)
Moderation: Barbara Mittler (Heidelberg University)

Day 2: 18/02/2022 (Online via Zoom/ ZO Room 120.01.10, Voßstrasse 2)

10:00–11:30 Panel 3: Memory/everyday life (b)
Chair: Ayelet Zohar (Tel Aviv University)

  • Jiaqi Wang (CU Boulder), Portraying the Self or Performing the Other? Costume Photo, Transformed Body, and Gender Performance in The Goddess Scatters Flowers (Tiannü sanhua, 1917)
  • Shih-cheng Huang (SOAS), From Aerial Photography to New Documentary: Representation of Disasters between 1923 and 1945 in Japanese Photography
  • Ji Hye Alice Han (Sophia University), Visualising the Postwar Shadow: Ishiuchi Miyako, Tōmatsu Shōmei, and Yokosuka

11:30–11:45 Coffee break

11:45–12:45 Panel 4: Ecology/built environment
Chair: Oliver Moore (University of Groningen)

  • Shirley Ye (University of Birmingham), Representation and Excavation in Engineering Landscapes
  • Sarah Melsens (University of Antwerp), Construction Photography in Post-independence Pune (India): An Emerging Tool of Building Practice?

12:45–14:00 Lunch break

14:00–15:00 Special lecture
For a Photographic Pedagogy of Unlearning
Franz Prichard (Princeton University)
Moderation: Yanling Li (Heidelberg University)

15.00–15:15 Coffee break

15:15–16:45 Panel 5: Eye-witnessing/social reality
Chair: Thy Phu (University of Toronto)

  • Mycah Braxton (Harvard University), The New Photography Movement: From “Scientific” Knowledge to Social Realism
  • Po-hsi Chen (University of Cambridge), Bringing the Human World Home: Renjian (Human World) Magazine and Third World Photojournalism
  • Lin Du (UCLA), Eva Sandberg Siao: Photographs of the Reconstruction of Tiananmen Square in 1959

16:45–17:00 Coffee break

17:00–18:00 Book launch
Warring Visions: Photography and Vietnam (Duke University Press, 2022)
Thy Phu (University of Toronto)
Moderation: Giulia Pra Floriani (Heidelberg University)

18:00–18:15 Short break

18:15 Film screening (CATS Hörsaal 010.01.05/online)
Chine, Une Histoire Intime
Based on Thomas Sauvin’s collection and Shixin Liang’s research on the Beijing Silvermine. Director: Emiland Guillerme. Followed by a discussion among Emiland Guillerme, Thomas Sauvin, Barbara Mittler, Shixin Liang, and students from the seminar Intimate Histories at Heidelberg University

Day 3: 19/02/2022 (Online via Zoom/CATS Hörsaal 010.01.05, Voßstrasse 2)

10:00–11:00 Panel 6: Photographic art reproduction
Chair: Fengyu Wang and Giulia Pra Floriani (Heidelberg University)

  • Franziska Lampe (ZI Munich), Unboxing ‘Exotica’: Perspectives on Non-European Art in the Bruckmann Archive
  • Elise Dupré (Ghent University), Reading a Photograph: Auguste Rodin, Victor Goloubew and the Possibilities of the Art Book in Ars Asiatica (Éditions G. Van Oest, 1914–1935)

11:00–11:15 Coffee break

11:15–12:45 Panel 7: Travel/expeditions
Chair: Sarah E. Fraser (Heidelberg University)

  • Jeehye Kim (University of Salzburg), The Photo Series of the “Archaeological-historical Expeditions” from the Archives of the Japanese Colonial Government of Korea
  • Feng Guo (University of Edinburgh), Rediscovering the Frontier: the Northwest Photography in Republican Chinese Media (1931-1945)
  • Peng-hui Wang (CTGU), Combining the History of Photography and Anthropology in Post war Taiwan: Chang Tsai and His Photographs Revisited

12:45–14:00 Lunch break

14:00–15:30 Panel 8: Materials/materiality
Chair: Franz Prichard (Princeton University)

  • Joseph W. Ho (Albion College), Printed Windows, Traveling Frames: Transnational Photograph Albums and Missionary Visualities in Modern China and Taiwan
  • Wing Ki Lee (HKBU), Disobedient Photobook: Photobooks and Protest Image in Contemporary Hong Kong
  • Asako Katsura (UC Irvine), Busshitsu in Photography: The Materiality of Photographed Objects in Conceptual Photography in Japan and California in the 1960s–1970s

15.30–15:45 Coffee break

15:45–16:45 Keynote lecture
Seeing, Showing, and Returning: Tsuchida Hiromi's Fukushima
Maki Fukuoka (University of Leeds)
Moderation: Melanie Trede (Heidelberg University)

16:45 Roundtable

Please note: The programme page on our website allows for displays in three time zones. For those who cannot attend all the panels, we will provide recordings during the workshop with password protection. If you would like to receive the password, please fill in the form at the bottom of the programme page.

Registration is now open for the workshop ‘Photography as Knowledge (Re)production in Twentieth-Century East Asia’ through the website: https://photoworkshop2022.com