Clark Symposium: "The Meaning of Photography"

November 19, 2005
9:00 am

How can we write the histories of photography? How should art history and visual studies integrate the special technical and aesthetic challenges posed by the medium and respond to the intense interest it has provoked in the museum and the academy in recent years? This public symposium will bring together some of the most distinguished historians and critics of photography to tackle these questions and discuss the current state of the history and theory of photography.

PROGRAM

9:00 - 9:15 a.m.
Introductions
Michael Ann Holly, Director, Research and Academic Program
Robin Kelsey and Blake Stimson, Symposium Conveners

9:15 - 9:45 a.m.
Jonathan Crary (Columbia University)
Spectral Surfaces/Luminous Practices

9:45 - 10:15 a.m.
Doug Nickel (University of Arizona)
Peter Henry Emerson: The Mechanics of Seeing

10:15 - 10:45 a.m.
Robin Kelsey (Harvard University)
The Problem of Luck

10:45 - 11:15 a.m.
Break

11:15 - 11:45 a.m.
Sally Stein (University of California at Irvine)
Sizing Up Photography

11:45 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Panel discussion with morning speakers

12:30 - 2:00 p.m.
Lunch

2:00 - 2:30 p.m.
Geoffrey Batchen (The City University of New York)
Dreams of Ordinary Life: Photography, History, Memory

2:30 - 3:00 p.m.
Blake Stimson (University of California at Davis)
A Photograph Is Never Alone

3:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Mary Ann Doane (Brown University)
Indexicality and the Concept of Medium Specificity

3:45 - 4:00 p.m.
Break

4:00 - 4:30 p.m.
Benjamin Buchloh (Harvard University)
Photography and Conceptual Art

4:30 - 5:15 p.m.
Panel discussion with afternoon speakers

5:15 - 5:30 p.m.
Concluding remarks

5:30 - 7:00 p.m.
Reception at Williams College Museum of Art

[Back]