The seminar brings together two anthropologists and photographers in discussion about photography and the postcolonial:

Chris Pinney, Professor of Anthropology and Visual Culture, UCL

‘Troubled by Photography’

Pinney's research has a strong geographic focus in central India: initial ethnographic research was concerned with village-resident factory workers. Subsequently he researched popular photographic practices and the consumption of Hindu chromolithographs in the same area. His publications combine contemporary ethnography with the historical archaeology of particular media. His books include Camera Indica, Photos of the Gods, and The Coming of Photography in India.

Patricia Spyer, Professor and Chair, Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology of Contemporary Indonesia, Leiden University

‘Counter-archive, Found Archive, Photo-Op: Some Notes on Photography and the Postcolonial’

Spyer has published, among other topics, on violence, media and photography, historical consciousness, materiality, and religion. Her latest book project Orphaned Landscapes focuses on the mediations of violence and post-violence in the recent religiously-inflected conflict in the Moluccas, Indonesia. A co-edited volume Images That Move with Mary Steedly of Harvard University is in press with the School of Advanced Research Press (SAR).

Mark Sealy, Director, Autograph

The Organ That Weeps – Global Photography & Some Notes on Autograph'

Autograph ABP (www.autograph-abp.co.uk/) is a charity that works internationally to educate the public in photography by addressing issues of cultural identity and human rights. It achieves this through formal and informal education programmes, exhibitions, publishing, and the creation of an archive of culturally diverse photography that is accessible to the public for research.

Seminar to be followed by a reception from 17:00 - 18:30.  Registration is free but to secure your place please send an email to Bussie Awosanya (Olubusola.Awosanya@manchester.ac.uk).