GIL PASTERNAK // The Photographic Divide: Remaking Community Heritage in a New Cultural Order

This event has ended.

The recording of the event is now accessible in the Media Archive.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC DIVIDE

Remaking Community Heritage in a New Cultural Order

This talk will centre around the craze for collections of photographic community heritage to explore its socio-political ramifications in a cultural order underpinned by a conflictual politics of recognition. Steadily proliferating in Western society and its proxies following the dissolution of twentieth-century political idealisms, these collections have tended to draw on historical domestic photographs in an attempt to safeguard the cultural heritage of weakened communities, via self- reliance and in accordance with their historical self-imaging. The resulting collections have arguably enhanced public recognition of the values and beliefs upheld by members of their administrating communities. Yet, they have also standardised a perception of historical domestic photographs as pathways to the community’s authentic identity and irrefutable past. The talk will thus introduce the notion of the Photographic Divide to consider the way in which unequal access to domestic photographic production in the past has come to prevent some communities from participating on equal terms in the remaking of community heritage in the present. In doing so, it will argue that the craze for photographic community heritage has prompted photographically disadvantaged weakened communities to experiment with alternative photographic production and archival practices in an attempt to take ownership of their political recognition.

—

Gil Pasternak is Professor of Photographic Cultures and Heritage in the Photographic History Research Centre (PHRC) at De Montfort University (UK), also serving as Europe & UK Editor of the quarterly Photography & Culture. His research explores the reciprocal influence of political discourse and photographic practices, with his recent publications analysing intersections between photographic cultures, liberal-democratic aspirations and populist politics. In 2018-21, Pasternak led the European Commission funded research project Digital Heritage in Cultural Conflicts (DigiCONFLICT), investigating exploitations of digital technology in the political administration of visual history within nationally framed zones of cultural conflict.