Wednesday, 3 December at 7 pm; Mišnica GT22 in Maribor, Slovenia
Through the talk Miha Colner will analyse the developments of contemporary war photography that has undergone immense changes over the past two decades. Although the emergence of digital media and internet has enabled immediate creation and sharing of images this has not necessarily brought to bigger transparency of discourses. Mainstream media, (more than ever) controlled by governments and corporations, are practising new kind of censorship while the photographs of conflicts are often manipulated (in post-production) and taken out of their original contexts. However, nowadays engaged contemporary photographers usually have to find alternative channels to express their visions of war and violence as universal horror. They are often moving to artistic context.
Is the art context the only remaining space for engaged photographic practices whether it be documentary or conceptual? In the past few years there were several initiatives, publications, exhibitions and conferences, discussing contemporary photography dealing with conflicts and its new role in digital era. Miha Colner will show different approaches of engaged photography, coexisting on a thin line between documentary and conceptual photography, dealing with conflict and abuse of power. Therefore, he will display and present the abilities of photography to confront the dominant discourses of power structures.
Ivan Petrović, Vitak, 1999