Lecture Explores How History of Photography Mediates Aspects of Modern Life

The UNM Depart­ment of Art and Art His­tory, with in-kind sup­port from the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Art Museum, spon­sors a Pub­lic Talk, “Rep­e­ti­tion and Dif­fer­ence: The Dis­sem­i­na­tion of Pho­tog­ra­phy,” with Geof­frey Batchen, on Tues­day, Feb. 12 at 5:30 p.m. in the new Sci­ence & Math Learn­ing Cen­ter build­ing, Room 102.

A Beau­mont Newhall Vis­it­ing Pro­fes­sor of Pho­tog­ra­phy, Batchen’s work as a teacher, writer and cura­tor focuses on the his­tory of pho­tog­ra­phy with a par­tic­u­lar inter­est in the way that pho­tog­ra­phy medi­ates aspects of mod­ern life. This makes pho­tog­ra­phy an espe­cially chal­leng­ing phe­nom­e­non to study and much of his work addresses the method­olog­i­cal task that this study poses for art his­tory. In addi­tion to his exper­tise in the gen­eral the­ory and his­to­ri­og­ra­phy of pho­tog­ra­phy, Batchen helped pio­neer the study of ver­nac­u­lar photography.

Some of his impor­tant pub­li­ca­tions include: Burn­ing with Desire: The Con­cep­tion of Pho­tog­ra­phy (1997), Each Wild Idea: Writ­ing, Pho­tog­ra­phy, His­tory (2001), For­get Me Not: Pho­tog­ra­phy and Remem­brance (2004), William Henry Fox Tal­bot (2008), and Sus­pend­ing Time: Life, Pho­tog­ra­phy, Death (2010) and he co-edited Pic­tur­ing Atroc­ity: Pho­tog­ra­phy in Cri­sis (2012).

Batchen has also curated exhi­bi­tions for muse­ums through­out Europe, North Amer­ica, Japan, Brazil and Aus­tralia. He has taught at the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, San Diego, the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico, the Grad­u­ate Cen­ter in New York and is cur­rently Pro­fes­sor of Art His­tory at Vic­to­ria Uni­ver­sity of Welling­ton in New Zealand.