The Anthropology Forum BRAC University (AFBU) invited Professor Christopher Pinney to present a lecture titled "CITIZENS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: THE CAMERA AND THE POLITICAL IMAGINATION” at GDLN Center of its Mohakhali campus on Sunday, 13 May 2018.
Christopher Pinney is Professor of Anthropology and Visual Culture at University College London. His chief interests are in commercial print culture and photography in South Asia and popular Hinduism in central India. He is currently leading the European Research Council funded project “Photodemos/Citizens of Photography”.
The lecture laid out the background and some of the initial results of a current multi-sited projected funded by the EU. The research (in Nicaragua, Greece, Nigeria, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Cambodia) explores the resonance of ideas developed by Ariella Azoulay in the context of photojournalistic practices for vernacular practices. At its heart is the assumption that photographs might be more usefully viewed as ‘prophetic’ than records of the past.
“The camera may be a device that allows us to see what is yet to come” he said. He also focused on the way technological advancement has facilitated photo and video journalism.
Adressing the trends in social media websites, he said that people are choosing to share their thoughts and feelings via photographs since technology has made it affordable.
Drawing on the historical experience he said that photography has raised new concepts nowadays because of widespread enthusiastic involvement. Photographs of last two decade have built new concepts and political thoughts. “More researches should be conducted to reveal historical transformations from these photos”, he added.