Overview

Photographic afterlives explores the cultural, social and political contexts in which photographs from the Algerian War of Independence (19541962) emerge in contemporary art and photobooks. It situates these practices against the backdrop of the wider archival turn in the humanities and the ongoing debates about archives in Algeria. Tracing the movement of historical photographs across multiple spaces, the book unravels the subsequent layers of meaning accrued by these images. It argues that as much as archival contemporary art performs an inquiry into the past, it equally speaks volumes about the distinct and ever-shifting needs of the present. Focused on the work of artists and photographers who excavate side-lined histories of the war, remediate well-known narratives and imagine histories that cannot be recovered from archives, Photographic afterlives shows the great potential of archives of decolonisation.

Full Product Details

9781526181695

Table of Contents

Reviews

‘Through a rich and wide-ranging evidence base and the sophisticated application of theories of photography, Photographic afterlives makes an important intervention into how artists have grappled with narrating both the past and present.’ —Natalya Vince, University College Oxford -- .

‘Fundamental questions of archival memory, stewardship, and decolonization receive new treatment in this revelatory study from Katarzyna Falecka. Thinking alongside contemporary artists who engage the purloined image inheritance of the Algerian War of Independence, Photographic afterlives summons us to contemplate photographic histories from the “long present” of unfinished colonial disentanglement.’ —Anneka Lenssen, University of California, Berkeley ‘Through a rich and wide-ranging evidence base and the sophisticated application of theories of photography, Photographic afterlives makes an important intervention into how artists have grappled with narrating both the past and present.’ —Natalya Vince, University College Oxford -- .

Author Information

Katarzyna Falecka is a Lecturer in Art History at Newcastle University.

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