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Writing Photographs

A research project on the hybrid relationship of photography and writing – and how photographs are expanded, altered and dissected through text in installation and performance contexts through analysing gesture, voice and language as performative and visual means.

By addressing iconic and discursive elements in respective materialities, this research investigates how the hybridity of text and /image works can be defined in intermedial, intertextual and interdisciplinary terms. It challenges the dichotomy between theory and practice through understanding text and writing as integral parts of the artistic process, arriving at an expanded understanding of photographic exhibition practice through gesture, voice and language as performative and visual means.

Convened by Beverley Carruthers and Wiebke Leister, this project started in 2015 with a programme of public talks, and a workshop series, and has since expanded, reaching out to other institutions and communities including Tate Modern, The Photographers’ Gallery, Photofusion Photography Centre, and Photography and the Archive Research Centre (PARC).

Public Lecture Series, London College of Communication:

  • Artist Talk: Anne Tallentire, ‘Photography and Action’ (5 March 2015)
  • Research Paper: Yve Lomax, ‘Photographs, Writing’ (11 March 2015)
  • Performance Lecture: Adrian Rifkin. ‘Talking Writing into a Corner, or On Research without Ends’
  • Performance Lecture: Hayley Newman. 'The Touch of an Eye' (8 June 2016)
  • Performance Lecture: Kreidler/O’Leary, ‘Word, Image and Situated Practice’ (15 June 2016)
  • Artist Talk: Michael McMillan, ‘Words, Sounds, Images and Things’ (1 February 2017)
  • Performance Lecture: David Mollin and Salomé Voegelin, ‘Writer’s Habits’ (8 February 2017)
  • Curatorial Talk: Joseph Kendra, ‘If You Had a Year to Change Something What Would You Do?’ (3 May 2017)
  • In Conversation: Marcus Coates, ‘Th uh wurd iz goo d’ and Peter Liversidge, ‘Proposals for Exhibitions’ (28 February 2018)
  • In Conversation: Jacqueline Saphra, ‘A Bargain with the Light: Poems after Lee Miller’ and Claire Potter 'Going Along Without a Body' (7 March 2018)
  • In Conversation: Emmanuelle Waeckerle, ‘Ode (owed) to O; An exploration of the materiality and musicality of language and experimental reading practices’ and Sarah Pucill, ‘Magic Mirror and Confessions to the Mirror’ (2 May 2018)

Teaching and Peer Learning (Focus Group):

  • Workshop: Daniela Cascella, ‘Writing a Voice’, Siobhan Davies Studio (22 June 2016)
  • Workshop: ERCO Imaging, ‘Writing with Light’, Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre Project Space (26 October 2016)
  • Workshop: Daniela Cascella, ‘Writing Descriptors and& Visual Translations’, Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre Project Space (28 September 2016)
  • UAL Teaching Scholars Award: Beverley Carruthers and Wiebke Leister (2017-19)
  • Workshop: Erica Scourti, ‘Writing Social Media’, Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre Project Space (22 February 2017)
  • Workshop: David Mollin, ‘Writing exhibitions’, LCC (1 March 2017)
  • Exhibition and Performances: ‘How photographs are expanded, altered and dissected by text in the gallery context’ with Response by David Mollin, Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre Project Space (3-13 May 2017)
  • Workshop: Ann Theato, ‘Writing the Voice and Radio Play’, Black Box, LCC (14 June 2017)
  • Workshop: Michael McMillan, ‘Words, Sounds, Images and Things’, LCC (9 May 2018)
  • Workshop: Clunie Reid, ‘Altering the Meaning of Images through Subversion and Detournement’, LCC (31 January 2018)
  • Workshop: Grace Gelder, ‘Performing Image-based Dream Narratives’, LCC (6 June 2018)
  • UAL Teaching Scholarship Exhibition: ‘Exhibition in a Suitcase’, Research Fortnight, LCC, (4-15 March 2019)
  • Workshop: Florian Kühnle, ‘Augmented Photo-Projections’, Art Academy London (23-24 September 2019)
  • Residency and Exhibition: ‘Text-Image Environments’, Art Academy London (23-29 September 2019)

Many thanks to BA (Hons) Photography, MA Photography, PhD students and alumni involved over the years: Patricia Atzur, Victoria Doyle, Ana Escobar, David Dawson, Sabrina Fuller, Alberto Gualtieri, Asa Johanesson, Victoria Jouvert, Jessie McLaughlin, Davide Meneghello, Marcia Michael, Nassim Rad, Herman Rahman, Katrin Ribbe, Ernst Schlogelhofer, Tomoko Suwa-Krüll, Jacqui Taylor, Brenda Vega, Agnes Villette, James Wilde.

External Pedagogic Projects:

  • Erasmus: Beverley Carruthers and Wiebke Leister, ‘A Re-Imagined Portrait’, University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld (30 June 2017)
  • Workshop: Beverley Carruthers and Adrian Wood, ‘Stop the Flow’, Tate Exchange and Autograph-ABP (12-14 February 2018)
  • DAAD Professorship: Wiebke Leister, University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld (2018-19)
  • Erasmus: Beverley Carruthers and Wiebke Leister, ‘Things we gladly throw away…’, University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld (12 November 2018)
  • Teaching Award: Beverley Carruthers, The Royal Photographic Society (2019)
  • Reading Group: Wiebke Leister, ‘Photographers’ Writing’, Photofusion Photography Centre (29 June and 13 July 2020)
  • Workshop: Beverley Carruthers and Wiebke Leister ,‘What we would gladly throw away…’ for practice-based research students, Photography and the Archive Research Centre (19 and 22 March 2021)

External Research Collaborations:

  • Tate Modern: Panel Debate and Workshops with Marcus Coates, Clunie Reid and Erica Scourti, chaired by Wiebke Leister (6 May 2017)
  • Tate Modern Conference with Doug Fishbone, Marjaana Kella, Emma Bolland and Helen Clarke, Alice Maude-Roxby, Jessa Mockridge, Naoko TakaHashi, Paul O’Kane, and Davide Meneghello
    Workshops: Steven Fowler, Emmanuelle Waeckerle, Ajamu and Marianne Mulvey, Grace Gelder (13 October 2018)
  • The Photographers’ Gallery: Beverley Carruthers and Wiebke Leister, 5-week course (19 April to19 June 2021)

Commissions:

  • Artist Scores and Instruction Pieces: Grace Gelder, Stephen Fowler, Emmanuelle Waeckerle, Erica Scourti

Contact

Beverley Carruthers: b.carruthers@lcc.arts.ac.uk
Wiebke Leister:  wiebke.leister@rca.ac.uk

London College of Communication

Contact

Telephone

+44 (0)20 7514 6500

Address

Elephant & Castle

London
SE1 6SB