Presentations by Streams

Both photo club practices and applied photography of the Soviet and early Post-Soviet periods have been little researched due to the long-lasting lower hierarchical status of photography as an artistic discipline in Latvian art history. As art and memory institutions increasingly acquire photography archives and series from the second half of the 20th century, art researchers, curators and collectors face new challenges interpreting the legacy of Soviet and Post-Soviet photographers. The field still faces a lot of stigma surrounding the state-commissioned works and those produced in amateur photo clubs - their integration into the art photography canon is still in progress. Taking into account the fragmented history of Latvian photography, it is crucial to apply the methodological frameworks of critical theories: viewing archives through a posthumanist lens addresses the agency and materiality of photographs and allows for analysis of the circulation of archives as their status has shifted in the discourses of art during the Soviet period and in the present-day; addressing the portrayed bodies through the disability studies perspective highlights issues of representation of the diversity of embodiment and disqualification of people with disabilities in the Soviet Union; revision of the State commissioned archives underlines the conflicting notions on the modernist heritage in Latvia.
The researchers participating in this panel are three doctoral students working in different fields of art and culture. Their research interests cover photography and circulation of misplaced archives that have not yet been included in the canon of art history and therefore require revision of discursive practices.