[ecrea] Northern Light: Landscape Photography and Evocations of the North

CONFERENCE – Sheffield Hallam University – 4-5 July, 2016
Website: https://northernlight2016.wordpress.com/

CALL FOR PAPERS
Please submit a 300-word abstract to (c.t.goldie /at/ shu.ac.uk), to be 
received no later than 30 March, 2016.  We aim to give you a response 
within three weeks of the final submission date. Offers of papers, 20 
minutes in length, are requested from scholars, practitioners and from 
all relevant disciplines. The aim of the conference is to broaden our 
understanding of the Northern Landscape in photography, but critical 
approaches from history, geography, philosophy, as well as literary, 
cultural and visual studies will all be considered.

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE
Within the tradition of western art there was a recognizable ‘Northern 
Renaissance’ and arguably there has always been something distinct about 
visual representations of the North and Northerness: a cool light, a 
subdued palette, explorations of human activity and land-use that are, 
perhaps, particular to northern regions. Some of these tendencies can 
also been seen in the photographic practice of the twentieth century; 
most notably in the restraint of New Objectivity and its influence on 
New Photography. However, in recent decades there has been a growing 
inclination to derive such photographic images not from material reality 
but, rather, to construct them from a conceptual idea.

If all landscape images are an abstraction – as Gerhard Richter has 
argued – a distillation, a reduction, always and necessarily a partial 
account of what is there (and this applies equally to maps and mental 
conceptions of land and landscape) – then this conference invites 
consideration of the limits of representation when applied to 
photographic evocations of the North and Northerness. Of particular 
interest are papers that consider the tensions within the notion of 
landscape photography as an art of record[ing]: as document or as 
imaginary; as actuality or encoded; the landscape perceived versus the 
landscape conceived.

Whilst most papers are likely to be concerned with contemporary 
photographic practice we are also interested in generating discussion 
around the historical development of landscape photography, its 
relationship to painting, for example, especially that of the Northern 
Renaissance and ideas on the Sublime. We would also consider discussions 
of the representation of Northern landscapes in literature, cinema and tv.

At the heart of this exploration is a line of enquiry that seeks to 
address the argument that there is an identifiable Northern landscape 
tradition, and to consider whether there are recognizable 
characteristics around which evocations of the North cohere: particular 
tendencies in terms of subject matter, approach or visual language. We 
are also interested in exploring ways in which global travel, including 
migration, has enriched or renegotiated the way the North is ‘seen’ and 
represented.

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS - we are delighted to announce the following: 
Professor Liz Wells (University of Plymouth) will be giving the keynote 
paper – Professor Wells is author of Land Matters: Landscape 
Photography, Culture and Identity (2011); Simon Roberts will be speaking 
about his photography – for example work that he made in Russia during 
2004/5 - published and exhibited as Motherland and Polyarnye Nochi 
(Polar Nights).

THEMES AND TOPICS FOR PAPERS
Papers may address but should not be necessarily confined to the 
following themes and topics –

· regional representations of the Northern Landscape – North Britain, 
Canada, the    Arctic regions, Northern Europe, the Nordic countries, 
Siberia
·    diversity, distinctiveness and continuities; contrast and similarity
·    land, ice and water
·    seascapes and glaciers
·    expeditions and extremities
·    light, atmosphere, season, climate
·    adversity, violence, catastrophe
·    stillness and detachment
·    peopled, vernacular
·    man altered landscapes
·    landscape and the ‘Anthropocene’
·    land-use and agriculture
·    wilderness and the ‘natural’ landscape
·    the idealized
·    the Sublime
·    framing and the culture of seeing
·    the real
·    landscape photography as an art of record(ing)
·    New Objectivity, New Topographics, deadpan
·    the imagined
·    constructed, staged and encoded
·    the photographer as painter
·    the landscape as perceived, conceived and lived
·    insider and outsider
·    inhabited, familiar, known, observed
·    walking and lived experience
·    landscape process; time, change and movement
·    emotional and visceral responses
·    land and environment as politics
·    space and place
·    subject or setting
·    travel and exploration
·    landscape as amenity; tourism, leisure, beauty spots and view points
·    as ‘back-drop’ for outdoor pursuits: extreme sports
·    contemporary practice as well as the historical development of 
landscape photography
·    the relationship to painting, to the Northern Renaissance, and to 
the Sublime
·    Abstraction, distillation, mapping and the limits of representation

SEND 300-word abstract to: (c.t.goldie /at/ shu.ac.uk)


CONFERENCE REGISTRATION
Full two-day conference – £60
Day tickets – £30
Students - £20 for full conference, £10 for one day;
Senior Citizens - £20 for full conference, £10 for one day;
Unwaged rate - £10 for the full conference

Registration  : https://northernlight.eventbrite.co.uk
                      https://northernlight2016.wordpress.com/


Please address enquiries to:
Darcy White,
Principal Lecturer in Visual Culture, FHEA Sheffield Hallam University 
UK (D.White /at/ shu.ac.uk)

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