[Commlist] Call for contributions – Philosophy of Photography 16.2

Call for contributions – Philosophy of Photography 16.2 (Open submission 
issue with a special section on photography and education today)

Philosophy of Photography is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the 
understanding of photography, published twice yearly since 2010. In the 
last three years Philosophy of Photography has published a series of 
extensive special issues that have explored modes of cameraless 
photography (POP 13.2), violence and its relation to the contemporary 
image (POP 13.2 & 14.1), glitch aesthetics (POP 14.2), and the expanded 
visualities arising from new modes of machine learning and widely 
accessible AI (POP 15.1-2). POP 16.1 is an open submission issue that 
will appear in the late autumn of 2024. The subsequent instalment of the 
journal (POP 16.2, Spring 2025) will be an open issue featuring a 
special section on the topic of education as it relates to contemporary 
photography, new media technologies and their critical and theoretical 
discourses.

Call for contributions: The problems and possibilities of a photographic 
education today

Since the early 2000s, significant waves of technological innovation – 
from increasingly networked camera phones to new uses of computational 
techniques and digital methods in the humanities and art history – have 
radically impacted the practice, theory and teaching of photography. 
More recently, a new wave of generative Artificial Intelligence – which 
includes both image generation software like Dall-E and Large Language 
Models such as ChatGPT – has generated a series of moral panics across 
higher education, specifically around issues of academic integrity, 
plagiarism and originality. When it touches on photography in this 
context, journalistic and managerial discourse has tended to focus on a 
range of perceived threats affecting the evaluation of artistic 
production and the truth claims of the critical and theoretical 
discourses surrounding it. As the guest editors of our recent special 
issue on photography and emerging technologies remarked: “regulators are 
trying desperately to catch up with the ethical and sociopolitical 
implications of new technologies and impose regulations and checks. 
Their efforts are, as yet, slower and less critically acute than many 
artistic and activist interventions.” Anecdotally, there seem to be many 
pedagogical practices around the globe whose critical engagement with 
these issues are exemplary and could usefully inform governing bodies 
grappling with the implications of this fast changing technological and 
cultural context. But a regressive atmosphere colours governmental, 
managerial and much journalistic commentary on the topic. In response, 
we want to ask how the creative possibilities and critical potentials 
this situation harbours might help avoid the danger of uncritically 
embracing such technologies. For instance, from the point of view of 
subaltern subject positions and marginalised identities these 
technological upheavals might promise critical purchase on a world whose 
existing technologies of truth construction and knowledge production are 
exclusive and riven with inequalities.

This call invites contributors to explore the question of what it means 
to teach and to learn photography in today’s rapidly evolving 
technological landscape. In particular, we ask what are the substantive 
problems facing critical teaching practices in this context? What novel 
possibilities are presented for the development of radical pedagogies 
and what forms of critical leverage might these find in a conflicted world?

We are particularly interested in contributions that address the 
following questions and topics. But the list is not exhaustive and we 
welcome explorations of other issues arising from the central theme.
* What is the current state of teaching and learning with/against 
generative AI? Should we worry, for instance, if it means the twin 
shibboleths of originality and artistic genius are consigned to history? 
From a pedagogic point of view, in what ways does the current turn 
towards AI urge us to rethink conventional approaches to media literacy 
and artistic creativity?
* How might the fate of photography help one reimagine what an 
institution of learning could be today?
* What broader lessons can we learn from case studies focusing on new 
computational methods, pattern recognition technologies and new modes of 
imaging in photography education?
* What do today’s students of photography (artists, photographers, 
engineers and designers but also editors, archivists, historians and 
theorists) need to learn in order to survive, if not to prosper, in a 
tumultuous world reshaped by the deepening of automation and 
technological control, riven by political upheaval and overshadowed by 
impending climate disaster?
* What are the implications of AI and machine learning for teaching on 
and learning about what Susan Sontag once referred to as “photography’s 
widening, ever incomplete history”? How might these implications reshape 
the History of Photography?
* Does the widespread rush to monopolise on these new technologies 
commercially while attempting to restrict their impact on education 
serve only to cement existing political and economic norms? What 
alternative approaches might serve as, for instance, convincing vehicles 
for pedagogies of decolonisation?
* What resources does the history of radical photography education offer 
today’s students and educators? How might prior forms of critical 
photographic pedagogy, such as those associated with earlier moments of 
feminism, community organising and developing photographic literacy, be 
rethought under contemporary conditions?

Contributions to this special section can approach the questions raised 
critically, theoretically and/or in the form of case studies. They can 
take the form of photoworks, short discursive articles or full scale 
research papers. Please make sure to use the journal’s style guide in 
preparing your contribution. Feel free to contact the editors if you 
have further questions. We encourage all potential contributors to 
browse our back issues to get a fuller sense of the range of work we 
have published.

The deadline for submissions for POP 16.2 is 15 January 2024.

Please mark your submission to this call clearly as follows: The 
possibilities of a photographic education today

Submissions should be made via our website: 
https://www.intellectbooks.com/philosophy-of-photography

Potential contributors with articles, artworks and commentaries on other 
topics are still welcome to submit their work for inclusion in this 
issue. The editors warmly invite submissions exploring any aspect of 
photography, related modes of imaging and visual or digital culture from 
a critical and theoretical standpoint. The journal publishes articles, 
interviews, critical commentaries, print symposia on key topics, book 
reviews, conference reports and analyses of specific technical 
developments. The editors are happy to consider proposals in the form of 
photographic / artistic works. Prospective book, exhibition and 
conference reviewers should contact the editors by email.

No payment is required for submissions to Philosophy of Photography.

Philosophy of Photography is published by Intellect Books and indexed 
with the Web of Science’s Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI).

Editors
Andrew Fisher, FAMU, Prague, Czechia: (andrewthomas.fisher /at/ famu.cz)
Bernd Behr, Camberwell College of Arts, London: (b.behr /at/ camberwell.arts.ac.uk)
Alex Fletcher, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London: 
(a.c.fletcher /at/ csm.arts.ac.uk)
Noa Levin, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland: (noa.levin /at/ usi.ch)
Simon Constantine, University of Nottingham: 
(simon.constantine /at/ nottingham.ac.uk)



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