The ubiquity of smartphone cameras and social media has profoundly shaped the contemporary visual landscape. As a consequence of globalised networked technologies, individuals have become part of a planetary observational infrastructure. How did this happen? Does the unprecedented and difficult-to-grasp scale of photographic imaging help make sense of the world today? What role do contemporary, everyday image-making practices play in crafting identity?
The Eidolon Centre for Everyday Photography in collaboration with The Photographers’ Gallery present their second international conference on everyday imaging aspects of digital imaging. Topics include the formative influence of social media images, the algorithmic logic of online platforms, and the evolving approaches to perceiving and capturing images in this day and age.
This event will explore unique perspectives on vernacular photography and its peripheries. Featuring insights from internationally recognised experts from various disciplines, the series offers a glimpse into the evolving discourse surrounding mass imaging culture. While the selected topics only scratch the surface, they provide valuable entry points into ongoing conversations about vernacular photography.
Thursday 13 Feb 2025, 15.00 - 17.30
15.00 Introduction
Róza Tekla Szilágyi, director of Eidolon Centre for Everyday Photography welcomes and gives a short presentation about the institution
15.15 Contemporary vernacular photography and capitalism
Ben Burbridge, Professor of Visual Culture, University of Sussex, UK – Extracorporeal Images
Hille Koskela, Professor of Geography, University of Turku, Finland – Digital Divas – Empowering Exhibitionism in Surveillance Society
Discussion and audience questions
16.30 The ecological footprint of contemporary vernacular imagery
A digital presentation by Nadia Bozak, Associate Professor, University of Toronto, Canada – Where Did the Sun Go?: Ways of Seeing, Photographing, and Reflecting Upon a Solar Eclipse
17.15 Screening "Death of a Fantastic Machine.”
Short film directed by Axel Danielson & Maximilien Van Aertryck. Followed by a drinks reception.
Friday 14 Feb 2025, 11.00 - 12.30
A special, everyday imaging focused Crit Club workshop with Cem A
This workshop will be run by Cem A, an Artist with a background in anthropology, known for running the art meme page @freeze_magazine
Crit Club is a performance by Cem A. where two teams debate an unrealistic question about art. We are often stuck between the binary of praise and non-engagement in the art sphere where people are increasingly hesitant to inhabit spaces of disagreement.
This workshop is for those with enthusiasm in the vernacular and interested in navigating uncharted waters through roleplay and quick thinking.
Friday 14 Feb 2025, 13.30 - 17.30
13.45 Welcome
A short introduction to the work of Eidolon and the aims of the event
14.00 The excessive scale of contemporary everyday imaging...
The excessive scale of contemporary everyday imaging and the most common scenarios.
Andrew Fisher, Research Fellow in Photography, FAMU, Prague, Czech Republic – Vernacular photography: A “colossal and labyrinthine phototheque in whose depths stalks the prodigious image of our strangeness.”
Daniel Rubinstein, Writer, philosopher and psychotherapist in private practice – Raw & Unconfined: From Psychic Fragments to Infinite Photos
Discussion and audience questions
15.20 Introducing the winners of the Eidolon Grant in 2024
Introducing the winners of the Eidolon Grant in 2024
15.55 Computational aspects of everyday imaging
Discussion moderated by Kendal Beynon, PhD researcher at CSNI in partnership with The Photographers’ Gallery, with Olga Goriunova, Professor and Director of Research in the Media Arts Department at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK in conversation with George Oates, Co-Founder & Executive Director of the Flickr Foundation
16.55 Announcing the Eidolon Grant in 2025
The Eidolon Grant is an international programme that is presented annually to artists, academics, professionals, researchers, collectors and vernacular photography enthusiasts whose past work and proposed project is centred around the image heritage of everyday photography.
17.00 Closing remarks
Closing remarks and summing up the lessons learned from Cem A.’s workshop
Eidolon Centre for Everyday Photography is an institution based in Budapest dedicated to showcasing, studying, analysing and appreciating everyday photography and banal imaging from every part of the world. We hold on to the belief that this genre is a valuable cultural artefact, positioned at the intersection of creativity and everyday routines. The visual heritage of everyday photographs forms the foundation of our exploration and storytelling. These images are also capable of revealing hitherto unexplored narratives about the social, cultural, and political aspects of the times and places in which they were created. We think it is time to put this unique heritage of mankind into the very centre of our attention.
Conference conveners:
Róza Tekla Szilágyi, Director of Eidolon Centre for Everyday Photography
Endre Cserna, Head of programming at Eidolon Centre for Everyday Photography
Sam Mercer, Producer of the Digital Programme at The Photographers' Gallery
Luisa Ulyett, Curator, Talks and Events at The Photographers’ Gallery
