Garry Fabian Miller, The Middle Place Golden, 2012
‘Photographs, which cannot themselves explain anything, are inexhaustible invitations to deduction, speculation, and fantasy.’
Susan Sontag (1977) On Photography
Photo Oxford’s fifth edition explores Truth and Photography. Questions about photography’s relationship to truth are as old as the medium's history. The Photo Oxford Symposium will consider photography’s relationship to truth today, from investigations into the stories missing from photographic records to photographers challenging their medium’s relationship to actuality.
Join us at Oxford University’s Weston Library for a day of papers and discussions with renowned artists, writers, curators and academics.
With special thanks to Stephen Barber for his generous personal support, and the University of Oxford for their in kind support.
SYMPOSIUM PROGRAMME
10:00 Introductions
10:15–11:00 In conversation: Siân Davey and Garry Fabian Miller
11:00–11:45 Paper: Geoffrey Batchen, Surface Tension: Photography, Truth, Materiality
11:45–12:00 Break
12:00–12:45 In conversation: Heather Agyepong and Stephen Barber
12:45–13:00 Film: The Moment of Truth (2024), Directed by David Baksh
13:00–14:00 Lunch
14:00–14:45 Paper: Diane Smyth, First, Abandon the World of Pseudo-Certainty...
14:45–15:30 Paper: Jermaine Francis, Once Upon a Time: A Gospel in Racial Time
15:30–15:45 Break
15:45–16:45 Panel: The Archive, Truth and Photography. Chaired by Richard Ovenden with Crofton Black, Edmund Clark and Taous Dahmani.
16:45–16:50 Closing remarks
SPEAKERs
Heather Agyepong is an award-winning artist and Olivier-nominated actress. Her visual artist practice centres around mental health and wellbeing, diaspora, the archive, radical truth telling and catharsis.
Stephen Barber is the founder and director of Prix Pictet, an international photography prize that harnesses the power of photography to draw global attention to issues of sustainability.
Geoffrey Batchen is Professor of History of Art at Trinity College, University of Oxford. He is a specialist in the history of photography.
Crofton Black is an investigator and writer. He is senior reporter at the international investigative newsroom Lighthouse Reports, specialising in technology and security topics, and has acted as a consultant for complex international legal cases.
Edmund Clark is an artist interested in linking history, politics and representation through bookmaking, installation, photography, video, text and found materials. Recurring themes include visualising state power and experiences, spaces and processes of control in contemporary conflict.
Taous Dahmani is an art historian specialising in photography. She is a curator at the Photographers’ Gallery and her writing has been widely published in photobooks and journals. She is the associate editor of the award-winning publication Shining Lights: Black Women Photographers in 1980s–90s Britain (MACK/Autograph ABP, 2024).
Siân Davey uses photography to investigate psychological landscapes, her own and those of the people around her.
Garry Fabian Miller has exclusively made ‘camera-less’ photographs since the mid-1980s. His memoir Dark Room was published by the Bodleian in 2023.
Jermaine Francis is a multi-disciplinary artist who primarily works with photography and video. His practice investigates these mediums, and how they shape our understanding of visual culture, exploring their roles in storytelling and the construction of memory.
Richard Ovenden is Bodley’s Librarian and the Helen Hamlyn Director of the University of Oxford Libraries, and is responsible for their strategic oversight. He holds these posts alongside his role as Head of Gardens, Libraries & Museums (GLAM), University of Oxford.
Diane Smyth is a writer, educator, curator, and editor of the British Journal of Photography.
Please be aware that we will be filming in some of our events and exhibitions. This will be solely for our own use and not for commercial distribution.
SYMPOSIUM
TRUTH AND PHOTOGRAPHY
Weston Library
31 October
10am–5pm
Standard entry: £25
Concessions: £18.75
Live streamed: £5
Friends of Photo Oxford receive a 25% discount
Photo Oxford Patrons FREE (booking required)