The workshop aims to foster a space for debating photographic collections from the colonial period, as active agents in the visual construction of the past. We invite presentations that address the production of images in the former colonial territories both in institutional contexts (civil or military authorities, public or private organizations) and in personal circles (vernacular or professional photographers’ collections). Decades after the fall of the European empires, we also welcome discussions on the movements of images over time and through space: the trajectories of collections between formal and informal archival contexts, the blurring of boundaries between private and public, the reconfiguration of the meanings and uses of photography from a historical period under intense scrutiny.

We invite proposals that explore the production and transits, the (memorialistic, museal, scientific, political) uses and spaces in which the contemporary revisiting of photographic images is taking place, along with its multiple connections with intimate, historical and political representations of the colonial past.

Proposals should be submitted to imaginedpasts@ics.ulisboa.pt by 10 September 2019, including abstracts (max. 150 words), a short biographical note, and contact and affiliation details.

Decisions on acceptance of proposals will be communicated by 20 September 2019.