Informed Bodies: Decolonizing the Politics of Representation in Late Soviet Photography

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel focuses on the representation of women as models and photographers in late Soviet photography of the Baltic region from the 1960s and 1980s . Relying on theoretical approaches informed by gender studies, the posthumanist perspective, and critical theories such as postcolonial discourse, this panel investigates the notion of the “informed body” from three distinct vantage points: the body of the female model in nude photography and self-portraiture; the body of the photographic archive that holds traces of its biography; and the body of knowledge regarding the production of the history of photography. These “bodies,” oppressed by the Soviet cultural policies and/or societal norms, have remained invisible long after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Decolonizing the politics of representation requires revision of patriarchal art canons through the illumination of women photographer’s archives; acknowledgement of the cultural diversity of the USSR by studying non-Russian regions such as the Baltics; and adding nuance to Western art photography discourses by attending to regional specificities of post-Soviet photography. Through close readings of artists’ works and examination of the circulation of their archives, the panelists analyze the gendered condition of photography and the politics of discovering and inscribing photography from the late Soviet Union into broader art-historical narratives.

Sub Unit

• Arts I: Visual Culture, Material Culture, Applied and Fine Arts

Chair

• Josie Johnson, Stanford U

Papers

• The Gaze Ecosystem: Representations of Zenta Dzividzinska’s Photographic Archive - Liga Goldberga, Art Academy of Latvia / U of Latvia (Latvia)

• Writing the Body: Reassessing the History of Latvian Photography - Liana Ivete Zilde, Art Academy of Latvia / U of Latvia (Latvia)

• Nude Photography and Self-Portraiture by Women Artists in the Late Soviet Union - Maria V Garth, Rutgers, The State U of New Jersey

Discussant

• Alise Tifentale, CUNY Kingsborough Community College