Description
Book SynopsisIn the aftermath of Covid-19, the subject of 'empty places' has gained renewed topicality and resonance. Watching, Waiting presents a collection of essays, both photographic and written, that brings emptiness into interdisciplinary focus as an object of study that extends beyond the present. The contributors approach the specific interrelationships of photography and place through emptiness by considering historical and contemporary material in equal measure. Drawing on architecture, anthropology, sociology, and public health, among other fields, they provide insights into geographically and temporally diverse production models of empty places and their corresponding complex and sensitive global and local relations, while also tackling the ethics of behaviour and protests that unfold within them. The book's chapters, both visual and scholarly essays, cover areas that range widely both thematically and geographically, spanning static film footage of Nicosia's buffer zone, protest photographs in the wake of Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Bristol, staged images from the University of Zagreb's ethnological archives, historic landscape and architectural photography, aerial shots of covid-19 mass graves in Brazil, photos of artificially built field hospitals and quarantine rooms during the pandemic, and images of empty airports at night. Through still and moving images, Watching, Waiting examines the photographic aestheticization of emptiness, existing stereotypes of 'empty places', and transformations of human experiences. Free ebook available at OAPEN Library, JSTOR, Project Muse, and Open Research Library Contributors: Ruth Baumeister (Aarhus School of Architecture), Isabelle Catucci da Silva (Federal University of Parana), Stella Fatovic-Ferencic (Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts), Martin Kuhar (Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts), Catlin Langford (Centre for Contemporary Photography), Jessie Martin (University of West London), Stuart Moore (University of the West of England), Luca Nostri (Independent Artist Photographer), Kayla Parker (University of Plymouth), Bec Rengel (University of the West of England), Tihana Rubic (University of Zagreb), Klaudija Sabo (University of Klagenfurt), Anna Schober (University of Klagenfurt), Elke Katharina Wittich (Leibniz University Hannover)
Trade ReviewThe editors are to be congratulated for
this collection, which was conceived at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. We
are reminded of a range of ways in which photography has been used to document
separation and seclusion in times of turmoil.Liz Wells, Emeritus Professor in Photographic
Culture, University of Plymouth, UK
Watching, Waiting: The Photographic Representation of Empty Places offers a timely and engaging selection of essays that addresses the new role of photography during the last years of pandemic lockdown. Importantly, the volume brings forth reflections on how the photographic medium has worked to create lines of connection between people in isolation and crisis. But it also discusses the way photographs are used to encounter and meditate emptiness and desolate urban spaces – in a way that recalls the early works by Niépce and Daguerre. A highly valuable contribution to the ongoing expansion and enrichment of photography studies!
Sigrid Lien, University of Bergen
“Watching, Waiting: The Photographic Representation of Empty Places” is a timely, interdisciplinary contemplation on what photographs of empty spaces mean and evoke. It is highly recommended to researchers and artists interested in the history, politics, and aesthetics of representing empty spaces.
*Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, Associate Professor, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus/ Museum Lab leader, CYENS Centre of Excellence***
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements
Introduction: Watching, Waiting
Sandra Križić Roban and Ana Šverko
The Politics of Emptiness
Chapter 1. Separation Anxiety: Filming the Nicosia Buffer Zone
Stuart Moore and Kayla Parker
Chapter 2. The Empty Plinth and the Politics of Emptiness
Bec Rengel
Chapter 3. Occupying Empty Places : Political Protest and Solidarity Among Strangers in Times of Social Distancing
Anna Schober
Revisiting Emptiness
Chapter 4. Staging Isolation: Images of Seclusion and Separation
Catlin Langford
Chapter 5. Milovan Gavazzi and Ethnographic Photography : Practices and Policies of Croatian Field Research and Archiving in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
Tihana Rubić
Chapter 6. Emptiness as a Tool in the Representation of Public Health Monuments in Croatia
Stella Fatović-Ferenčić and Martin Kuhar
Rethinking Emptiness
Chapter 7. Silent Ruins: Traditions, Photographs, and the Perception of the Void
Elke Katharina Wittich
Chapter 8. A Land of Collective Solitude
Isabelle Catucci
The Performance of Emptiness
Chapter 9. The Power of Emptiness : Arne Jacobsen’s National Bank, Copenhagen, 1961–1978
Ruth Baumeister
Chapter 10. Ornament as a Regulatory System : Photographic Representations of Field Hospitals During the Covid-19 Pandemic
Klaudija Sabo
Chapter 11. Deconstructing Understandings of Emptiness : An Examination of Representations of Transitory Space and ‘Non-place’ in Photography
Jessie Martin
A Visual Essay: Documenting Emptiness
Chapter 12. Distance, Proximity
Luca Nostri
About the Contributors
