Alef and Shem: Original artwork

Abstract

Artist and scientist Sharon Gershoni presents here two works of her art in different mediums. Alef is a series of drawings made with Japanese sumi ink on washi paper and is a reflection on the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, alef. Shem (Name) is a photograph exposing the symbols and attributes of women in Western art and thought.     

Re-covered: Wangechi Mutu,Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle,and the postcolonial potentiality of black women in colonial(ist) photographs

By pasting on, cutting into and drawing over images of bodies, artists Wangechi Mutu and Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle re-cover colonialist photographs to recover postcolonial black female subjectivities. In her project, The Uninvited, ongoing since 2009, Hinkle has literally and conceptually drawn upon colonial-era postcards that feature photographs of nude West African girls and women, while Mutu has strategically combined images of black African and black American women from ethnographic and pornographic magazines to create her Ark Collection (2006). In the artists’ hands, the black female body is no longer shot, captured, framed or otherwise subjected to the camera. The narrative force and assumed veracity of photography is denied by ambiguous re-presentations of the multifaceted, processual nature of both art and the self. Moreover, rather than merely suggest the subjugation and fragmentation of black women, the works represent the postcolonial potentiality of transformation and agency.     

Visualizing ‘community’: an experiment in participatory photography among Kurdish diasporic workers in London

Most accounts of research methods in academic journals give an impression that research progresses in an orderly, logical and linear manner. Yet, in reality it is often more ‘messy’ than we admit. This paper reports on an experiment on the use of visual photographic methods in a study of Kurdish migrant workers in London who have had problems at work. The aim was to understand the type of problems workers faced and how they attempted to solve or deal with the issues they encountered. We were interested in the extent to which workers looked to local communities for support and if or how their identity impacted on the actions they took. The use of participant‐generated photography developed while the research was in progress and was utilized in addition to individual and group interviews in order to explore if this was helpful (to us and to research participants) in explaining issues, such as identity and ‘community’, which can often be difficult to verbalize or articulate. As a first foray into incorporating visual methods we struggled at first with ways to explain to participants the type of data we wanted, before learning that it was important to ‘lose control’ and allow participants to ‘speak’ for themselves using the lens of their cameras. The paper explores theoretical justifications that influenced our approach in our first attempt at participatory photography. It will look at the use of images constructed by research participants and how these were used in focus group situations to explore how or whether individual meanings of work, identity, community and belonging have resonance in the wider Kurdish community.     

Photographs from the Grahamstown Lunatic Asylum,South Africa, 1890–1907

This essay investigates photographs taken at the Grahamstown Lunatic Asylum during the superintendence of Dr Thomas Duncan Greenlees, from 1890 to 1907. It examines two specific sets of photographs: first, the photographs taken for public consumption, and, second, the casebook photographs of the patients. I argue that the photographs produced for public consumption ascribe to the broader public image of the asylum. Greenlees constructed a public image of the asylum being committed to the curative regime of moral therapy while catering to the tastes, proclivities and activities of white private patients. The photographs for public consumption also include images of black patients. Yet, in this time of British colonial rule in South Africa, there was differential treatment for black patients. Under Greenlees’s superintendence, they were assigned supervised physical labour tasks under the pretext of them being occupational treatment. The discourses of cure and recovery in such a “treatment” regimen become signalled by the black patient’s ability to work. Thus, the curative ideal of the asylum for black patients, disseminated as its public image, is primarily concerned with domesticating black bodies into a docile and cooperative labour force. However, the public image of black patients as being passive before the asylum’s regimen is problematised through an analysis of the second set of images – the casebook photographs. These photographs depict patients confronting, refusing and resisting the asylum administration. Thus, the casebook photographs are valuable in recuperating active resistance and hold the potential to undermine the public image of the asylum.     

Economic Crisis and Migration

This article develops a perspective on African migrant integration, reflecting on the ‘visualization’ of migrant experience. It formulates some considerations on how integration of migrants can be captured, drawing on empirical material from street photography in modern-day Greece. The main research question concerns the role of visual images as sites for the construction and depiction of social difference. In that sense, their meaning goes beyond their content and they act as visual representations of discourses. The paper addresses this issue through a focus on local aspects of integration of sub-Saharan African migrants in the city centre of Athens. Specifically it looks at three themes related to discourses on migrant integration in today's economic crisis: (1) the physical and social environment of marginalization, (2) the migrant body and (3) the fear of the migrant. On the basis of the findings a synthesis is attempted of several parallel existing representations in discourses about African migration. The synthesis betrays the ongoing struggle between, on the one hand, the dominant structures that the state creates to deal with their presence and, on the other, the migrant strategies for adaptation and inclusion, which in turn sustain the mechanisms and form integration takes in this context.     

Dignity and ethics in research photography

The aim of this paper is to provide new conceptual and practical insights about the issues associated with ethics and dignity when undertaking research involving the collection of photographic data. Case studies of photographs taken as part of a research project in Chennai, India, are employed to illuminate the significance of dignity. The case studies reveal that dignity-in-context provides a useful conceptual tool that encapsulates the range of ethical issues that might be encountered. This concept has two dimensions. The first, dignity-in-outcome, assists deciding what and whether to photograph by drawing attention to the need for those being researched to benefit from the research, to present an authentic view of the situation and to ensure that participants are not demeaned or reduced. The second is dignity-in-process that helps researchers decide why and how to photograph in terms of involving those being researched in the way an image is captured, choosing the right angle for the image and the impression the image will give if and when it is published.     

高速铁路对京津冀经济圈要素流动的影响

高速铁路兴建后,随着交通条件的改善以及旅途时间的缩短,劳动力要素在京津冀区域间的流动更加频繁,区域间产业的转移使得资本要素呈现出流动性.便捷的交通促进了区域间人才和技术的交流、合作,为信息资源的共享以及信息的通畅流动奠定了物质基础.随着客、货运输的逐步分离,既有铁路货运能力的提升将加快区域间物流业的发展,加速区域物流系统的形成,促进京津冀经济圈的共同繁荣.     

Framing the Self

The meaning of a photograph depends on the story we tell about it. In the case of portraits, these narrative frames shape the self we impute to the sitter. The interiority of the portrait subject, the inner character we imagine is revealed in the photograph, is a result of what we know about photographic portraits, about the sitter, about the photographer, and about the context in which the image was made. Likewise in everyday life, the selves we impute to others are infected by similar processes of narrative framing. Who we are known to be depends not only on self‐presentations but on the stories within which those self‐presentations are placed.     

一种可控高速脉冲产生技术的研究

提出了一种将高速脉冲信号产生转换为可控直流电平产生、脉冲频率信息产生及脉冲合成输出的设计思想。可控直流电平控制脉冲的高低电平值;脉冲所需的频率信息通过可编程数字信号产生,该数字信号控制脉冲的波形包括脉宽和延迟;而脉冲的上升/下降时间则通过调整脉冲合成电路的充放电电流来控制。产生脉冲最小脉宽5ns,最大幅度7V,电平精度0.1V,最小上升/下降时间2ns。     

Building Solidarity with Subjects and Audience in Sociology and Documentary Photography

This article is part of a panel discussion addressing the sociological relevance of Sebastião Salgado’s work as well as documentary photography in general. ²