Project Details
Projekt
Photography for everyone? Everyday life in private and amateur photography (an exhibition project)
Applicants
Dr. Torsten Näser; Professorin Dr. Ira Spieker
Subject Area
Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 555966417
This knowledge transfer project focuses on photography as a ubiquitous practice and as an instrument of socialization. The number of images taken – and published – daily has increased enormously, not least with the advent of the smartphone at the end of the 2000s. What is of interest in this context is everyday photography. This encompasses private and amateur photography practices, both of these are based on collective structures and can be observed in photography clubs as well as (social media) online communities. Both fields will be examined exploring visual knowledge, media imprints and the practices of archiving as well as the circulation of photographs. The project thus follows on from the DFG project "Seeing Pictures // Acting Pictures. The ‘Freiberger Fotofreunde’ (Freiberg Friends of Photography) as Community of Visual Practice" (project no. 429701372). It focused on the practice of an amateur photography club that still exists after more than 70 years and was founded in the GDR. The key research findings include the specific media (co-)design and visual character of space. Related to this is the high relevance of collective teaching-learning processes of the community of visual practice and the ideas of a "good photo" cultivated and internalized by the members. The function of photo archives, which have steadily grown in the years of the club’s existence, is closely related to this: Their collections constitute (cultural) capital as well as resources as they enable the circulation and publication of images in exhibitions, publications and competitions. This new project widens the scope of the above themes buy working in cooperation with museums and regional photography groups in Dresden, Jena and Hattingen. Its main milestone will be three exhibitions. The museum presentations will thus focus on: (1) actors, (2) the visual appropriation of space, (3) media diversity, (4) the performativity of photographic practices and (5) their sustainability. The transfer of knowledge is accompanied by research into photographic practices in regional clubs and on social media platforms. Application partners are the Technische Sammlungen Dresden, the Stadtmuseum Jena and the LWL-Museum Henrichshütte in Hattingen. The locations and collections of these museums are ideally suited to reviewing and expanding the previous insights and perspectives: in relation to (1) other photo clubs, (2) locations in East and West Germany and cities of different sizes and habitual characteristics, and (3) social-media image practices.
DFG Programme
Research Grants (Transfer Project)
