The International Conference of Photography Studies, to be held on 4-6 December 2023 at Colégio dos Jesuítas, Universidade da Madeira, Funchal, Portugal, invites proposals on Photography and Site – Routes, Cartographies and Drifts. The conference aims to explore the ways in which photography has been used to map and represent territories, as well as documenting journeys, migrations and movements across landscapes. In addition to designating spatially defined territories, the notion of “site” has been associated with metaphorical and metonymic meanings, with historical, identity and relational dimensions, which replace or, at least, superimpose this more essential geographic dimension. Moreover, this overcoming of a more properly territorial circumscription is implicit in studies that relate photographic representation to geographic imagination, where photography emerges as a particularly apt means of defining spatiality. In this sense, from the digital revolution of the 21st century itself, where photography is inscribed as a plural practice and hybrid technique, the reconfiguration of this concept and others in its proximity, such as: that of lieux de mémoire (Pierre Nora), that of non-place (Marc Augé), or heterotopia (Michel Foucault). At the same time, we highlight the role of photography in artistic practices in different disciplinary areas, which privilege notions such as wandering, drifting and chance, namely, through the act of walking, either as an object or as a methodology or work process.

The deadline for the present call for proposals is 15^th of June 2023. We invite proposals for 20-min presentations in Portuguese and English.