CALL FOR PAPERS
MUSEUMS AND VISITOR PHOTOGRAPHY
Edited by Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert
(Cyprus University of Technology and 2014 Smithsonian Institution Fellow
in Museum Studies)
We invite international submissions to be included in this forthcoming book to be published in colour by MuseumsEtc [www.museumsetc.com] in 2015.
With the development of photographic technologies and mobile devices billions of photographs are produced yearly in museums throughout the world with the number rising year by year. While museum visitors accumulate personal photographs from museum visits, the kind of photographs they produce, how, and for what reasons, is largely understudied.
Furthermore, with the help of online social networks and photo-sharing applications, vernacular photography has entered our economy of images dynamically and has a growing function to play in visually defining people and places. Perhaps for this reason, museums are increasingly using visitor photography in innovative and effective ways: to engage and involve their publics, reach out to new audiences, and facilitate new learning.
Purpose
This book aims to be both a practical source of information and inspiration for museum professionals, and a valuable source of new research information.
Editor
Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, this year’s recipient of the Smithsonian Institution Fellowship in Museum Practice, is Coordinator of the Visual Sociology and Museum Studies Lab and Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts of the Cyprus University of Technology. She holds a PhD in museum studies from the University of Leicester; is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, an Arts and Humanities Research Council Award, and an A. G. Leventis Foundation Scholarship; and has published widely on photography and museums.
Submissions
We welcome proposals for both chapters and case studies from museum professionals, academics, photographers, artists and other visual practitioners. Proposals from those with practical experience of evaluating and assessing outcomes in this field area are particularly welcome.
We are seeking contributions that deal with a wide range of issues in connection with visitor photography in museums:
- museum visitor photography and its relationship with experience and memory
- visitor photography and learning
- visitor photography, performance and identity
- behaviour of visitors with cameras
- kinds of photographs produced by visitors in museums
- photography and sociability inside museums
- connecting with museum artefacts through photography
- photographic reproductions of museum artefacts and uses/sharing
- visitor photography and uses outside the museum space
- visitor photography and everyday life
- online photo-sharing and visitor photography
- visitor photography and the development of new audiences
- visitor photography and its role in fundraising, development or marketing
- photographing museum visitors (artistic and other representations)
- museum visitors using photography as artists or/and researchers
- artists using photography as museum visitors or/and researchers
This list is not exhaustive so we welcome proposals on other issues related to the central theme of the book.
Submitting a proposal
If you are interested in being considered as a contributor, please submit a proposal and a short biography (using Microsoft Word). Proposals should be 300-500 words in length and biographies 100-200 words.
You can propose to submit either a chapter or a case study. Chapters will be be 4000-6000 words in length. Case studies will be 1000-2000 words, and may be largely image-based. Please prepare your proposal with these parameters in mind. The work should not have been published elsewhere.
The deadline for proposals is 15 September 2014. Please email your proposal to both the editor [theopisti.stylianou@cut.ac.cy] and the publishers [proposals@museumsetc.com]. If you have any queries meantime, please email the editor, Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert.
Museums and Visitor Photography will be published in print and digital editions by MuseumsEtc in 2015. Contributors will receive a complimentary copy of the publication and a discount on more.
Important dates
PROPOSALS DUE: 15 SEPTEMBER 2014
CONTRIBUTORS NOTIFIED: 15 OCTOBER 2014
COMPLETED PAPERS DUE: 31 JANUARY 2015
MuseumsEtc | July 2014