Faculty of Communication & Design

The lead sponsor of the symposium is Partners in Art. The conference is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (expected), the Institut français and the Consulat Général de France à Toronto as part of Paris-Toronto and is co-presented with the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.

The Ryerson Image Centre’s symposium entitled “The ‘Public Life’ of Photographs” will analyze the dissemination of photographic images from the nineteenth century to the present. The reproducibility of a photograph largely determines how it is used, shared, and made accessible. Photography can perform a wide range of functions: it can be a vehicle of information, an instrument of ideology, a means of scientific exploration, and an artistic medium. The flexible nature of photography and its use within many different contexts demand a wide scholarly approach. The conference will bring together experts in the history of photography, art history, philosophy, and visual culture, including 15 internationally renowned scholars and curators, from Canada, the United States, France, Germany, England, and New Zealand, for a three-day symposium (May 9 to 11, 2013) at the Ryerson Image Centre, Ryerson University.