Visual History: Institutions and Media of Visual Memory

Competed research project

Supervision: Annette Vowinckel, Jürgen Danyel

Participants: ZZF Potsdam, Herder Institute Marbach, Georg Eckert Institute for International Research on School Books Braunschweig, German Museum Munich

Project Blog: www.visual-history.de

The aim of this project is to generate a website providing crucial information in the field of visual history, including encyclopaedic articles as well as case studies, information on current research projects, conferences, new books and legal standards of picture publishing.

Forschung

Projekte

Bookcover: Agenten der Bilder. Fotografisches Handeln im 20. Jahrhundert

Image Agents
Photographic Action in the Twentieth Century

 Annette Vowinckel

Completed Book project

On the one hand, images steadily gain attention as historical sources and as subjects of research. On the other hand, those who produce, distribute, edit, sell or buy pictures often remain anonymous. This book aims at answering the question of how ‘photographic action’ comes to be a new form of political action that draws on the documentary force as well as on the subjective reality of photography.

Portrait of a teenager from the educational institution Aszód (Hungary). Source: private archive Tamás Urbán.

Negotiated Images
The Control of Visual Representations and Socialist Image Politics in Hungary, 1963-1989

Eszter Kiss
Completed PhD project

The management and control of public communication is essential for any dictatorial regime. Usually, censorship concentrates on written texts, but in the age of mass media other media, such as theatre, film and television, also had to be monitored in order to control public opinion. In the twentieth century, pictures were used more and more often for propaganda reasons, making the proactive management of images for publication crucial for dictatorial states.

Schoolbooks as Visual Media
Iconographies of Socialism

Lucia Halder

Completed PhD project

In conveying history, images play an important role. They structure content, visualise issues, illustrate abstract relationships and emotionalise connections to the surrounding world. As a potential bearer and distributor of collective visual memories, educational media therefore require particular attention and interdisciplinary methods of analysis.

Visual History: Institutions and Media of Visual Memory

Competed research project

Supervision: Annette Vowinckel, Jürgen Danyel

Participants: ZZF Potsdam, Herder Institute Marbach, Georg Eckert Institute for International Research on School Books Braunschweig, German Museum Munich

Project Blog: www.visual-history.de

The aim of this project is to generate a website providing crucial information in the field of visual history, including encyclopaedic articles as well as case studies, information on current research projects, conferences, new books and legal standards of picture publishing.

Forschung

Projekte

Bookcover: Agenten der Bilder. Fotografisches Handeln im 20. Jahrhundert

Image Agents
Photographic Action in the Twentieth Century

 Annette Vowinckel

Completed Book project

On the one hand, images steadily gain attention as historical sources and as subjects of research. On the other hand, those who produce, distribute, edit, sell or buy pictures often remain anonymous. This book aims at answering the question of how ‘photographic action’ comes to be a new form of political action that draws on the documentary force as well as on the subjective reality of photography.

Portrait of a teenager from the educational institution Aszód (Hungary). Source: private archive Tamás Urbán.

Negotiated Images
The Control of Visual Representations and Socialist Image Politics in Hungary, 1963-1989

Eszter Kiss
Completed PhD project

The management and control of public communication is essential for any dictatorial regime. Usually, censorship concentrates on written texts, but in the age of mass media other media, such as theatre, film and television, also had to be monitored in order to control public opinion. In the twentieth century, pictures were used more and more often for propaganda reasons, making the proactive management of images for publication crucial for dictatorial states.

Schoolbooks as Visual Media
Iconographies of Socialism

Lucia Halder

Completed PhD project

In conveying history, images play an important role. They structure content, visualise issues, illustrate abstract relationships and emotionalise connections to the surrounding world. As a potential bearer and distributor of collective visual memories, educational media therefore require particular attention and interdisciplinary methods of analysis.