Boots and Hands: Visual Tropes and Democratic Public Culture

Robert Hariman: Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Northwestern University

John Louis Lucaites: Professor, Department of Communication and Culture, Indiana University

A lecture in the 2010-2011 Speaking of Photography series, organized by the Department of Art History

When:
Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 6:30 p.m.

Where:
York Amphitheatre (EV 1.605), Concordia University
Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Complex
1515 Ste-Catherine St. W., Metro Guy-Concordia

Cost:
Free of charge. Everyone welcome.

Description:
Photojournalism, broadly construed, is a mode of public art that schools us to "see" and to be "seen" as citizens.  As such, it provides an iconography for how to "think" about political character, relationships and events.  This lecture explores the implications of such a political iconography by examining the somewhat odd penchant that photojournalists have for taking pictures that feature "feet" and "hands" (or some iteration of the same, such as shoes, boots, gloves, prostheses, etc.) either exclusively or primarily.

Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites are the authors of No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy - a book and a blog, each dedicated to discussion of the role that photojournalism and other visual practices play in a vital democratic society. Robert Hariman is professor in the program of rhetoric and public culture, department of communication studies at Northwestern University, and is the author of Political Style: The Artistry of Power. John Louis Lucaites is professor of rhetoric and public culture in the department of communication and culture at Indiana University and an adjunct professor of American studies. He is co-author of Crafting Equality: America's Anglo-African World.

Presented in collaboration with the international colloquium Imaginaires du présent. Photographie, politique et poétique de l'actualité/ Imaginaries of the Present: News Photography, Politics, and Poetics, October 22-23, Grande Bibliothèque M.450. Organized by Figura, centre de recherche sur le texte et l'imaginaire, Université du Québec à Montréal

Speaking of Photography is made possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor, with additional support from the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art; the Concordia University Research Chair in Art History; the Art History Graduate Student Association; Figura, centre de recherche sur le texte et l'imaginaire, Université du Québec à Montréal; and Château Versailles Hotel.