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UID:11772@artinliverpool.com
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260428T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260428T200000
DTSTAMP:20260306T132031Z
URL:https://www.artinliverpool.com/events/book-launch-a-dirty-history-of-p
 hotography-chemistry-fog-and-empire-michelle-henning-in-conversation-with-
 sarah-james-about-her-new-environmental-history-of-photography/
SUMMARY:Open Eye Gallery: Book Launch: “A Dirty History of Photography: C
 hemistry\, Fog and Empire” Michelle Henning in conversation with Sarah J
 ames about her new environmental history of photography
DESCRIPTION:Tuesday 28 April / 6pm – 8pm / Open Eye Gallery / RSVP\n\nJo
 in Michelle Henning and Sarah James to discuss questions about the relatio
 nship between the ways in which photography pictures the world\, the mater
 ials from which it is made\, and its relationship to polluting and extract
 ive industries.\n\nFocussing on chemical photography in the interwar perio
 d\, Michelle Henning’s book “A Dirty History of Photography: Chemistry
 \, Fog and Empire” addresses how photographic practice was linked to Bri
 tish imperial ideas about weather\, climate and racial superiority\; photo
 graphy’s dependence on coal\; how the polluted atmosphere (fog) came to 
 represent particular ideas about imperial London\, and how at the same tim
 e\, photographic materials had a sensitivity to atmospheric change and con
 tamination that went beyond the sensitivities assigned to them by the indu
 stry.\n\nHow does thinking about photographs and photography allow us to u
 nderstand our wider relationship with the world\, and dependence on the 
 “nonhuman”?\n\nMichelle Henning says\,\n\n“This book is the culminat
 ion of research done over the last 8 or 9 years\, drawing on the archives 
 of Ilford Limited\, the most well-known British photographic manufacturers
 . I have tried to write in a way that is accessible and evocative\, but al
 so conceptually rigorous. I ended up constructing the book out of 36 “sn
 apshots” or short chapters\, which allow me to move back and forth in ti
 me\, change style and shift from close readings of images to accounts of t
 he wartime chemical industries\, of devastating fogs and gas attacks\, to 
 unusual weather events and air conditioning systems!”\n\nMichelle Hennin
 g is Chair in Photography and Media at the University of Liverpool. She i
 s the author of numerous essays and chapters on photography including Phot
 ography: The Unfettered Image (Routledge 2018). Her new book\, ‘A Dirty 
 History of Photography: Chemistry\, Fog and Empire’\, is published with 
 the University of Chicago. She also works as an artist/designer.\n\nSarah 
 James is Professor of Visual Culture at Manchester School of Art (MMU). S
 he is the author of ‘Common Ground: German Photographic Cultures Across 
 the Iron Curtain’ (Yale University Press\, 2013)\, and ‘Paper Revoluti
 ons: An Invisible Avant-Garde’ (The MIT Press\, 2022). Her new book ‘A
 rt and Ends of Capitalism’ is forthcoming with Manchester University Pre
 ss.  She regularly writes for the international art press.
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.artinliverpool.com/wp-content/upload
 s/2026/03/04_Roll_Film-Selo-works.jpg
CATEGORIES:Talks
LOCATION:Open Eye Gallery\, Mann Island\, Liverpool Waterfront\, Liverpool\
 , L3 1BP\, Liverpool\, United Kingdom
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