Philosophy of Photography (Journal)

ISSN 20403682 , ONLINE ISSN 20403690

Philosophy of Photography is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the scholarly understanding of photography. It is not committed to any one notion of photography nor, indeed, to any particular philosophical approach. The purpose of the journal is to provide a forum for debate on theoretical issues arising from the historical, political, cultural, scientific and critical matrix of ideas, practices and techniques that may be said to constitute photography as a multifaceted form. In a contemporary context remarkable for its diversity and rate of change, the conjunction of the terms 'philosophy' and 'photography' in the journal’s title is intended to act as a provocation to serious reflection on the ways in which existing and emergent photographic discourses might engage with and inform each other.

This title is indexed with the Web of Science’s Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI).

For more information, to access the journal or to subscribe visit the Discover platform here.

Category: Contemporary Art, Photography, Visual Arts


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Editors

Andrew Fisher
FAMU, Prague, Czechia
andrewthomas.fisher@famu.cz

Bernd Behr
Camberwell College of Arts

Alex Fletcher
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
a.c.fletcher@csm.arts.ac.uk

Noa Levin
Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
noa.levin@usi.ch

Simon Constantine
University of Nottingham, UK
simon.constantine@nottingham.ac.uk

Rowan Lear
University of Dundee
rlear001@dundee.ac.uk

Notes for Contributors Download


Aims & Scope

Philosophy of Photography (POP) is an international peer-reviewed journal published six monthly in the spring and autumn. The journal's aim is to provide a forum for theoretical and critical debate of issues arising from the historical, political, cultural, scientific and critical matrix of ideas, practices and techniques that constitute photography as a multifaceted and changing form. In a contemporary context characterised by its diversity and rapid rate of transformation, the conjunction of ‘philosophy' and ‘photography' in the journal's title is intended to provoke reflection on the ways in which existing and emergent discourses might engage with each other to inform our understanding of the photographic.

Submissions

To submit an article, please follow the 'Submit' button on the left of this page.
 
Download the Notes for Contributors above for information on format and style of submissions. If you need this document in a more accessible format, please contact info@intellectbooks.com. Find more information on Intellect's Accessibility page.
 
Intellect has partnered with Enago to offer a 20% discount on their services for our authors and contributors. Enago provide English editing services, including copy editing and translation. This service is intended for potential contributors who would like translation and/or copy editing assistance prior to submitting their work for consideration. Visit their page here to find out more.
 
All articles submitted should be original work and must not be under consideration by other publications.
 
Journal contributors will receive a free PDF copy of their final work upon publication. Print copies of the journal may also be purchased by contributors at half price.

Peer Review Policy

All articles undergo initial editorial screening either by the journal's Editorial Team and/or incumbent Guest Editors. Articles then undergo a rigorous anonymous peer review by two referees, following the guidance in Intellect's 'Peer review instructions'. Based on this feedback, the Editors will communicate a decision and revision suggestions to authors. To appeal an editorial decision, please contact the main Editor who will consider your case.

Ethical Guidelines

The journal follows the principles set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Read our Ethical Guidelines for more on the journal's standards.

Editors

Andrew Fisher
FAMU, Prague, Czechia
andrewthomas.fisher@famu.cz

Bernd Behr
Camberwell College of Arts

Alex Fletcher
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
a.c.fletcher@csm.arts.ac.uk

Noa Levin
Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
noa.levin@usi.ch

Simon Constantine
University of Nottingham, UK
simon.constantine@nottingham.ac.uk

Rowan Lear
University of Dundee
rlear001@dundee.ac.uk

Editors

Andrew Fisher
FAMU, Prague, Czechia
andrewthomas.fisher@famu.cz

Bernd Behr
Camberwell College of Arts

Alex Fletcher
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
a.c.fletcher@csm.arts.ac.uk

Noa Levin
Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
noa.levin@usi.ch

Simon Constantine
University of Nottingham, UK
simon.constantine@nottingham.ac.uk

Rowan Lear
University of Dundee
rlear001@dundee.ac.uk

Editors

Andrew Fisher
FAMU, Prague, Czechia
andrewthomas.fisher@famu.cz

Bernd Behr
Camberwell College of Arts

Alex Fletcher
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
a.c.fletcher@csm.arts.ac.uk

Noa Levin
Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
noa.levin@usi.ch

Simon Constantine
University of Nottingham, UK
simon.constantine@nottingham.ac.uk

Rowan Lear
University of Dundee
rlear001@dundee.ac.uk


Call for Papers – Philosophy of Photography 16.2

(Open submission issue with a special section on photography and education today)

Philosophy of Photography is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the understanding of photography, published twice yearly since 2010. In the last three years Philosophy of Photography has published a series of extensive special issues that have explored modes of camera-less photography (POP 13.2), violence and its relation to the contemporary image (POP 13.2 & 14.1), glitch aesthetics (POP 14.2), and the expanded visualities arising from new modes of machine learning and widely accessible AI (POP 15.1-2). POP 16.1 is an open submission issue that will appear in the late autumn of 2024. The subsequent instalment of the journal (POP 16.2, Spring 2025) will be an open issue featuring a special section on the topic of education as it relates to contemporary photography, new media technologies and their critical and theoretical discourses.

Call for contributions: The problems and possibilities of a photographic education today

Since the early 2000s, significant waves of technological innovation – from increasingly networked camera phones to new uses of computational techniques and digital methods in the humanities and art history – have radically impacted the practice, theory and teaching of photography. More recently, a new wave of generative Artificial Intelligence – which includes both image generation software like Dall-E and Large Language Models such as ChatGPT – has generated a series of moral panics across higher education, specifically around issues of academic integrity, plagiarism and originality. When it touches on photography in this context, journalistic and managerial discourse has tended to focus on a range of perceived threats affecting the evaluation of artistic production and the truth claims of the critical and theoretical discourses surrounding it. As the guest editors of our recent special issue on photography and emerging technologies remarked: “regulators are trying desperately to catch up with the ethical and sociopolitical implications of new technologies and impose regulations and checks. Their efforts are, as yet, slower and less critically acute than many artistic and activist interventions.” Anecdotally, there seem to be many pedagogical practices around the globe whose critical engagement with these issues are exemplary and could usefully inform governing bodies grappling with the implications of this fast changing technological and cultural context. However, a regressive atmosphere colours governmental, managerial and much journalistic commentary on the topic. In response, we want to ask how the creative possibilities and critical potentials this situation harbours might help avoid the danger of uncritically embracing such technologies. For instance, from the point of view of subaltern subject positions and marginalized identities these technological upheavals might promise critical purchase on a world whose existing technologies of truth construction and knowledge production are exclusive and rife with inequalities.

This call invites contributors to explore the question of what it means to teach and to learn photography in today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape. In particular, we ask what are the substantive problems facing critical teaching practices in this context? What novel possibilities are presented for the development of radical pedagogies and what forms of critical leverage might these find in a conflicted world?

We are particularly interested in contributions that address the following questions and topics. But the list is not exhaustive and we welcome explorations of other issues arising from the central theme.

  • What is the current state of teaching and learning with/against generative AI? Should we worry, for instance, if it means the twin shibboleths of originality and artistic genius are consigned to history? From a pedagogic point of view, in what ways does the current turn towards AI urge us to rethink conventional approaches to media literacy and artistic creativity?
  • How might the fate of photography help one reimagine what an institution of learning could be today?
  • What broader lessons can we learn from case studies focusing on new computational methods, pattern recognition technologies and new modes of imaging in photography education?
  • What do today’s students of photography (artists, photographers, engineers and designers but also editors, archivists, historians and theorists) need to learn in order to survive, if not to prosper, in a tumultuous world reshaped by the deepening of automation and technological control, riven by political upheaval and overshadowed by impending climate disaster?
  • What are the implications of AI and machine learning for teaching on and learning about what Susan Sontag once referred to as “photography’s widening, ever incomplete history”? How might these implications reshape the History of Photography?
  • Does the widespread rush to monopolize on these new technologies commercially while attempting to restrict their impact on education serve only to cement existing political and economic norms? What alternative approaches might serve as, for instance, convincing vehicles for pedagogies of decolonization?
  • What resources does the history of radical photography education offer today’s students and educators? How might prior forms of critical photographic pedagogy, such as those associated with earlier moments of feminism, community organizing and developing photographic literacy, be rethought under contemporary conditions?

Contributions to this special section can approach the questions raised critically, theoretically and/or in the form of case studies. They can take the form of photoworks, short discursive articles or full-scale research papers. Please make sure to use the journal’s style guide in preparing your contribution and feel free to contact the editors if you have further questions. We encourage all potential contributors to browse our back issues to get a fuller sense of the range of work we have published.

The deadline for submissions for POP 16.2 is 15 January 2025.

Submissions should be made via our website using the 'submit' button above.

Please mark your submission to this call clearly as follows: 'The possibilities of a photographic education today'

Potential contributors with articles, artworks and commentaries on other topics are still welcome to submit their work for inclusion in this issue. The editors warmly invite submissions exploring any aspect of photography, related modes of imaging and visual or digital culture from a critical and theoretical standpoint. The journal publishes articles, interviews, critical commentaries, print symposia on key topics, book reviews, conference reports and analyses of specific technical developments. The editors are happy to consider proposals in the form of photographic / artistic works. Prospective book, exhibition and conference reviewers should contact the editors by email. 

Philosophy of Photography is published by Intellect Books and indexed with the Web of Science’s Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI).

Editors:

Andrew Fisher, FAMU, Prague, Czechia: 
andrewthomas.fisher@famu.cz

Alex Fletcher, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London:
 a.c.fletcher@csm.arts.ac.uk


Noa Levin, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland: 
noa.levin@usi.ch

Simon Constantine, University of Nottingham: simon.constantine@nottingham.ac.uk

Rowan Lear, University of Dundee: rlear001@dundee.ac.uk

Bernd Behr, Camberwell College of Arts, London

Editors

Andrew Fisher
FAMU, Prague, Czechia
andrewthomas.fisher@famu.cz

Bernd Behr
Camberwell College of Arts

Alex Fletcher
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
a.c.fletcher@csm.arts.ac.uk

Noa Levin
Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
noa.levin@usi.ch

Simon Constantine
University of Nottingham, UK
simon.constantine@nottingham.ac.uk

Rowan Lear
University of Dundee
rlear001@dundee.ac.uk

Advisory Board

Ariella Azoulay
Brown University, USA

Jan Baetens
Leuven University, Belgium

Geoffrey Batchen
City University of New York, USA

Andrew Benjamin
Kingston University, UK

David Campany
University of Westminster, UK

Claire Colebrook
Penn State University, USA

Andrew Dewdney
London South Bank University, UK

Tomáš Dvořák
The Academy of Performing Arts, Prague, Czech Republic

Mika Elo
University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland

Johnny Golding
The Royal College of Art, UK

Yaiza Hernández Velázquez
CENDEAC, Spain

Miki Kratsman
Bezalel Academy of Art and Design

Yve Lomax
Royal College of Art, UK

Stewart Martin
Middlesex University, UK

Enric Mira
Universidad de Alicante, Spain

Peter Osborne
Kingston University, UK

Jussi Parikka
Winchester School of Art (University of Southampton)

Anna Reading
King's College London, UK

Jorge Ribalta
Photographer, freelance curator & editor

Víctor del Río
Universidad de Salamanca, Spain

John Roberts
Wolverhampton University, UK

Daniel Rubinstein
Central Saint Martins

François Soulages
Paris VIII University, France

Susan Trangmar
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London

Pedro Vincente
ELISAVA/Universitat Pompeu, Spain

Editors

Andrew Fisher
FAMU, Prague, Czechia
andrewthomas.fisher@famu.cz

Bernd Behr
Camberwell College of Arts

Alex Fletcher
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
a.c.fletcher@csm.arts.ac.uk

Noa Levin
Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
noa.levin@usi.ch

Simon Constantine
University of Nottingham, UK
simon.constantine@nottingham.ac.uk

Rowan Lear
University of Dundee
rlear001@dundee.ac.uk

 
ARTbibliographies Modern (ABM)
 
British Humanities Index (BHI)
 
China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI)
 
EBSCO
 
EBSCO: Art & Architecture Complete
 
EBSCO: Art & Architecture Source
 
EBSCO: Art Source
 
EBSCO: TOC Premier
 
European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH)
 
Summon
 
Ulrich's Periodicals Directory
 
Web of Science: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)

Contents

  • Volume (15): Issue (1-2)
  • Cover date:


Contents

  • Volume (14): Issue (1)
  • Cover date: 2023


Contents

  • Volume (14): Issue (2)
  • Cover date: 2023


Contents

  • Volume (13): Issue (1)
  • Cover date:


Contents

  • Volume (13): Issue (2)
  • Cover date:


Contents

  • Volume (12): Issue (1-2)
  • Cover date:


Contents

  • Volume (11): Issue (1-2)
  • Cover date:


Contents

  • Volume (10): Issue (1)
  • Cover date: 2019


Contents

  • Volume (10): Issue (2)
  • Cover date: 2019


Contents

  • Volume (9): Issue (1)
  • Cover date: 2018


Contents

  • Volume (9): Issue (2)
  • Cover date: 2018


Contents

  • Volume (8): Issue (1&2)
  • Cover date:


Contents

  • Volume (7): Issue (1)
  • Cover date: 2016


Contents

  • Volume (6): Issue (1&2)
  • Cover date:


Contents

  • Volume (5): Issue (1)
  • Cover date: 2014


Contents

  • Volume (5): Issue (2)
  • Cover date: 2014


Contents

  • Volume (4): Issue (1)
  • Cover date: 2013


Contents

  • Volume (4): Issue (2)
  • Cover date: 2013


Contents

  • Volume (3): Issue (1)
  • Cover date: 2012


Contents

  • Volume (3): Issue (2)
  • Cover date: 2012


Contents

  • Volume (2): Issue (1)
  • Cover date: 2011


Contents

  • Volume (2): Issue (2)
  • Cover date: 2011


Contents

  • Volume (1): Issue (1)
  • Cover date: 2010


Contents

  • Volume (1): Issue (2)
  • Cover date: 2010


Editors

Andrew Fisher
FAMU, Prague, Czechia
andrewthomas.fisher@famu.cz

Bernd Behr
Camberwell College of Arts

Alex Fletcher
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
a.c.fletcher@csm.arts.ac.uk

Noa Levin
Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
noa.levin@usi.ch

Simon Constantine
University of Nottingham, UK
simon.constantine@nottingham.ac.uk

Rowan Lear
University of Dundee
rlear001@dundee.ac.uk

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