Folkwang Photo Talk with Siobhan Angus

25.4.2024

Please join us on April 25, 2024 when we will welcome Siobhan Angus from Carlton University in Ottawa at Folkwang University of the Arts – online! – for our next Folkwang Photo Talk. Siobhan Angus will discuss »Tarnished Visions: The Platinum Print Between Pictorialism and Atmospheric Pollution«. Her talk will be held at 7 pm (19:00) CEST, which is, for instance, 1 pm EST. Please email us for the Zoom link.

This talk turns to platinum and the theme of atmosphere. Inspired by platinum prints’ formal and material links to atmosphere, this talk undertakes an atmospheric reading of photographs. The pictorialists championed the atmospheric aesthetics of platinum prints, but platinum and atmosphere also have a material dimension: platinum became an important substitute for silver-based processes, in part due to silver’s vulnerability to atmospheric pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

Beginning in Victorian England before moving to Apartheid South Africa, I follow platinum’s supply chains to show how thinking through atmosphere establishes stakes that are both aesthetic and material. Ultimately, the metal’s promise of stable boundaries is undermined by the dust and particles that atmosphere carries between bodies and landscapes.