Successful conference day! I had the pleasure and excitement to serve as a discussant at the ASEEES 2021 Annual Convention virtual session Fake Equality: The Activity, Impact, and Representation of Women in Photo Clubs and Organizations in the Late Soviet Period. The panel session went live Thursday, December 2, 2021 8am CST (4pm EET).
Our panel focuses on issues of gender and representation in the history of photography in the Soviet Union between the 1960s and 1980s. Through the lens of gender studies, the panel highlights the work of photographers active in amateur and professional photography alliances and examines their overlooked legacy in connection with art, Socialist Realism and the avant-garde, and official and unofficial photography. Based on the oeuvre, lives, and careers of female and male photographers, the panelists inquire into the gender imbalance in photo clubs and exhibitions, censorship controversies surrounding nude photography, and the politics of gender in photography collectives.
Panel chair: Mark Allen Svede, Ohio State University
Discussant: Alise Tifentale, formerly Riga Stradins University, Latvia
The papers:
Jessica Marie Werneke, Habib University, Pakistan: Women as Amateur Photographers: Clubs, Professionalism, and the 'Industry' in the Late Soviet Period
Ekaterina Vikulina, Russian State University for the Humanities, Russia: Soviet Nude Photography and Photo-club Movement in the 1960s
Maria V. Garth, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey: Rule of Thirds: Women in Photography Unions and Clubs of the Soviet Union from Post-Thaw to Perestroika, 1960s-1980s
ASEEES (Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies) 53rd Annual Convention took place partially in person (November 18-21, 2021 in New Orleans, LA) and partially online (December 1-3, 2021, the Virtual Convention).
Learn more about ASEEES on the Association’s website https://www.aseees.org/
