Against photography

Abstract

Far from presenting a historical account of the Arab Image Foundation (AIF), this book presents an artist's perspective, which is critical for understanding the organisation's practice. Through Akram Zaatari, one of AIF's founding members who played a key role in its development, the publication reflects on AIF's 20-year history and the multiple statuses of the photograph, as descriptive document, as object, as material value, as aesthetics and as memory. Zaatari's expansive work on photography and the practice of collecting, takes an archaeological approach to the medium, digging into the past, resurfacing with new narratives and resituating them in the contemporary.

Contents

Archives of the future / Hiuwai Chu and Bartomeu Marí -- The artist as collector : a dialogue on the possibilities and limits of an institution / Chad Elias interviews Akram Zaatari -- Against the archive / Mark R. Westmorland -- All tht refuses to vanish / Akram Zaatari -- Collections of the Arab Image Foundation : a selection of narratives / by Ian B. Larson and Akram Zaatari.