Convenor:
Dr Mark Durden, School of Art and Design, University of Derby, Mackworth Road, Derby DE22 3BL. Tel: 01332 622222. m.durden@art.derby.ac.uk .

The history of photography in many senses attests to photography's shifting status and value. This strand will critically examine such shifts, paying particular attention to the way in which claims are made for the medium's aesthetic worth in the face of an originary context which valued the photograph on more utilitarian grounds.
Papers will critically examine the early history of photography, photography's value in its relation to the pictorial traditions of painting, lithography and book illustration. Alongside such historical investigations, this strand will also involve curators, artists and critics reflecting upon photography's recently elevated value within the contemporary art scene.

• Fay Brauer (University of New South Wales) Inscribing the Normal and the Abject Body: Photography at Salpêtrière Clinic and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts
• Patrizia Di Bello (Birkbeck College, London) Melancholic Portrait Gazers: the Waterlow Album, Maternal Fetishism and the Value of Photographic Print
• Richard Shiff (University of Texas) Title to be announced
• Steve Edwards (Open University) The Organ Grinder and the Monkey
• David Evans (Surrey Institute of Art and Design) Putting Soviet Photography in its Place
• John Gange (Kent Institute of Art and Design) Photography's General Economy
• Mark Durden (University of Derby) The tableau versus the document: photography in contemporary art.