Critical Image Forum is a research project that focuses on the political, ethical, aesthetic and social dimensions of expanded documentary practices. The Forum's primary medium of research is photography, with an interest in how the proliferation of moving images, performance, sound and digital networks have challenged and complicated the veracity of the visual document.

Join us on Thursday, 5 December 2024 for A By-Product of our Production with writer Vanessa R. Schwartz at the Polygon Gallery. This talk considers the history of Time-Life Books and the reconsideration of the history of the photobook. They offer a key avenue for the reconsideration of the history of the photobook, and a window into the history of photography’s use, storage, and re-use in the service of illustration.

Join us on Thursday, March 13th for a lecture with Svitlana Matviyenko and with respondents Ilinca Iurascu and M. V. Ramana on DeepStateMap: Mapping the Synthetic Battlefield of Ukraine in the Dosdon Room at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography is a groundbreaking study of photography by art historian, curator, and organiser Siobhan Angus. Joining her is Kelly McCormick, whose recent research into photography’s relationship with exposing industrial pollution events in Japan, will frame a critical discussion on what we see – or what is obscured – when we look at photographs.