To freeze time: Almost 200 years had passed since the world was exposed to the first camera ever invented, and it seems that ever since, it has become an inseparable part of our lives. We have cameras in each corner, just waiting to capture meaningful moments. The output goes through filters and saved as pixels in the infinite digital sphere.

During the past decades, the digital revolution has had an unprecedented influence over the world of photography with every aspect its production, display, distribution and collection redefined. Recently, however, we have been witnessing a surprising phenomenon - the comeback of analogue instant photograph. How is this challenging photography again? What intriguing questions are appearing as a result of the resurrection of the Polaroid technology and its impressive reincarnation as ‘The Impossible Project’?

The Inspire Center for Photography Research was established at Shenkar in order to dive into issues that relate to the interactions between imagery and photography, technologies and interfaces, and the people who design and activate these tools. As part of the center’s activities, researchers, artists, designers, engineers, and people from the industry, will examine different aspects of this field, both in theory and practices.  

The center will support cross-disciplinary projects including: relations between vernacular photography and social media, internetwork photos, photography objects, authenticity and software based photography. This will also include leading social initiatives, and academic publishing as well as courses, workshops, conventions and exhibitions. 

Top of page: Illustration by Spiegelbilder, Flickr (cc)