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Amateur images: valorisation and manipulation
21-23 January 2008, Luxembourg
International conference on the use of amateur films and photographs, organized by the Centre national de l’audiovisuel du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg in collaboration with the University of Luxembourg.
For a long time, amateur images have been considered with suspicion and a hint of contempt by the professional milieu. Film enthusiasts, filmmakers, photographers, archivists and academics have denied any aesthetical or documentary value whatsoever to amateur films and photographs. But more and more these images, which had not been made with the intention to be shown in the commercial circuit, catch the attention of professionals. They are integrated into fiction films, documentaries, books and exhibitions, shown on television and dissected by researchers. The use of these images, often of unknown origin, raises a number of questions.
The Centre national de l’audiovisuel (CNA) – member of the FIAF and the AEI (Association européenne Inédits) – archives and valorises the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg’s audiovisual heritage. Among others, it keeps over 5.600 amateur films that have either been or are about to be digitized.
From December 2007 to February 2008, the CNA presents the exhibition “Hidden Images/ Images cachées”, based on photogrammes taken from amateur films. This exhibition focuses on a number of questions as to the nature and the value (personal, documentary and aesthetical) of amateur films and photographs. It also questions the use of these documents and the degree to which they are – knowingly or unknowingly – manipulated when they are (re)used in a context to which they were not originally destined.
In the context of this exhibition, the CNA organises an international conference in January 2008, which will focus on these questions.
More information on the conference and on the exhibition “Hidden images/ Images cacheés”: Viviane Thill (e-mail: viviane.thill@cna.etat.lu, tel: +352 52 24 24 1)
Organized by:
Centre national de l’audiovisuel, with the collaboration of the University of Luxembourg
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