Nexus Series
The Nexus series, a series of six illustrated volumes each drawing inspiration from the IRIS Image Resource. Authors from a range of academic disciplines consider a variety of theoretical issues with direct reference to women’s photographic work. They debate issues as diverse as: women’s encounters with urban spaces; gender identity in women’s photography; the transgressive maternal; female subjectivity and the body. The interdisciplinary approach of Nexus, its accessible style and thought-provoking illustrations, make it a series designed to appeal to a broad audience. At a time when considering the conjunction between ideas and images is crucial, Nexus is a forum for critical discussion and exploration. Series editor Dr Marsha Meskimmon.
Volume One ENGENDERING THE CITY - Women Artists and Urban Space, by Dr Marsha Meskimmon.
Concentrating upon contemporary women photographers who have used the theme of the city in their work, this volume provides a challenging viewpoint on notions of gender, space and representation. Engendering the City looks at the ways in which women have negotiated with the powerful tropes of modernism, notions of the body and embodiment, and the concept of the pedestrian, to form new models of seeing and knowing. Feminist reconceptions of space are combined with innovative representational strategies, which reveal the many ways in which women can engender the city.
Volume Two BODIES OF EXPERIENCE - Subject and Object in Women's Photography Since 1970 by Paul Jobling.
Focused on the period from the 1970’s to present, this volume explores women’s use of photography to pose challenging questions about female identity and the significance of representation in society. Women photographers’ strategic interventions into the traditions of documentary, portraiture and montage have been varied as well as critical, if under-represented by mainstream literature on the subject. Taking the medium on it’s own terms, women photographers have countered and interrogated its ‘male–stream’ uses in order to find a voice for alternative female subjectivities.
Volume Three MEMORY IN PERSPECTIVE - Women Photographers' Encounters with History by Helen Chapman.
The writing of the Weimar critical theorist Walter Benjamin is the starting point for the interaction between the work of women photographers, philosophical perspectives on memory and the place of both in defining history. The links between the verbal and the visual in Benjamin’s theory guides the discussion of a wide range of women’s photographic work from straightforward documentary to evocative ‘though-images’. By bringing word and image together and revealing their connections, the volume provides a framework for the wider debates about memory, history and knowledge.
Volume Four FOCUS ON THE MATERNAL - Female Subjectivity and Images of Motherhood by Ulrike Sieglohr.
In this volume Ulrike Sieglohr describes how the social and psychic constructions of maternity in western culture have made ‘the mother’ an icon in male artists’ work. She then explores the means by which contemporary women photographers challenge traditional representations of motherhood and the underlying structures of gender difference which lead to the effacement of the power of maternal subjectivity. Taking the myths and icons of maternity seriously has empowered many women artists anxious to redefine the boundaries of maternal subjectivity for themselves and their practice.
Volume Five FACE TO FACE - Directions in Contemporary Women's Portraiture by Robin Durie.
In this volume, Robin Durie uses phenomenology to explore the problematics of women’s photographic portraiture. The title is derived from Levinas’ argument that the ‘face-to-face’ encounter underpins any notions of ethics, since it defies the forcible reduction of the ‘other’ into the ‘one’. For women engaged in the politics of image-making, such ideas are critical tools for dismantling the structures which traditionally objectify the body of women. Looking at women’s portraits of both ‘selves’ and ‘others’ in relation to philosophical texts, this volume continues Nexus’ commitment to exploring the fruitful interaction of theory and practice.
Volume Six PALPABLE SIGNS - Contemporary Women Photographers in Dialogue with The Body by Barry Taylor.
Setting theory and practice in dialogue around the body conceived as cultural effect rather than a natural given, Barry Taylor argues that women’s photographic practices have the potential to rethink crucial relationships between gender identity and aesthetics. Not just literal images of bodies, the works discussed expose the construction of social subjects through representation, explore the significance of the materiality of art and implicate the body of the viewer in their meanings. This last volume summarises the commitment of the series as a whole to engage theory and practice around the central issues of our day.
