Nomadic Camera: Photography, Displacement, and Dis:connectivities

This book launch and panel celebrates the publication of Nomadic Camera: Photography, Displacement and Dis:connectivities, a book that investigates the technical, medial ,and aesthetic relationships between photography and displacement from both historical and contemporary perspectives. The contributing authors adopt the term “nomadic” – signifying a transitory form of existence – to explore photography beyond national boundaries and static notions of being. Viewing photography as an integral part of this history of mobility and migration, the book examines the interplay between the concepts of the “nomadic” and the “camera”, offering new perspectives on photography as a medium in motion.

Burcu Dogramaci is professor of art history and director of the Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Her research areas are modern and contemporary art, with a particular focus on exile, migration and flight, photography, architecture, textiles, fashion, and live art.

Winfried Gerling is professor of concepts and aesthetics of new media at the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, working in the European Media Studies Program jointly run with the University of Potsdam. He was a member of the research group SENSING: On the Knowledge of Sensitive Media from 2018–2024. His current research projects are “Border Values: Operational Relationships of Climate and Migration” and “Camera Studies“.

Birgit Mersmann is an art historian and literary scholar who takes a transcultural and transmedial approach to research. Since 2023, she has held the professorship for contemporary art and digital image cultures at the University of Bonn. Her research interests include Western and East Asian modern and contemporary art, image and media theory, translation studies and transculturality, visual cultures, art and migration, global art and art history, exhibition and museum studies, intermedialities between text/scripture and image, and the history and theory of photography.

Mette Sandbye is a professor of photography studies in the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen. She has published numerous books and articles on contemporary art photography and photography as part of visual culture. She was the editor of the first Danish history of photography (Dansk Fotografihistorie, 2004), and her two latest books are Striving for Independence: Nordic Women Studio Photographers, 1860-1920 (2026, ed. with Sigrid Lien, De Gruyter) and Fra Instamatic til Instagram: Familiealbummets fortællinger (2025, Strandberg).

Moderation: Mona Schieren

Ticket information: Admission to this event is free of charge.