About

From July 2 - 4, 2014 Griffith University’s Centre for Cultural Research in Brisbane, Australia, hosted 'Broken Images: A symposium on early American photography in the Asia Pacific', co-convened by Dr Prue Ahrens and Professor Fiona Paisley, and sponsored by the Terra Foundation of American Art, Chicago, and the Queensland Art Gallery's Australian Centre for Asia Pacific Art. The successful event saw leading international specialists examine photography's role in American expansionism, war, trade and tourism in the Asia Pacific. Proceedings began with a Public Panel on Important Collections of American Asia Pacific Photography, facilitated by Dr Kate Evans from Radio National and comprising Ms Gael Newton, National Gallery of Australia, Dr Jennifer Watts, Huntington Library, Art Collection and Botanical Gardens, Dr Prue Ahrens, Griffith University, and Professor Mark Rice, St John Fisher College, New York. There followed two days of seminar papers, structured into sessions geared to address photography’s contribution to American global culture in the region, as well as the question of image transmission across cultures, the consumption of Asia Pacific photography in the United States, and the often hidden role of photography in film, painting and other American visual imagery of the Asia Pacific region.