The 17th International Conference on The Image

The Image Does Not Advocate Alone: Publishing as Cultural Infrastructure

Prothero, Anthony ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-8202-5589 (2026) The 17th International Conference on The Image. In: 17th International Conference on the Image, October 1-2nd 2026, Nanyang Technological University 50 Nanyang Ave, Singapore 639798. (Submitted)

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Abstract / Summary

This research begins with a deliberate provocation: images do not advocate on their own. Advocacy is not embedded within the image itself, but assembled through the conditions of its publication. While visual media are frequently framed as agents of witness: documenting injustice, amplifying marginalised voices, shaping public consciousness. This project argues that such agency is always constructed, negotiated, and contingent. Working through practice-led research in photography and graphic design, the study examines publishing not as a neutral container but as an active system of meaning making. Sequencing, layout, material form, and circulation are treated as structuring forces that condition how images are encountered, interpreted, and mobilised. An image does not remain stable as it moves between a photobook, a protest poster, a social feed, or a collaborative zine; its force is reorganised by format, context, and audience. Situated within contemporary image ecologies defined by accelerated circulation and platform-mediated visibility, the research asks: how does publishing organise the social life of images? Where does responsibility reside when advocacy is shaped through design, editing, and infrastructure? And how might publishing itself operate as a site of ethical and political intervention rather than mere dissemination? The project is presented as an asynchronous digital poster, a form chosen not simply for display but as part of the inquiry. Structured as a visual and diagrammatic publication, the work enacts its central claim: that form, structure, and modes of circulation do not follow meaning, but produce it. By reframing advocacy as relational, situated, and infrastructural, rather than purely representational, the research contributes to broader conversations on image practices, pedagogy, and the politics of visual culture.

Item Type:	Conference Item (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Publishing, Materiality, Image Circulation, Visual Culture, Image Ecologies
Subjects:	Photography
Department:	Institute of Photography
Depositing User:	Anthony Prothero
Date Deposited:	15 Oct 2026 14:52
Last Modified:	15 Oct 2026 14:52
URI:	https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/6628

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