The Agency of Images gathers together historians of photography and theorists of the Image to discuss how new technologies of picture taking and distribution are changing our understanding of photography today. The panel will consider how images have been freed from certain constraints related to the analogue era of photography in ways that open up new possibilities of understanding the image. In the digital era of photography the intervention into and alteration of the photograph has increased exponentially, archives of imagery have expanded at a rapid pace, and the exchange of photographic images have followed new economies of exchange. The panel will consider the implications of these changes on the future of fine art and visual culture. Presentations will begin with a review of vernacular and high art photography from the Cold War that pictured the future through images of nuclear collapse; the discussion will then shift to consider some the differences between analogue and digital images in relation to the philosophy of images more broadly; the final presentation will consider new directions in self-portraiture and its relation to temporality and duration on the web.

The Agency of Images is organized in conjunction with Glocal - a contributive digital art and photography project currently in residence at the Surrey Art Gallery's TechLab. Over the past 15 months, artists based at the Surrey Art Gallery have collected upwards of 50,000 digital images from contributors around the world.

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