Challenging Geopolitical Consciousness: Latency in the Representation of Geopolitics and Power in the Photographic Work of Ursula Schulz-Dornburg from

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I will investigate the political and temporal dimensions of the work of German photographer UrsulaSchulz-Dornburg (1938), focussing on latency and its power as a political tool. Schulz-Dornburg isa living artist, known for her mostly black-and-white conceptual photographs. She has madeseries-based projects since the 1970s, with an oeuvre of architecture and landscape which spansthe past 50 years. Through her work, she has travelled to countries as diverse as Russia, Armenia,Saudi Arabia, Burma, Kazakhstan, Iraq and Azerbaijan. In my research, her archive will function asa model for examining images of place and their changing contexts across time. The concept oflatency, as defined in this project, draws from the German word Erwartung, from waiting, meaningexpectation, anticipation, speculation; it is underlying, yet-to-be-manifest, ever-present. Byconsidering what is concealed within an image - like the invisible but no less real geopoliticalborders in the background of her photographs - I will question the intersection between Schulz-Dornburg's artistic practice and her activism. I will contrast her work with that of others who havecaptured the same sites in the Middle East and Caucasus, historically and present-day. I willexplore how, as a function of latency, meaning in these images is still becoming manifest and willcontinue to do so.