Photography and Cyprus

Formerly a British colony the island of Cyprus is now a divided country where histories of political and cultural conflicts as well as competing identities are still contested. Cyprus provides the ideal case study for this innovative exploration extensively illustrated of how the practice of photography in relation to its political cultural and economic contexts both contributes and responds to the formation of identity. Contributors from Cyprus Greece the UK and the USA representing diverse disciplines draw from photography theory art history anthropology and sociology to explore how the island and its people have been represented photographically. They reveal how the different gazes- colonial political gendered and within art photography- contribute to the creation of individual and national identities and by extension to the creation and re-creation of imagery of Cyprus as place. While Photography and Cyprus focuses on one geographical and cultural territory the questions this book asks and the themes and arguments it follows apply also to other places characterized by their colonial heritage. The intriguing example of Cyprus thus serves as a fitting test-ground for current debates relating to photography place and identity.