White-gloved hands examine a photograph. The photograph depicts a gay pride parade in 1994, with topless men standing on a large truck decorated with streamers, balloons and the Olympic rings.

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    Critical Image Forum

     

     

    We are an interdisciplinary research cluster and public humanities project based at the University of British Columbia focusing on collaborative research in photography, image archives and documentary practices.

     

     

    Updates

    Book launch - Andrew Witt’s Lost Days, Endless Nights: Photography and Film from Los Angeles, with a response by Gonzalo Reyes Rodriguez | April 10, 2026


    "Lost Days, Endless Nights: Photography and Film from Los Angeles" (MIT Press, 2025) explores how artists and activists reimagined the aesthetic and political capacities of documentary photography and film from the 1970s to the present. The conversation will be followed by a response from Gonzalo Reyes Rodriguez.

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    Grad Seminar - A Disobedient Gaze: Artists in the colonial photographic archive, a session led by Gabrielle Moser | April 1, 2026
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    Darkroom Sovereignty: Photography, Race and Belonging in the Canadian Photographic Archive, a lecture by Gabrielle Moser | April 2, 2026
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    Lecture - Distant Viewing and the Multimodal AI Turn with Lauren Craig Tilton and Taylor Arnold | March 9, 2026
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    From Archive to Exhibition: A Curators’ Tour of the Chung Lind Gallery | March 6, 2026
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    Lecture - How Ordinary Photos Unlocked History | February 23, 2026
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    Projects 
    & Research

     

    Critical Image Forum engages with partners inside and beyond the academy to support interdisciplinary image-based research activities.

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    Events

     

     

    Critical Image Forum presents and supports public lectures, discussions, workshops, exhibitions, launches and screenings in collaboration with partner organizations and research groups. Our programming prioritizes dialogue and discussion that advances research in photography, documentary issues and image literacy.

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Image at top: “Queers on the Run: A Nomadic Workshop in Queer Archives in Canada" with Drs. August Klintberg and Erin Silver. April 3, 2025.

Critical Image Forum

202 BC Binning Studio, 6373 University Blvd
Vancouver, BC
xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam) Territory,
Website criticalimageforum.ubc.ca

Research Excellence Clusters at UBC Vancouver are funded through the Grants for Catalyzing Research Clusters program.

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