Archivo Papers: Announcements

CALL FOR PAPERS: CFP | Submit your manuscript for Archivo Papers volume 6, 2026

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 15:01:43 +0000

Haunted Archives of Livingness
Visual Culture and the Politics of Care in the Age of Ecological Entanglement

Guest-edited by Vanessa Badagliacca
Independent Researcher

“En un mundo donde son grandes biólogos, botánicos, ecólogos y zoólogos aquellos que llegan a describir en latín la mitad de lo que un agricultor analfabeto sabía del mundo vivo que le rodeaba, marquémonos un farol y vayámonos a esos mundos que parece que sólo salen en las películas de Tarzan y en la televisión.”
[In a world where great biologists, botanists, ecologists and zoologists are those who can describe in Latin half of what an illiterate farmer knew about the living world around him, let’s call a bluff and go to those worlds that seem to only appear in Tarzan movies and on television.]

^{El Sátiro del Medio Ambiente, “Naturaleza eres tú”,
Alfalfa. Crítica Ecológica y Alternativas, nº 8/9/10, 1978, pp. 10-12}

“History is telling. We need multiple, competing, unresolved, fragmentary, shattered, partial, and contradictory tales. Rather than a singular story history tells, if we open up the archives to ask different questions, other answers lurk. These are also telling. And tell them, we must.”

^{Banu Subramaniam, Botany of Empire.
Plant Worlds and the Scientific Legacies of Colonies, 2024, X}

The archive, in its variables of collecting private or public documents, relating to a person, family, municipality or state, is configured as a circumscribed place, with limited access or reserved for specific users. Its historical connection – especially the archive as institution – with power and various forms of long-standing hegemony, while it has contributed to arousing its fascination and a certain aura of mystery in recent decades, has been paralleled with a profound questioning and recognition of its problematic “neutral technology” (Azoulay, 2019).

To consider that a collection of written texts, visual works, volumes, and photographs, and moving images composes a corpus can lead us back to the etymology of the Latin term, which takes on this meaning much later. Before, it referred to a body, individual, person, or living being, as well as a corpse, inanimate body, matter, organism, and structure. If we then maintain the polysemy of the corpus to diversify the archives in which they live, we will suddenly find ourselves faced with a variety of typologies that expand the very notion of the archive, push it out of protective walls, dirty it, contaminate it and regenerate it, making it living matter and in constant metamorphosis (Coccia, 2020).

We can read this corpus as an archive that self-generates, feeds itself, feeds back, tells itself, passes on, and lets itself be consulted. A system of knowledge that owns itself as an archive, which “should be seen as a contact zone between past and present but also between temporally diverse and interconnected processes of documenting and consuming information” (Tortorici, 2018), available to be activated and put into relation in a constant becoming in transformation. What can this approach teach us about the wonder, the abject, the beauty, the waste in the planet when they become “haunted archives of livingness” (Subramaniam, 2024)? In this context, photography emerges as a central medium through which haunted archives are constituted, activated, and contested. Photographs not only preserve the visual remnants of ecological and political violence, but also act as spectral witnesses — carriers of both memory and omission. What role does the photograph play in embodying “livingness” or decay? How can photographic archives resist the logics of extractivism, classification?

Confronted with climate change, overdevelopment, ecological devastation, environmental crises, energy dependence, poverty, reproductive injustice, unsustainable agriculture, and food insecurity, to name just a few, “seeking to understand the world as embrangled in its histories is the urgent project before us.” (Subramaniam, 2024) How can we look at the geological traces, at the rivers’ flow, at the accumulation of waste, at the dialects of folk proverbs and storytelling, at “invasive” plant species, at the physical space occupied to store our digital data and see them, observe them, sense them and create through them? Would we be able to look at them with the attention devoted to documents preserved and protected in archives without falling into the trap of “classification, tagging, and naming of different groups to form a human index” (Azoulay, 2019), or – by contrast – would we be able not to forget or ignore them but rather to embrace a project of care?

Envisioning art—and cultural practices more broadly—as an empowering means at our hands to cultivate a utopia for a better liveable future, the 6th edition of the International Conference Reframing the Archiveinvites scholars at any stage of their careers, as well as visual artists and other professionals in the field of visual arts, to share their work and reflect on how contemporary artistic practices have been and are dealing with these haunted archives of livingness. We welcome proposals for 15-minute theory and practice-led presentations (followed by 15-minute panel discussion) from various disciplines, including: photography, cinema and new media, art history and theory, anthropology, museology, philosophy, cultural studies, visual and media studies, and fine and graphic arts. These presentations should offer an in-depth investigation into the conference topic. Please note that the conference will be conducted in English.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

Photographic archives and haunted image materialities
Spectrality, indexicality, and decay in photographic media
Oral histories and storytelling
More-than-human archives (geologic, spontaneous, accidental, inaccessible, toxic)
Digital archives data and their material storage’s environmental implications, where and at which cost
Non-human animal knowledges and aesthetics
Visual witnessing, non-human photography, and environmental surveillance
Aural, terrestrial, underwater waste
Machine vision, drones, and the archive of planetary sensing

SUBMITTING YOUR PROPOSAL
Submissions to this journal should follow the Guidelines for Authors.

IMPORTANT DATES
Deadline for submissions: October 26, 2025

CALL FOR EDITORS: Call for Associate Editors & Editorial Board Members

Sat, 05 Apr 2025 13:11:22 +0000

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
Associate Editors & Editorial Board Members

As its current term comes to an end, the Archivo Papers Journal is seeking new members for its Editorial Team and Editorial Board, offering an opportunity to engage with current research trends and contribute to shaping the journal’s future. These are voluntary, remote positions.

Published annually, Archivo Papers is an indexed, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the study of photography, visual archival practices, and their intersections with visual culture. Founded in 2021, it explores both historical and contemporary perspectives on photography within broader archive-driven discourses. Past issues can be found here: http://archivopapersjournal.com/ojs/index.php/apj/issue/archive

We aim to welcome new members by September 2025, with an onboarding period from September 2025 to January 2026. After this transition, successful candidates will serve an initial two-year term, with the possibility of extension based on mutual interest.

In collaboration with Archivo Platform, we also organize an annual online conference, Reframing the Archive, which explores themes related to upcoming journal issues. Associate Editors and Editorial Board members are expected to actively contribute to the event’s organization, peer review, and/or panel moderation.

AVAILABLE POSITIONS

1. ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Associate Editors manage the peer review process for assigned manuscripts and contribute to shaping the journal’s editorial direction and strategy.
Responsibilities include:

Evaluating manuscript submissions to ensure they align with the journal’s scope and ethical standards.
Coordinating the peer-review process in a timely manner.
Managing the editorial and publication process for thematic issues.
Collaborating on journal strategy and conceptual developments.
Handling editorial tasks, including internal and external communication, proofreading, and editing.
Participating in online meetings for journal management.

2. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Editorial Board members support the review process and contribute to discussions on journal themes.
Responsibilities include:

Reviewing manuscript submissions as assigned by the Editorial Team.
Offering insights on emerging research topics relevant to the journal’s scope.
Promoting the journal within professional networks and encouraging high-quality submissions.
Participating in online meetings with the Editorial Team, when convened, to discuss potential themes for future issues.

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS FOR ALL CANDIDATES
All applicants (for both Associate Editor and Editorial Board roles) should:

Be familiar with (or willing to learn) the OJS PKP submission system for manuscript processing.
Consent to having their name, academic affiliation, and declaration of interests listed on the journal’s website.
Uphold high ethical standards in scholarly publishing.
Stay informed about current publication practices in photography and visual culture.
Participate in the journal’s annual issue launch online event.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

Previous editorial experience is beneficial but not required.
A PhD (or equivalent experience) in visual studies, photography, film, art history, cultural studies, media studies, curatorial studies, or related fields.
Strong knowledge of photography history and theory and visual culture.
Significant experience in peer reviewing.
A proven record of scholarship relevant in the journal’s themes.
Strong oral and written English skills.
Strong communication and organizational abilities.

APPLICATION PROCESS
To apply, please submit a single PDF file containing:

A motivation letter (max. 2 pages) outlining your research interests and how your contribution can support the journal’s future. Please specify the role you are applying for at the start of the letter.
A CV (max. 5 pages), including academic qualifications, professional experience, and relevant publications, with DOI or other relevant links where available.
A brief proposal for a thematic issue, including a potential topic and its relevance to the journal (required only for Associate Editor applicants).

Applications must be submitted by June 13, 2025, to editorial@archivopapersjournal.com with the subject “APJ Application 2025”.
Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an online interview in July 2025.

For inquiries, please contact info@archivopapersjournal.com.
We look forward to your application!