Dr Gil Pasternakg.pasternak@hud.ac.uk | 01484 471820
Dr Gil Pasternak studied for his Ph.D in the History of Art Department at University College London (UCL), specialising in the Theory and History of Photography in the context of Art and Visual Cultures. Prior to his current position as Senior Lecturer in Photography and Photography Course Leader, he taught at UCL, as well as at Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London.
As an art practitioner, Gil has presented his work at a number of art galleries, including Tate Modern (one-day installation), East 2005 in Norwich (co-production of an art publication and a series of performances), the Institute of Contemporary Arts – ICA (screening programme), Kodeljevo Grad, Slovenia, and Gallery Infra, Sweden (photography installations).
As a professional photographer, Gil has acted as a photojournalist, recording aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Israel, and in South Lebanon. He has also worked as a photographer in collaboration with landscape architects, interior designers, and on the production and publication of documentary photo-collections.
Gil has presented his academic research at a number of international conferences and public talks, and has published in peer-reviewed journals. He is a member of the Association of Art Historians (AAH), College Art Association (CAA), the Association of Photography in Higher Education (APHE), a Fellow of the British Institute of Professional Photography (BIPP) and of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), and a peer-reviewer for TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, and Object: Graduate Research and Reviews in the History of Art and Visual Culture. Gil is also on the Editorial Advisory Board for the peer-reviewed academic journals Photography and Culture (published by Berg, UK), and the International Journal of the Image (published by Common Ground, USA). In 2011, Gil co-edited and published the book Visual Conflicts: On the Formation of Political Memory in the History of Art and Visual Cultures. Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing (UK), this collection of essays explores ways in which visual cultures – prints, paintings, photography, art museums, the media, and digital media – have engaged with armed conflict and politically-motivated acts of violence of all types since the late nineteenth-century to the present.
Gil’s main research interests focus on the participation of professional, vernacular and fine art photography in the solidification of power relations and acts of political violence, as well as on the role vernacular photography plays in the formation of Middle-Eastern cultural historical topoi. Critically analysing and elaborating upon the social and cultural histories and historiographies of photography, empirical research and field work within contemporary visual cultures have formed the basis for Gil’s exploration into how photographic practices mediate, standardise, perpetuate, and challenge dominant socio-political practices and state ideologies. Gil takes particular interest in exploring the photographic apparatus within contexts such as the construction of physical and human landscape, the domestication of militarism, private acts of political protest, and social rituals of mourning and nationalism. Other research interests include visual ethnology/anthropology, historical and contemporary photographic practices in the Middle East, and contemporary fine art pseudo-ethnographic photography.
Pasternak, G (2013) ‘Récits d’un territoire (Ground Narratives)’. In: Territoires de l’attente. Paris: Diaphane éditions. pp. 67-76.
Pasternak, G (2013) ‘“The Brownies in Palestina”: Politicising Geographies in Family Photographs ’ Photography and Culture , 6 (1), pp. 41-64. ISSN 1751-4525 1751-4517
Pasternak, G (2012) ‘European Travellers in Palestine: The Issue of Trust and “Political Correctness” in the Otolith Group’s Nervus Rerum and Ursula Biemann’s X-Mission’. In: A Thing Like You and Me, 19 November 2012, The University of Leeds
Pasternak, G (2012) ‘Scabbed Pictures: On the Familial Birth of National Postmemories’. In: Urban Encounters: The Image of Public Space, 6 October 2012, Tate Britain
Pasternak, G (2012) ‘Beyond Intimacy: The Radical Conventions of Family Photography’. In: Beyond Intimacy: The Radical Conventions of Family Photography, 3 October 2012, The Musée Nicephore Niepce, Chalon sur Saône, France
Pasternak, G (2012) ‘Artistic Occupation: Camouflaging Difference in Photographic Imagery of the Middle East’. In: Visual Communication and Globalization Symposium, 19 September 2012, University of Leeds
Pasternak, G (2012) ‘“… And I will Live Forever”: The Intimate Politics of Family Photographs’. In: “… And I will Live Forever”: The Intimate Politics of Family Photographs, 18 September 2012, The Photographer's Gallery, London
Pasternak, G (2012) ‘Jewish Soldiers of the Time: Ethos, Pathos and Logos in Rineke Dijkstra’s “Israel Portraits”.’. In: Insight Palestina Images, Discourses, and the Image of Discourse, 7 June 2012, University of Leeds
Pasternak, G (2012) ‘Yael Bartana’. In: Yael Bartana, 6 June 2012, Leeds Art Gallery
Pasternak, G (2011) ‘Intimate Conflicts: Family Photographs, Politics and State Ideology’ Radar , 1 (2), pp. 13-14. ISSN 2049-4327
Pasternak, G (2011) ‘An Innocent Politics?’. In: Writing Photography: An Innocent Politics?, 20th September 2011, The Photographers' Gallery, London
Pasternak, G (2011) ‘Playing Soldiers: Posing Militarism in the Domestic Sphere’. In: Visual Conflicts: On the Formation of Political Memory in the History of Art and Visual Cultures. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 139-168. ISBN 9781443831727
Pasternak, G. and Fox, P. (2011) Visual Conflicts: On the Formation of Political Memory in the History of Art and Visual Cultures . Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing . ISBN 9781443831727
Pasternak, G (2010) ‘“The Brownies in Palestina”: Politicising Geographies in Family Photographs’. In: Emerging Landscapes: Between Production and Representation, June 2010, University of Westminster, London
Pasternak, G (2010) ‘Posthumous Interruptions: The Political Life of Family Photographs in Israeli Military Cemeteries’ Photography and Culture , 3 (1), pp. 41-63(23). ISSN 1751-4525
Pasternak, G (2009) ‘Playing Soldiers: Posing Militarism in the Domestic Sphere’. In: Hebrew and Jewish Studies, 9 December 2009, Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College London
Pasternak, G (2009) ‘Supplementary Histories: On the Subversive Power of Family Photographs’. In: Supplementary Histories: On the Subversive Power of Family Photographs, 13 May 2009, Chelsea College of Art and Design
Pasternak, G (2009) ‘Covering Horror: Family Photographs in Israeli Reportage on Terrorism’. In: History of Photography, 11 March 2009, The Courtauld Institute of Art
Pasternak, G (2009) ‘Covering Horror: Family Photographs in Israeli Reportage on Terrorism’ Object , 11, pp. 87-104.
Pasternak, G (2008) ‘Posthumous Interruptions: The Political Life of Family Photographs in Israeli Military Cemeteries’. In: Association of Art Historians Annual Conference (AAH 2008), April 2008, Tate Britain, London
Pasternak, G. and Melvin, J.(2007) Like Water in Water [Show/Exhibition]
Pasternak, G (2005) Slim & Stutter [Show/Exhibition]
Pasternak, G (2005) Untitled 2003 [Show/Exhibition]
Pasternak, G (2005) Food Eating [Show/Exhibition]
Pasternak, G (2005) Radio Goya [Show/Exhibition]
Pasternak, G (2004) Slim & Stutter [Show/Exhibition]
Pasternak, G (2004) Bench [Show/Exhibition]
Pasternak, G (2004) Bloomberg [Show/Exhibition]
Pasternak, G (2004) Untitled 2003 [Show/Exhibition]
Pasternak, G (2004) Only You [Show/Exhibition]
Pasternak, G (2004) Untitled 2003 [Show/Exhibition]
Pasternak, G (2003) Dispertion [Show/Exhibition]
Pasternak, G (2003) Untitled Digital Drawings 2002/3 [Show/Exhibition]
Pasternak, G (2003) Untitled 2003 [Show/Exhibition]
Member of the Editorial Advisory Board for Photography and Culture
Peer-reviewer for TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies
Peer-reviewer for The International Journal of the Image
Peer-reviewer for Object: UCL Graduate Research and Reviews in the History of Art and Visual Culture
Invited to deliver a public talk on the Otolith Group’s Nervus Rerum and Ursula Biemann’s X-Mission. The University of Leeds in collaboration with Pavilion Arts Organisation (19 November 2012).
Invited to deliver a public talk on family photographs of victims of politically-motivated violent attacks in Israeli newspapers, as part of the conference: Urban Encounters: The Image of Public Space. Tate Britain, London (6 October 2012).
Invited to deliver a public talk on the historically radical conventions of family photography. The Musée Nicephore Niepce, Chalon sur Saône, France (3 October 2012).
Invited to deliver an academic presentation on photographic imagery of the Middle East in the context of visual communication and globalisation. Institute of Communications Studies, the University of Leeds (19 September 2012).
Invited to deliver a public talk on the historiography and politics of family photography. The Photographers’ Gallery, London (18 September 2012).
Co-organiser and chair for the international conference Insight Palestina: Images, Discourses, and the Image of Discourse. Centre for Cultural Analysis, Theory and History, and the Centre for Jewish Studies, at the University of Leeds (7 June 2012).
Invited to deliver a public talk on visual artist Yael Bartana’s early video pieces. Leeds Art Gallery, in collaboration with Pavilion Arts Organisation (6 June 2012).
Invited to deliver a talk about academic publications and publishing to Ph.D students, as part of the conference University of London Research Skills Intercollegiate Network (ReSkIN). The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London (10 March 2012).
Invited to deliver a public talk on the use of family photography in Israel, in the context of national identity and militarism. The Photographers’ Gallery, London (20 September 2011).
Co-convenor and chair for Supplementary Conflicts: Domesticities and Life Histories in War Time, a one-day international conference held as part of the 36th annual Conference of the Association of Art Historians. The University of Glasgow (16 April 2010).
Invited to deliver an academic presentation on family photo-portraits of Israeli soldiers, as part of the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies’ Postgraduate Seminar. University College London (9 December 2009).
Invited to deliver an academic presentation on the subversive power of family photographs. Chelsea College of Art and Design, London (13 May 2009).
Invited to deliver a public talk on Israeli photo-reportage on politically-motivated attacks against civil targets. The Courtauld Institute of Art, London (11 March 2009).
Co-organiser and chair of a one-day international AHRC funded conference, Visual Conflicts: Art History and the Formation of Political Memory. History of Art Department, University College London (7 March 2009).
