Zsuzsanna M. Chaillet

The Image Of The Photographer:
The Self-Promotion Of A Modern Identity In 1930s Europe

Zsuzsanna M. Chaillet specializes in the history of photography through the discipline of art history. She works as independent curator and consultant. She studied Theory & Practice of Information and Communication and Linguistic Sciences, graduating Summa Cum Laude in Cultural History from the University of Milan, Italy. Since Spring 2013, Zsuzsanna M. Chaillet has been working on her PhD Thesis in World Arts of the Faculty of Art History at the University of Bern supervised by Prof. Dr. Wendy Shaw.

Her research examines the development of the photographer as modern persona in a hybrid geopolitical and ideological context. It explores in depth the causes of name change and how it developed into branding. The paper traces the construction of the identity of the 'photographer' by transforming the mechanical image into personal style despite the documentary nature of photography. The thesis focuses on the importance of self promotion, the relation between iconic images and unknown photographers, branding and the artistic self-invention. The thesis crystallizes the manipulation of collective memory through image dumping and the gap between fame and authenticity, the impact of mass production on market development of art photography. It studies the omnipresence and the photographic eye in global context; networking, publication, and affiliation: dissemination of the photographer and authentication of the image, and reconstructs the transition from craft to art, from trade to copyrighted intellectual property.

Sub project C
Heir to the Hybrid Moment: from Tradition to Modernity in Non-Western Visual Arts