Professor Verena Kick’s Book Manuscript Workshop: Photobook Politics – Materiality and Ideology in Germany 1918-1945
On October 19, Professor Verena Kick (Department of German), one of this year’s GHI grant recipients, convened a workshop on her book in progress Photobook Politics – Materiality and Ideology in Germany 1918-1945.
From left to right: Andrés Zervigón, Kit Belgum, Verena Kick, and Steffen Siegel
Verena Kick, Assistant Professor in the Department of German, is one of this year’s awardees of the GHI Book Manuscript Workshop Grant. She is working on a book titled Photobook Politics – Materiality and Ideology in Germany 1918-1945. Using the concept of the functional montage, her book demonstrates that the photobook’s paratextual and material elements, such as cover, format, and layout, shape an understanding of this genre. At the same time, she analyzes the functions of these elements, showing how publishers, photographers, and book designers used them to present political agendas in Weimar and NS Germany.
On October 19, 2024, Prof. Kick convened a workshop with scholars Steffen Siegel (Theory and History of Photography, Folkwang University of the Arts), Andrés Zervigón (Art History, Rutgers University), and Kit Belgum (German Studies, University of Texas at Austin) to discuss her book proposal and two chapters of the manuscript. After intensive discussions, a lunch at Peacock Café was more than deserved.