Spring Seminar “Traumatic Landscapes”, Escola das Artes, Porto, Portugal, 2022

There are places around the world on the brink of disaster, from nuclear sites to war-torn regions. But what stories and secrets lie hidden behind the veil of conflict or tragedy?

In conversation with curator Luiz Camillo Osorio, Alice Miceli explores narratives behind war and conflict photography and how it can be used to capture moments that may otherwise go unseen. She looks at the contrasting approaches of two renowned photographers, Robert Capa and An-My Lê, in terms of capturing the action versus gaining a broader perspective. Alice then relates these issues to her own work by examining minefields and Chernobyl, projects that raise questions about different impenetrable spaces and how the medium of photography can be used to tell their stories.

Key moments:

• The most heavily mined place on Earth - 25:47

• The convention of war photography - 28:11

• Contaminated landscapes - 40:26

• What a contaminated landscape means for non-humans - 41:17