Dr Sara Dominici
I am a scholar of photographic history and visual culture with expertise in popular photographic practices from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. I have taught at the University of Westminster since 2010, where I am currently a Senior Lecturer, the Course Leader for the MA in Art and Visual Culture (since 2017), and the Course co-Leader for the MA Museums, Galleries, and Contemporary Culture and the MA Museums, Galleries, and Contemporary Culture with Professional Experience (since 2022). I previously studied at La Sapienza University, Rome (Laurea quinquennale in Scienze della Comunicazione, 2004) and at the London College of Communication (FdA in Photojournalism, 2006), and hold an MA in Visual Culture (2010) and a PhD (2014) from the University of Westminster. I also previously worked as a photographer and photo editor in both commercial and non-profit organisations.
My research interests focus on three main intertwined areas: popular photographic cultures and related spaces of production; technologically-enhanced practices of mobility and vision; and photographers’ engagement with the infrastructures and networks of modernity. I am the author of Reading the Travel Image (Routledge, 2018) and articles on popular photographic practices.
A strand of my research looks at the intertwined histories of photography and forms of transport (i.e., trains, cycles, and motorcars), looking in particular at the role that ordinary experiences with technology played in the development of new leisure practices and ways of moving and seeing.
I am currently writing a book on the photographic darkroom, supported by a BA/Leverhulme Small Grant Award. Related to this, in 2023 I convened the international In the Photographic Darkroom conference, and edited a special issue of PhotoResearcher on the theme "The Darkroom: Chemical, Cultural, and Industrial" (vol. 41, 2024) stemming from the event.