Join British Academy visiting fellow Zhuang Wubin, who is hosted by CREAM, as he shares his ongoing research on the entanglements of salon photography, decolonisation and nation-building in Southeast Asia, and previews some of the archival materials that he has been working on in the UK.

Traversing the popular and the elitist, the praxis of salon photography (Pictorialism) continues to be prevalent across parts of Southeast Asia. In the first part of this presentation, Zhuang Wubin will share findings from his longstanding work to rethink the imprint of salon photography in Southeast Asia. The second half of the presentation focuses on his research in the UK, where he has worked on the collections at British Library, National Archives, Royal Photographic Society, National Art Library, SOAS and Durham University. He will preview some of these materials and suggest how they might inform his current project, which is supported by the British Academy visiting fellowship. The project aims to resurface the interactions between salon photographers and patrons, politicians, and other cultural workers. Activating these source materials, Zhuang contends that it was these connections that shaped the praxis of salon photography and implicated it within the political projects of making the nation during decolonisation and the Cold War. 

Zhuang Wubin is a writer who makes photographs, publications and exhibitions. He is the author of Photography in Southeast Asia: A Survey (Singapore: NUS Press, 2016). He is currently hosted by CREAM, University of Westminster, for the British Academy Visiting Fellowship 2025.