The VDA FAMM Department invites you to a guest open lecture by Prof. Dr. Peeter Linnap on Tuesday, 29 September 2026, at 11:00 in Room 424, Titanikas.

We are launching a series of public lectures as 2026 marks 200 years since the creation of the first photograph and 30 years since the establishment of the BA programme in Photography and Media Art at VDA.

About the lecture

This talk explores societal attitudes towards images, with a particular focus on photography. What may or may not be photographed reveals a great deal about a society. As the ability to take photographs increases, with an ever-growing number of digital devices capable of capturing images, so do various restrictions on their production and circulation.

These restrictions are connected to the deep fears that images can evoke. Drawing on examples from Estonia, the war in Ukraine, the Israeli wars, and the war in Iran, the talk demonstrates that while photographic images continue to have the power to shock, how and to what extent they do so depends on the particular contexts in which they are created and interpreted.

Peeter Linnap b 1960 is a theorist and historian of visual culture, artist, curator and a writer In 2006 he completed his Ph.D in Semiotics and Cultural Studies at the University of Tartu with the thesis Photology. Since 2001, he is a professor and the head of the photography department at the Pallas Academy of Applied Sciences in Tartu, Estonia. As a scholar Linnap has published over 70 research papers including those published by academic publishers such as Springer (Society, New York), Intellect (IJETA, Bristol/Chicago) etc. He has authored 12 monographs and compiled 6 research books, catalogues a.o publications. Linnap has written articles for Estonian and international encyclopaedias. His academic research papers are a part of History of Estonian Art 1-6 (Vol.-s 5, 6) and The History of European Photography 1900-2000 (vol.-s 1, 2 and 3). As a professor he has lectured internationally all over the world and has participated in innumerable research conferences. As a cultural critic and commentator, Linnap has broadcasted over 30 TV and radio programs. Linnap is one of the major founders of university level photography education in Estonia. He is known as one of the key figures in the post-socialist/postcolonial art turn in the Baltic region. As a curator, Linnap has been an artistic director of the Saaremaa Photo Festival and has produced the legendary Saaremaa biennials Fabrique d'Histoire (1995) and Invasion (1997), also Peeter Tooming 80 and Martin Parr: Back then 1990's (2019) Borders of Mind" "European Month of Photography, Bratislava 2019) etc. As an artist, Linnap has produced works that combine textual elements and communicative processes; photographic works and performances that have often resulted in socially critical assemblages. Linnap has held more than 20 solo exhibitions in Europe and North America and has participated in hundreds of group exhibitions. Linnap's works belong to many public and private collections and his works have been published in numerous cultural publications.