Asian (post)colonial works, labour and gender through the camera lens

SAH Virtual 2025

Date: September 18, 2025

Time: 4:00 PM - 5:50 PM

On September 18, the session Asian (post)colonial works, labour and gender through the camera lens will take place at the SAH Virtual conference. The session examines how photography intersects with the histories of labor, architecture, and gender in Asian (post-colonial) contexts, particularly in Macau. It brings together researchers from the LabourMap-Macao (DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte) project and will have Kathleen James-Chakraborty as a discussant.

The project explores how photography documented, and sometimes obscured, the presence and roles of workers in construction processes. Despite its inherent subjectivities and limitations, photography captures both the built environment and the point of view of those behind the lens, revealing dynamics of power, visibility, and authorship.

The session will feature the participation of four researchers from DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte:

Beatriz Serrazina and Leonor Matos Silva as organizers; Ana Vaz Milheiro will present "Getting to know the workers and the construction processes through photographic records of building sites in Macau (1938-197-)"; Leonor Matos Silva will present "Captured in Transit: Two Women Architects and the Story of Labour Mobility from Portugal to Macau (1960s–1985)"; Inês Lima Rodrigues will present "Framing labor through the colonial lens: Photography and the (in)visibility of work in the construction of the Macau-Taipa Bridge (1969–1974)".

Also participating are Cecilia Chu, a project consultant, with "Engineering the Modernist Landscapes: Chinese Architecture and the “Ethnic Supplement”", and Inês Leonor Nunes with "Photographing Chandigarh: Modern India Through Pierre Jeanneret and Jeet Malhotra’s Rolleiflex".

For more information: https://www.sah.org/conferences/virtual-2025