Christopher Webster

Lecturer in Fine Art
ND and NHD (Vaal University of Technology, South Africa) PhD (Wales) Photograph of Christopher Webster.

Contact

Email: chris.webster@aber.ac.uk
Phone: 01970 628447
Personal Web Site:http://users.aber.ac.uk/cpw/site/welcome.html

Biography

A member of the Association of Studies in Esotericism and the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism, Webster serves on the editorial boards of Consciousness, Literature and the Arts and the South African Journal of Photography.  As evidenced by international exhibitions and conference papers, he continues to develop, with his PhD and Masters students, alternative approaches to photographic practices (both chemically and conceptually).

His most recent practice is centred on the production of short 16mm films that include stop motion animation and manipulation of the film surface. Areas of research and research supervision covers: occult and esoteric applications of photography (including physiognomy, spirit photography, documentation of esoteric events, photographs as evidence of the supernatural); the staged and manipulated photograph (especially in photo-collage and photomontage); eugenics and the photograph as a physiognomic marker of racial types from the nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth. He is researching material for a book (publication 2012) exploring the use of photographs as evidence of alleged crimes committed under the auspices of National Socialism. In addition, he is conducting research into the ‘Agfa-color Neu’ work of German photographers in the late 1930s.

Teaching and research supervision covers Fine Art (photographic and lens based practice) and Art History (history of photography, specifically: occult and esoteric applications of photography, including physiognomy; spirit photography, documentation of esoteric events, photographs as evidence of the supernatural; the staged and manipulated photograph, including photo-collage and photomontage; and the use of found images).