PHOTOBOOKS:

Talking Hands/ Χέρια Που Μιλούν (2024) 

by Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, Elisavet Stefani, Polina Nikolaou & Michael Given

“Talking Hands” examines the experiences and stories of residents of Episkopi village in Cyprus whose lives were interwoven with archaeological work. This is a bilingual book - Greek and English - that includes new work, archival photographic material and stories by 11 people from Episkopi.

Published by: Department of Antiquities, Book Design: Philippos Vassiliades

The Thingness of Memory (2022) 

by Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert & Omiros Panayides

This artistic experiment is our futile attempt to penetrate the photographic surface, or the skin of the photograph, and arrive at its bare bone, in order to get a glimpse of the structure of memory. To explore the photographic surface of our own photographic archives, we used a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM); a cutting-edge technological tool used mainly in biology, medicine and engineering.

“Tracking the Loving Gaze” is a limited edition artist book of 100 copies.

Published by: self-published, Book Design: Filippos Vassiliades

Cyprus: Island of Aphrodite II (2020) 

by Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert & Nicolas Lambouris

“Cyprus: Island of Aphrodite II” is an artist appropriation of George Lanitis’ book “Cyprus: Island of Aphrodite” that was published in 1965 and attempted to encapsulate the “visual essence” of the newly formulated Republic of Cyprus.

Published by: IAPT Press (International Association of Photography and Theory), Book Design: Artemis Eleftheriadou

arte-facts (2020) 

by Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert

“arte-facts” looks into the relationships of Cypriots with archaeology. The emphasis is on alternative narratives and omissions: the unacknowledged and unnamed Cypriot worker at archaeological excavations, the people behind copies of the statue of Aphrodite, and the role of photography in archaeological knowledge production.

“arte-facts” is a limited edition artist book of 200 copies.

Published by: Pistou Press (artist imprint), Book Design: Filippos Vassiliades

Tracking the Loving Gaze (2019) 

by Omiros Panayides & Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert

We asked 30 people to provide us with a photograph they love or one with a very special meaning for them. Then, we used an eye tracker - a device usually used in psychology, marketing, and human-computer interaction research - to measure the point of gaze (where one is looking at) and its duration. An eye-tracker provides raw visual data, such as heat maps, focus maps, or scan paths. For us, these visual data where the primary source for this work.

“Tracking the Loving Gaze” is a limited edition artist book of 100 copies.

Published by: self-published, Book Design: Filippos Vassiliades

Tourists Who Shoot (2013)

by Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert

“Tourists Who Shoot” is a contemporary, nuanced look at how tourists use their cameras while on holiday. “Tourists Who Shoot” is a sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant reassessment of what it means to be a tourist. The book includes essays by photography scholar Liz Wells and art theorist Elena Stylianou.

Published by: Armida Publications, Book Design: Marina Yerali

Museums and Technologies of Presence (2023) 

by Maria Shehade & Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert (eds.) Publisher: Routledge.

In view of the ever-increasing use of interactive and emerging technologies in museum spaces, Museums and Technologies of Presence rethinks the role of such technologies as potential facilitators of presence and as vehicles for offering new, immersive, and embodied visitor experiences.

This edited collection presents theoretical approaches and case studies that explore how presence can be experienced in museum spaces and what role technology can play in visitor experiences. It considers the theoretical underpinnings of the concept ‘presence’ for museum spaces, offering a critical examination of how immersive and other emerging technologies can affect, diminish or enhance our sense of presence and embodiment. Through an international range of case studies and innovative projects, this volume considers emerging technologies – including virtual reality, augmented reality, interactive (multisensory) installations, and AI – alongside different aspects of presence, including immersion, embodiment, empathy, emotion, engagement, and affect.

Emerging Technologies and Museums: Mediating Difficult Heritage (2022) 

by Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, Alexandra Bounia and Antigone Heraclidou (eds.) Publisher: Bernhard Press

How can emerging technologies display, reveal and negotiate difficult, dissonant, negative or undesirable heritage? Emerging technologies in museums have the potential to reveal unheard or silenced stories, challenge preconceptions, encourage emotional responses, introduce the unexpected, and overall provide alternative experiences. By examining varied theoretical approaches and case studies, authors demonstrate how "awkward", contested, and rarely discussed subjects and stories are treated - or can be potentially treated - in a museum setting with the use of the latest technology.

Ledra Palace: Dancing on the Line (2021) 

by Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, Loukia Loizou Hadjigavriel and Antigone Heraclidou (eds.) Publisher: Leventis Foundation

The 274 pages book is designed as an ode to the history of the hotel and the memories of the people who worked and passed through the Ledra Palace Hotel. The book was introduced along with the exhibition “Ledra Palace: Dancing on the Line” organised by the CYENS Centre of Excellence and the Leventio Municipal Museum of Nicosia in 2021 (June-October 2021). More information about the project: https://museumlab.cyens.org.cy/project/ledra-palace-dancing-on-the-line/

Book Design: Appios Creative Studio

Museums and Photography: Displaying Death (2017) 

by Elena Stylianou & Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert (eds.) Publisher: Routledge

"Museums and Photography" combines theory with international case studies to investigate the display of death in various types of museums - history, anthropology, art, ethnographic, and science museums - and to understand the changing role of photography in museums. Contributors explore the politics and poetics of displaying death, and more specifically, the role of photography in representing and interpreting this difficult topic. Working with nearly 20 researchers from different cultural backgrounds and disciplines, the editors critically engage with recent debate on the changing role of museums, exhibition meaning-making, and the nature of photography.

Visitor Photography in Museums: Redefining the Visitor Experience (2016)

by Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert (ed.). Publisher: MuseumsEtc

Positive and proactive involvement with visitor photography is still the exception, or in its infancy, in most museums and galleries. However, in this book, the authors share their exciting experience of visitor photography and how its creative use can result in: 
1.     enhancing social interaction and creativity;
2.     encouraging audience engagement
3.     motivating learning
4.     helping re-curate exhibitions
5.     connecting with new audiences
6.     and encouraging the contribution of new content. 

Photography and Cyprus: Time, Place & Identity (2014)

by Liz Wells, Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert & Nicos Philippou (eds.). Publisher: I. B. Tauris/ Routledge

This book explores the ways photography both contributes and responds to the formation of identity. Contributors from Cyprus, Greece, the UK and the USA, representing diverse disciplines, draw from photography theory, art history, anthropology and sociology to explore how the island and its people have been represented photographically. They reveal how the different gazes- colonial, political, gendered, and within art photography- contribute to the creation of individual and national identities and, by extension, to the creation and re-creation of imagery of Cyprus as place. While “Photography and Cyprus” focuses on one geographical and cultural territory, the questions this book asks and the themes and arguments it follows apply also to other places characterized by their colonial heritage. The intriguing example of Cyprus thus serves as a fitting test-ground for current debates relating to photography, place and identity.

Re-envisioning Cyprus (2010)

by Peter Loizos, Nicos Philippou and Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert (eds.). Publisher: University of Nicosia Press

 Artists and academics join forces in a common effort to “re-envision” Cyprus. The result is an edited volume and a photography & multimedia exhibition. The authors of “Re-envisioning Cyprus” come from different disciplines – such as anthropology, social sciences, art history, literature, cultural theory and visual arts. What united them is first their wish to see Cyprus with their own eyes and with their own minds, rather than through officialising lenses, or narratives. They are also rather interested in photography, and how it can help  our conceptual understanding of the island. Participating authors and artists: Loucas Antoniou, Melita Couta, Johanna Diehl, Anandana Kapur, Phanos Kyriacou, Orestis Lambrou, Chrystalleni Loizidou, Peter Loizos, Miriam Paeslack, Haris Pellapaisiotis, Nicos Phillipou, Sondra Sainsbury, Stefanos Stefanides, Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, Constantinos Taliotis, Demetris Taliotis and Ellene Tsangarides.

Expanded visualities: Photography and emerging technologies (2024)

Special issue of Philosophy of Photography, 15(1-2) by Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, Kleanthis Neokleous & Andrew Fisher (eds)

This Special Double Issue of Philosophy of Photography explores the wide range of visual and communication technologies that are generally referred to under the expansive concept of ‘emerg­ing technologies’. The issue stems originally from the International Conference of Photography and Theory – ‘Expanded visualities: Photography and emerging technologies’ – held in Nicosia, Cyprus, in November 2022 (ICPT2022), and hosted at the CYENS Centre of Excellence; a Cypriot research and innovation centre focusing on new technologies. The conference addressed issues arising from the ways in which emerging technologies, such as 360 photography and video, artificial intelligence, machine-made images, augmented reality, satellites and drones, have transformed photographic practices and have expanded contemporary visualities. It set out to explore the urgent sociopolitical, aesthetic, and ethical questions stemming from the uses of such technologies.

You can read the full text of the introduction here: https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/pop_00088_2

Everyday Photography and Mourning in the 21st Century (2023)

Special issue of photographies, 16(1) by Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert & Lorenz Widmaier (eds.)

The special issue ‘Everyday Photography and Mourning in the 21st Century’ is dedicated to the role of the digital, networked image in mourning practices and examines the intersections between everyday photography, mourning, and technology. This editorial sets the stage by outlining the ways digital technologies change how people mourn the dead and the role of photography in this process. It has been argued that modern Western societies have lost touch with pre-modern mourning rituals and their connection with the dead body. Digital technologies are creating a shift in mourning practices by providing opportunities for acknowledging death, honouring the dead and maintaining relationships to them, and by offering alternative spaces where communities of mourning can gather; especially those that deal with disenfranchised grief. Photography plays a crucial role in these practices. The editorial introduces the special issue articles under two categories: (a) mourning with everyday photographs, and (b) mourning with post-mortem photographs. It then discusses how digital technologies, and the novel mourning practices addressed in the articles contribute to challenging societal conventions and to propelling specific political claims to the forefront; claims related to visibility and justice.  

Photography, Artists and Museums (2014)

Special issue of photographies, 7(2) by Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert & Elena Stylianou (eds.)

This special issue of "photographies" is dedicated to the intricate relationship between photography and museums. More specifically, it focuses on artistic practices that use photography to challenge the theoretical complexities of this relationship. The featured papers of this issue examine what happens when artists turn their lens on such museum practices as collecting, archiving, exhibiting and interpreting. Moreover, they investigate how artists negotiate the concept of the museum, its practices and visitors through their photographic work, and the ways in which they often adopt a curatorial position by using real and/or fictional photographic archives.