Overview
Background
I completed my MA and PhD in Art History at University College London in 2012, and moved to Australia in 2015 to take up my position at UQ. I am an art historian with expertise in the history of photography, artists’ cinema and video. I have written widely on modern and contemporary art and his articles have appeared in Oxford Art Journal, Third Text, Afterall, Philosophy of Photography, Photography and Culture. I am also the author of Documents of Utopia: The Politics of Experimental Documentary (2015). I am in favour of a broader approach to image culture, one which crosses traditional boundaries between disciplines such as art history, media studies, sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies. My research interests are contemporary artists’ use of images for the production of history and memory, and the aesthetics and politics of documentary. I am interested in the history of Australian photography and the role that lens-based images and visual culture have played in advancing social and environmental justice movements in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.
Availability
- Dr Paolo Magagnoli is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy, University College London
Research interests
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History and Theory of Photography, Visual Culture, Modern and Contemporary Art
Research impacts
Citation Counts According to Google Scholar my book Documents of Utopia has been quoted 55 times since its publication. My metrics:
H-Index: 5
Hi-Index: 5
Total Citations: 138
Standing of Publishers
MIT Press (Documents of Contemporary Art Series): MIT Press is one of the leading academic presses in the field of art and visual culture.
Columbia University Press is one of the top academic presses in the field of the arts and humanities.
Routledge is one of the top publishers in the field of photography studies, publishing some of the most utilized textbooks in the discipline.
History of Photography is ranked Q2 by SCImago (between top 50% and top 25%).
Journal of Australian Studies is ranked Qby SCImago (between top 50% and top 25%).
Photography and Culture is ranked Q2 by SCImago (between top 50% and top 25%).
Oxford Art Journal is the leading journal in the field of art history. It has a H-index of 13. It was ranked A in ERA 2010.
Third Text was ranked Q1 (top 25%) in the SCImago Visual and Performing Arts subject category for 2011 through to 2013 and Q2 (between top 50% and top 25%) from 2014 to the present. It has a H-index of 14. It was ranked A in ERA 2010.
Journal of Chinese Contemporary Art: the journal’s editorial board includes some leading international scholars from the University of Chicago, University of Oxford, and the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.
Philosophy of Photography is ranked 15th among the top 20 journals in Google Scholar’s Visual Art subject category (accessed: 29/2/16)
Afterall is published by Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London and the Department of Visual Arts, University of Chicago, in association with the University of Chicago Press. It has a h5-index of 4 and h5-median score of 5.
Art In America, Frieze, Camera Austria, Burlington Magazine are very influential art magazines with a worldwide circulation of up to 75,000 printed copies.
Selected Reviews of Documents of Utopia: The Politics of Experimental Documentary
“Drawing on a dazzling array of sources, the book offers a clear and sophisticated argument that a desire to recover the past can also be one to rethink the future” — As Paul Wilson, Associate Professor of Art History, Ithaca College, New York.
Selected Reviews of Work: Documents of Contemporary Art
“A truly brilliant anthology that could function as a textbook for students interested in understanding this major issue in contemporary art debates.” — Angela Dimitrakaki,
Professor, University of Edinburgh.
Works
Search Professor Paolo Magagnoli’s works on UQ eSpace
Featured
2025
Journal Article
Photography and Racial Capitalism: A Special Issue of <i>History of Photography</i>
Magagnoli, Paolo (2025). Photography and Racial Capitalism: A Special Issue of History of Photography. History of Photography, 48 (3), 207-210. doi: 10.1080/03087298.2025.2572933
2025
Journal Article
Symbolic violence: Pacific Islander labourers and photography
Magagnoli, Paolo (2025). Symbolic violence: Pacific Islander labourers and photography. History of Photography, 48 (3), 226-246. doi: 10.1080/03087298.2025.2580797
2025
Journal Article
Photography as labour and industry: reading photographic archives of indentured labour
Magagnoli, Paolo (2025). Photography as labour and industry: reading photographic archives of indentured labour. Labour History, 129 (129), 201-210. doi: 10.3828/labourhistory.2025.33
2024
Other Outputs
Nothing Has Changed: Interview with Ian Millis
Magagnoli, Paolo (2024, 04 23). Nothing Has Changed: Interview with Ian Millis Labor Art Review 1-9.
2024
Other Outputs
Jasmine Togo-Brisby: Intimate Archeologies of Australian Slavery
Magagnoli, Paolo (2024, 04 21). Jasmine Togo-Brisby: Intimate Archeologies of Australian Slavery Town Hall
2024
Book Chapter
To put a human face on the question of labour: photographic portraiture and the Australian-Pacific indentured labour trade
Magagnoli, Paolo (2024). To put a human face on the question of labour: photographic portraiture and the Australian-Pacific indentured labour trade. Coercion and wage labour: exploring work relations through history and art. (pp. 331-356) edited by Anamarija Batista, Viola Franziska Müller and Corinna Peres. London, United Kingdom: UCL Press. doi: 10.2307/jj.4329861.20
2023
Journal Article
From national hero to national problem: the image of the worker in Pix Magazine (1938-1954)
Magagnoli, Paolo (2023). From national hero to national problem: the image of the worker in Pix Magazine (1938-1954). Journal of Australian Studies, 47 (1), 49-70. doi: 10.1080/14443058.2022.2155685
2022
Journal Article
Histories of the illustrated magazine in Australia
Johnston, Anna and Magagnoli, Paolo (2022). Histories of the illustrated magazine in Australia. Journal of Australian Studies, 47 (1), 1-7. doi: 10.1080/14443058.2023.2156085
2022
Book Chapter
Museums in late populist democracies: the photographic archive and the working class
Magagnoli, Paolo (2022). Museums in late populist democracies: the photographic archive and the working class. Museums and the working class. (pp. 90-107) edited by Adele Chynoweth. New York, NY United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003029519-6
2020
Journal Article
“A library of photographs covering the entire continent”: Walkabout magazine and the politics of documentary in post-war Australia
Magagnoli, Paolo (2020). “A library of photographs covering the entire continent”: Walkabout magazine and the politics of documentary in post-war Australia. Photography and Culture, 13 (1), 29-56. doi: 10.1080/17514517.2019.1693878
2020
Journal Article
Blinded by quarry vision: Nicholas Mangan, Australia, and the history of extraction in the South Pacific
Magagnoli, Paolo (2020). Blinded by quarry vision: Nicholas Mangan, Australia, and the history of extraction in the South Pacific. Third Text, 34 (6), 415-435. doi: 10.1080/09528822.2020.1823703
2019
Journal Article
The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art
Magagnoli, Paolo (2019). The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. Burlington Contemporary.
2018
Book Chapter
‘How Mining Made Australia’: Populist Nostalgia and the Spectre of Climate Change in the Television Documentary Dirty Business
Magagnoli, Paolo (2018). ‘How Mining Made Australia’: Populist Nostalgia and the Spectre of Climate Change in the Television Documentary Dirty Business. Climate Change and The Media: Vol. 2. (pp. 120-138) edited by Benedetta Brevini and Justin Lewis. New York, NY United States: Peter Lang. doi: 10.3726/b14826
2017
Book Chapter
Moulène, Rancière and 24 Objets de Grève: productive ambivalence or Reifying Opacity?
Magagnoli, Paolo (2017). Moulène, Rancière and 24 Objets de Grève: productive ambivalence or Reifying Opacity?. Work. (pp. 140-142) edited by Friederike Sigler. Cambridge, MA, United States: MIT Press.
2016
Journal Article
The civilized artist beautifies pollution: Zhao Liang’s Water and Beijing Green
Magagnoli, Paolo (2016). The civilized artist beautifies pollution: Zhao Liang’s Water and Beijing Green. Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, 3 (3), 367-377. doi: 10.1386/jcca.3.3.367_1
2016
Journal Article
The Internet as Ruin: Nostalgia for the Early World Wide Web in Contemporary Art
Magagnoli, Paolo (2016). The Internet as Ruin: Nostalgia for the Early World Wide Web in Contemporary Art. Transformations, 28.
2016
Journal Article
'Just Enough Critique’: the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art
Magagnoli, Paolo (2016). 'Just Enough Critique’: the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. Seismopolite (13)
2015
Journal Article
Mapping Artists’ Films: Exhibiting Cinema in Contemporary Art
Magagnoli, Paolo (2015). Mapping Artists’ Films: Exhibiting Cinema in Contemporary Art. Senses of Cinema (74)
2015
Book
Documents of Utopia: The Politics of Experimental Documentary
Magagnoli, Paolo (2015). Documents of Utopia: The Politics of Experimental Documentary. Columbia, CA, United States: Columbia University Press. doi: 10.7312/columbia/9780231172714.001.0001
2013
Journal Article
Capitalism as Creative Destruction: The Representation of the Economic Crisis in Hito Steyerl’s In Free Fall
Magagnoli, Paolo (2013). Capitalism as Creative Destruction: The Representation of the Economic Crisis in Hito Steyerl’s In Free Fall. Third Text, 27 (6), 723-734. doi: 10.1080/09528822.2013.857899
Funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Paolo Magagnoli is:
- Available for supervision
Looking for a supervisor? Read our advice on how to choose a supervisor.
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
WE CALL YOU! Sisters! Mothers! Workers!: Labour, Sex Work and Social Reproduction in Contemporary Art
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Andrea Bubenik
-
Doctor Philosophy
The Art and Neuroscience of Traditional Chinese Painting
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Andrea Bubenik
-
Doctor Philosophy
Dirt: Dialogues with Earth Matter
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Amelia Barikin
Completed supervision
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Between Communism and Fascism: The Entangled History of Political Photomontage in Italy, 1925-45
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Amelia Barikin
-
2022
Doctor Philosophy
Refocusing on the Medium: The Rise of East Asia Video Art
Associate Advisor
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2017
Master Philosophy
Drones and Night Vision: Militarised Technology in Paintings by George Gittoes and Jon Cattapan
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Amelia Barikin
Media
Enquiries
Contact Dr Paolo Magagnoli directly for media enquiries about:
- art
- culture
- ecology
- photography
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