STAFF PROFILE
Professor Daniel Palmer
Daniel Palmer is Associate Dean of Research and Innovation in the School of Art at RMIT University.
Daniel Palmer's research and professional practice focuses on contemporary art and cultural theory, with a particular emphasis on photography and digital media. Prior to joining RMIT in 2018, Palmer was Associate Dean of Graduate Research and Associate Professor in the Art History & Theory Program at Monash Art, Design & Architecture. He also has a long association with the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Melbourne, first as a curator and later on the board of management.
Palmer's book publications include Photography and Collaboration: From Conceptual Art to Crowdsourcing (Bloomsbury 2017); Digital Light (Open Humanities Press, 2015), edited with Sean Cubitt and Nathaniel Tkacz; The Culture of Photography in Public Space (Intellect 2015), edited with Anne Marsh and Melissa Miles; Twelve Australian Photo Artists (Piper Press, 2009), co-authored with Blair French; and Photogenic (Centre for Contemporary Photography, 2005). His scholarly writings on photography and contemporary art have appeared in journals such as Photographies, Philosophy of Photography, Angelaki, Reading Room and the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art. Palmer has also published over sixty catalogue essays and fifty art reviews since 1997, in art magazines including Art and Australia, Photofile and Frieze.
Palmer has been the recipient of various awards and grants, and has been Chief Investigator on multiple ARC projects, including the ARC Discovery Project 'Genealogies of Digital Light' (2008–11) with Sean Cubitt and Les Walkling; an ARC Linkage Project 'Photography as a Crime' (2009–2012) with Anne Marsh, Melissa Miles, Mark Davison and the Centre for Contemporary Photography; and the ARC Discovery Project 'Curating Photography in the Age of Photosharing'; (2015–2017) with Martyn Jolly.
- PhD University of Melbourne, 2004
- BA Hons, University of WA, 1996
- Committee Member, Monash University Museum of Art, 2010–2017
- Victorian Representative, Art Association of Australia and New Zealand, 2017–Current
- Board Member, Centre for Contemporary Photography, 2006–2015
- Secretary of International Association of Art Critics (AICA), Australian Section, 2008–2014
- Director, Melbourne International Arts Festival, 2006–2008
- McQuilten, G.,Palmer, D. (2023). Introduction: Contemporary Art and Crisis In: Dystopian and Utopian Impulses in Art Making, Intellect, United Kingdom
- Palmer, D. (2022). All Too Human: Photography Exhibitions in Australia In: PHOTO2022 International Festival of Photography – Being Human Melbourne, Australia
- Palmer, D. (2022). The Social Life of Contemporary Photography In: Living Pictures: Photography in Southeast Asia, National Gallery Singapore, Singapore
- Bennett, A.,Hulbert, S.,Najdowski, R.,Palmer, D. (2021). The Image Looks Back In: The Image Looks Back Melbourne, Australia.
- Palmer, D. (2021). “Asian” photography in Australia In: Photographies, 14, 109 - 118
- Cubitt, S.,Lury, C.,McQuire, S.,Papastergiadis, N.,Palmer, D.,Pfefferkorn, J.,Sunde, E. (2021). Ambient Images In: The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, 30, 68 - 77
- Palmer, D.,Jolly, M. (2021). Installation View: Photography Exhibitions in Australia (1848-2020), Perimeter Editions, Melbourne, Australia
- Palmer, D. (2020). Decentering the Photographer: Authorship and Digital Photography In: The Routledge Companion to Photography Theory, Routledge, Abingdon, United Kingdom
- Palmer, D. (2020). Mobile Photography and Artistic Activism in the “Instagram Museum” In: The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media Art, Routledge, New York, United States
- Palmer, D. (2019). Icons of colonial injustice: From photographs to public art In: Art & the Public Sphere, 8, 201 - 215
5 PhD Completions5 PhD Current Supervisions and 1 Masters by Research Current Supervisions
- Digital photography: mediation, memory and visual communication (externally led by University of Melbourne). Funded by: ARC Discovery Projects via other university 2020 from (2020 to 2024)
- Curating Photography in the Age of Photo Sharing. Funded by: ARC Discovery Projects 2015 from (2015 to 2022)