Reading the Emptiness

The terms "watching," "waiting", and "empty place" from the title of the recent publication Watching, Waiting: The Photographic Representation of Empty Places evoke the paradigmatic image of pandemic isolation and existential uncertainty with unmistakable synergy: people confined to their homes gaze through windows at empty streets, waiting for the threat to pass.This image served as a catalyst for gathering around the theme of emptiness at the sixth annual international conference Otkrivanje Dalmacije / Discovering Dalmatia.Organised by the Institute of Art History -Cvito Fisković Center in Split and inspired by the project Ekspozicija -Themes and Aspects of Croatian Photography from the 19th Century until Today, the conference took place virtually in November 2020 at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when infection and death rates were at their highest, and travel was nearly impossible.