Read more
Zusatztext This book is a compilation of essays about collecting and curatorial practices unique to photographic collections. The editors argue that issues related to the technical! ephemeral! and serial qualities of photographs! along with the medium's relatively short history! have led to their marginalization within museums! yet these collections are 'increasingly being understood as knowledge-objects in their own right.' An introductory chapter provides a theoretical and historical overview of the place of photographic collections in the museum setting. Developed as part of an international conference held in Leicester! England! and organized into five topical sections! the essays explore several notable photographic collections! the information value of photographs! the history of collecting photographs! and curatorial practices for photograph collections. Essays detailing how portrait photography solidified Charles Darwin's professional network and aided his work on evolution! examining photographs documenting revolution in Cuba of the 1950s and 1960s! and creating images of the Maori people of New Zealand illustrate the breath of this volume. It will be of particular interest to students of photographic history and museum professionals. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate! research! and professional collections. Informationen zum Autor Elizabeth Edwards is Professor Emerita of Photographic History at De Montfort University, Leicester, where she was Director of the Photographic History Research Centre from 2011- 2016. She is also Andrew W. Mellon Professor at the Victoria and Albert Museum Research Institute, London, and Honorary Professor in the Department of Anthropology University College London. Until 2005 she was Curator of Photographs at Pitt Rivers Museum and lecturer in visual anthropology at ISCA, University of Oxford, where she is Curator Emerita and Research Affiliate. In 2015 she was the first photographic specialist to be elected a Fellow of the British Academy. She has worked extensively on the relationship between photography, anthropology and history, on photographs and material culture, and on the work of photographs in museums, notably in colonial legacies. She has received many awards for her work and, over the years, has been on the boards many leading journals and of major museum and archival institutions. In addition to over 100 articles and essays, her monographs and edited works include Raw Histories (2001), Sensible Objects (2006), The Camera as Historian: Amateur Photographers and Historical Imagination 1880- 1918 (2012) and Photographs, Museums, Collections (2015). Dr Christopher Morton is Curator of Photograph and Manuscript Collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum and Departmental Lecturer in Visual and Material Anthropology at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford. He is co-editor (with Elizabeth Edwards) of Photography, Anthropology and History: Expanding the Frame (2009), and the author of numerous articles on photography and anthropology, especially in Africa. A fascinating exploration of the importance of photographs in the history of museum collections and collecting, featuring a broad range of global case studies. Zusammenfassung The status of photographs in the history of museum collections is a complex one. From its very beginnings the double capacity of photography - as a tool for making a visual record on the one hand and an aesthetic form in its own right on the other - has created tensions about its place in the hierarchy of museum objects. While major collections of 'art' photography have grown in status and visibility! photographs not designated 'art' are often invisible in museums. Yet almost every museum has photographs as part of its ecosystem! gathered as information! corroboration or documentation! shaping the understanding of other classes of ...
