Photography and Collections

Open discussion about color photography and vision between hand-coloring practices seen in the photographs of the Mecklenburg-Expedition (1910) and the mechanically-generated three-color photography (Dreifarbenphotography nach der Natur) based on Robert Lohmeyer's photographs. My talk also dealt with the relationship between color and colonialism.

NYUAD Saadiyat Campus March 8-10, 2015

Our understanding of the histories and practices of photography is changing as more and more critical attention is being paid to photographic cultures from outside of Europe and North America, and to new forms and functions emergent in a variety of contemporary social and political contexts. Focusing in particular on the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia, this conference brings together scholars, photographers, curators, and archivists from around the world in order to undertake new explorations of photography’s past and present.

«Фотография с барахолки» (анализ случайной фотографии как исторического источника). Это эссе было написано в рамках учебного курса в ЕУ СПб по визуальным источникам. Делюсь, так как там есть полезные ссылки на литературу и, может, кому пригодится методика анализа. Кроме того, и фотографию таким образом делаю доступной для широкого круга исследователей.

The Hispanic Society of America, Diario de Archer Milton Huntington (HSA: Diario de Huntington), 1889. Si bien, informalmente, se los denomina el diario de Huntington, los documentos que han sobrevivido no son un verdadero diario. Al final de su vida, Huntington logró en gran medida su propósito de destruir la 9 «he comprado un libro de G. Borrow, se titula Los Zincali y trata de los gitanos de España. Es el libro más interesante que he encontrado aquí. España debe de ser mucho más interesante que Liverpool» 5 . Pronto aquel interés se convertiría en una pasión general por la cultura hispánica.

The purpose of this master thesis is to approach the theory of the collecting process, to research the difficulties that appear to the collectors of regional photography and to propose solutions that can make their work easier.
In the first part of the thesis, we analyzed the existing bibliography on collecting and photography as a collectible. Initially, we cite the history of collecting starting from the very beginning of human kind. In order to examine the theories on collecting process, we present the definition and some basic characteristics of collecting and different types of collectors. We continue with some further subjects that concern collecting , such as the role of aesthetics in collecting process, the psychology as a background of collector’s needs, the positive and negative aspects of collecting and the side effects to the collector’s household. The following part concerns Photography and initially we approach it historically as an invention, after as a collectible and in the end we examine some theories on photography, as they were stated by Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes.
In the second part of the thesis, we present the interviews of the three collectors that we examined and then we analyzed the results of their answers, based on the theory mentioned on the first part. The difficulties they have are mostly on the exposure of their collections, on the family’s reaction to their collecting pursuit, which keeps them away from their role as a family member, the longevity of the collection and other difficulties such as the conservation and the storage of the collection
In the conclusions of the thesis, we present some suggestions addressed to the difficulties of the collectors. On the exposure, we proposed the creation of a web page that is an inexpensive solution and will help the collection to communicate better to the people that are interested and will work as a supplement to the classical methods of exposure, such as publications. As far as it concern the difficulties in the household, we proposed the limitation of the time the collector spend in the collecting pursuit. For the longevity of the collection, we proposed the instigation of the potential successors to involve on the digitalization of the collection, that except from having them involved and prove that they are capable as successors will provide solutions to the difficulty of conservation as the original photographs will stay non-perished and protected and the archiving, as a database can be created easily afterwards. Finally, on the financial difficulties we proposed the reset of the limits of the collection and the sale of the objects that is not part of the regional photography collection but determines historically the images.

Album zawierający nieznane fotografie Warszawy z lat 1939 – 1945. Zdjęcia pochodzą z rodzinnych archiwów, co zwiększa ich atrakcyjność.  Zdjęcia podzielone zostały na 3 okresy: okupację, okres Powstania i czas po Powstaniu. Celem publikacji było - oprócz ukazania wydarzeń historycznych - pokazanie także wymiaru prywatnego, osobistego. Wcześniej fotografie nie były opublikowane. Ukazują m.in. chwile odpoczynku walczących. Zdjęcia przedstawiają przede wszystkim prywatne historie, gdzie gruzy i ruiny są sprowadzone jedynie do roli tła. Fotografie uzupełniają teksty napisane w oparciu o relacje powstańców i ludności cywilnej, nierzadko autorów zdjęć lub osób na nich uwiecznionych.