What are photographs 'doing' in museums? Why are some photographs valued and others not? Why are some photographic practices visible and not others? What value systems and hierarchies do they reflect?
What Photographs Do explores how museums are defined through their photographic practices. It focuses not on formal collections of photographs as accessioned objects, be they 'fine art' or 'archival', but on what might be termed 'non-collections': the huge number of photographs that are integral to the workings of museums yet 'invisible', existing outside the structures of 'the collection'. These photographs, however, raise complex and ambiguous questions about the ways in which such accumulations of photographs create the values, hierarchies, histories and knowledge-systems, through multiple, folded and overlapping layers that might be described as the museum's ecosystem.
These photographic dynamics are studied through the prism of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, an institution with over 150 years' engagement with photography's multifaceted uses and existences in the museum. The book differs from more usual approaches to museum studies in that it presents not only formal essays but short 'auto-ethnographic' interventions from museum practitioners, from studio photographers and image managers to conservators and non-photographic curators, who address the significance of both historical and contemporary practices of photography in their work. As such this book offers an extensive and unique range of accounts of what photographs 'do' in museums, expanding the critical discourse of both photography and museums.
| ISBN: | 9781800083004 |
| Publication date: | 21st November 2022 |
| Author: | Elizabeth Edwards, Ella Ravilious |
| Publisher: | UCL Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 357 pages |
| Series: | V&A Co-Publications |
| Genres: |
Museology and heritage studies Social and cultural anthropology History of art History of design History and Archaeology |
What are photographs 'doing' in museums? Why are some photographs valued and others not? Why are some photographic practices visible and not others? What value systems and hierarchies do they reflect?
What Photographs Do explores how museums are defined through their photographic practices. It focuses not on formal collections of photographs as accessioned objects, be they 'fine art' or 'archival', but on what might be termed 'non-collections': the huge number of photographs that are integral to the workings of museums yet 'invisible', existing outside the structures of 'the collection'. These photographs, however, raise complex and ambiguous questions about the ways in which such accumulations of photographs create the values, hierarchies, histories and knowledge-systems, through multiple, folded and overlapping layers that might be described as the museum's ecosystem.
These photographic dynamics are studied through the prism of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, an institution with over 150 years' engagement with photography's multifaceted uses and existences in the museum. The book differs from more usual approaches to museum studies in that it presents not only formal essays but short 'auto-ethnographic' interventions from museum practitioners, from studio photographers and image managers to conservators and non-photographic curators, who address the significance of both historical and contemporary practices of photography in their work. As such this book offers an extensive and unique range of accounts of what photographs 'do' in museums, expanding the critical discourse of both photography and museums.
What Photographs Do features in the following genres: Museology and heritage studies, Social and cultural anthropology, History of art, History of design, History and Archaeology
What Photographs Do is available in Hardback, Paperback
What Photographs Do was written by Elizabeth Edwards, Ella Ravilious and published by UCL Press
What Photographs Do has 357 pages
Yes it is part of V&A Co-Publications series