CONFERENCE: The Institutional Life of Photographs

Victoria and Albert Museum 
December 6-7, 2019,  
Hochhauser Auditorium, Sackler Centre 
 

The V&A’s acquisition of the Royal Photographic Society collection from the Science Museum in 2017 has raised major questions about the place, role and nature of photography in museums, the shape of ‘collections’, the role and status of ‘non-collections’ of photographs, the practicesand stylesof history of photography, and the assumptions of museology. Theconference explores the dynamics of such themesacross analogue and digital media, and considers the sprawling practicesand depositsof photography in museums and galleries. It will focus on the mass of photographs in museumholdingsthat fall outside formal ‘collectionsof photographs’, and explore the epistemic force and hierarchies of value to which photographs contributeas they remake, reproduceand solidify institutional values. What is ‘collected’ and what is not? What are the shifting boundaries between ‘collections’ and ‘non-collections’? How do ‘collections’ emerge and how are category shifts realised? How are photographs put to work within museums? How do photographs formandcohere institutions and their practices? How are museum meanings made through photography? Finally, what are the interdisciplinary implications of these debatesacross, for instance, museum studies, history,art history, history of scienceand anthropology? With distinguishedinternationalspeakers, including Dr Geoff Belknap (NSMM), Dr Costanza Caraffa (Kunsthistorisches Institute, Florence)and Dr David Odo (Harvard Art Museums) the conference gatherscurators, conservators, academics and other specialists to considerthe saturating role of photographs in museums, changing practices,andbroaderimplications. 

The conference is organised by the V&A Research Institute (VARI) and generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in conjunction with research strands led by VARI Visiting Professor Elizabeth Edwards. 

https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/Vvq9oLvj/the-institutional-lives-of-photographs-dec-2019