Camera Work
image from Antiques Roadshow
Camera Work is a publication that was published by Alfred Stieglitz from 1903 to 1917. There were 50 issues published in those 14 years, with 1,000 journals per issue except for the last 2, which had 500.
Camera Work was originally begun as a Photo Secessionist publication and later became the mouthpiece of much of the Modernist art movement. Through Camera Work and his gallery 291, Stieglitz became one of the primary reasons that Modern Art was brought to and accepted by Americans and the art world. Stieglitz brought together writers and artists through Camera Work and via his gallery in New York, many of which had never been seen nor published in the United States including Pablo Picasso and Gertrude Stein.
I have been sharing this publication with my history of photography students for several years and always scheduled a visit by my class so they can view and hold Camera Work themselves. I believe strongly in the power of the original object and taking my students from the Photographic Center Northwest never fails. They are studio students who may or may not be excited about taking a history class yet they are always moved by the beautiful images within Camera Work and are amazed that they can hold the publication themselves and page through it at their leisure. Many are surprised when they see the color images from the autochromes, while others are taken in by the velvetiness of the photogravures. These images are of such quality that they have even been loaned to the Henry Art Gallery for exhibitions. It really is a marvel that we are allowed to come in to the Seattle Room and visit these publications in person! Such is the strength of a public library.
If you would like to read a paper I wrote that has information on the issues at the Seattle Public Library, you can download it below. I ask that it not be reproduced without my permission. Please respect the work that I have done on this topic.
Part of my presentations on this topic include a brief overview of how photogravures are made. I frequently show this excellent website from the Art of the Photogravure site.
Camera Work was originally begun as a Photo Secessionist publication and later became the mouthpiece of much of the Modernist art movement. Through Camera Work and his gallery 291, Stieglitz became one of the primary reasons that Modern Art was brought to and accepted by Americans and the art world. Stieglitz brought together writers and artists through Camera Work and via his gallery in New York, many of which had never been seen nor published in the United States including Pablo Picasso and Gertrude Stein.
I have been sharing this publication with my history of photography students for several years and always scheduled a visit by my class so they can view and hold Camera Work themselves. I believe strongly in the power of the original object and taking my students from the Photographic Center Northwest never fails. They are studio students who may or may not be excited about taking a history class yet they are always moved by the beautiful images within Camera Work and are amazed that they can hold the publication themselves and page through it at their leisure. Many are surprised when they see the color images from the autochromes, while others are taken in by the velvetiness of the photogravures. These images are of such quality that they have even been loaned to the Henry Art Gallery for exhibitions. It really is a marvel that we are allowed to come in to the Seattle Room and visit these publications in person! Such is the strength of a public library.
If you would like to read a paper I wrote that has information on the issues at the Seattle Public Library, you can download it below. I ask that it not be reproduced without my permission. Please respect the work that I have done on this topic.
Part of my presentations on this topic include a brief overview of how photogravures are made. I frequently show this excellent website from the Art of the Photogravure site.
| camera_work_at_spl.docx |
Photographic Archives: sites of preservation, access and scholarship
Another research project I worked on was for my History 590 Archives: Theory, History, Practice class with Jordanna Balkin. I am also interested in Archives and leaped at the opportunity to take a class in the History department on this topic. I took the iSchool class on Archives with City of Seattle Archivist Scott Cline and enjoyed being able to explore this topic from two very different perspectives.
Photographic archives are specialized repositories wherein the history of a place and a people are stored and made available to scholars and the general public. If you are interested in reading more of this paper, it is below. As with my work on Camera Work, I ask that it not be reproduced without my permission.
Photographic archives are specialized repositories wherein the history of a place and a people are stored and made available to scholars and the general public. If you are interested in reading more of this paper, it is below. As with my work on Camera Work, I ask that it not be reproduced without my permission.
| photo_archives_paper_final.docx |
Other research opportunities
image source: AirPigz at http://tinyurl.com/manusrs
Other opportunities I had to do research included the Research Methods, LIS 570, class wherein I and several of my classmates worked with Ricardo Gomez on his research into communication technologies as they relate to community development settings. This was my first experience working with qualitative data on such a large scale.
Another fun research project involved the Spruce Goose. My brother-in-law Scott Nowlin is a Colonel in the Air Force and was a professor at the Air Force Academy when I was assigned to do a research project for someone for my LIS 520 Information Resources, Services, and Collections class with Joe Janes. I thought that Scott might have something interesting for me to work on, and did he ever! It turns out that the Academy had recently been given blueprints, papers, and other ephemera and they needed to garner additional information on the airplane built by Howard Hughes for a possible exhibition. I developed a report for the USAFA and gathered information for them in a Zotero folder.
I enjoyed this research so much that I took a trip with my family to visit the Spruce Goose in Oregon. It was very gratifying to see this behemoth after spending so much time looking into its' history. My report to the USAFA is included below and is also not to be reproduced without my permission.
Another fun research project involved the Spruce Goose. My brother-in-law Scott Nowlin is a Colonel in the Air Force and was a professor at the Air Force Academy when I was assigned to do a research project for someone for my LIS 520 Information Resources, Services, and Collections class with Joe Janes. I thought that Scott might have something interesting for me to work on, and did he ever! It turns out that the Academy had recently been given blueprints, papers, and other ephemera and they needed to garner additional information on the airplane built by Howard Hughes for a possible exhibition. I developed a report for the USAFA and gathered information for them in a Zotero folder.
I enjoyed this research so much that I took a trip with my family to visit the Spruce Goose in Oregon. It was very gratifying to see this behemoth after spending so much time looking into its' history. My report to the USAFA is included below and is also not to be reproduced without my permission.
| report_to_the_usafa.docx |