Major Photography Centre opens at V& A
THE FIRST phase of a major new Photography Centre at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V& A) in London opened on 12 October, featuring some of the most influential and important photography of the past 150 years. The world’s first photographic experiments, pictures by Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen, recent acquisitions by Linda McCartney gifted by Paul McCartney and his family, and newly commissioned works by Thomas Ruff, will all go on display this autumn to mark the opening.
The first phase doubles the space dedicated to photography at the V& A. The inaugural display traces a history of photography from the 19th century to the present day through the theme of collectors and collecting. Drawn from the V& A’s significantly expanded holdings, following the controversial transfer of the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) collection from the National Media Museum in Bradford, the display shows prints and negatives by William Henry Fox Talbot, Julia Margaret Cameron and Frederick Scott Archer, alongside camera equipment, photographic publications and original documents to tell a broader story of international photography. It also features a digital wall to show the most cutting- edge imagery of today.
The Photography Centre will also feature the ‘dark tent’: a multimedia projection and lecture space inspired by the travelling darkrooms of 19th- century photographers. Specially commissioned films revealing early photographic processes such as the calotype and wet collodion process and the daguerreotype, will be screened, along with a slideshow projection of rarely seen magic lantern slides revealing the first attempts to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1921 and 1922. The opening of the new centre is accompanied by a three-week spotlight on photography across the V& A, including a series of talks by leading photographers, screenings, events, workshops, courses and a Friday Late dedicated to photography.
‘Our collection now seamlessly spans the entire history of photography, telling the story of the medium from the daguerreotype to the digital,’ says V& A director Tristram Hunt. ‘In an era when everyone’s iPhone makes them a photographer, the V& A’s Photography Centre explores and explains the medium in a compelling new way.’
The V& A Photography Centre is open every day from 10am to 5.45pm, and until 10pm on Fridays. It is free to view. More at www.vam. ac.uk/collections/photographs.