ACCENTUATE THE NEGATIVES The V&A opens a new photographic centre and pays tribute to Bazaar’s roster of groundbreaking contributors
The V&A’s immersive new photography wing celebrates the greatest practitioners of the medium, including Bazaar’s legendary contributors
‘Aportrait is not made in the camera, but on either side of it,’ wrote Edward Steichen, one of the world’s first fashion photographers. His captivating images are among the 775,000 that form the V&A’s photography collection, a portion of which is now on display in its new centre. ‘We’ve been collecting work since the 1850s,’ says Susanna Brown, the curator of photographs, who has overseen the development. ‘Because works in this medium are so sensitive to light, the display will be rotated frequently, so there is more opportunity to show some of the collection’s hidden treasures.’ These include pictures taken for this magazine by Lillian Bassman and Louise Dahl-Wolfe, which will be the subject of a special talk during Bazaar Art Week.
The galleries have been carefully constructed to immerse visitors in the history of photography, and feature a screening-room built to resemble a travelling darkroom tent. Inside, projections include a Victorian magic-lantern show – the act of stepping into the blackness and being surrounded by the flickering images recreates the thrill that the original audiences must have experienced. ‘There’s often a disconnect between seeing an early photograph and understanding what was involved in producing it,’ says Brown. The design of early cameras meant that photographers had to look at their subject upside-down, while pioneering practitioners needed a good grasp of the sciences, as photography in the 19th century was akin to alchemy and could be extremely dangerous – fire, mercury and cyanide were among the ingredients used to create these first mesmerising snapshots. Fast-forward 150 years, and the touch of a button is all that is required, yet the medium continues to fascinate us, as it captures an ephemeral moment and renders it eternal. The V&A Photography Centre (www.vam. ac.uk) opens on 12 October. The event, ‘A Celebration of Bazaar’s Female Photographers at the V&A’, will be held from 10am to 11.30am on 6 October in the Prints & Drawings Study Room. For further details, visit www.bazaarartweek.co.uk.