Introduction: photo archives and the place of photography

Book section : Chapter

The present volume investigates photographs and photographic archives in relation to notions of place. The term “place” is used to explore the physical location of a photograph or archive, as well as the place of photography as a discursive practice with regard to its value or significance as a method of viewing and conceiving the world. Photographs are mobile objects that may change their physical location, transported through time and space to very different commercial, artistic, social, academic, and scientific locations. The same image may find its home in, for example, an academic institution's photographic research archive or an individual viewer's photo album, a museum archive or an artist's studio, a digital resource or an art gallery, each time acquiring a different value. Within the same archive or collection, a photograph can change location due to a new attribution, a change in classification or for reasons of conservation, moving, for instance, from open access to being housed in a more restricted special collection. Thus, the photograph's physical location has an impact upon its function, interpretation, or significance.

Authors: Johnson, GA; Schulz, D

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Routledge
• Host title: Photo Archives and the Place of Photography
• Pages: 1-7
• Chapter number: Introduction
• Series: Routledge History of Photography
• Place of publication: London
• Publication date: 2025-02-07
• Acceptance date: 2024-11-22
• Edition: 1
• DOI: 10.4324/9781003086260-1
• EISBN: 9781003086260
• ISBN: 9781350107533
• Language: English
• Keywords: photo archives; photography; photographic archives; place
• Subtype: Chapter