An exhaustive tour through the photography collections at the National Science and Media Museum, from the very earliest days of optical media to the latest and most cutting edge developments in digital photography (c. 1992). We will see some of the earliest and most amazing photographs in existence, learn about the key innovations in photographic technology, and see vast and unsurveyed collections of photographs stored away in the high-tech security basement beneath the museum. Our journey will tell the story of the collections themselves, as they grow and change, drawing in new quantities of objects from Harrow, and Bath, and London. We will pose challenging questions about the nature of museums and examine our own expectations of what a photography collection should do.

About the Speaker
Phillip is a historian of visual media and image-making machines. He is Curator of Photography at the National Science and Media Museum and Non-Executive Director of the Amber Film and Photography Collective. His work explores the tangled relationships between different media technologies and the ways that they impact everyday life and our ways of understanding it. He has published numerous articles on media history and is currently writing a book on the history of the magic lantern in the early-nineteenth century.

For any questions relating to this event or any other Headstone Manor & Museum event, please email info@headstonemanor.org