« Jimmy August 9, 1946 Seattle | Main | Lighter Than Air »
November 14, 2007
The National Gallery and website news
I just got back from my talk at the National Gallery and I have to say that it was a pretty amazing experience. Everyone involved at the gallery was incredibly professional (and nice to boot!). The curators of the show Sarah Greenough and Diane Waggoner both made me feel very welcome and it was a real treat to get to talk to them about amateur photography. Most importantly, they really took the snapshot seriously and produced the best show (and the one most true to what the snapshot really is) to date. The catalogue, The Art of the American Snapshot 1888-1978, is also a model of scholarship and a must have for any serious collector (plus the photos, all drawn from the collection of Robert Jackson -a good friend with as good a collection as I've ever seen and probably will ever see- are outstanding. My talk was called "The Innocent Eye? The Snapshot and the Collector." I'm planning to turn the talk into an essay I'll post over at Square America though I think the essay will probably end up being about 50% the talk I actually gave, 25% the talk I intended to give (but due to some inexcusibly poor planning and my very real fear of public speaking) but didn't, and 25% the talk that in hindsight I probably should have given. I think the talk went okay. It seemed to be pretty well received but it could have been (and really should have been) much better. On the plus side I think I handled the actual public speaking part of it pretty well and hopefully in the future I'll be less anxious about that.
Now for a bit of news- I'm planning a major website redesign over at Square America for sometime next year (probably March). Basically I'll be adding a bunch of bells and whistles- most importantly the ability to search by date, location, etc... This means I'm going to have to go back and tag all of the more than 4000 photos currently on the site. I'm also hoping to double the number of photos on the site by the time of the re-launch as it currently only reflects a portion of my collection. I'll also be adding video from my collection of home movies though at this point I'm not sure I'll integrate them into the site. I'd be interested if anyone has any suggestions for things they'd like to see me do. For instance, would the ability to tag photos yourselves make the site more useful for you? I'll still be doing the same kinds of curated shows I do now I just want to allow viewers a little more freedom in how they move through the site. Let me know what you think!
Posted by nick at November 14, 2007 09:10 AM
Comments
I'm pleased to here your presentation went well.
I like your idea about home movies.
Maybe you could tag your 3.5 x 3.5 photos as such, I really like them, they are very time period. They are what I think about when the word "snapshot" is spoken.
Posted by: Mike at November 14, 2007 02:03 PM
Mike- I'll definitely be tagging the 3.5's as well as polaroids and RPPCs. Thanks for the suggestion!
Posted by: nick at November 16, 2007 12:30 AM
I'm going to have to prepare myself for not going to Square America every morning . . . I'm glad for this advanced warning. Would you consider taking e-mail addresses so that, after the site is down for a while, you can let us know when it's back up?
--Jeannie
Posted by: Jeannie at November 16, 2007 05:40 AM
Congratulations on the presentation. I adore your site and blog, any way you like it !!
Posted by: Carol at November 16, 2007 05:55 AM
I was at the Symposium last Saturday and I want everyone to know that Nick did a great job! He didn't sound nervous; his images were great; his words, thoughtful. I look forward to reading his essay. He's right about the catalog, it is also well worth reading. It was a fabulous day for snapshot lovers.
Jane
Posted by: Jane Deschner at November 17, 2007 09:42 AM
I was thinking, maybe you could add a recommended reading list as well. A list of books published that relate to vernacular photography, and also great photographers who's work compares to snapshot photography.
Posted by: Mike at November 19, 2007 04:46 PM
Hi - this is such a cool site!
For the retagging effort, what are your plans? Are you going to follow a name space standard like IPTC or PREMIS? I've got about 30k photos (500+ are scans of prints from the 60s-70s) that I'd like to tag cleanly, but I keep getting lost in deciding what standard to follow.
I work in a library and these are common issues to grapple with.
Thanks for the neat site!
D
Posted by: Declan at November 30, 2007 10:12 AM