Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79) Pomona, 1872, Albumen print © The RPS Collection at the V&A
Wonders keep a comin’ at the V&A. Judith Schrut’s been down to see.
The world’s first photographs and earliest cameras. Works by pioneer photographers William Fox Talbot, Eadweard Muybridge, Julia Margaret Cameron, Alfred Stieglitz, Berenice Abbott and Man Ray. A light wall for displaying screen-based photography. An innovative “dark tent” inspired by Victorian era travelling darkrooms. Recent photographs by Thomas Ruff, Martin Parr, Mary McCartney and Hiroshi Sugimoto.
These are just a few highlights unveiled at the preview of the Victoria & Albert Museum’s new Photography Centre, now open to the public. Designers and architects have transformed a former wing of 19th century galleries into a beautiful and welcoming suite of rooms, with state-of-the-art displays and vast digital resources for photography enthusiasts around the world. And it’s all free.
This is a stunning space to show off the variety, breadth and diversity of the V&A’s collection of 800,000 historic and contemporary photographs, 6000 cameras and other unique items. The museum has been collecting photography since 1852. Its collection is one of the largest and most important in the world, greatly enriched by the recent transfer of hundreds of thousands of items from the Royal Photographic Society collection previously housed in Bradford’s National Media Museum, a move not without controversy.
Digitisation of the entire collection is well underway so you will be able to see every item online. Meanwhile items not on display can be viewed by visiting the V&A’s incredible Prints and Drawings Study Room. I highly recommend trying this unforgettable experience for yourself.
William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-77), Articles of China, 1844, Salted paper print, varnished©RPS Collection at the V&A
The V&A celebrates the Centre’s opening with a fascinating first show, Collecting Photography, Daguerreotype to Digital, exploring photography as a way of ‘collecting the world’, from the medium’s invention in the 19th century to the present day. There’s also a month long Photography Spotlight packed with special events and performances, workshops, tours, talks by leading photographers and a photography-themed Friday Late Night on 26 October.
Sian Bonnell (b1956), Beach Clean 1999, C-type print©Sian Bonnell Victoria & Albert Museum, London
The V&A is the world’s leading museum of art and design. Victoria and Albert Museum,
Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL. Admission is free to the museum, Photography Centre and most Spotlight events. Find out more at vam.ac.uk/collections/photographs.
