Photography collections in the

digital environment

Powerhouse Museum Paula Bray Manager, Visual & Digitisation services Twitter @paulabrayby krazydad / jbum

The digital challenge

over 500,000 objects

22,000 in central Sydney 4 million people in greater Sydney

by Australian War Memorial

Visual & Digitisation teams

Digital, social & emerging technologies

Flickr screen grab

photography is changing what we do

Museums are experiencing change

need to be relevant

continue to engage new audiences

in the fast pace of changing technologies

vast amounts of content out there

but how is the content relevant?

how do we reward our audiences

How does photography position itself in this changing environment of saturated digital images?

why do photography collections matter?

from this to this

by Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane

how do we share stories?

by New York Public Library

start conversations

by Library of Congress

get social

use mobile technologies

social media

photography collections are perfect for all these platforms

by National Library NZ on The Commons

re

by National Media Museum

by Library of Congress

by National Library NZ on The Commons

by George Eastman House

by Library of Congress

Traditionally Museum’s haven’t put their collections online

by EssG

online

to be relevant

Really significant initiativefor

photography collections

1. To increase access to publicly-held photography collections

&

2. To provide a way for the general

public to contribute information and knowledge.

(Then watch what happens when they do!)

47institutions

Text

332 discussions in Flickr Commons)

60 replies

28 replies

78 replies

level of discussion between members

by moirabot

participation is key

access to photography collections

audiences not seen this material before

by arobynejay

citizen curators

taggingcomments

location identification

‘then and now’

remix

innovation

The people depicted are Lucy Sawtell (nee Frost) (b 1878) wife of Henry Charles Sawtell, Edna (b 1901),

Ella (seated) (b 1902), Ina (b 1904) and George (b 1905) standing beside chimney near house.

our audience wants to engage with us and with our content

digitise for your audience

by Auntie P

Your audience appreciates it

generated lots of discussions

and some ‘noise’

one glass plate negative = many stories

experiment

print-on-demandby Leo Reynolds

easy with collections that are out of copyright

©x

or released using a Creative Commons license

shareremix

reusehuge development for sharing photography

flexible licensing tool

by colemama

multiple licenses across various platforms

by robonline

x

findableit is where I am and where I look5

meaningfulI can understand it

responsiveto my interests, moods, location

usable/shareableI can pass it on and share

availableonline/web onsite/galleries

and offsite/community

by Seb Chan fresh+new(er)

geo-location

examples or reuse

‘then and now’ photography

by Sarah Rhodes

by ScottSchrantz

by Scotticus_ CC BY-NC 2.0

AR mobiletechnology

we know our audience wants to participate

shared his story

taught us a lot

we then share on Photo of the Day

audience wants to know you and the ‘behind the scenes’ process

extend to the gallery experience

mobile is changing in-gallery experiences

Gizmodo screenshot

QR codes

what is the right platform?

how will it work for my photography collection?

in-gallery photography policies

by Leo Reynolds

by Leo Reynolds

we welcome

started blogging Benini archive

Bruno Benini

Bruno Benini

inviting our audience to participate

digital impacting exhibition development

not to be traditional photography exhibition

by mediafury

no more talking headsYiping Lim

integrated with all content

we experimented with digital

central pods

the darkroom experience

series of projections

causing audience to touch

needed to extend the experience

beyond the gallery back to the web

thank youNordiska MuseetPowerhouse Museum photographersall Flickr members using Creative Commons licenses

paula braymanager, visual & digitisation servicespaulab@phm.gov.autwitter @paulabraywww.powerhousemuseum.com/imageserices