"Spheres of Influence” and “Framing an Interdisciplinary Future”
Friday, December 6th at 9am PST • 12 Noon EST • 5pm BST
Event held via zoom • Registration Link
Photography Network membership is required to attend.
Please join us on December 6 to hear two presentations that utilize interdisciplinary methodologies, combining art historical inquiry with conservation-based data analysis. Bryanna Knotts and Cynthia Yue’s presentation "Spheres of Influence: Material Affinities in the Photographs of Lola Álvarez Bravo, Tina Modotti, and Edward Weston" examines photographs that engaged with Mexico’s communities and contributed to its reimagination of national identity and belonging. Their research involves a comparative analysis with a materials-based approach to print characterization and interpretation, contextualizing the Center for Creative Photography’s collection of Álvarez Bravo, Modotti, and Weston prints within the Len Media Lab’s reference collection of historical silver gelatin papers. Sophie Church and Molly Martien’s presentation “Framing an Interdisciplinary Future: One Approach to Conserving, Historicizing, and Curating Vernacular Photographs of African Americans” comes out of a project with the Delaware Historical Society’s vernacular photography collection. Central to their inquiry is the question: How can we reconcile and integrate the perspectives of the community, curators, and conservators in articulating the critical importance of conserving and researching vernacular photography? They will present an in-depth analysis of a specific photograph that exhibits deliberate manipulation of the negative to alter the sitter's skin tone. This case study aims to contribute to a broader understanding of the socio-cultural dynamics and technological limitations that influenced early photographic practices and their impact on representation.
Bios:
Bryanna Knotts is the Assistant Conservator at the Center for Creative Photography at The University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. Bryanna holds an MS in the Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works and an MA in the History of Art & Archaeology from the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Before joining the Conservation Department at the CCP, Bryanna was the Research Scholar in Photograph Conservation at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. During her two-year appointment, she researched analytical and imaging techniques that could be used to monitor the development of silver mirroring on prints in The Met’s collection.
Cynthia Yue is a Data Analyst at the Lens Media Lab at the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage at Yale University, where she completed her undergraduate degree in Statistics and Data Science in 2020. Her work involves collaborating with partner institutions on materials-based collections analyses contextualized by the reference collection, and helping build the lab’s data infrastructure.
Sophie Church is a Graduate Fellow specializing in photographic materials conservation at the Garman Art Conservation Department at SUNY Buffalo State University. Her conservation experience includes internships at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas and former employment as a conservation assistant with the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, AZ and the Arizona State Library, Archives, & Public Records in Phoenix, AZ. Additionally, she completed a Master of Arts degree in art history from the University of Arizona and published her thesis titled, "The Makers Knowledge: Production and Analysis of Ugo da Carpi's David Slaying Goliath". Sophie is currently completing her graduate internship at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Molly Martien is a second year Curatorial Track PhD student in the Art History Department at the University of Delaware. Molly studies the agency and resiliency of free and enslaved Black craftspeople in the long nineteenth century in America. Molly was previously the IMLS American Decorative Arts Cataloguer at the Baltimore Museum of Art and The Americana Foundation Curatorial Fellow at Monticello. She received her first MA in the History of Design and Curatorial Studies from Parsons School of Design and her second MA in Art History and Religion from Yale University.