image: Promoter Digital Gallery, CC BY NC 4.0
In the framework of current DSI2 project, Photoconsortium is the curator of the upcoming Europeana Photography Collection in Europeana, a thematic channel that highlights heritage photography available online. With curated stories, interactive features and beautiful images from photograhic archives all over Europe, the Europeana Photography Collection is planned to be launched in the first months of 2017 (beta version is foreseen in March 2017).
Photography is a direct and effective connection between history and contemporary society. It allows people to connect with their past, with fellow European citizens, explore remote eras and locations, and better appreciate the value of their continental, national and local cultural heritage. Images tell invaluable and complex stories: what everyday life of European citizens was like throughout history, what times passed and places far away might have looked and felt like, what it meant to be born in glamorous Paris during the Belle Époque or to be a family on the run during World War I.
Europeana Photography Collection will open up Europe’s photographic heritage to offer a curated and engaging experience for both professional users and the general public, and will enhance visibility of Europeana’s photographic collections through an online showcase which facilitates interaction with the user community and encourages the use of Europeana and the creative re-use of its objects.
In a nice digital environment, every 6 months a new exhibition and overarching portal theme will be presented in consecutive exhibition chapters to tell the story through a narrative in a concise, structured, and user-friendly way. Currently-planned exhibitions each contain 4-6 chapters, each featuring several smaller sections devoted to particular topics or collections, and presenting stunning images. Exhibition themes and materials have been selected taking into account the quality, the uniqueness and the appeal of the featured collections to specialized as well as broadly culturally interested user groups on the one hand, and the characteristics of the medium/art of photography on the other.
The first exhibition will be dedicated to the theme ‘The Pleasure of Plenty’: showing visual opulence and an opportunity to indulge in the minute detail. This exhibition features vintage photography facilitated by today’s digitisation techniques.
