| Newsletter for Collectors - Vol 8.2 | June 14, 2014 | | | Home • What‘s New • Photographers • Online Exhibitions
Contents • Alphabetical • Styles and movements • Articles
Visual Indexes • Galleries & Dealers • Timelines • Techniques
Library • Contact us Welcome to another Luminous-Lint Newsletter.
Ever larger and better - In the last week Luminous-Lint broke the barrier of over 2,500 private and public collections and it is the connections between these holdings that makes Luminous-Lint a unique resource. Each image, and there are now almost 55,000, has full source details to assist curators in tracking down rare items and to act as an aid for educators and students. For photography cataloguers and auction houses Luminous-Lint is a rich repository for variant names, authentification information and comparative examples. For photographers it is a source of inspiration and contextual understanding and for collectors an invaluable guide.
Speedy progress on the Themes |
As I‘ve mentioned in previous Newsletters the content on Luminous-Lint is divided up into around 1,200 distinct Themes and each of those is made up of a variable of Fragments. The Fragments contain text, footnotes, images, visual indexes and now video footage is being linked in. There are currently over 3,300 Fragments and I expect that number to increase to 8-10,000 over the coming years. The Themes are now improving quickly and in the last two months over 200 new Fragments have been added and over 20% of all Fragments have been edited and improved. The content on Luminous-Lint is never static and I‘d like to thank the 2,500 private collectors and institutions who have provided examples from their collections. This is creating an astoundingly rich visual resource that will be used to support the Themes as we progress.
If we look at the American Civil War (1861-1865) we can see how a single Theme is building up but it also includes experiments to see how much we information we can extract from a single carte de visite as a case study:
1st Lieutenant Henry. B. Loomis, adjutant of the 56th New York Infantry Regiment (Evolving case study)
For case studies like this large numbers of people contribute expertise and they will continue to improve as further information arrives.
What do users think about Luminous-Lint? |
I asked and people responded most graciously with their thoughts and here are just a few from a great many received.
Luminous-Lint is unparalleled in its depth and quality of photo-historical content for photography curators, artists and photo-aficionados the world over.
(Graham Howe, CEO and owner, Curatorial Assistance, Pasadena)
I refer to Luminous-Lint frequently to get a better and deeper visual understanding of photographic history; to look for new work and ideas. I also refer students - it is simply the most comprehensive and accessible database of it‘s kind.
(Neil Folberg, Photographer and owner, Vision Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel)
Luminous-Lint is, in my experience, the most comprehensive history of photography resource on the internet, far surpassing what you‘d find in any one book. The level of detail in the research is astounding. I have yet to find a similar site that matches it.
(Karl Baden, Boston College)
I like going back to Luminous-Lint because: it is an extremely well written and well documented site – incorporating many photo collections, and highlighting special clusters within the field. (Els Barents, Director, Huis Marseille Museum voor Fotografie)
I adore Luminous Lint because it is a reliable source for accurate information on subjects both mainstream and quirky in the world of photography. Also because it organizes knowledge in a non-linear fashion which encourages creative, out-of-the-box thinking.
(Barbara Tannenbaum, Curator of Photography, Cleveland Museum of Art)
Simply the most complete online source for information about the history of photography.
(Robert Hirsch, Photo-historian, photographer and author of numerous books on photography) Luminous-Lint has a solid foundation but I feel we‘ve hardly touched the surface of what is possible. As John Cloake, a UK collector, wrote "it feels like a commonwealth allowing collectors and enthusiasts to contribute in a minor way to the research effort" - each contribution is appreciated and a piece of a vast puzzle.
I hope that you will join in as we continue to improve Luminous-Lint for the benefit of all and I welcome your suggestions. Thanks, Alan
The next set of tools for those inclined to go deeper |
Upcoming tools listed in the order they will be included are:
- Video integration – to include video footage from multiple sources. At this stage Luminous-Lint does not need to generate video footage but will embed carefully selected material from YouTube, VIMEO and other websites. Luminous-lint will bring scattered material into a coherent framework.
- Research timelines – to see how a themes and photographers have been studied over time.
- Exhibition planning – to assist in planning for institutional exhibitions. It will provide the examples, contact lists (with privacy protection), accompanying materials and reading lists. This will be a timesaver for photo curators and encourage photographers to better understand their own work in a global and historical context. No private information on collectors will be provided but I will put institutions in touch when appropriate.
- Geo-locational information – to assist in mapping.
As I mentioned in the last Newsletter tools will evently be added in for users to create PDFs of sections of the website but that may take a bit of time in coming.
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Margaret Bourke-White (1904, 14 June - 1971, 27 August) was born - US, NY, New York. Studied at the Clarence H. White School of Photography. American photographer noted for her industrial shots, often for the magazine ‘Fortune‘ and her work in Germany and Soviet Union in the 1930s. Later she photographed the social More...
Alexander John Ellis (1814, 14 June - 1890, 28 October) was born. An amateur photographer who took a group of 137 Daguerreotypes of Italy in 1841 with the intention of publishing a book in twenty monthly parts. He was assisted in this by Achille Morelli and Lorenzo Suscipj. The book was due to commence on 1 More...
Ishimoto Yasuhiro (1921, 14 June - 2012, 6 February) was born - US, CA, San Francisco. American-born photographer who was a student of Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind at the Institute of Design, Chicago. He emigrated to Japan in 1961 and took Japanese citizenship in 1969. He is particularly noted for his studies of Japanese More...
Frank B. Gilbreth (1868, 7 July - 1924, 14 June) died. Efficiency specialist who used time lapse photography to study motion often collaborating with his wife Lillian
A.J. Patel (1907 (ca) - 1961, 14 June) died - India, Bombay. |
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