| Newsletter for Collectors - Vol 9.5 | October 19, 2015 | | | 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.
The pros and cons of Social Media |
As Luminous-Lint has evolved I've used all sorts of social media and blogs to test different ways of disseminating information as well as building a photohistory community. Some of these have been short-lived whilst others, particularly Facebook, have been very successful especially for generating research ideas. My primary motivation is always how to improve the range of images that are available to enhance the Themes on Luminous-Lint. Everything that is included on the Luminous-Lint Facebook page comes from the information stored within the website. The risk with social media and blogs is that high quality content is created but not updated as new discoveries are made. Blogs become static pieces, similar to books, and most are active for a few years and then postings decline as time availability to generate fresh content saps the will of the writer to continue.
With real world rather than online photography exhibitions the same limitation applies - for the best institutional exhibitions years of labor is necessary to carry out the research, access images to match the themes, prepare captions and an exhibition catalogue. This can have considerable costs for example the exhibition on the Indian Ocean at the Smithsonian required a $1.8 million gift. Once the exhibition is over, the images returned and the catalogues sold, curators move on to the next task. Catalogues rarely have revised editions with fresh content and so they become time capsules of knowledge.
Luminous-Lint works with a different approach as everything is kept within a single system and the content is re-used for other purposes as necessary. It includes a public side and an enormous digital cuttings library that stores information that may be useful in the future. The advantage of this approach is that nothing is forgotten and hundreds of interlinked threads of photohistory can be continually improved.
This approach has worked well over the years and is best demonstrated within the Themes as they improve in hundreds of ways everyday.
Luminous-Lint is now a teenager: we will see the benefits of this as it gets a little more mature!
Subscriptions and a special deal for SPE members |
An SPE subscription discount has been created as a benefit to institutional members providing in-depth coverage for a few dollars per student a year. This provides access to in-depth content far greater than any single volume on photohistory. Subscriptions
Thanks to all subscribers for supporting Luminous-Lint.
Private collectors and Luminous-Lint |
Ephemera
Thanks to the hundreds of collectors who share images Luminous-Lint includes large amounts of ephemera providing rich and diverse insights into photohistory. | 
LL/60858 | 
LL/61606 | 
LL/54538 |
Facebook, social media and blogs are the digital ephemera of the modern age.
People post about their collecting interests, they advertise photographs for sale, ask questions on dating and genealogy and share their often profound insights with like-minded enthusiasts. They disseminate myths such as the dead being supported by posing stands (FALSE) and at the same time others debunk myths. The social media world of photography is as diverse as the world of collectors and few curators have time to delve into it with more than passing interest.
I actively monitor many photography groups and contribute content, debunk myths, and provide examples from Luminous-Lint to illustrate points and what a stimulating experience it is. Everyday I see photographs and ephemera fly by from private collectors who are often knowledgeable specialists. Over time relationships are established around the world with those prepared to share content with Luminous-Lint - indeed I can think of collectors who buy material specifically to pass on scans for educational purposes. Around 400 collectors have supplied content to Luminous-Lint and many do so on a regular basis adding to an astonishingly rich resource base of content on photohistory full of examples that curators may not have seen.
So here I'd like to say thank you to all the collectors around the world who graciously provide content and here are a few examples of recent arrivals.
Camera Comics
The front covers of the nine issues of Camera Comics have been kindly supplied by Campbell McCubbin. There were nine issues between 1944 and 1946. If you have any information about two earlier unnumbered issues please pass it along. | 
LL/61838 | 
LL/61839 | 
LL/61840 |
Photographers as the subjects of art
Thanks to the private collectors who have provided examples of how photographers have been drawn, painted and sculpted over the years and I‘m always seeking further examples from any part of the world. Thanks also to friends on Facebook who have suggested artworks within institutional collections that are relevant. Special thanks to Bill Purvis and Homer Sykes for providing examples and to whoever brought the paintings to Kent Monkman to my attention. | 
LL/61868 | 
LL/61825 | 
LL/61826 |
The Luminous-Lint PhotoHistory Visualizer (For subscribers) |
The PhotoHistory Visualizer (PHV) is fully functional for subscribers and allows swift navigation through thousands of topics on photohistory using tens of thousands of examples. It provides innumerable surprises for those interested in exploring subjects in depth and all images are credited and linked into other Themes.
Click on the image above to see a larger version
The next steps for Luminous-Lint |
Planning is now underway for the coming years on Luminous-Lint and the following regions will be concentrated on:
- Central America
- South America
- Northern Europe
- Eastern Europe
- The Arab World
- Iran
If you are a collector with relevant material or a curator with institutional holdings please let me know so we can ensure that coverage is as complete as possible.
Each of the Themes now requires extension into the 20th and 21st centuries and that will be an ongoing task. Please examine the Contents page to see where your own photographic collections would fill in gaps. I'm seeking single images as well as series and every piece is another part of the puzzle.
Everything on Luminous-Lint uses the image library as the basis for future analysis. When images are added they are linked into visual indexes and where appropriate to online exhibitions. The groups of images then become fragments and contextual information, footnotes and references are added in. Ideally every fact on Luminous-Lint should be supported by original sources, further examples and/or references to articles and books. This will never be perfect but it ensures that the content is as accurate as possible.
A photograph on its own can be fascinating and Luminous-Lint extends this by putting it into a wider context.
Requests for further information... |
Maps and photography
I'm interested in the interconnections between maps, topographic studies, surveying, photogrammetry and photography and if you have any examples in your collections or know of items in institutional collections I'd be interested to learn about them. | 
LL/61770 | 
LL/32954 | 
LL/61773 |
Runs of the front covers of photographic publications
Camera Work in the UK was a highly significant publication for documentary photography during the 1970s and thanks to Robin Christian and Brigitte Lardinois at the Photography and the Archive Research Centre at London College of Communication for their help with this. To extend coverage on Luminous-Lint sets of the covers of photographic publications from any part of the world are useful so send them through and as the project progresses I‘ll work out how to contextualize them. | 
LL/61638 | 
LL/61640 | 
LL/61641 |
The social life of photographs
This new Theme examines how photographs were marketed, sold, organized, stored and displayed right through history. This Theme includes advertising, sales catalogues, albums, framing and wall displays - examples from around the world will be much appreciated. | 
LL/57509 | 
LL/60575 | 
LL/60537 |
Photography assimilated into popular culture
How photography has been affected popular culture during different periods is fascinating. This Theme will include literature, poetry, painting, book covers, record sleeves and a host of related topics. At the moment this is a melting pot for ideas and I welcome your thoughts. | 
LL/60672 | 
LL/60605 | 
LL/60664 |
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Paul Ausloos (1927, 6 January - ) was born - Belgium, Antwerp. Belgian artist and photographer.
Dornac (1858, 6 January - 1941, 10 January) was born. Photographer active in Paris in the 1880s. His full name was Paul François Arnold Cardon and "Dornac" is an anagram of "Cardon".
Mark Johnson (1946, 6 January - ) was born - Australia, Sydney. Australian photographer.
Wright Morris (1910, 6 January - 1998) was born - US, NE, Central City. American photographer.
Kirill Surov (1971, 6 January - ) was born - Russia, St. Petersburg.
Baron Adolph de Meyer (1868 - 1946, 6 January) died - US, CA, Los Angeles. Fashion photographer. He also took a lot of portraits of his wife Olga.
The Baron was famous for making up his own history. In the book A Singular Elegance: The Photographs of Baron Adolph De Meyer (Chronicle Books, San More...
Tina Modotti (1896, 16 August - 1942, 6 January) died - Mexico, Mexico City. Italian politically active photographer who was most active in Mexico between 1923 and 1930. She was a companion of Edward Weston and moved in 1923 to Mexico City with her agreeing to work for nothing in his darkroom in exchange for his mentorship. More...
Francesco Scavullo (1921, 16 January - 2004, 6 January) died - US, NY, New York. Fashion and celebrity photographer. His portraits graced the front covers of ‘Cosmopolitan‘ for over 30 years. |
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