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4 news Museum of London appointment Jilke Golbach has just been appointed as Curator of Photographs at the Museum of London taking over the post from Anna Sparham. Golbach was previously Assistant Curator at the Barbican where she co-curated Dorothea Lange: Politics of Seeing, the first UK retrospective of the photographer, along with Barbican curator Alona Pardo and Drew Heath Johnson from the Oakland Museum of California. The Museum of London tells the story of the capital from its first settlers to modern times. It has over one hundred and fifty thousand photographs covering everything from the Victorian docks to the suffragettes. Although the organisation has over 250 staff Golbach is the only photography curator. In recent years the Museum has acquired a disused part of Smithfield Market which they are currently redeveloping to become their new premises. The City of London Corporation (the site’s owner) and London mayor Sadiq Khan have put in £180 million towards the initial £250 million fundraising target with a planned opening date of 2024. Golbach’s role is ‘first and foremost to take care of the collection and make sure that it is acces- Portrait of Jilke Golbach courtesy The Museum of London sible for people to use’. This covers curating temporary exhibitions and facilitating research of the physical archive, including via the website and publications. Recently she has been collaborating with colleagues on the Curating London project, which looks at particular regions in London, exhibiting the work that photographer Charlie Phillips made in North Kensington in the 60s and 70s. As they work towards the opening of the new building Golbach is focused on ‘getting a more prominent place for existing photography and new acquisitions, specifically aspects of the London story and history that have been under represented such as documentation of the experiences of ethnic minorities and the LGBT community’. To this end she is researching bodies of work that might be suited to the collection, ‘we’ve got a lot of white male photographers and I’d like to bring a bit more diversity into that.’ In 2018 her predecessor Anna Sparham curated London Nights (reviewed in Source 94). That exhibition explored the subject of the city at night through the perspective of photographers and, as well as using work from the collection, brought in a wide range of contemporary and historical photography via loans. Goldbach sees that show as a model for future exhibitions. Traditionally, photography has been used at the Museum in a supportive role, visualising certain aspects of history and supporting displays of archeology, paintings prints and drawings. Golbach says, ‘hopefully when we move into the new premises photography will be displayed more in it’s own right with recognition for the power of photography as a stand alone discipline that frames the ways in which we see the world’. — John Duncan A new photography collective based in Merseyside has been started by photographers Tadhg Devlin, Craig Easton, Adam Lee, Stephen McCoy, Colin McPherson and Stephanie Wynne. They have just held their first group show along with related photographer’s talks. Those involved know each other from being based in the area and connections from education, work and attending Redeye events. They describe their backgrounds as including photojournalism, participatory photography, Six By Six fine art photography and conceptual documentary. Their aim is to build networks between photographers in Liverpool and to work Stephen McCoy introducing his work at Six by Six. with organisations like Open Eye gallery and the Look Festival. The next event is 24th October when Colin McPherson will be showing work he has been making over a number of years in Berlin. The group want to encourage other photographers to come along and help shape future events which take place at Ropes and Twines bar. — John Duncan
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news 5 National Trust appointment Catherine Troiano, formerly a curator at the V&A, has been appointed as the Curator of the national photography collections at the National Trust. This nation-wide role is newly created. The National Trust incorporates more than 450 locations (not all of them properties) of which around 250 include photography collections. Troiano estimates she now has charge of 400,000 photographic objects with an additional 140,000 items in the Chambré Hardman collection (a former photographic studio in Liverpool). As Troiano puts it, ‘The National Trust is the last organisation of that scale not to have a photography curator... The photography collections are a treasure trove just waiting to be dived into.’ She identifies two key apects to role: to activate the collec- Portrait of Catherine Troiano. tions in their local context and to establish a holistic profile of the collection to make it accessible to researchers. She has the assistance of Anita Bools, a photographic conservator, who has been assessing where everything is and its storage arrangements. Troiano mentions some of the things that make the photographic collections distinctive: ‘We have extensive collections of early photography from the 1840s and 1850s including, for example, five Claudet daguerreotypes’. But probably most significant is the domestic setting in which the collections are found: ‘We have the largest collection of in situ photographic albums in the world. The in-situ nature of the collections is great for a meaningful understanding of the cultural shifts that have occured in the country over the last 100 years.’ The Trust also has a public programming team to work with other national institutions on exhibitions. Troiano would like to include contemporary work as part of her shows and says ‘I very much hope commissioning new work can be part of this process.’ — Richard West

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Museum of London appointment Jilke Golbach has just been appointed as Curator of Photographs at the Museum of London taking over the post from Anna Sparham. Golbach was previously Assistant Curator at the Barbican where she co-curated Dorothea Lange: Politics of Seeing, the first UK retrospective of the photographer, along with Barbican curator Alona Pardo and Drew Heath Johnson from the Oakland Museum of California. The Museum of London tells the story of the capital from its first settlers to modern times. It has over one hundred and fifty thousand photographs covering everything from the Victorian docks to the suffragettes. Although the organisation has over 250 staff Golbach is the only photography curator. In recent years the Museum has acquired a disused part of Smithfield Market which they are currently redeveloping to become their new premises. The City of London Corporation (the site’s owner) and London mayor Sadiq Khan have put in £180 million towards the initial £250 million fundraising target with a planned opening date of 2024. Golbach’s role is ‘first and foremost to take care of the collection and make sure that it is acces-

Portrait of Jilke Golbach courtesy The Museum of London sible for people to use’. This covers curating temporary exhibitions and facilitating research of the physical archive, including via the website and publications. Recently she has been collaborating with colleagues on the Curating London project, which looks at particular regions in London, exhibiting the work that photographer Charlie Phillips made in North Kensington in the 60s and 70s. As they work towards the opening of the new building Golbach is focused on ‘getting a more prominent place for existing photography and new acquisitions, specifically aspects of the London story and history that have been under represented such as documentation of the experiences of ethnic minorities and the LGBT community’. To this end she is researching bodies of work that might be suited to the collection, ‘we’ve got a lot of white male photographers and I’d like to bring a bit more diversity into that.’ In 2018 her predecessor Anna Sparham curated London Nights (reviewed in Source 94). That exhibition explored the subject of the city at night through the perspective of photographers and, as well as using work from the collection, brought in a wide range of contemporary and historical photography via loans. Goldbach sees that show as a model for future exhibitions. Traditionally, photography has been used at the Museum in a supportive role, visualising certain aspects of history and supporting displays of archeology, paintings prints and drawings. Golbach says, ‘hopefully when we move into the new premises photography will be displayed more in it’s own right with recognition for the power of photography as a stand alone discipline that frames the ways in which we see the world’.

— John Duncan

A new photography collective based in Merseyside has been started by photographers Tadhg Devlin, Craig Easton, Adam Lee, Stephen McCoy, Colin McPherson and Stephanie Wynne. They have just held their first group show along with related photographer’s talks. Those involved know each other from being based in the area and connections from education, work and attending Redeye events. They describe their backgrounds as including photojournalism, participatory photography,

Six By Six fine art photography and conceptual documentary. Their aim is to build networks between photographers in Liverpool and to work

Stephen McCoy introducing his work at Six by Six.

with organisations like Open Eye gallery and the Look Festival. The next event is 24th October when Colin McPherson will be showing work he has been making over a number of years in Berlin. The group want to encourage other photographers to come along and help shape future events which take place at Ropes and Twines bar.

— John Duncan

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