333 research outputs found
Reconsidering amateur photography:an introduction
No full textAs an introduction to the Reconsidering Amateur Photography strand of the National Media Museum's EitherAnd website, this conversation between Annebella Pollen and Juliet Baillie frames the core theories, debates and challenges in the area of study
When is a Cliche not a Cliche? Reconsidering Mass-Produced Sunsets
No full textSunsets are everywhere. Nightly they appear, vast and humbling, orange, pink and purple. Like snowflakes, it is said that every single one is different. Natural, ephemeral and beautiful, they constitute exactly the kind of subject that prompts people to reach for a camera: the fleeting spectacle that photography seems made to capture; the momentary vision that deserves immortalising. Sunset photographs, however, are a different matter. They have come to represent the most predictable, culturally devalued and banal of image-making practices. Critics dismiss them as ‘chocolate box’ or ‘picture postcard’; they are seen as cliche s. The beauty of a sunset can be transformed, in a photograph, into something cloying. Their very ubiquity is what seems to repel; photography has tainted what it sought to cherish through overuse. It seems to miniaturise natural grandeur and render it kitsch. In this chapter, I sketch in the origins of some of this critique, and take apart some of the assumptions beneath the dismissals, looking at amateur sunset photographs in both historical and contemporary practice.'When is a Cliche not a Cliche?' is a 3000-word essay reflecting on the ways that multiple photographs of popular subjects in popular practice can be understood. Originally published as part of the 'Reconsidering Amateur Photography' strand for the Science Museum-funded project www.eitherand.org, this 2018 revised version forms part of the section 'Mass Culture and the Politics of Distinction' in the book Photography Reframed, edited by Ben Burbridge and Annebella Pollen.<br/
Photography Reframed:Always, Already, Again
No full textA 4,500-word introduction to the edited collection, Photography Reframed, in the form of a written conversation between the two editors, Ben Burbridge and Annebella Pollen. The introduction reviews the status and development of photography studies, and the book's contribution to it, reflecting on disciplinary approaches, recent changes in higher education, the museum and gallery sector, social and political contexts. The introduction puts the book's contents into critical and historical context, and outlines the collective conditions of its emergence and construction.Extract from opening section:BB: Why ‘Photography Reframed’?AP: First of all, we are taking photography as our subject and placing it withina range of different contexts, through the contributions of authors from a range of different backgrounds. We do this in the understanding that the scholarship on photography is growing in scale and complexity and yet there is much more to be said. The heterogeneity of photography – universal, increasingly ubiquitous and yet wildly diverse in its purposes and meanings – is one of its most excitingaspects for its students and scholars. We’ve tried to capture some of that diversity and potential here by taking photography studies out of its familiar territories through new case studies and new approaches to its interpretation, and via new voices as well as those of established researchers and practitioners.We are also reframing photography in the sense that the form and content ofthe book has been developed through an iterative process. What readers hold intheir hands is the result of a series of reframings, revisions and reinterpretationsthat have developed over more than five years of research and debate. Thecontents of the book, and the further materials that surround it, have beenshaped by a wide range of contributors and editors, and have emerged throughan extended period of conversations, commissions, public events and onlinepublishing
Who are these folk all dressed in green? Reflections on the first fifty years of Woodcraft Folk costume evolution
Full text linkThis short 1000-word chapter of a community history publication drew on Annebella Pollen's AHRC-funded research into the British woodcraft movement and her work with the Heritage Lottery Funded project, 90 Years of Woodcraft Folk. Annebella sat on the project's academic steering group and the book's editorial board as well as authoring three of its ten essays
The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift: The people and practices that preceded Woodcraft Folk
Full text linkThis short chapter of a community history publication drew on Annebella Pollen's AHRC-funded research into the British woodcraft movement and her work with the Heritage Lottery Funded project, 90 Years of Woodcraft Folk. Annebella sat on the project's academic steering group and the book's editorial board as well as authoring three of its ten essays
What's in a name? The curious custom of alternative language in Woodcraft Folk
Full text linkThis short chapter of a community history publication drew on Annebella Pollen's AHRC-funded research into the British woodcraft movement and her work with the Heritage Lottery Funded project, 90 Years of Woodcraft Folk. Annebella sat on the project's academic steering group and the book's editorial board as well as authoring three of its ten essays
The Photo Vault: Annebella Pollen
No full textThe Photo Vault, founded by Austrian photographer, collector and publisher Lukas Birk, is described as 'a journey into Vernacular Photography, archives, collecting and photo books. The Photo Vault steps into a hidden world filled with forgotten snapshots, dusty family albums, and gems of visual history to be uncovered. Join us as we embark on an exhilarating tour into the heart of collecting, curating and creating artworks with archival materials around the globe. Lukas Birk takes you on a voyage filled with exclusive interviews featuring renowned artists who draw inspiration from vernacular photography, collectors who have dedicated their lives to amassing incredible troves of images, and curators who curate exhibitions that bridge the gap between past and present. We will dive into obscure archives and discuss at length with those behind the making of photobooks, exhibitions and historical narratives.' In November 2023, Lukas Birk interviewed Annebella Pollen about her interest in rejected photographs and photographic ephemera as prevailing themes across her research and writing. The resulting 45 minute podcast, episode 6 of the series, was launched in New Year 2024 via YouTube, Spotify and Apple
More Than a Snapshot: A Visual History of Photo Wallets - Interview with Annebella Pollen
No full textA short illustrated interview with Annebella Pollen, with a focus on the book More than a Snapshot: A Visual History of Photo Wallets. The interview was organised by Lomography Magazine. Lomography began in 1992 as an international photographic society for young film enthusiasts using outmoded analogue cameras; it has since become a major organisation with a magazine, a series of shops and an online community forum with over a million contributors
More Than a Snapshot: A Visual History of Photo Wallets - Interview with Annebella Pollen
No full textA short illustrated interview with Annebella Pollen, with a focus on the book More than a Snapshot: A Visual History of Photo Wallets. The interview was organised by Lomography Magazine. Lomography began in 1992 as an international photographic society for young film enthusiasts using outmoded analogue cameras; it has since become a major organisation with a magazine, a series of shops and an online community forum with over a million contributors
Researching the One Day for Life project: an interview with Annebella Pollen
No full textIn this book, Pollen's research into the One Day for Life photography project features as a four page illustrated case study of new and innovative methodologies for analysing archival photographs on a large scale. Penny Tinkler interviewed Pollen as one of a small group of scholars whose research could provide models of good practice for future studies using photographs in historical and social research contexts. Via a question and answer format, the book section outlines my photographic research methods, interpretive methodology and theoretical reflections. As Tinkler notes, in the book: 'Doing archival research requires reflection on archival practices. In some instances, how photographs are archived is also a focus of research. This is the case in Annebella Pollen's study of amateur photographs produced initially for submission to a UK charity event 'One Day for Life' (ODfL) in 1987 and subsequently deposited in the Mass Observation Archive. Pollen was interested in how 'amateur photography might be described, historicised and evaluated, both in the past and in the present'. But rather than approach the ODfL photographs as fixed in one point of time, and try to grasp what they might mean by interpreting the images, Pollen approached the photos as objects that are made and circulated and which accrue different meanings as they are used and reused. Drawing on Ariella Azoulay (2008), Pollen describes her approach as 'watching' photos as they are used and reused rather than simply fixating on the images and 'looking' at them.' (p. 110
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