Sigrid Lien

Haunting and revealing photographs sent home by Norwegian immigrants in America as visual document and collective expression of the emigrant experience Between 1836 and 1915, in what has been called history’s largest population migration, more than 750,000 Norwegians emigrated to North America. Writing home, the newcomers sent thousands of pictures-America–photographs, as they are called in Norway. In these photographs, the emigrant experience unfolds as framed by thousands of Norwegian transplants in towns, cities, and rural communities across America. Pictures of Longing brings more than 250 America–photographs into focus as a moving account of Norwegian migration in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, conceived of and crafted by its photographer-authors to shape and reshape their story. To clarify the historic nature and the cultural function of the America-photographs, art historian and photography scholar Sigrid Lien located thousands of the photographs in public and private archives and museums in Norway and the United States. Reading these photographs alongside letters sent home by Norwegian immigrants, Lien provides the first comprehensive account of this collective photographic practice involving “the voice of the many.” Pictures of Longing shows, in fascinating detail, how the photographs, like the accompanying letters, contribute to the cultural grassroots expression of Norwegian migration. They steer us toward multiple, fragmented, and dispersed histories and also complement the existing fabric of established historical narratives, demonstrating photography’s potential to engage with history.

Almost all museums hold photographs in their collections, and museum professionals and their audiences engage with photographs in a myriad of ways. Yet despite some three decades of critical museology and photographic theory, and an extensive debate on the politics of representation, outside art museums, almost no critical attention has been given specifically to the roles, purposes and lives of these photographs within museums. This book brings into focus the ubiquitous yet entirely unconsidered work that photographs are put to in museums. The authors' argument is that there is an economy of photographs in museums which is integral to the processes of the museum, and integral to the understanding of museums. The international contributors, drawn from curators and academics, reflect a range of visual and museological expertise. After an introduction setting out the range of questions and problems, the first part addresses broad curatorial strategies and ways of thinking about photographs in museums. Shifting the emphasis from curatorial practices and anxieties to the space of the gallery, this is followed by a series of case studies of exhibitionary practices and the museum strategies that support them. The third section focuses on the role of photographs in the museum articulation of ’difficult histories’. A final section addresses photograph collections in a digital environment. New technologies and new media have transformed the management, address and purposing in photographs in museums, from cataloguing practices to streaming on social media. These growing practices challenge both traditional hierarchies of knowledge in museums and the location of authority about photographs. The volume emerges from PhotoCLEC, a HERA funded project on museums and the photographic legacy of the colonial past in a postcolonial and multicultural Europe.

Vi og dei andre i kulturhistoriske museum I kulturhistoriske museum blir kulturell identitet og kulturelle skilnader formidla til eit breitt publikum. Men kva forteljingar blir eigentleg fortalt i desse utstillingane? Kva bilete av oss og dei andre blir vi presentert for? Dei norske samlingane inngår i ein museumskultur prega av ei kolonial fortid samtidig som dei var del av det nasjonale prosjektet. Samspelet mellom det koloniale og det nasjonale har vore eit tema i internasjonal museologi, men er lite reflektert over i Noreg. I denne boka formidlar forfattarane innsikt frå denne nye museologien, og viser gjennom konkrete døme frå norske museum korleis utstillingane er konstruerte som forteljingar. Gjennom lesingar av ei rekkje kjente museumsutstillingar gir dei ei innføring i teoretiske og metodiske grunnlagsproblem knytt til kulturhistoriske museumsutstillingar. Korleis snakkar norske kulturhistoriske museum om identitet og skilnader - om vi og dei andre? Og korleis kan vi gå fram for å analysere museumsutstillingar?

Almost all museums hold photographs in their collections, and museum professionals and their audiences engage with photographs in a myriad of ways. Yet despite some three decades of critical museology and photographic theory, and an extensive debate on the politics of representation, outside art museums, almost no critical attention has been given specifically to the roles, purposes and lives of these photographs within museums. This book brings into focus the ubiquitous yet entirely unconsidered work that photographs are put to in museums. The authors' argument is that there is an economy of photographs in museums which is integral to the processes of the museum, and integral to the understanding of museums. The international contributors, drawn from curators and academics, reflect a range of visual and museological expertise. After an introduction setting out the range of questions and problems, the first part addresses broad curatorial strategies and ways of thinking about photographs in museums. Shifting the emphasis from curatorial practices and anxieties to the space of the gallery, this is followed by a series of case studies of exhibitionary practices and the museum strategies that support them. The third section focuses on the role of photographs in the museum articulation of ’difficult histories’. A final section addresses photograph collections in a digital environment. New technologies and new media have transformed the management, address and purposing in photographs in museums, from cataloguing practices to streaming on social media. These growing practices challenge both traditional hierarchies of knowledge in museums and the location of authority about photographs. The volume emerges from PhotoCLEC, a HERA funded project on museums and the photographic legacy of the colonial past in a postcolonial and multicultural Europe.

Mange ganger står man overfor et bilde og føler at "det er noe med det". Men hva er det? Gjennom 100 bilder og 100 korte tekster gir denne boka en innføring i kunsten å lese bilder. Forfatterne gir ingen endelige svar, men peker på noen viktige trekk ved de enkelte bildene og gir leseren mulighet til selv å se videre. Alle bildene er gjengitt i farger på helsider, og boka et fabelaktig dokument over den moderne bildehistorien, fra 1350 til vår tid. Den tar for seg en mengde forskjellige bildeuttrykk fra altertavle og kunstmaleri til platecover og pressefoto.

Omfattande framstilling av fotografiets historie i Noreg, fr daguerreotypiet i 1840-ra til dagens digitale teknologi. Boka er gjennomillustrert i fargar. Dette er den frste samla framstilling av fotografiets historie i Noreg, fr daguerreotypiet p 1840-talet til dagens digitale teknologi. Boka flgjer utviklinga bde nr det gjeld teknikk og ulike sjangrar: fr portrett-, landskaps- og dokumentarisk fotografi p 1800-talet til reportasjefotografi, familiefotografi og kunstfotografi p 1900-talet. Forfattarane skildrar korleis fotografiet i lpet av denne perioden har ftt ein stadig strre plass bde i det offentlege og det private rommet. I framstillinga blir fotografiet diskutert ut fr eit dobbelt perspektiv ikkje berre som estetisk objekt, men ogs ut fr dei sosiale funksjonane det har hatt opp igjennom tidene. Boka er gjennomillustrert i fargar og vender seg til kunsthistoriestudentar, mediefagstudente og det fotointeresserte publikum. Peter Larsen er professor i medievitskap ved Universitetet i Bergen. Sigrid Lien er professor i kunsthistorie ved Universitetet i Bergen. "Omfattende og opplysende framstilling av fotografiets utvikling fra primitivt luksusprodukt til superoptisk billedkunst." Harald Flor, Dagbladet