Photography collections in the digital environment: what role should photography play in the saturated, digital world of images. How do we share stories, start conversations and provide new opportunities for museums to engage audiences using photography collections online, with mobile technologies and in our galleries.

1. The digital challenge
Photography collections in the
digital environment
Powerhouse Museum
Paula Bray Manager, Visual & Digitisation
services
by krazydad / jbum Twitter @paulabray

2. over 500,000 objects

3. 22,000 in central Sydney
4 million people in greater Sydney

6. by Australian War Memorial

7. Visual & Digitisation teams

8. Digital, social & emerging
technologies

10. Flickr screen grab

12. photography is changing what we do

13. need to be relevant
continue to engage new audiences
Museums are experiencing change
in the fast pace of changing technologies

14. but how is the content relevant?
vast amounts of content out there
how do we reward our audiences

15. How does
photography
position itself in this
changing
environment of
saturated digital
images?

16. why do photography collections matter?

17. by Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane
from this to this

18. how do we share stories?
by New York Public Library

19. start conversations
by Library of Congress

20. get social

21. use mobile technologies

22. social media

23. photography collections are
perfect for all these platforms

24. by National Library NZ on The Commons

25. re
by National Media Museum

26. by Library of Congress

27. by National Library NZ on The Commons

28. by George Eastman House

29. by Library of Congress

30. Traditionally Museum’s haven’t put
their collections online
by EssG

31. online
to be relevant

32. Really significant initiative
for
photography collections

33. 1. To increase access to publicly-held
photography collections
&
2. To provide a way for the general
public to contribute information and
knowledge.
(Then watch what happens when they do!)

34. 47
institutions

36. Text
332 discussions in Flickr
Commons)

37. 60 replies

38. 28 replies

39. 78 replies

40. level of discussion between members

44. participation is key
by moirabot

45. access to photography
collections

46. audiences not seen this material before
by arobynejay

47. innovation
tagging
comments
citizen curators
location ‘then and now’
identification
remix

51. The people depicted are Lucy Sawtell (nee Frost) (b
1878) wife of Henry Charles Sawtell, Edna (b 1901),
Ella (seated) (b 1902), Ina (b 1904) and George (b
1905) standing beside chimney near house.

52. our audience wants to engage
with us and with our content

53. digitise for your audience

54. Your audience appreciates it
by Auntie P

55. generated lots of discussions

56. and some ‘noise’

57. one glass plate negative = many stories
experiment

61. print-on-demand
by Leo Reynolds

64. x
©
easy with collections that are out of copyright

65. or released using a Creative Commons license

66. share
remix
huge development for sharing photography
reuse

67. flexible licensing tool
multiple licenses across various platforms
by colemama

68. x
by robonline

69. 5 available
findable
it is where I am and where I look
online/web onsite/galleries
and
meaningful
I can understand it
offsite/community
usable/shareable
I can pass it on and share
responsive
to my interests, moods, location
by Seb Chan fresh+new(er)

70. geo-location

71. examples or reuse
‘then and now’ photography

74. by Sarah Rhodes

75. by ScottSchrantz

76. by Scotticus_ CC BY-NC 2.0

77. AR mobile
technology

79. we know our audience wants to participate

80. shared his story

81. taught us a lot

82. we then share on
Photo of the Day

85. audience wants to know you
and the ‘behind the scenes’ process

86. extend to the gallery experience

87. mobile is changing in-gallery experiences

89. Gizmodo screenshot

92. QR codes

94. what is the right platform?
how will it work for my
photography collection?

97. in-gallery photography policies
by Leo Reynolds

98. we welcome
by Leo Reynolds

100. started blogging Benini archive
Bruno Benini

101. Bruno Benini
inviting our audience to participate

102. digital impacting exhibition development

103. not to be traditional photography exhibition
by mediafury

104. Yiping Lim
no more talking heads

105. integrated with all content

106. we experimented with digital

107. central pods

108. the darkroom experience

109. series of projections

111. causing audience to touch

112. needed to
extend the experience
beyond the gallery
back to the web

113. thank you
Nordiska Museet
Powerhouse Museum photographers
all Flickr members using Creative Commons licenses
paula bray
manager, visual & digitisation services
paulab@phm.gov.au
twitter @paulabray
www.powerhousemuseum.com/imageserices