Discovering the Language of Photography: The Gernsheim Collection

UPDATE: David Coleman, the Ransom Center's Curator of Photography, leads a free gallery tour of Discovering the Language of Photography: The Gernsheim Collection, on Thursday September 16th and Tuesday, December 7, at 7 p.m. at the Ransom Center.


As reported in the BPH earlier this year, details of this exhibition is now available.

This exhibition is made up of two complementary and interweaving narratives—the history of photography as told through the collection's imagery, and the history of the collection's formation and methodology. The Gernsheims assembled a peerless collection, most predominantly in the area of nineteenth-century British photography, and many highlights will be on display alongside works by unknown or lesser-known artists who used various means to improve or to exploit the relatively new invention of photography.

The exhibition will highlight key moments in the history of photography, important technological and ideological shifts in the act of picture making, and narratives that served the Gernsheims as key points of collecting.

This exhibition coincides and complements the forthcoming 'Shaping the History of Photography' symposium - please refer to blog listing and 'Events' section for further info.

Photo: Francis Frith, The Pyramids of El-Geezeh, From the South-West, 1859 Albumen print. 37.7 x 48.8 cm.