IOTA II and the Centre for Design History at the University of Brighton are hosting a talk on the the story of popular photography as displayed at the former Kodak Museum, Harrow, and National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford. The Kodak Museum collection represents over a century of film-based photographic technology and apparatus and for the last thirty-six years, the collection has been utilised to tell the story of popular photography at what is now known as the National Science and Media Museum’s Kodak Gallery. The predominantly pre-digital gallery presents a number of practical and thematic challenges for both museum and its twenty-first century visitors, despite a small number of permanent displays being implemented to address changing digital-based practices. This talk will examine what the changed and unchanged displays mean for visitors today who are increasingly unfamiliar with the type of photography represented.
The talk is based on Jayne Knight's PhD thesis (2024) From company museum to national collection, 1927-2023: telling the story of popular photography through the Kodak Museum Collection which can be downloaded here.
Jayne Knight is 2025-26 Assistant National Curator of Photography at the National Trust and was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Design History in 2025. She completed her PhD in 2024 on the history of popular photography in the Kodak Museum as an AHRC-funded collaborative project between University of Brighton and National Science and Media Museum.
IOTA II – IOTA stands for Image, Object, Text, Analysis, and was the title of a seminar series established by dear former colleagues Louise Purbrick and Jill Seddon. IOTA II aims to resurrect the inclusive nature of the original IOTA, bringing together students, colleagues and all interested parties from beyond the university to consider the visual and material world from a wide range of perspectives. It is a space for work-in-progress to be shared and nurtured, and for our research to be celebrated.
The changing story of popular photography in the National Science and Media Museum’s Kodak Gallery
Jayne Knight
23 January 2026, 1pm-2.30pm
University of Brighton, Advanced Engineering Building, Moulsecoomb Campus, G1.
See: https://www.brighton.ac.uk/accommodation-and-locations/campuses/moulsecoomb/index.aspx
Comments