To provide opportunities for early-career training for PhD students, the V&A has made available a range of doctoral placements based in collections departments, archives, the National Art Library, research, and collections care and access. Each placement is a discrete project designed by members of V&A staff (who will also act as the placement’s supervisor), involving collaborative as well as independent research.
The project will investigate holdings related to Latin America in the V&A Photography Collection. It will focus on objects acquired between 1850 and 1950, to situate findings in the context of early global networks and institutional connections to Latin America that can be mapped through photography. Many relevant holdings feature in bound photographic albums from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which are largely uncatalogued and undigitised. Other relevant holdings include topographical imagery, travel photographs and photographs of Latin American artefacts, as well as work by well-known photographers from the 20th century.
The placement will produce a survey of holdings related to Latin America in the Photography Collection, outlining historical context, scope and content. It will create a findings list for uncatalogued objects; and undertake more detailed provenance and object-level research for a defined group of material, resulting in new or enhanced catalogue records. The student will be encouraged and supported to write a blog post and lead a Print Room event relating to their work.
The project builds on momentum across the V&A to engage with Latin America. It will contribute new ways of thinking through institutional histories, and ripen collections for use in the Photography Section’s contemporary commissioning programme.
This is an unpaid doctoral placement that is financially supported by the successful applicant’s PhD stipend in line with UKRI guidance.
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