Photographic archives are unusual spaces where knowledge is ordered and histories are narrated. While many artists and writers work with archival materials, few of us have any formal training in information sciences or archival research. This workshop aims to develop a glossary of terms for working in the archive, integrating ideas taken from readings, case studies from local archives, and examples from contemporary photographic practice. Participants are encouraged to bring in-progress work and research questions to workshop with the group and as we collectively consider the strategies—both practical and theoretical—that we can deploy when engaging with archival materials.
Image Credit: Morris Lum, PA-1599-114-22, 2018, from the series “Subtle Gestures” (2017-18). Archival Pigment Print, 30 inches by 30 inches, Original Image courtesy of the Glenbow Museum and the Calgary Herald.
Gabrielle Moser is a writer, educator and independent curator based in Toronto. As a curator, she has organized exhibitions for Access Gallery, Gallery TPW, the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Oakville Galleries, Vtape and Gallery 44 (forthcoming in May 2019). Her writing appears in venues including Artforum, Art in America, Canadian Art, Fillip, Journal of Visual Culture, Photography & Culture, Prefix Photo and the edited volumes Photography and the Optical Unconscious (Duke UP, 2017) and Contemporary Citizenship, Art, and Visual Culture: Making and Being Made (Routledge 2017). She is the author of the book, Projecting Citizenship: photography and belonging in the British Empire (Penn State UP, 2019). Moser has held fellowships at the Paul Mellon Centre for the Study of British Art, Ryerson Image Centre, the University of British Columbia and was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar in the department of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University in 2017. A founding member of EMILIA-AMALIA, she holds a PhD from the art history and visual culture program at York University in Toronto, Canada and is an Assistant Professor in art history at OCAD University.
