Collectors Circle Lecture: The History of Photography with Dr. Geoffrey Batchen and Dr. Allison Moore
The MFA’s Collectors Circle lecture series features some of the world’s foremost art historians, curators, artists, and collectors. The series is open to the public and your purchase helps support the Museum of Fine Arts. This special online lecture includes a free admission voucher to the museum.
Join us online as noted photography expert Dr. Geoffrey Batchen and MFA Curator of Photography Dr. Allison Moore discuss the current exhibition, Copper, Silver, Salt, Ink: The Chemistry of Photography’s Enduring Desires, addressing the historical and social context around the making and circulation of early photographs, including industrialization, capitalism, and the lucrative printing of copies. This special exhibition includes examples of the two earliest successful photographic processes – calotypes and daguerreotypes – dating to the 1830s-1850s, by famous practitioners including William Henry Fox Talbot, Hill & Adamson, Southworth & Hawes, and Antoine Claudet. The exhibition also includes artistic historical and contemporary photogravures, a process that was the outgrowth of Talbot’s determination to reproduce images for books and folios.
Dr. Geoffrey Batchen (Ph.D. Sydney) is the Professor of History of Art at the University of Oxford. Dr. Batchen is renowned for his work as a teacher, writer and curator, which focuses on the history of photography. His publications include Burning with Desire: The Conception of Photography (1997); Each Wild Idea: Writing, Photography, History (2001); Forget Me Not: Photography and Remembrance (2004); William Henry Fox Talbot (2008); What of Shoes: Van Gogh and Art History (2009); Suspending Time: Life, Photography, Death (2010); Emanations: The Art of the Cameraless Photograph (2016); Apparitions: Photography and Dissemination (2018); and Negative/Positive: A History of Photography (2020).
Dr. Allison Moore (Ph.D. CUNY) is the Curator of Photography at the MFA, St. Petersburg. She is the author of Embodying Relation: Art Photography in Mali (Duke University Press, 2020) and has written for numerous journals and exhibition catalogs. She taught art history in various universities for over 12 years, specializing in contemporary art, African photography, and art theory.
A special reception for Collectors Circle members will take place 30 minutes before the lecture.
Free for Members, and $20 for not-yet-members. Senior and student discounts available.
Purchase includes Museum admission voucher.
Want free access to interesting events, important discussions, and more during this special exhibition? MFA Members enjoy free admission for 12 months, early access to special exhibitions, discounts at our online Store and Café, and more, all while supporting St. Petersburg’s first and largest art museum!