![]() We’ve also started looking into more advanced imaging services and recently created a 2D+ model of one of our objects using reflectance transformation imaging essentially a way to visualize surface texture. Recently, I wrote our photography and digitisation policy, which outlines the technical quality we strive for as a Department. I also set out our digitisation strategy and look at improving our services and procedures. We have requests coming in to photograph objects that are going on loan, or are needed for a publication, exhibition, or for our website. KZ: My department is part of the Collections Care and Access Division, so we work closely with Conservation, Technical Services and Collection Management teams. Cowper’s technical background made her a better photographer, and I think my archaeological training helped me.ĮL: So tell us what the responsibilities as Head of Photography and Digitisation are? Or perhaps outline a typical day. ![]() KZ: I think there are a lot of people in the museum today who, like Cowper, bring additional skills to their work. It made her extremely good at evaluating the quality of a negative. Soon after, the technology for illustrating books changed from wood engraving to photography, and Cowper’s training in wood-engraving, including skills to read a woodblock in preparation for printing, similar to the way in which one interprets a photographic negative, prepared her for a career as a photographer. He hired Cowper and her sisters, also skilled engravers, to take on the work. Cole was looking for people to create illustrations for the guidebooks that he was writing on Westminster Abbey. Cowper was trained as a wood engraver through her family’s business, and that’s how she was introduced to Henry Cole. Kira Zumkley in the Photo Studio at V&A South KensingtonĮL: Exactly. But I think thankfully that has changed in the last few years, with better guidance on recruitment practices. KZ: Yes, starting out I thought that it was just hard work and good grades that would get me somewhere and I quickly learned it is often also about who you know. When he died unexpectedly in 1868, through her connections and personal relationship to Henry Cole, she got the job. As you probably know, Cowper’s brother, Charles Thurston Thompson was the V&A’s first official museum photographer, and when she became a widow, she acted as his assistant. And like you, Cowper used her connections to forge her career, in her case, her family connections. Like you, she was not specifically trained in photography. Off the back of that, I got my first proper job as a museum photographer.ĮL: It’s interesting for me to hear your story, because while Isabel Agnes Cowper (the V&A’s Official Museum Photographer in the 19th century) did not have the exact same trajectory, there are elements of your journey that are very similar to the way in which Cowper became a museum photographer. Through one of photographers I worked for in London, I managed to get the contact details of the photography manager at the V&A, who agreed to let me intern here. So I moved to London to do a photography degree at LCC and, while doing that, I worked as a photography assistant and also interned at the British Museum – which is where I first encountered ‘museum’ photography. ![]() I studied archaeology for my bachelor’s degree, but during my studies I realised that it would be very hard to make a living as an archaeologist! I had done a bit of photography here and there, and thought it could set me apart from other archaeologists. Perhaps we could begin by talking about how you came into museum photography? What’s the story behind how you got here? Here they talk about Kira’s work now, and her precedents at the V&A.Įrika Lederman will be giving a Lunchtime Lecture on the work of Isabel Agnes Cowper on 9 March 2023. To celebrate International Women’s Day, and the publication of What Photographs Do (an open-access publication from the V&A and UCL Press), we recorded this conversation between Erika Lederman (Cataloguer of Photographs) and Kira Zumkley (Head of Photography and Digitisation). ![]()
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