Photo Study Collections

Assessing the current and future implications of photo archives for art historical research

Project Details

8 photographs of reproductions of Johannes Vermeer's The Lacemaker, a woman concentrating as she creates lace, and accompanying annotations from the Photo Archive

Photographs of reproductions of Johannes Vermeer's The Lacemaker (ca. 1669) and accompanying annotations from the Photo Archive. Study Photographs of Dutch Paintings and Drawings. Getty Research Institute, 76.P.60

About

Goal

Photo Study generated a conversation among art historians about the use of photo archives in their research. It examined issues that impact photo archives worldwide, including photography’s abilities to transform media and portray scale, and considered the ways artists and art historians photograph artworks in support of their practice. This project evaluated how the Getty Research Institute’s Photo Archive may be useful to future researchers and whether digital photography will be able to fill the same role as its analog predecessor.