Join us on Zoom on Wednesday 6 May 2026, 1–4pm (British Summer Time).
Please register using the form below.
Join us on Zoom on Wednesday 6 May 2026, 1–4pm (British Summer Time).
Please register using the form below.
This fifth Museum Dialogues workshop explores how contemporary and historical photographers’ archives are accommodated both within museums and beyond public institutions. Contributors will share collection building and accessioning practices, examining remit and objectives, public access and the practical concerns involved in the custodianship of photographic archives. The discussion will offer strategies to enhance capacity and bring resources and visibility to photographer archive projects, including through research and public engagement initiatives. We will consider approaches to addressing issues of representation and concerns around equality, diversity and inclusion, as well as barriers to artists from diverse backgrounds and identities when entering the archive.
The workshop will also reflect on what is archived and the challenges of presenting ‘authentic’ photographer histories based on partial or incomplete records, and on opportunities of offering audiences alternative narratives.
Speakers:
Weronika Kobylińska, President of the Archeology of Photography Foundation, Poland
Hyunjung Son, Curator, Photography Seoul Museum of Art (Photo SeMA), South Korea
Dinora Rodrigues, National Photography Collection, Portuguese Centre for Photography, Portugal
Museum Dialogues aims to transcend the disciplinary boundaries of art history, visual culture, photography, new media, museum and curating studies and bridge theory and practice. Bringing together academic researchers and practitioners, the programme has supported the exchange of innovative solutions, inquiries, and practical challenges relating to the exhibition, collection and interpretation of photography.
This workshop is supported by the University of Sunderland.
Dr. Weronika Kobylińska is an art historian and Assistant Professor at the Polish National Film School in Łódź (PWSFTviT) and serves as President of the Archeology of Photography Foundation (Fundacja Archeologia Fotografii).
In 2020, she held the position of Guest Professor at the Aleksander-Brückner-Zentrum für Polenstudien, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI) in 2022. Her research has been supported by grants and scholarships from, among others, the Fundacja na rzecz Nauki Polskiej and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland (MKiDN).
She is the author of numerous scholarly articles and two monographs on Polish photography: National Photography Exhibitions at Zachęta 1952–1962 and Avant-Garde Negative: Polish Photography in the Interwar Period, the latter nominated for the Jan Długosz Award.
Her curatorial practice encompasses both archival and contemporary photography, including Bruno Barbey. Always on the Move at the National Museum in Warsaw. She also serves as a juror in major photography competitions, including Grand Press Photo.
Hyunjung Son is a Seoul-based curator, lecturer, and critic specialising in photography and contemporary visual culture. She is a curator at the Photography Seoul Museum of Art (Photo SeMA), Korea’s first public museum dedicated to photography. In 2025, she curated the museum’s inaugural exhibition, The Radiance: Beginnings of Korean Art Photography, drawing on the institution’s collection to examine early photographic practices in Korea. Since 2016, she has contributed to the development of Photo SeMA’s collection and research framework, with a focus on archives, materiality and the rewriting of photographic history beyond dominant narratives. Son has contributed to Aperture (Issue 260, Seoul, 2025), and is currently developing a major exhibition, a retrospective of Martin Parr, the first posthumous retrospective in Asia, scheduled to open in July 2026 at Photo SeMA.
Dinora Rodrigues has held several positions at the Portuguese Centre for Photography (CPF) in Porto since 1998 and became head of the National Photography Collection at the Centre in 2019.
Under the responsibility of the CPF since 1997, the National Photography Collection originated from the SEC Collection, established in 1989 to mark the 150th anniversary of the invention of photography. Initially curated by Jorge Calado, it comprised 346 works by 98 photographers, bringing together outstanding examples of world photography. Following an agreement between the State and the Serralves Foundation, the CPF assumed responsibility for the collection, which it has since expanded with Portuguese and international works, historical photography and rare materials. A major enrichment occurred in 2006 with the acquisition of the Alcídia and Luís Viegas Belchior Collection, containing rare, unpublished photographs and works by renowned photographers connected to Portugal.
