Wilhelm Weimar – Maiglöckchen

From Petapixel: Europeana Online Gallery Offers you 2.2 million photos from the first century of photography.

If you’re looking for inspiration, knowledge, or want to trace the history of photography, here’s something for you. Europeana Collections’ impressive digital gallery features 2.2 million images, covering the first 100 years of photography. Among the featured names, there are Man Ray, Julia Margaret Cameron, Eadweard Muybridge and Nicola Perscheid, to name a few. The photographs come from 34 countries, and many of them are free for the visitors to download and use.

Photoconsortium, the International Consortium for Photographic Heritage, started this project in collaboration with Europeana. The goal was to promote photography and photographic heritage. As Mr. Douglas McCarthy states in the Europeana blog, over 50 European institutions in 34 countries contributed with the scanned historical photos. As a result, there’s a truly impressive number of images for all of us to browse and use.

When you open the website, you will be able to search it based on different criteria. You can pick the collection and the type of media you want to browse through. Also, you can add the parameters like country, language and institution. What’s very important and useful is that there’s also a criterion about usage. If you need photos for other purposes than personal, you can apply the “Free Re-use” search filter. Lastly, you can explore the website in 23 different languages.

David Hurn Wild pony colt. Cold tourists in the rain in the background. Brecon Beacons, Wales, Great Britain. 1974. © David Hurn | Magnum Photos

Looks interesting! Pity I’m not in the UK at the moment.

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Magnum Photos, Magnum’s current President Martin Parr has curated David Hurn’s print swaps collection.

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Magnum Photos, and to celebrate the community of photographers of which he is a part, Magnum’s current President Martin Parr has curated a selection of the print swaps from which David Hurn has built an extraordinary collection.

With a career spanning over six decades, Hurn, like Parr, is also a connoisseur and patron of documentary photography. Over the years he has amassed more than 600 prints, from the 19th century to the present – and most of his collection was built via swapping with fellow photographers. “I have never chosen a print that has not enriched my life,” says Hurn.

Source: David Hurn’s Swaps • Magnum Photos

The exhibition will take place May 18-21 at Photo London, The Embankment Gallery West, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom.

“Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning”: A granddaughter considers the legacy of a devoted photographer. Credit Paul S. Taylor

I recently watched this documentary:

Lange (1895-1965), the photographer known for gritty, evocative pictures of the Depression, has influenced not only countless photographers but also our sense of national identity, helping to define the United States of the middle of the last century through her images. The film examines her career and how some of her best-known photographs came about, among them “Migrant Mother,” an image so widely reproduced and imitated that Lange says of it in a film clip: “It doesn’t belong to me anymore. It belongs to the world.”

“Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning,” written and directed by Lange’s granddaughter, airs Friday night on PBS’s “American Masters.”
Source: PBS Documentary Looks at the Life of Dorothea Lange

It’s well worth watching. I can also heartily recommend Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits. It’s a fascinating mix of documentary, history, biography and photography. Really very engaging in its portrayal of Lange as very much a part of of her time, but willing to pursue her passion and break with traditional roles. I suspect that this was more improvement of social conditions than it was pure photography. Photography for her was just a means to an end.