A Gust of Photo-Philia
Photography in the Art Museum
Alexandra Moschovi (Author),
Series: Lieven Gevaert Series 29
Category: Americas, Art, Museum and Heritage Studies, Photography
Language: English
ISBN: 9789462702424
Publication date: December 17, 2020
€30.00 (including 6% VAT)
Buy NowNumber of pages: 332
Size: 230 x 170 x 21 mm
Number of illustrations: 51
Illustrations and other content description:
b&w images
Stock item: 139199
Standard delivery time for print books:
For Belgium: 5 to 8 working days
For EU: 2 to 3 weeks
For other countries: 4 to 5 weeks
Series: Lieven Gevaert Series 29
Category: Americas, Art, Museum and Heritage Studies, Photography
Language: English
ISBN: 9789461663696
Publication date: December 17, 2020
€45.00 (including 6% VAT)
Buy NowNumber of pages: 332
Number of illustrations: 51
Illustrations and other content description:
b&w images
The first transnational history of photography’s accommodation in the art museum
Photography was long regarded as a “middle-brow” art by the art institution. Yet, at the turn of the millennium, it became the hot, global art of our time. In this book—part institutional history, part account of shifting photographic theories and practices—Alexandra Moschovi tells the story of photography’s accommodation in and as contemporary art in the art museum. Archival research of key exhibitions and the contrasting collecting policies of MoMA, Tate, the Guggenheim, the V&A, and the Centre Pompidou offer new insights into how art as photography and photography as art have been collected and exhibited since the 1930s. Moschovi argues that this accommodation not only changed photography’s status in art, culture, and society, but also played a significant role in the rebranding of the art museum as a cultural and social site.
This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).
Preface Acknowledgments
Introduction A Foot in the Museum’s Door A Gust of Photo-Philia The Question of the Medium The Structure of the Book
1. Photography Itself What is “Camera Esthetics”? A “Universal” Language Photography Itself “More Than One Photography” New Stories of Modern Art Navigating an “Ocean of Images”
2. The Art(s) of Photography Art Education for “All Classes” A Collection for the Art of Photography Between Form and Function Toward the “Bigger Picture” Pluralism and Participation
3. Art as Photography, Photography as Art Art as Photography The Unique Original Copy Who’s Afraid of Contemporary Art? A Photo-Philic Turn Embracing the Vernacular Photographies and Histories Engaging New Audiences
4. Postmedia Pictures A “Postmedia” Collection in the Making A Global Museum Hybrid Images Accommodating the “Polymorphous” Photographic A New Poetics of the Photographic Image
5. Between Images Photography and the French State A Postmodern Museum A Collection for the Nation Episode 1: Plasticity and Hybridity Episode 2: Passages Between Media Episode 3: What is (Museum) Photography After All?
Postscript Notes Bibliography
It retraces the history of how photography entered the art museum, a place where it initially did not have access to, and how this history has been a local as well as global phenomenon, as demonstrated by the five case studies that constitute the core of this book: MoMA, Tate, the Guggenheim, the V&A, and the Centre Pompidou. Moschovi unpacks these histories in great detail and a sharp eye for context, but also with great writing pleasure and craft, which makes her study almost a page-turner. [...] Moschovi succeeds in writing a new form of art history, with museums and photography as key players, which strikes the right balance between internal (artistic, historical) and external (political, financial, social) perspectives and concerns. Two or more worlds, perhaps, but the author gives us the best of them by bringing them together in this innovative study.Jan Baetens, Leonardo
Reviews Archive, April 2021
The result of two decades of research into art institutions’ engagement with photography in all its forms, this book is a detailed and archivally-engaged examination of photography’s accommodation in the art museum.
Mary Pelletier, The Classic Platform, 26 May 2021
Dans tous les cas, cet ouvrage est dense, certes, mais il n’intéressera pas que les amateurs de musées ou les spécialistes des institutions. C’est d’abord une histoire de l’histoire de la photographie.
Stewen Corvez, Critique d’art [En ligne], 4 juni 2021, URL : http://journals.openedition.org/critiquedart/78003
This is an important and interesting book. […] this book is a real contribution to exhibition histories and/or curatorial studies, with a particular focus on large national museums. […] Moschovi's attention to the tensions between modes, and their non-resolution as photography is established in each museum, is what makes this book so fascinating.
Alison Green, Source, Issue 106, Autumn 2021
https://www.source.ie/archive/issue106/is106contents.php
Mit Alexandra Moschovis 'A Gust of Photo-Philia' liegt nun zum ersten Mal eine breit angelegte systematische Rekonstruktion dieser Ereignisse vor. Genau wie Grundberg konzentriert sich auch Moschovi auf das künstlerische Feld der Fotografie, im Unterschied zu ihm öffnet sie den Radius ihres Interesses aber weit über Manhattan hinaus: In fünf ausgedehnten Fallstudien, die je ein Kapitel des Buches ausmachen, zeichnet sie die Entwicklungen in fünf international renommierten Ausstellungshäusern nach: Neben dem MoMA und dem Guggenheim Museum in New York sind dies das Victoria and Albert und die Tate in London sowie das Musée National d’Art Modern im Pariser Centre Pompidou.
Steffen Siegel, Bd. 3 Nr. 4 (2022): 21: Inquiries into Art, History, and the Visual. Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte und visuellen Kultur, https://doi.org/10.11588/xxi.2022.4.91686
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "A Gust of Photo-Philia" about?
The first transnational history of photography’s accommodation in the art museum
Photography was long regarded as a “middle-brow” art by the art institution. Yet, at the turn of the millennium, it became the hot, global art of our time. In this book—part institutional history, part account of shifting photographic theories and practices—Alexandra Moschovi tells the story of photography’s accommodation in and as contemporary art in the art museum. Archival research of key exhibitions and the contrasting collecting policies of MoMA, Tate, the Guggenheim, the V&A, and the Centre Pompidou offer new insights into how art as photography and photography as art have been collected and exhibited since the 1930s. Moschovi argues that this accommodation not only changed photography’s status in art, culture, and society, but also played a significant role in the rebranding of the art museum as a cultural and social site.
This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).
Who wrote "A Gust of Photo-Philia"?
"A Gust of Photo-Philia" was written by Alexandra Moschovi.
Alexandra Moschovi is associate professor of photography and digital media in the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries at the University of Sunderland.
Is "A Gust of Photo-Philia" part of a series?
Yes, "A Gust of Photo-Philia" is part of the "Lieven Gevaert Series" series. It's book 29 in the series.
The series covers four types of publications:
- outstanding monographic studies
- multi-authored volumes on a specific topic
- book length projects with artists
- translations and/or reprints of classic texts.
All books are published in English and are written for an international audience of scholars.
Format
All books in the series are published in 17*23 cm paperback with French flaps, printed in black and white on white maco paper and with a maximum page extent of 300 pages (120.000 words) including images (unless agreed otherwise).
Authors interested in publishing their book in Open Access can check out the funding options here. Open access books are published under a creative commons license.
Series editors
Hilde Van Gelder, KU Leuven
Alexander Streitberger, UCLouvain
Proposals
Proposals and enquiries can be sent to the series editors.
Please make use of the submission form to present the full manuscript to our board.
Authors interested in Open Access can consult the available funding options.
Links & Resources
What is the Table of Contents for "A Gust of Photo-Philia"?
Preface Acknowledgments
Introduction A Foot in the Museum’s Door A Gust of Photo-Philia The Question of the Medium The Structure of the Book
1. Photography Itself What is “Camera Esthetics”? A “Universal” Language Photography Itself “More Than One Photography” New Stories of Modern Art Navigating an “Ocean of Images”
2. The Art(s) of Photography Art Education for “All Classes” A Collection for the Art of Photography Between Form and Function Toward the “Bigger Picture” Pluralism and Participation
3. Art as Photography, Photography as Art Art as Photography The Unique Original Copy Who’s Afraid of Contemporary Art? A Photo-Philic Turn Embracing the Vernacular Photographies and Histories Engaging New Audiences
4. Postmedia Pictures A “Postmedia” Collection in the Making A Global Museum Hybrid Images Accommodating the “Polymorphous” Photographic A New Poetics of the Photographic Image
5. Between Images Photography and the French State A Postmodern Museum A Collection for the Nation Episode 1: Plasticity and Hybridity Episode 2: Passages Between Media Episode 3: What is (Museum) Photography After All?
Postscript Notes Bibliography
Related titles
Collective Trauma and Future Fantasies
Raika Khorshidian (Editor), Birgit Mersmann (Editor), Cathrine Bublatzky (Editor), Julia Stenzel (Editor),
November 2026
The Romero Memory
Judith Gruber (Editor), Jonas Van Mulder (Editor), Kim Christiaens (Editor), Veerle Draulans (Editor), Jacques Haers (Editor), Joren Janssens (Editor), Stephan Parmentier (Editor),
November 2026
Feminists Resisting Gendered Violence
Hemangini Gupta (Editor), Fiona Mackay (Editor), Jan Breckenridge (Editor), Louise Chappell (Editor), Rachna Mehra (Editor), Rukmini Sen (Editor), Mailin Suchting (Editor),
October 2026
A City in Practice
Aude Tournaye (Editor), Filip De Boeck (Editor), Picha Collective (Editor),
September 2026
Ecologies of Photography in the American West
Monica Bravo (Editor), Carolin Görgen (Editor),
September 2026
German–Rapanui Entanglements
Cristián Moreno Pakarati (Editor), Diego Muñoz (Editor), Philipp Schorch (Editor),
August 2026
Jean Katambayi Mukendi
Johannes Muselaers (Editor), Stéphane Symons (Editor), Anne-Claire Schmitz (Editor), Emma Enderby (Editor),
April 2026
Political Exile in the Global Twentieth Century
Wolfram Kaiser (Editor), Piotr H. Kosicki (Editor),
April 2026
Nomadic Camera
Burcu Dogramaci (Editor), Winfried Gerling (Editor), Jens Jäger (Editor), Birgit Mersmann (Editor),
March 2026
Comics and the Global South
Andrea Aramburú (Editor), Dibyadyuti Roy (Editor), Joe Sutliff Sanders (Editor),
February 2026
Entangled Art Histories
Valérie Mavridorakis (Editor), Alexander Streitberger (Editor), Hilde Van Gelder (Editor), Erik Verhagen (Editor),
October 2025
Cross-Cultural Heritage
Jonas Van Mulder (Editor), Thomas Coomans (Editor), Dries Vanysacker (Editor),
April 2025
Bronnengids Interieurontwerp België, 1945-2000
Benoît Vandevoort (Editor), Sam Vanhee (Editor), Fredie Floré (Editor), Els De Vos (Editor), Tine Poot (Editor),
April 2025
