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Photography: Home

Non profit, research, and commercial photography sites

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Finding information on contemporary photographers

Modern photographers whose work is available in museums and galleries can be researched in the same way as other fine artists:  

  • searching WorldCat and individual library catalogs for books
  • searching standard art databases for articles 
  • searching archival databases for primary sources -
     ArchiveGrid  (Database for collections of manuscripts and documents held in repositories around the world)
    Archive of American Art  (The largest collection of documents on the visual arts in the United States and a rich source on photographers and photographs)

More tricky is searching for contemporary photographers whose work is not yet well known or for modern photographers whose work is not mainstream or may be in non-art areas such as photojournalism or documentary photography, or in fields such as medicine, astronomy, travel, or advertising.

Suggestions for such cases include online websites that highlight contemporary photography, such as 

  • LensCulture, a global online magazine and platform celebrating current trends of contemporary photography in art, media, politics, commerce and popular culture worldwide.  Includes an archive of back issues.
  • 1000 Words Photography, the online blog of the magazine of the same name that focuses almost exclusively on cutting-edge contemporary photography, as well as running regular workshops with name photographers
  • Source, "the magazine for contemporary photography."  Includes an archive of back issues (payment is required).

Finding photographers in other fields can be challenging.  

  • Use WorldCat, or library catalogs of libraries with notable photography collections such as Eastman House or MoMA, to find landmark books in the field and mine the bibliographies of those books to find more books, articles, and names to research.  
  • Browse big collections, print and online - a good online example is the Library of Congress collection of prints and photographs.  
  • In Love library, auction sales catalogs can be very good sources of information about photographs and photographers.  In the online catalog, click the option to search for auction catalogs only and search by title for "photography" or "photographs."  Ask for help as needed, as it can be a tricky area of research.

Websites

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