PHOTOCONSORTIUM: International Consortium for Promoting and Valorising Photographic Heritage

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1 & Antonella Fresa Italy PHOTOCONSORTIUM: International Consortium for Promoting and Valorising Photographic Heritage Great success for a project is not only successfully delivering all its expected results, but also going beyond e planned activities and transforming its outcomes into a new life beyond e end of e project. This is e case 1 of EuropeanaPhotography, e CIP ICT PSP pilot B project about early photography, funded by e European Commission wiin e Competitiveness and Innovation framework programme, officially ended in January During e project, sixteen archives from all over Europe digitised hundreds of ousands of pictures from e first one hundred years of photography and contributed is content to Europeana, e European portal of cultural heritage. Its partners, after a rich and successful collaboration experience in e project, decided to establish a long-term strategy and to transform cooperation synergies into a new Association called PHOTOCON- SORTIUM, e International Consortium 2 for Photographic Heritage. Anonymous, Montecatini Terme (Italy) early 1940s Vida Michelotti embroiderer goes to work by bicycle Promoter Digital Gallery The PHOTOCONSORTIUM association was established on e 29 of October 2014 and its first General Assembly took place in Bratislava on e 6 of November 2014 where President Prof. Fred Truyen and Vice-president Dr. Antonella Fresa were elected togeer wi e nomination of e members of e Steering Committee and of e Executive Council. The aim of e association is to expand and enlarge e results of EuropeanaPhotography, providing a sustainability model to ensure e long-term maintenance of e project results and to continue to cope wi its original aims. The EuropeanaPhotography project produced excellent results. First of all, it digitised and delivered to e European portal of cultural 3 heritage Europeana about 430,000 of e finest examples of early photography ( ), increasing e value of e digitized photographic heritage retrievable via Europeana and accessible to everybody. These photographs provide a unique insight into e evolution of European society and e art of photography between e 19 and 20 centuries, which is a valuable source for understanding our history from multiple approaches (history, economics, sociology, anropology, politics, art ). This extremely valuable source of information will be promoted by PHOTOCONSORTIUM rough narratives able to attract e attention of e general public and to contribute wi novel information to e research. Then, e consortium, which includes bo public and private bodies wi complementary 73

2 & Antonella Fresa backgrounds, produced a set of useful guidelines about digitization and cataloguing of early photography items. It also released a multilingual vocabulary specifically tailored for 4 photography in 16 languages and produced an extremely valuable contribution to e very lively discussion of IPR management and rights labelling of digital cultural content. These knowledge resources will continue to be available and to be maintained and updated by e PHOTOCONSORTIUM associates. Finally, e project has built a network of excellence on digitization and photographic heritage, which will continue to be active in e framework of e PHOTOCONSORTIUM association. All e relevant results produced by e EuropeanaPhotography project need to be kept updated in order to offer valuable solutions to e sector s needs and to prepare to face new challenges. The members of e PHOTOCONSORTIUM association represent a real aggregation of competences able to take care of updating technical documentation and guidelines, taking into account e latest research and technical advances, and promoting best practices and disseminating success stories. Oer parties interested in participating and contributing to e network will find in e new association e right place to meet experts and share experiences. The purpose of e association is e promotion and enhancement of e culture of photography and e photographic heritage. To achieve its statutory goals, PHO- TOCONSORTIUM aims to promote, organize and manage conferences, exhibitions, awards and training courses as well as to carry out publishing activities. The association will participate and promote e participation of its members in new projects and initiatives also in collaboration wi ird parties, inommunicatingesonalised 74 cluding but not limited to participation in e Programmes of e European Commission. All e initiatives of e association will be primarily devoted to serving e interests of its members. In is light, it plans to carry out and to encourage research and studies on e emes of e valorising and discovering photographic heritage, digitising early photographic content, communicating and sharing photographic collections. The association will also continue to collect data and information of interest for e activities of e members. Through e expertise of its members, e association will provide consultancy and personalised services bo to its members and to ird parties. Digital cultural heritage is considered by e EU one of e key drivers of economic grow and social innovation. The association will be actively involved in European initiatives and projects. PHOTOCONSOR- TIUM represents a centre of expertise and knowledge on digitization, aggregation of content to Europeana and oer portals, metadata standards, indexing, cataloguing and controlled vocabularies, best practices for e management of digital archives, and much more. This expertise and knowledge will be e core to generate activities, provide services, organise training programs and seminars and participate in new research. The association will be e framework for participation in new initiatives and experimentation activities involving photographic heritage at e European level. As an example, e digitized materials provided to Europeana rough e EuropeanaPhotography project will be e basis for e pilot 5 activities in e Europeana Space project. Europeana Space, Spaces of possibility for e creative re-use of digital cultural content, is geraldina czaplin

3 Anonymous Coast of Tuscany 1941 At e seaside Promoter Digital Gallery a Best Practice Network project funded by e European Union under e ICT Policy Support Programme at aims to increase and enhance e creative industries use of Europeana and oer digital collections. Multiple emed pilots will present innovative models of content use in interactive TV, dance, games, publishing, museums, and photography. PHOTOCONSORTIUM will cooperate in is last pilot of Europeana Space. The pilot on photography will experiment wi e content aggregated rough EuropeanaPhotography and demonstrate a range of possibilities offered by apps, e Europeana 6 API, and a multitude of tools developed by e open source community, to come up wi innovative models involving photography. The experimentation activities include a hackaon, where developers of novel museum applications, storytelling and augmented reality apps will meet and propose eir projects. The best ideas will be en tunnelled rough kukuryku a monetization event in London and eventually incubated to prepare for launch on e market. At e same time, e new association will cooperate wi crowdsourcing and citizen science initiatives. Photographic heritage is everywhere around us and helps us to enlighten personal and community stories, by visually transmitting ways of life and all kinds of experiences. The citizens involvement in photographic heritage activities will be a key element for e new association, not only as audience but also as an active actor in e activities promoted by PHOTOCONSOR- TIUM. An example of how to activate public participation in photographic heritage projects has been e public digitisation activities carried out in e framework of All Our Yes- 7 terdays, e important photographic and multimedia travelling exhibition which showcases e best examples of e photographs digitised in EuropeanaPhotography. The first round of is exhibition, which was held in April-June 2014 in Pisa (Italy), included as a sicuratedheritagesocietaexploreeuropean 75

4 & Antonella Fresa Anonymous One of e Italian's colonies in Africa 1930s Refugees on a boat Promoter Digital Gallery de element a digitisation station: a dedicated space provided wi advanced digitisation technology and curated by professionals of photography, where visitors of e exhibition could bring eir own vintage photos to be digitised. In fact, a large part of our photographic cultural heritage is preserved and hidden in family albums, which not only include wedding pictures and grandfaers portraits, but also reveal photographs of great historical and societal interest. It is of e utmost importance at citizens are encouraged to share is weal of cultural heritage wi e whole community. To explore more in dep how to address is participatory research, e association will establish a cooperation agreement 8 wi Civic Epistemologies, a European project working on a roadmap for citizen researchers in digital culture, to activate citizen involvement in photographic heritage research. The association s commitment to photographic culture and heritage will bring its members to proactively lead initiatives to value 76 szapoba and transmit is rich heritage. The association s activities will create specific programs to reach all target audiences, including cultural institutions, photographic archives, specific research communities, e educational sector, younger and elder generations, e general public, and activists and amateurs in general. As an initial example of activities targeting e general public, e association will take care of e exploitation at international level of e All Our Yesterdays exhibition, conceived in e framework of EuropeanaPhotography project as a travelling exhibition. Furermore, PHOTOCONSORTIUM will organize and coordinate future exhibitions on specific emes, possibly linked wi territorial characteristics and features. The promotion and enhancement of photographic heritage will have in e association a valuable tool to reach its objectives: a dedicated website giving visibility to all e digitised materials. Complementary to e website, a dedicated showcase

5 showcase will be established in e digitalmeetsculture magazine edited by Promoter S.r.l., one of e founder members of PHO- TOCONSORTIUM. PHOTOCONSORTIUM has been established as a non-profit association wi a democratic structure, political independence, and unlimited duration. PHOTOCONSOR- TIUM allows membership to bo natural and legal persons, public or private bodies, companies, and associations. Founded by e partners of e EuropeanaPhotography project, e association aims to enlarge its network internationally and welcomes new members sharing its aims. More details about PHOTOCONSORTIUM and its future activities will be available online at: Join our community by contacting info@photoconsortium.net 77

6 & Antonella Fresa Anonymous Tuscan countryside 1890s Woman wi child in front of eir house Promoter Digital Gallery e European digital library 4. English, French, German, Dutch, Danish, Bulgarian, Slovak, Liuanian, Polish, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese and Hebrew Application Program Interface