Research Projects

Current project
2024-2026

The Oldest Photographs in the Polná Municipal Museum

Czech Academy of Sciences and Region Highlands (Kraj Vysočina), Regional Cooperation programme, 2024-2026

Principal researcher, IAH CAS, Prague

The project aims to research, preserve and make accessible to the public the oldest photographs from the collection of the Polná Municipal Museum in close cooperation between the museum and the IAH CAS. The selected material, whose cultural and historical significance goes far beyond the borders of the region, consists of two interconnected parts, both culturally and historically, and materially: 1) a set of six unique daguerreotypes dating from the first decade of the history of photography, some of which are closely connected with the prominent local figure of the so-called Czech national revival, Antonín Pittner; 2) a convolute of seven large-format tableaux containing dozens of examples of visually and technologically divers material from the history and prehistory of photography. Different formats, materials, techniques, authors, types of images, mounting and framing are represented here, and individual parts show very different degrees and types of damage and deterioration.

Past projects
2023

Copy Relations: The Mechanical Reproduction of Art in the Mid-19th Century

Paul Mellon Visiting Senior Fellowship, CASVA, NGA, Washington DC

The project investigated the development of mechanical-reproduction processes and practices as a fundamental part of art and visual culture in the mid-19th century. It drew particular attention to the many processes and technologies which aroused great interest at that time, but which have been historically marginalized to varying degrees. My research considered mechanical reproduction not only as an integral part of the process of art production and a means to multiply and distribute artefacts, but also as something that contains and communicates other, less obvious meanings. In addition to consideration of theoretical discussions on the origins, potential, similarities and differences of particular processes, my research delved into debates on the educational role of copies, the transformation of the relationship between the artist and the client, the rise of collecting and museum culture, and new methods of mechanical reproduction as the subject of national and social controversies. In order to understand the circumstances and cultural contexts in which different processes emerged and developed, my research also examined social structures and networks of inventors, supporters, critics, and users at both a national and international level. My project sought a more detailed and nuanced knowledge of these debates, circumstances, and contexts as a way to disentangle different perspectives on the development, complexity, and impact of mechanical reproduction in the mid-19th century, and, in so doing, to expand our understanding of the history of art.

2017-2021

Reflections on the Calotype and Early Photography on Paper in Central Europe

Czech Science Foundation, no. 17-00682S, 2017-2019

Individual research project, IAH CAS, Prague

The project deals with the early history of photography in the former Austrian monarchy (particularly the Czech region) between 1839 and 1860. It centres around production, development, distribution and reception of photography produced on paper (calotypes and salt paper prints), which in spite of its great potential have been attracting strikingly less attention among researchers and photographers, than the daguerreotype. Considering the current state of research the project aims in the first place to identify primary visual and written sources (photographs, instruments, written documents etc.) in national and international collections and archives. In the next stage the project aims to identify and articulate key figures, institutions and associations involved in the local development o paper photography in the 1840s-1850s and also to articulate features of the local production in connection with Vienna as a local centre of photographic production. The material is studied, researched and interpreted within a broader European socio-cultural context and as such aims to contribute to the international discourse on early photography.

2019-2020

Photomechanical Printing in Europe in the mid-19th Century: History, theory, visual culture, science and the international network in the 1840s-1860s

H2020, MSCA IF, no.  844970, 2019-2020

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship, De Montfort University, Leicester

The project examined the pioneering era of photomechanical printing as a fundamental part of history of photography, art, science and modern visual culture. It focused on the first three decades of development of photomechanical technologies, i.e. the era between the introduction of photography in the late 1830s and the outset of industrial mass-production of photography-based images in the 1860s. It centred on the UK, France and the Austrian Empire, as countries which played leading parts in the photomechanical research and practice from the 1840s onwards. Considering the state of the art of existing scholarship, as well as the amount and variety of preserved sources, the research comprised collection and archival surveys, visual, material and contextual analysis and interpretation of original objects (prints and matrices), as well as close reading of correspondence, manuscripts and period publications. In order to understand the circumstances and cultural contexts in which different photomechanical technologies emerged and developed, the project also looked at social structures and networks of inventors, supporters, critics, and users. Great attention was paid to theoretical period discussions on potential and the future of photomechanical printing.

2011-2013

Beginnings of Photography in Moravia within the Central-European Context

Czech Science Foundation, no. P409/11/P834

Individual research project, IAH CAS, Prague

2011-2015

Rescuing Memory: the Restoration of Buquoy Property and its Place in Czech Cultural Identity

Czech Ministry of Culture, NAKI funding programme, no. DF11P01OVV33

Principal researcher, IAH CAS, Prague