news

5

National Trust appointment

Catherine Troiano, formerly a curator at the V&A, has been appointed as the Curator of the national photography collections at the National Trust. This nation-wide role is newly created. The National Trust incorporates more than 450 locations (not all of them properties) of which around 250 include photography collections. Troiano estimates she now has charge of 400,000 photographic objects with an additional 140,000 items in the Chambré Hardman collection (a former photographic studio in Liverpool). As Troiano puts it, ‘The National Trust is the last organisation of that scale not to have a photography curator... The photography collections are a treasure trove just waiting to be dived into.’ She identifies two key apects to role: to activate the collec-

Portrait of Catherine Troiano.

tions in their local context and to establish a holistic profile of the collection to make it accessible to researchers. She has the assistance of Anita Bools, a photographic conservator, who has been assessing where everything is and its storage arrangements. Troiano mentions some of the things that make the photographic collections

distinctive: ‘We have extensive collections of early photography from the 1840s and 1850s including, for example, five Claudet daguerreotypes’. But probably most significant is the domestic setting in which the collections are found: ‘We have the largest collection of in situ photographic albums in the world. The in-situ nature of the collections is great for a meaningful understanding of the cultural shifts that have occured in the country over the last 100 years.’ The Trust also has a public programming team to work with other national institutions on exhibitions. Troiano would like to include contemporary work as part of her shows and says ‘I very much hope commissioning new work can be part of this process.’

— Richard West