"Photographic encounters : 30 years of collecting" : a case study for the organization of photographic exhibitions

Abstract

The present Professional Practice Project is aimed to be an analytical review of the process of organizing an exhibition. From conception to proposal writing, "Photographic Encounters: 30 Years of Collecting" is a review of all the steps and the methods followed to put together an exhibition. This work aims to be a tool for those who would like to organize photographic exhibitions and will serve as a methodological approach to curatorial practices; starting with the cataloguing of the collection it will cover every step of the way including conceiving the database, reproducing images, background research, curatorial decisions (such as which pieces will be part of the selection, in which order, how to group them), the layout of the gallery, some guidelines on future graphic design, and selected readings on curatorial practices, exhibition design, databases, cataloguing, etc. At the end, the discussion chapter will refer to other curators' approaches to the same tasks, to illustrate different approaches.