Photo Collections Research Articles

Teaching Ichthyology Online with a Virtual Specimen Collection

For generations, organismal biologists have learned their craft in hands-on laboratories that teach anatomy, evolution, natural history, systematics, and functional morphology through specimen collection, observation, comparison, and manipulation. Though these activities teach the comparative method that lies at the heart of our discipline, students without access to specimen collections have been excluded from this foundational experience. To fill that gap, we developed a virtual collection of photographs and 3D specimen models and designed entirely online versions of courses in ichthyology and systematics of fishes. The virtualization allows students to illustrate and compare specimens in online labs, identify species from different habitats using dichotomous keys, contextualize the relationships of species, recognize synapomorphies using a phylogeny, take online specimen-based practical exams, and help each other recognize adaptations and diagnostic features on threaded discussion boards. The classes built around the collection educate and provide university credit to students lacking access to similar courses, and their infrastructure allowed face-to-face instruction to shift online rapidly after 2020's novel coronavirus shut down our brick-and-mortar campus. While we may never be able to replicate the aroma of oil-laden alcohol online, specimen virtualization opens access to experiential learning to an underserved and widespread audience; allows new generations of students to develop crucial skills in observation, comparison, and inference; and affords substantial instructional resiliency when unexpected challenges arise.

Geo Landmark Recognition and Detection

The widespread use of smartphones and mobile data in the present-day society has exponentially led to the interaction with the physical world. The increase in the amount of image data in web and mobile applications makes image search slow and inaccurate. Landmark recognition, an image retrieval task, faces its challenges due to the uncommon structure it possesses, such as, buildings, cathedrals, castles or museums. These are shot from various angles which are often different from each other, for instance, the exterior and interior of a landmark. This paper makes use of a Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) based efficient recognition system that serves in navigation, to organize photo collections, identify fake reports and unlabeled landmarks from historical data. It identifies landmarks correctly from a variety of images taken at different viewpoints as well as distances. An appropriate CNN architecture helps to provide the best solution for the currently selected dataset.

Po práci hladoví, na vlastních slovech si pochutnáváme aneb Strávník Jiří Wolker

The collection of photographs of the National Museum of Education and Jan Amos Comenius Library contains a file related to the Student Home institution in the 1920s. One of those photographs by coincidence shows the poet Jiří Wolker at the table in the students’ canteen. The aim of those contributions is to publish this photograph, date it with more precision, to prove, with the aid of further sources, that the poet used to eat at this canteen during this part of his life, and to identify the other persons sitting at his table.

Effect of Five Essential Oils as Green Disinfectants on Selected Photographic Prints: Experimental Study

Albumen, silver gelatin and chromogenic prints are found abundantly among photographic collections in Egypt. Due to the uncontrolled environment in archives and libraries, this precious visual heritage with its high protein and cellulose content provides the right culture medium required for fungal growth. Many essential oils have been proven to have antibacterial and antifungal properties. Essential oils offer a safe alternative to other common disinfection methods; however, their effect on the properties of photographs have not received much study. This paper studies the effect of vapors of anise, cinnamon, clove, lavender and thyme oils on albumen, silver gelatin and chromogenic prints, to find a proper disinfection method that is user-friendly and environmentally safe and respects the nature of photographic materials. Essential oils were provided by the National Research Center (NRC) in Cairo, Egypt. Artificially aged albumen prints, and naturally aged silver gelatin and chromogenic prints were exposed in desiccators to the selected essential oils in the vapor phase for a period of 5 days. All samples were artificially aged at a temperature of 80°C and 65% RH for a period of 5 days to study the long-term effects of the tested treatments. Treatments were evaluated using several techniques including visual inspection, microscopic inspection, colorimetric measurements, and attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Results showed that all tested essential oils had a very slight effect on the tested photographic samples; however lavender oil was found to be the best option, specifically in terms of preserving the chemical properties of the photographic surfaces.

Analysis of the labelling of a sample of commercial foods for infants and young children in 13 countries.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), European Commission (EC) and Public Health England (PHE) published evidence of inappropriate content, marketing and labelling of commercial foods for infants and young children. Despite this, EC regulations are not yet established. To reduce rates of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) a better understanding of the food environment is needed. This study aimed to assess the labelling and listed macronutrient and sodium content of commercially available pureed foods marketed for infants and young children under 3years of age (0-36months) in 13 countries. A standardized protocol was developed to guide photograph collection and a sample of 155 products were obtained. All products were within current WHO and EC guidelines. However, 103 (67.7%) products were marketed for infants between 4 and 6months, and many and contained added sugars. Action is needed to improve the nutrient composition, marketing and labelling of these products to reduce NCDs.

Bulgaria and Hungary in the First World War: A View from the 21st Century

Bulgaria and Hungary in the First World War: A View from the 21st Century

Sheltering the Ghosts? Digitized Photographs of Political Victims and World War II Veterans on Russian Online Databases

In this article I consider Russian online databases that collect, digitize and organize film-based photographs showing Russian victims and participants of the twentieth-century political cataclysms, primarily World War II (WWII) and Stalin’s political terror. Most of these photographs are pre-WWII portraits from private photographic collections and family albums. The article focuses on their transformation into heritage assets which arguably occurs once they become publicly accessible through inclusion in online databases created by politically-motivated organizations such as the Memorial society, the Sakharov Center, Immortal Regiment, Immortal Barrack and Immortal Regiment of Russia. Through discussion of the structures of the databases, analysis of the ways in which they display the photographs, and comparison between them, the article shows that the digitization of the photographs is able to offer political presence to missing people through the multiplication and maintenance of their appearances in the public sphere. This presence is used in two different ways. First, the digitization of the photographs discussed here has enabled liberals in Russia to use them for the purpose of commemoration, which has turned them into a form of an online memorial to the victims of political cataclysms. At the same time, the digitized portraits of WWII veterans have been used by the Immortal Regiment of Russia for what can be called “the political mobilization of the dead.”

Letters to the Editors

Re: Gorana Kuka-Epstein’s column on microneedling Dr. Kuka-Epstein gave us a nice overview of microneedling in the January/February issue of the Forum (2021; 31(1):18-20). I would like to supplement her presentation by linking you to a collection of photos of microneedling patients I have

Pressure Relieving Support Surfaces: a Randomised Evaluation 2 (PRESSURE 2): using photography for blinded central endpoint review

BackgroundPRESSURE 2 is a randomised evaluation of the clinical and cost-effectiveness of two types of mattress for the prevention of pressure ulcers (PUs). The primary clinical endpoint was time to development of a category ≥2 PU. The current ‘gold standard’ for PU identification is expert clinical assessment. Due to the mattress appearance, a blinded assessment of the endpoint is not possible. This poses a risk to the internal validity of the study. A possible approach is to use photographs of skin sites, with central blinded review. However, there are practical and scientific concerns including patients’ consent to photographs, burden of data collection, photograph quality, data completeness and comparison of photographs to the current ‘gold standard’. This paper reports the findings of the PRESSURE 2 photographic validation sub-study.MethodWhere consent was obtained, photographs were taken of all category ≥2 PUs on the first presentation to assess over-reporting, and for the assessment of under-reporting, a random sample of 10% patients had an assessment by an independent clinical assessor who also photographed two skin sites. The staff were trained in taking and transferring photographs using standardised procedures and equipment. A card included in the photograph recorded participant details and a ‘greyscale’ for correction of white balance during processing. Three blinded reviewers assessed the photographs and rated how confident they were in their assessment.ResultsThe trial recruited 2029 patients; 85% consented to photography, and 532 photographs were received and used in the blinded central review. The level of confidence varied by skin classification with more confidence observed when the skin was assessed as being less severe than a category ≥2 PU. Overall, there was a very good reliability compared to the gold standard expert clinical assessment (87.8%, kappa 0.82).ConclusionStudy findings have usefully informed the scientific and practical issues of blinded assessment of PU status to reducing the risk of bias in medical device trials. The reliability of central blinded expert photography was found to be ‘very good’ (PABAK). Photographs have been found to be an acceptable method of data validation for participants. Methods to improve the quality of photographs would increase the confidence in the assessments.Trial registrationISRCTN Registry ISRCTN01151335. Registered on 19 April 2013

Ethiopian Refugees in Kenya c.1937–1941: A Note on the Photo Collection at the Kenyan National Archive

The Kenya National Archives in Nairobi hosts a large collection of photos of British refugee camps taken during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia. This brief overview of the collection does not endeavour to analyse this little-known aspect of Ethiopian history but to introduce the photo collection as a possible tool to assess the history of migration and refuge in this part of the world.

Training for the Algorithmic Machine

In thinking about the ubiquity of algorithmic surveillance and the ways our presence in front of a camera has become engaged with the algorithmic logics of testing and replicating, this project summons Walter Benjamin’s seminal piece <em>The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility </em>with its three versions, which was published in the United States under the editorial direction of Theodore Adorno. More specifically, it highlights two of the many ways in which the first and second versions of Benjamin’s influential essay on technology and culture resonate with questions of photography and art in the context of facial recognition technologies and algorithmic culture more broadly. First, Benjamin provides a critical lens for understanding the role of uniqueness and replication in a technocratic system. Second, he proposes an analytical framework for thinking about our response to visual surveillance through notions of training and performing a constructed identity—hence, being intentional about the ways we visually present ourselves. These two conceptual frameworks help to articulate our unease with a technology that trains itself using our everyday digital images in order to create unique identities that further aggregate into elaborate typologies and to think through a number of artistic responses that have challenged the ubiquity of algorithmic surveillance. Taking on Benjamin’s conceptual apparatus and his call for understanding the politics of art, I focus on two projects that powerfully critique algorithmic surveillance. Leo Selvaggio’s URME (you are me) Personal Surveillance Identity Prosthetic<em> </em>offers a critical lens through the adoption of algorithmically defined three-dimensional printed faces as performative prosthetics designed to be read and assessed by an algorithm. Kate Crawford and Trevor Paglen’s project Training Humans is the first major exhibition to display a collection of photographs used to train an algorithm as well as the classificatory labels applied to them both by artificial intelligence and by the freelance employees hired to sort through these images.

Picturing Animals

Abstract This review article analyzes Radiant: Farm Animals Up Close and Personal (2018) by Traer Scott. Radiant is a collection of photographs and profiles of individual farmed animals, such as cows, pigs, and turkeys. The review explores the text’s significance in an era in which the factory farming of huge numbers of animals has become normalized. It also questions the text’s use of language, anthropomorphism, and individuality. The review praises Scott for individualizing species who are usually objectified, grouped, and hidden from consumers. By approaching the animals as individuals, Scott modifies the powerful “collapse of compassion” effect. This article also applauds Scott’s lack of neoteny and anthropocentric attitude. The only criticism of the text is the small amount of anthropomorphism of the animals themselves, which is probably unavoidable on Scott’s part. Factory farming is the biggest killer of land animals annually. Because it is so ubiquitous and normalized, it is a challenge to help consumers think about the meat on their plate. However, Radiant approaches this difficult issue in a practical, gentle, and nonpreachy manner. Scott’s text is engaging and captivating rather than self-righteous and aggressive.

Resisting Erasure: Photographic Archives and Black History in Canada

This article considers the historiographical challenges brought on by dislocation and, in response, shows how longstanding Black communities in Canada have collected and preserved photographs in order to combat institutionalized modes of erasure. Specifically, it investigates the role that nineteenth century photographs play in articulating Canada as a Black transnational space—part of the discourses of the Black diaspora and Black Atlantic. The main site of this investigation is the Alvin D. McCurdy fonds at the Archives of Ontario, a collection of photographs of communities in Amherstburg, Ontario—a major terminus of the Underground Railroad. Building on recent scholarship this study investigates the discursive continuity between archive and historical narratives, and reconceptualizes the "archive" to include alternative sites and materials for the reconstruction of historically marginalized groups. These "counterarchives" can perform a recuperative role in mapping the development of communal memory and in reinterpreting dominant narratives. This article explores how photographic archives can provide crucial visual documentation of the geographies of slavery, segregation, and dispossession, spatializing acts of resistance within the Canadian landscape (McKittrick 2013).

Exploring human-nature interactions in national parks with social media photographs and computer vision.

Understanding the activities and preferences of visitors is crucial for managing protected areas and planning conservation strategies. Conservation culturomics promotes the use of user-generated online content in conservation science. Geotagged social media content is a unique source of in situ information on human presence and activities in nature. Photographs posted on social media platforms are a promising source of information, but analyzing large volumes of photographs manually remains laborious. We examined the application of state-of-the-art computer-vision methods to studying human-nature interactions. We used semantic clustering, scene classification, and object detection to automatically analyze photographs taken in Finnish national parks by domestic and international visitors. Our results showed that human-nature interactions can be extracted from user-generated photographs with computer vision. The different methods complemented each other by revealing broad visual themes related to level of the data set, landscape photogeneity, and human activities. Geotagged photographs revealed distinct regional profiles for national parks (e.g., preferences in landscapes and activities), which are potentially useful in park management. Photographic content differed between domestic and international visitors, which indicates differences in activities and preferences. Information extracted automatically from photographs can help identify preferences among diverse visitor groups, which can be used to create profiles of national parks for conservation marketing and to support conservation strategies that rely on public acceptance. The application of computer-vision methods to automatic content analysis of photographs should be explored further in conservation culturomics, particularly in combination with rich metadata available on social media platforms.

Japan through the Looking Glass: Uchida Kuichi (attributed), Vermilioned Bridge, Nicco (ca. 1872) and the Russell Sturgis Photograph Collection

Founded in 2002, Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide is a scholarly, refereed e-journal devoted to the study of nineteenth-century painting, sculpture, graphic arts, photography, architecture, and decorative arts across the globe.

Black and Blue: Revelations in Harold Mahoney’s X-rayed Anatomical Sections

Approximately ninety cyanotypes and negatives depicting interior views of the human body – among the most obscure works in the art world – are now in the Rijksmuseum Photography Collection. They have no established provenance, production or creator, and without these factors, interpretations for the last thirty years have resulted in speculations. By examining an original negative and print, aided by research in X-ray history, this study uncovered the missing information.Harold Mahoney, a Chicago-based X-ray technician and an academically trained artist of the early twentieth century, was the original creator of the negatives. With his radiographic process, he managed to capture detailed soft tissue and bone in the same image on film, decades before computerized tomography scans. Art museums around the world have until now emphasized the universal humanness in the cyanotypes, as the social identity and context were unknown. This research has brought a racial identity to the series through a surviving photograph of a subject that Mahoney chose to supplement his published study. The racial core that appears from beneath the X-rays creates an interpretive framework for an American narrative about this photographic series, resonating with the historical and contemporary need for Black visibility and value. With new social inequities discovered in the cyanotypes that could complicate exhibition, this study also suggests an approach for museums to welcome a Black reclamation of the narrative. This research establishes the provenance and foundational analysis for the series that has fascinated museums and collectors for three decades.

Mother Mirror God

Rachel Eliza Griffiths is a multi-media artist, poet, and novelist. She received the MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and is the recipient of numerous fellowships including Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, Kimbilio, Cave Canem Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, Millay Colony, and Yaddo. Her literary and visual work has been widely published in journals, magazines, anthologies, and periodicals including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Times, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Progressive, The Georgia Review, Gulf Coast, Callaloo, Poets & Writers, American Poetry Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Guernica, The Writer's Chronicle, TransAU: We have included the doi number in visual art chapter. Pl. confirm it is ok as set, we fixed constientcy space recto@versoition, American Poet, Mosaic, Indiana Review, Ecotone, Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, Best American Poetry 2020, and many others. Seeing the Body (W.W. Norton), a hybrid collection of poetry and photography, was published in 2020. Griffiths lives in New York City.

Photo Gallery

Representative collections of photographs taken from the International e-Conference on Sustainable Agriculture and Farming System (ICoSAFS 2020) organized by Faculty of Agriculture, IPB University at 24 - 25 September 2020.List of Conference Photos are available in this pdf.

Az iskolai táncok szerepe a 20. század első felében

In the first half of the twentieth century, photography allowed families and groups to capture important moments. In the 1920s and 1930s, cheaper and simpler cameras appeared on the market, which became available to many people. It was the Kodak revolution. The intimate family spaces opened; the everyday life of the schools became visible. The Fortepan visual database is a collection of such photographs taken between 1900 and 1990. As a cultural imprint of the time, the photograph has become a new source for researchers to observe a symbolic world we know little about. The oldest communication medium is the human body, so its movement in space can take cultural anthropological and pedagogical anthropological research to a whole new level. Rituals interarm everyday life, forming a transition between past, present, and future. It creates community, order. School celebrations are a good way to see hidden content that settles social conditions. The research looks at how school dances appeared in the 1920s and 1930s and how school dances changed to different social influences, and what ritual elements appear in them.

Exhibition Review of The Story of Light and Shadow: 20th Century Chinese Photography from Huang Jianpeng's Collection

The following article reviews a collection of photography on view at an exhibition named The Story of Light and Shadow: 20th Century Chinese Photography from Huang Jianpeng's Collection at the National Art Museum of China. Though an exhibition on Chinese photography, it included a sizable collection of Tibet-related photographs taken by early Han Chinese photographers during the early 20th century. Through a brief review of existing scholarship on photography of Tibet and a close reading of the works of Zhuang Xueben, one of the earliest Han Chinese photographers who took photos in Tibetan regions, we see how images produced during the early 20th century in Tibet are coded with layered agencies and complex motivations. Preliminarily contextualizing Zhuang Xueben’s photo-taking aspirations, I argue that early photographers of Tibet are embodiments of complex, overlapping and if not yet incongruous motivations – a complication of their own independent perspectives and professional responsibilities under the larger contextual influence from the society and its aspirations.