Images and Audiovisual Preservation
The History and Technology Images and Audiovisual collection at Museum Victoria consists of approximately 300,000 items in various media including photographs, negatives, artworks, film, sound recordings and prints. It is one of the most important collections of its type in Australia.
Because of this diversity in the physical nature of the collection, its preservation is equally as complex. The Museum conducts on-going and evolving research to implement procedures and strategies that will ensure best practices for the handling, duplication, storage and access of the collection. This research is collaborative across other departments within the Museum and other institutions.
Project contact: Lorenzo Iozzi
Photographic Manufacturing and the Kodak Australasia Collection
Research into the history of the photographic industry in Australia during the period 1880-present. The project draws heavily on the recently acquired Kodak Australasia Heritage Collection, and focuses on the significant contribution that Melbourne companies Baker & Rouse and Kodak Australasia made to photographic manufacturing and retailing in Australia. It examines aspects such as product development, manufacturing processes, technological innovation, product marketing, consumer behaviour, and the working life of factory staff.
Project contact: Fiona Kinsey
Commercial Photography Studios in Melbourne
This project examines the history of Melbourne commercial photographic studios from the late 19th to the late 20th century. It surveys photographers, their photographic and business practices, and the photographs they produced. It draws on a number of the museum’s collections, including the studio equipment collection of Melbourne commercial photographer Norman Wodetzki, the Jim Payens Aerial Photography image and camera collection, and the Laurie Richards collection.
Project contacts: Fiona Kinsey, Michael Reason and Lorenzo Iozzi
Laurie Richards Collection
Laurie Richards was a professional photographer who began his career as a photo-journalist, working for the Advertiser newspaper in Adelaide, and the Argus and the Herald newspapers in Melbourne. In 1953, he opened his own business which was to become one of Melbourne's pre-eminent commercial photographic studios.
The Laurie Richards Collection at Museum Victoria consists of approximately 85,000 negatives. Because of the breadth of both the subject matter photographed and the diverse businesses which commissioned the work, the Laurie Richards Collection is an invaluable record of Melbourne's commercial and industrial past. The collection is the basis for research into the social history of Melbourne for the period spanning the 1950s through to the 1970s.
Project contacts: Michael Reason and Lorenzo Iozzi