There are still seats available for the National Writers Union's public educational webinars on, "What is the Internet Archive doing with our books?"
TODAY: Monday, April 27, 7 p.m. Eastern Time
Tuesday, May 5, 10 a.m. Eastern Time
These webinars are organized by the NWU, but all are welcome. Please let
your friends know about these events.
More info and links to register:
https://nwu.org/what-is-the-internet-archive-doing-with-our-books/
Showing posts with label archives. Show all posts
Showing posts with label archives. Show all posts
Monday, April 27, 2020
Thursday, June 21, 2018
The André Breton site
Hunting around for places to obtain suitable (publication-quality, hi-res) images is, as my regular readers will have gathered, an often arduous task. I'm pleased to report, therefore, that http://www.andrebreton.fr/en/ is an excellent source for those of us who are scholars of surrealism. The Association Atelier André Breton offers a wealth of online research materials and just cool stuff relating to Breton's voluminous collections, and most of the site is available in both French and English, which makes it easier to use in teaching.
I had discovered this site some time ago, but for some reason had not realized (or maybe it wasn't yet an option?) that one could order images from it. Had I realized that earlier, I could have used funding from my university to pay for the images, but the said funding has expired and in our current financial state no one is getting any money for just about anything. (I could go on about this problem, but now is not the time.)
Another matter slowing me down in ordering was that as I explored the site, I found that in order to find everything it offers relating to Toyen, one has to search on her name in quite a few different places. Some things come up searching under Photography, others under Fine Art; it's possible that these two covered everything I found, but I had first searched under Libraries, Museums, Archives, and Private Collections, each of which category had to be searched by the individual organizations. I did not want to order until I had done a thorough search and considered my options, most of which were photographs of Toyen in the company of other surrealists. The site does include some artworks by Toyen too, of which two were works I desperately wanted for the book, one more seemed like a good thing to add, and the several other possibilities were not works I could really justify including, alas (Toyen was a prolific artist and my book is not about every aspect of her work).
Having spent the morning choosing my four photos and three paintings, I laboriously entered all of the required data into the online order form and clicked Send. But nothing seemed to happen!
I waited awhile, checked my email, tried again, tried filling out a fresh version of the form again, all with no indication that my request had actually gone through.
I decided to do other things for awhile and returned to my email. And lo, there were now four identical emails confirming my order!
Presumably the humans on the other end can figure out that there is actually only one order of seven items, not four orders of the same seven. While I feel a bit drained that this process took up my entire morning, I am relieved and delighted that my last chapter will now have some photos of the artist hanging out with the other Parisian surrealists, and that my to-find list for the color plate section is now slightly smaller.
I had discovered this site some time ago, but for some reason had not realized (or maybe it wasn't yet an option?) that one could order images from it. Had I realized that earlier, I could have used funding from my university to pay for the images, but the said funding has expired and in our current financial state no one is getting any money for just about anything. (I could go on about this problem, but now is not the time.)
Another matter slowing me down in ordering was that as I explored the site, I found that in order to find everything it offers relating to Toyen, one has to search on her name in quite a few different places. Some things come up searching under Photography, others under Fine Art; it's possible that these two covered everything I found, but I had first searched under Libraries, Museums, Archives, and Private Collections, each of which category had to be searched by the individual organizations. I did not want to order until I had done a thorough search and considered my options, most of which were photographs of Toyen in the company of other surrealists. The site does include some artworks by Toyen too, of which two were works I desperately wanted for the book, one more seemed like a good thing to add, and the several other possibilities were not works I could really justify including, alas (Toyen was a prolific artist and my book is not about every aspect of her work).
Having spent the morning choosing my four photos and three paintings, I laboriously entered all of the required data into the online order form and clicked Send. But nothing seemed to happen!
I waited awhile, checked my email, tried again, tried filling out a fresh version of the form again, all with no indication that my request had actually gone through.
I decided to do other things for awhile and returned to my email. And lo, there were now four identical emails confirming my order!
Presumably the humans on the other end can figure out that there is actually only one order of seven items, not four orders of the same seven. While I feel a bit drained that this process took up my entire morning, I am relieved and delighted that my last chapter will now have some photos of the artist hanging out with the other Parisian surrealists, and that my to-find list for the color plate section is now slightly smaller.
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Image Acquisition Continues
This year's Czech trip has several purposes--among which are doing research for new projects and seeing friends--but the more pressing project is, of course, image acquisition for Magnetic Woman. I knew when I began that image acquisition for art history books generally takes quite a bit of time and money, but each book has different needs and I didn't really have a clear sense of where my own time and money would end up going. I did know that I had taken a lot of photographs myself of Toyen's book illustrations, which meant that while I'd still have to pay copyright clearance on those, at least I wouldn't have to pay for the photos.
Yes--payment is usually a two-step process. First you get a photograph (these days typically a hi-res digital image) of the work, which can be anything from free to hundreds of dollars per photo, and then later, if the work is under copyright, you pay to clear copyright. In other words, you tell the copyright clearance people what you want to use this image for, how big, whether in color or b&w, etc., and they tell you how much it will cost.
An area where I've made nice headway since coming to Prague is that of getting photos of Toyen and her associates. I knew that the Památník národního písemnictví (PNP), which although an archive of Czech literature nonetheless is a major repository of art-related materials, had some of these photos. I also knew that the design museum (UPM) had purchased Jindřich Štyrský's photos, which included at least one of Toyen. I've worked with both of these entities before and am pleased to say that both responded very appropriately and professionally to my inquiries about photos and that I have now paid for and received most of what I requested. (One photo still has to be scanned by the PNP, and there are one or two artworks I may also request from them which are handled by the art side rather than the literary side.) This is all good and a great relief.
There remain some photos I'd like to get--photos of photos, that is--but I'm not sure who has them. Usually publications provide individual credits of who something belongs to, but some of these photos have been published without a specific credit, which is unhelpful.
Acquisition of photos of paintings remains even more difficult than I had anticipated. I knew that it probably wouldn't be easy to locate photos of privately held works, but it never occurred to me that several museums and galleries would simply not respond to emails. Kudos, therefore, to the museums that have already provided images, whether free or fee!
Yes--payment is usually a two-step process. First you get a photograph (these days typically a hi-res digital image) of the work, which can be anything from free to hundreds of dollars per photo, and then later, if the work is under copyright, you pay to clear copyright. In other words, you tell the copyright clearance people what you want to use this image for, how big, whether in color or b&w, etc., and they tell you how much it will cost.
An area where I've made nice headway since coming to Prague is that of getting photos of Toyen and her associates. I knew that the Památník národního písemnictví (PNP), which although an archive of Czech literature nonetheless is a major repository of art-related materials, had some of these photos. I also knew that the design museum (UPM) had purchased Jindřich Štyrský's photos, which included at least one of Toyen. I've worked with both of these entities before and am pleased to say that both responded very appropriately and professionally to my inquiries about photos and that I have now paid for and received most of what I requested. (One photo still has to be scanned by the PNP, and there are one or two artworks I may also request from them which are handled by the art side rather than the literary side.) This is all good and a great relief.
There remain some photos I'd like to get--photos of photos, that is--but I'm not sure who has them. Usually publications provide individual credits of who something belongs to, but some of these photos have been published without a specific credit, which is unhelpful.
Acquisition of photos of paintings remains even more difficult than I had anticipated. I knew that it probably wouldn't be easy to locate photos of privately held works, but it never occurred to me that several museums and galleries would simply not respond to emails. Kudos, therefore, to the museums that have already provided images, whether free or fee!
Saturday, May 19, 2018
A Small Progress Report
These last few weeks have been a busy time for me. As usual, I have several projects underway, but I also had to get ready for this year's research trip to Prague and then get settled in.
Image acquisition for Magnetic Woman is moving along, although never as quickly as I'd like (each month I hope that I will finally wrap up this phase of the book!). Just prior to leaving the US, I discovered that the library of the Art Institute of Chicago has some of what I was looking for, so I hurriedly made an appointment to go up there. In recent years, the Art Institute has acquired numerous examples of Czech modernist books and journals--they now have a real trove--and the librarians were very helpful. I was able to take my own study photographs of all sorts of things plus order reproduction-quality photos of some items for the book.
After arriving in Prague, I set out to obtain copies of photos of Toyen and other members of the Czech avant-garde. Quite a few have been published in the past, but not always with clear indications of their provenance. I knew, however, that the Památník národního pisemnictví (literary archive) would have some and that the UPM (design museum) would also be a good place to inquire. The Památník was able to offer me a selection of photos they had already scanned, plus when I went to their central depository in Litoměřice and rooted through Vítězslav Nezval's personal photos, I saw other interesting options. For the most part it must be said that Nezval's snapshots of his friends are small and not terribly clear, but I did find a more professionally done photo from an event that struck me as worth using in the book. Nezval's photo stash also included a set of entertaining pictures of him on an outing with Roman Jakobson, Jan Mukařovský, and a young woman who was very cozy with Nezval, and as Nezval, Jakobson, and Mukařovský all figure in my book, I was tempted to include one of these photos. However, there was not a specific one that was really quite right for my chapter, so with regret I passed on this even though I would have enjoyed showing that Mukařovský had a less serious side than one might gather from his scholarly work.
The UPM, meanwhile, is preparing a digital file of one of their photos for me.
So--there's progress, although I'm not happy about museums that don't respond to my inquiries.
Image acquisition for Magnetic Woman is moving along, although never as quickly as I'd like (each month I hope that I will finally wrap up this phase of the book!). Just prior to leaving the US, I discovered that the library of the Art Institute of Chicago has some of what I was looking for, so I hurriedly made an appointment to go up there. In recent years, the Art Institute has acquired numerous examples of Czech modernist books and journals--they now have a real trove--and the librarians were very helpful. I was able to take my own study photographs of all sorts of things plus order reproduction-quality photos of some items for the book.
After arriving in Prague, I set out to obtain copies of photos of Toyen and other members of the Czech avant-garde. Quite a few have been published in the past, but not always with clear indications of their provenance. I knew, however, that the Památník národního pisemnictví (literary archive) would have some and that the UPM (design museum) would also be a good place to inquire. The Památník was able to offer me a selection of photos they had already scanned, plus when I went to their central depository in Litoměřice and rooted through Vítězslav Nezval's personal photos, I saw other interesting options. For the most part it must be said that Nezval's snapshots of his friends are small and not terribly clear, but I did find a more professionally done photo from an event that struck me as worth using in the book. Nezval's photo stash also included a set of entertaining pictures of him on an outing with Roman Jakobson, Jan Mukařovský, and a young woman who was very cozy with Nezval, and as Nezval, Jakobson, and Mukařovský all figure in my book, I was tempted to include one of these photos. However, there was not a specific one that was really quite right for my chapter, so with regret I passed on this even though I would have enjoyed showing that Mukařovský had a less serious side than one might gather from his scholarly work.
The UPM, meanwhile, is preparing a digital file of one of their photos for me.
So--there's progress, although I'm not happy about museums that don't respond to my inquiries.
Sunday, April 8, 2018
Japanese Woodblock Prints at Library of Congress
The Library of Congress does, in fact, have thousands upon thousands of freely downloadable images of many different kinds; while they do try to provide good finding aids, the level of detail varies. This particular collection looks very well organized, so that there are numerous ways for the searcher to locate items. You can narrow things down by artist, period, location shown, and so on. When you find one you want to download, make sure you choose the right file for your purposes; you have the option of several sizes of JPG, a GIF, or a TIF.
The print shown here is a color woodcut by Harunobu Suzuki from 1765 entitled "Semitori" and it shows a woman and a child catching crickets. I chose the 50.7 KB version for this post.
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