Publishing Pittsburgh Pictures Lecture Series
A lecture series hosted by the iSchool and the Student Chapter of the Society of American Archivists
All lectures in this series will be held in Room 501 of the Information Science Building, 135 North Bellefield Avenue. Each event will include an informal coffee with the speaker, beginning at 10:30 AM. The lecture will take place from 11:00 AM - noon.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Linda Benedict-Jones
Pittsburgh Revealed: Photographs since 1850 published by the Carnegie Museum of Art, 1997.
Linda Benedict-Jones
"Picturing Pittsburgh"
Abstract:
Linda Benedict Jones, Curator of Photography at the Carnegie Museum of Art, will discuss her work on creating the exhibition catalog for “Pittsburgh Revealed: Photographs since 1850” for the Carnegie. This exhibition, hosted by the museum in 1997, was the first exhibition to consider photography in Pittsburgh from the medium’s beginnings to the present. Hundreds of photographs in this all-encompassing survey were never seen before, although almost half are in the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art. Others came from artists, attics, flea markets, private collectors, dealers, libraries and other museums. All were taken in Pittsburgh and its environs and recorded some aspect of its life or appearance. Consequently, the exhibition included portraits, landscapes, industrial scenes, public events, disasters and neighborhood views presented in every conceivable format: personal snapshots, corporate documents, journalists’ records, studio portraits, engineers’ blueprints and unique artistic interpretations. The mission of the exhibition was to promote the preservation of Pittsburgh’s photographic heritage and to inspire new generations of artists.
Benedict-Jones was appointed curator of the newly created Department of Photography at the Carnegie Museum of Art in 2008. She will oversee the museum's collection of about 4,500 photographs and plan its exhibitions and acquisitions. Prior to joining the Carnegie, she was the Executive Director of the Silver Eye Center for Photography, responsible for more than 20 exhibitions by regional and national photographers. Benedict-Jones was curator of education at the Frick Art & Historical Center, Pittsburgh; adjunct curator at Carnegie Museum of Art; and festival curator for The First Pittsburgh International Youth Film Festival. She was also curator of the Polaroid Collection, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and served as director of the Clarence Kennedy Gallery, Polaroid Corporation, also in Cambridge.
