The materiality of historical photographs was the focal point of a seminar for students of art and visual history at HU Berlin. Given that the primary emphasis of digitization is typically on reproducing image content and provenance, the material qualities of photographs are seldom perceptible in the digital domain. Engaging with the holdings of the Historical Collections Department of the University Library and the media library of the Institute for Art and Visual History (IKB) as part of the seminar, however, allowed students to explore the diverse techniques and materials of 19th- and early 20th-century photography and to examine the affordances of the respective photographic practices. Furthermore, the seminar investigated the potential for visualizing insights into materiality and practices in digital formats.
The Digital Network for Collections provided support with a tool for the digital presentation of the results.