Women in Photography: Practitioners, Labourers, Entrepreneurs in a Global Perspective (1839–1939)

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 

An International Conference to Rewrite the History of Women’s Role in Photography

The international conference Women in Photography: Practitioners, Labourers, Entrepreneurs in a Global Perspective (1839–1939) will take place on 20–21 November 2025 at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan. The event marks the conclusion of the PRIN 2022 PNRR NextGenerationEU project “Fotografiste: Women in Photography from Italian Archives, 1839–1939”, jointly promoted by the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca and the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera.

The conference is coordinated by an international scientific committee composed of Linda Bertelli (IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca), Costanza Caraffa (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz), Patrizia Di Bello (Birkbeck College, London), Malavika Karlekar (Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi), Nicoletta Leonardi (Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan), Kylie Thomas (University College Cork), and Akram Zaatari (artist and filmmaker). The international conference represents a moment of synthesis and renewal in a two-year research project aiming to shed light on the presence and work of women in the field of photography.

Why are there so few women in the history of photography?

Several studies have highlighted the obstacles that have limited women’s recognition and success in photography, as well as the ideological underpinnings of historiography that have often rendered them invisible within dominant narratives. Despite recent research, women’s roles in the history of photography remain underexplored—particularly during the period from the invention of the medium, around 1839, to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.

The conference aims to restore visibility to the work of women who, during the first century of photography, played a crucial role in its development. Its goal is to rediscover identities and trajectories through the lens of feminist studies, bringing to light forgotten or overlooked figures and reexamining historical narratives traditionally centered on male photographers and enterprises.

The initiative brings together scholars from universities and institutions around the world—including Birkbeck College, University of London, Princeton University, University of British Columbia, EHESS (Paris), University College Cork, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and many others—to reflect, from transnational, interdisciplinary, and gender perspectives, on women’s roles in photography, restoring visibility to shadowed figures and redefining the historical narrative in a global context.

Over two days, six thematic sessions will address the key issues of this emerging historiography. Discussions will explore women’s educational training and professional paths between the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, highlighting how they built careers despite the social constraints of their time. A significant portion of the program will focus on invisible labour and women’s participation in the photographic industry—often omitted from official credits, yet essential to the production and dissemination of photographic images. Other panels will delve into networks of collaboration, women-run studios, female participation in colonial and postcolonial contexts, and professional strategies developed across countries and continents. Special attention will also be given to archival sources and the use of digital humanities as tools to rediscover forgotten figures and uncover connections among photographic histories, places, and practices.

The program will also feature a poster session for early-career researchers, presenting original studies on archives, studios, and women photographers in Italy, Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

Alongside the academic sessions, the first day will conclude with a presentation on the activities and archive of the Libreria delle donne di Milano, followed by a social dinner at the same venue.

On the evening of 21 November, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:15 p.m., the conference will close with Things that Death Cannot Destroy (Part 11), a performance with magic lanterns and voice by artist Linda Fregni Nagler.

Linda Fregni Nagler’s work invites the audience on an encyclopedic journey into the past. The projection, conceived as a cadavre exquis, unfolds through unexpected visual associations, reactivating an archive of photographic images from diverse sources—from natural history to journalism, from anthropology to devotional imagery—revealing a vision of the world as represented by modernity. The sequence of glass slides, drawn from the artist’s own collection, spans from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. Using two original magic lanterns, the artist and performers will bring this vast visual repertoire to life through live readings of captions, archival notes, numbers, codes, and period copyrights, offering a re-staging and recontextualization of this extraordinary visual heritage.

Practical Information

Admission: Free, with prior registration at https://forms.gle/ZBWGeNmn47sUwqtu6

Performance with magic lanterns and voice:
Linda Fregni Nagler – Things that Death Cannot Destroy (Part 11)

Admission: Free, with prior registration at https://forms.gle/uyxiLvqN5xymGxaFA

The conference will be held in English and streamed live on the official channel of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. It will also be promoted through the social media of the participating institutions and the Fotografiste project.

Information: www.fotografiste.com
Email: comunicazione@fadbrera.edu.it | ufficiostampa@imtlucca.it 

IartNET | From STEM to STEAM:

How Cross-Sectorial Practices are Framing New Job Opportunities for Cultural and Creative Industries’ Professionals

INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR | ONLINE CONFERENCE

As part of the activities of IartNET – an international platform for artistic research and cultural heritage in Higher Education in the Arts and Music – Fondazione Accademia Teatro alla Scala announces the international seminar From STEM to STEAM: How Cross-Sectorial Practices are Framing New Job Opportunities for Cultural and Creative Industries’ Professionals, curated by Umberto Bellodi, to be held online on November 20th, 2025. The event is organized within the framework of the IartNET project, funded by NextGenerationEU and coordinated by Brera Academy.

Following the transnational reflection on cross-sectorial innovation, part of the Large Scale Partnership for the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI), the seminar addresses the topic from an occupational perspective across different sectors. It focuses on data and practices to define new job opportunities arising in the labour market for cultural and creative industries’ professionals. The aim of the seminar is to investigate available and tangible opportunities between different industries, emphasizing creative and artistic approaches into STEM fields, enhancing innovation, and impacting training and skills development.

Main focuses of the seminar:

• Employability – Based on existing experiences and practices, identifying emerging job opportunities for CCI professionals in other sectors, and evaluating how this informs training programmes to improve employability of younger generations.
• Education and Training – Examining the shift from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) to STEAM, integrating artistic skills to foster innovation, creativity, and holistic problem-solving, and exploring incorporation into Higher Education (HE) and Vocational Education and Training (VET) curricula for CCI students.

Programme:

• Opening Keynote: Umberto Bellodi, Scientific Coordinator of IartNET and Coordinator of the Cross-Sectorial Innovation Working Group (LSP-CCI).
• Panel 1: The Creative Skills Europe experience – State of the art and reflections from employers’ and employees’ perspectives, supported by the European Commission and involving national and EU-level social dialogue partners.
  Speakers: Anita Debaere, Valentine Gelcys
• Panel 2: Changes in the labour market demand for CCI professionals: Italian context, digitalisation and AI impact– Insights into new occupational trends, cross-sectorial opportunities, and transformations in performing arts and live events.
  Speaker: Francesca Martinelli
• Discussion: Panel and audience interaction.
• Closing Keynote: Prof. Domenico Quaranta, Project Coordinator (Brera Academy), contextualizing the seminar within the IartNET ecosystem.

The seminar will be held online. A live streaming will be available on YouTube: LINK
To actively participate in the discussion and open floor session, attendants can register here: LINK
For more information, please write to bellodi@accademialascala.it.

IartNET | “The ‘Antegnati’ Organ of Darfo: A Resource for the Territory”

CONFERENCE | CONCERT 

As part of the activities of IartNET – an international platform for artistic research and cultural heritage at Italian higher arts education institutions – the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera announces an international study day and a concert on the historic organ housed in the former Monastery Church of the Visitation in Darfo (Brescia), curated by the “Luca Marenzio” Conservatoire of Brescia.

The event, entitled The Antegnati Organ of Darfo: A Resource for the Territory, will open at 11:00 a.m. with a guided tour of the organ led by Marco Ruggeri at the small church of the former Convent (via Quarteroni 10).

In the afternoon, at 3:00 p.m., a conference dedicated to the promotion and preservation of the organ heritage of the Camonica Valley will take place at the “Margherita Biondi” Public Library. The conference, moderated by Paolo Cavallo, will feature contributions from Alberto Chiari, Daniele Dallapiccola, Matteo Lombardi, Marco Ruggeri, Oliviero Franzoni, Maurizio Isabella, Luca Scandali, Paolo Peretti, and Silvio Sorrentino. The presentations will offer a broad overview of restoration practices, historical developments, and strategies for the enhancement of the organ heritage of the Camonica Valley.

The day will conclude at 9:00 p.m. in the small church of the former Convent with an organ concert by Maestro Luca Scandali, featuring a program devoted to repertoire from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, with works by Frescobaldi, Rossi, Purcell, Ximenez, Praetorius, Storace, and Scarlatti.

Recent research and analyses on the instrument have made it possible to ascertain that it largely originates from the renowned Brescian organ-building workshop of the Antegnati family. In particular, about sixty percent of the pipes, as well as the slider chest and mechanical structures, show strong analogies with Antegnati organs from around 1580–1590.

The provenance of the instrument remains to be discovered, since both the church and the organ case date from the mid-eighteenth century, when the monastery was built. The organ, abandoned during the 1970s, was later restored by the Pedrini firm in 1988 for didactic use at the Conservatorio. On that occasion, the Antegnati material in the pipework was identified and recorded in the files of the competent heritage authority. However, neither this significant finding nor the musical use of the organ received further attention, leading to a gradual neglect of the instrument.

A minor maintenance intervention carried out in 2022 by the organ builder Pietro Corna, commissioned by the Conservatorio, served to inspect the ancient components and immediately highlighted the need for more in-depth investigation. These studies were conducted by the organologist Maurizio Isabella and have been published in detail in the prestigious journal L’Organo (Bologna, Ed. Patron, vol. LIV, 2025).

The organ collection of the Conservatorio of Darfo also includes another valuable instrument: the “Tamburini” organ (1980), a mechanical instrument with three manuals, located in the adjacent former choir of the church (now the Conservatorio Auditorium). Both instruments are currently playable, yet they would benefit from further technical refinement — the “Antegnati” organ to fully restore its distinctive sound qualities, and the “Tamburini” organ to adapt it more effectively to contemporary performance needs and acoustic spaces.

The full usability of these two instruments would place the Conservatorio of Darfo in a position of national excellence, with a strong cultural impact on the surrounding area, where more than two hundred historical organs are preserved — many of them abandoned or in need of restoration. 

As a university-level institution, the Conservatorio promotes initiatives that conceive culture as an international field of research and shared knowledge, while constantly nurturing interaction between academic activity and the cultural development of the local area.

Information:

Conservatoire “Luca Marenzio” of Brescia – Sezione di Darfo Boario Terme
www.consbs.it  ufficiostampa@consbs.it

PNRR IartNET 

https://www.accademiadibrera.milano.it/en/iartnet

IartNET | Storia dell’Arte e Accademie di Belle Arti: Origini, Sviluppi, Prospettive

CONVEGNO INTERNAZIONALE

Convegno internazionale di studi a cura di Gerardo de Simone e Cristina Frulli.

Le Accademie di Belle Arti rappresentarono in Italia e in Europa fin dalla fondazione una realtà culturale viva e feconda, nella quale l’insegnamento delle pratiche artistiche fu ab origine affiancato da insegnamenti storico-teorici, considerati fondamentali per l’educazione dei giovani artisti. 

Cattedre di Storia dell’Arte, di Estetica o di materie affini sono ben documentate, coi rispettivi docenti e programmi, così come sono ricostruibili le dotazioni di volumi (nuclei delle biblioteche accademiche), disegni, stampe, fotografie, oggetti e materiali didattici. Il presente Convegno di studi si propone di gettar luce sull’impiantarsi, in particolare nei secoli XVIII e XIX in cui si costituirono le Accademie ‘storiche’ (senza dimenticare le fondamentali ‘avanguardie’ cinquecentesche dell’Accademia fiorentina delle Arti del Disegno e di quella romana di San Luca), dell’insegnamento della Storia dell’arte nelle Accademie di Belle Arti, e sui suoi successivi sviluppi. 

Da molti anni il tema della didattica della Storia dell’arte è al centro di importanti ricerche di Storia della critica d’arte, che hanno illuminato dinamiche e problemi circa l’introduzione della disciplina e la sua istituzionalizzazione tra la fine dell’Otto e gli inizi del Novecento. Queste ricerche hanno privilegiato l’insegnamento nelle Università e nelle Scuole secondarie. Più in ombra è rimasto l’ambito, parallelo, cronologicamente precoce e certo non meno rilevante, delle Accademie di Belle Arti: il simposio odierno ambisce a colmare questo vuoto, grazie alla partecipazione di studiosi di alto profilo di ambito sia accademico che universitario, affrontandolo da varie angolazioni e sfaccettature, al fine di restituire la vitalità, la ricchezza e la complessità della riflessione storica e teorica sulle arti e della connessa didattica nelle Accademie di Belle Arti, le sue ricadute sulla produzione artistica e la sua importanza per l’evoluzione della storia e della critica d’arte. Patrocinato dalla SISCA (Associazione Italiana di Storia della Critica d’Arte), il convegno vedrà la pubblicazione degli Atti in un numero monografico della rivista "Predella" (https://predella.it/), in doppia edizione online e a stampa.

Contatti: abafi@accademia.firenze.it