The Impact of Press Photography at a Museum: The Black Star Collection

Activity in french only

Since the early 2000s, many press photography collections have been acquired by Canadian public institutions. One of these, the Black Star Collection, was gifted to Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) in 2005 and led to the creation of The Image Centre (IMC), one of the few photography museums based on a university campus. This talk will deal with the context of the Black Star Collection’s acquisition, its role within the IMC, and issues around the materiality of this collection made up of more than 291,000 prints. It will explore the research activities conducted at the IMC since 2012 (including the publication of the book Facing Black Star) and examine how photographs—as both news subjects and press objects—challenge research and encourage the development of new tools.

By Thierry Gervais, PhD (History), Professor, Director of the Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management MA Program, and Head of Research at Toronto Metropolitan University’s IMC.

With the participation of Zoë Tousignant, Curator, Photography.

Thierry Gervais

Thierry Gervais, PhD (History), is a professor, Director of the Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management MA Program, and Head of Research at Toronto Metropolitan University’s IMC. He has authored several articles on photojournalism and press photography as well as a book titled The Making of Visual News. A History of Photography in the Press (written in collaboration with Gaëlle Morel), which was released by Bloomsbury in 2017. He edited The “Public” Life of Photographs (RIC Books, 2016) and co-edited Facing Black Star with Vincent Lavoie (IMC Books, 2023). His current research focuses on retouched press photographs.

Informations

• Free activity, in French, on Wednesday, May 14, 2025, from 12 to 1:30 p.m.
• Duration : 1 h 30
• Location: Online