Cimelia Photographica

Cimelia Photographica is the term used in the Photothek for photographs dating from before or around 1900, which possess a historical intrinsic value. These photographs are treated as singular objects with their own materiality and a biography. However, the same approach is also adopted towards photographs dating from after 1900 which, for historical or material reasons, become objects of research in their own right.

The project programmatically weaves together research activity and archival practice. Photographs from the bequests of Herman Ulmann, Gustav Ludwig or Cornel von Fabriczy, the Croquison Donation, the KHI’s own campaigns or the negative glass plates by Anton Hautmann become the starting point for model individual studies. This combined form of object and archival research starts from the high-resolution scanning of photo-objects complete with their card mount, whereby not only the photographs but also the traces of their archiving history are digitised. With the Cimelia Photographica project in mind, the Photothek’s acquisitions increasingly also include individual photographs and convolutes from the period before and around 1900. In collaboration with the Florence-based Fotonomia association, every year the Photothek also organises in-house practical seminars on recognising historical photographic techniques.