The Home Darkroom and the Freedom of Photographic Production in Britain, 1950s-present

The University of Westminster and the Museum of the Home are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded collaborative doctoral studentship from October 2024 under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) scheme.

This PhD will be the first to research the relationship between the home darkroom and LGBTQ+ people’s quest for freedom of expression and visual representation in Britain from the 1950s to the present. The project will combine the archival study of LGBTQ+ photographic practices at home with two complementary collecting projects: oral history interviews with LGBTQ+ darkroom users and photographs of and produced in home darkrooms. By working with contemporary practitioners, the student will also rethink how to share such hidden stories with museum audiences.

This project will be jointly supervised:

– at the University of Westminster by Dr Sara Dominici (Senior Lecturer in Photographic History and Visual Culture), Professor Pippa Catterrall (Professor of History and Policy), and Dr Alison Hesse (Lecturer in Museum and Gallery Studies) 

– at the Museum of the Home by Marina Maniadaki (Exhibitions and Project Manager) and Louis Platman (Curator) 

The student will be expected to spend time at both the University of Westminster and the Museum of the Home, as well as becoming part of the wider cohort of CDP funded students across the UK. The student will have access to the same levels of training, support, and expertise as members of staff at the Museum of the Home, thus developing core museum skills alongside academic capabilities.

For more information on the studentship and how to apply, follow this link.