Projects
The Digital Collection
Until 2023, the analog collection was supplemented by the digital collection with digital images being added since 2006 as a result of photographic campaigns and purchases. Once the digitization project was completed (see below), the photo prints were also available in digital format, so that the digital collection now comprises almost the entire Photographic Collection – either as a born-digital or as a digitized version.
Digitization of the Photographic Prints
In November 2019, the President of the Max Planck Society approved funding for the project to digitize the entire collection of positives held by the Photographic Collection. The project started with an intensive preparation phase, which took about three years not only due to the obstacles posed by the pandemic but also because of the complex initial situation in the Photographic Collection itself. In addition to the internal revision, which amounted to a complete inventory of the approximately 660,000 photographs and their storage units, the necessity of a Europe-wide call for tenders (as a two-stage negotiation procedure in cooperation with the MPG’s general administration) proved to be particularly laborious. In particular, the lengthy process of obtaining all the necessary permits from the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (MiBACT) for the temporary export of the photographs. Picturae, the internationally leading service provider in this field, based in the Netherlands, was awarded the contract in March 2022.
Timeline for the EU tender:
Tender documents from December 2019
Preliminary information April 17, 2020
Publication* January 29, 2021
On-site inspection April 29, 2021
Test digitizations May 2021
Negotiations June 29 – July 1, 2021
Final offers July 19, 2021
Restart due to missing export license September 2021
New final offers February 2, 2022
Inspection Picturae Febraury 25, 2022
Acceptance March 15, 2022
Export license September 1, 2022
Project start February 2023
Project end November 2023
* on the tender platform of the “official gazette” (Staatsanzeiger) of the state of Baden-Württemberg – www.tender24.de
The time-consuming preparations were rewarded by a speedy and almost seamless implementation of the project itself. In 2023, the approximately 4,600 boxes and 17,600 hanging files were transported in two phases within nine months by a transport company specializing in art and archive materials in an air-conditioned truck to North Holland to the headquarters of the service provider and back again. The photo positives were digitized on both sides and the scans were filed in directory structures according to the Photographic Collection’s specifications. The labels on the photo boxes were captured using OCR. The Photographic Collection team performed the quality control live using an online tool.
The digital copies were delivered in TIFF format on eleven hard disks. The data volume amounts to a total of approximately 1,230,000 files with a total size of approximately 154 terabytes. The subsequent processes of copying, securing, and long-term archiving in the local infrastructure at the BHMPI proved to be too time-consuming and therefore could not be carried out within a reasonable time frame. Therefore, the files were processed directly at the Max Planck Computing and Data Facility (MPCDF) in Garching using the supercomputer HPC Raven and the software Kakadu. The TIFFs were also transformed into the JPG2000 format, which is better suited for web viewing and takes up less space on the IIIF server.
The Navigator – a Digital Tool for the Virtual Consultation of the Photographic Prints
The digitization of all photo positives was a major challenge not only in terms of planning and execution, but also with regard to data management and integration into the Photographic Collection existing digital infrastructure. Currently, about 50% of the total collection of all analog and digital photographs – a total of approximately 435,000 – are cataloged in the database according to scientific standards; this includes almost all born-digitals (about 126,000) that have come into the collection from photo campaigns and purchases in the last two decades. Of course, the cataloging of the remaining so-called “old stock” of black-and-white positives (approx. 300,000) cannot be carried out at the same speed as their digitization. Nevertheless, the expectations of the scholarly community with regard to the immediate and ubiquitous availability of resources have grown steadily in recent years, even if their metadata is not yet available or only in a rudimentary form and even if the well-known principle that a photograph cannot replace the original naturally also applies to a scan of a (historical) photo print.
In order to at least partially address this problem, Pietro Liuzzo developed a prototype for a new tool, the so-called Navigator, in 2023–2024. It will enable the display of digitized versions of the positive holdings, presented according to the art historical systematics of the collection and their locations. In this way, a visit to the Photographic Collection is virtually simulated. In addition, a simple search can be used to query the structural data of the classification system (labels of storage units such as drawers, boxes and folders) and the OCR data of photo labels and inscriptions. The tool not only offers access to the digitized versions of the analog photo holdings, supplementing the online catalog, but also serves as an aid for targeted consultation of the originals in the Photographic Collection on site. For copyright reasons, the digitized versions can only be shown in full resolution on the in-house intranet.
The New Online Catalog
In parallel with the digitization project and the development of the navigator, the Photographic Collection, in collaboration with the company Stegmann Systems, has developed a new online version of its APS (Art Publishing System) catalog, in which both the photographs and the depicted objects and monuments are cataloged in depth. The online catalog was launched in February 2023 and can be consulted in three languages at https://foto.biblhertz.it/. Searches can be carried out either by object or by photograph; the object-view of works is set as the default. Search results can be filtered according to various categories. The results are displayed as a list or gallery view. It is possible to navigate within the work hierarchies and between the object-view and the photo-view. The complete data set can also be opened in the MIDAS structure. The images are offered in a 320 px preview view and – if not restricted by copyright– in a 2,048 px download view, as well as in a zoom view in the IIIF viewer.
Structured data that meets the specifications of the NFDI4Culture Knowledge Graph is available on the HTML pages for media objects. With sitemaps from APS, they are increasingly being indexed by Google, so that the APS records can be found individually via Google searches. The site https://foto.biblhertz.it/cms/data provides information about options for accessing data via OAI-PMH API or as a data-and-image set of the released images on Edmond, the MPG’s Open Research Data Repository. The retrieval statistics can be tracked via the web analytics platform Matomo, and the number of accesses is stable.
Photo-Historical Seminars
In addition to the work within its own archive, which specializes in documentary photography, the Photographic Collection collaborates with internationally renowned researchers in addressing current and future issues in the study of photographic history. It offers a series of seminars that are targeted at young doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers and that provide a forum for scientific exchange and cross-disciplinary networking. After the successful pilot event in March 2019, the Photographic Collection, together with the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, raised funding from the Alfred Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation, based in Essen, for a further three seminars. Not only has the call for proposals for the five-day events, each of which engages with issues of a systematic and methodical nature, met with an overwhelmingly positive response, with up to 125 applications for the seminar in 2023, but the projects presented at the events have distinguished themselves by their remarkably high quality. They follow the model of the Institute’s study courses and combine three different working models: thirteen project presentations with discussions in a closed setting, two public evening lectures, and four visits to Roman photo archives and collections (field trips).
With Prof. Steffen Siegel (Professorship for the History and Theory of Photography at the Folkwang University) and one other co-host on each occasion, the following events on photography research have taken (or will take) place in the form of a one-week study course for younger doctoral students and post-docs, in which photographs, both in their own materiality and as carriers of information, are the focus of scholarly inquiry:
2019: Circulating Photographs: Materials, Practices, Institutions, organized by Tatjana Bartsch, Antonella Pelizzari, Johannes Röll and Steffen Siegel (papers published in a special issue of History of Photography: https://doi.org/10.1080/03087298.2021.2020461)
2023: Archival Absences: An Incomplete History of Photography, organized by Tatjana Bartsch, Elizabeth Otto, Johannes Röll and Steffen Siegel (papers will be published as a special issue of the Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, vol. 88, issue 4, 2025)
2025: Centers and Peripheries: Photography’s Geography Lessons, organized by Tatjana Bartsch, Luke Gartlan, Johannes Röll and Steffen Siegel
2027: Double Projection: Comparing the Histories of Photography (working title)
Exhibitions
Online Exhibitions
On https://galerie.biblhertz.it/, the Photographic Collection of the Bibliotheca Hertziana regularly features a series of image galleries devoted to a wide range of themes. They reflect current projects of the scholars, research groups, and departments of the Institute, as well as initiatives of the Photographic Collection itself, such as special photographic campaigns, areas of particular strength, and holdings associated with particular photographers. Over the past three years, Tatjana Bartsch, together with the curators of the exhibitions and the student assistants at the Photographic Collection, has organized the following fifteen online exhibitions:
March 2022
Art and Architecture of the Philippines
https://galerie.biblhertz.it/philippines/
Project, texts and photographs: Tristan Weddigen and Franz Engel
April 2022
Paper Eruptions. Four Centuries of Volcanoes in Print from the Library's Rara Collection
https://galerie.biblhertz.it/eruzioni/
Scientific project: Philine Helas, Elisabetta Scirocco
Contents: Domenico Cecere, Philine Helas, Golo Maurer, Annachiara Monaco, Antonio Perrone, Elisabetta Scirocco, Hanna Sophie Stegemann, Milena Viceconte
June 2022
Art and Architecture in Brazil
https://galerie.biblhertz.it/en/brazil/
Texts: Ana Paula dos Santos Salvat and Tristan Weddigen
Photographs: Tristan Weddigen
August 2022
İSTANBUL SURLARI – The Land Walls of Istanbul. Photographs by Domenico Ventura
https://galerie.biblhertz.it/en/istanbul/
Project: Tatjana Bartsch, Johannes Röll, Domenico Ventura
Photographs: Domenico Ventura
Texts: Tatjana Bartsch, Johannes Röll, Domenico Ventura
November 2022
The Centenary of the Christuskirche in Rome. An online exhibition of the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History in cooperation with the Evangelisch-Lutherische Gemeinde Rome
https://galerie.biblhertz.it/en/christuskirche/
Project: Tatjana Bartsch, Michael Jonas, Madelaine Merino
Photographs: Gabriele Fichera, Enrico Fontolan
Video: Madelaine Merino
Texts: Tatjana Bartsch, Michael Jonas, Oliver Lenz, Madelaine Merino, Johannes Röll
November 2022
Massimo Piersanti and the Incontri Internazionali d'Arte, curated by Maria Giovanna Virga
https://galerie.biblhertz.it/en/piersanti/
Project: Massimo Piersanti, Maria Giovanna Virga, Tristan Weddigen
Photographs: Massimo Piersanti
Texts: Maria Giovanna Virga
April 2023
Elena Subach – Hidden, curated by Oleksandra Osadcha
https://galerie.biblhertz.it/en/hidden/
Project: Elena Subach, Oleksandra Osadcha, Tatjana Bartsch, Johannes Röll, Tristan Weddigen
Photographs: Elena Subach
Texts: Oleksandra Osadcha
May 2023
Art and Architecture in Peru
https://galerie.biblhertz.it/en/peru/
Project, texts and photographs: Tristan Weddigen
September 2023
Giulio Romano – A Drawing from the Hertz Collection, curated by Susanne Kubersky-Piredda
https://galerie.biblhertz.it/en/giulio-romano/
Project: Susanne Kubersky-Piredda, Gaia Mazzacane, Oliver Lenz
Texts: Susanne Kubersky-Piredda, Gaia Mazzacane
Restoration: Lorena Tireni, Serena Galetti, Emiliano Africano, Lorenzo Civiero
Technological examination: Claudio Seccaroni, Giuseppe Marghella
December 2023
Art and Architecture in Argentina
https://galerie.biblhertz.it/en/argentina/
Project, texts and photographs: Tristan Weddigen
August 2024
Art and Architecture in Bolivia
https://galerie.biblhertz.it/en/bolivia/
Project, texts and photographs: Tristan Weddigen
September 2024
Art and Architecture in Colombia
https://galerie.biblhertz.it/en/colombia/
Project, texts and photographs: Tristan Weddigen
October 2024
Art and Architecture in Mexico
https://galerie.biblhertz.it/en/mexico/
Project, texts and photographs: Tristan Weddigen
October 2024
Paul Lindner (1845–1924). Rediscovery of a Historical Photo Collection in the Bibliotheca Hertziana, curated by Regine Schallert
https://galerie.biblhertz.it/en/lindner/
Project and texts: Regine Schallert
December 2024
Memories of Rome. Drawings as Souvenirs around 1800, curated by Johannes Röll
Dedicated to the memory of Ksenija Rozman (1935–2024)
https://galerie.biblhertz.it/en/memories-of-rome/
Project and texts: Johannes Röll
Hilde in Italy
The exhibition “Hilde in Italy. Art and Life in Photographs by Hilde Lotz-Bauer”, which took place at the Museo di Roma in Trastevere from January 17 to May 5, 2024, presented the photographer’s activities in Italy in the 1930s and early 1940s (https://www.museodiromaintrastevere.it/it/mostra-evento/hilde-italia). It brought together approximately 100 photographs from the photographic collections of the BHMPI and the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence (KHI), the Hilde Lotz Bauer Archive (London), and the Franz Schlechter Archive (Heidelberg).
Trained in art history and photography, Hilde Bauer became the Hertziana’s first photographer in 1934. In 1939 she moved to Florence and worked for the KHI and its director Friedrich Kriegbaum until she left Italy in 1943. In addition to her art and architectural photographs, the exhibition included photographs of people and places in Abruzzo taken with her Leica. Johannes Röll and Regine Schallert wrote articles for the catalog and Tristan Weddigen the preface. In addition, the exhibition provided an opportunity to identify and catalog the collection of approximately 550 photographs and negatives by Hilde Lotz-Bauer.
The Allure of Rome
.The exhibition “The Allure of Rome. Maarten van Heemskerck Draws the City” was organized by the Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, in collaboration with the BHMPI and took place at the Kulturforum in Berlin from April 26 to August 4, 2024.
Tatjana Bartsch was co-curator of the exhibition and co-editor of the catalog (see project). The Photographic Collection implemented two projects to accompany the exhibition: a photographic campaign for Maarten van Heemskerk’s locations in Rome to juxtapose the drawings showing the Roman topography and urban landscape from the 1530s with photos of the locations, and the design and realization of the exhibition website https://heemskerck.smb.museum/web, where Van Heemskerck’s reconstructed sketchbook can be browsed digitally and the locations where Van Heemskerck drew have been visualized on the contemporary city map by Ugo Pinard.
A facsimile edition of the Roman sketchbook was produced from the funds of the Corpus of Italian Drawings to accompany the exhibition.
Paul Lindner
The research exhibition “Paul Lindner (1845–1924). Rediscovery of a Historical Photographic Collection” took place in the Sala Terrena of the Palazzo Zuccari from September 18 to December 6, 2024 and was curated by Regine Schallert. It presented a selection of 33 historical photographic prints from the earliest negatives inventorized for the photographic collection of the Bibliotheca Hertziana and recently attributed to the Saxon military captain Paul Lindner. The photographs provide insight into the work of this hitherto completely unknown autodidactic photographer who was active in Rome around 1900. The on-site exhibition is accompanied by an online exhibition: https://galerie.biblhertz.it/en/lindner/
Memories of Rome
The research exhibition “Memories of Rome. Drawings as Souvenirs around 1800” took place in the Sala Terrena of Palazzo Zuccari from December 12, 2024 to February 25, 2025 and was curated by Johannes Röll. It presents some of the works from the Hertziana collection that were circulating on the Grand Tour art market around 1800. The centerpiece is a group of drawings that depict views of the city of Rome and the Roman Campagna and that are faithful but sketchy copies after drawings by the Slovenian Franz Caucig, who lived in Rome from 1780 to 1787. They were probably made for an English tourist and sold as souvenirs. A second highlight is a view of Rome by the English artist John Newbolt (c. 1803–1867), of which several almost identical copies exist. The on-site exhibition is accompanied by an online exhibition: https://galerie.biblhertz.it/en/memories-of-rome/
Photographs for the Study of Drawings
The Corpus Photographicum of Drawings (Corpus Gernsheim) and the Corpus of Italian Drawings 1300–1500 (CIZ) entered the Photographic Collection in 2002 and 2019 respectively. Together with the photographs of architectural and antique reproductions collected over decades, as well as drawings from the 16th to 18th century in Italy, they form one of the world’s largest specialized archives on the art of Italian drawing.
The digitization, cataloging, and publication of both corpora, in addition to conservational aspects, forms the primary focus. Studying the two corpora, comparing them with one another and reconstructing the historical dimension of the scholarship they embody is a research desideratum that individual studies have already begun to address. Furthermore, the Gernsheim Study Days are held every year, a series of scholarly events dedicated to current topics in the research devoted to drawing. The contributions of selected conferences are to be published. Together with the volumes of the CIZ, whose 16th volume on the drawings of the Pollaiolo brothers was published in 2023, these publications will underline the importance of the Photographic Collection as a center for research into drawing.
The Corpus of Italian Drawings 1300–1500
The Corpus of Italian Drawings 1300–1500 (CIZ) was founded by Bernhard Degenhart (1907–1999) at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome around 1937 with the intention of publishing an overview and analysis of Early Italian drawings , organized according to the artistic regions of Italy. Many of the photographs were taken by the photographer and art historian Hilde Bauer. As a fellow and assistant at the Institute, Degenhart published his highly regarded essay “Zur Graphologie der Handzeichnung” in the first volume of the BH yearbook. In 1949, the project came to the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in Munich, where Degenhart worked as a curator and later as director. In 1955, Annegrit Schmitt joined the team and soon became co-editor in publishing the corpus. A total of 15 volumes were published under Degenhart and Schmitt’s direction. In 2019, Schmitt donated the entire corpus of over 60,000 photographs, negatives, books, and written documents to the Photographic Collection of the Bibliotheca Hertziana. Volume 16, on the drawings of the Pollaiolo brothers, by Lorenza Melli, was published in 2023.
The initial phase of work on the corpus involves the conservation, cataloging, and research of the holdings. The task of cleaning and inventorizing the negatives is underway, while the digitization of all the volumes in the corpus has been completed (they are to be made available on a dedicated platform). Research on the early days of the corpus in Rome, on Degenhart’s connection with Hilde Bauer and on Hilde Bauer’s important work as a photographer has been published in the catalog of the exhibition about Hilde Bauer at the Museo di Roma in Trastevere by Johannes Röll and Regine Schallert from the Photographic Collection. Future specialized research and new publications of the corpus are being developed in collaboration with the advisory board of the Degenhart-Schmitt Foundation.
The Corpus Gernsheim
The Corpus Photographicum of Drawings (Corpus Gernsheim) was founded in 1937 with the aim of documenting European drawings from all periods in public and private collections. The art historian Walter Gernsheim (1909–2006), who had emigrated to Great Britain, initiated the project in London, where he carried out the first photographic campaigns at the British Museum, the Royal Library in Windsor, and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and sold annual photo deliveries (13 x 18 cm B/W prints) on a subscription basis to museums, universities, and research institutes. The Gernsheim Collection now contains over 193,000 photographs of drawings from the 14th to 20th centuries from over 100 museums, archives and libraries. As a meta-collection of prints and drawings in institutions worldwide, it remains one of the most important tools for art historical research on drawings. In 2002, Jutta and Walter Gernsheim donated a complete set of the corpus and all negatives, including the photographers’ rights, to the Photographic Collection of the Bibliotheca Hertziana. The positives have since been digitized. In addition, approximately 55,000 photographs have been catalogued using the latest data. A visualisation tool –the prototype of which was designed in 2024–, will make all photographs accessible. . Founded by a Jewish art historian in exile, the Corpus Gernsheim is a long-term project of both scholarly and contemporary historical significance, having revolutionized the methods of drawing research based on photographs, initiated the visualization of many museum collections, and, moreover, helped to document cultural heritage across national borders in times of crisis. The first research paper on the Corpus Gernsheim within the Photographic Collection will be published in 2025 by Tatjana Bartsch.