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Doireann Wallace

Doireann Wallace

P: +353-1-4027191
E: dwallace@dit.ie
Campus: Aungier Street

Research Topic: Archive and Design in Online Stock Image Banks

The aim of my research is to develop a historically and critically informed theory of the new configurations within which photographic images circulate in networked electronic stock image banks such as Corbis and Getty Images, which control much of the trade in the reproduction rights to digital images of all kinds – from advertising to contemporary photojournalism to art historical and archival photographs. Despite the ubiquity of these image banks very little critical attention has been directed towards them to date, and the few existing studies of stock photography have been largely concerned with the communicative modalities of stock advertising images, ignoring both the range of images marketed as ‘stock’, and, more importantly, the technological substrate and interface that has become central to their operations. Access to image banks today is primarily though the agencies’ websites, whose search engines and designed catalogues allow images to be searched for, browsed and easily purchased for immediate download, as well as automatically uploaded by subscribers. This radically changes how the industry functions, and my work aims to address the consequences of this shift, exploring the convergence of archival and design practices in the image bank, the technologies that underpin these, and the modes of address and circulation facilitated by the Internet interface. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the cultural form I am studying, I draw on a range of methodological and theoretical frames of reference, including new media theory, history and philosophy of media and technology, theories of the photographic and electronic archives, design history and theory, and linguistics. I am a part-time lecturer in Photography and Visual Culture on an NUI Certificate in Photography and Digital Imaging run by the department of Continuing Education in Art and Design at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. I have also published several critical reviews of photographic books and exhibitions for Source.

Selected Publications

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

2010
'Words as Keys to the Image Bank', in Bailey, Chris and Gardiner, Hazel (eds.), Revisualising Visual Culture, Digital Research in the Arts and Humanities Series, Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.

2008
'The Photographic Document: Between Archive and Memory', in Michael Durand, The Nurses' Home, Mater Campus Hospital Development Ltd.

Catalogue Publications/Exhibition Reviews

2010
'Storming the Archive', Essay for Fragments from a Broken World exhibition, Kennardphillipps and Sean Hillen, curated by Anthony Haughey, National Photographic Archive, ireland (July 2-August 2).

2009
'Eileen Neff: Between Us' (RHA), Source, 58 (Spring).

2008
'Sean Lynch: Recent Finds' (exhibition), Source, 57 (Winter).

Infected Landscapes: Israel: Broken Promised Land, Shai Kremer, Source, 55 (Summer), Dewi Lewis Publishing.

2007
Topography of the Titanic, Kai Olaf-Hesse, Source, 53 (Winter), Belfast Exposed.

Selected Conferences

2009
'Flickrstock: Archival Convergence and Stock Photography Today', Image 2.0: Digital Media Futures Conference, University College Falmouth, UK.

2007
'Designing the Electronic Archive: Archive Fever and the Archival Economy of Getty Images' Online Operation', Digitial Archive Fever Conference, CHArt 23rd Annual Conference, London.

‘Metonymy and the Fabrication of Context in Stock Photography’, Real Things: Matter, Materiality, Representation: 1880 to the Present Conference, University of York, UK. Co-Sponsored by University of Sussex.

‘Getty Images – 10 Ways: Designing the Electronic Photographic Archive’, Global Photographies: Histories, Theories, Practices Conference, Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Dun Laoghaire Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Selected Exhibitions

2007
A Whole New Architecture of Reality, The LAB, Dublin. Solo Exhibition.

2005
Graduate Show, National Photographic Archives, Dublin. Group Exhibition.

2004
Eigse Carlow Open Submissions Exhibition. Group Exhibition.

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