With an increasing number of dedicated photography art fairs worldwide, inclusion in major national and international shows and record prices achieved at auction, photography has become a valid and highly collectable art form.

In response to an increasing interest, and the status of photography over the last two decades, visual arts commissioning agency Pavilion and Street Level Photoworks present a two-part series exploring the how’s, why’s and what’s involved in collecting photography.





Photography as a Collectable Art Form
12.30 – 1.45
Laura Noble is author of The Art of Collecting Photography and Co-Director of Diemar/Noble Photography Gallery, London. As an avid collector of vintage and contemporary photography herself, she lectures in the UK and abroad to photographers' and collectors on the subject. Laura discussed the context around collecting photography and focused on how to start and develop personal collections.


Laura Noble


Pavel Büchler is an artist, lecturer and writer.This event saw him discuss the parallel existence and dissemination of artworks as objects and as photographs, rather than just 'reproductions'. The talk coincided with his exhibition Small Sculptures, which was presented at Street Level Photoworks.


Pavel Buchler


Photography as a Collectable Art Form
2.30 - 3.45
Dr Sara Stevenson is chief curator of the Scottish National Photography Collection at the National Gallery of Scotland, and has written a number of key texts about photography including A Companion Guide to Photography in the National Galleries of Scotland. Sara discussed the process and framework for acquiring work for a highly regarded national collection of photography. 


Dr Sara Stevenson


Jo Longhurst is an artist and current Leverhulme Fellow at the European Centre for Photographic Research (eCPR) University of Wales, Newport. Jo was commissioned by Pavilion in 2008. Various works from her extensive project The Refusal are currently held in influential public and private collections. Jo gave an artist’s perspective on the process of collecting, and discussed the impact of having work aquired by both major institutions and private collectors.


Jo Longhurst


The events were organised by Street Level Photoworks and Pavilion in collaboration with the Glasgow Art Fair.