In the Blink of an Eye: Installing a Timeslice

Blogger: Beth Hughes, Exhibitions Assistant

Installing a new exhibition involves facing many challenges - it's not all just hanging pictures on a wall - and today we tackled quite a challenge. As part of our forthcoming exhibition, In the Blink of an Eye: Media and Movement, we will be displaying a Timeslice.



A Timeslice is a large ring with a series of cameras facing into the centre of the circle. When an object passes through the circle, all the cameras simultaneously take a picture. When shown in sequence it seems as if the camera can pan around and see every angle of whatever has passed through the Timeslice. The object is frozen in time and space. This technology is widely used in both television and film, most notably in the Matrix films.

The Timeslice can take hundreds of images capturing one moment in time. Unlike a normal camera, there aren't any lenses or shutters, just a single strip of film around the inside. When an object passes through the circle a flash goes off exposing the film through a series of tiny pinholes. This means that the images have to be taken in the dark to ensure no early exposure.



Although not too heavy, the Timeslice is a tricky item to handle. Standing at eight feet in diameter, it took five of our best employees to safely install and secure it.

The Timeslice on display was donated to the Museum by Tim Macmillan who pioneered the technology in the 1990s. This will be the first time we have displayed it in the Museum, but it had a starring role on an episode of Tomorrow's World in May 1993.



In the Blink of an Eye reveals our fascination with movement and our desire to capture it through photography, film, television and new media. The exhibition is on display in Galleries 1 and 2 from 9 March – 2 September 2012.

Podcast: Daniel Meadows discusses his Early Photographic Works

Daniel Meadows gave a wonderfully insightful, lively and engaging talk on Thursday, which formed part of an events programme that accompanied the showing of Daniel Meadows' first retrospective exhibition Daniel Meadows: Early Photographic Works in Gallery Two.

The talk was a sell out event, but you can hear it here.

Introducing Life Online [open source]

Blogger: Sarah Crowther, Life Online Content Curator

March 2012 – February 2013

[open source] will be the first exhibition to open in our brand new Life Online exhibition space on the 7th floor. The gallery, which opens to the public on Friday 30th March 2012, has been created to explore key issues surrounding the internet and our relationship with it. A series of annual exhibitions will enable our visitors to further explore a number of the themes presented in the Life Online gallery in the foyer.

[open source] focuses on the internet's open culture of sharing and collaboration, while also considering threats to the neutrality of the network. If we fail to preserve net neutrality could we be facing the end of online culture as we know it? The exhibition will include a series of brand new commissions by internationally-renowned artists alongside an artwork created by the gallery's younger audience.

We'll be keeping you up to date on all the latest Life Online developments on this blog, so keep watching this space!

How to... Take photographs with a 5x4 plate camera - Simon Roberts

Blogger: Emma James, Web Content Coordinator

In the first of our series of 'how to' videos, Simon Roberts takes us through the process of photographing with a 5x4 plate camera (Ebony).

He explains how the camera works and why this process forces the photographer to think about composition.

For Simon, it's about crafting something that people will study, rather than the snapshot aesthetic.

Simon explains how the film is processed, and why that results in a better quality print.

In the lab, get a glimpse into the printing process, testing, and finally, the photographs' presentation.



Simon Roberts: We English exhibited at the Museum in 2010, and the exhibition is now part of our touring programme.

Daniel Meadows gallery hang goes to plan... roll on Friday

Blogger: Ruth Haycock, Exhibitions Organiser

Val Williams (Director of Photography and the Archive Research Centre) and curator of the upcoming exhibition Daniel Meadows: Early Photographic Works visited the Museum last week, with Brigitte Lardinois (Deputy Director of Photography and the Archive Research Centre) and Daniel Meadows, to discuss and agree the exhibition hang.





With all of the works ready and laid out in the gallery we met early on the Monday morning. Excellent progress was made, and by the end of the day everything was in place, agreed and ready for our technicians to start the hang. So, following a successful day Val and Brigitte headed back to London and Daniel to the Midland Hotel in Bradford for the evening.

All will return tomorrow for the Gallery opening, and launch of the Ways of Looking Festival.

Daniel Staincliffe: Fauna Automata is being installed

Blogger: Amanda Chinneck, Public Programme Development Manager

Daniel Staincliffes’s Fauna Automata: British Wild Boar images are being installed today.



Fauna Automata explores the British wild boar population, through photographs taken by the boars themselves! It is the result of Staincliffe’s artist’s residency in the Forest of Dean and the photographs are the product of his near scientific record of the movements and habits of the boars.

Filming Daniel Meadows

Blogger: Ruth Haycock, Exhibition Organiser

Daniel Meadows and his wife Georgie invited Emma Shaw (our Media Developer) and I to their home, to interview and produce films to accompany the upcoming exhibition Daniel Meadows: Early Photographic Works. So, with equipment and belongings packed and the car ready we set off for Monmouth. We received a wonderful welcome, and armed with quite a heavy agenda we started filming early the next morning.



Daniel has an extensive archive of personal documents; bus receipt, snapshots, posters, letters and so on, which span his entire career to date. These documents have been collected, cared for, and well looked after over the years. Each document reveals an interesting story about Daniel and his life as a documentarist. We asked Daniel to select ten objects from his archive to speak about, from which we would create a series of small films.



Discussing many aspects of his practice Daniel told us, with affection, stories of the people he has met and documented. Many of which he is still in contact with today. The films not only highlight Daniel’s practice, but the warmth and natural affinity he has with people, and the telling of their stories. The exhibition provides a window onto the life of others, and the films a window onto his.



The exhibition opens 30 September 2011 in Gallery Two as part of Ways of Looking, a new photography festival in Bradford.

Hilary Roberts talks about Donovan Wylie

Blogger: Philippa Wright, Curator of Photography

What do you get if you mix up the talent of a world class photographer, the support of two National Institutions and a successful Fellowship programme? In this instance our future exhibition Outposts: Donovan Wylie Bradford Fellow in Photography 2010/11.

Hilary Roberts, the Head Curator of the Imperial War Museum Photograph Archive visited the Museum and spoke passionately about the importance of this collaboration. She said that our decision to award Magnum photographer Donovan Wylie the prestigious 2010 Bradford Fellowship was crucial in securing funding for the Outposts project.



The Bradford Fellowship is a partnership between ourselves, the University of Bradford and Bradford College and has been in existence since 1985.

Growing up in Belfast during the Troubles, Wylie became fascinated by military structures, which by their deliberate placement were intended to monitor and command their surroundings. His works there include the Maze (2004) and British Watchtowers (2007).

The Fellowship enabled Wylie to extend his interest in architecture of conflict to the distinctive landscape of Kandahar Province in Afghanistan. Wylie required military access in order to photograph in Afghanistan. The IWM were responsible for negotiating permission from the Canadian military for Wylie to embed with them in Afghanistan. In doing so, he became the first official IWM photographer to work in a conflict zone since the First World War.

Donovan Wylie: Outposts - Bradford Fellowship 2010/11

Blogger: Philippa Wright, Curator of Photography

Magnum photographer Donovan Wylie recently visited us to work on the final stages of his premiere exhibition Outposts. This new work is the outcome of a unique collaboration between us and the Imperial War Museum.



Donovan was awarded the prestigious Bradford Fellowship 2010/11, a partnership between Bradford College, the University of Bradford and ourselves. This was crucial in securing funding for the Outposts project. It enabled Donovan to extend his interests in the increasingly transient nature of modern military architecture and, the ways it is deployed in military observation.



In 2010 we began the collaboration to embed Donovan Wylie with the Canadian contingent of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. In doing so, he became the first Imperial War Museum official photographer to work in a war zone since the end of the First World War.



Throughout his career, the Belfast-born artist has remained fascinated by the ways in which conflict shapes people’s lives. His earlier works were influenced by the impact of the Troubles on his homeland. The theme of military and observation buildings can be seen in his photographs of the Maze prison (The Maze, 2004) and military watchtowers in Northern Ireland (British Watchtowers, 2007). The exhibition also includes work from these earlier projects.

This exhibition also forms part of Ways of Looking -a new photography Festival in Bradford (1 - 30 October).

Art in Yorkshire iPhone app - Supported by Tate

We recently contributed to the Art in Yorkshire iPhone app - Supported by Tate, and we're pleased to announce that it features in the iTunes app store as 'New and Noteworthy'. A well-deserved success!

The app is a guide and interpretive tool for exhibitions and events taking place in museums and galleries throughout Yorkshire.

You can browse exhibitions, artists, venues and themes, recommend with a like, share with your friends, and find the code at the venue to leave your appinion (love this!)

It is an absolute pleasure to use. But don't take my word for it - here are some of the reviews on iTunes:

"I used this at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park... Fantastic app, really well put together with loads of info. If you like art, you'll love this!"

This app is extremely well designed. Great for finding details and reviews of art exhibitions in Yorkshire. I would love for this platform to be expanded to cover the whole UK. Great work!"

"Great little app: easy to use, loads of info, and smashing design. Just a shame there aren't more Appinions about. Love to unlock more of that content!"

Congratulations to Axisweb who developed the app in collaboration with fuse8, and in partnership with Leeds Met Gallery & Studio Theatre.

Art in Yorkshire Supported by Tate is a year long celebration of the visual arts in 19 art galleries throughout Yorkshire.

The Lives of Great Photographers - A Perfect Exhibition?

The selection for The Lives of Great Photographers exhibition was a difficult one for our curators. The photographers in the exhibition were chosen according to five categories and we have displayed the best examples from each. Only photographers who had died and therefore completed their life's work were chosen as it was thought that only then could a photographer be judged.

But, there are so many photographers who could or should be 'great'. What does the word 'great' even mean in this context? Does the praise of an expert make a photographer great? Does a great life make a great photographer? Robert Capa lived a risk-taking, high-society, celebrity lifestyle and Weegee was a master of self-promotion, whilst others were more obscure during their lifetime but left a great legacy.

A couple of weeks ago, the exhibition's curator, Brian Liddy, and Anne McNeill, Director of Impressions Gallery met to discuss this question, and explore wider issues surrounding the exhibition. You can watch the video of the interview which took place in Gallery One right here:

Brian kindly agreed to write about the interview for our blog:

"I was feeling a bit apprehensive about being interviewed by Anne McNeill about ‘The Lives of Great Photographers’, which I had selected the photographs for.

"All of this was to be in front of an audience, and on top of that we were to be filmed by my colleague, Emma Shaw with a view to putting it on the web. Yikes! The whole idea for the event was Emma’s, and was arranged by another colleague, Fozia Bano. She knew it would go down well, said we should go for it and encouraged me all the way.

"So, Anne and I met beforehand to have a chat about the ‘interrogation’, but I didn’t know what questions she was going to ask me on the night, which made me nervous. Also, Anne is really knowledgeable, has strong views and isn’t afraid to speak her mind. All of this made me nervous, but I needn’t have been. Anne was great, and really put me at ease right from the start."

"Don’t get me wrong - it was a serious event, with important issues to be raised, but Anne phrased her questions as if she was more of an interested friend than an adversary. So, thanks to her I actually began to enjoy myself once we began.

"I had chosen photographs for the exhibition by famous photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Dorothea Lange, Bill Brandt, Julia Margaret Cameron, Fay Godwin, Cartier-Bresson and Weegee for the show. But there are also less well known photographers such as George Davison and Edith Tudor Hart. I would have to account for their inclusion, why I had chosen the photographs I did, and perhaps explain why photographers like Ansel Adams and Cindy Sherman weren’t in the exhibition. It could have spelled trouble!

"But in the end we talked about things like the history of the National Photography Collection, and why it's shaped the way it is. I explained that as an institution we’re much older than you might think. Not everyone knows that we’re part of a wider group of museums called NMSI which includes the Science Museum, and that we moved from London 26 years ago, but the collections here have been growing since the 1880s.

"It was good to be able to explain that although Julia Margaret Cameron’s work has been in our collection since that period, it would have been acquired as examples of albumen prints from wet collodion negatives rather than works of art. That side of her work would have been covered by the V&A Museum and the Royal Photographic Society.

"I was pleased that people asked questions, and that we were able to have a few laughs along the way. Now I’m looking forward to doing more events like last night in the future, and hope to maybe see you there."

Great Photographers Wanted - Living or Dead

On 15 April, we will be opening a brand new exhibition drawn exclusively from the National Photography Collection in our care:

The Lives of Great Photographers (15 April - 4 September 2011)

The Collection contains thousands of great works by great photographers - not all of which are represented in the exhibition. When you visit, we want you to tell us where we went wrong.

Who would you have included in this exhibition? Who is your favourite photographer? They can be still living, still working, man or woman, any nationality, any era of history. Tell us why you love their work.

We have provided feedback notepads inside the gallery, and we will be uploading answers to our Flickr channel:
Read the responses to The Lives of Great Photographers

Some of the Museum staff have already told us their favourite photographers, and you can see their comments here.

We invite you to join in the discussion right here on the Museum blog.

Visit to the André Kertész Exhibtion at the Jeu de Paume, Paris

Blogger: Ruth Haycock, Senior Exhibitions & Partnerships Organiser
Ruth and Rebecca from our Exhibitions team were lucky enough to fly to Paris last month to take in the André Kertész exhibition at the Jeu De Paume, and while their visit was purely for pleasure, they kindly agreed to tell me about the trip for the Museum blog.
Day One: Saturday 5th February
After a landslide near Halifax and a delayed flight for two and a half hours, we arrived in Paris only to attend an exhibition that had closed a week early - not a hugely successful start!
We did manage to find Le Bal and an exhibition titled Five Strange Family Albums, showing works by Erik Kessels, Emmet Gowin, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Alessandra Sanguinetti and Sadie Benning. It was an interesting exploration of the family album, where the uneasy and unnerving undercurrents of relationships was explored.
Following a fairly long day, we wandered through the streets of Montmartre, stumbling into a rather lovely restaurant where, in the style of Gilbert and George, we ate the same food, and drank the same wine - except that Rebecca had an extra glass!
Day Two: Sunday 6th February
We rose early about 8am so we could get to the André Kertész exhibition. We arrived at the Jeu De Paume before the doors opened. This was the reason we'd made the journey to Paris and it being the last day of the exhibition we didn't want to take any chances. Six hours later we emerged from the gallery and there was still a long queue of people waiting to get in which was really surprising, yet encouraging to see that a solo show was pulling in such huge crowds.

The exhibition covered three main periods of his life: Hungary, Paris and New York. It was fascinating and we both realised that Kertész had a possible obsession with legs, particularly amputated ones, and prosthetic limbs or parts of mannequins - I'm sure there's a thesis in there somewhere!
Opposite Jeu De Paume was a shop selling a beautiful array of men's hats, and in homage to Eugene Atget's Lichtbilder (1930)

we took this photograph:

In the same vein we took a shadow portrait, as Kertész pictured himself in shadow on a number of occasions.

Untitled, 12 December 1979 (1979). André Kertész

Later in the afternoon we went to Petit Palais to see 100 Photos by Pierre and Alexandra Boulat for Press Freedom. This again was a popular exhibition although the curation and exhibition design was a little disorientating. The interpretation and feel of the exhibition would have perhaps been more successful if father and daughter had been shown independent of each other.
If you want to see original material by André Kertész and Eugene Atget you can visit The Lives of Great Photographers here from 15 April – 5 September 2011, and The Art of Arrangements: Photography and the Still Life Tradition will tour from early 2012.

Filming David Spero for the David Spero: Churches Exhibition

The next exhibition to be displayed in Gallery Two is David Spero: Churches, which will be open from 15th April to 4th September 2011.

In his Churches project, David Spero documented buildings which are being used as churches, but were originally intended for another purpose. These buildings feature none of the traditional architecture associated with places of worship, and can often be found in unexpected places.

David visited our large object store in Insight: Collections and Research Centre to be filmed for a video which will be on display in the gallery. He was interviewed by Philippa Wright, Curator of Photographs and the Churches exhibition.

In the interview David spoke about his inspiration for the project, citing the work of author Philip K Dick, the process of creating the series, his photographic methods and selection process.

When complete, the video will be uploaded to our Vimeo channel - www.vimeo.com/nationalmediamuseum

See more photographs of David on our Flickr channel

Fay Godwin Cameras On Loan from the British Library

Our Fay Godwin exhibition 'Land Revisited' recently received a welcome addition when a delayed loan from the British Library was finally installed.

Colin Harding, Curator of Photographic Technology, who curated the show, can be seen here installing several pieces of Fay Godwin's photographic equipment. These include two of her cameras, together with some of her original printing notes and contact sheets.

There are two of Fay Godwin's cameras on display - a Hasselblad 500C/M camera fitted with a Planar f2.8 50mm lens and a Leica M6 camera fitted with a Summicron f2 35mm lens. Both of these cameras would have been used to produce some of the images included in the exhibition.

Also on display is a folder containing some of Fay Godwin's contact sheets. Contact sheets show an unaltered positive print of the original negative that has not been enlarged. They are useful to show the quality of the negatives and are used by photographers to select which print to enlarge. Colin has chosen to show the contact sheet for one of Fay Godwin's most celebrated images, Flooded tree, Derwentwater (1981). Careful study of the contact sheets reveals that she photographed this location several times on different occasions, waiting until the conditions were exactly what she wanted.

A folder containing Fay Godwin's original negatives is also added to the display, open at the page containing her negatives for the Flooded Tree image. She made careful notes on a pencil sketch of the photograph to remind her how best to print from the chosen negative. These notes show areas highlighted to 'hold back' and others which need additional exposure. Such detailed attention resulted in the final exhibition print, framed and on show next to the display case.

These loaned objects add a further insight into the absolute clarity of Fay Godwin's photographic vision, her meticulous attention to detail, and her quest for technical excellence. It was this approach which ultimately resulted in the beautiful exhibition prints currently on show in Gallery Two until 27 March next year.

Thanks to Colin for this post.

Simon Roberts: We English Exhibition on Tour

Our temporary exhibition galleries are now closed while we prepare for two brand new exhibitions to open on 15 October.
Robbie Cooper's Immersion will be replaced by Land: Revisited, to mark the 25th anniversary of Fay Godwin's Land, a celebration of the British landscape.
Simon Roberts' We English will be replaced by From Back Home, a body of work by contemporary Swedish photographers Anders Petersen and JH Engström, which became an award-winning book and is being exhibited in this country for the first time in our Gallery One space.
If you enjoyed We English, you'll have another opportunity to view the work when it tours to Croyden Clock Tower - not the only National Media Museum exhibition to go on tour...
Ruth Haycock, our Senior Exhibitions and Partnerships Organiser, has developed a Touring Exhibitions strand whose aim is to increase public access to our Collections both here and abroad, develop cultural partnerships, boost the profile of the Museum and champion our world-class Collections.
We English and three other exhibitions taken from our photography Collections are available to tour: Lives of the Great Photographers, The British Landscape and The Art of Arrangement: Still Life and the Photographic Tradition.
Our exhibition and design teams will create a graphics and identity package for the exhibition, and while we provide core pieces, the host venue may extend and compliment the exhibition with work from their own collections to make it their own - we can work with the host venue to develop layered interpretations to meet their requirements and the needs of their audiences.
If you're interested in hosting a National Media Museum exhibition, or would like to find out more about our Touring Exhibitions programme, talk to Ruth Haycock:
Tel: 01274 203 343
Email: ruth.haycock@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk.

Simon Roberts and Stephen Daniels

As part of one of our upcoming exhibitions Simon Roberts: We English photographs from our own collection will be displayed, accompanying Roberts’ images, introducing the English at leisure from a historical perspective.

Since September last year Simon Roberts has been working closely with Ruth Kitchin, our Collections Assistant, on the selection and curation of works for the exhibition; alongside them Stephen Daniels (Professor of Cultural Geography at Nottingham Trent University and author of the essay The English Outdoors We English, Simon Roberts, Chris Boot Ltd, 2009) was invited to the Museum to discuss the development of the selection. On 24 November last year they all came together to discuss some of the considerations for the selection and this short film provides an insight into what happened that day.

Come and see the final selection of works from the Collection and We English when the exhibition opens to the public on the on the 12 March.

Simon Roberts – We English

The upcoming photographic exhibition, Simon Roberts: We English explores national identity and people at leisure in England’s rich landscape. The project was developed from Simon’s childhood memories, and the range of associations and images they evoke, how landscapes formed an important part of who he is, and a fascination with ideas of belonging and memory, identity and place.

As part of the exhibition, the National Media Museum asked for suggestions from the public for an outdoor leisure activity or event happening in the Bradford District, which could be photographed by Simon Roberts and included in the show..

We wish to thank everybody for their suggestions, and for providing us with so many possibilities – it was impossible to visit every event but all the suggestions received were greatly appreciated. Please visit http www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/simonroberts for more information, and see the result of Simon’s dedicated and personal exploration of Englishness and the English at leisure when the exhibition opens at the National Media Museum on 12th March 2010.

So in August 2007, Simon – intrigued by the tradition of the road trip in photography - took to the road in a motorhome with his pregnant wife and daughter, in search of landscapes and depictions of the English at leisure. It is this subject that led to him touring the Bradford District on a cold weekend early in December, with a dedicated team from our Exhibitions Department, in his search for the exhibition’s final photographic work.

Here is a brief account of that weekend and some of the locations visited:

The team set off on Saturday morning at 9.15am, and after venturing to Lister Park in Bradford to observe the Saturday morning power walkers, the next port of call was the Cow and Calf rocks on Ilkley Moor. In Simon’s words:

“I was pleasantly surprised to discover a crisp winter’s morning when we headed out to Ilkley Moor. On arrival, I saw a group of fell runners on the horizon, unfortunately too far in the distance to work in a photograph. The [moor’s] rocks themselves were very photogenic and offer spectacular views of Ilkley, and I could see a lot of potential for photographs in the summer months when there would be hordes of people clambering over the rocks, picnicking and hiking. Alas, there were only a few walkers about today. As the rain set in, I ran for cover, and headed back to Bradford.”



“The next stop was Myra Shay Park, home to BD3 United FC, where that afternoon the under 13 boys team had their training session photographed under the watchful eye of coach Michael Purches, who married into the city’s Pakistani community and now goes by his Muslim name of Abu Bakr. Simon first came across this location several weeks ago and was struck by the “excellent panoramic views of the Bradford skyline including the chimney stacks of Lister Mills, once the largest silk factory in the world.”

Simon and the team headed towards Haworth in search of ‘Top Withens’, a ruined farmhouse and popular walking destination, said to have been the inspiration for Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. As the light faded across the Yorkshire Moors our team disbanded for the day, ready for round two the following morning.”

Of the second day, Simon reported:

“On a bright and sunny Sunday morning I photographed the first half of BD3 United’s match against Calverley United at Priesthorpe School. No exciting views this time, however I was able to shimmy on top of a Portakabin to get a good vantage point over the pitch. Calverley United’s supporters turned up with a sandwich toastie maker, and were doing a good trade in bacon butties. BD3 won 4-2.”

Aside from the obvious advantages of a clear vantage point at a football match, Simon explained that photographing from elevated positions enables him to get a greater sense of people’s interaction with the landscape and with one another.



“Sunday was certainly a game of two halves. Sandwiched by a brief journey to Five Rise Locks in Bingley it was back to the football pitch, this time to watch the second half of Second West versus New Tyke Rangers at the Carr Bottom Stadium off Little Horton Lane in BD5, just up the road from the Museum.”

Simon said: “There was an excellent vantage point from a bridge overlooking the game, which was part of the Bradford Sunday Alliance Football League. The pitch was nestled in the centre of a small housing estate.Well I say pitch, it was more of an undulating quagmire with twenty two men sliding about and shouting obscenities! Second West won 4-1.”

The Museum’s own winning team concluded the weekend with a well-earned meal at the Karachi Restaurant, finishing the day’s film interviews (to be included in the exhibition alongside footage of Simon on location around the Bradford District).

On her return from the weekend trip, I spoke to the Exhibitions Organiser Ruth Haycock, who told me that having stood for hours in the cold that weekend, she really admired Simon’s complete commitment and passion for the project, in fact, that of his whole family. Not only in dealing with the weather conditions (which, on this particular weekend, were somewhat fitting considering Simon’s road trip in 2008 was undertaken during one of the wettest years on record, and therefore this final piece was shot in similar conditions to those he endured a year ago), but his incredible level of patience in waiting for just the right moment to take the shot, capturing “We English” enjoying our most cherished and loved pastimes.

Our new exhibitions are open

Update: See the bottom of this post for a new Making Of video.

We made it! As of today, Neeta Madahar: Bradford Fellowship in Photography 2008 - 09 is open to visitors in Gallery One, and Drawings That Move: The Art Of Joanna Quinn is ready for you in Gallery Two.

Having known these two exhibitions since they were glints in our curators' eyes, it's strange and exciting to see them there now as actual real-life galleries with actual real-life people inside them. They're both seriously fantastic exhibitions and I'd urge you to come along and see them.

And whether you get to visit or not, there's a ton of bonus material for you to get stuck into. It's all listed below.

Our official exhibition websites
http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/neetamadahar/
http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/joannaquinn/

Archive magazine with features about both artists
Archive page

Joanna Quinn resource page with video, sketchbooks and more
Joanna Quinn resources

This blog's 'Making of an Exhibition' series
Part one: Designer Rob Derbyshire talks graphics
Part two: Unboxing the Joanna Quinn objects
Part three: Behind the scenes at one of Neeta's Flora shoots
Part four: The condition checking process
Part five: Building the Joanna Quinn gallery
Part six: Building the Neeta Madahar gallery

NEW: Making Of video from opening night
Our media team created a brilliant Making Of video for the opening night party on Thursday -- you can take a look at it below. It takes you right through the process of creating an exhibition: you even get to see Neeta's reaction to the finished gallery.

The making of an exhibition: part six

Four days to go, and we're back to our Neeta Madahar exhibition.

This post is a companion piece to last week's step-by-step look at the building of the Joanna Quinn exhibition. The process for Neeta Madahar has been much the same: paint the walls, bring up and lay out the artworks, hang everything up, apply graphics.

But. Because Gallery One is bigger than Gallery Two, there's much more scope for the Exhibition Organisers to actually design the exhibition layout, putting in new walls to create corners and cubbyholes and rooms and spaces. So unlike with the Joanna Quinn gallery, you can walk in on the builders actually rolling walls around...



... and taking all manner of sharp and heavy instruments to bits of wood and metal.







The holes above won't be visible in the final gallery. They're where the screens go that'll display Neeta's beautiful Solstice, two 24-minute time-lapses of 36,000 stills that track the Summer and Winter solstices. One wall will be Summer; the other will be Winter. And instead of builders inside that room, it'll be you, watching the video.

You're already familiar with the process of artworks being brought up, carefully laid out on the gallery floor, then studied for possible changes. Sharon Scarmazzo and Ruth Haycock brought the artworks out of their hiding place this time, then Sharon and Greg Hobson paced the floor making their final decisions about placement.







Like Animalism previously, this exhibition has made the most of the expanse of wall outside Gallery One. The gigantic letters pictured below might not be furry, but, believe me, they're just as impressive to stand in front of.



To finish off, here's a side-by-side comparison of how the rear of the Neeta exhibition looked two weeks ago, and how it looks now. Things happen fast around here.



That's it from this Making Of series for now -- I don't want to spoil the final touches here, when you can come and see them with your own eyes from Friday. While you wait for the grand opening, you can browse through all the Making Of articles here, or find out more about both the Joanna Quinn and Neeta Madahar exhibitions at our exhibitions page.