All Our Yesterdays, story of a narrative

Frinton Tennis Tournament - Miss. J.E. Stevens and Mrs. Craddock, 15 July 1929, © TopFoto/Alfieri. (JPG, 1658kb)

All Our Yesterdays - Life through the lens of Europe’s first photographers (1839-1939) is an exhibition from Europeana Photography that provides the opportunity for modern Europe to discover the continent’s history in the period 1839-1939. It opens in Pisa on April 11 at the Palazzo Lanfranchi, and will be on till June 2, 2014.

The 120 photographs of the exhibition are a collective effort from all the partners of the Europeana Photography consortium and 2 associate partners (SC Bali from Kiev and CUT from Cyprus).

All Our Yesterdays is divided into different ´chapters´ and sub-themes, featuring photos of everyday life of people in the streets of cities, in the countryside and village life etc. The photos were selected based on their testimonial power and photographic value. They are images that inspire empathy and appeal to historical consciousness, and most of all, they are images that tell a story. The content providers were extremely responsive and enthusiastic about this task, and came up with a very large number of proposed images. A poll was then organised and coordinated by KU Leuven, asking all the partners to vote for their favorite images among the wider selection. These ‘best of the best’ images have been selected for printing and framing.

So, in preparation for this exhibition, there was a lot of work to do for the Content Committee, in order to develop an attractive narrative for the exhibition. Project coordinator KU Leuven and technical coordinator Promoter played an important role to bring the exhibition to fruition.

Leuven will also host this exhibition in January 2015.

Learn more on Early Photography. And here´s an introductory video.