My last session at the Garstang was another busy one. As well as getting on with more artefact photography, the museum was hosting a talk by Roland Enmarch on the Book of the Dead as part of the UK’s annual Festival of Archaeology.
Have you ever had that moment when you see a familiar face, but it takes a moment to kick in that it’s the TV you’ve seen them on? That happened to me when a tour group from the US were booked in for a visit to the Garstang Museum in June 2017. As I was…
I’ve had a lot of fun over the last few years exploring galleries of Egyptian collections with my camera (as a visitor). A lot of it has been hit-and-miss, to say the least, usually because of glass reflections or low light (or a combination of both). But I’ve learnt (the long, hard way) a few things about photographing artefacts in museum galleries. So, for those of you who’d like to improve your photography skills for museum visits, I’d like to share a few tips and tricks I’ve picked up over the years (if your photography’s up to scratch, then here’s a post with some pretty pictures to enjoy).
After numerous hours in the photographic suite, many more vying with Photoshop, followed by several weeks of nail biting, hoping my photos would make the grade, finally, we got there. The Book of the Dead exhibition opened at the Garstang on 19 May 2017 as part of Liverpool Light Night.
On Friday, 28 April 2017 at 9.45 am, I was sitting outside the World Museum in Liverpool waiting impatiently for it to open. Why? It was the official opening of the newly refurbished and expanded Egyptian galleries we’d been waiting nearly two years to see.
I headed straight up to the third floor with my trusty camera in hand. Even before getting into the galleries, I was impressed.
These last couple of weeks, I’ve been outside of the photographic suite and doing some glass-free photography (hooray!).
The two subjects I’ve photographed are:
Using Photoshop to repair papyrus that have sustained damage is a technique I’ve used for several images featured in the Book of the Dead exhibition. This blog post explains why the sheets of papyri are damaged and how I bring them back together in Photoshop.
The process of repairing papyri
So, what is it I’m doing when I’m repairing papyri? The purpose is to pull together and realign broken sections. The example I’m using here is from a copy of the Amduat from the Garstang Museum. The Amduat was a funerary text whose contents showed the nighttime journey of the sun-god through the underworld. This particular copy belonged to a lady called Tjaty from the 21st Dynasty of ancient Egypt (1077–943 BC).
Last week, I had my first proper session in the photographic suite. I spent the day in near darkness, photographing a couple of pages from the Book of the Dead.
But why were you in near darkness?, I hear you cry. Because of my arch-nemesis: reflections.
The papyri are encased in sheets of glass, which were cleaned beautifully by some of the museum interns before I photographed them. However, the now extra-clean glass was was extra shiny, and therefore extra reflective. Although the walls and ceiling in the suite are painted black, even low amounts of light were reflecting off the light fittings in the ceiling back down onto the glass.
Comedian WC Fields once, famously, said “never work with animals or children”, because of their unpredictable nature.
I guess he has a point. But, do I agree with him?
When Garstang Museum curator Gina said she wanted get some photos of children in the galleries to help promote the museum, I offered her the use of my children, and me and my camera. I gathered together a gaggle of children, consisting of my two girls, some of their cousins and some of their school friends, and brought them up to the museum for a few hours.
Glass can be an absolute bastard for a photographer to deal with. Many of us have come home from trips to the museum with our snaps of artefacts photobombed by reflections of lights and our big ol’ heads.
This was something I had to get my head around when I started photographing papyri for the Garstang Museum’s ‘Book of the Dead: Passport through the Underworld’ exhibition.