Museum photography

Working with an expert

Are you passionate about bringing the beauty and wonder of ancient Egypt to life?

Have you seen my photography and wondered whether something like that could help you in your work or engage your audience more?

Are you trying to photograph artefacts yourself, but don’t have the time or skills to use a camera to its best ability?

Do you worry that if you outsource your photography, you’ll get a photographer who doesn’t know how to handle artefacts or know what they’re photographing to get the best out of your objects?

If so, there’s a conversation we can have.

My work focusses around exploring artefacts – those from ancient Egypt in particular – with my camera and telling the story of life in the museum- and heritage sector.

What’s really important to me is showcasing these amazing artefacts; their beauty, their detail and their magic.

I’m always on the lookout for people like you to collaborate with, whether you are a museum curator, academic, conservator, re-enactor or experimental archaeologist.

There are a number of ways we can work, including:

  • Artefact photography for your exhibition or permanent galleries, for a book or other project
  • Photographs for your website and social media
  • Documentary photography to tell the story of your museum team
  • Environmental portraiture to highlight and document the skilled, vital work going on behind the scenes

Get in touch

Museum photography

Specialist artefact photography for your collection

Macro photography

Your tiniest objects photographed with a high-quality macro lens

behind the scenes

Capture behind-the-scenes moments to share with your followers online

an ancient egyptian uraeus

artefact photography

Alongside dinosaurs, ancient Egyptian exhibitions are one of the UK’s most popular with museum visitors. It’s undeniable that the aesthetics of ancient cultures play a huge part in this love. And, as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. If you’re exhibiting ancient Egyptian artefacts, your imagery is vital to your story.

Bring me onto your project, and you’ll get a skilled photographer with a degree in Egyptology and several years’ experience handling artefacts, who’ll produce beautiful, high-impact artistic photos of your artefacts.

You can use a set of beautiful, professionally produced photographs in so many ways:

  • On your gallery information panels and signage to engage your audience
  • To highlight interesting details or small objects that are easy to miss in their display cases
  • To include artefacts that are too delicate to put on display, but which would be an important part of your exhibition
  • To offer your visitors some bespoke items in your gift shop to make their visit to your museum really memorable
  • To use in PR material, and on your website and social media
Get in touch

Documentary photography and environmental portraits

Some of my most popular posts on social media are when I’ve posted a selfie from a museum storeroom whilst doing my photography (yeah, I know …!). People love to see behind the scenes and have that human element.

When could this kind of photography add value to you and your work?

  • Sharing ‘behind the scenes’ during the planning and set-up of an exhibition
  • Showcasing and documenting an event or festival you’re involved with
  • Celebrating the painstaking and skilled work of conservators, experimental archaeologists and re-enactors
  • Inclusion in annual reports and other documents
  • Documenting the history of your organisation or business for the archives
Get in touch
A conservator repairing an ancient Egyptian pot

PRICES

Photography is more than just the actual act of using a camera. As well as the time needed at your museum to photograph artefacts or people, I also need time to edit the images at home afterwards.

A day’s photography costs £500, because a day’s photography works out at a week’s work for me, when you take the image editing into account.

If you’re applying for funding for an exhibition, gallery refurb or event and want me to do some photography for you, please please come to me first for a quote so that you can include realistic costing for photography in your bid. If you want a cost, but aren’t intending for me to do the photography, there will be a standard fee of £50 for the quote to cover my time.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

That does, of course, depend on the size of the artefact. A large statue or coffin needs more room than amulets and shabtis.

For small objects, I only need a few square feet of space – enough space to put up my tripod and light. I pack light and keep the amount of equipment I use low so I can fit into a corner.

All I ask, if possible, is a space where I can switch off the lights and away from daylight (or windows with good blinds) so I can control the lighting.

Ultimately, it’s up to you. However, I usually like to work using either a file-transfer service (such as WeTransfer) or a shared folder on Google Drive or One Drive.

If you are able to provide me with a temporary direct link to a folder on your servers, I’m happy to work with that, too.

Different museums have different policies. If you need me to be supervised, then that’s how we’ll work.

However, I know how busy museum life can be, so I’m happy to be put in a room with the artefacts and left to it. I’m experienced in handling objects, so, apart from the most delicate pieces, which I may ask for help with (or you may not want me to handle), you’re free to leave me to it.

Having me in your building takes precious time away from your already busy museum staff.

Whilst I need to be able to give each artefact the time it deserves to get the best images I can, I will also work as efficiently as I can.

My workflow is designed to be as efficient as I can be with how long I’m in your museum. I’ll spend more time on the computer with the images than I will in the museum taking them, minimising the time I take out of your day.

Yes, I’d love to!

Ancient Egyptian artefacts are my specialism, because that’s my passion and the subject I studied at university.

However, that doesn’t mean I can’t turn my skills to other objects in museum collections.

Drop me a line and we can have a chat about it.

I very much understand the financial pressures many museums are under these days. I already charge less than the going rate for professional photography to accommodate smaller museum budgets.

If you’re applying for funding for an exhibition or gallery development, I can give you a quote for photography that you can include in your funding bid. To be honest, this is the best option, so please get in touch before you put your bid in.

If that’s not possible, then there are other things we can do, such as:

  • I could photograph just a few items for you – as many as your budget will allow
  • I can reduce photography costs if you buy a licence to use the images on items in your store (which would be a small, annual fee), or I can produce some gift-shop merchandise for you myself

Please don’t feel held back by budgets; there are ways and means other than just handing out large lump sums.

Yes, of course you can. You may need to licence the images to use them outside of social media, your website and your collections database, especially if there’s a commercial aspect, such as merchandise, so please come and talk to me before using them.

We’d like to use some of your photography from another museum. Can we do that?

Perhaps – it depends. To use photographs of another museum’s artefacts would, of course, need the permission of the other museum (which I can deal with for you). There may be a licence fee, depending on what you want to use them for. Please do get in touch and ask.

Photography equipment? No.

All I need is a room where I have control over the lighting, electric sockets to plug my light in and some museum gloves.

That’s it.

Each day of photography usually needs several days’ editing afterwards, depending on the complexity of the photography and artefacts.

Time is also dependent on what other projects I have going. If you need your photos urgently, we can talk about deadlines. However, if I need to drop everything else to meet your deadline, I may need to add a surcharge to the project fee.

Under UK copyright law, as a self-employed photographer, copyright automatically falls to me for all the photos I make, unless I choose to sell the rights to you and sign them away via a legally-binding contract.

However, the photos I take for your exhibitions or projects will, of course, be fully licensed for you to use on social media, on your website, on marketing materials for the exhibition etc. You can also use them on your collections database, on annual reports and in press releases, for instance.

The only exception is further commercial use, such as gift-shop items after the exhibition or use in books other than those specific to the project.

As I charge lower rates than usual for professional photography, I reserve the right to use the artefact photos I take to sell as prints in my own online store or use any of the photos I take in any self-published books. However, these will be a select handful, always referring back to your museum, and I’m happy to hold back until your exhbition has finished.

I will never sell my photos of your artefacts on a stock photography website or for use in magazines, books or other exhibitions without your prior permission.

We can discuss rights and will set up an agreement on usage for both your museum and for me before we kick the project off.

Yes, I am. I have public liability and products liability insurance as well as personal indemnity insurance.

Yes, I’d love to hear from you, and as long as the relevant museum(s) are/is fine with me coming in (they may prefer to do their own photography, so please check with them). If you know you’re going to need photography done for research and are putting in a bid for funding or organising a crowdfunder, please get in touch first so you can include the cost of photography in your bid.

Yes, definitely! I can come and do a day’s photography (or more), and document you working on your projects. With your permission, I’ll include you in my documentary photography project and may want to include some of my images in my annual publication. If this is the case, I’ll drop you a line and, when published, send you a complimentary copy of the book. Costwise, you’re looking at around £300 for a day’s photography, but if you’re on a low budget, or part of a charity or community organisation, please do speak to me about howwe might be able to lower the costs a little. So please do get in touch and have a chat before you worry you won’t be able to afford it.

Yes, of course.

There are many pieces of art and historical artefacts in private collections. If I can help you out with some photography, not only will you have a record of your pieces for things like insurance purposes, I can make my photos of your objects accessible to academic researchers whilst allowing you to retain anonymity of ownership.

TESTIMONIALS

Julia undertook photographic work at Manchester Museum for our ‘Golden Mummies of Egypt’ touring exhibition and an accompanying book.

Julia is an excellent photographer, producing detailed and dramatic images that sumptuously illustrated both exhibition and book. She has my highest recommendation.
Dr Campbell Price
Curator of Egypt and Sudan, Manchester Museum
I have worked extensively with Julia on photographic projects involving the museum’s collections.

She has produced high quality photographs documenting a wide range of our artefacts, of various materials (ceramic, metals, wood, stone, faience, glass) and states of preservation. These images have featured prominently in our exhibitions. Her work encompasses both documentary and artistic photography of ancient subjects, and has allowed us to bring our collections alive in a manner which speaks to the general public and experts alike.

Julia’s work has been beneficial to the museum in an indirect way too, with her high quality blog and the training sessions she delivers often featuring objects photographed from our collections. This brings us a wider audience, and helps to foster online community engagement.
Dr Gina Criscenzo-Laycock
Curator of the Garstang Museum of Archaeology

Want to see a few more photos first? Click on Photography on the menu above, or go straight to some of my previous projects:

Book of the Dead

Before Egypt

Golden Mummies of Egypt

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