Curator of Photography, The Harry Ransom Center
Nancy Inman and Marlene Nathan Meyerson Curator of Photography
Harry Ransom Center
The University of Texas at Austin
The Harry Ransom Center seeks collaborative, creative, and service-oriented candidates for the position of the Nancy Inman and Marlene Nathan Meyerson Curator of Photography. The Ransom Center is an internationally renowned humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin. Its holdings include approximately five million photographs, 42 million manuscripts, one million books, and 100,000 works of art. The Ransom Center hosts more than 40,000 visitors annually, including undergraduate and graduate students, researchers from around the world, and members of the public. The Center has a full-time staff of more than 80, including five subject-area curators. Curators collaborate with colleagues in the Center’s Technical & Digital Services, Research Services, Preservation & Conservation, and Exhibitions & Public Programs divisions to support the Center’s mission to encourage discovery, inspire creativity, and advance understanding of the humanities for a broad and diverse audience through the preservation and sharing of its extraordinary collections.
The Nancy Inman and Marlene Nathan Meyerson Curator of Photography provides leadership and curatorial support for the Ransom Center’s photography collections. Building on the foundation of the internationally renowned Gernsheim Collection, the Center’s photography holdings span from early photographic trials to contemporary works. Nineteenth-century holdings include rare experiments by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, William Henry Fox Talbot, and Sir John Herschel, and works by Victorian photographers Hill & Adamson, Julia Margaret Cameron, and Lewis Carroll. Twentieth-century figures Walker Evans, Edward Weston, and Ansel Adams are well represented, as are influential post-war artists Aaron Siskind, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Robert Heinecken, and Joan Lyons. LaToya Ruby Frazier, Alison Rossiter, Alejandro Cartagena, and Marco Breuer are just a few of the twenty-first-century artists represented. The Center is also home to the archives of David Douglas Duncan, Elliott Erwitt, Arnold Newman, and Anne Noggle, as well as the New York Journal-American photographic morgue and the New York print library of Magnum Photos, Inc. The collection’s broad scope makes it one of the world’s premier sources for the study of photography and its history.
The Nancy Inman and Marlene Nathan Meyerson Curator of Photography will engage in a range of interpretive activities, including teaching, developing exhibitions, writing, and giving presentations that promote a greater understanding and appreciation of these collections and encourage their use. The curator will participate in strategic planning and the development of grant applications to advance the care and stewardship of the collections. The curator will select original materials to strengthen the collections, while refining and interpreting the Center’s Collection Development Policy for photography. The curator will provide specialized reference support for researchers working in the photography collections and will collaborate with colleagues at the Center to establish priorities for treatment and preventative conservation, cataloging, and digitization. The curator will contribute to the broader institutional mission and work of the Ransom Center by participating in regular meetings with the Center’s curatorial group, serving on Ransom Center committees, and collaborating with colleagues across the Center, with researchers, and with faculty at The University of Texas at Austin. The curator will also engage with and represent the Ransom Center within professional and scholarly communities related to photography.
Required qualifications: Advanced degree in Art History or a related field, with a specialization in the history of photography. Three years or more of experience working with photography collections in an archival library or museum setting. Familiarity with best practices in museums and archives. Demonstrated strength in collection-based research. Experience curating exhibitions and developing programs. Excellent written and oral communication skills, with a record of successful publications. Demonstrated experience giving presentations to scholarly audiences, classes, and other diverse, public audiences.
Salary: $74,000+ depending on qualifications
For further information and to apply for the position, please see the full job posting: https://utaustin.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UTstaff/job/UT-MAIN-CAMPUS/Nancy-Inman-and-Marlene-Nathan-Meyerson-Curator-of-Photography–The-Harry-Ransom-Center_R_00037038
Caption: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0