All Our Yesterdays, story of a narrative

All Our Yesterdays is the great exhibition of Europeana Photography project. It is the collective effort from all the partners of this extraordinary consortium that make the exhibition so important and noteworthy: in facts, during the project, images selected by the content providers are shared and new discoveries discussed within a Content Committee of experts coming from each partner institution; and the exhibition is truly a golden opportunity and an ideal way to highlight the richness of the Europeana Photography collection.

So, in preparation of this exhibition, there was a lot of work to do for the Content Committee, in order  to develop an attractive narrative for the exhibition. An important role in the direction of the scientific project behind the exhibition was played by the project coordinator KU Leuven, in charge of coordinating the selection of images together with the content providers, and of developing themes and narrative of the exhibition and the catalogue book.

First proposals for the exhibition content were initially discussed in Paris in November, on the occasion of the Europeana Photography IPR workshop, where the general concept of the exhibition was outlined – stressing vernacular photography, highlighting the city life in Europe, with as theme how photography was a premier witness to our common memory.

All Our Yesterdays, Life Through the lens of Europe's first photographers (1839-1939) is in facts the opportunity for the European modern citizens to discover  the lives that European past citizens lived throughout Europe's history in the period 1839-1939. The exhibition is organized in different “chapters” and sub-themes, featuring photos of everyday life of people in the streets, outside, in the cities, in the countryside, in the villages, etc.

The photos were selected basing 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 enthusiast of this task, and came up with a very large number of proposed images. A poll was then organized 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.

An overall amount of about 120 photographs are represented in the exhibition, printed and framed, while a Virtual Exhibition and a showreel will include an even larger number of images. The whole exhibition includes photographs from the partners of Europeana Photography consortium and from 2 associate partners (SC Bali from Kiev and CUT from Cyprus).

Grand opening event is taking place in Pisa (Italy) 11^th April – 2^nd June 2014, in the historical setting of Palazzo Lanfranchi, organized by project's Technical Coordinator Promoter.

Leuven will also host this exhibition in January 2015.

Learn more on www.earlyphotography.eu