About this Event
Martin Barnes (V&A) and artist Barbora Trnková take us on a journey from analogue photography to generative technologies, exploring how images can shape perception, desire, and belief. With writer and critic Diane Smyth chairing, the discussion blends history, contemporary practice, and a dash of mischief, asking what photography can - and can’t - tell us about reality in a world overflowing with pixels, filters, and synthetic visions.
About the speakers:
Martin Barnes is Senior Curator of Photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (V&A). He began working there in 1995 after gaining an MA in Art Museum Studies from the Courtauld Institute of Art. His special interests include early processes, cameraless and experimental photography, industry, photography exhibitions and museology, nature and the environment. Martin has built the V&A collection, conceived the Photography Centre, and is currently lead curator for the digitisation and research project for the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) collection at the museum. He has curated numerous exhibitions with books, including: Twilight: Photography in the Magic Hour (2006); Shadow Catchers: Cameraless Photography (2010);Figures & Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography (2011); Curtis Moffat: Experimental Photography and Design 1923-1935 (2016); Camera-less Photography (2018); Into the Woods: Trees in Photography(2019) and Maurice Broomfield: Industrial Sublime (2021).
Diane Smyth is Editor of the British Journal of Photography and the Photoworks Annual. She also teaches History and Theory of Photography at the London College of Communications, University of the Arts London, and has given talks and workshops for institutions such as London School of Economics, King’s College London, and Magnum Photos. Diane has written about photography for publications such as The Guardian, FOAM, Trigger, Apollo, and The Art Newspaper, and contributed essays to many photography catalogues and monographs. She originally studied for a BA in English Language and Literature at the University of Birmingham, graduating with a First and the Tibbatt's Memorial Prize. She also holds an MA in Modern Literatures in English from Birkbeck College, University of London, taken while working full time. @dismy
Cover Image: Josef Sudek, From the series Still Life on the Window of My Studio, 1944, 23 × 29 cm, from the PPF Art Collection / Barbora Trnková, Your Addiction is the Message, 2022–2024, synthetic photography
The talk is an accompanying event to the exhibition , presented at the Vitrínka and Bouda Galleries and in the public space outside the Czech Embassy, running from 20 January to 13 March 2026.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Czech Centre at the Czech Embassy Cinema, 26 Kensington Palace Gardens, London, United Kingdom
GBP 6.13
