Working with cultural artifacts as a researcher and museum curator, I’ve developed a tremendous appreciation for the significance of objects. Studying the amazing spectrum of variation within collections provides the inspiration behind my current photographic body of work, Typology. By definition, a typology is an assemblage based on a shared attribute. Patterns, both visual and intellectual, resonate and reveal themselves within collections. Information not apparent in isolation becomes visible in context-only through studying groupings are we able to discern similarities and contrasts. In observing collections of similar things, the beautiful variations become evident.
It’s my hope that these collections and their biographies can foster an appreciation and interest in the importance of curation and preservation of both natural and cultural artifacts.
In addition to my own typology photography, I also curate photographic and object typologies that I discover out in the world on my blog, The Typologist. Featured items sometimes already existed as a collection but often I am curating the typologies from objects I’ve found separately through my own research.
Haliotidae Haliotis shells collected by L.H. Snyder on August 5, 1939 off of an island in what is now Kangwon province in North Korea. Haliotis specimens were first described by Karl Linnaeus in 1758. About 250 years later, some Haliotis species are now critically threatened with extinction. Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology collection.
Photography by Diana Zlatanovski © 2012 The President and Fellows of Harvard College
Boston Beaneaters baseball card Typology, 1887-1890.
Benjamin K. Edwards Collection at the Library of Congress.
Once an essential component for every fashionable woman, cigarette holders are rarely seen in contemporary times. These holders were collected in Europe during the mid 20th century and the collection passed from mother to daughter. A portion of her larger collection is also now housed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Photography by Diana Zlatanovski © 2012
1789- The first political button is worn by George Washington
1860 – First photographic images on pins are seen during Abraham Lincoln’s campaign
1896 – Celluloid pins are first mass produced during William McKinley’s run for president
1916 – Modern lithographic printed pins appear
Photography by Diana Zlatanovski © 2012
