Helen’s wide-ranging expertise and skills encompasses curation, collections management, fundraising and reporting, educational programming and publishing. Alongside her roles with major institutions such as the Royal Collection Trust and National Portrait Gallery, London, Helen has worked as an independent advisor for selected organizations and photographers. Since 2017, Helen has served on the board and curatorial committee of Four Corners, a center for socially engaged film and photography.
Advisor and Researcher
September 2020 – January 2021
Helen worked as an advisor and researcher on a set of historical photographs related to Tello (ancient Girsu) in southern Iraq. Her commissioned writing considered the foundational links between photography and archaeology in the mid-19th – 20th century.
Interior of the British Museum by Roger Fenton, 1854-1858 © Victoria & Albert Museum
Board Member
2017 – Present
Four Corners is a center for photography and film in London. Their work builds upon almost 50 years of radical, socially-engaged approaches to photography and film. As a board member, Helen’s expertise supports Four Corners’ long-term curatorial strategy.
Learn more about Four Corners extensive programs at their website. The online Four Corners Archive documents the film and photographic heritage of Four Corners, Half Moon Photography Workshop and Camerawork magazine.
Poster for the exhibition ‘Radical Visions’, 2018, showing Jo Spence folding issues of Camerawork magazine. © Four Corners
Advisor
2017
Throughout 2017, Helen advised photojournalist Marilyn Stafford on the long-term care and cataloguing of her archive. Helen remains an active advocate for Stafford’s lifetime body of work. Stafford’s photographs span from 1948-1980, and cover remarkable periods of international modern history.
Learn more about Stafford’s life at her website.
Boulogne-Billancourt © Marilyn Stafford
Photographic Collections Network
Advisor and Researcher
2017
PCN is an organization which protects and shares the UK’s diverse photographic collections and archives. Helen was an advisor and researcher for the network during its inaugural year.
Learn more about PCN’s collections research and programs via their website.
Photograph © Ula Kuźma