Helen has significant experience developing programs that explore ways to experience and study photography. She has produced custom workshops for organizations including Central Saint Martins, Institute for Historical Research, National Portrait Gallery, Regent’s University, Royal Collection Trust, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, and Silver Eye Center for Photography. She is highly experienced in producing exhibition tours, lectures, panel discussions, and workshops focused on object-based learning. Additionally, she regularly participates in award juries worldwide.
Programs at Silver Eye Center for Photography
Since January 2022, Helen has developed programs for Silver Eye Center for Photography. Silver Eye’s programs help its communities learn and engage with photography directly and deeply in all kinds of ways. Subscribe to Silver Eye’s newsletter for updates on future programs!
Installation view of Mouse Trap: Patricia Voulgaris and Whitney Hubbs, Silver Eye Center for Photography.
8 November 2021: Elinor Carucci: 1986 till today
Online
In this talk, Carrucci discussed different bodies of work, including her most recent book Midlife – a vivid chronicle of the passage through aging, family, illness, and intimacy.
This event accompanied the online exhibition Moments of Transition: The photographs of Grace Robertson, curated by Catlin Langford and Helen Trompeteler.
Find out more here.
Halfway, 2019 © Elinor Carucci
28 October 2021: Displaced Colour: Josef Breitenbach and the expression of photography
Online
By exploring variations of well-known studies and key commercial commissions, this talk situated Breitenbach’s approaches to colour within a broader landscape of experimentation and immigration experience in the post-war United States.
This event was part of the conference Colour Fever, 25 October 2021 – 5 November 2021.
Find out more here.
© Estate of Josef Breitenbach
21 October 2021: Persevere Young Man: Grace Robertson and Picture Post
Online
This talk by curator Melanie Llewellyn explored Grace Robertson’s contribution to Picture Post and its representation of British women and children in particular.
This event accompanied the online exhibition Moments of Transition: The photographs of Grace Robertson, curated by Catlin Langford and Helen Trompeteler.
Find out more and book here.
© Grace Robertson / Picture Post / Getty Images
28 April 2021: Exhibition Proposal Writing
Online
Benjy Blanco, Reba Harmon, and Helen Trompeteler presented this Associated Artists of Pittsburgh workshop offering guidance to its members on writing exhibition proposals. Associated Artists of Pittsburgh (AAP) is the oldest, continuously exhibiting artist member organization in the United States. Find out more about AAP and the work of its members via their website.
Installation photograph of the AAP gallery space © Helen Trompeteler
8 November 2019: Caldesi to Cameron: Placing Osborne in the History of Early Photography
Osborne House, Isle of Wight
Presented at a three day international conference to mark the bicentenary of the births of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
Osborne by André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, 1867 © Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2020
14 November 2019: To speak powerfully to the public mind: renegotiating Prince Albert’s vision for a new industrial era
BCEC, Birmingham
Shared paper with Dr Andrew Cusworth, presented at the annual DCDC Conference (Discovering Collections Discovering Communities)
Image © Markus Spiske
17 June 2019: Prince Albert: Patronage and Commerce in Early Photography
De Montfort University
Presented at the annual conference of the Photographic History Research Centre
Chartist demonstration at Kennington Common by William Edward Kilburn, 1848 (detail) © Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2020
20 May 2019: Afterlives, Photography, and Mourning
Kensington Palace, London
Presented at the international conference Victoria’s Self-Fashioning: curating royal image for dynasty, nation and empire.
Queen Victoria and Princess Helena by Louis Joseph Ghemar, 1862 (detail) © Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2020
8 February 2019: Norah Smyth and the Woman’s Dreadnought
Westminster University, London
Symposium Women, Work and Commerce in the Creative Industries added to the growing body of feminist scholarship that is deconstructing the male-dominated history of commercial and industrial artistic production.
24 January 2019: East End Suffragettes: the photography of Norah Smyth
Four Corners
This roundtable discussion looked at Norah Smyth’s photographs and discussed suffragette portraiture more widely. Presentations were by Helen Trompeteler, George Mind and Carla Mitchell.
© Paul Isolani Smyth. Collection: Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst collection at the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam.
6 October 2018: Curating Photography
Helen was a speaker for the Brighton Photo Fringe Curators Training programme which provides three early-career curators with opportunities to develop their professional skills and experience. 2018’s curators were Kitty Bew, Idil Bozkurt, Kate Kelsall and Clare Patrick
Image © Brighton Photo Fringe
28 March 2017: Women’s photography in the 70s and 80s
Four Corners
Maggie Murray, Gina Glover, Jenny Matthews and Joanne O’Brien discussed the work and experience of women photographers in the 1970s and 80s. Chaired by Helen Trompeteler
Photograph from the series ‘A Day in the Life’, circa 1974 © Hackney Flashers
19 January 2017: Exhibition tour of ‘The Radical Eye’
London Art Fair VIP tour in association with Tate Modern
Helen Trompeteler led a unique tour of ‘The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography from the Sir Elton John Collection’, discussing highlights of the exhibition.
Installation photograph © Tate Photography
18 January 2017: Collecting Contemporary Photography
London Art Fair in association with The Photographers’ Gallery, London
Exploring current collecting trends in contemporary photography with Brett Rogers OBE, Helen Trompeteler, Christiane Monarchi, Hannah Watson and Nicholas Campbell.
Installation photograph © London Art Fair
7 October 2016: Curating photography
Helen was a speaker for the Brighton Photo Fringe Curators Training programme which provides three early-career curators with opportunities to develop their professional skills and experience. 2016’s curators were Sarah French, Jamila Prowse and Ruby Rees-Sheridan.
Installation photograph © Narrate Studio
16 August 2015: Behind the Screen: Audrey Hepburn
Film Four at Somerset House, London
In this special event, Helen discussed the evolution of Hepburn’s style throughout the 1950s and 1960s; examining defining film roles.
Installation photograph © Tori Miller / National Portrait Gallery, London
9 July 2015: Audrey Hepburn: Becoming a Modern Icon
National Portrait Gallery, London
By exploring pivotal creative collaborations, Helen considered how Hepburn responded to and challenged the gender expectations of her time.
Installation photograph © Tori Miller / National Portrait Gallery, London