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Programs

Helen has significant experience developing programs that explore ways to experience and discuss 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

Brighton Photo Fringe

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 GloverJenny 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

Brighton Photo Fringe

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