LECTURE 2

Title
Pedromeyer.com: a living collection

Audience:
Anyone in the public who wishes to understand the objectives, workings, and specific features of pedromeyer.com. This lecture is particularly aimed at analyzing the importance of the database.

Subject matter:
www.pedromeyer.com is a website that serves as an online portfolio for this photographer where we can find abundant information. However, the database is the website’s most important feature for it contains the entire body of Pedro Meyer’s work. The objective of this database is to generate an online collection of images serving people in the field of research, communication, and knowledge.

In the database, Pedro Meyer has stored all the images he has taken throughout his life, more than 300,000 to date, although the collection keeps growing day by day as he continues to photograph.

Pedro Meyer’s database is innovative, because no photographer or institution has ever compiled such an enormous personal archive online with such an efficient system. It is a major legacy in historical terms.

The objective of this database is to make images and data available to individuals conducting research on Pedro Meyer or those in need of images in general, in anthropology, history, art, culture, or politics to name a few areas.

By publishing his entire holdings, Meyer allows the viewer, researcher, or curator to become the editor by ordering the information according to his or her personal interests and vision. He provides the freedom for each individual to contextualize the photos in a particular space and for these to take on a function, instead of storing them where no one can consult them.

The website recognizes and celebrates the importance of online support, which allows individuals worldwide to navigate it, without depending on opening hours or time restrictions, without any need to travel long distances or to secure permits through complex procedures. It is simple to use, so no one needs to read instruction manuals or to take classes. It also allows the material to stay alive independently of technological advances.

Pedro Meyer has decided to bring all his images to life, allowing them to fulfill a broad social function, to avoid restricting their use to art or to journalism, so that many more individuals can make use of them and he can maintain a living, functional archive.

Duration:
About an hour.

Speaker Profile:
A specialist who knows about photographic imagery, as well as the Internet. The speaker will need to conduct research and request direct information from the creators of Heresies to completely understand the way it works, its objectives, and to be able to explain it.

Materials:
A video projector and computer, depending on the speaker’s needs.