Via this European e-learning project four partners combined their experience: the Maerlant Centre and the Lieven Gevaert Research Centre for Photography and Visual Studies of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), the FotoMuseum Provincie Antwerpen (Belgium), the Service de la Formation Continue of the Université Toulouse2-Le Mirail (France) and the Center of Excellence for the Study of the Image (CESI) of the University of Bucharest (Romania).

The major aim of the PHOTHEREL project was to develop a common European reflection and practice on the dissemination of endangered photographic heritage. In Romania, but also in Belgium and France, there are photographic archives in danger of disappearing. The project partners wanted to provide a valid answer to the questions for dissemination and conservation of this endangered photographic heritage. The concrete responses they offered focused on the digitisation of these photographic archives. “Digitisation” is hereby interpreted in a broad sense: PHOTHEREL will educate a broader public about selecting, storing, describing, analysing and disseminating photographic heritage.

During the project an online handbook was developed, containing a linear step-by-step guide for everybody who wants to open up a photographic archive by means of digitisation and the creation of (online) exhibitions.

The use of the step-by-step guide is illustrated by two pilot projects, which resulted in two online exhibitions and a double touring exhibition.

As already indicated, the PHOTHEREL project touched upon the domain of interpretation of the complex information structure of visual media. Matching the increased amount of visual information in our surroundings, there exists a so-called “visual turn” in the Humanities. This evolution asks for an augmented visual literacy of the public and the learning community. The PHOTHEREL project therefore payed specific attention to the matter of visual literacy by developing a separate online course on photo analysis.

The project targeted different groups: museum professionals and visual culture researchers, visual literacy teachers, students in museum and cultural studies (MA-level), adult learners, museum visitors and, in the end, anyone on the WorldWideWeb.

All outcomes of the project are available via: http://www.photherel.net