‘If we can have the first slide and the lights off’

In the shape of a 35mm colour slide show this talk will reproduce some of Reyner Banham’s and Robin Evan’s slide collection archived at the AA Photo-library, projecting their still unknown photographic transparencies. The talk analyses the distinct use of the slides by these two aforementioned architectural historians. In doing so it reflects on the particularities of this architectural medium and exposes the tension between the double nature of the slide as public – performed for a collective audience – and private – as used for personal means of documentation.

This talk is part of the Mellon Multidisciplinary Research Project Architecture in/as Photography at the CCA in Montreal.

Catalina Mejía Moreno is Senior Lecturer in Architectural Humanities at the University of Brighton and Adjunct Faculty member at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá. She is currently PhD candidate in Architectural Theory and Criticism at Newcastle University and Mellon Researcher at the CCA in Montreal. The DAAD and the Getty Research Centre have also supported her research on architecture and photography.

Image:Reyner Banham self-portrait
Reyner Banham slide collection. Copyright Mary Banham, AA Photo-Library