A digital catalogue raisonné for the author-photographer Hildegard Ochse
As part of a grant from the Stiftung Kunstfonds, a first digital catalogue raisonné for the author photographer Hildegard Ochse will be created by the end of 2022. The photographer, who was born in Bad Salzuflen in 1935, died in Berlin in 1997; her estate has since been curated and administered by her son Benjamin Ochse. The artistic estate comprises approximately 50,000 negatives, over 1,000 contact sheets and more than 5,500 black-and-white photographs. So far, more than 1,200 photographs and about 950 contact sheets have been digitised and partly processed. For the catalogue raisonné, a complex database was designed on the basis of FileMaker® and in collaboration with a curator and an art historian. In a first step, a series of 150 photographs was digitised and their IPTC metadata recorded and incorporated into the image files, after which the image data was integrated into the database.
With the digital catalogue raisonné, extensive photographic predecessors’ and successors’ estates as well as photographic collections can be quickly recorded and scientifically processed. The database is suitable for individuals as well as for smaller teams working for archives and in photographic collections. The special feature of this database solution is the intuitive and user-friendly interface, which enables editors and users without special prior knowledge to work productively after a short introduction. Important input fields are provided with extensive thesauri and a controlled vocabulary, which simplify the input. A status report can be created for each work, and relevant exhibitions and publications can be entered for each picture. The catalogue raisonné is made available for institutions and for research and is continuously edited and expanded.
You can find a brief overview of the digital catalogue raisonné for photography on our Data sheet.
If you have any questions or are interested in having your own digital catalogue raisonné for photography, write us a Email we will be happy to advise you.
