F+PPCM MA

One of the highlights of the first year for photo stream students was Dee Psaila's Photo Preservation course. Through lectures and hands-on exercises, we learned about the materials, tools, supply sources, and methods of protecting and preserving photographic collections through mounting, housing, care and handling, environmental monitoring, integrated pest management, project planning, surveying, and disaster preparedness and recovery. All the knowledge and skills gained in this practical course has set us all up for success as we transition into our summer internships. #tmu #fppcm #photopreservation

FPPCM first year photo stream students had the opportunity to visit the Stephen Bulger Gallery and the Edward Burtynsky Studio as part of Paul Sergreant’s 20th Century Materials and Processes course. We got to meet Stephen Bulger, who gave us a tour of the gallery, we were able to inspect Burtynsky’s prints and met with the staff using the ARKIV360, using artificial intelligence for digitizing images for cultural institutions. #fppcm #tmu #burtynsky #stephenbulgergallery

Hey! I’m Marisa, a second-year photography stream student completing my residency and MRP at our very own Toronto Metropolitan University Archives and Special Collections @librarytorontomu . The Archives was founded in 1971 and houses materials related to the institutional memory of the university, including student groups and campus histories. In fact, any student group at TMU may submit their records for donation! The Special Collections was founded in 2005 and is responsible for preserving rare items such as films, photographs, and rare books that pertain to the learning interests at the university. Day to day, I work with the Grant Collingwood photographic fonds. Collingwood was a Toronto-based photographer who worked from 1939 - 1990 capturing Toronto and its environs. From moments as rare as the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Toronto (1939), working class leather factory workers (1947), purchasing agent portraits from economic expansion post WWII (1950–1970), advertising for magazines, and as a wedding photographer, successfully capturing a window of life in each decade. I re-house, catalogue, and digitize these materials. I’ve also had the opportunity to do some conservation work to unstick gelatin silver prints that had fused together through water damage and poor housing conditions prior to being donated, and have worked with severe vinegar syndrome. In my research, I have thrown myself into our School of Journalism fonds to consider the ways youth culture is the undercurrent of the collection and how to better their description. Recently, I had the opportunity to curate our display case, where we hold rotating exhibitions using our archival materials. My exhibit seeks to showcase the photographic evidence of the history of youth culture on campus. I’ve been partly inspired by the @museumofyouthculture and my research. Come check it out! It will be on view until May 31st. I hope to see you soon!

This term, the first year film cohort was treated to a 2-day magnetic media preservation workshop from @vtapevideoart co-founder Kim Tomczak! Kim gave us hands-on lessons on all things magnetic media: identifying the various formats, doing visual inspections, cleaning playback equipment, and working with our own lab’s digital transfer equipment to digitize videotapes. We even got to troubleshoot and successfully repair a broken VCR! Thanks again to Kim for sharing your expertise with us! 📼

In February, TMU’s Histories, Archives & Curation Cluster Initiative hosted the first iteration of the Archive is Creative symposium series, titled Artistic Interventions. During this event, roundtables between artists, curators, and scholars discussed: What happens when artists intervene in the archive? The day was a fruitful dive into the creative methods through which engagement with archives can reshape and reveal knowledge in a colonial present. Our first panel which consisted of artists Parastoo Anoushahpour (@pass_2 ), Faraz Anoushahpour (@farazfarazfarazfaraz ), and Ryan Ferko (@ryannevinferko ), offered one way to navigate the archive through artist practice: wandering. They discussed what a non-extractive practice of a slow consideration of the archive can reveal to artists and researchers, and to collective memory at large. Panel 2, with Luis Jacob (@towardsatheory ) and Sameer Farooq (@studiosameerfarooq ), interrogated the traditions of archives and offered alternative, postcolonial ways of structuring such institutions. From non-textual objects like an archive of bread to a structural critique of larger institutions, this panel demonstrated the need for archives to consider new forms of engagement and interpretation. Panel 3, with Crystal Z Campbell (@crystalzcampbell ) and Timothy Yanick Hunter (@yanickhunter ), discussed the materiality of the archive beyond the object. They discussed their multivalent encounters with the archive beyond the vault which unfolded through processes of return, reworking, and sustained attention. Thank you to all who attended! Supported by The Creative School Cluster Seed Fund 2025/6.

In Paul Sergeant’s 20th Century Photographic Materials and Processes course, first year photo stream students learned all about the history and processes of Polaroid photography. We have several Polaroid cameras as part of the FPPCM Teaching Collection in our Grad Lab, so we all had a great time experimenting with them during class. #fppcm #tmu #tmuimagearts #photography #polaroids

Our first year film cohort recently got a tour of the TIFF Lightbox projection booths! Senior technical manager James King gave a demonstration of the 35mm projectors and showed us their hand-cut aperture plates for various aspect ratios (photo 4). Projectionist Airian McLeish walked us through how he prepares prints for projection, and told us about the extensive and rewarding repairs that went into the February screening of I Am Cuba (1964). Thanks to James and Airian for their generosity! 🎞️

For Thierry Gervais’ Research Methodologies course, first year film and photo stream students visited the @romtoronto where we met with Deepali Dewan, the Royal Ontario Museum’s Curator of Global South Asia, and had the opportunity to visit the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition. #TMU #ROM #romtoronto #imageschool #fppcm

As part of Paul Sergeant’s 20th Century Photographic Materials and Processes course, first year photo stream students had the opportunity to visit @silvershack_printmaking , who specialize in archival and historical printing processes. We met with master printer Bob Carnie, and his apprentice Anam Ahmed, who offered demonstrations in silver gelatin, handprinted gum over palladium, and two-colour gum-bichromate printing processes. #fppcm #tmu #tmuimagearts #photography #printing

Hello everyone. My name is Natsumi Yoshida. I graduated from the film stream in 2025. I came back to my home country, Japan, and have been working at the National Film Archive of Japan (NFAJ) since August 2025. I worked there previously as a public relations officer, so it was a fortunate return to my favorite film archive. I am currently an assistant curator in the Animation Division, which was newly established at the same time I started working. NFAJ is the largest film archive in Japan, holding more than 90,000 films as well as a large number of film-related materials. The main building where I usually work is located in central Tokyo, while the film vaults are located in a suburban area outside the city. The Animation Division was established to foster NFAJ’s activities related to animation. We handle everything related to animation, from acquisition to organizing screening programs. Currently, my main task is preparing for a screening program scheduled for later this year. It may not sound like hard work, but there are many challenges to overcome to make it happen in reality—such as budget, scheduling, rights clearance, and projection materials. I’m very busy, but it’s a lot of fun. Since Japan has a unique animation culture, our division primarily aims to contribute to the preservation of this culture by collecting and preserving animation films and creating opportunities to make them accessible. We hold about 3,000 animation films, and some of them—including the oldest surviving Japanese animation film, The Dull Sword (1917)—are available through our digital archive, Japanese Animation Film Classics. If you have a chance to travel to Tokyo, please visit NFAJ @nationalfilmarchiveofjapan and don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

Our first year cohort recently paid a visit to the Archives & Special Collections @librarytorontomu to take a look at a wide variety of 19th- and 20th-century image technologies, from twin-lens reflex cameras to handheld stereoscopes & stereoscopic postcards (early 3D technology) and zoetropes (pre-film moving image). We learned a lot about the value of doing primary source research through handling historical objects!

Last week the FPPCM film and photography cohorts learned about scanning and digitizing in Sasha Furlani’s Digital Applications for Collection Management class. We had the opportunity to visit The Motion Picture Lab at TMU’s School of Image Arts and meet with Film Production & Preservation Technician, Mark Loeser. The photography cohort also learned about developing 35mm film in Paul Sergeant’s 20th Century Photographic Materials and Processes class. #fppcm #tmu #tmuimagearts #photography #film #preservation