Ella Ravilious

Curator: Design and Architecture at the Victoria and Albert Museum and photo-history researcher.

Photograph by Harry Borden

About me

I am a Curator: Architecture and Design at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and I have worked at the Museum in various roles since 2005. Alongside my focus on design, I also specialise in photographic history. I am currently a PhD student at the Photographic History Research Centre at De Montfort University, Leicester.

Ask me about the history of the V&A, its collections of design and photography, the Royal Photographic Society Collection, or the work of James Ravilious, Eric Ravilious, or Tirzah Garwood. I’ll either help or be able to put you in touch with the right contact.

Photo portrait of Ella Ravilious in profile

CV

TV/RADIO

Interviewed in Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War, Foxtrot Films, 2022 https://www.foxtrotfilms.com/films/eric-ravilious-drawn-to-war/

Featured in Secrets of the Museum, Series 3, Episode 3 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0016dty

WRITING

Author: Linocuts: A Global History. Thames and Hudson/V&A (forthcoming in 2026)

Author: Photography, Knowledge, and the South Kensington Museum. PhD thesis, De Montfort University. (forthcoming 2025)

Chapter author “Tirzah’s Scrapbook” in Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious, James Russell, Dulwich Picture Gallery/Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025 Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious: James Russell: Philip Wilson Publishers

Chapter author: ‘Studies from Life’ in Le Raccolte Fotografiche Storiche nelle Accademie di Belle Arte e nelle Scuole do Arti Applicate, edited by Nicoletta Leonardi and Monica Maffioli, 2025

Author: Photography, Knowledge, and the South Kensington Museum. PhD thesis, De Montfort University. (forthcoming 2025)

Article Photographing the Bayeux Tapestry in The Burlington Magazine May 2023 Vol. 165 No. 1442

Author: Eric Ravilious: Landscapes and Nature. Thames and Hudson/V&A (November 2023) Eric Ravilious: Landscape and Nature | V&A Books | V&A Shop (vam.ac.uk)

Co-editor (with Prof. Elizabeth Edwards): What Photographs Do: The making and remaking of museum cultures, UCL Press (publishes 21/11/2022) https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/192312

Chapter in The Idea of Italy: Photography and the British Imagination, 1840-1900, edited by Scott Wilcox and Maria Antonella Pelizzari, Yale Press, 2022

Co-authored chapter (with Dr. Omniya Abdel Barr) in Visions of Ancient Egypt, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, October 2022

I have written for a number of publications, including Source Magazine, the V&A Magazine, The Journal of the History of Photography and the RPS Journal.

Speaking

Lecture, Tirzah Garwood and Female Friendship, Dulwich Picture Gallery, 11th April 2025 Tirzah Garwood and Female Friendship with Ella Ravilious | Dulwich Picture Gallery

Lecture Eric Ravilious and the V&A, 23rd January 2025, V&A Lunchtime Lectures: Eric Ravilious and the V&A – V&A Academy Talk at V&A South Kensington · V&A

Paper: From Sèvres Vases to Solar Flares. Photography and the Royal Engineers. 1851-1900 at PHRC Annual Conference ‘The Photographer’s Assistants’, June 2024

Lunchtime Lecture Photographing the Bayeux Tapestry (with Silvija Banić) 8th June, V&A https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/VPGdozErQ0g/p23016-lunchtime-lecture-bayeux-tapestry-june-2023

Paper ‘Studies from Life’ at Le Raccolte Fotografiche Storiche nelle Accademie di Belle Arte e nelle Scuole do Arti Applicate, Milan, May 2023

PHRC Annual Conference ‘Photographic History without Photographs’, June 2022

Presentation at ‘Colour Fever’ symposium at the V&A, November 2021

Presentation for the Daguerreian Society of the United States, October 2021

Taught session for The Photographer’s Gallery, September 2021

CURATION

Curator: Finding a Home at the Fry, 6th April to 26th October 2025 40th Anniversary Exhibition: Finding a Home at the Fry | Fry Art Gallery

Co-curator: Cairo Streets, Jameel Gallery, V&A, 2021 Cairo Streets – Display at V&A South Kensington · V&A

TRUSTEESHIPS

Beaford trustee 2020-present (and on Beaford Archive Steering Committee since 2012) https://beaford.org/

Platform trustee 2014-2020 https://platformlondon.org/about-us/

Get in touch

I am available for collaborations and talks worldwide.