Alan Griffiths

Alan Griffiths was born in Morecambe, England, in 1953. He has a bachelor’s degree in prehistory and archaeology (1975), and master’s degrees in archaeology and in information studies (1983) all from Sheffield University, UK. He began his career as an archaeologist but, realising that it is difficult to make a living in this field, he moved into computer systems working as a consultant and academic researcher. He lectured in multimedia at Sheffield University, was a visiting lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh and a visiting professor at the University of Massachusetts. As a consultant, his clients have included the British Library, NATO, IBM, and Hewlett Packard.

He has been interested in the history of photography for many years and created Luminous-Lint in 2005 to help explore this field in depth. To date, the website includes photographs from almost 4,000 organisations, photographers, photographic galleries and private collectors around the world. Used by major institutions internationally, this ever-expanding online database includes numerous images, biographies, techniques, timelines, and online exhibitions with more than one thousand parallel and interlinked histories of photography. Alan Griffiths lives and works in Halifax, Nova Scotia.