Search Engine is a series of ‘catalogue cards’ featuring photographs sourced from the Science & Miscellaneous section of the London Library, one of the world’s largest independent lending libraries. The images are ordered as Porter encountered them – alphabetically by subject – on shelves that make neighbours of Sleep and Smuggling and bring together Pleasure, Poaching, and Poisons. The result forms an archaeological exploration of the systems of knowledge that we often take for granted.

Louis Porter is a London based artist, photographer and researcher.

His work, often archival in its formulation looks at the circulation and recirculation of images, texts, ideas and the technologies of reproduction that enable this. His works are held in numerous collections including those of Tate Modern, The Victoria and Albert Museum and MACBA and he his represented by Chiquita Room Gallery of Barcelona.

Diane Smyth is Editor of the British Journal of Photography and the Photoworks Annual, and teaches History and Theory of Photography at the London College of Communications, University of the Arts London. She has given talks and workshops at institutions such as London School of Economics, King's College London, Bodleian Libraries, and Whitechapel Gallery, and written about photography for publications such as The Guardian, FOAM, Trigger, Apollo, and The Art Newspaper, and for photography catalogues and monographs. Diane has a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Birmingham an MA in Modern Literatures in English from Birkbeck College, University of London. @dismy