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Welcome to the British photographic history blog (BPH). Launched at the start of 2009 there are now over 4300 subscribers, in addition to regular readers. These range from museum and gallery curators, photography and history academics, students, collectors and dealers from around the world. The blog provides a forum for news of events and happenings within the BPH community. This includes lectures or meetings, exhibition news, jobs, reviews and general news affecting collections of photographic material or individuals within the field. The focus is on Britain but will include material that is of wider interest from Europe, the United States, Africa and Asia.

A summary of the previous week's posts is usually emailed to signed up readers each Monday. 
                                                                                                   Dr Michael Pritchard

PS. Thanks to George Eastman House (now George Eastman Museum) and History Today magazine blogs for recommending British Photographic History as one of their own favourite blogs. The Daily Telegraph made BPH one of its photography websites of the week

Paul Martin was referred to in his time as 'the Dickens of the lens' thanks to the way in which he captured the lives of the streets of London and their inhabitants. He and his family were refugees who fled France in the wake of the Franco-Prussian war. This plaque, celebrating his life and work, will be placed on the former studio he shared with Harry Dorrett and from which they ran their business, Dorrett & Martin, producing, amongst other items, a large number of very evocative…

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13727974883?profile=RESIZE_400x Quickshaws Tours is offering 10-day and 14-day tours in Sri Lanka to discover the places associated with Julia Margaret Cameron, who died and was buried there in 1879. Explore her life in British Ceylon and the links between England, India and Ceylon of the period.

The tour will take you to the places she lived, including Dimbola, her grave at Bogowantalawa, and introduce her…

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I'd like to highlight three upcoming workshops at The National Archives which may of of interest. They all focus on different aspects of TNA's visual collections, and include guidance on accessing and interpreting photographs in the archive. See here for details of all the workshops in TNA's Practical Archival Skills Training programme for 2025-2026.…

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Publications: Malta / from November 2025


13741569297?profile=RESIZE_400x Victorian Malta is a new book from the Richard Ellis Archive. Through Richard Ellis’s lens, this book unveils the intricate fabric of Victorian life in Malta during the late nineteenth century. This book includes previously unseen details of the Victorian era in Malta including a number of never-seen stereoviews. The book, lavishly produced, hardcased and printed in…

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13741453478?profile=RESIZE_400x Fast Forward is looking to commission an experienced writer/researcher to work on researching and drafting a policy for collecting and archiving photography with Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) priorities at its heart. The policy will be for use within public sector institutions, and it will include reference to the potential uses of new technologies such as AI. It is expected…

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Early Photography in Colonial Australia explores the origins of the photographic culture that continues to shape how we see the world. From its mid-nineteenth-century beginnings photography was more than just a new technology – it was deeply implicated in the colonial project. The invention of photographic technology coincided with the rise of imperial control across the Pacific, and many of its raw materials were extracted from colonised lands.

This book offers the first…

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Information and discussion on all aspects of British photographic history ranging from news, exhibitions, museums, and people, to publication and jobs. BPH is intended to be collaborative so do add your own posts. 

 

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