Information and discussion on all aspects of British photographic history

August 2009 Blog Posts (11)

My Favorite Photograph

“Pamela’s Circle c. 1740”

Ambrotype by Judith Harrison Kalter

{see photograph in "Photos" on above tabs}

“Pamela’s Circle c. 1740” is a quarter plate ambrotype on black glass. It measures

3 ¼ x 4 ¼ inches and is still without a proper case. This is now my favorite photograph because it was made in the 21st Century, using a process devised in the 19th Century with equipment from the early-mid 20th Century to photograph a book written in the 18th Century. One of… Continue

Added by Antiquarianphotographer on August 31, 2009 at 14:00 — 1 Comment

NMeM collection discovers a new Demachy

PhD student, Julien Faure-Conorton, shows the newly discovered Demachy print. Photo: Mark Green, NMeM

The NMeM blog reports that a PhD student has discovered a new Demachy print in the museum's collections. Student, Julien Faure-Conorton from Paris, found the print Ploërmel, Brittany hidden beneath another print in the collection, La Cueillette, which is part of the Royal Photographic Society material now housed in Bradford.

In the words of the blog posting:

The full story is… Continue

Added by Michael Pritchard on August 29, 2009 at 12:00 — No Comments

New publication: Chinese Photography

British bookseller Bernard Quaritch Ltd has published the first comprehensive history of the earliest years of photography in China. It combines previously unpublished research with over 150 photographs, many of which are attributed and published here for the first time. Terry Bennett describes the way in which the discovery of photography in China was framed against the tumultuous backdrop of the Opium Wars, the Taiping Rebellion and the opening of numerous treaty ports to foreign… Continue

Added by Michael Pritchard on August 27, 2009 at 6:30 — No Comments

In Darwin Exhibition, photographs make the show

'But it is the photographs that make the show,' writes Richard Hamblyn of the exhibition Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, natural sicence, and the visual arts now showing at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. (TLS, July 17, 2009, 'A world under observation', pp.17-18). The section was curated by Elizabeth Edwards, who also contributed a chapter to the catalogue. You can listen to a podcast of Prof. Edwards, and other contributers, at the exhibition… Continue

Added by Kelley Wilder on August 15, 2009 at 10:07 — No Comments

Early British Infra Red Photography

Donald Stewart is looking for information on early uses of, and references to, infra red photography. In particular, and in his own words: "I'm trying to get information on early British infra red photography, experiments or practice but other than its use in astronomical studies"...Please comment here so that he can pick up any feedback.

Added by Michael Pritchard on August 14, 2009 at 6:30 — 1 Comment

Early Popular Visual Culture

The latest issue of this journal (Volume 7, Issue 2 July 2009), carries a paper by Julia F. Munro, titled 'The optical stranger': Photographic anxieties in British periodical literature of the 1840s and early 1850s, pages 167-183.

The abstract reads: An examination of periodical literature from the period of the invention of photography in 1839 and onwards reveals that the reception of the medium on the part of the Victorians was characterized by an ambivalent response of… Continue

Added by Michael Pritchard on August 6, 2009 at 21:00 — No Comments

Points of View at the British Library

Points of View: Capturing the 19th Century in Photographs

30 October 2009 - 7 March 2010 . Admission free.

• New exhibition unlocks treasure trove of images from the dawn of photography

• Over 250 rarely-seen images trace development from gentleman's pursuit to mass pastime

• Social document, art form – and a window onto the spirit world…

170 years since its invention, photography remains the main technology through which we understand and record the… Continue

Added by Michael Pritchard on August 5, 2009 at 20:32 — No Comments

Modern Calotypists and paper negative makers arise!

We are on the hunt for all modern calotypists and paper negative makers, whatever process involved.

The Fox Talbot Museum is trying to track down the few lonely calotypists out there to create a network for exchanging information and ideas. So far we've had image makers from Spain, France, Britain and the US sign up.

If you know anyone out there who has made paper negative, whether Talbot's or Le Gray's process or one of their own, drop us a line at… Continue

Added by Roger Watson on August 5, 2009 at 18:59 — No Comments

Visual Culture in Britain

The publisher, Routledge, is delighted to announce that Volume 10, Issue 1 of Visual Culture in Britain is now available. This is the journal's first issue published by Routledge and to celebrate it is offering free online access to all articles in this issue for the remainder of 2009.

Of particualr interest to readers of BPH is a paper by Venda Louise Pollock titled Dislocated Narratives and Sites of Memory: Amateur Photographic Surveys in Britain 1889–1897.… Continue

Added by Michael Pritchard on August 5, 2009 at 5:37 — No Comments

Roger Taylor awarded Washington DC professorship

One of the world’s leading photographic history experts from De Montfort University (DMU) has been awarded a prestigious professorship from the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., US. The National Gallery of Art’s Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) has awarded the 2010 Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professorship to Roger Taylor, Professor of Photographic History, and Senior Research Fellow at DMU in Leicester. His role as the Safra Visiting Professor will involve working… Continue

Added by Michael Pritchard on August 4, 2009 at 20:30 — No Comments

NMeM launches blog

The National Media Museum in Bradford has launched a blog written by Museum staff. The blog takes a behind the scenes look at happenings within the Museum. Recent postings show the museum's offsite storage facility at Black Dyke Mills, a creative writing group at the museum and the Curator of Cinematography, Michael Harvey, being filmed for a Canadian TV documentary. Click here to view:… Continue

Added by Michael Pritchard on August 1, 2009 at 7:30 — No Comments