Michael Pritchard's Blog (1,938)

The announcement in The Chemist (March, 1851) of Frederick Scott Archer’s wet-collodion process transformed how photography was practiced professionally and by amateur photographers for much of the nineteenth century. Photography’s reach broadened socially, grew artistically and extended geographically.

Move forward…

Lee Miller is increasingly championed for her Surrealism-inspired photographs. Her images of Paris during the late-1920s and early 1930s when she was the muse and lover of Man Ray, her unique portraits of a desert landscape taken in and around Egypt in the 1930s, and her witty yet poignant and often disturbing images taken during the Second…

Arts Council England has released funding to support photography organisations. This includes £30,000 for Photo London and £280,00 for The Photographers' Gallery. BPH has identified the following photography organisations in receipt of emergency support, or offers of support:

Arts Council NPOs and Creative People and Places Organisations…

Two lots coming up at auction provide a link back to the photography's earliest days in 1839. Sotheby's auction of Fine Books and Manuscripts including Property from the Eric C. Caren Collection being held on 21 July 2020 in New York has two lots connected to Alfred Swaine Taylor, the pioneer of forensic medicine and an early experimenter in…

The UK government has announced a £1.57bn package of support for cultural organisations to be delivered through grants and loans, and funding for capital projects. How much is new money, how much will need to be repaid and how much has come from previously announced commitments to the national infrastructure is unclear.  

The package announced includes…

In 1862, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (who would be crowned Edward VII in 1901 following the death of his mother, Queen Victoria), undertook a tour of the Middle East as part of a structured programme intended to educate the young prince and prepare him for his future role as king. The prince had undertaken previous trips abroad, but on this ambitious…

Frans Koopman writes...'we like to inform you that last  Friday mr Aad Schoorl, alderman of Heemskerk, has unveiled an information board concerning Nicolaas Henneman. The board has been placed along the path where he was born, since 2018 called after him: Nicolaas Hennemanpad'…

Back in March BPH published a regularly updated blog of how museums, galleries, research venues and events were approaching lockdown with cancellations, postponements and closures. Finally, after more than twelves weeks,…

This new publication asks and seeks to answer a number of questions. How is a historical photo collection established, and how does it then grow? What principles and ideas guide the people responsible for such a collection? What do we mean when we say that photographs carry more than their content that they represent, but are material objects at the same…

We formed Document Scotland back in 2012. Since then, we have worked on photography projects which have been exhibited, published, broadcast and shared with friends and audiences both at home and abroad. Highlights over these years include shows at venues such as the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, and the many events we have staged across Scotland…

Oxford University Press has just published a four-volume set The Collected Letters of Humphry Davy. Davy is a significant figure in both the history of science and literary history. One of the foremost chemists of the early nineteenth century, he was the first person to inhale nitrous oxide. He pioneered electrochemistry, using the Voltaic pile to…

Julia Margaret Cameron: Close Up is a new exhibition at Dimbola Museum and Galleries focusing on Cameron's astonishing close up portraits of great men. The selection was chosen by her son Henry for a volume of work he was compiling called Tennyson and his friends. Printed in large format, these images demonstrate Julia’s genius for…

Photo London has released its recording of a panel discussion about Roger Fenton which was held in conjunction with the 2019 exhibition ‘The Essential Fenton’, curated by Bob Hershkowitz and shown at Photo London that year.

This discussion brought together experts on the pioneering photographer Roger Fenton. Dr Sophie Gordon, Head of…

During the Covid-19 lockdown we’ve all become acutely aware of one of the most essential values of digital preservation: remote access. Most physical collections, libraries, and archives have been closed down for several weeks. Working from home is problematic, especially when we keep in mind that rather than working from home by design or choice, we are…

Glasgow's Street Level Photoworks has released a series of online photographer/artist talks from recently events. They comprise: 

• Recording of an artist talk by Peter Kennard at the book launch of 'Visual Dissent', Street Level Photoworks 2nd October 2019. See: …

Stafford Photographic Society was formed in 1895. It is one of the oldest photographic societies in the  Midlands. A young man named Charles Fowke was primarily responsible for its formation, he gathered together other photographic enthusiasts and started the YMCA Amateur Photographic Society, so called because they met at the YMCA in Gaol Road. In 1898…

This month, Photoworks begins a year of activities marking twenty-five years of Photoworks. To mark its anniversary year it commissioned Ibrahim Azab to create (PW)_H3RE N0W)//_SINCE TH3N, 2020, re-imagining the Photoworks…

The Association of Photographers (AOP) launch a series of breakfast talks with the most influential figures from the photographic community. A number of the talks will be of particular interest to BPH readers.

Talk 2 – Tuesday 9 June 09:00-10:00 - Commissioning Editors

With the COVID-19 dominating the headlines, how are the…

PhD student, Rachel Maloney, the University of Brighton’s V&A Research Exchange Fellow, discusses how her research has had to adapt during lockdown. Rachel is an artist and researcher whose work focuses on memory and personal narrative within family photographs and archival collections. Her project outlined a practice-led research project that would…

The Royal Society played an important role in recording the introduction and progress of photography from the 1830s onwards. A new resources from Google Arts and Culture brings some of the Society's archives relating to photography to the fore.

See: …