Information and discussion on all aspects of British photographic history

Michael Wong's Blog (614)

China In Those Days: An Historical Postcard Journey

Sorry ! - you can call me bias, but I just have to squeeze this one in for those BPH followers in the China Photography sub-group.

With an excess of over 1600 postcard images spanning from the late 1890s to the first decades of the 20th century, this recently published book is very likely the… Continue

Added by Michael Wong on July 19, 2010 at 22:30 — No Comments

Job: Pitt Rivers Museum: Project Scanning Technician

Better late than never ! Deadline is this Friday 23rd July 2010.

Project Scanning Technician

Salary Grade 3 £17,111 - £19,743

Full time fixed term appointment until 31 August 2011

The Pitt Rivers Museum is seeking a Project Scanning Technician to work with the Museum’s Photographic Collection scanning photographs from the Wilfred Thesiger Collection as part of a project funded…

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Added by Michael Wong on July 19, 2010 at 0:13 — No Comments

The Originals of G.R. Lambert

Yes, I know. It's not quite British ! But it is historic 19th century photography, so bear with me on this one ...

The Singapore Philatelic Museum will be exhibiting some 100 rare picture postcards capturing the history and heritage of Singapore from early next… Continue

Added by Michael Wong on July 17, 2010 at 17:14 — No Comments

Peter Henry Emerson @ the Musee d'Orsay

If you are a fan of this Victorian medic turned photographer, you're in luck !

"Photography Not Art" - these three words written by Peter Henry Emerson (1856-1936), one of… Continue

Added by Michael Wong on July 17, 2010 at 15:37 — 4 Comments

Patterson Curatorial Fellowship: September 2010

The William and Elizabeth Patterson Curatorial Fellowship in Photography at the San Francisco Museum

of Modern Art is an annual fellowship for serious graduate level students with a demonstrated interest in a museum career in photography. This year SFMOMA is offering one part-time 20-week fellowship beginning in mid-September 2010.

The Fellow will be undertaking in-depth research on SFMOMA’s… Continue

Added by Michael Wong on July 17, 2010 at 14:28 — No Comments

Harry Ransom Center: 2011-2012 Research Fellowship Programme

The Harry Ransom Center, an internationally renowned humanities research

library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, has just announced its 2011-2012 Research Fellowship program. The Center will award over 50 fellowships to support scholarly research projects in all areas of the humanities,… Continue

Added by Michael Wong on July 17, 2010 at 14:20 — No Comments

The Gernsheim Collection

To coincide with the exhibition "Discovering the Language of Photography: The Gernsheim Collection", UT Press is publishing a catalogue to accompany it.

Entitled… Continue

Added by Michael Wong on July 17, 2010 at 14:09 — No Comments

Curiouser and Curiouser: Lifetime and Legacy of Lewis Carroll

From Saturday 10 July to Saturday 9 October, Guildford Borough Council's Heritage Service is celebrating the lifetime and legacy of Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson), with an exhibition and events programme dedicated to the 19th century author.

From photography exhibitions and informative talks, to craft workshops and countryside walks, there is something on offer for everyone. Some of…

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Added by Michael Wong on July 8, 2010 at 22:47 — No Comments

Job: Pitt Rivers Museum: Project Cataloguing Assistant

Project Cataloguing Assistant Grade 3: £17,111 - £19,743

Full time fixed term appointment until 31st August 2011

The Pitt Rivers Museum is seeking a Project Cataloguing Assistant to work with the Museum’s Photographic Collection as part of a project funded by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage. The post holder will work as part of a team to enhance and extend the Museum’s catalogue of photographs relating to the United Arab… Continue

Added by Michael Wong on July 8, 2010 at 9:30 — No Comments

British cameras feature in the Dr Dinesh Parekh collection

If you'd missed out on the recent Lothrop auction, fear not as there is another sale of landmark cameras, including British ones. Carried out by the largest Australian auction house, Leonard Joel, the Dr Dinesh Parekh Camera Collection will be on offer on Sunday 18th July 2010.…

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Added by Michael Wong on July 7, 2010 at 10:00 — No Comments

Everlasting Moments: A Paean to Early Photography

Firstly, I can safely assume that everyone who follows BPH has a passion for photography - be it historic or otherwise. So I guess I can be excused for posting this blog which is about a movie. Yes, a movie and it's Swedish too - sorry !

No sex, violence or action of any sort, I'm afraid.… Continue

Added by Michael Wong on July 5, 2010 at 15:41 — No Comments

The Art of Photography: From the Beginnings to Now

Time to redeem myself by posting something British !

You will find details of a short course at the V&A exploring the work of classic photographers including William Henry Fox Talbot, Julia Margaret Cameron, Alfred Steiglitz, Bill Brandt, Man Ray, Ansel Adams and Cartier-Bresson, as well as contemporary photography from the 1970s onwards by Bechers, William Eggleston, Cindy Sherman, Thomas Struth and Gregory Crewdson at the BPH 'Events' section… Continue

Added by Michael Wong on July 5, 2010 at 15:30 — No Comments

The Last Muster: Rare 19th-Century Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, CdV

As it was America's Independence Day yesterday, I think I can be forgiven for posting this recently

published (non-British!) book which celebrates the history of the American Revolution, the early republic, and those Americans who lived long enough to have their pictures taken at the… Continue

Added by Michael Wong on July 5, 2010 at 11:00 — No Comments

London Lives: An online archive into 18th century Britain

I'm not sure if this recently published archive is useful to those photo historians wishing to trace the ancestry of some early photographers, as it focuses on those at the bottom rung of London society between 1690 to 1800! But I thought I'd post it, just in case.…

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Added by Michael Wong on June 30, 2010 at 22:00 — No Comments

A rare find of an original 1839 daguerreotype

Picture the scenario:

Museum: Curator, back room, dark corner, faded shoebox.

Inside shoebox: paper-wrapped, gold-framed daguerreotype depicting Paris's Pont Neuf spanning the River Seine.

Back of frame: Handwritten with the date '1839' - the dawn of photography.… Continue

Added by Michael Wong on June 30, 2010 at 19:00 — No Comments

Top price for Lincoln carte de visite

Continuing with the carte de visite theme, but American, though, the highest-selling item in a recent auction of Lincoln family ephemera this month was an autographed Abraham Lincoln carte de visite which easily surpassed its US$10/20,000 estimate by selling for US$38,775.

The… Continue

Added by Michael Wong on June 26, 2010 at 19:17 — No Comments

Victorian artwork takes pride of place at Kingston’s new riverfront development

As part of a revamp of the original Bishop’s Palace House situated next to the listed Kingston Bridge at

Kingston upon Thames, the developers have used a facade screen which shows work by Eadweard Muybridge.

Let's hope this will set… Continue

Added by Michael Wong on June 25, 2010 at 22:01 — No Comments

Authenticity of early Muybridge's photos questioned

In a walk-through of the current landmark exhibition "Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change" in Washington (coming to Tate Britain this September), Getty Museum's distinguished former curator of

photographs, Weston Naef, noted some startling observations to lead him to conclude that some early Muybridge photos may not be taken by him.

Instead, Naef suggested they were done by others, whilst Muybridge merely published them.… Continue

Added by Michael Wong on June 24, 2010 at 9:30 — 2 Comments

NMeM Job: Duty Manager

Job Description:

Duty Manager, Bradford: Full-time position

£19,000 per annum, increasing to £20,000 on successful completion of probationary period

The National Media Museum’s eight galleries and three cinemas attract over 700,000 visitors every

year. You’ll lead the…

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Added by Michael Wong on June 21, 2010 at 22:09 — No Comments

Michael Faraday's notes at auction

As a chemist, Michael Faraday (1791-1867) was also interested in the new art of photography and

corresponded with scientists on the subject. He was photographed an extraordinary number of times. The photographs of Faraday held in the Institute of Engineering and Technology Archives include a very early example of a calotype (an early photographic process where the image is produced on paper… Continue

Added by Michael Wong on June 21, 2010 at 14:30 — No Comments