Blogs

Side, the internationally recognised home of humanist documentary photography and film, which has spent nearly fifty years recording and preserving working-class lives, from its gallery in Newcastle, will establish a curatorial office at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead in February 2026. The move is both a pragmatic response to the pressures facing arts organisations today and a bold step into a new creative direction. It will enable Side to bring its collection to a wider audience, commission and co-create new work, and deepen its commitment to education and community practice across the North East and beyond.

Side was founded in 1977 on Newcastle’s Quayside by the Amber Film & Photography Collective as a space for lens-based documentary rooted in the realities of working people. From shipyard workers to new communities arriving in the region, Side has made the lives of those too often absent from arts spaces visible. Its AmberSide Collection, recognised by UNESCO, is a growing archive of photography and film that continues to respond to the present: migration, precarity, resilience and everyday solidarity.

The decision stems from the realities of today’s cultural landscape. With public funding shrinking and the cost of running independent venues escalating, many arts organisations today are facing closure. Side and Baltic have chosen to cooperate in a mutually beneficial agreement.

As a cultural tenant within Baltic’s building, Side retains its autonomy and individual voice while both parties can collaborate on exhibitions that recognise the importance of photography as an art form and bring continued visibility of working-class culture to a high volume of diverse audiences.

From 2027, Side will work with Baltic in developing presentations across a range of exhibition and programmable spaces within the landmark industrial building, a former flour mill.  Just as importantly, this move frees Side to invest more deeply in what has always set it apart as an arts organisation: education and community work. With new capacity, Side will expand projects with schools, youth groups and neighbourhoods, creating hyper-local displays that place documentary art back into the communities where it is created.

Laura Laffler, Managing Director of Side said:  “Working-class culture is living culture — it doesn’t belong in the past. Our move to Baltic is about making sure the voices and experiences of ordinary people around the globe remain visible, urgent and valued in the present. Rooted in the North East, connected internationally, we will continue to commission, co-create and champion work that speaks to resilience, struggle and collective imagination.”

Sarah Munro, Director of Baltic said: “We’re delighted to welcome Side as a cultural tenant in spring 2026. Photography is crucial to Baltic’s programme. Our audiences have been enthusiastic and visited in high numbers to exhibitions of photography by Chris Killip and Martin Parr to Franki Raffles, Joanne Coates and Phyllis Christopher. We want to represent the communities that live in the locale of the gallery and who visit Baltic frequently. Collaborating on these presentations will be exciting as we approach our twenty-fifth anniversary, and Side look to their 50th year. It is important that Side’s collection, its legacy and their future survive and thrive. In these challenging times it’s vital to find new ways of working together.”  

This new chapter coincides with a moment of reflection and renewal. In 2027, Side will mark 50 years since its establishment, while Baltic will celebrate its 25th year. Together they will create a platform where history and the present meet, where real people’s lives (from the North East and further afield) remain central to our region’s cultural spaces, and where documentary is made, seen and valued.

This announcement comes at the conclusion of the 'Transforming Amber' National Lottery Heritage Fund project, which set out to rethink how Side works and how the AmberSide Collection is shared. Over the past year, this project focused on strengthening the organisational foundations of Side, improving access to the AmberSide Collection (both digital and physical), and finding new ways to make it visible, relevant and active for more people than ever before. This announcement with Baltic marks the first stage of a wider programme shaped through this work from The AmberSide Trust.

Through The AmberSide Trust, the AmberSide Collection is secured and shall remain intact and accessible in the North East of England. Further announcements, including new opportunities for public access to the AmberSide Collection, will be shared across 2026.

 See: https://sidegallery.co.uk/blog/side-at-baltic and https://baltic.art/news-and-media/side-at-baltic/

Image: River Project: Quayside, 1971 © Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen | Courtesy of the AmberSide Collection

The scheme will support a researcher from outside Oxford to come and work on the Carroll collections held in the Bodleian Libraries Special Collections and at Christ Church Library.  The topic of study needs to relate either specifically or more broadly to Lewis Carroll and his interests and might include, for example (but not exclusively), studies in children’s literature, humorous verse and literary illustration, nineteenth-century photography, histories of Oxford, its colleges, University and people, and the cultural impact of mathematics. 

The Lewis Carroll Visiting Fellowship
Opening Date: 13 January 2026
Closing: 13 March 2026 – 17:00
For more information and details of how to apply see: Bodleian Visiting Fellowships in Special Collections | Bodleian Libraries

Pembrokeshire County Council has been awarded a National Archives scoping grant to work on the the Squibbs Photographic Collection. The county's Archives and Local Studies service holds an extensive collection of photographic negatives which captures a broad range of events and activities, including cover images for major news stories from the county. The material’s research potential is severely hampered due to its availability in negative format only. The negatives are at various stages of decay due to vinegar syndrome and this has reached a critical stage in some cases. The scoping grant will lay the foundation for future work to be undertaken.

Claire Orr, Archives Manager, says: “It is incredibly exciting to know that, following the results of this scoping report, we shall be in a position to appreciate the extent of the work needed. We can then target resources more effectively to ensure the preservation, interpretation and accessibility of the collection.”

See: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-revealed/scoping-grant/current-and-past-projects/

Having given up on inaccurate OCR of old, I can spend a disproportionate amount of my day in time consuming (but accurate) manual transcriptions of newspaper reports and adverts.

As an AI newbie I had never tried this before, so I thought that I would see what AI made of the following advertisement from the Lancaster Gazette (which is in the public domain).

Using a simple “Convert image to text” request produced:

Here is a clear, complete transcription of the image:

1. B. B. CULLINGWORTH,
   ARCHITECTURAL, MECHANICAL, LANDSCAPE,
   AND PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER.

In returning thanks for the liberal patronage he has received since he came to Lancaster, begs to inform his friends and the public generally, that his new Portrait Rooms are now complete, with a fresh arrangement of light, made from a drawing of one of the first photographic houses in London, and he is now able to produce Portraits of every description, superior to any ever offered to the public in Lancaster, at the under-mentioned prices:—

                               1 doz.   ½ doz.

Carte de Visite Portraits in two different positions, with either plain or fancy background ............... 12s. 6s.
Carte de Visite, in one position .................................................. 10s. 5s.
Views of Monuments or Tombstones, with inscription legible, suitable for Albums .... 15s. 10s.

Whole Plate Portraits, either in sitting or standing position, coloured in oil by one of the first photographic colourists ...................................................... Each

• Whole Plate, coloured ........................................ £1 15s. 0d.
• Half Plate, do. ................................................ £1 10s. 0d.
• Whole Plate, uncoloured ...................................... £0 17s. 6d.
• Half Plate, do. ................................................ £0 10s. 0d.

Copies to be had at a great reduction.

View of any building, 10s., or half-dozen ......................................... £2 0s. 0d.
Extra copies ........................................................................ 3s. 6d.

Any kind of Machinery, Carriages, Horses, Dogs, &c., taken on reasonable terms.

For Views taken at a distance exceeding two miles from Lancaster, not less than half a dozen printed.

PORTRAIT ROOMS.
OPPOSITE ST. JOHN’S CHURCH, LANCASTER.

1. B. C. having several orders on hand, would be glad if parties wishful for views would give timely notice.

The transcription was impressive, even if the random emboldening was puzzling!

Refining the request to “Convert image to text formatted for printing” produced:

Here is the advert cleanly typeset for printing (A4 portrait, single column, tidy spacing while preserving the original wording and prices):

1. B. B. CULLINGWORTH

ARCHITECTURAL, MECHANICAL, LANDSCAPE,
AND PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

In returning thanks for the liberal patronage he has received since he came to Lancaster, begs to inform his friends and the public generally, that his new Portrait Rooms are now complete, with a fresh arrangement of light, made from a drawing of one of the first photographic houses in London, and he is now able to produce Portraits of every description, superior to any ever offered to the public in Lancaster, at the under-mentioned prices:

PRICE LIST

Carte de Visite Portraits

Views

Large Portraits

Copies to be had at a great reduction.

Building Views

Any kind of Machinery, Carriages, Horses, Dogs, &c., taken on reasonable terms.

For views taken at a distance exceeding two miles from Lancaster, not less than half a dozen printed.

PORTRAIT ROOMS

OPPOSITE ST. JOHN’S CHURCH, LANCASTER

1. B. C. having several orders on hand, would be glad if parties wishful for views would give timely notice.

It looked much better onscreen than when copied and pasted into a Word document, or as shown above in this blog, the price list was in two columns.

The rewording of repeated requests produced responses of differing degrees of success or failure. Asking it to retain capitals and or columns produced results inferior to those shown above.  

I also found that asking it to produce a pdf or Word document produced inferior results, more akin to OCR of old, whilst the transcription was accurate, it condensed it into one paragraph or it was curtailed.

Searching BPH for “ChatGPT” only brought up a couple of hits, one was from the Hong Kong History Research Centre https://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/survey-historical-photographs-of-hong-kong

which contained 'Chinese' text, so I asked ChatGPT to translate it into English, it produced what seems like a plausible translation to me given the content of their blog.

As an AI novice I would be interested in hearing from other members of their experiences and perhaps promote the sharing of successful scripts and tips.

I would be particularly interested in hearing from anyone who has experience in machine transcribing and / or translating handwritten script as I can think of a number of items in my collection where that would be of benefit.

Thank you.

IOTA II and the Centre for Design History at the University of Brighton are hosting a talk on the the story of popular photography as displayed at the former Kodak Museum, Harrow, and National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford. The Kodak Museum collection represents over a century of film-based photographic technology and apparatus and for the last thirty-six years, the collection has been utilised to tell the story of popular photography at what is now known as the National Science and Media Museum’s Kodak Gallery. The predominantly pre-digital gallery presents a number of practical and thematic challenges for both museum and its twenty-first century visitors, despite a small number of permanent displays being implemented to address changing digital-based practices. This talk will examine what the changed and unchanged displays mean for visitors today who are increasingly unfamiliar with the type of photography represented.

The talk is based on Jayne Knight's PhD thesis (2024) From company museum to national collection, 1927-2023: telling the story of popular photography through the Kodak Museum Collection which can be downloaded here. 

Jayne Knight is 2025-26 Assistant National Curator of Photography at the National Trust and was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Design History in 2025. She completed her PhD in 2024 on the history of popular photography in the Kodak Museum as an AHRC-funded collaborative project between University of Brighton and National Science and Media Museum.

IOTA II – IOTA stands for Image, Object, Text, Analysis, and was the title of a seminar series established by dear former colleagues Louise Purbrick and Jill Seddon. IOTA II aims to resurrect the inclusive nature of the original IOTA, bringing together students, colleagues and all interested parties from beyond the university to consider the visual and material world from a wide range of perspectives. It is a space for work-in-progress to be shared and nurtured, and for our research to be celebrated.

The changing story of popular photography in the National Science and Media Museum’s Kodak Gallery
Jayne Knight
23 January 2026, 1pm-2.30pm
University of Brighton, Advanced Engineering Building, Moulsecoomb Campus, G1.
See: https://www.brighton.ac.uk/accommodation-and-locations/campuses/moulsecoomb/index.aspx

In connection with the Photographers' Gallery's current exhibtion on the history of the photobooth which commemorates the centenary of the modern photobooth are two talks. On 23 January Rafael Hortala Vallvé and Corinne Quin, co-directors of AUTOFOTO are talking about the history and possibilities of the photobooth .On 13 February writer and cultural historian Nakki Goranin, author of American Photobooth, and writer and filmmaker Raynal Pellicer, author of Photobooth: The Art of the Automatic Portrait, for an in-depth discussion. 

The History and Possibilities of the Photobooth
Friday, 23 January 2026 at 1830

A century of the Photobooth
Friday, 13 February 2026 at 1830

This issue of PhotoResearcher centers the role of the Lumière brothers’ Autochrome in global colonial and political contexts. The impetus behind creating “The Autochrome in Imperial History” is the Tassilo Adam Collection, housed at Weltmuseum Wien in Vienna. Adam, a plantation manager and photographer in the Dutch East Indies, gifted the photography collection, including his Autochromes, to the Weltmuseum Wien in 1940. A handful of these Autochromes depict the lavish estate of Karl Bosscha in Java, Indonesia. Their representation marks a shift in the conventional colonial gaze, turning inwards, by meticulously showcasing the European settler’s domestic sphere. This volume distinguishes itself from prior scholarship on the Autochrome by prioritizing the medium’s political deployment over poetic or aesthetic interpretations. The global perspectives presented through various case studies span cases across Iceland, Great Britain, the Russian Empire, colonial Indonesia, the United States of America, the French Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They demonstrate the Autochrome’s function as an instrument of imperial modernity, facilitating both the creation and dissemination of colonial viewpoints and the documentation of the empire’s aftermath. 

Read the editorial for free here. 

Table of Content

• Editorial, by Hanin Hannouch
• Housing Privileges: Tassilo Adam’s Autochromes of the Bosscha Estate in Java, by Hanin Hannouch
• Autochromes for Empire: J. C. Warburg at the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition, by Janine Freeston
• Extracting the View: Fred Payne Clatworthy’s Autochromes of the American West, by Rachel Lee Hutcheson
• The Autochrome in Iceland: Colour Photography on the Far Periphery of Europe, by Inga Lára Baldvinsdóttir
• The Reception of the Autochrome in the Russian Empire around 1900, by Nadezhda Stanulevich
• Between Center and Periphery: Autochrome Photography Through the History of Present-Day Slovakia, by Kitti Baráthová, Katarína Beňová & Janka Blaško Križanová
• Pepper’s Ghost. A Living Autochrome, by Bronwyn Lace & Anna Seiderer

The Autochrome in Imperial History: Color Photography’s Global Entanglements. Edited by: Dr. Hanin Hannouch / PhotoResearcher No. 44, 2025
Orders (physical journal or Pdf) to be sent to: office@eshph.org

A former gallery known for exhibitions documenting working class life has been turned into a Pilates and wellness studio. The Side Gallery was opened in Newcastle by the Amber film and photography collective, which aimed to capture and celebrate life in north-east England, in 1977. The gallery shut in April 2023 due to 'critical funding cuts and the cost of living crisis'.

See: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4grdj00pyxo

Read more about Side Gallery's new direction here: https://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/backlash-as-side-gallery-announces-it-will-not-re-open-newcastle-