Welcome...

Welcome to the British photographic history blog (BPH). Launched at the start of 2009 there are now nearly 4400 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

31103584863?profile=RESIZE_400x Following the cyber-attack in October 2023, the British Library's Archives and Manuscript catalogue is back online. For researchers wishing to find the Kodak Historical Collection, Fay Godwin's photographs, and the Talbot collection alongside the wider photographic materials related to South Asia, you can use this link: …

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A new sustaining and chemical free direct-to-plate photopolymer gravure combines hand-drawn and digital illustration with photogravure in a new exhibition at Hidcore, a Cotswold National Trust garden. A Place That Whispers reimagines Hidcote as a fantastical threshold where photography, illustration and storytelling converge.

Photographic artists Jonathan Anderson and Edwin Low discovered Hidcote during the COVID-19 pandemic and felt themselves to have been transported to an…

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The number of deepfakes shared online rose from around half a million in 2023 to eight million by 2025. While much of this material is seen as humorous or satirical, deepfakes are increasingly used for scams, misinformation, and political manipulation, exploiting a long-standing human weakness: our tendency to trust what we can see.

The Long View explores a striking historical parallel — the Cottingley Fairies affair of 1917–1921. In post-First World War Yorkshire, two young cousins,…

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31095840673?profile=RESIZE_400x A new photography fair offering vintage through to contemporary photography and photobooks is to take place on 16 May 2026. The Other Photography Fair will be held at the Hilton London Olympia Hotel which is a five-minute walk from the Photo London's new venue, a five-minute walk from Olympia railway station and a short journey from High Street Kensington tube and Chiswick…

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A Vixex colour print from Madame Yevonde has sold at an auction in the United States for $29,210 (approx £21,800). Metis which dates to c1935 was included in an auction of Photographic Masterworks from an Important Private Collection by New Jersey based Rago auctions on 12 February 2026. It had been estimated at $3000-5000. The print had been exhibited by Yevonde at the National Exhibition of Professional Photography held by the Institute of British Photographers in…

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The Albert-Kahn Museum’s current exhibition, A Return Trip to Benin. Shared Perspectives on Dahomey, from 1930 to today (Bénin aller-retour. Regards sur le Dahomey de 1930), offers a reinterpretation of the films and photographs produced during a mission to Dahomey (now Benin) led from January to May 1930 by Catholic missionary Francis Aupiais and camera operator Frédéric Gadmer for Albert Kahn’s Archives of the Planet. This immersion, meant as a Franco-Beninese dialogue, questions…

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31094686863?profile=RESIZE_400x The Peter Marlow Foundation (PMF) was established in 2018 to celebrate, preserve, and activate the archive of the late Magnum photographer Peter Marlow, while supporting contemporary photography and visual literacy across the UK, with a special focus on Kent and surrounding counties. As part of this mission, we launched our Archival Research Fellowship, funded through a Knowledge…

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31094686481?profile=RESIZE_400x Quaritch has announced the publication of its latest book, The Photographer at Work: Documenting Civil Engineering 1853 to 1913. This catalogue of photographs highlights the intersections between civil engineering and photography from 1853 to 1915, lavishly illustrated with over four hundred photographic illustrations. Beginning with portrait photographs of the civil engineer…

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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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