Victorian Malta is a new book from the Richard Ellis Archive. Through Richard Ellis’s lens, this book unveils the intricate fabric of Victorian life in Malta during the late nineteenth century. This book includes previously unseen details of the Victorian era in Malta including a number of never-seen stereoviews. The book, lavishly produced, hardcased and printed in satin-finished matt artpaper with over 190 images is a welcome addition to the series of books from this incredible archive. All images have been re-scanned with the latest state-of-the-art equipment which enhances details captured by Ellis over 100 years ago. The book has two essays by Ian Ellis and Charles Paul Azzopardi. (size: 270x240mm)

100 Years of Photography in Malta is a thorough new study of photography in Malta between 1839 and 1939. With over 800 iconic and unpublished photographs, this monograph may be considered as the definitive volume on the history of photography on the island. This meticulous research presents new insights into the work of both photographers and photo-studios which operated during those early years. The author spared no effort in digging into archives, public and private, to pen a detailed narrative for this new art-form that mesmerised many in those early days and still awe us till this day. The book manages to capture the spirit and oeuvre of those pioneers making it a time-machine made of paper and ink. This large-format book is prestigiously produced in hardback with 320 pages printed in colour on satin-finished paper. (size: 240x300mm)

Both books are being offered in a discounted bundle from the third week of November 2025

100 Years of Photography in Malta
Charles Paul Azzopardi

Victorian Malta
Charles Paul Azzopardi and Richard Ellis

See: https://www.midseabooks.com/shop/history/victorian-malta-100-years-of-photography-in-malta-limited-offer/

Fast Forward is looking to commission an experienced writer/researcher to work on researching and drafting a policy for collecting and archiving photography with Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) priorities at its heart. The policy will be for use within public sector institutions, and it will include reference to the potential uses of new technologies such as AI. It is expected that the policy will feed into a bigger multi-partner research project.

The post would be an ideal opportunity for a post doc/early career researcher and someone with experience of consultancy work or writing within the cultural sector. The successful candidate will work across the collections at National Galleries Scotland and Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales where they will assist to co-ordinate two onsite research workshops and interviews with institutional staff and other identified individuals. The candidate will be responsible for writing the first draft of a policy, which will be a minimum of 10,000 words, based on this activity by mid-May 2026 and completing a final draft by mid-June 2026.

The work needs to be completed by May 12, 2026, and is expected to take approximately 20 days. Depending on the work proposed the fee will be between £4000 and £5000. We will also provide funding for travel between Edinburgh and Cardiff and your home base. The two institutions that we are working in collaboration with are National Galleries of Scotland and Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales.

Person specification – The ideal candidate would have the following key skills and experience:

Essential requirements:
• Strong communication skills, including an ability to write clear and compelling narratives.
• Organised individual with the ability to plan and prioritise effectively, shifting priorities, when necessary, sometimes at pace.
• A problem-solver, with experience of using data, evidence, and insights to develop a set of solutions to an issue.
• Delivery focussed, with the ability to turn complex issues into clear steps, with plans in place to deliver these.
• Knowledge of the infrastructure for photography and the visual arts in the UK.
• Knowledge of EDI priorities and strategies in the public realm.

Desirable skills:
• Experience of working in partnership with external stakeholders to deliver outcomes.
• Experience of developing an EDI strategy.

We welcome applications from underrepresented communities.

To make an application please send the following to afox@ucreative.ac.uk: by 5 November 2025
A4 CV;  Covering letter, 300-word statement about how you will approach the project

Fast Forward is a research project concerned with women in photography based at University for the Creative Arts. Started in 2014 with a panel discussion at Tate Modern, the project has established a significance within the world of photography for highlighting the work of women photographers and for questioning the way that the established canons have been formed.

Fast Forward is designed to promote and engage with women and non-binary people in photography across the globe. We intend to provoke new debate and ensure that we are in the news and in the history books. There are millions of women in the world of photography and now is the time to arrest the process of forgetting that so frequently erases women from the burgeoning histories of photography and shed light on new ways of thinking, showing, discussing and distributing our work.

Fast Forward showcases the best of emerging and established photography by women and non-binary people, it promotes opportunities and records events. We have started a discussion that will be on going and that many different people can continue to contribute to. Fast Forward is the foundation for an emerging international network of women in photography. Contributions that add to this discussion are welcome from any gender, race or class.

Details: https://fastforward.photography/opportunities/call-for-applications-fast-forward-consultancy-commission/

Early Photography in Colonial Australia explores the origins of the photographic culture that continues to shape how we see the world. From its mid-nineteenth-century beginnings photography was more than just a new technology – it was deeply implicated in the colonial project. The invention of photographic technology coincided with the rise of imperial control across the Pacific, and many of its raw materials were extracted from colonised lands.

This book offers the first major study of photography’s arrival and establishment in colonial Australia. It places photographs in conversation with prints, sketches and watercolours to explore how the foreign medium adapted to the Australian environment, artistically and politically. It shows how cameras were put to work, visually redacting Indigenous custodianship and knowledge of Country to celebrate colonial construction and expeditions.

Early Photography in Colonial Australia reveals the complex power of the medium. Elisa deCourcy considers these early images beyond colonial systems of knowledge and their contemporary role in acts of colonial reckoning and First Nations cultural reclamation.

Dr Elisa deCourcy is a writer and curator living and working on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country. She has written about photography and colonial art for the National Portrait Gallery, London; the Musée du quai Branly, Paris; the National Gallery of Victoria; The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, as well as a range of national and international scholarly journals. Elisa has been the recipient of fellowships from, and given invited lectures at, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Austin, Texas (2018); the Australian Academy of the Humanities (2018); the Bibliotheca Hertziana Max Planck Institute of Art History, Rome (2023) and the University of Oxford (2023). Between 2020 and 2023 she was an Australian Research Council DECRA fellow at the Centre for Art History and Art Theory at the Australian National University. This book is a major outcome of this project.

Early Photography in Colonial Australia
Elisa deCourcy
Melbourne University Press, 2025
£15.49
See: https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Early-Photography-in-Colonial-Australia/Elisa-deCourcy/9780522879537

Almost since its invention, the art of photography has thrived in Berwick. The town’s first photographic studio opened in 1849, sparking a tradition which would go on to capture the likenesses of generations of inhabitants of Berwick, Tweedmouth and Spittal. During the 19th century, travelling photographers, working from mobile studios would stop in the town. Although many of these were fleeting, William De Lan and his three daughters, who were also photographers, eventually made Berwick their home.

The picturesqueness of the town and the surrounding area made it a popular spot for amateur photographers to practice their hobby, perhaps inadvertently preserving our past through their lenses.

As technology changed, photography became even more embedded in the lives of our predecessors. Photographs began to appear in newspapers, could be sent abroad in the form of a postcard or with the click of a shutter on an inexpensive personal camera, capture a candid moment for posterity.

This major exhibition features over 100 images of Berwick and is a journey of exploration into how the town and its people have been captured by the changing photographer’s lens over the past 150 years.

The Light of Days Past has been developed in partnership with Berwick Record Office and curated by Cameron Robertson.

The Light of Days Past: Photography in Berwick 1840-1980
25 October 2025-22 February 2026
Maltings Gallery, Dewar’s Lane, Berwick-upon-Tweed, TD15 1HJ
Wednesday – Sunday, 1100-1600
Free Admission
See: https://www.maltingsberwick.co.uk/whats-on/the-light-of-days-past-photography-in-berwick-1840-1980/

Edinburgh auction house Lyon & Turnbull if offering a set of William Stirling-Maxwell's four-volume Annals of the Artists of Spain (1848). The fourth volume consists of Talbotype illustrations of art works. The set is considered the first art history book to be illustrated with photographs. The lot is estimated at £10,000-15,000.

The lot descrption notes: 

Opening at Four Corners Gallery this October, A World Apart captures a unique moment of change in London’s East End. As the docks closed, and wholesale slum clearance replaced old neighbourhoods, many communities were being transformed beyond recognition. Yet a different East End was also coming into being, as recent migrant communities created a space for themselves.

A new generation of photographers were drawn to document ordinary people’s lives and give visibility to working-class experience. They showed their photographs in everyday spaces where local people could view images of themselves and their own communities.

Brought together for the first time, these rarely seen photographs document a now-disappeared world. Bengali migrants live side-by-side with elderly Jewish shopkeepers and artisans, dockers socialise in Wapping’s clubs and pubs, neighbours and children celebrate at a raucous, multicultural Stepney festival.
 
A World Apart features remarkable photographs by Ron McCormick and Exit Photography group - Nicholas Battye, Diane Bush, Alex Slotzkin, and Paul Trevor - alongside work by Ian Berry, John Donat, David Hoffman, Jessie Ann Matthews, Dennis Morris, Val Perrin, and Ray Rising.

A World Apart. Photographing Change in London's East End, 1970-76
24 October-6 December 2025
Four Corners, London
https://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/whats-on/a-world-apart-photographing-change-in-londons-east-end-1970-76

Image credit: Child playing in a tenement block courtyard, Whitechapel or Wapping, around 1972. © David Hoffman

It is said that the first casualty of war is truth. But in the arena of war photography, the truth is never simple. Drawing on an incredible range of imagery from the Imperial War Museum's vast collection and other major archives around the globe, expert curator Hilary Roberts presents a new perspective on the role of image manipulation in this field over the past 170 years,exploring the consequences for our understanding of historic and contemporary conflicts.

From the staged scenes and hand-coloured Daguerreotypes of the Crimean War at the very beginning of conflict photography to the AI-generated protest and propaganda imagery of today, Roberts explores the myriad ways in which layers of meaning can be added, erased or changed completely. As The Camera at War so powerfully reveals, sometimes this has been done in order to present a closer approximation of the truth, and sometimes for the causes of national morale, subterfuge and control of the winning narrative. Witht he current wars in Gaza and Ukraine, conflict is on the public's mind nowmore than ever. 

Hilary Roberts is an independent curator of photography. She joined the Imperial War Museum's (IWM) Photograph Archive as a junior curator in 1980. As the Archive's Head Curator (1996-2013), she oversaw the development of IWM's photographic collections and the Archive's transition to digital photography, before moving to a research role. A specialist in the history and practice of conflict photography, Hilary has numerous broadcasts, publications and exhibitions to her name, including IWM's highly praised trilogy of exhibitions Don McCullin: Shaped by War (2010-2012), Cecil Beaton: Theatre of War (2012) and Lee Miller: A Woman's War (2015-2016). Hilary was awarded the Royal Photographic Society's Award for Curatorship in 2017.

The Camera at War. 170 years of weaponizing photography
Hilary Roberts
Ilex Press, with IWM
£40, 256 pages, hardcovers. 

The Royal Photographic Society's Historical Group and the Wolverhampton School of Art invite proposals for papers for the 2026 Research Symposium. This year’s event continues our commitment to exploring photography’s rich and multifaceted history, while placing it in dialogue with contemporary issues and technological transformations. We welcome contributions that examine photography’s historical trajectories alongside its evolving role in today’s cultural, scientific, and technological landscapes. The symposium aims to foster critical conversations that connect past practices with present innovations, whether through archival research, artistic experimentation, or interdisciplinary inquiry.

Suggested Themes:

• Photography in Flux: Mobility, Migration, and Global Networks
• Investigating historical movements of photographers and studios, and their resonance with today’s transnational image economies and digital platforms.
• Art, Process, and Post-Digital Experimentation
• Exploring intersections between photography and other media, including historical techniques and contemporary digital or AI-driven practices.
• Memory, Identity, and Representation in the Age of Algorithms
• From early portraiture to facial recognition and deepfakes, how photography continues to shape and challenge notions of self and society.
• Imaging the Invisible: Science, Technology, and Visualisation
• Tracing photography’s role in scientific discovery, from radiology and microscopy to satellite imaging and machine vision.
• Reframing Photographic Heritage
• New approaches to archives, lost works, and marginalised histories, rethinking preservation and access in the digital age.

We welcome proposals from both established and emerging researchers. As in previous years, we aim to reserve a part of the programme for first-time presenters. Presentations may be 10 or 20 minutes in length and delivered in person or online. Speakers will be invited to submit their papers for consideration in the RPS journal, The PhotoHistorian.

Submission:
Please send your proposal (title, abstract of up to 250 words, and preferred presentation length) to Janine Freeston at historicalresearch@rps.org and Dr Euripides Altintzoglou at E.Altintzoglou@wlv.ac.uk by 12 January 2026.

We look forward to receiving your proposals and to another inspiring day of photographic research and exchange.

From the start of the 2025/26 academic year, Professor Gil Pasternak (left) has taken on the role of Director of the Photographic History Research Centre at De Montfort University. Pasternak is Professor of Photographic Cultures and Heritage and serves as the EU and UK Editor for the peer-reviewed journal Photography & Culture. Under his leadership, the Centre is set to continue its tradition of academic excellence while also introducing new public engagement initiatives and interdisciplinary collaborations.

The PHRC remains committed to showcasing cutting-edge research in the field and to increasing opportunities for public learning, participation, and dialogue - it is Pasternak’s intention to expand the Centre's activities further. The PHRC is also in the process of appointing an international PHRC Scientific Advisory Committee - to increase academic collaboration and broaden the inclusivity and reach of the Centre's events and activities.

Programmes

Among the PHRC's new initiatives in 2025/26 is a public-facing online seminar series titled Research Seminars in Photographic Cultures and Heritage. These free-to-attend sessions are delivered via Microsoft Teams and are open to all with prior registration. The programme of talks scheduled for the current season, alongside details and registration links are all available on the PHRC’s website.

The programme for Semester One 2025 includes three talks, all free to register and delivered online:

• 30 October 2025, 5.30pm – Distinguished Professor Emeriti Martha Langford (Concordia University, Canada), “Through Line 1: the ebb and flow of illustration in A History of Photography in Canada, 1839-2010“.
• 27 November 2025, 5.30pm – Dr Pippa Oldfield (Teesside University, UK) and Tom Allbeson (Cardiff University, UK), “Peace Photographies: Rethinking Photojournalism of Armed Conflict”.
• 11 December 2025, 5.30pm – Dr Ana Catarina Pinho (IHA, NOVA University Lisbon / University of Coimbra, Portugal), “The Empire of Fiction: Images and Counter-Images of the Portuguese Dictatorship”.

Some changes are underway that will impact prospective MA students in particular. The distance learning Photographic History MA programme - which is delivered by PHRC staff - has temporarily frozen recruitment while the teaching team revises module structures and assessment methods. Partly, the aim is to better support practitioners looking to develop their photographic practice in direct relation to the study of photographic history and theory. While the relaunch of the programme is pending successful revalidation, it is hoped that recruitment will reopen later in the current academic session, with new students commencing their studies in the 2026/27 academic year.

The PhD programme at PHRC remains unaffected, and the PHRC continues to serve as a vibrant hub for doctoral research in photographic history, broadly defined. Doctoral students at the Centre explore photography and photographs, alongside other materials and processes, both as means of historical documentation and as cultural artefacts, deepening knowledge and understands about the medium’s technological, social, cultural, and political entanglements in the past and the present alike.

Conference

The PHRC will host its annual international conference in 2026, continuing a tradition that began in 2013. The theme for the 2026 conference is Photography's Tacit Knowledge; among other related issues, it will explore the implicit, unspoken, and embodied ways of knowing within photographic practices and histories. The two-day hybrid event will take place on 15–16 June 2026, at De Montfort University in Leicester and online. The call for papers is scheduled to be published in mid-November 2025, with submissions of paper proposals due by January 2026.

This conference will explore how photography has shaped and recorded the urban architectural heritage of Scotland. By examining Scottish photography from the 1840s to the present day, architectural styles, photographic records, and the influence of new technologies, the conference will provide a comprehensive look at how cities and towns have been represented and perceived through the lens. Academics, students, architects, photographers, and cultural historians will gather to discuss how photography influences not only the perception of Scotland’s built environment but also the way our modern towns and cities are planned and designed.

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES, a conference organised by Studies in Photography
5 November 2025
National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh
For full programme and to book: https://studiesinphotography.com/blogs/news/shifting-perspectives-a-conference-organised-by-studies-in-photography

In a new blog post researchers Giorgia Tolfo and Katherine Howells reflect on their recent project focusing on the metadata in the National Archives's photographic copyright collections (COPY1). They look at the opportunities and challenges of collaborative digital experimentation.

As a result of this copyright registration system, in COPY 1 there are over 133,000 individual entry forms containing this valuable and fascinating information. Crucially, through the hard work of volunteers over several years, the entry forms for the registration of photographs have been fully transcribed into Discovery, making this rich metadata available to researchers.

Since this metadata has been made available on Discovery, researchers have been able to search the information using keywords. However, for a long time we have recognised that the research potential of this information goes much deeper than enabling simple keyword searching. Through the wide range of digital methods of data analysis available to us now, there could be many more opportunities to use this metadata to illuminate historical trends, surface new and little-known stories and much more. To invite new perspectives on how we could maximise the potential of this metadata, we have now released the full dataset on GitHub. Researchers can download it freely and experiment with it.

Read the full blog post here: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blogs/research-projects/developing-an-enhanced-dataset-for-the-history-of-photography/

Images: COPY1 records for P H Emerson's Gathering Water Lillies / The National Archives, Kew

A new episode of the A Photographic Life podcast has been posted every Wednesday since 13 June 2018. Its cuartor Grant Scott is inviting listeners and readers to a special day of all new photography related conversation, discussion and chat. It will be an opportunity to meet fellow photographic travellers, share opinions, ideas and make new friends. All the conversations will be recorded so if you are unable to attend no problem, you will be able to catch up on these at a later date wherever you get your podcasts.

The day will consist of: 

10.00am – Open
10.15am – Introduction: Dr Grant Scott
10.30am – The Story: Alys Tomlinson talks with Dr Grant Scott
Alys Tomlinson is a photographic artist based in London. She works mostly in black and white analogue on a large format camera, exploring themes of faith, ritual and identity. Alys grew up in Brighton and studied English Literature and Communications at the University of Leeds. After graduating, she moved to New York for a year and was given her first commission for Time Out, before returning to London to study photography at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design. She later completed an MA in Anthropology of Travel, Tourism and Pilgrimage (Distinction) at SOAS, University of London, which tied in with her long-term, personal project about pilgrimage. Her book Ex-Voto was published by GOST Books in 2019, and Lost Summer was self-published in 2020. Alys recently finished work on a feature-length documentary film Mother Vera co-directed with Cécile Embleton. Her latest project Gli Isolani (The Islanders) was published by GOST Books in 2022. She combines commissioned work for editorial, design and advertising clients with personal work, which she publishes and exhibits. Alys’s work is collected privately and is in the following collections: National Portrait Gallery (London), The Rencontres d’Arles Collection, The Bodleian Library, and the Amber Side Collection.  www.alystomlinson.co.uk
11.15am – Q and A

11.30am – Break

11.45am – The Archive: Dr Michael Pritchard
Dr Michael Pritchard joined Christie’s, the fine art auction house, as a photography specialist in 1986 and grew their auctions of cameras and photographic equipment, setting many world auction records. Also working as an auctioneer, Pritchard became Director and International Business Director for collectibles for the auction house. He joined the Royal Photographic Society in 2011 as Chief Executive, becoming Director of Programmes from 2018-2023. During his tenure he brought a renewed public profile for the RPS  and oversaw an expansion in its public activities, growing its membership to the largest in its history. In 2024 he established his own photographic consultancy and continues to support the RPS. Pritchard continues to actively research the history of photography and regularly delivers conference papers and publishes across the field. He has taught the history of photography at De Montfort University and catalogued and organised the Kodak Historical Collection at the British Library.  He edits the British Photographic History website and The PhotoHistorianmagazine. He gives regular talks and has broadcast on a wide range of photographic subjects. His book A History of Photography in 50 Cameras (Bloomsbury) was published by Bloomsbury. https://mpritchard.squarespace.com
12.30pm – Q and A

12.45pm – Lunch

2.00pm The Portrait: Chris Floyd talks with Dr Grant Scott:
Chris Floyd is a British photographer and filmmaker.  His photographic work has appeared in some of the world’s most highly respected publications, including Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar, GQ, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine and Wallpaper* among others. In 2022 he published his first monograph dedicated to the broad sweep of his career Not Just Pictures a 320-page volume, including his portrait work and 60 pieces of text that tell the stories behind some of his favourite pictures. Chris has produced commercial work for Apple, Avis, Glenfiddich, Philips, Sony, The National Lottery, and Virgin Radio. As a director he has produced moving image work for  BMW, Anthropologie, Nissan, Mr Porter, Sleaford Mods, The Smithsonian, Space NK, UBS, and Virgin Radio. https://www.chrisfloyd.com
2.45pm – Q and A

3.00pm – End

A Photographic Life ‘LIVE’ 2025
Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, NHBB Building on the Headington Campus
Sunday, 26 October 2025 in the . Admission is free but registration is required
To book: https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2025/09/28/live-a-photographic-life-live-2025/

We’re looking for a Research Fellow in African Film and Visual History to join the international team responsible for the new research project The Uganda Film Unit Archive: Digitisation, Research and Restitution, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The project is led by Darren Newbury, Professor of Photographic History, School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Brighton and Richard Vokes, Professor of Anthropology and International Development, School of Social Sciences, University of Western Australia; and involves collaboration with the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation.

You will be working closely with Professor Newbury and Professor Vokes playing an important role in the content mapping of the digitised Uganda Film Unit archive and related archival and historical research; supporting fieldwork, data collection and analysis relating to the responses to the archival footage among Ugandan publics and communities; and disseminating the project findings through conference presentation and publication.

To be successful in this role, you should have:

• A PhD (or an equivalent level of professional experience) in an area of history, theory or practice central to the focus of the research project
• Experience of researching in African History/Studies, Film or Media History, Visual Anthropology, or Visual Culture Studies
• Sufficient, up to date breadth or depth of specialist knowledge in the discipline and of research methods and techniques to work within established research programmes
• Experience of data collection and data analysis (including visual data) and data management
• Evidence of commitment to engage in continuous professional development including knowledge of methods for data management
• Understanding of equality of opportunity, academic content and issues relating to student need and commitment to ethical research practices
• Competent and relevant IT skills, effective use of IT for research, and ideally teaching and learning purposes 

The appointment is for a fixed term (18.5 hours per week, 0.5 full time equivalent) with an ideal start date of 01/12/25 and an end date of 30/09/28.

Research Fellow in African Film and Visual History (0.5 full-time equivalent)
University of Brighton, School of Humanities and Social Science
Closes 28 October 2025
Details and apply here: https://jobs.brighton.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx?ref=HU3231-25-209

What does the photographic image share with synthetic dyes, fertilizer, and pharmaceuticals? Inspired by the city of Basel’s position as a global center of the chemical industry, this symposium investigates photography's chemical relations, tracing the networks shaped by material resources, industrial infrastructure, and scientific expertise, as well as the ecological legacies of photographic production. The symposium will conclude with an artist talk and workshop led by photographer and researcher Alice Cazenave (Goldsmiths, University of London), an advisor to the UK-based collective Sustainable Darkroom and current Ansel Adams Fellow at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona.

Chemical Histories of Photography
Symposium organized by NOMIS Fellow Katerina Korola
23-25 October 2025
Basel, University of Basel
Details: https://eikones.philhist.unibas.ch/en/news/events/event-details/chemical-histories-of-photography/

On the occassion of the Wolf Suschitzky Photography Prize 2025 we are delighted to present a special event celebrating two exciting new photography book publications about Austrian-British émigré photographers, Edith Tudor-Hart and Wolf Suschitzky. Both publications include many photographs which have been published for the first time.

In their respective talks, presenters Kurt Kaindl (Salzburg), Stefanie Pirker (London) and Julia Winckler (Brighton) offer insights into the photographers’ visual archives, largely now held at FOTOHOF>archiv in Salzburg, and from which these two new publications extensively draw upon. Contextual biographies of the two siblings will foreground the strength and ongoing relevance of their photographic legacies.

This event also coincides with several current exhibitions including the Wolf Suschitzky Retrospective Exile and Journeys, Monschau, Germany (until 21 December 2025), and Through a Bauhaus Lens: Edith Tudor-Hart and Isokon, Isokon Gallery, London, which runs until November 2025.

BOOK LAUNCH - Edith Tudor-Hart: A Steady Eye in Turbulent Times & Wolf Suschitzky: Exile and Journeys
15 October 2025 at 1900
Austrian Cultural Forum London
28 Rutland Gate
London SW7 1PQ
Book here: https://www.acflondon.org/events/book-launch-edith-tudor-hart-a-steady-eye-in-turbulent-times-wolf-suschitzky-exile-and-journeys/

For the first time, you can explore the full breadth of the AmberSide film, photography and paper archive in one place. The catalogue is text-based, allowing researchers, students and the public to navigate the Collection’s themes, projects and stories. While the collective cannot publish most images online due to copyright restrictions, the catalogue provides an unprecedented window into the scope and richness of Amber’s work.

This milestone has been made possible through support from the National Archives and the Pilgrim Trust’s Archives Revealed programme, and represents the result of a full year’s dedicated work. Special thanks to our Project Archivist Mark Cordell, AmberSide Trustee Liz Rees, and an incredible team of volunteers.

This is just the beginning: the catalogue will continue to grow and evolve as more materials are documented and made discoverable. It forms an invaluable tool for anyone interested in documentary film, photography, and the social history of the North East and beyond.

See: https://amber.epexio.com/

Quickshaws Tours is offering 10-day and 14-day tours in Sri Lanka to discover the places associated with Julia Margaret Cameron, who died and was buried there in 1879. Explore her life in British Ceylon and the links between England, India and Ceylon of the period.

The tour will take you to the places she lived, including Dimbola, her grave at Bogowantalawa, and introduce her Ceylon photographs. In addition, the tour will also visit other historic places, sites, and landscapes, as well as explore the country's food, culture.

The tour has been produced by Cameron scholar Aneela de Soysa, who will guide you through the journey. The tour is designed for art historians, photographers, and individuals with an interest in the life of Julia Margaret Cameron. The shorter 10-day tour focuses on Cameron's journey, while the longer tour extends into the country's broader cultural heritage. The tour covers 7 World Heritage sites.

Explore Julia Margaret Cameron in Ceylon 1875-1879
Tour led by Aneela de Soysa
7- 16 February 2026 Short Tour
7- 20 February 2026 Long Tour
For details of itinerary and costs, see: http://www.aneeladesoysa.com

Image: Julia Margaret Cameron, Two Young Women, Ceylon, 1875-79 Albumen Print, AIC. (see attached)

Edinburgh's Stills Gallery has been given a collection of Creative Camera issues and memorabilia. The collection has donated by the former editor and documentary maker David Brittain who lives in Edinburgh. David has written extensively about photography magazines, and in 1999 he edited Creative Camera: 30 Years of Writing (Manchester University Press).

The donation to Stills's Library includes an almost complete run of Creative Camera (1968-2000) and most copies of the Camera Owner (1966-1968) which was a predecessor to Creative Camera. Also included is a complete set of DPICT/Creative Camera (2000-2001), a successor to Creative Camera which embraced digital printing technologies, in addition to copies of DPICT’s world-record breaking customised covers.

Over the years, Creative Camera was a unique depository of the work and writings of photographers including Raymond Moore, Jo Spence, Lewis Baltz, Robert Frank and many others. Under David Brittain publication became bi-monthly, and attracted a new crop of writers including Marina Warner, Rebecca Solnit and Geoffrey Batchen.

This collection can be consulted in person and also on the library’s online catalogue, where it is also possible to see all the images used on the front covers of the DPICT/Creative Camera launch issue. 

The V&A’s Royal Photographic Society (RPS) Collection holds around 290,000 photographs and transparencies. It includes early colour processes, hand-coloured albumen prints, and unique historical photographs — each with its own story.

As an RPS Cataloguing volunteer, you’ll help unlock these stories by studying the collection and gathering information to go on our public online database, Explore the Collections. As part of a team of volunteers and supported by staff, you will be key to ensuring the collection can be digitally discovered, understood and enjoyed worldwide, preserving this remarkable photographic heritage for the future.

Based in offices at V&A South Kensington, you will be asked to flexibly give one or two days a week (10:00-16:00). You’ll get the most out of the role if you can commit for up to six months, but we’re happy to consider shorter-term arrangements.

What you will be doing: 

• Using trusted sources at the V&A, research objects in the photographic collection to gather basic cataloguing information
• Record this information in Microsoft Excel to help make the collection digitally accessible
• Learn to handle collection objects with the support and training of our specialist team.

If you are shortlisted, you will need to attend an informal group session at V&A South Kensington on Wednesday 15 October from 2pm - 3.30pm. This is a chance to get to know us and find out more about the volunteer role. If you are invited to join the team, you will need to attend an induction session on Wednesday 22 October from 10am – 12pm.

Full details and apply: https://volunteer.vam.ac.uk/opportunities/97664-royal-photographic-society-rps-cataloguing-volunteer-2025-09-19

Considered one of the most important photo historians of the 20th century, Peter E. Palmquist (1936-2003) had a keen interest in the photography of the American West, California, and Humboldt County before 1950, and the history of women in photography worldwide. He published over 60 books and 340 articles and was a strong proponent of the concept of the independent researcher-writer in the field of photohistory. With co-author Thomas Kailbourn, he won the Caroline Bancroft Western History Prize for their book, Pioneer Photographers of the Far West. Professor Martha Sandweiss, Princeton University, wrote that Peter "established new ways of pursuing the history of photography, and with his collections and research notes soon to be accessible at Yale, he will be speaking to and inspiring new generations of students and researchers forever.” Established by Peter’s lifetime companion, Pam Mendelsohn, this fund supports the study of under-researched women photographers internationally, past and present, and under-researched Western American photographers through the Great Depression. 

A small panel of outside consultants with professional expertise in the field of photo history and/or grant reviewing will review the applications in order to determine the awards. Applications will be judged on the quality of the proposal, the ability of the applicant to carry out the project within the proposed budget and timeline, and the significance of the project to the field of photographic history. Past recipients and their projects are featured at palmquistgrants.com.

Range of Awards: $500 - $2,000

Funds must be used for research; grant funding may not be used to cover salaries, pay for books, hardware, or equipment, or for production costs such as printing and bookbinding, podcasts, blogs, etc. November 15, 2025 is the deadline for submissions. Grant recipients will be announced in mid-January 2026. If selected, recipients will be required to submit a digital copy of their work to HAF+WRCF, once complete. 

Eligibility:
Individuals and nonprofit institutions conducting research in either of the fields below are eligible to apply: 

• Under-researched women photographers internationally, past and present.
• Under-researched Western American photographers through the Great Depression.

Application and information can be found at The Humboldt Area Foundation