Photographic collections are found in libraries, archives and museums all over the world. Their sensitivity to environmental conditions, and the speed with which images can deteriorate present special challenges.

This one day training session is led by Susie Clark, accredited photographic conservator. It is aimed at those with responsibility for the care of photographic collections regardless of institutional context. The day provides an introduction to understanding and identifying photographic processes and their vulnerability, information on common conservation problems and solutions, and the preservation measures that can be taken to prolong the life and accessibility of photographic collections. Contact with real examples of different photographic processes is an important feature of this training session which is therefore limited to only 16 places. At the end of the day participants will be able to:

• identify historic photographic processes
• explain how damage is caused
• implement appropriate preservation measures \tab commission conservation work.

For further information about the course, please contact the Course Organiser: +44 (0)1243 818219 or cpd@westdean.org.uk

Read more: https://www.westdean.org.uk/study/short-courses/courses/bl25-preserving-historic-photographs#block-intro

BBC Four invites audiences to share in a celebration of British Photography with Britain in Focus, a season of programmes exploring the UK through the lens. The BBC are looking for photo-fanatics to submit their own photographic memories for a documentary looking at the family photograph and the story of the cameras which defined each generation's favourite family snapshots.

Are your shelves groaning under the weight of countless family photo albums? Has your family captured each generation's story on the cameras of the day, from Box Brownies to Polaroids, Kodak Instamatic to the latest digital cameras?

If so then the BBC needs you. Smile! The Nation's Family Album will tell the unique story of family life in Britain from the 1950s to the modern day, focusing on the cameras that shaped home photography, and the people that used them. BBC Four are looking for families of photo-fanatics - ideally three generations of snappers – to dig deep into their treasured photo collections and share their most precious memories and family images to become part of the story.

Also in the season, Margaret Mountford and contemporary photographer Harry Cory Wright will discover The Man Who Shot Tutankhamun as they recreate the techniques of pioneering British photographer Harry Burton who captured the mysteries of ancient Egypt as it was excavated, in a unique look at how some of the most iconic images of the 1920s in the early days of photographic experimentation were created. 

And from the gold heads of the Pharaohs through to the gold-plated Lamborghinis of Knightsbridge, BBC Four will accompany award-winning street photographer Dougie Wallace as he documents the lives of the superrich on the streets of London’s most exclusive postcodes. The documentary will follow Wallace capturing off-guard images of the wealthy on the streets of SW1, for his photo-documentary series, 'Harrodsburg', a powerful portrait of the ultra-affluent new elite, changing the face of the city and marginalising traditional local communities.

Leading photographer and picture editor Eamonn McCabe will tell the remarkable story of Britain in Focus: A Photographic History. From the delicacy of Julia Margaret Cameron through to the satire of Martin Parr, McCabe will look behind the lens to find out more about the artists and technology responsible for some of the most iconic images in British history and how a new generation of Instagrammers will shape our future attitudes towards photography.

Photographers at the BBC will take audiences inside the unique photographic treasure chest of the BBC’s archive, where the lives of top photographers from Norman Parkinson to David Bailey, Eve Arnold and Jane Bown have been brought to mainstream attention through classic programmes like Face to Face and Omnibus.

Cassian Harrison, BBC Four said: “Photography has been one of the most exciting, vibrant and transformational art-forms of the last 1,000 years – putting the tools of creation into the hands of anyone with explosive effect. Across this season of programming BBC4 will explore photography’s fantastic world with all the channel’s customary expertise and depth, unpacking both its history and relevance in exciting new ways and through the eyes of some of its greatest practitioners.”

Details of how to submit images for inclusion in Smile! The Nation's Family Album and to find out how to apply can be found at bbc.co.uk/familyalbum 

Programme Information (transmission times to be confirmed, but spring 2017) 

Smile! The Nation's Family Album (w/t)

BBC Four, 1 x 60

In today's digital age, the classic family photo album has become an object of nostalgic affection. But its more than just a collection of sentimental snapshots. Celebrating everyday moments and shared experiences - from birthdays to weddings, first days at school to teenage parties - amateur photography offers an intimate portrait of Britain’s post-war social history. And each generation had a different camera to tell their story.

From Teddy Boys in photo booths to family holidays captured on Kodachrome, this film reveals the images and the cameras which preserved our most precious memories. Discovering how new technologies and evolving social attitudes inspired the nation to pick up a camera, the film charts a journey from the Box Brownie to Instagram, offering a touching portrait of our changing lives, taken not by the professional photographer but on our own cameras.

The Man Who Shot Tutankhamun (w/t)

BBC Four, 1 x 60

This is the story of Harry Burton, one of the great heroes of British photography. As the official photographer for Howard Carter’s Tutankhamun excavation during the 1920s, Burton created some of the 20th Century’s most famous images and helped make Tutankhamun an international sensation.

The film explores key locations in Burton’s life, in the UK and Egypt, and sets Burton’s famous black-and-white images of Howard Carter’s Tutankhamun excavation alongside forgotten colour photographs and cine film shot by Burton himself. The team led by Margaret Mountford and contemporary photographer Harry Cory Wright will also stage creative photographic experiments to discover the secrets of Burton’s art, re-creating the make-shift studio and dark-room that Burton set up by the Pharaoh’s tomb to reveal how he produced his iconic images.

Burton immortalised some of the most iconic moments of the 20th century, and besides recording the progress of the archaeology, his images capture the mystery, drama and excitement of one of the great archaeological discoveries of the century.

Britain in Focus: A Photographic History

BBC Four, 3 x 60

Photographer Eamonn McCabe explores the fascinating and remarkable story of British photography, from the rapid innovation of Roger Fenton in the Golden Age of the 19th century, to the satirical eye of Martin Parr in the 21st. He explores the profound technical and scientific changes that have allowed iconic images to be produced, chronicles the rise of a mass democracy of picture taking, and examines the changing way we have consumed photographs.

Throughout this three-part documentary series McCabe explores how the art form has developed, exploring some of the unforgettable images from icons and pioneers of British photography, including  Julia Margaret Cameron, Fay Godwin, Cecil Beaton, Christina Broom, John Bulmer and Vanley Burke. From the first “big bangs” of photographic development and early technology, through to the impact that captured images had on the development of journalism, photography emerged as both an art-form and a tool for reflecting and recording the world around us.

The programme will also look forward to the future of the medium - and how in the hands of a new generation of photographers, a thoroughly 21st century British photography is being created.

Photographers at the BBC (w/t)

BBC Four, 1 x 60

Using the BBC archive, this programme reveals the working practices, lives and opinions of some of the 20th century’s most distinguished photographers. From Norman Parkinson to David Bailey, Eve Arnold to Jane Bown, for decades the BBC has drawn the nation’s attention to the creators of what has become the most ubiquitous contemporary art form. Pioneering BBC programmes like Monitor, Face to Face and Omnibus provide unique and rarely-seen insights into the careers of many leading practitioners.

Through a selection of top photographers, the programme brings into focus the key genres (fashion, portraiture, documentary and landscape) and shows how these talented figures helped develop photography into a revered – and accessible – art form. 

What Do Artists Do All Day: Dougie Wallace

BBC Four, 1 x 30

Street photographer Dougie Wallace’s startling and eye-catching images capture the life of the inhabitants and visitors to the super-rich residential and retail district of Knightsbridge and Chelsea, with its solid gold-plated Bugatti’s and high end retail consumerism.

BBC Four follows Wallace as he finishes his exhilarating, headline-grabbing photography photo-documentary series ‘Harrodsburg’: an up-close wealth safari capturing the ultra-rich consumers who populate one of the UKs most wealthy and exclusive postcodes.

The recent winner of a Magnum Award for his work, Dougie's images are aggressive, confrontational and opinionated.  But he is unrepentant about his methods, and his message: “They come here because the rule is they can do whatever they want. Well, the rule of law in the UK says that I can photograph them. I’m just showing the wealthy, I’m taking pictures of them to highlight things like food banks in Glasgow.”

Could you use your creativity and clear-thinking to deliver marketing that brings thousands of visitors through the Museum's doors? We're looking for a Senior Marketing Executive to take the lead on marketing some of our most important and exciting projects. You'll have a really solid grounding in marketing with experience of digital and you'll have a track record for effectively delivering multiple projects at one time.

You'll work closely with our media buyers and design agencies to turn that knowledge into campaigns that pack a punch online, offline and on social media. You'll find the stories, images and ideas that bring out the science and technology in our collections, enhance our reputation and strengthen our brand.

Closing Date: 13 November 2016.

Interviews will be held w/c 21 November.

Details here: https://jobs.theguardian.com/job/6413205/senior-marketing-executive/

Life in Qing Dynasty Shanghai: The Photographs of William Saunders features a selection of over 35 original 19th-century albumen silver prints, many hand-colored, by William Saunders from the Stephan Loewentheil Historical Photography of China Collection. This exhibition, at the China Exchange, Soho, is curated by Stacey Lambrow is the first public exhibition devoted to Saunders’s work. Saunders occupies a distinguished place in the history of photography for the exceptional body of work he produced in Shanghai during the late Qing dynasty. For over a quarter of a century, Saunders operated Shanghai’s leading photographic studio, adjacent to the Astor House Hotel, a center of social activity on the Bund in the 19th century. Saunders’s images are an unrivaled photographic resource for the study of life in late Qing dynasty Shanghai.

Gallery Talks and Panel Discussions:

November 4 at 6pm
Preservation of Culture: Custodianship of 19th Century Photography
By Stephan Loewentheil, Phillip Prodger, Terry Bennett, and Richard Fattorini

As part of the historical photography exhibition ‘Life in Qing Dynasty Shanghai: The Photographs of William Saunders’ the panel will discuss custodianship of the earliest photographs taken in China and Asia.

Stephan Loewentheil – Private Collector
Dr. Phillip Prodger – Head of Photographs Collection at the National Portrait Gallery
Terry Bennett- Independent Scholar of Early Photography of Asia
Richard Fattorini- Sotheby’s Specialist in Historical Photography

November 10 at 6pm
Traditions of Photography in China
By Dr. Michael Pritchard, Betty Yao, Grace Lau, and Stacey Lambrow

As part of the historical photography exhibition ‘Life in Qing Dynasty Shanghai: The Photographs of William Saunders’, the panel will discuss early photographic studio practices and traditions of photography in China.

Dr. Michael Pritchard – Director General of the Royal Photographic Society
Betty Yao – Managing Director at Credential International Arts Management and International Curator
Grace Lau – Contemporary photographer, lecturer and author.
Stacey Lambrow – Curator of the Stephan Loewentheil Historical Photography of China Collection

More here: http://www.19thshop.com/eventsaunderschinaexchange2016/?utm_source=Saunders+Opening+&utm_campaign=Saunders&utm_medium=email

The Bradford Review has conducted a wide-ranging interview with Jo Quinton-Tulloch, Director of the National Media Museum, Bradford. It discusses some of the changes taking place at the museum. 

See the interview here: http://www.thebradfordreview.co.uk/interview-media-museum-director-jo-quinton-tulloch/

● BPH understands that the NMeM will re-launch itself in the first quarter of 2017.

The University of Newcastle in partnership with the Victoria and Albert Museum if offering a doctoral project which will research new ways of curating and interpreting institutional historic photographic collections in the digital realm. The project aims to explore how digital and transmedial interpretation and contextualisation approaches can bring to life an institutional historic photographic collection; and provide an innovative platform for engagement with a variety of audiences.

Key areas of research include:

• the investigation of reflexive interpretation strategies for historic photographic collections;
• scholarly research on Maurice Broomfield’s photographic archive;
• how a variety of audiences engage with institutional photographic collections (in analogue or digital form);
• how historic photographic archives may become connected to other types of cultural content (including user-contributed) in the digital realm.

The Victoria and Albert Museum’s Broomfield archive provides an ideal locus for this research, containing around 30,000 negatives of various formats, contact prints, press cuttings, exhibition prints and works order ledgers, documenting a pivotal period in post-war British industry from the 1950s to 1970s. A life story interview with the photographer is also included in the collection.

The successful candidate will have a large degree of freedom in developing their project, but it is envisaged that this PhD will undertake theoretical and empirical action research with a variety of stakeholders to:

1. explore novel approaches in interpreting institutional historic photographic collections with audiences in mind; and
2. articulate how digital media platforms may shape practices around the interpretation of photographic collections and people’s engagement with them.

Student Development Funding (equivalent to an additional 6 months of funding) is available to cover further training and skills development opportunities that are agreed as part of the PhD programme.

Sponsor

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme.

Name of supervisor(s)

Dr Areti Galani, Dr Tom Schofield, Professor Christopher Whitehead, Media, Culture, Heritage, Newcastle University

Mr Martin Barnes, Senior Curator of Photographs, Word and Image, Victoria and Albert Museum

Eligibility Criteria

The studentship is open to UK and EU applicants.

Applicants must have:

• a first or upper second-class Honours degree
• a Master’s degree in an appropriate discipline
• meet our English language requirements if your first language is not English
• alternative qualifications/experience will be considered if applicants can demonstrate relevant achievement.

Applicants with experience in working with cultural collections and/or designing and developing digital projects in the cultural sector are encouraged to apply.

For the AHRC’s eligibility criteria, please see: www.rcuk.ac.uk/funding/grantstcs/.

How to apply

Please complete the University’s online postgraduate application form:

• insert the programme code 8834F (full-time) or 8836P (part-time) in the Programme of Study section
• select PhD Media, Culture and Heritage
• select the Research Area Museum, Gallery and Heritage Studies
• insert the studentship code SAC22 in the studentship/partnership reference field.

Your application must include:

1. a copy of your CV (maximum 2 pages)
2. a 750 word research proposal outlining the theoretical and methodological approach you propose to take if successful.

Contact

For further information please email Areti Galani.

See more and apply here: http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AVG260/ahrc-collaborative-phd-studentship-in-historic-photographic-collections-curating-and-interpreting-institutional-photographic-archives-in-the-digital-realm-the-maurice-broomfield-archive

Born in 1832 in Le Havre, France, to American parents, the photographer John Beasley Greene was a student of the noted photographer Gustave Le Gray in Paris, who, as author and historian Eugenia Parry writes, was “a magician of change who inspired and shaped the genius of John Beasley Greene.” Greene’s unusual still lives made on a rooftop in Paris, probably during his studies with Le Gray, show the beginnings of his enchanted eye.

This exhibition at Hans P. Kraus Photographs features a rare group of more than 25 waxed paper negatives and salt prints exhibited for the first time.

http://www.sunpictures.com/html/

The RAI Photographic Committee invites you to attend the first salon, a convivial and informal evening of conversation and drinks exploring the relationship between anthropology and photography, aimed at graduate students and early career researchers.

Every participant will have the opportunity to talk about their work for no more than five minutes. If you are interested in attending please contact h.geismar@ucl.ac.uk with a brief introduction to you and your current project.

The first RAI Photographic Salon
7 December 2016,  6-8 pm
Royal Anthropological Institute 50 Fitzroy Street, W1T 5BT

From October 2016 London's National Portrait Gallery will celebrate photography with an installation dedicated to its extraordinary photography collection. The display will feature works by internationally renowned makers such as Edward Weston and Frederick Evans alongside photographs from the archives of Cecil Beaton and Madame Yevonde.

Included will be some of the Gallery’s great nineteenth century treasures – works by Julia Margaret Cameron, Lewis Carroll, Hill and Adamson, and many others. Also on display for the first time will be the recently acquired album of photographs by the Swedish émigré photographer Oscar Rejlander. The display will remain until October 2017. See a list of all photographs in room 29

Read more here: http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/display/2016/a-century-of-photography-1840-1940.php

Image: Adelaide Passingham
by Eveleen Myers (née Tennant), early 1890s

The Photographic Chemistry course was initiated by FAIC in 2015, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This series explores key elements of photographic chemistry that are essential to understanding the nature of silver-based analog photographs, their creation, and their deterioration mechanisms. These topics are critical for photograph conservators, but also of interest to photographers, artists, collectors, and other photography enthusiasts. This series of online self-study modules includes video lectures and quizzes on specific topics in the chemistry of photography. Each section contains about 10 – 20 units and each unit includes a video lecture of 3 – 10 minutes in length and a brief self-assessment quiz. The cost of the course includes access to a discussion forum where participants can ask an expert questions about the content. Study at your own pace and repeat sections as needed!

The fee for each section is $19, which provides access to:

• Unlimited viewing of the online video lectures
• Access to unit quizzes
• Access to the discussion forum

The following sections will be open to participants October 20 – March 20. Registrants will have access to all units in the sections they paid for during this time. Participants can access the modules on their own schedule and work at their own pace. Participants can register at any time before or during this period.

Section 1: Light Sensitivity of Silver Salts
Section 2: The Latent Image
Section 3: Chemical and Spectral Sensitization (delayed opening: modules will be available by November 14)

Additional sections will become available in summer 2017. Sections 1 – 3 will remain accessible to paid participants into the future.

Register for this course by clicking here: AIC/FAIC Store - Events

See more here: http://www.conservation-us.org/courses/collaborative-workshops-in-photograph-conservation/photographic-chemistry-course#.WBY4nC2LTIV

Throughout its early history, photography's authenticity was contested and challenged: how true a representation of reality can a photograph provide? Does the reproduction of a photograph affect its value as authentic or not? From a Photograph examines these questions in the light of the early scientific periodical press, exploring how the perceived veracity of a photograph, its use as scientific evidence and the technologies developed for printing it were intimately connected.

Before photomechanical printing processes became widely used in the 1890s, scientific periodicals were unable to reproduce photographs and instead included these photographic images as engravings, with the label 'from a photograph'. Consequently, every image was mediated by a human interlocutor, introducing the potential for error and misinterpretation. Rather than 'reading' photographs in the context of where or how they were taken, this book emphasises the importance of understanding how photographs are reproduced. It explores and compares the value of photography as authentic proof in both popular and scientific publications during this period of significant technological developments and a growing readership. Three case studies investigate different uses of photography in print: using pigeons to transport microphotographs during the Franco-Prussian War; the debate surrounding the development of instantaneous photography; and finally the photographs taken of the Transit of Venus in 1874, unseen by the human eye but captured on camera and made accessible to the public through the periodical.

Addressing a largely overlooked area of photographic history, From a Photograph makes an important contribution to this interdisciplinary research and will be of interest to historians of photography, print culture and science.

See more here: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/from-a-photograph-9781474266727/

From a Photograph. Authenticity, Science and the Periodical Press, 1870-1890
Geoffrey Belknap
Bloomsbury

An exhibition of 80 light boxes in 65 windows throughout Lewes, 1916: Lewes Remembers will show work from the years of the First World War by Benjamin Reeves, grandfather of the present Reeves photographic studio owner Tom Reeves.

This will include individual and group portraits of soldiers and their families, as well as civilian life during the war, and photographs of the thousands of men billeted in the town.  To help bring things to life, the photographs will be shown around Lewes in locations relevant to their subjects.

The Lewes Tourist Information Office will supply a free map of the light box trail.

In addition to the lightbox exhibition, there will be a series of associated events and activities. 

See more here: https://leweshistory.org.uk/2016/10/22/stories-seen-through-a-glass-plate-1916-lewes-remembers-29-october-to-20-november-2016/

Find out more about the Reeves Studion project here: http://www.reevesarchive.co.uk/

The photograph here shows the final resting place of pioneering photographer Robert Howlett - the man whose photograph of Isambard Kingdom Brunel is now one of the most famous images in history.

Howlett tragically died just one year later at the age of 27 and was not buried in London but in a quiet corner of Norfolk at his father's church of St Peter and St Paul, Wendling. At the time of his unexpected death he was at the peak of his career with commissions from Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and Brunel amongst many others during his brief professional career.

Howlett was described as being in the best of health, full of boundless enthusiasm with a great future ahead but lost his life as a result of a prolonged fever unrelated to his work, in the prime of his life. His father was the parish priest at this church and organised a large memorial to his son in December 1858. The 158 year old grave is showing its age and is now in need of a replacement base plus re-engraving of his name which is almost illegible.

As you can see from the photograph, taken in 2015, it is in need of a great deal of attention though it has now been cleaned. Quotes have been obtained for the base to be replaced, any necessary restoration to be carried out and the inscription to be re- engraved. It is hoped that his restored grave can be rededicated next year.

Any donation will be welcomed through a dedicated page at Justgiving.com https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/howlett-grave

A rare opportunity to be part of photographic history.

Image, above: Robert Howlett’s grave in 2015 © Rose Teanby. Right: Robert Howelett by B B Turner. 

Marking the 120th anniversary of the first medical X-Ray performed in Birmingham by radiology pioneer Major John Hall-Edwards, Hippodrome CREATIVE has commissioned an innovative new digital dance film and sonic soundscape that fuses performance with X-Ray imagery.

The film is a collaboration between performer/choreographer Mickael ‘Marso’ Riviere, sound artist Justin Wiggan and British Institute of Radiology artist in residence Hugh Turvey. It will also be screened at partner venues Birmingham City University and Birmingham Children's Hospital. 

Find out more more: http://www.birminghamhippodrome.com/calendar/x-ray-unknown-quantity/?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CRE-X-RayVIPInvite&utm_content=version_A&sourceNumber=

The Wellcome Collection has produced a short film looking the relationship between Julia Margaret Cameron and Sir John Herschel using materials from its collection. 

We are looking for somebody who can take responsibility for the successful delivery of the [James] Fenton Collection Project. With the support of volunteers, this project aims to catalogue a significant photographic collection of 4,500 items, consisting of photographs, cameras, pre-cinema object and printed materials. All of this will be carried out in the public gallery to maximise our opportunity to engage with our audiences.

What it's like to work here

What you'll be doing

Who we're looking for

The post-holder will be responsible for identifying and making accessible a largely unknown part of the Royal Collection's photograph collection. With the guidance of curatorial colleagues and the Picture Library team, the postholder is responsible for creating, editing and enhancing online records for selected groups of twentieth century photographs by significant photographers. None of the material has previously been made available to the public so the post-holder will be playing a key role in making the collection more widely available to as many people as possible.

The post-holder will:

• Identify significant groups of photographs that have not previously been published online;
• Create inventory records of these photographs which will be published online;
• Ensure that the selected photographs are digitised by our in-house photographic team;
• Ensure copyright is cleared for online publication of the photographs;
• Be required to contribute your knowledge of this material to other projects and the general ongoing work of the Photograph Collection, including in-house displays and group visits.

The position will run from January to December 2017.

Applications by 30 October. 

See more here: https://theroyalhousehold.tal.net/vx/lang-en-GB/mobile-0/appcentre-1/brand-3/xf-b902fade92ff/candidate/so/pm/1/pl/4/opp/1264-Collection-Online-Assistant-20th-Century-Photography/en-GB

Birkbeck's History and Theory of Photography Research Centre has announced its Autumn/Spring 2016/17 seminar programme. Each is free and open to all, at 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD.

Monday 24 October, 6:00-7:30pm

Room 106

Tim Satterthwaite (Visiting Lecturer, University of Brighton)

Spiritualising the machine: the modernist photography of UHU magazine

The photo-illustrated monthly UHU was at the heart of the progressive photographic culture of Weimar Germany. In a stream of articles and photo-pages in the late 1920s, UHU showcased the work of modernist photographers, such as Albert Renger-Patzsch and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, alongside the radical new perspectives of scientific and aerial photography. UHU’s modernism offered more, however, than a simple embrace of technological modernity; like the great photographic exhibitions of the period, the magazine sought a reconciliation between the rationalising forces of the machine age and the organic principles of the natural world and traditional life. This talk describes how UHU’s modernist synthesis was expressed through a unifying aesthetic of repetition and regularity. The magazine’s photographs of microscopic plant forms, aerial landscapes, and the textures of urban life, were symbolic of alternative visions of social order – the organic or technocratic principles of an ideal future society.

Wednesday 16 November, 6:00-7:30pm

Room 106

Samuel Bibby (Association of Art Historians)

‘New! Art… Plus Added Social Purpose’: BLOCK and the Periodical Landscape of 1970s British Art History

Thursday 2 February 2017, 6:00-7:30pm

Room B04

Marcia Pointon (Professor Emeritus in History of Art, University of Manchester, and Research Fellow, Courtauld Institute of Art)

Robert Harris’s Photography at De Beer’s Kimberley Diamond Mine 1875-1890

Robert Shanebrook writes...In 2010, I published a 94-page book Making Kodak Film. The book provided a high level view of the technology used to provide silver halide films. The positive response encouraged me to write a second edition with much more in-depth coverage of the subject.  To gather information, I consulted over 100 photographic film experts.  This resulted in a 470-page book that includes an additional 225 illustrations and over 600 footnoted references.

The first edition provided a great deal of information that had never been published. Nearly all of the additional information in the new book has never been published. Certainly never gathered together in a comprehensive explanation of film manufacturing.

The book includes:

1. History of film base manufacturing including American Film, cellulose nitrate, cellulose acetate, Estar Base and others.

2.      Expanded discussion of historic and modern emulsion making processes and equipment.

3.      History of coating technology and expanded discussion of curtain coating including photographs of an operating Kodak curtain coater and the thread-up path of Kodak’s Building 38 Film Coating Machine.

4.      Expanded description and photographs of finished film configurations and the finishing processes. Of special interest is motion picture film finishing using high speed T-perforators.

5.      Detailed descriptions of photographic film image forming mechanisms for black-and-white films, color negative films, Ektachrome Films, and   Kodachrome Films.  

6.      Technical descriptions and history of Kodak Films that are used for consumer, professional, motion picture, x-ray, micrographic, graphic, aerial, and scientific applications.

7.      Description of past and current Kodak Worldwide manufacturing plants, interactions between the plants, and technology transfers.  

8.      First-hand description of working in Kodak’s film business in the 1980’s.  

9.      Information based on private communications with over 100 photographic experts.  

10.  Addition of over 225 photographs and diagrams.

11.  Identification of sources of information; over 600 footnoted references.

12.  A table of figures and an index to facilitate finding information in the book.

The book is 470 pages, 8.5 x 11 inches and four-color printed on 80-pound gloss paper.  It is gloss-film lamination hard-cover bound.  Shipping weight is 5 pounds.  It was printed and bound in Rochester, NY. USA

The price of the book will be $125 after December 31, 2016. Before then the price is $100. If requested books will be signed by the author.

                                                                          Priority Mail         Media Mail  

      USA with USPS shipping                                 $73.45               $65.45             

      to New York address with sales tax:                 $79.33               $71.33

PayPal is  makingKODAKfilm@yahoo.com     

International Shipping: I charge what USPS charges for shipping.  USPS flat rate shipping cost is about the same for 1, 2, or 3 books to many countries.

PayPal is  makingKODAKfilm@yahoo.com     All prices $US

                                                            1 book             2 books            3 books

Canada                                                $143.35           $245.95           $345.95          

United Kingdom                                 $165.50           $266.50           $366.50

France                                                 $154.35           $266.50           $366.50

Germany                                             $154.35           $266.50           $366.50

Italy/Switzerland                                $156.05           $266.50           $366.50

Australia                                              $164.70           $275.95           $375.95

Others                                                 contact  makingKODAKfilm@yahoo.com

The life, work and inventions of William Henry Fox Talbot, inventor of modern photography, are presented in a major exhibition at the National Media Museum, Bradford.

Fox Talbot: Dawn of the Photograph (18 November, 2016  – 5 February, 2017. Free entry) features more than 200 images and objects, including a selection of the earliest cameras and photographs in existence, as well as original documents relating to some of the first experiments in photography.

Scientist and inventor WHF Talbot (11 February 1800 – 17 September 1877) became interested in the idea of the photograph in 1933 during a trip to Italy. Having traced with a pencil a landscape as seen through the lens of a Camera Lucidia, he was inspired to start work on a process that directly reproduced the “inimitable beauty of the pictures of nature’s painting, which the glass lens of the camera throws upon the paper”.

Following several years of experimentation he announced the news of his photographic process in January 1839, just weeks after Frenchman Louis Daguerre had revealed his invention, the Daguerreotype, to the world.

Both men used light sensitive chemicals to permanently create a photographic image, however Talbot’s produced the image on paper (Daguerreotypes used silver-plated copper) and, significantly, allowed multiple copies to be produced. He called his system the ‘negative-positive’ process, and it became the foundation for mainstream photography for more than 150 years, until the advent of the digital camera.

Fox Talbot: Dawn of the Photograph features some of the original apparatus used by the British inventor including the famous ‘Mousetrap’ camera (named by Talbot’s wife Constance due to their small box-like appearance), his Calotype Camera, and Camera Obscura.

Also exhibited are examples of Talbot’s earliest photographs – images renowned throughout the world of science, photography and culture: The Haystack (c. 1844), Chess Players (c. 1844), Constance Talbot (portrait, 1840), Notre Dame, Paris (1843) - plus many taken around Lacock Abbey, Talbot’s home and workplace.

Five years after making his discovery public Talbot published The Pencil of Nature, the first commercial publication to be illustrated using photographs. It demonstrated that, alongside his artistic and scientific aspirations, Talbot had one eye on photography’s commercial potential, and an ambition to serve both a creative medium and one of mass production. 

The exhibition, which first appeared in Media Space at the Science Museum, is co-curated by Greg Hobson and Russell Roberts. Roberts, Reader in Photography at the University of South Wales said: “Photography without question was one of the most profound inventions of nineteenth century Britain. Talbot not only set in motion a new way of seeing but, through his writings and experiments, identified the distinctiveness of photography as an art, science and industry. He left an extensive visual record of the medium’s possibilities that reveals a sophisticated consciousness at work. This exhibition allows us to fully appreciate the extent of his achievements and to reinforce the impact of his invention on social and cultural life.”

Fox Talbot: Dawn of the Photograph explores how the work of this pioneer bridged art, science and industry to define what was possible in the formative moments of photography.  It also explores the relationships between a network of photographers who gravitated towards Talbot’s process but who each took photography into different territory. Assessing their cultural contribution and social legacy, it reflects on how enthusiasm for photography was initially limited to a small close-knit, elite group of people.

Fox Talbot: Dawn of the Photograph
18 November 2016 – 8 February 2017, National Media Museum, Bradford