The musée Nicéphore Niépce has commission a website which illustrates all known Niépce plates alongside correspondence and other archival and illustrative material. The website is available here: http://www.archivesniepce.com/
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The Cumbria Crack reports that photographer Henry Iddon has received Arts Council funding to photograph contemporary adventure sports with an antique camera.
Henry’s work will be an homage to the work of George and Ashley Abraham, brothers who grew up in Keswick in the Lake District in the late 1800s. The Abraham brothers were passionate early rock-climbers and were the first to take cameras up into the hills of the Lake District to capture landscapes and action shots of their climbing.
The camera that Henry is using is on loan from the Mountain Heritage Trust, an organisation that aims to record and preserve Britain’s rich heritage in climbing, mountaineering and mountain culture, and is the very same camera that was used by the Abraham brothers.
The Underwood Instanto whole plate camera that the Abrahams, and now Henry, used, is made from solid mahogany, and is a heavy object. It uses 10”x12” glass plates, which have to be carried up the mountain alongside the camera and other equipment.
Read more here: http://www.cumbriacrack.com/2016/09/16/historic-camera-shoots-modern-day-rock-climbers/
Bearnes, Hampton & Littlewood's Fine Art Sale in Exeter on 5 October features an unusual group of rare, early items relating to Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, inventor of the Diorama, a theatrical spectacle, and the daguerreotype, the earliest form of photography, made public in 1839.
Amongst the rarities is a copy of ‘Les Machabées’, (Lot 701) Estimate £400 - £600) a play for which, early in his career, Daguerre designed the sets in 1817. His name appears on the title page. Further lots include early published reports of both diorama and daguerreotype, with the daguerreotype itself represented by two of the earliest examples of photographic portraits, one French, by Victor Chevalier, and one English, from Richard Beard’s studio, undated but around 1841/2. The two final items of the twenty-five strong contingent are portraits of Daguerre himself. One of them is a late (1880s) copy of an 1848 daguerreotype of the inventor, by Charles R. Meade Lot 724) estimate £1000 - £1500.
The other, a unique piece, is a Societé Française de Photographie silver medal dated 1902 (Lot 725) estimate £800 - £1200, featuring double profile portraits of Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, and of Joseph Nicephore Niépce, his collaborator in the earliest steps in the development of the medium.
Update: the catalogue can be seen here: http://www.bhandl.co.uk/sales/assets/FS/2016/10/04/FS041016-works-of-art.pdf
For further details visit http://www.bhandl.co.uk/ or telephone Rachel Littlewood on 01392 413100.
Dr Ian R Smith has compiled an essay/academic paper that he put together as part of his doctorate in the 1990s.In his words 'it leans towards facts and organisations rather than individuals but I hope you find it interesting'. Find it as a pdf at www.photolink-international.co.uk and click on the link.
Ian Christie, one of the UK's most renowned film writers and historians, will be giving the first The Bill Douglas Memorial Lecture, on 25 September. The lecture marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Bill Douglas, filmmaker and collector, who gives his name to The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, housed at the University of Exeter.
The Great 3D Scandal: how stereoscopy got written out of history
Ian Christie
Anniversary Professor of Film and Media History, Birkbeck College, University of London
Wednesday 28 September 2016 6.30-8pm Seminar Room A/B, Old Library, University of Exeter. Free.
Book at bdc@exeter.ac.uk
The photographer, curator and education Nathan Lyons died on 31 August 2016. There have been a number of obituaries published. Lyons was a curator of photography and an associate director at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York and, in 1969, founded the independent Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, which established a course of study relating to the history and practice of the photographic art form and curatorial studies specifically pertaining to the medium of photography. He started the Society for Photographic Education, becoming its first chairman. He was involved with various magazines, being assistant editor of Image, regional editor of Aperture, and founder of Afterimage.
See: http://www.vsw.org/online/nathan-lyons/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Lyons
This previously advertised job has a revised person specification and a salary that is now 'negotiable'. It is once again open to suitably qualified candidates. The new job pack can be found at the link here.
Closing date: 19 September 2016.
The London Stereoscopic Company has announced a series of UK lecture dates where Denis Pellerin, Dr Brian May and others will be giving talks on different aspects of stereoscopy. The tour commences in Manchester in September and will conclude in London in November. Further dates may be added .
Thurs 22 September, 6-8 pm
Manchester University
Jim Naughten and Denis Pellerin
Title: Animal kingdom: Stereocopic images of natural history
Sat 24 September, 2-3 pm
Harley Gallery, Welbeck, Worksop
Denis Pellerin
Title: Gardens for the Duchess
http://www.harleygallery.co.uk/event/gardens-for-the-duchess/
Mon 26 September, 10-12 am
Watts Gallery, Compton, near Guildford
Denis Pellerin
Title: Entertaining and educational: the Victorian stereoscope
Sat 1 October, 2.30-5 pm
Stereoscopic Society Meetings Held at St Barbara's Church Hall, 24 Rochester Road, Earlsdon, Coventry, CV5 6AG
Denis Pellerin
Title: Crinoline, Fashion’s Most Magnificent Disaster
Sun 16 October,
Meeting of The Photographic Collectors’ Club of Great Britain, Helicopter Museum, Weston-Super-Mare
Denis Pellerin
Title: Stereoscopy: A visual revolution of the Victorian era
Wed 19 October, 7.30-9.00 pm
King’s College, Safra Lecture Theatre
Brian May and Denis Pellerin
Title: Sir Charles Wheatstone and the craze for the stereoscope
Thur 20 October, time tbc
Apps World, London Excel Centre
Brian May
Q&A about Virtual Reality
27 to 29 October
Stereo & Immersive Media, Photography and Sound Research 2016, Lisbon, Portugal
Denis Pellerin
Two talks, one about the former 3-D conference (2015) and the other one (20 min) about the quest for 3-D and motion combined
8 Novemberc
British Library
Denis Pellerin (and Brian May if available)
Title: Victorian Entertainments and Crinolines
Talk followed by a book signing of Brian May and Denis Pellerin’s book Crinoline, Fashion’s Most Fashionable Disaster. .
BPH is saddened to report that Michael Schaaf, the photographer and teacher of collodion and other historic process, was found in his camper van in Lacock on 16 July. He had not been in contact with his family for several days and was discovered by a National Trust employee. Schaaf had conducted a five day intensive workshop at Lacock from 6-10 July.
Schaaf, 52, conducted regular process workshops at Lacock and elsewhere for the Fox Talbot Museum, the Royal Photographic Society and others. He was held in high regard for his own photography and for the quality of his teaching. He was a member and contributor to BPH.
BPH offers its condolences to his wife and family. An inquest is to be held at a later date.
Michael's website remains active at: http://mics-foto.de/
See: http://www.yourvalleynews.co.uk/frontpage-news/tourist-found-hanged-in-beauty-spot/
The first-ever comprehensive exhibition to celebrate exclusively the life and work of pioneering British photographer Olive Edis (1876-1955) opens at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery on Saturday October 8, 2016 and closes Sunday January 22, 2017.
Although relatively unknown, Olive Edis was one of the most important photographers of the first half of the twentieth century and the first-ever accredited female war photographer. The breadth of her subjects from British royalty and aristocracy to the craggy faces of the fisherman of north Norfolk, together with her highly atmospheric photographs of the battlefields of France and Flanders taken during her time as an official World War One war photographer, raise her to international status.
The exhibition Fishermen & Kings: The Photography of Olive Edis is part of the on-going Olive Edis project (see notes to editors), which aims to share with the world and boost awareness of Edis’ inspirational life and work. Curated specially for Norwich Castle, the show will not be travelling, although a smaller exhibition featuring different images will form part of the permanent display at the Cromer Museum in the future.
Curator Alistair Murphy, said: “Olive Edis was a remarkable woman. She was well-educated, forward thinking, a visionary, an astute business entrepreneur and most importantly a talented photographer with a natural affinity for her subjects – however grand or humble each was afforded respect and dignity. Like the many influential and inspirational women that she photographed, Edis was herself a “new woman”. Edis’ photographic legacy is a ‘national treasure’ and we are delighted to present, for the first time, this highly impressive display of her work, to be appreciated by a larger audience.”
The exhibition features more than 190 rare photographs taken by Edis between the years of 1900 and 1955. The work is presented thematically starting with an introduction to Olive Edis and then focusing on her unique photographic technique and technical expertise. Another section examines her skill in portraiture, which offers a rare glimpse into both high society of the day and the more simple life of East Anglian fisherman. Influential women in the early twentieth century, is another key element. As an entrepreneur and ground-breaker Edis herself was a “new woman”. Not only did she exemplify the emancipation of women and their changing role in society in her own life, she also recorded it. In addition Edis’ remarkable war work provides another important theme.
One of the earliest examples of her work is a portrait of her cousin Caroline ‘Carrie’, taken in 1900. Poignantly, it was apparently Carrie who gave Edis her first camera. The original photograph was donated by Edis to the National Portrait Gallery collection in 1948 and has a hand-written inscription on the back - "My very first attempt at a portrait which turned my fate in 1900”.
Another early photograph shows Edis’s twin sisters, Emmeline and Katherine. It was Katherine who initially shared her older sister’s passion for photography and the two of them set up a photographic studio in Sheringham in 1905, although Katherine’s photographic career ended when she married a few years later.
As to why Sheringham was the choice of location is unknown. It has been suggested that Edis and her sisters spent holidays in North Norfolk as children. Edis’ great uncle John had also retired to Sheringham, which may also explain the choice. The first studio on Church Street in Sheringham, was designed by their uncle, the architect Col. Sir Robert Edis, with a glass roof to allow plenty of natural light. Olive later moved to the “New Studio” on South Street.
Edis’ reputation as a photographer grew rapidly and within a few years she already had an impressive list of sitters and commissions. An early self-portrait taken in around 1912 shows Edis as an elegant, rather demure, thoughtful young Edwardian lady gazing directly into the camera lens. She became a member of the Royal Photographic Society in 1913 and the following year was elected a fellow. With studios in Sheringham, Norfolk and later Farnham in Surrey and Ladbroke Grove London, she was something of a photographic entrepreneur quick to recognise the importance and potential of this new technology.
Over the course of her 50-year career, Edis photographed a huge cross section of society. Her signature style, which used natural light and shadow, resulted in striking portraits. Notable are her sensitive, natural photographs of Edward VIII as Prince of Wales and a young Prince Albert (later George VI). It is not known where the photographs would have been taken, possibly in Edis’ London studio. Edis also photographed several other members of the Royal Family including HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, as the young 15-year old Prince Philip of Greece, in addition to his uncle Lord Mountbatten, later 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (the latter is not included in the exhibition).
As a forward-thinking, progressive, independent woman, it is no surprise that she also photographed several members of the suffragette movement including Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, as well as Britain’s first woman doctor and women’s rights campaigner, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson.
Alongside the portraits of the well-to-do in society are a vast number of wonderfully compelling portraits of local Norfolk fisherman, the salt seemingly etched into the lines of their craggy, characterful faces. The fishermen remained a favourite subject throughout her career.
Edis had the ability to put all her subjects at ease. She put her success down to “being in sympathy” with her sitters and as a result was able to capture a true and informal likeness.
In 1918, Edis was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to photograph women’s war work in Europe. She was the first British woman to be commissioned as an official war photographer and only the 5th official British photographer to visit Europe to cover WW1.
Despite her trip being delayed due to the precarious military situation, and some opposition to sending a woman to photograph a war zone, in March 1919 she embarked on a month long journey around France and Belgium with Lady Norman, Chair of the Women’s Work Committee. Edis kept a journal of her travels through war-torn Europe, and this combined with her many photographs, taken using a large glass-plate camera, provide graphic, documentary evidence of the lives of women in the British Women’s Services who worked on the front lines. Atmospheric photographs also capture the devastation that followed the Great War. Many of these photographs now form part of the Imperial War Museum’s collection.
Edis was able to turn her lens to any form of photography, as well as her portraiture and historic war photography, she is credited with having taken some of the earliest colour photographs ever taken of Canada as part of a commission to advertise the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1920. Very few examples of these photographs survive today and none are included in the exhibition. Another important commission was to take interior shots of No 10 Downing Street in 1917.
The photographs reveal the technical development of Edis’ work. Initially working with platinum prints, she was also one of the first photographers to experiment with autochrome photography and even patented her own design of autochrome viewers, termed diascopes. In addition Edis was one of the first professionals to use a “kinematograph camera” – she started making films in the 1920s, including filming the wedding of Mr Henry Deterding of Holt, and a film of the Netherlands entitled “Life on the Waterways”, sadly both now lost.
Edis’ passion for photography was undiminished and throughout her career, she maintained her photographic bases in Sheringham and London, splitting her time between the two and driving to and from London in her Austin 7. Despite advances in photography she continued to use her large glass plate camera right up until the 1950s, although she did later own folding cameras which used film.
The last photograph of Edis was taken in 1953/4 by Cyril Nunn, her close friend and collaborator, on her own glass plate camera. Olive Edis died in London in 1955.
It was to Cyril Nunn that Edis left her estate of photographs, prints, glass plate negatives and autochromes. This was in turn offered to the Cromer Museum in 2008 and was purchased with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the V&A Purchase Grant Fund, North Norfolk District Council and Friends of Cromer Museum. This material, including around 1800 plate glass negatives, provided the impetus for the Olive Edis project. Cromer Museum now has the largest holding of Olive Edis negatives in the world and is a focus for further research and the promotion of knowledge and interest in her life and work.
Fishermen & Kings: The Photography of Olive Edis (1876-1955)
Saturday October 8, 2016 to Sunday January 22, 2017
The exhibition is accompamied by an illustrated catalogue.
Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery
Castle Hill, Norwich, NR1 3JU
Tel. +44 (0)1603 495897 www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk
A reunion will be held for all those photography students who attended the Polytechnic of Central London (Regent Street Poly) between 1960 and 1965.The free reunion will be held on Friday 26th August 2016 from midday onwards at Dolphin Square in London, for full details, please contact Tony Hilton at bundardtony@yahoo.com
The Beaford Archive - the work of James Ravilious and Roger Deakins - is a photographic record of people and community in rural north Devon containing more than 80,000 images covering the 120-year period 1870 to 1990. However, few of these images are currently accessible to the public.
Beaford Arts has secured funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to carry out a major conservation and digitisation exercise that will curate and publish online around 10,000 unseen images that together illustrate the late 20th Century social history of rural north Devon.
Hidden Histories is a three-year project and will include:
- Digitising, cataloguing, archiving and publishing to the web approximately 10,000 existing 35mm black and white negatives from the James Ravilious and Roger Deakins Beaford Archives
- Production of a new fully searchable website to provide a showcase for existing digitised work, newly digitised images and audio, and new work as it is produced
- A programme of oral history, learning and community activity which will create new work and engage people in learning and education
The post
The Project Coordinator is responsible for the successful delivery of the Hidden Histories Project. The post-holder will:
- Ensure that the objectives and outputs of the project are met, delivered on time and to budget
- Manage and support project-specific freelance and part-time staff and volunteers
- Work with Beaford Arts core staff team to secure broad and deep engagement with the project amongst the communities of rural north Devon
- Take lead responsibility for coordination and delivery of project activities, working with Beaford Arts staff and with volunteers across the region
See full details here. The closing date is 12 September 2016.
The world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of paper peepshows has been donated to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) under the Cultural Gifts Scheme. The Scheme was introduced by the Government in 2013 as a major initiative to encourage life-time giving to UK public collections. This is the first gift under the scheme to be allocated to the V&A. The acceptance of these two collections will generate a tax reduction of £294,600.
Paper peepshows resemble a pocket-sized stage set, complete with backdrop and paper cut-out scenes, which expand to create an illusion of depth. The gift of over 360 paper peepshows, along with other optical wonders, spans nearly 300 years and 12 different countries. The collection was formed over 30 years by Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner and is now part of the V&A’s research collection, soon to be accessible in the reading rooms of the National Art Library.
Covering a wide range of subjects, the peepshows allow viewers the chance to join a vibrant masquerade, have a peek inside the Thames Tunnel or to follow Alice down the rabbit hole. Others commemorate historic events, such as the coronation of Queen Victoria or Napoleon’s invasion of Moscow in 1812. They come in many shapes and sizes and are printed or handmade. Some are no larger than a matchbox, while others expand to over two metres in length. First engineered in the 1820s from paper and cloth, peepshows became an inexpensive pastime for adults and children. Most commonly sold as souvenirs, they offered a glimpse into a choice of vistas, celebrating particular events, famous places or engineering feats.
Nearly two hundred years since their invention, paper peepshows continue to delight viewers with their ingenuity and visually arresting scenes. Culture and Digital Minister Matt Hancock said: "This rare and comprehensive collection highlights a historical form of entertainment that very few people will have seen before. It's wonderful news that thanks to the Cultural Gifts Scheme this collection will now be enjoyed by the wider public for years to come."
Dr Catherine Yvard, Special Collections Curator at the National Art Library, V&A, said: “This collection is a real treasure trove and makes a wonderful addition to our holdings, which focus particularly on the art of the book. Peeping into one of these tunnel-books is like stepping into another world, travelling through time and space. In an instant you can join Napoleon on the Island of St Helena or a rowdy masquerade on London’s Haymarket. Peepshows were 19th century virtual reality. They offer wonderful insights into social history. Considering that most of them would have been made quite cheaply, it is a miracle that so many have survived.”
Edward Harley, Chairman, Acceptance in Lieu Panel, said: “The acquisition of this important and enchanting material highlights the diverse range of objects accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme. The collection provides a rare and exciting opportunity for an under-represented area in visual culture to be understood, studied and enjoyed in the public domain.”
Mr and Mrs Gestetner said: “We are thrilled that, through the Cultural Gifts Scheme, our collection charting the origin of the paper peepshow from the 1820s to the present day, which has given us immense pleasure over the years, will now join the V&A’s collections where it can be enjoyed by many others and used for study purposes.”
Highlights from the collection include:
- Oldest paper peepshow in the collection: Teleorama No. 1, by H. F. Müller, c.1824-25. Made in Austria, this peepshow presents an idyllic garden leading to a large country house.
- Smallest: L'Onomastico, c.1900. This Italian peepshow is the size of a small matchbox, but expands to nearly 20cm long, revealing a lively street party.
- Most popular subjects: The Thames Tunnel and the Crystal Palace are each represented in over 60 examples within the collection, each slightly different from the other.
- Longest: A handmade peepshow picturing riflemen on manoeuvre c.1910 expands to over two metres in length.
- Most unique: A view from L'Angostura de Paine in Chile was probably hand-made by the British writer Maria Graham c.1835 when she travelled in Latin America.
- Oldest item in the collection: A British boîte d'optique c.1740, one of the precursors of the peepshow, consists of a mahogany box with a lens to view prints through.
The collection will soon be available to search online on the National Art Library Catalogue and on ‘V&A Search the Collections’. Anyone wishing to access the peepshows can view them by appointment at the V&A’s National Art Library. This extensive collection is a well-documented resource, as a full illustrated catalogue was published in 2015 by the late Ralph Hyde (R. Hyde, Paper Peepshows: the Jacqueline & Jonathan Gestetner Collection, Woodbridge: Antique Collectors' Club, 2015).
Arts Council England has announced financial support for a new organisation supporting collections and archives of photography. The Photographic Collections Network will launch to provide research, knowledge exchange, events and advocacy. Its steering group is comprised of Redeye, the Photography Network, the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Royal Photographic Society, The National Media Museum and independent specialists.
A launch event is scheduled for 24 November.
To register an interest and to receive more information when available please click here.
UPDATE: The Network will be launched at a Sympoisum on 24 November 2016. Click here to read more.
It will explore how the stereoscope, originally created by inventor Sir Charles Wheatstone to investigate human binocular vision, was improved by scientist Sir David Brewster, to become a vital, elaborate drawing room essential. To enjoy stereo photography, you usually need a stereoscope or stereo viewer, but you can enjoy this course without one.
Image above: Stereocard of the Art and Science Museum, Edinburgh by H Gordon
Following its presentation to the world at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, the stereoscope – a device that makes images appear 3D – mesmerised Victorians. Collecting and viewing stereo photographs became a craze.
Stereoscopes were produced in different price ranges, thousands of stereo images were printed and bought each year, and one company involved in this boom, The London Stereoscopic Company, proclaimed: ‘No home without a stereoscope.’
The course has been developed following the major exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland in 2015, Photography: A Victorian Sensation, and many of the images in this course are drawn from the National Museums Scotland collection.
The course lasts for two weeks and registrants need to commit 3 hours per week. A certificate will be provided.
Use the hashtag #FLstereoscopy to join and contribute to social media conversations about this course.
See more and sign up here: http://nms.ac.uk/stereoscopy
The world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of paper peepshows has been donated to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) under the Cultural Gifts Scheme. The Scheme was introduced by the Government in 2013 as a major initiative to encourage life-time giving to UK public collections. This is the first gift under the scheme to be allocated to the V&A. The acceptance of these two collections will generate a tax reduction of £294,600.
Paper peepshows resemble a pocket-sized stage set, complete with backdrop and paper cut-out scenes, which expand to create an illusion of depth. The gift of over 360 paper peepshows, along with other optical wonders, spans nearly 300 years and 12 different countries. The collection was formed over 30 years by Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner and is now part of the V&A’s research collection, soon to be accessible in the reading rooms of the National Art Library.
Covering a wide range of subjects, the peepshows allow viewers the chance to join a vibrant masquerade, have a peek inside the Thames Tunnel or to follow Alice down the rabbit hole. Others commemorate historic events, such as the coronation of Queen Victoria or Napoleon’s invasion of Moscow in 1812. They come in many shapes and sizes and are printed or handmade. Some are no larger than a matchbox, while others expand to over two metres in length. First engineered in the 1820s from paper and cloth, peepshows became an inexpensive pastime for adults and children. Most commonly sold as souvenirs, they offered a glimpse into a choice of vistas, celebrating particular events, famous places or engineering feats.
Nearly two hundred years since their invention, paper peepshows continue to delight viewers with their ingenuity and visually arresting scenes. Culture and Digital Minister Matt Hancock said: "This rare and comprehensive collection highlights a historical form of entertainment that very few people will have seen before. It's wonderful news that thanks to the Cultural Gifts Scheme this collection will now be enjoyed by the wider public for years to come."
Dr Catherine Yvard, Special Collections Curator at the National Art Library, V&A, said: “This collection is a real treasure trove and makes a wonderful addition to our holdings, which focus particularly on the art of the book. Peeping into one of these tunnel-books is like stepping into another world, travelling through time and space. In an instant you can join Napoleon on the Island of St Helena or a rowdy masquerade on London’s Haymarket. Peepshows were 19th century virtual reality. They offer wonderful insights into social history. Considering that most of them would have been made quite cheaply, it is a miracle that so many have survived.”
Edward Harley, Chairman, Acceptance in Lieu Panel, said: “The acquisition of this important and enchanting material highlights the diverse range of objects accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme. The collection provides a rare and exciting opportunity for an under-represented area in visual culture to be understood, studied and enjoyed in the public domain.”
Mr and Mrs Gestetner said: “We are thrilled that, through the Cultural Gifts Scheme, our collection charting the origin of the paper peepshow from the 1820s to the present day, which has given us immense pleasure over the years, will now join the V&A’s collections where it can be enjoyed by many others and used for study purposes.”
Highlights from the collection include:
- Oldest paper peepshow in the collection: Teleorama No. 1, by H. F. Müller, c.1824-25. Made in Austria, this peepshow presents an idyllic garden leading to a large country house.
- Smallest: L'Onomastico, c.1900. This Italian peepshow is the size of a small matchbox, but expands to nearly 20cm long, revealing a lively street party.
- Most popular subjects: The Thames Tunnel and the Crystal Palace are each represented in over 60 examples within the collection, each slightly different from the other.
- Longest: A handmade peepshow picturing riflemen on manoeuvre c.1910 expands to over two metres in length.
- Most unique: A view from L'Angostura de Paine in Chile was probably hand-made by the British writer Maria Graham c.1835 when she travelled in Latin America.
- Oldest item in the collection: A British boîte d'optique c.1740, one of the precursors of the peepshow, consists of a mahogany box with a lens to view prints through.
The collection will soon be available to search online on the National Art Library Catalogue and on ‘V&A Search the Collections’. Anyone wishing to access the peepshows can view them by appointment at the V&A’s National Art Library. This extensive collection is a well-documented resource, as a full illustrated catalogue was published in 2015 by the late Ralph Hyde (R. Hyde, Paper Peepshows: the Jacqueline & Jonathan Gestetner Collection, Woodbridge: Antique Collectors' Club, 2015).
Sarah Angelina Acland, the pioneer colour photographer, was honoured yesterday with a blue plaque on the property at 10 Park Town, Oxford, where she was living at her death. The plaque was initiated by the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board and was supported by the Royal Photographic Society, Giles Hudson and others. Amongst those attending the ceremony were Lt-Col Sir Guy Acland, Bt, the Deputy Lord Mayor of Oxford, photographic historians, and residents of Park Town.Guests were hosted by the current owner of the house Margaret PInsent and the ceremony was attended by members of the Acland family.
Acland was elected a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in 1905. A collection of her colour photographs is held at the Museum of the History Science in Oxford. Her monochrome studies and papers are kept in the Bodleian. She was the subject of a book by Giles Hudson which was published by the Bodleian Library in 2012.
See more about Acland here: http://www.oxfordshireblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/acland.html
This summer the V&A will present a display of over 120 photographs that explore the camera as subject. People are taking more photographs today than ever before, but as they increasingly rely on smartphones, the traditional device is disappearing from sight.
The Camera Exposed showcases works by over 57 known artists as well as many unidentified amateur photographers. From formal portraits to casual snapshots, and from still-lifes to cityscapes, each work will feature at least one camera. Portraits of photographers such as Bill Brandt, Paul Strand and Weegee, posed with their cameras, will be on display alongside self-portraits by Eve Arnold, Lee Friedlander and André Kertész, in which the camera appears as a reflection or a shadow.
Other works depict cameras without their operators. In the earliest photograph included in the display, from 1853, Charles Thurston Thompson captures himself and his camera reflected in a Venetian mirror. The most recent works are a pair of 2014 photomontages by Simon Moretti, created by placing fragments of images on a scanner.
The display will showcase several new acquisitions, including a recent gift of nine 20th-century photographs. Amongst these are a Christmas card by portrait photographer Philippe Halsman, an image of photojournalist W. Eugene Smith testing cameras and a self-portrait in the mirror by the French photojournalist Pierre Jahan. On display will also be a recently donated collection of 50 20th-century snapshots of people holding cameras or in the act of taking photographs. These anonymous photographs attest to the broad social appeal of the camera.
Many of the photographs in the display highlight the anthropomorphic qualities of the camera. Held up to the face like a mask, as in Richard Sadler’s Weegee the Famous, the lens becomes an artificial eye. In Lady Hawarden’s portrait of her daughter, a mirror reflection of the camera on a tripod takes on a human form, a body supported by legs. Cameras in photographs can also emphasise the inherent voyeurism of the medium. Judy Dater explores this theme in her well-known image of the fully clothed photographer Imogen Cunningham posed as if about to snap nude model Twinka Thiebaud. In other photographs on display, the camera confronts the viewer with its mechanical gaze, drawing attention to the experience not only of seeing, but of being seen.
The Camera Exposed will be shown at the V&A in gallery 38A (Free Admission). More information available via: www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/the-camera-exposed
Image: 'John French and Daphne Abrams in a tailored suit', John French, 1957 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Bill Brandt with his Kodak Wide-Angle Camera, Laelia Goehr © Alexander Goehr
The full programme for the St Andrews Photography Festival, Celebrating 175 years of Scottish Photography in the home of Scottish Photography, which takes place from 1 August-11 September can now be downloaded here (PDF).
The George Eastman Museum recently purchased the only known box of Kodak Film for use in the Kodak camera (sometimes called American Film), introduced by the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company in 1888, and one of only three known boxes of Kodak Transparent Film, introduced in 1889 for use in the Kodak camera. Now a part of the museum’s internationally renowned technology collection, these unopened boxes of film complete the Eastman Museum’s holdings related to the original Kodak camera—adding to its examples of the camera, case, shipping box, and sample images.
“These two rolls of film make a critical contribution to the Eastman Museum’s holdings of photographic technology—considered the leading collection of its kind in the world,” said Bruce Barnes, Ron and Donna Fielding Director, George Eastman Museum. “Given their importance and rarity, these boxes of film are not only among of the most significant objects in our technology collection, they are also extremely important to the evolution of photography and the history of Rochester, New York.”
Introduced in 1888, the Kodak camera sold for $25, including factory-loaded film to take one hundred 2½-inch-diameter circular pictures. After the photographs were taken, the still-loaded camera was returned to Rochester, New York, and for a fee of $10, the film was developed, prints made, and a new roll of film inserted before the camera was sent back to its owner. The company adopted the slogan “You press the button, we do the rest”—penned by George Eastman—and Kodak snapshots became a cultural phenomenon.
Todd Gustavson, Technology Curator, George Eastman Museum. said: “We have always kept an eye out for film manufactured in the late 1880s to complete our collection of objects related to the first-generation Kodak camera. We jumped at the chance to bring these two boxes home to Rochester.”
Eastman Kodak Company’s roll film
Roll film represented the beginning of Eastman Kodak Company’s business model, one of the most successful and profitable for much of the twentieth century. Eastman’s American Film, which had a paper substrate, was first introduced along with the Eastman-Walker roll holder of 1885 and marketed to professional photographers, though they did not embrace it. Undaunted, Eastman decided to offer the film and a new camera, the Kodak, to amateur photographers. Eastman’s Transparent Film, which had a nitrate substrate, was for a time sold alongside the American Film, which was discontinued in about 1900. Although American Film for the Kodak camera was listed in the company’s catalogs, it was not often sold separately.
Eastman’s Transparent Film was the flexible photographic material used by most people experimenting with early motion pictures. Thomas Edison’s assistant W. K. L. Dickson used Kodak Transparent Film (which was 70 millimeters wide), slit in half to 35mm and then perforated, as the flexible medium to store images to be presented in the Edison Kinetoscope, the first 35mm motion picture viewing device.
The acquisition of these two rolls of film were funded by donations from Steven Sasson, the inventor of digital photography and a trustee of the George Eastman Museum, and Robert and Lynne Shanebrook. Robert Shanebrook is the author of Making Kodak Film. Both boxes of film are currently on display at the George Eastman Museum. For more information about the museum’s technology collection, visit eastman.org/technology.
