Sotheby's auction of Travel, Atlases, Maps and Natural History in London on 29 April 2014 includes a number of lots of photographs. These include: sixty early photographs of Morocco (£45,000-50,000) and a newly-discovered very large 13-part panorama of Shanghai by Henry Cammidge, together with 25 photographs by Cammidge (£50,000-70,000).

Photographs:

NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST

149. Egypt. An Album of 127 photographs by various photographers [1880s-1890s]

150. Sinclair, J.A. Gallipoli campaign, 62 platininum prints [c.1915]
153. Holy Land. Forty Stereo photographs, 1880s-1890s

155. Holy Land. 198 stereo photographs, early 1900s

160. Robertson, James. Crimea, Constantinople and Athens. [1853-56], 47 salted paper and lightly albumenised prints

161. Saudi Arabia Railroad, [1951-53], 57 silver prints

AMERICAS

176. Houseworth, T. and others. 100 stereoviews, [c.1865-1880]

AFRICA

179. Annan, Thomas (after). Portrait of David Livingstone, oil on board, possibly painted over a photograph

180. Morocco—Cavilla, A., George Washington Wilson, Leon and Levy, and others. A good collection of 60 early photographs of Morocco.

CHINA

181. Boxer Rebellion. Forbes-Sempill manuscript journal including 2 photographs

182. Jehol. 62 glass lantern slides

183. China, Hong Kong and Indonesia. Album of carte-de-visites

184. Beijing. 97 photographs (late 19^th early 20^th century)

186. China and Hong Kong. 100 lantern slides, c.1920s

187. China and Hong Kong. Album of 46 photographs

188. Floyd. 3 photographs of Canton

190. Floyd. Panorama of Hong Kong

191. Floyd. China, Hong Kong and Macao, 4 albumen prints

192. Beijing. Album of 80 silver prints, early 1900s

193. Floyd. Panorama of Macao, c.1868

194. Shanghai and Canton, album of 47 silver prints, c.1903

195. Tientsin (Tianjin). 36 photographs, c.1889-1901

196. Shanghai. Henry C. Cammidge. A 13-part panorama of Shanghai, c.1873 and 25 albumen prints

197. Citters, A.J. van. 61 photographs of Beijing, c.1903-08

198. Afong. 22 albumen prints of the Hong Kong typhoon, September 1874

211. Thomson, John. Illustrations of China and its People, 1873-74, 4 volumes, a fine copy.

INDIA

212. A collection of 64 stereo photographs, c.1880s-early 1900s

ANTARCTIC

217. Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1955-58. Three albums containing 204 photographs

218. Ponting, H. Terra Nova in McMurdo Sound, 7 January 1911, large green toned carbon print, framed and glazed

219. Ponting, H. Terra Nova at the ice foot, Cape Evans, 16 January 1911, large green toned carbon print, framed and glazed

The link to the e-catalogue is here:

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2014/travel-atlases-maps-natural-history-l14401.html#&i=0&fm=Photographs

Can you help us identify where these photos are from? These are round pictures - scanned from the negatives. Eastman Kodak Company produced these in the late 1880's and they weren't long lived so we're assuming the photos are from that period. Any help you can give is greatly appreciated as we attempt to identify location and eventually photographer (which of our collections this came from).

Comment at flickr, at BPH, or shoot me an email acope@uwm.edu . No comment is too obvious - any help you can give is great!

See the images here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/agslibrary/sets/72157643747255184/

There are 45 photos all together. Here are some specific photos with identifiable features:

A castle or fort (shown here): 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/agslibrary/13725612093/in/set-72157643747255184

City on coast:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/agslibrary/13725974764/in/set-72157643747255184

Rock outcrop on beach:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/agslibrary/13725610173/in/set-72157643747255184

Huts:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/agslibrary/13725610793/in/set-72157643747255184

Boat:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/agslibrary/13725973504/in/set-72157643747255184

Platinum and palladium prints are among the most highly valued photographs in today's art and history collections. The wide tonal range and variety of surfaces provided photographers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century a broad palette with which to depict their most important subjects.

The collections of the Smithsonian Institution, for example, include platinum prints for photographers’ finest portrayals of the lives of Native Americans. The study of exceptional platinum photographs by photographers such as Gertrude Käsebier, Edward Steichen, and Clarence H. White, reveals cross-cutting themes, such as the role of women in society, religion, spiritualism, and fashion at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Irving Penn was responsible for the resurgence of the practice of platinum-related photography in the mid-twentieth century. More recently contemporary photographers have been eager to explore this alternative historic process. 

Conventional wisdom regarding platinum and palladium prints held that they are charcoal in hue with a matte surface, and that they are quite stable and do not fade. In recent years, however, inconsistencies have been observed. The image hue can range from sepia to blue-black, and paper supports have sometimes been found to darken, yellow, and become brittle. In some cases actual images have faded. These issues, along with other observations of the physical attributes of platinum and palladium prints, have established a new paradigm regarding the chemical and the aesthetic characteristics and permanence of these photographs. These recent insights presented the opportunity for the National Gallery of Art to initiate a multi-year collaboration to study these materials and reassess approaches for their conservation treatment, long-term preservation, and safe display. This interdisciplinary research will culminate in a four-day program of lectures, workshops, and tours in Washington, DC, to be held in October 2014.

The programs will provide an opportunity for members of the conservation, scientific, curatorial, and educational fields to glean knowledge from the NGA-led team of research collaborators. Sharing the results of the multi-year endeavor will advance the collective understanding of platinum and palladium photographs and our ability to preserve them for future generations. The speakers’ breadth and depth of knowledge and their commitment to disseminating new information will provide an essential foundation for those responsible for the interpretation and preservation of some of the most rare and important photographs in the collections of museums, libraries, and archives.

The Programme

The Platinum and Palladium Photographs program consists of three related activities, taking place over four days (October 21-24, 2014):

• A two-day symposium of lectures will be held at the National Museum of the American Indian’s 300-seat Mary Louise and Elmer Rasmuson Theater. Distinguished subject experts will present the results of the collaborative research, focusing on the technical, chemical, and aesthetic history and practice of platinum photography. The preliminary program is included below.
• A one-day, hands-on workshop hosted by the National Gallery of Art will explore the chemistry of platinum and palladium photographs and consider how variations in processing affect the appearance and permanence of the prints. The workshop will be held twice and will be led by Christopher Maines, Conservation Scientist, Scientific Research Department, NGA, and Mike Ware, Photographic Materials Chemistry Consultant to the NGA.
• Tours of collections held by the National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress, and the National Museum of American History will be conducted by leading photograph historians, conservators, and scientists and allow up to 60 participants to see rare examples of historic and contemporary platinum and palladium photographs.

These events are being presented by the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (FAIC) and are funded in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Registration and the full programme is here: http://www.conservation-us.org/education/education/current-courses/platinum-and-palladium-photography

Anne Lyden is to give a talk at 1400 on 12 April 2014 at the National Media Museum, Bradford. She will be talking about Frederick Evans.

Lyden is the newly appointed International Photography Curator of the National Galleries of Scotland (see: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/annie-lyden-appointed-international-photography-curator-at-the-na) and is responsible for some 34,000 images She is also the author of books on Evans, Strand and Hill and Adamson plus “Photography, Travel and Perception” (2003) and “A Royal Passion.  Queen Victoria and Photography” (2014), an exhibition on which opens at the Getty, Los Angeles this year.

To book a place click here. 

The National Media Museum in Bradford is hosting a two-day conference on the challenges and opportunities around the acquisition and management of archives by cultural institutions. Such archives may be still, moving or mixed-format; analogue or digital or both; they may be from a company, private, practitioner, virtual, community-based or regional; complete or partial; contained or continually developing.

This is a Call for Papers asking for perspectives on the strategic issues, opportunities and challenges presented by organisations which actively acquire and curate bodies of work.  The conference seeks to examine emergent digital technologies and their impact on archival practice and acquisition.

Contributions which evidence new approaches and/or creative and innovative ways of thinking which challenge conventional understanding are particularly welcome.

Four sessions will consider different types of archives encompassing perspectives from:

• Practitioners & Photographers
• Curators and Institutions
• Mixed Media & Technology Environment
• Commercial & Galleries World

Suggested themes and questions include:

1. The Archive

• What is considered to be `the asset’?
• What constitutes an archive and what challenges do these present to collecting institutions?
• At what point is it useful or helpful to call a `collection’ an `archive’?
• What is the difference between them, if any?
• What is the rationale for acquiring archives?

2. Mixed Curatorship

• Curatorial perspectives and models of mixed curatorship
• Does it need to be comprehensive or representative?
• What are the challenges around the acquisition of analogue/digital/mixed archives?

3. Ownership, Role and the Value of Attendant Data

• What is the impact of removing an archive from its locale?
• To what extent is it valuable for a practitioner to continue to be involved with their archive?

4. The Challenges of Copyright

• What is the role of commercial galleries and organisations?
• The challenges of acquiring multi-media or mixed format collections.
• What are the copyright issues around the acquisition of digital archives, and how can these be addressed?

5. The Future of the Archive: The Role of New Technologies

• What are the positive and negative impacts of `new technologies’?
• Digitisation against retention of the original
• Preservation and dissemination
• Public access, engagement and creative exploitation

For further information, please contact paul.goodman@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk directly.

UPDATE: The conference web pages can be found here: http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/Collection/ArchivesConference 

TIMETABLE

Deadline for abstracts [c.250 words for a 20 minute paper]

9 May 2014

Acceptance of abstracts

30 June 2014

Deadline for texts submission (web)

30 September 2014

A new online resource reproduces the surviving record books in the Dallmeyer archive held at Brent Archives, covering the period 1863-1902. Although the pages are not searchable the photographs of the pages are relatively simple to search. If you are fortunate you will be able to locate a lens serial number, identify what it was made as, who made it, when it was sold and who bought it.  

See: http://www.thedallmeyerarchive.com/Records/Identification.html

The Nicholas Brothers & A. T. W. Penn: photographers of South India 1855–1885 examines the successful studios established by John and James Perratt Nicholas and Albert Penn in Madras and Ootacamund. The text is illustrated with over 100 plates and 150 figures, the majority of which are published here for the first time. The book further reproduces a catalogue of Nicholas & Co.’s photographs from 1881, which will serve as an invaluable tool for researchers and collectors.

In the 1850s and 60s, Madras was an important centre for the rapidly developing art of photography. Dr Alexander Hunter founded the Madras School of Arts in 1850 and the Madras Photographic Society in 1857, where John Nicholas served on the committee. Pioneering photographers Linnaeus Tripe, John Parting, Edmund David Lyon, Willoughby Wallace Hooper and Samuel Bourne all contributed to the rapid advance of photography in the region. James Perratt Nicholas and A. T. W. Penn continued their work to the end of the nineteenth century.

This publication marks the end of a 12-year research project for the author, who scrupulously documents three decades of work by James Perratt Nicholas and A. T. W. Penn. It begins with the early years of the Nicholas studios in Madras and Ootacamund, explains how the business achieved success in the 1870s and 1880s and concludes with the introduction of the Kodak, the rise of the amateur photographer, and the inevitable decline in the studios’ profitability that followed.

The Nicholas Brothers & A. T. W. Penn: photographers of South India 1855–1885 is being published by Quaritch in Summer 2014. If you would like to be contacted when it is available for purchase at the special prepublication price, please contact: Alice Ford-Smith: a.ford-smith@quaritch.com

The inspiration for this book was a remarkable purchase made by the authors at a small country auction in 2006 for £75,000 (See: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1514218/Mystery-photographs-part-of-Ruskin-collection.html). Ken and Jenny Jacobson found that one lightly regarded lot contained a lost collection of daguerreotypes that had once belonged to John Ruskin, the great 19th-century art critic, writer and social reformer. This discovery included scenes of Italy (mostly Venice), France and Switzerland, and has at a stroke much more than doubled the number of known Ruskin daguerreotypes.

Despite his sometimes vehemently negative sentiments regarding the camera, Ruskin’s involvement in photography is now shown to have been much more extensive than previously imagined. He assiduously collected, commissioned and produced daguerreotypes and paper photographs; he pioneered the use of the collotype and platinotype processes for book illustration. Many of the recovered daguerreotypes reveal surprising compositions and have enabled insights into how Ruskin’s use of the daguerreotype influenced the style of his watercolours.

The text includes a fully illustrated catalogue raisonné of 325 known daguerreotypes. The overwhelming majority of the newly discovered plates are published here for the fi rst time. There are an additional 275 illustrations in the text and an essay describing the technical procedures used in a remarkably successful conservation programme.

Ken and Jenny Jacobson met whilst working in the Biophysics Department at King’s College, University of London. Both were drawn to the field of nineteenth-century photographs and redirected their academic curiosity towards the history of photography. After 44 years immersed in the subject, they now find themselves increasingly involved with archives and libraries. Ken’s previous publications, in which Jenny took an active role as editor and advisor, include: Étude d’Après Nature: 19th Century Photographs in Relation to Art; ‘The Lovely Sea-View… Which All London is Wondering at’: A Study of the Marine Photographs Published by Gustave Le Gray, 1856-1858; Odalisques & Arabesques: Orientalist Photography 1839–1925.

Carrying Off the Palaces: John Ruskin’s Lost Daguerreotypes is being published by Quaritch in Summer 2014.

If you would like to be contacted when it is available for purchase at the special prepublication price, please contact: Alice Ford-Smith: a.ford-smith@quaritch.com

The Photography gallery at London's V&A is showing a special exhibition looking at the history of fashion photography which complements the V&A's major exhibition The Glamour of Italian Fashion 1945-2014. 

Selling Dreams: One Hundred Years of Fashion Photography charts the evolution of fashion photography over the last 100 years through the work of leading practitioners, whose images go far beyond the simple recording of fabrics and surface detail. The photographs on display include both iconic and rarely exhibited works from the V&A collection by masters such as Edward Steichen, Cecil Beaton, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton and David

Bailey, alongside contemporary images by Steven Klein, Corinne Day, Rankin, Miles Aldridge and Tim Walker.

28 March 2014 - 4 May 2014, 10.00-17.30

See: http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3098/selling-dreams-one-hundred-years-of-fashion-photography-4491/

In this lecture the artist/photographer Michael Schaaf will lead you through the wet-collodion process. He’ll discuss the history of collodion photography and its properties and practically demonstrate how it’s done; from the cleaning of the plates, coating with collodion, sensitising, capturing a picture, developing and then finally the varnishing of the plate with historic varnishes made of gum sandarac and lavender oil.

There will be time for discussion and to have a look at some of Michael's plates and prints. A must for everyone interested in historic photographic processes.

Times/Date: 10.30 – 12 Noon /1 0th May 2014

Address :The Royal Photographic Society, Fenton House, 122 Wells Road, Bath  BA2 3AH

Non members £10/ Members and Students £7

Booking; http://www.rps.org/events/2014/may/10/wet-collodion-talk

In celebration of an important acquisition, the Museum of London is displaying a selection of Christina Broom's photography, highlighting Broom's images of the military in London and kick-starting a programme of events marking the centenary of World War One. The original albums were offered at Sotheby's in 2009 where they failed to sell.

A pioneering press photographer who documented life in the capital between 1903 and 1939, the small display anticipates a large-scale retrospective in autumn 2015.

See more at: http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/london-wall/whats-on/exhibitions-displays/christina-broom/

Cooke Optics, formerly Taylor, Taylor & Hobson and then Rank Taylor-Hobson and Rank Optics has a history back to the 1880s. It is still based in Leicester where it continues to make outstanding lenses for still photography and cinematographic use. 

This video shows the process of manufacture and assembly.

Cooke Optics Factory Tour with Titles from Cooke Optics on Vimeo.

David Burder FRPS, FBIPP, BSc, has one place left on his very special, hands-on, workshop on 6 April in his North London studio. David will take participants through the many aspects (some safe, some dangerous), of Daguerreotype imaging, the cameras and actual hands-on production of an actual Daguerreotype image. It will be a very interactive experience with course members taking away up to three Daguerreotypes made on the day. Stereo Dags will also be demonstrated. This is a rare opportunity to work with a Daguerreotypist.

The cost for the day will be £350. The workshop will take place at David’s studio in North London. Contact David@3Dimages.co.uk for further information and for Workshop booking.

David is Director of 3D Images Ltd in London, and holder of a dozen 3D imaging patents. He is a Fellow Of The Royal Photographic Society, and a previous recipient of several RPS awards, including The RPS Saxby award for 3D imaging.
David is one of only a handful of practising Daguerreoptypists/ lecturers and has appeared on BBC TV, as well as in in The Guinness book of records, for creating the Worlds largest Daguerreotype. (having first had to build a 2 metre tall camera to house the 24x48 inch plate holder.)

He also created the worlds first 3D Lenticular “Dag”, as well as re-discovering the fabled true colour Daguerreotype process, which basically re-writes the early history of colour imaging. David has given several “live, hands-on” demonstrations of this  procedure at several RPS events.

As he wrote in The Daguerrian Annual, “in making Daguerreotypes, I have created many smells and met many new friends”.

The Bradford Telegraph and Argus reports that the future of the National Media Museum is once again under threat - only eight months after government ministers declared it had been 'saved'. According to the newspaper the museum faces a potentially devastating £900,000 budget shortfall, an inquiry by MPs has been told, after fresh Government funding cuts.

Now the renewed threat to the museum has triggered an appeal for help to the Treasury from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which is alarmed by the second crisis.

The T&A has also been told independently that the museum is seriously concerned about a 'big chunk of money' to be found, although closure is not being discussed.

Read the T&A's full report here and the T&S's editorial demanding that government minister Ed Vaizey government backs up its support from last summer with real leadership.

The intersection of photography and war encompasses a broad and complex field. Yet conceptually, “war photography” is often restricted to the activities of photojournalists producing aesthetically compelling images used to humanitarian ends. Scholars have primarily focused on issues of veracity, iconicity, memory, affect and ethics. Insightful though this work is, we lack crucial information and critical reflection on fundamental questions regarding how commercial, tactical and personal factors have shaped the diverse terrain of images arising from all contexts of armed conflict.

The aim of this conference is to examine war photography in this expanded sense - that is, as the result of a nexus of pragmatic and strategic transactions and interactions concerning business, militarism and consumption.

We seek papers that address the ways in which issues of supply and demand have shaped the field of war photography, and how this field has articulated with other forms of industrialised and commercial activity. We invite scholars in a range of disciplines to reflect upon the relevance to war photography of commerce, industry, the military and marketing, as well as the role of workers, publishers, politicians, strategists, purchasers and consumers. Together, we endeavour to develop alternative methodological frameworks for approaching images of armed conflict, and to shift and expand thinking on the concept of war photography.

A range of historical periods, geographical regions and modes of conflict is# encouraged. Participants are invited to propose 20-minute papers on topics related to the theme The Business of War Photography, including but not limited to the following:
 The photographic companies, entrepreneurs and workers serving markets created as a result of war
 The requirements of military agencies and their involvement in photographic innovation through funding the development of military imaging technology
 The role of the state in commissioning, shaping and circulating photographic images, and their relationship with foreign and domestic policy and military strategy
 The marketing of photographic products and services to servicemen/women and civilians during wartime
 The production and consumption of photographic merchandise (e.g. souvenirs, postcards)
 The publication and dissemination of war images in the media, and the role of consumers, editors and advertisers in shaping content
 The market for art photography deploying military imaging techniques or which critiques the role of photography in modern armed conflict 

Submission details
We invite proposals of 300 words with a brief biographical note or 1-page CV by 1 March 2014. Applicants will be notified by Friday 14 March. Drafts of papers are due for circulation with co-panellists and chairs by Friday 27 June 2014.

It is envisaged that a selection of papers from the conference will be developed for publication as a special issue of a peer-reviewed journal. The conference organisers are currently discussing this possibility with the Editorial Board of the Journal of War & Culture Studies. Although this will not preclude selection to present at the conference, please state if your proposal has been previously published in any form.

The Business of War Photography
Producing and Consuming Images of Conflict
Durham University and Durham Light Infantry Museum and Art Gallery, UK
31 July to 1 August 2014

Organisers and partners
The Business of War Photography is co-convened by Dr. Tom Allbeson and Pippa Oldfield, Head of Programme at Impressions Gallery and Doctoral Fellow at Durham University. The conference is presented in association with the Centre for Arts and Visual Culture at Durham University, in partnership with Durham Light Infantry Museum and Art Gallery and Impressions Gallery, Bradford.
www.dur.ac.uk/cvac
www.durham.gov.uk/dli
www.impressions-gallery.com

Location
The conference will be held at Durham University, with opening papers and an evening reception at Durham Light Infantry Museum and Art Gallery, with the opportunity to view the photographic exhibition The Home Front by Melanie Friend, an Impressions Gallery Touring Exhibition curated by Pippa Oldfield.
www.melaniefriend.com

Information for delegates and speakers
Details of delegate fees, venues, and accommodation will be announced by 28 February 2014. Please note that we are unfortunately unable to meet participants’ and speakers’ costs. A limited number of delegate places will be offered to postgraduate attendees at concessionary rates.

Contact
Please submit proposals and enquiries to bwp.2014@durham.ac.uk.

See more: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/sir-ranulph-fiennes-steps-in-to-help-save-captain-scotts-polar-negatives-for-the-nation

Image: Pony camp, Camp 15. Ponies (left to right) Snippetts, Nobby, Michael and Jimmy Pigg, Great Ice Barrier, 19 November 1911; "Ponies tethered on the ice beside a man-made ice wall. Sledges in background." / Scott Polar Research Institute. 

Photobook Bristol is a a weekend of events, talks and the opportunity to buy photobooks. It will kick off with a talk by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, Not in Parr & Badger, and end with a panel discussion on the future of the photobook. In between there will be sessions on documentary photobooks, the Iberian photobook, self-publishing, and many individual talks. 

Find out more here: http://www.photobookbristol.com/

The Kraszna-Krausz Foundation has revealed the shortlist for the 2014 Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards for photography and moving image books. BPH's two favourite titles from each short-list are in bold. 

The KKF Book Awards are the UK’s leading prizes for books published in the field of photography and the moving image. The shortlisted books, which range from stunningly executed personal photography projects to academic books tackling previously unexplored topics, will now compete for a share of the £10,000 prize. The winners will be announced on 30 April at the Sony World Photography Awards gala ceremony held in London.

Along with 14 highly commended titles across the two categories, the shortlisted books will be displayed at Somerset House, London from 1-18 May as part of the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition.

Best Photography Book Award 

The shortlist, chosen by curator and critic Kate Bush (chair), FT Weekend Magazine Photo Editor Emma Bowkett and landscape photographer/ Head of Department, Fine Art Photography, Glasgow School of Art Thomas Joshua Cooper, is:

• History of Photography in China: Chinese Photographers 1844-1879 by Terry Bennett (Bernard Quaritch Ltd)
• The Enclave, Photographs by Richard Mosse, by Anna O'Sullivan and Jason Stearns (Aperture)
• Sergio Larrain: Vagabond Photographer by Agnès Sire and Gonzalo Leiva Quijada (Thames & Hudson)

The judges also recognised and highly commended the following titles:

• Afghan Box Camera by Lukas Birk and Sean Foley (Dewi Lewis Publishing)
• Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris by Sarah Kennel (University of Chicago Press)
• Davide Monteleone: SPASIBO by Galia Ackermann and Masha Gessen (Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg)
• Henk Wildschut: Food by Henk Wildschut (Post Editions)
• Philip-Lorca diCorcia: Hustlers by Philip-Lorca diCorcia (SteidlDangin)
• The Canaries by Thilde Jensen (LENA Publications)
• Twentieth-Century Color Photographs: Identification and Care by Sylvia Penichon (Getty Publications/Thames & Hudson)

Chair Kate Bush commented: “This award is unique in honouring every dimension of a photography book: its cultural originality and its intellectual contribution - as well as its artistic and design value. Our long and short lists reflect a year of vibrant international photography publishing. Thrilling monographs by rising young stars sit alongside works of scrupulous scholarship. Fresh approaches to classic bodies of photography - rediscovered for new generations – take their place beside vernacular imagery found in unexpected places. Art photography, photojournalism, documentary: the wide repertoire of current photographic culture is reflected in our shortlist this year, and each book on the list has surprised and impressed the judges in different ways.”

Best Moving Image Book Award

The jury - Dave Calhoun (chair), Global Film Editor for the Time Out Group, along with Sean Cubitt, Professor of Film and Television, Goldsmiths and Robert Rider, Head of Cinema at the Barbican – selected a shortlist comprising:

• Charles Urban: Pioneering the Non-Fiction Film in Britain and America, 1897 - 1925 by Luke McKernan (University of Exeter Press)
• Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939 by Thomas Doherty (Columbia University Press)
• Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation by Tom Sito (MIT Press)

The jury also recognised and highly commended the following titles:

• Cinematic Appeals: The Experience of New Movie Technologies by Ariel Rogers (Columbia University Press)
• Hollywood in the New Millennium by Tino Bailo (British Film Institute/Palgrave Macmillan Higher Education)
• Italian Silent Cinema: A Reader edited by Giorgio Bertellini (John Libbey Publishing Ltd., 2013)
• Seeing is Believing: The Politics of the Visual by Rod Stoneman (Black Dog Publishing)
• The Documentary Film Book by Brian Winston (British Film Institute/Palgrave Macmillan Higher Education)
• The Making of Return of the Jedi: The Definitive Story Behind the Film by J.W. Rinzler (Aurum Press Ltd)
• The World is Ever Changing by Nicolas Roeg (Faber & Faber)

On behalf of the judges, Chair Dave Calhoun commented: "The jury was impressed by the variety of submissions for the prize. The eligible books straddled a wide range of approaches to popular and academic writing and represented the pleasing breadth of current publishing on cinema, including memoirs, studies of individual films and filmmakers, explorations of national cinemas and insights into particular aspects of the filmmaking craft. Each of the three shortlisted books was superbly written and researched and offered new perspectives on cinema from very different angles.”

The restoration of the United Kingdom’s first cinema - located in the heart of London’s West End at the University of Westminster in Regent Street – has been given the green light by Westminster City Council, as the campaign to raise funds for the landmark project moves into its next phase.

The Regent Street Cinema is celebrated as the ‘Birthplace of British Cinema’ as it was used by pioneering filmmakers, the Lumière brothers, to perform their first ever moving picture show in the UK on the 21 February, 1896.

The project will see the preservation of the key architectural features of the Cinema from its 1920s heyday, combining the restored fabric with up-to-date technology, bringing it into the 21st century. Once completed, the iconic venue will house a 200-seat auditorium which will be open to the public and become a landmark destination for British film and a lively hub for University of Westminster students and external visitors including the local community and school children who will come to learn about the heritage and evolution of film and cinema. The restored Cinema’s programming will be distinctive and highly informed, combining cutting edge and experimental work with a stimulating mix of the best of current UK, independent  British and World cinema, documentary films, retrospectives and classic repertory titles.

The design scheme for the restoration has been created by Tim Ronalds Architects, a practice that has experience of working with landmark theatre spaces, such as the Hackney Empire redevelopment and plans for Wilton’s Music Hall. Building work will commence in April 2014 and the opening of the Cinema is expected in April 2015.

A major campaign to raise money for the restoration project was publicly launched in March 2012 and the University is seeking additional supporters to be involved in this nationally important project.  To date, the University of Westminster has secured two thirds of the £6 million needed to complete the restoration and reopen the Cinema.  Generous major donors have so far included the Heritage Lottery Fund, Quintin Hogg Trust, Garfield Weston Foundation and Odeon. As part of the wider campaign the University has also secured donations to name over a quarter of the seats in the new Cinema and is aiming to have all 200 named by its supporters well ahead of the Cinema opening.  The University previously received a £1 million donation from the MBI Al Jaber Foundation which was used to bring the Edwardian style Grand Entrance Hall at the Grade II listed campus back to life.

The Cinema project is being backed by some of the biggest names in the British film industry who sit on its advisory board.  Tim Bevan, Co-Chair of Working Title Films (Rush, Les Misérables, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy), Asif Kapadia, film director and alumnus of University of Westminster (Senna, The Warrior, Far North), Paul Trijbits, Producer (Saving Mr. Banks, Jane Eyre, Tamara Drewe), and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey (The Avengers, Anna Karenina, We Need to Talk About Kevin).

Professor Rikki Morgan-Tamosunas, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Westminster, said: “The Cinema holds a unique place in the history of filmmaking and cinema, and it is wonderful to see that 175 years since the founding of our institution, a new and exciting phase in its history will begin.  When it re-opens, the Cinema will offer an outstanding venue in which to nurture future talent as well as provide a place where our students, alumni, industry professionals, and our community can come together and enjoy film and our shared Cinema heritage.”

Asif Kapadia, Film Director and University of Westminster alumnus says “I was proud to study Film, Video and Photographic Arts close to the location of the new Cinema at the Riding House St campus in the mid 90's, at the time we didn't have a dedicated cinema to screen our films. Over the years so many fantastic, iconic cinemas in the UK have closed down or been redeveloped, so this is a marvelous opportunity to restore a venue that played a vital role in the birth of cinema in the UK, and highlights the University’s history of innovation in education and learning. Bringing the Cinema back to life will benefit both current and future students and will provide a platform for independent cinema, short films, documentaries and emerging British talent in the heart of the West-End”

Sandi Toksvig OBE, a supporter of the Regent Street Cinema, says “This is the birthplace of Cinema, where it all started. How fantastic for young people to be able to showcase their work, here, alongside great professionals. This Cinema is a place where we can celebrate not just the past but the future. This is a significant building and it’s wonderful that so many who are passionate about Cinema, the history of film or who have a connection with the heritage and future of the University want to be a part of it.”

The University of Westminster is a leading global centre for excellence in the arts and film production.  The restoration of the Regent Street Cinema reinforces the University’s international reputation for academic and practical teaching which boasts a number of Oscar and BAFTA winners among its alumni. The Act of Killing, Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer - a Reader at the Media, Arts and Design faculty of the University of Westminster - and produced by the University of Westminster's Professor Joram ten Brink, won an award at this year’s BAFTA ceremony for best documentary. University alumnus Yousif Al-Khalifa was also recognised with a BAFTA for co-directing the best British Short Animation film ‘Sleeping with the Fishes’.

Film students from the University will also have the opportunity to showcase their work in the heart of London’s vibrant West-End, which is something that no other University can offer.  The University currently offers three courses which cover contemporary media practice and film and television production and a post-graduate MA in Film and Television. 

For more information on the project please visit: www.birthplaceofcinema.com

The Birthplace of British Cinema - Lumière Brothers
The venue was chosen by the Lumière brothers because of the institution’s reputation as a leader in scientific experimentation and entertainment. The Grade II listed building is situated at 309 Regent Street and dates back to 1838.  It was later used by the Polytechnic for a variety of film and theatrical performances and in the lead up to the First World War it was used with Government backing to show “Our Army and Our Navy” films. 

More recently it has been used by the University of Westminster as a lecture theatre for students and an exhibition venue for public events.

Key University of Westminster alumni:

• Michael Winterbottom (The Look of Love, Jude, 9 Songs, The Killer Inside Me)
• Asif Kapadia (Senna, The Warrior, Far North)
• Seamus McGarvey (Atonement, We Need To Talk About Kevin, The Avengers)
• Lucia Zucchetti (The Rat Catcher, Merchant Of Venice, The Queen)
• Tony Grisoni (Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, Red Riding)
• Neal Purvis (Skyfall (Bond 2012), Johnny English Reborn, Let Him Have It)

- See more at: http://www.rps.org/news/2014/february/regent-street-cinema#sthash.WXFypBrH.dpuf

Alex. Keighley A Pioneer of the Pictorial Movement in Photography is a new book by Ray Vintner (ISBN 978-0-9927402-0-7, 186-pages, Linkhall Publications, 2013). The book is available from The Grove Bookshop, Ilkley, West Yorkshire, (e: info@grovebookshop.com or telephone 01943 609335) at a cost of £14 plus postage. 

A PDF showing the contents page and foreword is here. There is no separate list of illustrations although the book is well illustrated in b/w and colour.