At a special gathering 1000 guests attended the long-awaited opening of Media Space, previously the NMeM's London presence, at London's Science Museum. The new space is a joint venture between the Science Museum and National Media Museum. At the opening ceremony Michael G Wilson OBE alluded to the tortuous history that had culminated in last night's opening. He described the gallery development, first mooted 25 years ago and which had seen off six museum directors and the making of four Bond films as difficult. Wilson was presented with a Science Museum Fellowship in recognition of his determination in ensuring the project was realised. The current Science Museum Director Ian Blatchford deserves praise for committing to the project.  

The opening exhibition Only in England: Photographs by Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr was stunning with Ray-Jones' work, particularly, retaining a sense of humour and incisiveness over the forty years since it was first made. Parr was showing rarely seen work from the mid-1970s that was clearly influenced by Ray-Jones.  The show moves to Bradford in March 2014.  

The gallery space is large, simple and plain. As such it offers the potential to become a must-go-to place when exhibitions, based on the National Media Museum's unrivalled collections, are shown. Ray-Jones and Parr are just the start future. Future shows dealing with science and colour will be more challenging and will do more to demonstrate the breadth of Bradford's holdings. The adjacent cafe area has the potential to become as popular as that of the Photographers' Gallery as a place for those working in, or just interested in, photography to meet. The fact that Media Space has a (modest) admission charge may temper that somewhat.

In the Virgin Media Studio space Universal Everything & You, a new specially-commissioned digital installation of two artworks by art and design collective Universal Everything, was stunning. 

See: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/media_space.aspx

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/plan_your_visit/exhibitions/only_in_england.aspx

The National Media Museum in Bradford is in final stages of acquiring tens of thousands of photographs and personal papers from the acclaimed British photographer Lewis Morley. Morley died at the age of 88, at his home in Sydney, Australia, recently and members of his family are carrying out his wish that his images and papers be made available to the public, rather than sold on the open market.

Paul Goodman, head of collections, projects, at the museum said: “It was with great sadness that the National Media Museum learned of Lewis Morley’s death last week.

“However, we are privileged to announce that we are concluding plans to consolidate his extensive archive in Bradford by the end of this year.

“The Lewis Morley Archive is currently split between Palm Springs in the USA and Sydney, Australia, and comprises a comprehensive selection of prints, including some of his best-known work, accompanied by his complete accumulation of negatives and extensive personal ephemera and correspondence.

“This major addition of work to the National Photography Collection by a significant photographer underlines our continuing commitment, wherever possible, to acquire complete or extensive archives of key practitioners, rather than selecting individual or small groups of work.

“Achieving this ambition allows us to preserve and celebrate the legacy of these individuals, presenting as full a picture as possible of their work and what was involved in producing them, whilst evidencing their modus operandi.”

Among the collection are photographs and papers pertaining of the notorious Profumo scandal, involving Christine Keeler, of 1963.

Mr Morley famously photographed Christine Keeler, naked and astride a chair, at the height of the scandal. Mr Morley also photographed the rising stars of the 1960s, such as models: Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy, satirists Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett, comedian Barry Humphries, actors Michael Caine, John Hurt, Tom Courtenay, Peter O’Toole and Charlotte Rampling, and playwright Joe Orton.

See: http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/local/localbrad/10664165.Top_photographer___s_archive_set_for_Bradford_s_National_Media_Museum/?ref=nt and http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/photo-news/540022/photographer-lewis-morley-s-vast-archive-heads-to-uk

UPDATED

The Guardian carried a full obituary by Terence Pepper of the NPG here: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/sep/12/lewis-morley

Details of the archive's move to Bradford is here: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/sep/07/lewis-morley-donates-archive-photographs

The week before Media Space is due to open to the public Design Week reports that Ben Kelly Design has created the new Media Space gallery, with an identity by Graphic Thought Facility.

According to Ben Kelly Design, it aims to provide a ‘a democratic space that encourages information sharing, and it provides an evolving forum that responds to and reflects our ever-changing media age’.

Ben Kelly Design’s interiors feature materials including reclaimed pitch pine cladding, glazed bricks and leather, with coloured timber blocks laid in patterns ‘that play with scale and define zones’ used on flooring. ‘The design exploits the potential overlap and relationship between activities’, says Ben Kelly Design.

‘[Our] approach retains and exploits the qualities of the building, while creating a stimulating visual landscape capable of accommodating and adapting to a changing programme of events’.

The gallery space, which will showcase the National Photography Collection through a series of exhibitions, is housed in a rectangular form, and is subdivided into three rooms to increase flexibility. 

Divisions between the rooms are partly glazed to ‘retain the heroic volume of the overall space’, says Ben Kelly Design.

The first exhibition in the space will be the Universal Everything and You show, a large audio-visual artwork created collaboratively through a smart phone app by art and design collective Universal Everything.

Read more at:: http://www.designweek.co.uk/news/ben-kelly-design-creates-media-space-gallery-for-the-science-museum/3037181.article

The Royal Anthropological Institute is pleased to announce that a conference ‘Anthropology and Photography’ will take place at the British Museum, Clore Centre, in conjunction with the museum’s Anthropology Library and Research Centre between 29-31 May 2014. The aim of the Conference is to stimulate an international discussion on the place, role and future of photography.  Panel proposals are therefore welcome from any branch of anthropology.

More information is here: http://www.therai.org.uk/conferences/anthropology-and-photography/

Call for Panels and Papers

We welcome contributions from researchers and practitioners working in museums, academia, media, the arts and anyone who is engaged with historical or contemporary production and use of images.

Panels can draw upon (but are not limited to) the following themes:

• The use of photography across anthropological disciplines
• The changing place of photography in museums and exhibitions
• Photography and globalisation
• Photography, film and fine art
• Revisiting and re-contextualising archival images
• Photography and public engagement
• Ethics, copyright, access and distribution of images
• Technological innovation and its impact
• Regional photography practices
• Visual method and photo theory

The call for panels opens on 1 August 2013 and closes on 31 October 2013

The call for papers opens on 27 November 2013 and closes on 8 January 2014

CONFERENCE FEE:

Non-Fellow: £170
RAI Member: £150
RAI Fellow: £90
Concessions: £70
RAI Student Fellow: £50

 Victoria Hall, Settle, North Yorkshire, is hosting Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell, a lecture by Brian May and fellow authors. The 3D presentation and lecture celebrates the publication of the London Stereoscopic Company's Diableries: Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell by Dr Brian May CBE, Denis Pellerin and Paula Fleming.

The authors - led by Queen guitarist, astronomer and photo-historian Brian May - will present a Gothic Victorian underworld of temptation, seduction, retribution and devilish fun brought alive in colour and 3D. Learn about the origins and hidden meanings of these rare 1860s French photographs which depict an imaginary underworld populated by devils, satyrs and skeletons.

Put on your 3D glasses and prepare to be surprised!

The evening will also provide an opportunity to buy copies of the book (published in hardback by The London Stereoscopic Company, October 2013, £40) and to have them signed by the authors.

More information: http://www.settlevictoriahall.org.uk/prog/2013/nov_brianmay.html

The Royal Photographic Society is hosting the first showing of the 3D presentation in London on 1 November. See: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/lecture-diableries-stereoscopic-adventures-in-hell

A new photography exhibition, open from 22 October 2013 – 30 May 2014, at the Royal Engineers Museum, Library and Archive will show a different and intimate side of the Museum’s collection.

‘Encounters: Photograph albums and their stories’ presents unseen photographs and photo albums, dating back to the 1850s, which have been chosen from a collection of over 600 photograph albums at the Royal Engineers Museum. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England, the exhibition explores the narratives that are told through photograph albums, scrapbooks and their intriguing mixture of private photography and commercial prints and postcards.

Cate Canniffe, Director, South East, Arts Council England, said: ‘This is a really fascinating project set in a venue that is really quite different for this type of exhibition. We are very pleased to be able to support this project, providing audiences with an opportunity to enjoy the story that this collection has to tell. It is a wonderful addition to our collection of photography in the South East, bringing something a little different to our current offering.’

The photograph albums also offer the opportunity to discuss the varying colonial relations as seen through pictures. This aspect is central to the photography collection, which largely exists due to the expansion of the British Empire. Explorers, travellers and Royal Engineers were active all over the globe and used photography as a key documenting tool. Challenging climates did not hinder them but inspired many Royal Engineers to develop new photographic methods – one of the most well-known figures being Sir William de Wiveleslie Abney.

 Alongside the exhibition, the Royal Engineers Museum, Library and Archive will also launch its collections website. This will make over 2000 photographs accessible online as well as a substantial part of the Museum’s wider collection.

About the Royal Engineers Museum, Library and Archive (REMLA)

The Royal Engineers Museum is Kent’s largest military museum, and holds it’s only Designated Collection of historical and international importance. The many galleries tell the story of Britain’s military engineers from the Roman period to the modern Corps of Royal Engineers. The millions of items in its collection tell a sweeping epic of courage, creativity and innovation and the stories of individuals of great renown (General Gordon, Lord Kitchener, John Chard VC) and the average Sapper who has helped the British Army move, fight and survive for over 200 years.

Open: Tuesday – Friday 9.00am to 5.00pm; Saturday – Sunday & Bank Holidays: 11.30am to 5.00pm; CLOSED MONDAYS

Admission: Pay once: get in for 12 months!

Adult: £8.00    Family: £21.50    Concession: £5.50   Children under 5, Students and Serving Royal Engineers: Free

Website: www.re-museum.co.uk, Twitter: @REMuseum, Facebook: The Royal Engineers Museum

Viviane Sassen is one of the most exciting figures in contemporary fashion photography. In celebration of her first retrospective, In and Out of Fashion, on show at the Portrait Gallery, Sassen will be in conversation with Anne Lyden, International Photography Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland on 19 October 2013. 

See: http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/events-calendar/opening-lecture-viviane-sassen-in-conversation-with-anne-lyden

LOS ANGELES—The Getty announced today that it was lifting restrictions on the use of images to which the Getty holds all the rights or are in the public domain. Getty President and CEO Jim Cuno made the announcement in a post on The Iris, the Getty’s blog.

"As of today, the Getty makes available, without charge, all available digital images to which the Getty holds all the rights or that are in the public domain to be used for any purpose," wrote Cuno, citing the new program. 

As a result, there are roughly 4,600 images from the J. Paul Getty Museum available in high resolution on the Getty's website for use without restriction—representing 4,689objects (some images show more than one object), including paintings, drawings, manuscripts, photographs, antiquities and sculpture and decorative arts. The Getty plans to add other images, until eventually all applicable Getty-owned or public domain images are available, without restrictions, online. 

The Getty Research Institute is currently determining which images from its special collections can be made available under this program, and the Getty Conservation Institute is working to make available images from its projects worldwide.

"The Museum is delighted to make these images available as the first step in a Getty-wide move toward open content," said J. Paul Getty Museum Director Timothy Potts. "The Getty’s collections are greatly in demand for publications, research and a variety of personal uses, and I am pleased that with this initiative they will be readily available on a global basis to anyone with Internet access."

Previously, the Getty Museum made images available upon request, for a fee, and granted specific use permissions with terms and conditions. Now, while the Getty requests information about the intended use, it will not restrict use of available images, and no fees apply for any use of images made available for direct download on the website.

"The Getty was founded to promote 'the diffusion of artistic and general knowledge' of the visual arts, and this new program arises directly from that mission," said Cuno. "In a world where, increasingly, the trend is toward freer access to more and more information and resources, it only makes sense to reduce barriers to the public to fully experience our collections."

"This is part of an ongoing effort to make the work of the Getty freely and universally available," said Cuno.

Following the controversy generated by the news that Barnardos was looking to divest itself or destroy its photography archive following digitisation the charity has issued a press release setting out its own position and intentions. BPH reproduces it below without comment and welcomes the level of interest shown in ensuring that the archived is preserved. BPH looks forward to a successful conclusion of those discussions. 

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Barnardo’s is digitising more than 200,000 images from its unique photographic collection - dating back to the 19^th Century - in a move to make it more accessible and protect its historical value.

This forms part of a bigger preservation project through which the charity ultimately intends to bring the entire archive, which has around 500,000 original images, together in one location.

The children’s charity is currently working with the National Archives to determine how best to do this and is also exploring where the archive might be housed in future.

The move is part of a regeneration scheme to modernise the charity’s headquarters in Barkingside, Essex. Until a decision is made on the permanent new home for the whole archive, Barnardo’s is seeking an arrangement with the company which is digitising its oldest images, that need to be kept in a climate controlled environment, to look after them in the short term. The remainder of the archive, which does not need special storage, will stay with Barnardo’s archive team for the moment.

Senior assistant director of children’s services Sara Clarke said:“Barnardo’s has a proud heritage of transforming the lives of some of the most vulnerable children in the UK which reaches back nearly 150 years. 

“Our photographic archive is an important piece of social history which we want to make more accessible whilst protecting its historical value.

“We are excited to be making use of 21^st Century technology and we have been inundated with offers to host the precious originals following the digitisation process, the most promising of which we are now exploring with interest.”

The prints are thought to represent the largest private collection of images in the country and is unique as it concentrates on one subject matter; children in Barnardo’s care. It includes a very rare ambrotype image of Dr Barnardo with children.

Barnardo’s will be having discussions with some prestigious organisations which have expressed interest in hosting its archive; a decision on its final destination will be announced next year.

Notes to editors

The earlier albumen prints were, according to records, likely to be the photographer’s own reference files as many were annotated with a number and in many cases, the child’s name.  The prints were pasted chronologically in a ledger, the binding of which disintegrated.  In addition Barnardo had his own narrow albums with three images per page.  He kept these for personal use to show visitors, parents and police.

The archive is currently available to researchers, academics, descendants of people in the photos and Barnardo’s children who are featured in the pictures. The archive is not available to the general public and some images are subject to privacy restrictions.

Ambrotype photographs are typically shiny in appearance and are created as negatives on a piece of glass and then transferred to a black background.

For more information on the history of Barnardo’s and the work we do today click here.

Anne M Lyden has been appointed International Photography Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland, based at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. The job was advertised earlier this year (see: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/job-international-photography-curator-national-galleries-of) and interviews were held in May. 

Lyden's last day at the Getty Museum was on Thursday and she thanked colleagues for '18 wonderful years' on her Facebook page which was quickly liked by over 60 people. An official announcement from the NGS is due after the Edinburgh Festival. BPH has known of the move since late June but had been asked to refrain from publishing by the NGS. As the news is now in the public domain and widely known BPH has taken the decision to publish.Those who know Lyden have widely welcomed the move with one person calling it 'awesome' and have commended the NGS for the appointment. 

The SNG photography collection consists of 863 images and the Photography Gallery, refurbished in 2012, is named The Robert Mapplethorpe Photography Gallery in recognition of a $300,000 donation from the Mapplethorpe Foundation. The funding will, over the next three years, be used to support innovative displays, exhibitions, research and related publications in the new space.

Lyden is currently an Associate Curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.  She is one of seven curators in the Museum's Department of Photographs, which was established in 1984 and has a collection of approximately 100,000 objects emphasizing the first 150 years of the medium. Contemporary photography has become increasingly relevant to the Museum's mission and all staff participate in portfolio reviews to inform themselves about current practices while critiquing work and offering insights into the manner in which large institutions like the Getty may spend several years following the career of an artist before committing to acquisitions or an exhibition. Lyden has been a reviewer for Atlanta Celebrates Photography; Review LA, Los Angeles; Palm Springs Photo Festival; and PhotoNOLA in New Orleans.Her final exhibition A Royal Passion. Queen Victoria and Photography will open at the Getty in 2014. 

A native of Scotland, Lyden received her Master of Arts degree in the history of art from the University of Glasgow and her Master of Arts in museum studies from the University of Leicester, England.  Since joining the Getty in 1996, she has curated numerous exhibitions drawn from the Museum's permanent collection, including the work of Hill and Adamson, P.H. Emerson, Frederick H. Evans, John Humble, and Paul Strand.  She is the author of several books including,Railroad Vision: Photography, Travel and Perception (2003), The Photographs of Frederick H. Evans (2010) and A Royal Passion. Queen Victoria and Photography (forthcoming, 2014).

Purpose of the Job: To research, develop and deliver content for an innovative programme of exhibitions, displays, multimedia and events.  This will include internationally significant, innovative exhibitions delivered for Media Space, working with colleagues at the Science Museum.

To ensure all processes & documentation is adhered to, liaising with colleagues across museum including Collections, Conservation and CCI.

See:https://vacancies.nmsi.ac.uk/VacancyDetails.aspx?FromSearch=True&MenuID=6Dqy3cKIDOg%3D&VacancyID=439

Key Deliverables/Accountabilities

1.           Research, develop and deliver authoritative and innovative content for permanent and temporary exhibitions, displays, on-line content, and events that provide inspiring experiences for visitors and build the Museum’s reputation for trialling bold, novel communication techniques including multi-media and interactive exhibits, to time and on budget

2.           Work with colleagues at the ScienceMuseum to research and develop internationally significant exhibitions for Media Space, and support the redisplay within theMediaMuseum

3.           Source and collect objects for exhibitions and associated events to aid visitors’ interpretation of agreed messages

4.           Manage placement students and volunteers as required

5.           Develop the use of web platforms to increase reach of the Museum and engage new audiences through on-line channels

6.           Write content proposals and exhibit briefs for exhibitions, on-line and interactive media to ensure agreed exhibition messages are successfully conveyed

7.           Manage relationships with external consultants and contractors to ensure delivery of agreed outcomes on time and to budget

8.           Co-ordinate the delivery of projects on time and to budget with effective management of resources

9.           Produce and deliver high quality events for a variety of audiences, including families and independent adults and enable the content to be leveraged through different media where possible

10.       Develop proposal documents and work with the Development team to deliver high quality funding proposals

11.       Work with the Press and Marketing team to increase media profile of exhibitions and events where possible and appropriate

12.       Take care of your personal health and safety and that of others and report any health and safety concerns.  Ensure proactive compliance with SMG H&S Policies, including risk assessments and implementing safe systems of work

Working Relationships and Contacts

• Senior Exhibition Manager (Line Manager) – to ensure effective delivery of cultural programme
• Head of Collections and Exhibitions(Senior Line Manager) – to ensure the exhibition programme reflects NMeM brand and values and is consistent with overall Museum programming
• New Media team – delivery of innovative multimedia products
• Design colleagues – delivery of high quality design for exhibition and associated products
• Exhibition Services colleagues – delivery and installation of gallery products
• Conservation – appropriate object handling and display
• Learning colleagues – delivery of associated learning products
• External experts – research of high-quality content
• External contractors – build of new exhibitions with specialist contractors; development and delivery of specialist content including software and interactives
• Collection colleagues – delivery of high quality content
• Visitor research team – co-develop interpretation strategies for exhibitions
• Development and fundraising – support the team and provide information for sponsors
• Marketing and communications – to ensure accurate and effective marketing and PR, maximising opportunities for external communications

Line Management and Budget Responsibility

Directly line manages: interns and volunteers as required

Budget Holder: Budgets of up to £20,000

May manage project budgets of up to £100,000
 

Candidate Profile

Experience

• Demonstrable evidence of co-ordinating the development and delivery of exhibitions and/or events
• Demonstrable evidence of delivering audience-focused projects in museums or large-scale visitor attractions and/or other media outlets
• Experience/understanding of all types of media and the challenges involved with delivering messages to a variety of different audiences
• Demonstrable experience of working with subject specialists to deliver accurate, engaging content for non-specialist target audiences
• Experience/understanding of effective team working, motivating and supporting staff and volunteers to ensure a cohesive, skilled and focused team.  Encouraging creativity, innovation and work of the highest quality
• Demonstrable experience of the 2D and 3D exhibition design process
• Demonstrable evidence of effectively working in a team, supporting colleagues and managing stakeholders
• Demonstrable evidence of developing sound curatorial ideas and innovative ways of engaging audiences with content

Skills, Knowledge and Relevant Qualifications

• A proven record in communicating contemporary practice of either Photography, Film & Broadcast or Photographic Technology, through print, multimedia, exhibitions or live events
• Strong communication skills and ability to write high-quality content for different media, including web
• A relevant degree in either Photography, Film & Broadcast or Photographic Technology or equivalent experience
• An understanding of museum-based exhibits and museum visitors
• Strong communication skills and ability to liaise with external specialists/organisations
• Ability to handle large quantities of complicated information and break down complex content and issues into simple, compelling stories
• Ability to research and develop accurate and engaging content within tight deadlines
• Proven track record of delivering projects on time that involves co-ordination of a number of stakeholders
• A high level of web literacy, preferably with knowledge of social media
• Ability to manage and deliver complex live events with a number of stakeholders 
• Excellent research skills and ability to originate ideas
• Evidence of strong negotiation and influencing skills
• Evidence of managing resources carefully
• Evidence of coordinating the work of different teams within demanding timescales
• Familiarity with and experience of the Prince 2 Project Management systems
• Ability to multi-task and prioritise effectively
• Ability to react positively to change and uncertainty
• Ability to work to tight deadlines, often in pressured environments
• Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and stakeholders of different backgrounds, supporting and learning from other team members
• Ability to manage projects effectively, maintaining excellent standards and effective communication

Behaviours

• Team Working: Good team worker who demonstrates and encourages positive approaches, seeks to resolve issues and conflicts, focuses on win-win outcomes, actively champions the team; motivates others and enthusiastically shares knowledge & expertise, actively participates sensitively and flexibly as a team member
• Achieving Results: Takes initiative and ownership to deliver results within time, quality and cost expectations. Able to work to tight deadlines, often in pressured environments. Ability to manage projects effectively and efficiently, maintaining excellent standards and effective communication. Copes well with ambiguity, competing priorities and enjoys change. Motivated, self-starter, able to work to clear outcome targets
• Problem Solving & Creativity: Discusses problems appropriately, exploring viable options to resolve issues. Positive, proactive, unfazed by challenges and quick to look for new ways to problem solve
• Customer Service: Proactively helps, understands customers and acts to meet their needs, enthuses about the product or service or working collaboratively with non-specialist audiences in developing cultural offers, goes the extra mile, answers all questions & provides additional information
• Inspiring: Regularly meets with team members to clearly communicate direction for team and alignment with the organisation. Enthusiastic and committed to delivering innovative projects that place the Museum at the forefront of the field
• Developing: Supports teams by coaching, mentoring and leading as appropriate, ensuring professional and personal development. Encourages creativity and supports innovation
• Thinking: Makes sound decisions based on effective analysis and exploration of options. Prepared to challenge current thinking, look for opportunity for new approaches and take measured risks
• Leadership: Ability to communicate a vision, identify strategies required to achieve the vision and translate the vision into specific targets and tasks. Confident in decision making and able to manage resistance effectively

Scope for Impact

• Delivery of high quality, inspiring, audience focused experiences that increase visitor awareness of different types of media and the artistic, technological, social and cultural impact of it has on their lives
• Delivery of a regular, rich, engaging programme of innovative products that enhances the Museum’s reputation and inspires people to learn about, engage with and create Media
• Delivery of a series of high profile, internationally significant exhibitions in Media Space, building strong collaborative relationships with ScienceMuseum teams
• Establish relationships with stakeholder partners to ensure that exhibition content provides life-enhancing experiences for visitors and builds the reputation of the museum as an effective, collaborative organisation to work with
• Initiate partnerships to develop new ways of engaging researchers and experts with visitors and ensuring their experience in the Museum and online is memorable and unique
• Proactively establish effective working relationships with colleagues across the museum to ensure sufficient resource allocation and effective delivery of all projects

Oxford, 31 July 2013 -- The Bodleian’s appeal was launched in December 2012 with an initial deadline of the end of February 2013 to raise £2.2 million pounds needed for purchasing the Archive. A significant grant of £1.2 million from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) late last year gave the appeal a vital boost. Thanks to the most recent gift from the Art Fund along with donations from numerous other private individuals and charitable trusts, the Bodleian has managed to secure almost £1.9 million towards the purchase of the Archive.

The Bodleian has successfully negotiated an extension to the fundraising deadline and must raise the remaining £375,000 needed to fully fund the acquisition by August 2014. The Bodleian continues to seek and welcomes any further contributions to help acquire the only significant Talbot collection remaining in private hands.

Gifts to support the appeal can be made at: https://www.giving.ox.ac.uk/page.aspx?pid=3427

Stephen Deuchar, Director of the Art Fund, said:  ‘We are delighted to be supporting the Bodleian Libraries’ aim to acquire a major archive of works by British inventor and photographer William Henry Fox Talbot.  This collection of material is of unparalleled importance in shedding light on both his life and his pioneering work. I urge everyone to support the final stage of the Bodleian's appeal.’

Richard Ovenden, Deputy to Bodley’s Librarian said: ‘We are extremely grateful for all donations which we have received so far, from the grants awarded by the Art Fund and the NHMF to all the individual donations. Every single one of them brings us closer to reaching our target of £2.25 million needed to acquire the Talbot archive which is an essential resource for scholars on the history of photography, the history of science, and a range of other disciplines.’

William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877) was one of the greatest polymaths of the Victorian age, and is most famous today for being the British ‘founder of photography’.  The archive contains great potential for fuller understanding of the breadth of Talbot’s scholarly activities, and of the influences exerted by the women in his family, in particular their educative roles, their shared interests in botany, languages, art, travel and history that are so central to Talbot’s work, and their roles as practitioners, supporters, and collectors of the new art.     

Amongst the recipients of examples of Talbot’s earliest photographs were his aunt, Lady Mary Cole and his cousins, who lived at Penrice, near Swansea. Emma, the youngest of the cousins, was married to another of the South Wales gentry, John Dillwyn Llewelyn, and Talbot’s photographs quickly made their way to Penllergare, the home of the Dillwyn Llewelyns. Inspired by Talbot’s invention, Llewelyn became an early practitioner of the art of photography. 

The Talbot Archive also includes artefacts such as glassware and artworks that Talbot photographed for the ground-breaking publication The Pencil of Nature, the first book illustrated with photographs. There is a strong connection to Oxford, as the archive includes some of the first pictures of the city.

Alongside items related to his pioneering work in photography, the archive also sheds valuable light on his family life, his role managing his estate at Lacock, his life as a Member of Parliament, and his range of intellectual interests from science to ancient languages. 

The significance of the collection for various academic fields is reflected by the variety of well-known names who have lent their support to the Bodleian’s fundraising efforts to acquire the Fox Talbot archive:

• two of the world’s greatest photographers Martin Parr and Hiroshi Sugimoto;
• scientists: Sir Paul Nurse, President of The Royal Society; Sir Michael Berry, FRS, Melville Wills Professor of Physics, (Emeritus), University of Bristol;
• historians: Colin Ford, CBE, Founding Head, National Media Museum; Prof Martin Kemp, FBA former Prof of Art History, University of Oxford
• Michael Pritchard, Director-General of The Royal Photographic Society
• David Hockney, the best-known British artist of the 20th century

The Bodleian Libraries have now until August 2014 to raise the remaining funds.  A series of public events is planned to support access to the Archive, including a major exhibition in 2017. Highlights from the Archive will also feature in the opening exhibition for the Weston Library, and in a number of smaller displays.

About William Henry Fox Talbot

William Henry Fox Talbot (1800 – 1877) was a British humanist, scientist and inventor, best known for his invention of photography.  His 1839 announcement of the negative, which could produce multiple prints on paper, defined the central path for photography right down to the digital age. He became the first artist to be trained by photography. Talbot also made significant contributions to fields as diverse as Assyriology, astronomy, botany, electricity, etymology, mathematics, optics and politics. As a scientist, Talbot blended 18th century traditions of the amateur with 19th century concepts of progress and professionalisation. He was a Fellow of the Astronomical, Linnaean, and Royal societies; the latter gave him two gold medals, one for the invention of photography and one for mathematics. Talbot came from a family with strong diplomatic, social and royal connections and sat briefly as a Whig (reform) Member of Parliament. He sensitively guided his estate of Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire through the perils of the social uprisings in the 1830s and the expansion of the railways in the 1840s. Talbot published eight books and more than a hundred journal articles and was granted twelve patents. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate from Edinburgh University. Although personally shy, Henry Talbot was a brilliant figure who lived within a sphere of substantial influence.

About the Personal Archive of William Henry Fox Talbot

The Fox Talbot archive includes:

• original manuscripts by Talbot
• family diaries
• family drawing and watercolour albums and sketchbooks, including images made  by Talbot’s mother, his wife,  and by his sister
• correspondence
• early photographic images made by Talbot
• an image made by Talbot’s wife, c. 1839, which may be the earliest image made by a woman
• several hundred photographs received by Talbot - by other photographers from Britain and across the continent, contemporaries of Fox Talbot who shared their images and attempts at early photography
• portraits of Talbot and his family
• materials and artefacts related to the Lacock estate including estate plans, bills etc
• books from Talbot’s personal library
• musical scores from Talbot and his immediate family
• scientific instruments from Talbot’s own collection
• botanical specimen albums made by Talbot and members of his immediate family.

 About the Art Fund

The Art Fund is the national fundraising charity for art, helping museums to buy and show great art for everyone. Over the past 5 years we’ve given over £26m to help museums and galleries acquire works of art for their collections and placed hundreds of gifts and bequests, from ancient sculpture and treasure hoards to Old Master paintings and contemporary commissions. We also help museums share their collections with wider audiences through supporting a range of tours and exhibitions, including the national tour of the Artist Rooms collection and the 2013-2014 tours of Grayson Perry’s tapestries The Vanity of Small Differences and Jeremy Deller’s English Magic, the British Council commission for the 2013 Venice Biennale. Our support for museums extends to the Art Guide app – the comprehensive guide to seeing art across the UK, promoting a network of over 650 museums and galleries throughout the country, and the £100,000 Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year – an annual celebration of the best of UK museums, won in 2013 by William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow. We are independently funded, the majority of our income coming from over 100,000 members who, through the National Art Pass, enjoy free entry to over 220 museums, galleries and historic houses across the UK, as well as 50% off entry to major exhibitions.

Find out more about the Art Fund and the National Art Pass at www.artfund.org.

The Bodleian Libraries' public appeal to secure the Talbot archive has led to forty-two previously unknown photogenic drawings being discovered. They have been given to the Bodleian Library.

After hearing about the Bodleian’s campaign, Noel Chanan, biographer of John Dillwyn Llewelyn, was approached by Sir John Venables-Llewelyn, great-great grandson of the photographer, with a view to offering to place a previously unknown collection of forty-two early photogenic drawings by Talbot on deposit at the Bodleian, to supplement the Talbot Archive. These precious and fragile photographs, most of which are annotated by Talbot, depict mostly botanical specimens, as well as places including the cloister and the gothic gateway at Lacock Abbey (right), Oxford’s Botanical Gardens, and the Tower of Magdalen College. 

Other subjects include fragments of lace, a breakfast table, a tiger from a Bewick engraving (above, right), the Great Seal of England, and a facsimile of an old printed page.

Gifts to support the appeal to secure the Talbot archive for the Bodleian can be made here: https://www.giving.ox.ac.uk/page.aspx?pid=3427

In July 2013, the Musée Maison Nicéphore Niépce in St Loup de Varennes - founded and exclusively financed by the Speos International Photography School since 1999 -- was nominated Maisons des illustres by the French Ministry of Culture in the presence of high-ranked French government representatives. The house where the world's first photo was taken has finally received national recognition as a museum.

Visit the house website at: http://www.niepce.com/

20 July: One of the oldest, extant, dedicated photographic archives in the world, the Barnardo's photographic archive, currently housed in Barkingside, East London is under threat. Following its digitisation the archive will be transferred to another organisation or will be destroyed.

Over the next few months, Barnardo's will be having its entire photographic archive digitised in Manchester. Due to space issues at Barnardo's, the organisation will then destroy the original images unless an archive or museum can be persuaded to save these important historic documents. The material consists of about of shelving around fifteen feet in length holding archival boxes about 8 inches deep and about 20 inches high. The pages from the original admissions ledgers have been cut out and placed in archival plastic sheets.

Dr. Thomas Barnardo began photographing the 'waifs and strays' that came into his care at his first childrens home in Stepney causeway as early as 1875, employing two photographers, Barnardo preceded most prisons and asylums by seeing the benifits of photography for institutional record keeping. He soon came into legal trouble for faking the condition of the children for the purposes of publicity. 

The importance of these beautiful images - not just to photographic history but to the study of archive practices and British social history - cannot be overstated. It is imperative that their material importance is upheld and that they do not simply become yet another archive solely made up of a smattering of zeroes and ones.

There are certain stipulations regarding the public use of images of children within their care and the images would be subject to a 100 year privacy rule but would still be accessible for private and/or scholarly work.

If you might know of an institution, archive, museum, group of people or persons that would be willing to help save this archive of historical importance please contact the head archivist at Barnardos.

Read more about the Barnardo archive here: http://www.barnardos.org.uk/what_we_do/who_we_are/history/family_history_service/family_history_service_our_service/photo_archive.htm

Update 1: A petition has been launched to 'save' the archive. Click here to view and sign. The petition addressed to Culture Minister Maria Miller has been signed by over 1000 people. 

Update 2: Barnardos has commented publicly for the first time. http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/news/1192660/fears-circulate-barnardos-photo-archive-destroyed/ It says it is 'confident it will find a destination for 500,000 historic photos'. 

Update 3: According to Amateur Photographer magazine over forty offers to house the archive have been received.  

An oil portrait of Benjamin Brecknell Turner is being offered by a British seller on eBay. The auction closes on 28 July. According to the auction entry Turner was was one of Britain's first photographers and a founding member in 1853 of the Photographic Society of London. 

See the auction entry here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/400535415777

UPDATE: The painting sold for £310. 

Born in London, Turner was the eldest son in a family of eight children. The family lived above the family tallow-chandlers business where candles and saddle-soaps were made and sold. At sixteen Benjamin became an apprentice to his father, he joined the Worshipful Company of Tallow Chandlers in 1837 and became a Freeman of the City of London in 1838. On 17 August 1847, he married Agnes Chamberlain, a member of the Worcester China family.

In 1849 Turner took out a licence to practice paper negative (Calotype or Talbotype) photography from its inventor, William Henry Fox Talbot. He quickly mastered this form of photography and went on to produce many images during the 1850s, taking part in many photographic exhibitions during this time. He joined the Photographic Society, later the Royal Photographic Society, and was recorded as a member from 1854, although it is likely he joined in 1853 and remained a member until at least 1893, albeit with a break in membership between c.1871, rejoining in 1883. Brecknell's personal album from The Photographic Club, a grouping of members of the Photographic Society is held in the Royal Photographic Society Collection at the National Media Museum

A website has been set up to showcase photographer Andrew Paterson, whose studio was based in Inverness between 1895-1980. He was an internationally renowned, multi-award winning artist-photographer. His services were sought over several decades by many leading political and commercial figures of the day. In 1935 the Glasgow Daily Record wrote that his 'name is known wherever the camera is regarded as a serious medium of expression in portraiture.'

Paterson won in total 23 awards and diplomas, both national and international, for his work and gave many exhibitions both at home and abroad. The Daily Record noted that 'his portraits have been regarded as setting new standards of excellence in the expression of character.” He was one of those who helped to elevate portrait photography into an art form equalling that of an oil painting.' 

See: www.patersoncollection.co.uk 

To coincide with the imminent 350^th anniversary of Philosophical Transactions, the world’s oldest scientific journal, The Royal Society and the AHRC research project “Publishing the Philosophical Transactions” are organising a conference, to be held at the Royal Society in March 2015, on the history of science journal publishing.  Phil.Trans. has a long association with the early history of photography.  

Publish or Perish? Scientific periodicals from 1665 to the present

19-21 March 2015

The Royal Society, London

CALL FOR PAPERS

To celebrate the anniversary of the Philosophical Transactions, the world’s oldest scientific journal, the Royal Society will be hosting a major conference in spring 2015. At a time when the future of scientific publishing is in flux, this conference will take the long perspective by examining the transformations and challenges in the publishing of scientific journals over the last three and a half centuries, and into the future. We seek offers of papers, or proposals for three- or four-paper panels, which engage with any aspect of the commercial, editorial and distribution practices  of scientific journal publishing, in any period since 1665, preferably with a comparative or longue durée perspective.

Papers or panels might address:

• The processes of printing, publishing or illustrating scientific journals
• The commercial practices of journal publishing
• The development of editorial and refereeing processes
• Distribution networks and marketing – regional, national and international
• Issues concerning the status, reputation and reception of competing journals

Offers of papers, including a 250-word abstract, should be sent to publishorperish@royalsociety.org by the 30^th of November 2013.

Participants must be willing and able to prepare their paper for speedy publication in autumn 2015.

Philosophical Transactions at 350

The Philosophical Transactions turns 350 on March the 6^th, 2015. To celebrate this milestone in the history of science communication, a programme of events and activities is being planned for the Anniversary year. In addition, a major AHRC-funded research project, led by Dr Aileen Fyfe at the University of St Andrews in partnership with the Royal Society, is already under way, which will produce the first full history of the Philosophical Transactions.  

www.royalsociety.org

https://arts.st.andrews.ac.uk/philosophicaltransactions/

Dr Noah Moxham

School of History, University of St Andrews

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Bernard Quaritch Ltd has confirmed the acquisition by the Hong Kong based Moonchu Foundation of the Terry Bennett Collection of Early Chinese Photography, now to be known as The Moonchu Collection of Early Photography of China.  Comprising approximately 10,000 photographs from 1844 to the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Bennett collection has been acquired in its entirety.The selling price has not been disclosed but it is believed to be a significant seven-figure sum. 

The Moonchu Foundation was established in 2007 and is a tax-exempt charity established by, but not beneficially owned by Mr Zhang Songyi and family members Ms Mui Bing How and Mr Chang Tsong Zung.  The Moonchu Foundation has entered into a loan agreement with the Hong Kong Museum of History for a major exhibition from the collection at the end of 2013, with the further aim that this loan should become a permanent gift.

The range and depth of the collection is renowned, unrivalled in documented private or institutional holdings. It includes a daguerreotype (right) from Jules Itier’s visit in 1844, when he made the earliest surviving photographs of China; 70 albums by amateur and internationally acclaimed photographers such as Felice Beato, Milton Miller, John Thomson, and Lai Fong, William Saunders, Pow Kee, Paul Champion and William Floyd; some 325 cabinet and carte-de-visite portraits by Chinese and Western studios; many lantern slides and glass and paper stereoviews; hundreds of larger format portraits and views; rare photography periodicals such as The Far East and the China Magazine; multi-plate panoramas of Peking, Hong Kong, Macau and the treaty ports; awe inspiring scenes of natural landscape by Lai Fong and Tung Hing; and an early mammoth plate view of Hong Kong by C. L. Weed.

These photographs illuminate China’s history during the second half of the nineteenth century and the history of photography in China.

From the introduction of the daguerreotype to the era of the ‘Kodak’, the scope of this collection allows for comparative studies across multiple social, cultural and historical subjects.

Bernard Quaritch established a Photography Department in 2005 with Consultant Specialist, Lindsey Stewart, and a photobook department in 2010. It has published six catalogues and five photography books including the landmark three volume series History of Photography in China by Terry Bennett and Odalisques and Arabesques: Orientalist Photography 1839-1925 by Ken Jacobson.

Contact: Bernard Quaritch Ltd., 40 South Audley Street, London, W1K 2PR. Tel: +44 (0)20 7297 4888. Fax: +44 (0)20 7297 4866.  rarebooks@quaritch.com or www.quaritch.com

We are looking for a Curator to take responsibility for the BFI National Archive’s collection of posters, designs and museum objects as part of a fixed-term maternity cover post, commencing late September/early October 2013. Working as part of the BFI curatorial team you will be required to document, develop, research and interpret the poster and designs collections, ensuring they are embedded within the cultural programme of the BFI.

You will have a strong knowledge of British film and television in both its historical and contemporary contexts. You should also have an interest in, and demonstrable knowledge of, 20thand 21stcentury British art and design, particularly as it relates to the film and television industries.

You need to be educated to degree level or equivalent, with a recognised qualification in art/paper conservation or a related area, as well as having a minimum of 2 years’ relevant experience in a gallery, museum or archive.

You will be based at the John Paul Getty Conservation Centre, Berkhamsted but you will be required in central London on a regular basis.

You will enjoy benefits such as a final salary pension scheme, 28-33 days annual leave, tickets to BFI festivals and events plus many others.

For more information and to apply please visit

http://www.bfi.org.uk/about-bfi/job-opportunities/current-vacancies/curator-posters-designs

The closing date for applications is 10.00am Monday 05 August 2013.

Interviews will be held Monday 19 August 2013 (at Berkhamsted