The Scientific Instrument Society is pleased to announce that the Society's twentieth Medal Lecture will be delivered by Dr Willem Hackmann, who will speak on Spectacular Science through the Magic Lantern on 23 November at 6pm, at the Society of Antiquaries, London.
The lecture is free and open to the general public, with no booking required. Doors open 5.30pm, and the lecture will be followed by a bookable buffet reception from 7pm. For further details on this event, including how to book for the buffet, please see the Society’s website:
Archisle: The Jersey Contemporary Photography Programme, hosted by the Société Jersiaise (Jersey Society) in Jersey, Channel Islands promotes contemporary photography through an ongoing programme of exhibitions, education and commissions. The Archisle project connects photographic archives, contemporary practice and experiences of island cultures and geographies through the development of a space for creative discourse between Jersey and international practitioners.
Archisle is currently inviting applications for the position of Photographer in Residence launching in 2013. This is an exciting new post commencing in April/May running for six months through to September/October 2013.
The residency provides the following key benefits and opportunities:
- £10,000 bursary for the commission/production of a body of work and solo exhibition
- Studio space with access to inkjet printing and office/internet resources - Living accommodation and expenses - Travel costs
London and Bradford, 13 September 2012 – The National Media Museum in Bradford has unveiled the earliest colour moving pictures ever made. The Museum will now invite the public to see these vivid images from its Collection for the first time in over a hundred years in a new display which opens today.
These films were made by photographer and inventor Edward Turner using a process he patented with his financial backer Frederick Lee in 1899. Experts at the Museum have dated the films to 1901/2, making these the earliest examples of colour moving pictures in existence.
Lee and Turner’s invention has always been regarded by film historians as a practical failure but it has now been ‘unlocked’ through digital technology, revealing the images produced by the process for the first time in over a hundred years. It’s also a story of young death and commercial intrigue in the earliest days of the film industry.
Turner developed his complex three-colour process with support, first from Lee and then from the American film entrepreneur, Charles Urban. Using a camera and projector made by Brighton-based engineer Alfred Darling, Turner developed the process sufficiently to take various test films of colourful subjects such as a macaw, a goldfish in a bowl against a brightly striped background and his children playing with sunflowers, before his death in 1903 aged just 29. Urban went on to develop the process further with the pioneer film-maker George Albert Smith which resulted in the commercially successful Kinemacolor system, patented in 1906 and first exhibited to the public in 1909. Sadly, Turner’s widow never received a penny from her husband’s invention.
On discovering the film, Michael Harvey, Curator of Cinematography at the National Media Museum worked with film archive experts Brian Pritchard and David Cleveland to reconstruct the moving footage in colour following the precise method laid out in Lee and Turner’s 1899 patent. They turned to experts at the BFI National Archive who were able to undertake the delicate work of transforming the film material into digital files, and so the team were able to watch these vivid colour moving pictures for the first time, over one hundred years since they had been made.
Michael Harvey said: “We sat in the editing suite entranced as full-colour shots made 110 years ago came to life on the screen. The image of the goldfish was stunning: its colours were so lifelike and subtle. Then there was a macaw with brilliantly coloured plumage, a brief glimpse of soldiers marching and, most interestingly, young children dressed in Edwardian finery. I realised we had a significant find on our hands. We had proved that the Lee and Turner process worked but it remained to identify who those children were and establish as precisely as possible when these first colour images were made.”
Through analysis of documentary evidence including the fact that the camera was completed in 1901 and that Turner died in March 1903, as well as genealogical research into the Turner family, the National Media Museum was able to confidently date most of the films to 1901/2 making them the earliest colour moving pictures made.
The public can see the Lee and Turner footage for the first time in more than one hundred years as it premieres today, 13 September, as part of a free display, at the National Media Museum in Bradford. Bradford was designated the world’s first UNESCO City of Film in 2009. The display also features the story of the Lee and Turner footage and shows the unique and complicated projector used for the system along with related items from the Charles Urban Archive which is part of the National Cinematography Collection.
Paul Goodman, Head of Collections at the National Media Museum said: “This wonderful rediscovery highlights the untapped potential of the National Media Museum’s Collection, and the Lee & Turner films can now take their rightful place alongside other unique artefacts and world–firsts which the Museum holds. Moreover, it highlights the Museum’s leading role in validating and challenging received wisdom about the subject matter it represents: film history can now be rewritten as a result of this marvellous find.”
The project was supported with funding from Yorkshire Film Archive and Screen Yorkshire - project partners for the restoration of the Lee and Turner collection.
A BBC documentary about the discovery of the Lee and Turner footage will screen on 17 September in the South East and Yorkshire.
With exclusive access to the National Media Museum, BBC South East tells story of this remarkable discovery in ‘The Race For Colour’. Presented by broadcaster, journalist and film critic Antonia Quirke, the documentary follows the astonishing discovery of the earliest colour moving pictures ever; and looks back at the wonder of movies in the Edwardian age and the history of the colour film industry. ‘The Race For Colour’ is on BBC One (South East and Yorkshire) on Monday 17 September 2012, at 7.30pm and can also be viewed via the BBC iPlayer.
Christie's is to offer Tryggve Gran's (1889-1980) ICA Ideal 325 plate camera, in an auction on 9 October 2012. The camera was supplied by H. Abel, Christiania, and used on Scott's Terra Nova expedition, 1910-14; leather covered case, with Carl Zeiss Jena Nr.125838 Doppel Amatar 1:6,8 F16,5cm DRP196734lens, with Gran's canvas carrying case -- 9in. (23cm.) high, in case
with Gran's 4 x 5in. copy negative, Grave on The Great Ice Barrier (The Last Rest, the grave of Scott, Wilson and Bowers) (2)
Leicester: New Walk Museum & Art Gallery are delighted to announce one of the most comprehensive exhibitions of August Sander’s work in England, presenting 175 works by one of the twentieth century’s most important photographers. The exhibition of German photographer August Sander (1876-1964) draws together 175 photographs and a wide range of archival material from the collections of Tate, National Galleries of Scotland, Anthony d’Offay and Gerd Sander.
This presentation creates a unique opportunity to see the different facets of August Sander’s photographic practice, including his celebrated portraits alongside less well known aspects of his work.
August Sander’s most significant project was ‘The People of the Twentieth Century’. Sander wanted to create an encyclopaedic survey of different types of people from the first half of the twentieth century. His working life in Germany spanned the First World War, the interwar years, the rise of the Nazi party, the Second World War and its aftermath.
His photographs are unflinching documents of a society going through huge change. The work reflects both the catastrophic political convulsions that Germany was enduring and a society slowly coming to terms with the impact of industrialisation. The clarity and breadth of his vision remains powerful and his vocational portraits still resonate today.
Curated by August Sander’s Grandson, Gerd Sander, the selection of work reflects his understanding both of Sander’s technical genius and the context in which the photographs were produced, knowing many of the stories behind the sitters and their relationship to Sander.
August Sander is a key figure in the history of photography and his influence as a photographer can be felt across the 20th century through the work of Diane Arbus, Walker Evans and Bernd and Hilla Becher. It continues to fascinate today.
August Sander’s exhibition will be presented alongside Leicester’s internationally acclaimed collection of 20th century German Expressionist art and touring exhibition of George Grosz from the Hayward Gallery. Offering a unique opportunity to view Sander’s work alongside German artists from the same period.
ARTIST ROOMS: August Sander 29th September 2012 - 6th January 2013 New Walk Museum & Art Gallery, Leicester Presenting one of the most comprehensive exhibitions of August Sander’s work in England.
New York – An exhibition of early work by William Henry Fox Talbot, the inventor of the photographic negative, will be on view at Hans P. Kraus Jr. Fine Photographs from September 25 through November 2, 2012. Talbot’s World: A Gallery of Natural Magic will present more than 25 photogenic drawings, calotype negatives, and salt prints, 1839-1844, comprising a rare selection of photographs on paper from these early years. Most of the works have never before been displayed. A fully illustrated catalogue with text by the Talbot scholar Larry J. Schaaf accompanies the exhibition.
William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), a brilliant scientist, conceived of the art of photography during the 1830s, combining the use of a camera obscura with light-sensitive chemistry. Unlike the other early photographic processes, heliography and the daguerreotype, Talbot’s negative-positive process on paper became the basis of all modern photography.
The title of this exhibition is drawn from a recently discovered 1839 pamphlet, A Description of the Instruments Employed in the Gallery of Natural Magic, which includes a sonnet in honor of Talbot’s achievement. As Schaaf writes in the exhibition catalogue, “No one was more surprised at the magical dimensions of photography than the inventor himself, William Henry Fox Talbot. His scientific side realized that he had simply harnessed natural magic. Everything that he had accomplished could be explained within Nature’s laws, yet that made the new art no less a marvel to him.”
Among the highlights of Talbot’s World: A Gallery of Natural Magic will be Maidenhair Fern, most likely made in early 1839, within months of the public announcement of photography. This crisply delineated plant form is a strikingly robust photogenic drawing in lavender and mauve. Unique photograms such as this are precursors to modern abstractions.
To find a salt print combined with its original paper negative is particularly rare. This exhibition will feature three such pairs. Among the most recognized Talbot images is Footman at Carriage Door, taken October 14, 1840, just weeks after Talbot discovered the calotype negative process. It depicts a liveried footman inviting the viewer into an elegant coach waiting outside Lacock Abbey, Talbot’s home. The salt print in this exhibition will be newly reunited with its original negative, dated in Talbot’s hand. This is the first significant photograph on paper depicting a standing human figure.
Another print recently joined with its negative is Woodhouse and Cart, 27 August 1840. The negative of this picturesque scene is a photogenic drawing made one month before Talbot discovered the latent image.
Two Men in the North Courtyard of Lacock Abbey, 1841-1844, is a staged narrative composition capturing a daily scene in the Abbey. The main characters are shown in a natural pose through the several seconds needed for making this calotype negative. It survives in splendid condition, together with a salt print. Talbot’s calotype marked the shift from the printing-out to the developing-out process, in which a latent image produced in the camera was turned into a visible image through chemical development.
Talbot toured England and France for his pioneering publication, The Pencil of Nature (1844-1846), the first book illustrated with photography and the first mass production of photographs. A majestic view of theChâteau de Chambord is the subject of a richly toned salt print, recording Talbot’s visit to the French castle on 16 June 1843.
In response to the increasing appetite for the first photographs from Talbot and his circle, the exhibition will include other photographs on paper dating from 1839 to 1844. These come mostly from the personal collections of the most distinguished Talbot collectors and scholars who established the field.
Talbot’s World: A Gallery of Natural Magic will be on view at Hans P. Kraus Jr. Fine Photographs from September 25 through November 2, 2012, 962 Park Avenue at 82nd Street, New York, NY 10028, 12:00 to 6:00pm and by appointment.
A monthly meeting for discussions about photography led by photographer, journalist, author and teacher, Paul Hill. Each month will present a different aspect within the field of photographic practice, including publishing, technique, individual artists, reading images, and encourage discussion and debate that is relevant to the image makers of the region. The first introductory session will focus on photographers' work in relation to 'using our own lives as subject matter'.
FORMAT photoforum
Last Tuesday of every month. Starting 23rd October 6.30pm - 8.30pm in QUAD, Derby Tickets £3. Booking essential through QUAD box office QUAD & FORMAT International Photography Festival QUAD | Market Place | Cathedral Quarter | Derby | DE1 3AS | UK
A special event was held last night to celebrate the important contribution that Michael G Wilson OBE HonFRPS has made as a Trustee and Patron of the Science Museum. Science Museum Director Ian Blatchford and government minister Ed Vaizey were amongst the guests present. Wilson is to be the first chair of a new Science Museum Foundation tasked with major fundraising and generating support for significant projects within the Science Museum Group. He has been the driving force behind the realisation of the National Media Museum and Science Museum's Media Space and described the space as 'a centre for learning and discussion'.
Media Space is located on the second floor of the Science Museum and overlooks Exhibition Road. Concept drawings have been shown here (see: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/media-space-the-first-view-of-the-space) but when one sees the actual space it is physically stunning and offers a wealth of exciting possibilities for the display of historic and contemporary photography and associated objects.
BPH has been asked by the museum not to disclose further information about the space and Media Space's opening date which it has agreed to respect.
Photo: A small part of the Media Space space. Not to be reproduced without permission.
Two post-doctoral Research Fellow positions are available at De Montfort University, Leicester, to work on the AHRC funded FuzzyPhoto project that is developing and testing computer-based “finding aids” for recommending potential matches between historical photographic exhibition catalogue records and images of photographs that appear in online collections. One will have a knowledge of the Semantic Web, metadata schemas and Web site development, the other will be responsible for investigating and trialling modern database engines and management systems. For further details see http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AFD578/research-fellow-semantic-web/ and http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AFD581/research-fellow-data-warehousing/
We invite international submissions to be included in this forthcoming book, to be published by MuseumsEtc in 2013. The photograph album carries the potential to convey meaning beyond the images contained within it. However, the long history of the photograph and the album is currently changing because of the way in which we are now making and using photographs. This could be seen as a challenge to the album or viewed as an opportunity to take us in new directions and offer alternative interpretations.
Submissions: We welcome submissions of between 2000-6000 words from writers, academics, curators, photographers, artists and other visual practitioners. If your submission is of a visual nature it will extend to 6-8 pages of the published book.
We are seeking contributions that deal with a wide range of issues in connection with the photograph and the album and the relationship between them. This could encompass conceptual, cultural, historical and visual concerns relating to:
the album as home-made, hand-made and/or domestic artefact
the album as art object
the family album
the travel album
the commercially-made photograph album
the digital album
the photograph album and the museum
the collecting of albums
the photograph album as social memory and political document
the presence and the absence of the photograph album
Submitting a proposal: If you are interested in being considered as a contributor, please submit a proposal of between 300-500 words with a short biography and CV to the following address: J.Carson@salford.ac.ukby Monday 1 October 2012. If you have any queries about this CFP please email:J.Carson@salford.ac.uk
The book will be published in print and digital editions by MuseumsEtc in 2013. Contributors will receive a complimentary copy of the publication and a discount on more.
The Editors: Jonathan Carson is Associate Head (Academic) and Senior Lecturer in Critical & Contextual Studies in the School of Art & Design, University of Salford, UK. Rosie Miller is a Lecturer and Critical & Contextual Studies Area Leader in the School of Art & Design, University of Salford, UK. Theresa Wilkie is Director of Design & Culture and Senior Lecturer in Critical & Contextual Studies in the School of Art & Design, University of Salford, UK. All three previously edited Photography and the Artist’s Book (MuseumsEtc, 2012).
DEADLINES:
ABSTRACTS DUE: 1 OCTOBER 2012
CONTRIBUTORS NOTIFIED: 1 NOVEMBER 2012 (provisional)
COMPLETED PAPERS DUE: 28 JANUARY 2013 (provisional)
British Pathé has created a collection of photos showing amazing vintage cameras in its '50 Classic Cameras' album but has little knowledge of old cameras. It is seeking commentwith some information on any of the photos. Any information on make, age, etc would be greatly appreciated.
There are three ways of contacting British Pathé:
1. Register with the website (for free) and leave a comment on the gallery itself
2. Join the archive's Facebook page
3. Find British Pathé on Twitter and chat there @britishpathe
A richly illustrated book from Bodleian Library Publishing on the life, career, and pictures of pioneering photographic artist Sarah Angelina Acland sheds new light on the history of colour photography.
Sarah Angelina Acland (1849–1930) is one of the most important photographers of the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods. Daughter of the Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, she was photographed by Lewis Carroll as a child, along with her close friend Ina Liddell, sister of Alice of Wonderland fame. The critic John Ruskin taught her art and she also knew many of the Pre-Raphaelites, holding Rossetti’s palette for him as he painted the Oxford Union murals. At the age of nineteen she met the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, whose influence is evident in her early work.
Following in the footsteps of Cameron and Carroll, Miss Acland first came to attention as a portraitist, photographing illustrious visitors to her Oxford home. In 1900 she then turned to the fledgling field of colour photography. Specializing in the ‘Sanger Shepherd process’, she became the leading colour photographer of the day. Her colour photographs were regarded as the finest that had ever been seen by her contemporaries, several years before the release of the Lumière Autochrome system, which she also practised.
This new book provides the only opportunity to see Miss Acland’s photographs, illustrating more than 200 examples of her work, from portraits to picturesque views of the gardens of Madeira. Some fifty unpublished specimens of the photographic art and science of her peers are also reproduced from the Bodleian collections, including four unrecorded child portraits by Carroll. Detailed descriptions accompany the images, explaining their interest and significance.
A rich introduction to the beginnings of colour photography, this book not only sheds important light on the history of photography in the period, but also offers a fascinating insight into the lives of a pre-eminent English family and their circle of friends.
Format: 304 pp, hardback, 278 x 245 mm, 188 monochrome images and 124 colour images
ISBN: 978 1 85124 372 3
Price: £45.00
Publication: Bodleian Library Publishing, 13 September 2012
David Burder FRPS, FBIPP, BSc, and Terry King, who was made an FRPS back in 1982 will be running a a very special workshop on 21 and 22 September 2012. David G Burder will be running the hands-on daguerreotype part of the workshop while Terry King will lead an exercise in making heliographs using asphalt in the way Nicéphore Niépce made the first extant photograph of the view from his window at Chalon sur Saone in 1826.
Not many people have done this!
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 Saxby award for 3D imaging. Terry has been making alternative process photographs since the early seventies and has many exhibitions and articles on his work published. He founded the Alternative Processes International Symposium.
David is one of only a handful of practising Daguerreoptypists/ lecturers in the world today, David 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. David has given several “live, hands on” demonstrations of this procedure at several RPS events.
As he wrote in The Daguerrian annual, “in making Daguerreotypess, I have created many smells and met many new friends”.
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.
This is a rare opportunity to see a Daguerreotypist at work.
The BBC is showing a programme about a major discovery of early colour film made at the National Media Museum by curator of film Michael Harvey. Movies were a wonder of the Edwardian age, but they were only in black and white. With a fortune waiting for whoever could invent moving colour images, a desperate race began to be the first, with back stabbing businessmen, amazing engineering and a tragic death all involved.
Now, researchers at the National Media Museum in Bradford have made a remarkable discovery that rewrites film history. Brighton may have been the Hollywood of the Edwardian age, but the question is: who actually came first in the race for colour?
Broadcaster, journalist and film critic Antonia Quirke follows the National Media Museum's astonishing discovery, and looks back at the history of the colour film industry.
See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mw0cl The programme shows on Monday 17 September 2012, 7.30-8.00pm in the South East and Yorkshire regions only and on the BBC iPlayer.
Image: Lee and Turner three-colour projector from the National Media Museum collection.
Cecil Beaton is one of Britain’s most celebrated photographers and designers. His glamorous photographs of royalty and celebrities projected him to fame but his extraordinary work as a wartime photographer is less well-known.
Commissioned by the Ministry of Information in July 1940, Beaton was the longest serving high-profile photographer to cover the Second World War. He travelled throughout Britain, the Middle East, India, China and Burma and captured a world on the brink of lasting change.
In later years, Beaton attributed his war photographs as his single most important body of photographic work. Through his photographs, drawings and books as well as his work in theatre and film, this exhibition tells the story of how the war became a personal turning point in Beaton’s career.
The exhibition runs until 1 January 2013.
Hilary Roberts, Curator of Photographs, and Michael Pritchard, Director-General of The Royal Photographic Society discussed the exhibition live on television today with Alan Titchmarsh (see photo above / courtesy ITV1)
Bath's Victoria Art Gallery will be showing the work of Roger Mayne from 26 January-7 April 2013. The exhibition: Roger Mayne: aspects of a great photographer will be his first museum show for 22 years. Born in 1929 Roger Mayne photographed London's street life in the 1950s, capturing its vigour and poverty. Later he photographed his own children and people observed on his own travels. His many friendships with artists influenced his approach to photography and resulted in telling portraits plus a photo essay on the Bath Academy of Art. This show surveys his career and includes rare vintage prints for sale.
The Department of Special Collections of the University of St Andrews Library has a new Tumblr blog called “lux”. Marc Boulay, the photographic archivist writes... Its aim is to cater to those who will enjoy receiving a steady stream of images which illustrate the scope of our Photographic Collection and the new discoveries we're making every week. Out of our vast collection of over 700,000 historic photographs, only 10% are currently available online. “lux” will give followers the opportunity to enjoying a sneak peak at some of the previously unseen and rare photos we have on offer.
Our aim is to share weekly selections which illustrate the breadth of our collection and encourage those interested to learn more. Please share our images and forward our posts with others as the more people that use the collection the better. Don’t forget that you’re welcome to come see the originals! Members of the public, students of all ages and disciplines, or those who are just plain curious are all welcome.
As well, our wider Department of Special Collections has been doing an ongoing series entitled "52 weeks of Inspiring Illustrations" which represents material from across all our collections (Photographs, Books, Manuscripts) which is featured on "Echoes from the Vault" our departmental WordPress blog. Every 3rd or 4th week there is a post of photographic interest which highlights our collection through an introduction to various photographic processes. It is meant for a generalist audience, but I figured it might be of interest to certain members of your readership. Here's the run of posts which cover photography so far (earliest to latest):
De Montfort University's Photographic History Research Centre has published details of its Autumn research seminars in cultures of photography. Seminars are open to everyone.
Autumn 2012, Tuesdays 4 – 6pm, Edith Murphy Building, De Montfort University, Room number in square brackets.
October 9th [EM 1.07]
Dr Steve Edwards (Open University)
Beard Patentee, Claudet Exception: Photography, Biography and Intellectual Property
November 6th [EM 1.28]
Professor Clare Anderson (University of Leicester)
Representation, photograph-objects and family albums: visualising the Andaman Islands penal colony, 1858-1939
December 4th [EM 1.27]
Kim Timby (Independent Scholar, Paris)
From Mirror to Window: The Promise of Early Lenticular Photography
in conjunction with PHRC’s annual 3-D day]
Any queries, please contact the convener: Professor Elizabeth Edwards, Photographic History Research Centre. E: eedwards@dmu.ac.uk
An AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award studentship covering stipend and tuition fee costs is offered within the Photographic History Research Centre (PHRC) in the Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities in collaboration with the British Museum.
The project addresses the role of photography and its relationship with other mimetic technologies in field archaeology and the subsequent institutional life of the images in the construction of ‘heritage’. The project also explores the methodological implications for a ‘photographic history’ approach to collections and institutions.
The project will focus on the 1513 magnificent late nineteenth century photographs made of Maya archaeology by Alfred Maudslay, their relationship with other kinds of recording and their subsequent ‘life’ in the Museum. The student will have scope, within the project parameters, to develop an emphasis in photographic history, collections history, history of science, or museum practice in archaeological heritage.
The PhD studentship will be based at PHRC which undertakes leading innovative research on photography and its practices from the early nineteenth century to the present day, and over a wide range of social and cultural processes. It has a dynamic and growing research community and an excellent research library for photographic history. The successful candidate will be expected to contribute to the development of this community and that at the British Museum.
Supervision will be available from Professor Elizabeth Edwards (DMU) and key members of British Museum staff who have active interests in photography, history, archaeology and collections history. The studentship will be based at DMU, Leicester, with extended London-based periods of study at the British Museum and related archives
Candidates might come from a range of possible disciplines: art history, history of photography, museum and heritage studies, science and technology studies, material culture studies, archaeology, visual anthropology, or visual culture studies. A knowledge of Meso-American archaeology is not a requirement.
PHOTOGRAPHS, MUSEUMS AND ARCHAEOLOGY
Alfred Maudslay, Photography and the Mimetic Technologies of Archaeology: A Study in Method, Process and Effect
Photographic History Research Centre, De Montfort University, Leicester/ British Museum, London
STARTING JANUARY 2013
For a more detailed description of the PHRC please visit our web site or contact
Professor Edwards (eedwards@dmu.ac.uk) who will be happy to discuss the studentship further.
Applications are invited from UK or eligible EU/overseas students (please check http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Documents/GuidetoStudentFunding.pdf Annex A for residency requirements) with a good first degree (First, 2:1 or equivalent) and MA in a relevant subject. Applications are welcome from MAs completing 2012. The CDA scholarship is available for three years full-time study starting January 2013, providing a bursary for both maintenance (currently c. £14,500) and fees.
To receive an application pack, please contact the Faculty Research Office via email at ADHresearch&innovation@dmu.ac.uk. Completed applications should be returned together with a full CV, two supporting references, a statement explaining your interest in the project, and an example of your written work of c.3000 words.
The status of photographs in the history of museum collections is a complex one. From the inception of the medium its double capacity as an aesthetic form and as a recording medium created tensions about its place in the hierarchy of museum objects. While museums had been amassing photographs since about 1850, it was, for instance, only in the 1970s that the first senior curators of photographs were appointed in UK museums. On the one hand major collections of ‘art’ photography have grown in status and visibility, while photographs not designated ‘art’ are often invisible in museums. On the other hand almost every museum has photographs as part of its ecosystem, gathered as information, corroboration or documentation, shaping the understanding of other classes of objects. Many of these collections remain uncatalogued and their significance unrecognised. However recent years have seen an increasing interest in the histories of these humble objects, both their role in collections histories and their histories in their own right.
This one-day meeting, a collaboration between MGHG and the Photographic History Research Centre at De Montfort University, Leicester, will explore the substantive and historiographical questions around museum collections of photographs. How do categories of the aesthetic and evidential shape the history of collecting photographs? What are the implications of shifts in these categories? What has been the work of photographs in museums? What does an understanding of photograph collections add to our understanding of collections history more broadly? What are the methodological demands of research on photograph collections?
Abstracts of no more than 250 words, for 25 minute papers, should be sent to Professor Elizabeth Edwards (eedwards@dmu.ac.uk) and Dr Kate Hill (khill@lincoln.ac.uk) by November 10th 2012.
Details of the day will be posted in December 2012.
Between Art and Information: Collecting Photographs
One Day Meeting, Leicester, Saturday March 2nd 2013
A collaboration between: Museums and Galleries History Group/Photographic History Research Centre, De Montfort University
