Our ability to see and record live events from right across the world has shrunk the globe, making virtual neighbours of us all. It is a defining characteristic of our modern world. The final episode in the series reveals the fascinating stories that made such everyday miracles possible. It tells the story of the handful of extraordinary inventions and their inventors who tackled the complexities of chemistry and electronics and discovered how to capture and reproduce still and moving images.

Michael Mosley and academics Prof Mark Miodownik and Dr Cassie Newland tell the amazing story of three of the greatest and most transformative inventions of all time - photography, moving pictures and television.

The experts explain how these inventions came about by sparks of inventive genius and steady incremental improvements hammered out in workshops and studios. They separate myth from reality in the lives of the great inventors and celebrate some of the most remarkable stories in British history.

The programme includes filming at Lacock Abbey and Richard Cynan-Jones who made a calotype of host Michael Mosley. 

Broadcast on 14 February and available on the BBC iPlayer here. 

On October 31 2013 IRPA-KIK organises a conference on management and conservation of photographic collections. Many institutions (museums, libraries, archives, etc.) that have photographic collections are facing problems concerning their management: storage, inventory, digitalization, access, copyright issues, status and value attached to the collection 
etc.

The conference offers professionals who are confronted with these problems an occasion to develop a practical and ethical framework for the conservation of photographic collections.

If you would like to present a paper on one of the diverse topics concerning this theme, you can send your proposal to IRPA-KIK before March 31 2013.

Main colloquium topics

• Collections care and management
  • (Preventive) conservation
  • Risk management
  • Storage for photographic collections
• Access
  • Copyright
  • Digitization
  • Exhibition
• The status of the image
• Advocacy

Language

The principal language of the conference will be English, but papers in French will also be welcome.

More information: see conference website: http://org.kikirpa.be/coma2013/

An important collection of 37 albumen prints by Clemintina Maud, Lady Hawarden, a pair of pencil sketches of her and her husband, and 15 associated albumen prints (several possibly by Lady Hawarden), [c.1857-1864] will be sold at Bonhams on March 19 for an estimated £100,000-150,000.

The sale of this exceptional collection by one of the most important and influential Victorian fine art photographers is a rare event in this market. The images are derived from a single album, the vast majority not represented in the Victoria & Albert Museum's collection.

Born Clementina Elphinstone Fleeming in Dunbartonshire in 1822, she was the third of five children of a British father, Admiral Charles Elphinstone Fleeming (1774-1840), and a Spanish mother, Catalina Paulina Alessandro (1800-1880). In 1845 she married Cornwallis Maude, an Officer in the Life Guards. In 1856 Maude's father, Viscount Hawarden, died and his title, and considerable wealth, passed to Cornwallis.

The surviving photographs suggest that Clementina, now Lady Hawarden, began to take photographs on the Hawarden's Irish estate at Dundrum, Co. Tipperary, from late 1857. Many of these were taken with a stereoscopic camera, and the present collection contains several Dundrum images which are one of the pair that comprise a stereoscopic image.

In 1859 the family also acquired a new London home at 5 Princes Gardens (much of the square survives as built, but No. 5 has gone). From 1862 onwards Lady Hawarden used the entire first floor of the property as a studio, within which she kept a few props, many of which have come to be synonymous with her work: gossamer curtains, a free standing mirror, a small chest of drawers and the iconic 'empire star' wallpaper, as seen in several of these photographs. The superior aspect of the studio can also go some way to account for Hawarden's sophisticated, subtle and pioneering use of natural light in her images.

It was also here that Lady Hawarden focused upon taking photographs of her eldest daughters, Isabella Grace, Clementina, and Florence Elizabeth, whom she would often dress up in costume tableau. The girls were frequently shot - often in romantic and sensual poses - in pairs, or, if alone, with a mirror or with their back to the camera. Hawarden's photographic exploration of identity, otherness, the doppelgänger and female sexuality, as expressed in the vast majority of these photographs, was incredibly progressive when considered in relation to her contemporaries, most notably Julia Margaret Cameron. As Graham Ovenden comments in Clementina Lady Hawarden (1974), "Clementina Hawarden struck out into areas and depicted moods unknown to the art photographers of her age. Her vision of languidly tranquil ladies carefully dressed and posed in a symbolist light is at opposite poles from Mrs Cameron's images...her work...constitutes a unique document within nineteenth-century photography."

She exhibited, and won silver medals, in the 1863 and 1864 exhibitions of the Photographic Society, and was admired by both Oscar Rejlander, and Lewis Carroll who acquired five images which went into the Gernsheim Collection and are now in Texas. In 1865 Lady Hawarden died, and although her loss was regretted in the photographic journals, her work was soon forgotten.

In 1939 her granddaughter presented the V&A with 779 photographs, most of which had been roughly torn from their original albums with significant losses to corners. Proper examination, and appreciation of this gift, was delayed by World War Two, and it was not until the 1980s that detailed appraisal and catalogue of the V&A holdings. This comprises almost the entire body of Hawarden's surviving work apart from the five images now in Texas, and small groups or single images at Bradford, Musée d'Orsay and the Getty. The appearance of the present collection is totally unexpected, and represents a remarkable opportunity to obtain images (most of which appear not to be duplicated elsewhere) by a photographer whose work is otherwise unobtainable.

Like those in the V&A, most of the present images have been removed from an album, but, remarkably, with very little loss: only one image is missing a corner, making this collection all the more exceptional. Some smaller images are arranged on album leaves that are still intact (measuring 322 x 235mm). As distinct from the V&A's holdings, it is presumed that these images have been taken from an album which may have belonged to one of the sitters or their siblings. The most significant group in the present collection are all approximately 198 x 144mm. and tend to depict one figure in the first floor front room at 5 Princes Gardens. Curiously there are no images of this size in the V&A collection, but the presence of close variant images in a smaller format suggests that Lady Hawarden was using two cameras in the same session. The V&A collection has a variant pose of image number 5 (below), but in the smaller format [PH.457:564-1968].

Provenance: Purchased in the 1960s, and believed to have connections to the Saltmarshe family of Saltmarshe (East Riding).

At an event this morning to preview a selection of prints from the National Media Museum Photography Collection Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum, confirmed a change to the previously announced opening exhibition and date for Media Space.

The public opening of Media Space will take place on Saturday, 21 September 2013 and the opening exhibition will be Tony Ray-Jones based on his archive held at the National Media Museum, Bradford. The show is being curated by Greg Hobson of the museum and the Magnum photographer Martin Parr.

Media Space is a joint project between the National Media Museum and the Science Museum. See: BPH passim. 

Michael G Wilson OBE, chair of the Science Museum Foundation, spoke about the development of Media Space over twenty-five years and how London was the ‘last major city to bring photography to the public’. He commented that the addition of ‘the Royal Photographic Society Collection made us a world class photography collection’. Wilson's own important role in realising the original National Media Museum 'London presence', now Media Space, was acknowledged warmly by Blatchford.  

The Media Space space on the third floor of the Science Museum in London is currently in the hands of the contractors as it undergoes refurbishment and works prior to the September opening.

In further National Media Museum news Michael Terwey has been appointed Head of Exhibitions and Collections, an important new role created as part of the museum restructuring. Terwey was previously acting Deputy Director and Head of Public Programme and, between 2010 and 2011, Exhibitions & Displays Manager at the museum. 

Images: Top: Michael G Wilson OBE (left) and Ian Blatchford (right). Lower: the Science Museum reception. © Michael Pritchard

For another view on Media Space from Francis Hodgson see: http://www.photomonitor.co.uk/2013/02/media-space-at-the-science-museum/

Ray Harryhausen is known to most of today’s filmmakers as the man who ‘made the impossible possible’. As the influential pioneer of dimensional stop-motion model animation, he helped to create a unique genre of fantasy films that remain a benchmark and inspiration. We are now seeking an equally imaginative, innovative and creative Collections Manager who will act as an advocate for the Collection and manage its acquisition, particularly during its transfer from private ownership into the public domain.

Working closely with the Head of Collections, Projects the Curator & Archivist of the Harryhausen Collection and the Trustees of the Harryhausen Foundation, you will play a major role in shaping the Collection’s management, interpretation and use. You will research, develop and deliver high quality content for a range of public outputs ,using innovative communication techniques. You will know how to engage and excite different audiences, possess a visitor-focused approach and a commitment to delivering world-class displays and events. You’ll develop solid relationships with experts and stakeholders, film and media professionals, academics and the public to ensure the on-going delivery of ideas and projects which help manage the Collection, and utilise it to its maximum potential, offering life-enhancing experiences to a wide range of visitors.

Of graduate calibre in a media-related subject, you will have strong curatorial skills with a critical awareness of film or a related subject area. You will also have demonstrable working experience of developing exhibitions, websites or events relating to film animation or an associated discipline; collections management expertise including handling and assessing 2D and 3D objects; the ability to catalogue work to the highest professional standards; and relevant research experience.

Part of the Science Museum Group of museums, the National Media Museum aims to engage, inspire and educate through comprehensive collections, innovative education programmes and a powerful yet sensitive approach to contemporary issues. Please note that this role will be based in London where you will be required to work at the home of the Harryhausen Collection’s owners; therefore sensitive interpersonal skills will be essential to your success.

Job Description:

Collections Manager, Ray Harryhausen Collection

National Media Museum, based: London

Salary: £22,970

Application Instructions:

For further information and to apply, please visit: www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/jobs

Closing date: 8th February

Read more about the collection and the museum's role here

Formally established in 2012, the History and Theory of Photography Research Centre is based in Birkbeck’s School of Arts, and is led by Professor Lynda Nead and Dr Patrizia Di Bello, supported by a steering committee. The Centre has links with museums in London, and supports teaching and research on photography in the School through the MA in History of Art with Photographyand MPhil-PhD supervision. The Centre aims to facilitate, exchange and showcase existing and new interdisciplinary research on the History and Theory of Photography at Birkbeck and in the wider photographic and academic community.

The following seminars are happening: 

 'Found Photographs'

A Work-In-Progress Seminar by Dr Stephen Clucas, 

4th of February, 6:00-7:30pm in the Keynes Library, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD

Our Reading Group is discussing Vilém Flusser, Towards a Philosophy of Photography (London: Reaktion Books, 2000) 

on the 18th of February, 6.00-7:30pm in Room 112, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD

(NB This short book can also be sampled on google-books)

Further dates for your diary:

11th March 2013, 6:00-7:30pm, Keynes Library, Lecture - Louise Purbrick, 'Traces of Nitrate' TBC

18th March 2013, 6:00-7:30pm, Room 112, Reading Group - text to be decided at the February Reading Group

Details of events on: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/arts/our-research/centres/photography

Join our mailing list at photoresearch@bbk.ac.uk

Bearnes are selling an early photograph album (lot 380) in a three-day sale across 29-31 January 2013 dating to the 1850s which includes a rare image of Roger Fenton taken by Eastham of Manchester. The lot is described as: Colonel Edmund Gilling Hallewell’s Photographic Album and is a mixed photographic album of the 1850s and 1860s, elephant folio, lacking front board and some leaves. Lots 381 and 382 are also photograph lots.

The relationship between Hallewell and Fenton is noted in lot 379 http://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/bearnes-hampton-and-littlewood/catalogue-id-2872698/lot-16615481 and a discussion here on the wider content: http://www.bhandl.co.uk/news/2012/12/10/roger-fenton-photographs-col-edmund-gilling-hallewell-auction.aspx

Notable images in lot 380 include: 

Colonel Hallewell DCMG, Malta, 1863. Portrait in full dress uniform. Titled in pencil below the image. Albumen print, 19.8 x 15.7cm (illustrated page 89).

Sir George Brown and a portion of the Light Division Staff, a nine-man group portrait in civilian attire. (A soldier since 1806, Brown commanded the Light Division throughout the Crimean War). Albumen print, 24 x 29.5cm. (illustrated opposite).

Bolton Abbey, the ruins of the cloister. An untitled large-scale salt print 26.5 x 37.5cm., from a paper negative (illustrated opposite).

Near Bolton Abbey, Yorks. Titled in pencil below the image. Salt print, 18 x 25.5cm.

The Strid, Bolton. Titled in pencil below the image. Salt print, 20.8 x 29cm.

At Bolton Abbey, a woodland scene. Titled in pencil below the image. Salt print, 24 x 19cm.

Gibraltar General view of town. Titled in pencil below the image. 2-plate panorama 20 x 45.5cm., Albumen prints.

At Bolton Abbey, Yorks. Titled in pencil below the image. Salt print, 26 x 36.5cm (illustrated opposite).

Bolton Abbey, Yorks, ruins of the priory. Titled in pencil below the image. Albumen print, 26.5 x 35.5cm. into rounded corners (illustrated opposite).

Road at the back of the Hall, Bolton. Titled in pencil below the image. Albumen print, 29 x 36 cm., into arched corners (illustrated opposite).

The album also contains over 120 other mainly albumen prints, but including a small number of salt prints (including further images of Bolton Abbey and its environs), varying sizes up to 30 x 24cm. Assorted images by amateur and commercial photographers, including Francis Bedford and James Robertson; subject matter being a variety of topographical, portrait and other subjects, (including Robertson: the Crimean war) and various locations in UK, Malta, Gibraltar and the Mediterranean.

In addition, approximately 200 cartes de visite of British and European royalty, family, topographical, army officers various, Crimean war generals, etc., and a rare image of a white- bearded Roger Fenton c.1865. For a variant of this portrait by John Eastham of Manchester see All the Mighty World, The Photographs of Roger Fenton 1852-1860, Yale University Press, 2004, p.30.

Estimate:

£4,000 - £6,000    This lot sold for £9400. 

See: http://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/bearnes-hampton-and-littlewood/catalogue-id-2872698/lot-16615482?searchitem=true

De Montfort University is seeking applicants for a fixed term maternity cover position, from 6 March 2013 – 5 July 2013 in Photographic History, for teaching on the MA Photographic History and Practice. The candidate will be responsible for teaching on Theory and Photography module and Research Methods in Photographic History as well as providing student support on dissertation writing through May and June. 

The MA Photographic History and Practice is an innovative, high-quality masters' programme with an international cohort. The candidate will be responsible to the Acting Programme Leader of the MA, and will contribute to all aspects of the MA, including grading, supervision, teaching, museum visits and programme management. The candidate will receive support from all members of the Photographic History research Centre (PHRC), and will contribute to PHRC activities like seminars and conferences.

The PHRC is a highly interdisciplinary research centre, with excellent links to national and international universities and cultural industry partners. A successful candidate will demonstrate the ability to work collaboratively as well as individually, promoting the field of photographic history.

De Montfort University, rated as one of the top ten creative universities in the UK, has a growing reputation as a world leader in photographic history. It works with a wide network of major museums, archives and libraries internationally. Its excellent research library in photography and photographic history supports both research and teaching and it hosts a growing number of digital resources for photographic history.

For information about the MA Photographic History and Practice, please contact Dr Kelley Wilder, MA Programme Leader: kwilder@dmu.ac.uk.

http://www.dmu.ac.uk/study/courses/postgraduate-courses/photographic-history-practice/photographic-history-and-practice-ma-pgdip.aspx

De Montfort University Faculty Of Art, Design And Humanities,School of Media and Communication

Full time, Temporary, fixed term maternity cover, 6 March 2013 – 5 July 2013

Grade G: Salary Range £35,244 -£44,607

Please quote reference: 7645

Closing Date: 03 February 2013

Interview Date: 15 February 2013

Along with the annually held Dutch workshops, the Fotorestauratie Atelier VOF is now offering Master Classes in Photograph Conservation taught in English. These workshops are meant for collection managers, registrars, conservators and all others interested in learning more about the identification and preservation of photographs. For a description of each workshop, please contact the FRA at fotorestauratie@me.com 

We will be happy to advise on accommodations and any other questions concerning your visit to Amsterdam to suit your needs.

Identification of 19th Century Photograph Processes

Date:    May 27, 28, 29, 30 & 31

Costs:  725,00 euro incl. Reader and Lunches

Identification of Modern Photograph Processes

Date:    June 3, 4 & 5

Costs:  475,00 euro incl. Reader and Lunches

Identification and preservation of Negatives

Date:     July 4 & 5

Costs:   375,00 euro incl. Reader and Lunches

Master Classes on Photograph Preservation and Salvage

Preservation of Photograph Collections

Date:    July 8, 9, 10, 11  & 12

Costs:  725,00 euro incl. Reader and Lunches

Preservation Issues Surrounding Contemporay Photography

Date:    August 19, 20, 21 & 22

Costs:  625,00 euro incl. Reader and Lunches

Conservation Mounting and Framing of Photographs

Date:    August 26, 27 & 28

Costs:  475,00 euro incl. Reader and Lunches

Salvage of Water-damaged Photographs

Date:    September 9, 10 & 11

Costs:  475,00 euro incl. Reader and Lunches

See: http://www.fotoconservering.nl/text.php?itemId=5133053#item5133053

The Lumière Autochrome. History, Technology and Preservation is a thoroughly illustrated guide to the history and technology of autochromes with a practical guide for storage & preservation. Louis Lumière is perhaps best known for his seminal role in the invention of cinema, but his most important contribution to the history of photography was the autochrome.

Engagingly written and marvelously illustrated with over 300 images book tells the fascinating story of the first industrially produced form of colour photography. Initial chapters present the Lumière family enterprise, set out the challenges posed by early colour photography, and recount the invention, rise, and eventual decline of the autochrome, which for the first four decades of the twentieth century was the most widely used form of commercial colour photography. The book then treats the technology of the autochrome, including the technical challenges of plate fabrication, described in step-by-step detail, and a thorough account of autochrome manufacture. A long final chapter provides in-depth recommendations concerning the preservation of these vulnerable objects, including proper storage and display guidelines. There are also engaging portfolios throughout the book showcasing autochrome photographs from around the world as part of an initiative founded by the French banker Albert Kahn, as well as engrossing testimonials by children of men who worked in the Lumière factories in the early twentieth century. The appendix includes transcriptions and facsimile reproductions from the Lumière notebooks as well as original patent documents.

Bertrand Lavédrine is director of the Centre de recherche sur la conservation des collections (CRCC) in Paris. He is the author of Photographs of the Past: Process and Preservation(Getty Publications, 2009) and A Guide to the Preventive Conservation of Photograph Collections (Getty Publications, 2003). Jean-Paul Gandolfo teaches at the École nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière near Paris.

• Paperback: 380 pages
• Publisher: J. Paul Getty Museum (1 February 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1606061259
• ISBN-13: 978-1606061251

Sotheby's auction of Fine Travel and Plate Books, A private collection includes a copy of Francis Frith's Egypt, Sinai, and Jerusalem: a series of twenty photographic views. London, [c.1858]. The copy is estimated at £100,000-150,000.  The catalogue will be available online at sothebys.com shortly.  

The lot description reads:

57

Frith, Francis. Egypt, Sinai, and Jerusalem: a series of twenty

photographic views... with descriptions by Mrs Poole and Reginald

Stuart Poole. London: James S. Virtue, [c.1858]

Large folio (738 x 530mm.), 20 mounted albumen prints (485 x

390mm., or the reverse), several signed and dated 1858 in the

negative, contemporary dark green half morocco, flat spine, gilt

edges, upper cover lettered in gilt, some scattered spotting, binding

slightly rubbed, some restoration to spine and corners

“The largest book with the biggest, unenlarged prints ever

published.” (Gernsheim). “Few publications in the history of

photography are its equal in either presentation or ambition. The

twenty photographs feature Egyptian subjects, with just a single

view of Jerusalem. Frith’s views of the Pyramids, in particular, are

ground breaking and became the works for which he is now best

known. The photographs are accompanied by texts written by

Sophia Poole and Reginald Stuart Poole (a mother-and-son team),

recognised writers on Egyptian history and customs” (Imagining

Paradise).

References: Gernsheim, Incunabula (London, 1984) 130; Röhricht

p.506; Hilmy I, p.249; Jacobson, K., Odalisques & Arabesques:

Orientalist Photography 1839-1925 (London, 2007, pp.88-89, 232-234);

Parr and Badger, The Photobook (London, 2007, vol.1, p.28); Foster,

Heiting and Stuhlman, Imagining Paradise (NY, 2007, p.63)

£ 100,000-150,000 € 124,000-186,000

Do you have any stereoviews that date from 1914? These are required for a 3D documentary film about the period and we are searching for stereoviews from 1914, either dated by protocols, archives or by scene/people/events on the photography. We are interested in all all scenes and/or subjects as long as they are stereo-photography from 1914.

We are interested in access to scans/photos of materials or access to them at their current location in order to do scans/photos ourselves. Any other form of guidance, interests, links or other clues that may lead to to locating stereo-photography dated as being shot in 1914 are most welcome.

The working title for the documentary is “1914” and relates to the Genesis of Modern Man’s Mind, being an adaptation of parts of Robert Musil’s “Man Without Qualities” with stereograms from 1914 and present day 3D film sequences.

Contact: Pelle Folmer

Telephone: +45 4085 6052

E-mail: pelle@coordinates.dk

Postal Adress: Magic Hour Films

Att. Pelle Folmer

Baldersgade 6
2200 Copenhagen N.
Denmark

Between Art and Information: Collecting Photographs is a one-day meeting organised by the Museums and Galleries History Group and the Photographic History Research Centre, De Montfort University. It takes place on Saturday, 2 March 2013 and is open to students and the wider public. 

Attendees can register at: www.mghg.org/collectingphotographs/

Provisional Programme

9.45-10.15. Registration

10.15-12.45 Session 1  Photographs and Museum Practices

Simon Fleury (Victoria and Albert Museum), A Fitting Response? Positive Negative: An interdisciplinary and site-specific photography research project

Danielle Wilkens (Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL), No Flash Allowed

Mark Steadman (University of Leeds), Title tbc

Eleni Papavasileiou (SS Great Britain Trust), Private to public: the David MacGregor photographic collection

Anne Hodge (National Gallery of Ireland), The ‘p’ numbers: Photography in the National Gallery of Ireland – neglected and misunderstood

12.45-1.30 Lunch

1.30-3 Session 2: Photographs, Museums and Science

Christopher Morton (Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford) Collecting portraiture, exhibiting race: Augustus Lane Fox’s photographs at the South Kensington Museum, 1879.

Sophie Defrance (Darwin Correspondence Project, University of Cambridge), Nineteenth century scientists' perception of scientific objects and aesthetics in Charles Darwin's correspondence

Caroline Cornish (Royal Holloway), Collecting Photographs, Constructing Disciplines: The Rationality and Rhetoric of Photography at the Museum of Economic Botany

3-3.30 Tea

3.30-5 Session 3: Photographs and Histories in the Museum

Gareth Syvret (DMU), Photography in Jersey under German Occupation: the 1940 ‘Order Concerning Open-air Photography’ and photography at the Société Jersiaise Museum

Athol McCredie (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa), From Them to Us: Changing Meanings of Photographs of Maori at Te Papa

Caroline Edge (Bolton Museum/University), Looking for Bolton in the Worktown Archive

Damarice Amao (Paris Sorbonne), Collect and preserve negatives: the Eli Lotar collection at the Centre Georges Pompidou

5.15pm Finish

The 2013 Scottish Society for the History of Photography Annan Lecture will be given Dr Mike Ware FRSC. It is titled: Cyanotype: a Blueprint for Visual Vandalism? Ware is a chemist who has undertaken extensive and ground-breaking research into various aspect of photography and early processes. His website is here. 

The lecture takes place on Thursday 14 February at 6pm in the Jeffrey Library, the Mitchell Library, Glasgow. Admission is free.  Further information at www.sshop.org.uk/?p=639

This year’s Annan Lecture is presented in collaboration with b l u e p r i n t  2 0 1 3

Grain: West Midlands Photography Hub and Network, Project Co-ordinator (Admin).  The Library of Birmingham, supported by Arts Council England and working in collaboration with local, national and international partners is creating a hub and network for photography and photographers. This new project, called Grain, will include research and development projects and a range of ambitious high quality opportunities all aimed to strengthen and sustain photography in the region.

The Library of Birmingham holds one of theU K's national collections of photography, comprising some 3.5 million items.

Grain is looking for a freelance and highly organised administrator with an interest in photography and a warm and welcoming manner to join its team.  This new unique opportunity to work with the Library of Birmingham comes at an exciting time of transition and expansion.  The successful candidate must be able to multitask, and possess excellent administrative skills.

For a full job description contact: nicola.shipley@tesco.net

Click here for more information. 

Contract and Fee

You will be required to enter into a contract with the Library of Birmingham for this post.

You will be paid on a freelance basis on receipt of invoices.

You will be required to work from a home office as well as from the project office at the Central Library / Library of Birmingham.

Fee:  £150 per day x 95 days over a 2 year period, including all expenses.

Application procedure

Please enquire for a full job description.  Applications should include:

-       A full cv listing relevant knowledge, skills and experience

-       A 2 page (A4) proposal outlining your interest in this position

-       Names and contact details of 2 referees.

To be received no later than mid-day, 8th February  2013.

Interviews will take place on 14th February 2013. 

The Bodleian Libraries have been awarded  £1.2 million by the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) towards the acquisition of the Personal Archive of William Henry Fox Talbot. The only significant Talbot collection remaining in private hands, this important archive is being sold for £2.2 million and the Bodleian Libraries have until the end of February to raise the remaining funds.

Gifts can be made at the following link: http://www.giving.ox.ac.uk/libraries/fox_talbot_archive.html

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.

The collection 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. 

Carole Souter, Chief Executive of NHMF, said:  ‘Considered by many as the’ father of photography’, the impact of William Henry Fox Talbot’s pioneering work is felt daily by all of us whether we are snapping our holidays with a camera or capturing outings on our mobile phones.  This collection offers fascinating new insights into Fox Talbot’s family life, particularly the wonderful contribution made by the women of his family; this is why the Trustees of the National Heritage Memorial Fund felt it was so important that the archive should be secured for future generations to explore.’

Richard Ovenden, Deputy to Bodley’s Librarian said: ‘The archive is an essential resource for scholars on the history of photography, the history of science, and a range of other disciplines. The Bodleian is anxious to ensure that the collection is made available to scholars and to the general public to allow the legacy of this extraordinary innovator and pioneer in photography to continue to inspire new generations of researchers, innovators and photographers. ’

Hiroshi Sugimoto, one of the world’s greatest living photographers, said: ‘The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford is seeking to acquire the archive of William Henry Fox Talbot in order to ensure that scholars, artists, photographers and the general public can have access to the mass of papers, sketchbooks, photographs and artefacts that it contains to promote our understanding and appreciation of this great innovator, stimulate new art and other forms of creativity and broaden our understanding of the founder of a field of communication that has changed our world. I would like to add my support to their campaign to secure the 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.

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: including 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; and Michael Pritchard, Director-General of the Royal Photographic Society.

The Bodleian Libraries have until the end of February 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.

Image: 

Credit: Fox Talbot Archive, courtesy of Hans P. Kraus Jr. 

Gordon Moore, who has just died was the last of a long line of Liverpool camera makers. He was born in 1928 and his early early education was undertaken at Mersey Park School in Tranmere, a short walk from his home. After leaving school Gordon enrolled at The Institute in Whetstone Lane, Birkenhead, where he studied mechanical Engineering.

Leaving Whetstone Lane Institute he was called up for National Service spending two years in the RAF (Gordon’s father Herbert had been an original Royal Flying Corp member from 1915-1918).  At the end of his National Service Gordon took a job at Dave Lloyd’s Garage in Willaston, South Wirral where he drove the garage Austin van around what were then single track roads at  a steady 65 miles per hour. 

Gordon eventually decided he would like a change of scene and opted to work in the family photographic establishment, Moore and Co rather than their profitable cycle shop. The firm was based at 101-103 Dale Street Liverpool and so began a mercurial career with cameras. Gordon loved the older pieces of equipment because he could tinker with them and get them sorted and working again. He often gave me tips which I use today when I get a problem. Moore and Co during Gordon's tenure was regularly sought out by Liverpool University with their elderly equipment. The company often developed and printed photographs required in Court Cases, convenient as the Law Courts were and still are next door in Dale Street. They took the exposed films in and immediately transhipped them to Kodak Laboratories in Bold Street half a mile away who would process and print for return twice a day.

His other love was cycling. Gordon was never without a camera trying to be a cycling Cartier Bresson taking monochrome candids at every opportunity. These he developed and printed himself often being seen with a bulging wallet of photographs he was a seriously keen amateur photographer. Gordon met his wife though cycling as she was a keen member of Birkenhead Ladies Cycling Club and romance blossomed. They were married on 28 August 1954.

Gordon retained a love of cycling and regularly raced around Cheshire and North Wales as a member The Birkenhead North End Cycling Club an association he retained up to his death. One of Gordon’s great friends Dave Allen a professional rider who principally raced in Ghent Belgium still owns a “Clifton” racing cycle of Moore & Co. origin. It was a common sight to see Gordon and his best pal Les McGinley marshalling regularly at races for many years after he stopped competing.

His passing  ended the association of Liverpool with camera makers of the golden period, during which time many weird and wonderful cameras were produced, but none more interesting of varied than Moore & Co's eponymous Aptus.

Those of us fortunate to have known Gordon will fondly remember a gentle happy family man who was always a pleasure to meet with a screwdriver in one hand and a camera in the other.

John Coathup