As part of the Women and Worlds of Learning in Europe: From the Medieval to the Modern Day conference, Rose Teanby, a PhD student at De Montfort University, will present a paper on Friday, 12th April, titled 'A Woman’s Place?: Photographic Education in England 1839 – 1861'

Women and Worlds of Learning in Europe: From the Medieval to the Modern Day
12-13 April 2024 (|registration closes 31 March 2024)
Oxford, History Faculty Building, George Street
£8 (without conference dinner)
Details: https://www.womenandworldsoflearning.com/

The Photographers’ Gallery has announced the appointment Amanda Gray as the new Chair of the  Board of Trustees. Working closely with Director Shoair Mavlian, Amanda will lead the Board in supporting the Gallery’s vision to be the home for next generation photography.

Amanda Gray is a Partner at international law firm, Mishcon de Reya, specialising in art law and the related field of luxury assets. Amanda has been a trustee of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA); is the Honorary Legal Counsel for Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, Sussex; is the co-chair of the Art Lawyers Association; and is also a member of the Responsible Art Market committee, London Chapter.

Amanda Gray said: “It is such a pleasure to be joining The Photographers' Gallery to work with Shoair Mavlian and her team. The Photographers' Gallery has a rich and vibrant creative legacy of photographic programming, exhibitions and curatorship and it is an exciting time to be involved in the Gallery's next phase. Since 1971, The Photographers' Gallery has held a central and leading role in the history of photography.  It is therefore such an honour to play a small part in this treasured institution's journey as it continues to flourish. The photographic image has never been more significant in witnessing and commentating on our society and the recent sell-out Daidō Moriyama show was indicative of that. As a visitor to the gallery in Great Newport Street many years ago, I could scarcely have imagined that I would find myself lucky enough to step into this role many years later. I have large shoes to fill and I hope I can achieve half as much as former Chairs, such as  Matthew Stephenson and Michelle Shuttleworth, who have done so much for the Gallery.”

Director of The Photographers’ Gallery, Shoair Mavlian said: “I’m delighted to welcome Amanda Gray to The Photographers’ Gallery as our new Chair of Trustees. Amanda brings with her a wealth of experience which I’m sure will support the Gallery’s goals and purpose over the coming years. It is an exciting time for the Gallery and we look forward to welcoming Amanda into The Photographers’ Gallery community.”

The Photographers’ Gallery explores how photography is connecting, captivating and radically changing our world today. The Gallery’s programme and spaces – from exhibitions, events and digital platforms, to the galleries, shop and cafe – all explore the beauty, complexity and future of photography. Right outside the Gallery, the very best of contemporary photography is shown for free, day and night, in Soho Photography Quarter. tpg.org.uk

The UK's Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has published visitor numbers for its sponsored museums. The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) has also done the same. Of particular interest are those for the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford. Other photography venues such as the V&A Museum do not report individual gallery visitor numbers, and other venues report numbers in annual reports, or to sponsoring bodies such as Arts Council England.

NSMM:   

The NSMM closed in June 2023 with an expected re-opening date of late 2024, ready for 2025's Bradford Year of Culture. 

ALVA has published visitor numbers back to 2006 and BPH has reported historical numbers in the past. 

The Ben Uri Gallery and Museum recently hosted an interview with James Hyman, art historian, gallerist, curator and co-founder, with Claire, of the Centre of British Photography. The interview looked at James's early education, his career as a critic and art historian, and as a gallery owner. It then turned to the Hyman Collection (41m 50s), photography in Britain (42m 31s), and audiences for photography (44m 20s). James notes "photography is one of the best value areas of the enture art market".

The ethos and thinking behind the Centre for British Photography is explained (50m 10s) and James then turns to the current position of the Centre and its aspirations for the future (1h 00m 03s) which include educational partnerships, touring exhibitions and acquiring phootgraphers' archives.

It's an engaging interview throughout. 

James Hyman interviewed about his career in the art world from James Hyman Gallery on Vimeo.

or link here: https://vimeo.com/753828812

The Jan/Feb 2024 issue of Stereo World carries new research by Rebecca Sharpe in to the Stamford photographer and stereographer Elizabeth Higgins (1828-1899). The research was prompted by the discovery of stereocards by Higgins dating from c1859.  

Rebecca Sharpe, 'The hidden depths of Elizabeth Higgins (1828-1899). Early Lincolnshire stereo photographer'
Stereo World, v.49, no. 4 (Jan-Feb) 2024, 12-19

There is also some information on Higgins here: https://www.stamfordsightsandsecretstours.com/virtual-tour-stamford-women/2020/11/28/elizabeth-higgins-photographer 

Image: Elizabeth Higgins, St Peter's Collis Almshouses, All Saint's Street, Stamford, c1859., one-half of a stereo pair.

Join the V&A for an exploration of the work of one of Vogue’s first and most influential fashion and portrait photographers. During his glittering career in Europe and America, George Hoyningen-Huene collaborated with the likes of Cecil Beaton, Horst P. Horst and Lee Miller, and befriended Hollywood’s brightest stars. V&A Curator Lydia Caston and Condé Nast Corporate Photography Director Ivan Shaw join author Susanna Brown to discuss Hoyningen-Huene’s extraordinary life and legacy.

This event celebrates the publication of the major new book from Thames & Hudson, George Hoyningen-Huene: Photography, Fashion, Film.

George Hoyningen-Huene: Photography, Fashion & Film
Wednesday, 27 March 2024, 1900-2045
London: V&A Museum
https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/PaeDyR2xd3B/photography-fashion-film

“In 2012, I found a piece of material in a rock pool that changed my life. Mistaking this moving piece of cloth for seaweed, started the recovery of synthetic clothing from around the coastline of Britain for the next ten years”. 

Two hundred and two ‘specimens’ of clothing and garments recovered from one hundred and twenty-one beaches mimic different species of marine algae, with the intention to raise awareness about the over consumption of synthetic plastic clothing also referred to as ‘fast fashion’, which is currently having the greatest impact on global climate change. 

After seeing an original copy of the book, ‘Photographs of British Algae, Volume 1’, by Anna Atkins, at The Royal Society in London, Barker was captivated by its detail and significance, for the way it changed how we looked at science in 1800’s, but more importantly for the possibility to re-create similar work that could engage how we look at science in connection with a present-day critical issue.

In this new presentation titled ‘Cyanotype Imperfections’, instead of the Atkins ‘Cyanotype Impressions’, the book includes 202 cyanotype images and 8 cyanotype text pages using original 1800’s J Whatman paper that Atkins used from the original Turkey Mill in Kent. 

The project was first published in The Guardian on 16 March, Atkins' birthday. See: https://twitter.com/plasticpieces/status/1768926794114089403

PHOTOGRAPHS OF BRITISH ALGAE CYANOTYPE IMPERFECTIONS
A - B (Atkins - Barker) 1843 – 2023. 
See: https://www.atkins-barker.com/

UPDATED see: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/mar/19/mandy-barker-ocean-waste-cyanotypes-anna-atkins and https://twitter.com/plasticpieces/status/1771099288782651535

Art curators will be able to recover images on daguerreotypes, the earliest form of photography that used silver plates, after a team of scientists led by Western University learned how to use light to see through degradation that has occurred over time.

Research published in Scientific Reports – Nature includes two images from the National Gallery of Canada’s photography research unit that show photographs that were taken, perhaps as early as 1850, but were no longer visible because of tarnish and other damage. The retrieved images, one of a woman and the other of a man, were beyond recognition.

“It’s somewhat haunting because they are anonymous and yet it is striking at the same time,” said Madalena Kozachuk, a PhD student in Western’s Department of Chemistry and lead author of the scientific paper. The image is totally unexpected because you don’t see it on the plate at all. It’s hidden behind time,” continues Kozachuk. “But then we see it and we can see such fine details: the eyes, the folds of the clothing, the detailed embroidered patterns of the table cloth.”

The identities of the woman and the man are not known. It’s possible that the plates were produced in the United States, but they could be from Europe.

For the past three years, Kozachuk and an interdisciplinary team of scientists have been exploring how to use synchrotron technology to learn more about chemical changes that damage daguerreotypes.

Invented in 1839, daguerreotype images were created using a highly polished silver-coated copper plate that was sensitive to light when exposed to an iodine vapour. Subjects had to pose without moving for two to three minutes for the image to imprint on the plate, which was then developed as a photograph using a mercury vapour that was heated.

Kozachuk conducts much of her research at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) and previously published results in scientific journals in 2017 and earlier this year. In those articles, the team members identified the chemical composition of the tarnish and how it changed from one point to another on a daguerreotype.

“We compared degradation that looked like corrosion versus a cloudiness from the residue from products used during the rinsing of the photographs during production versus degradation from the cover glass. When you look at these degraded photographs, you don’t see one type of degradation,” said Ian Coulthard, a senior scientist at the CLS and one of Kozachuk’s co-supervisors. He is also a co- author on the research papers.

This preliminary research at the CLS led to today’s paper and the images Kozachuk collected at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source where she was able to analyze the daguerreotypes in their entirety.

Kozachuk used rapid-scanning micro-X-ray fluorescence imaging to analyze the plates, which are about 7.5 cm wide, and identified where mercury was distributed on the plates. With an X-ray beam as small as 10×10 microns (a human scalp hair averages 75 microns across) and at an energy most sensitive to mercury absorption, the scan of each daguerreotype took about eight hours.

“Mercury is the major element that contributes to the imagery captured in these photographs. Even though the surface is tarnished, those image particles remain intact. By looking at the mercury, we can retrieve the image in great detail,” said Tsun-Kong (T.K.) Sham, Western’s Canada Research Chair in Materials and Synchrotron Radiation. He also is a co-author of the research and Kozachuk’s supervisor.

This research will contribute to improving how daguerreotype images are recovered when cleaning is possible and will provide a way to seeing what’s below the tarnish if cleaning is not possible. The prospect of improved conservation methods intrigues John P. McElhone, recently retired as the chief of Conservation and Technical Research branch at the Canadian Photography Institute of National Gallery of Canada. He provided the daguerreotypes from the Institute’s research collection.

“There are a lot of interesting questions that at this stage of our knowledge can only be answered by a sophisticated scientific approach,” said McElhone, another of the co-authors of today’s paper. “A conservator’s first step is to have a full and complete understanding of what the material is and how it is assembled on a microscopic and even nanoscale level. We want to find out how the chemicals are arranged on the surface and that understanding gives us access to theories about how degradation happens and how that degradation can possibly or possibly not be reversed.”

As the first commercialized photographic process, the daguerreotype is thought to be the first “true” visual representation of history. Unlike painters who could use “poetic licence” in their work, the daguerreotype reflected precisely what was photographed.

Thousands and perhaps millions of daguerreotypes were created over 20 years in the 19th century before the process was replaced. The Canadian Photography Institute collection numbers more than 2,700, not including the daguerreotypes in the institute’s research collection.

By improving the process of restoring these centuries-old images, the scientists are contributing to the historical record. What was thought to be lost that showed the life and times of people from the 19th century can now be found.

Image (top right): National Gallery of Canada//Western University.  An image of a woman is recovered from a 19th-century daguerreotype that had tarnished almost beyond recognition. A novel process, developed at Western University and Canadian Light Source Inc, mapped its mercury content and brought the 'ghost' back to life.

(Below): Left:  An image of a man is hidden in this tarnished 19th-century daguerreotype. A novel process, developed at Western University and Canadian Light Source Inc, mapped its mercury content and brought the 'ghost' back to life. Right:  An image of a man is recovered from a 19th-century daguerreotype that had tarnished beyond recognition. A novel process, developed at Western University and Canadian Light Source Inc, mapped its mercury content and brought the 'ghost' back to life.

With thanks to Joan M. Schwartz. 

Mid-century comics on both sides of the Atlantic portrayed children as camera users through product advertisements, photography competitions, and—especially—fictional depictions of heroic child photographers. In the illustrated hands of comic characters like “Kid Click” and “Snapshot Susie,” cameras could figure as tools for conquest (paralleling weaponry and surveillance devices) or operate as metaphorical moral compasses for personal development, decency, and altruism. In this lecture, Annebella Pollen explores how these comic adventures, particularly when triangulated with the camera promotions and children’s photographs on parallel pages, offer a productive space for understanding children’s media production and the mediation of their world.

From Kid Click to Snapshot Susie
Annebella Pollen
20 March 2024, at 1800 (EST)
Neew York, Bard Graduate Center
https://www.bgc.bard.edu/events/1489/20-mar-2024-from-kid

The call for a £500 stpiend to support research in to the Bill Douglas Centre for Cinema History collections closes at 12 noon on 18 March.  

The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum at the University Exeter, UK, is both a public museum and a rich research resource for scholars of moving image history. The museum is named after the renowned filmmaker Bill Douglas and was founded on the extraordinary collection of material he put together with his friend Peter Jewell. In the twenty-five years since its opening, the museum has received donations from many sources and now has around 90,000 artefacts on the long history of the moving image from the seventeenth century to the present day. 

Thanks to the support of the Bill Douglas and Peter Jewell Fund we are again able to offer a small number of stipends for 2024 for scholars, researchers, and practitioners to enable research using the collections at The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum. We are inviting applications for two categories of award: 

UK stipends - available to academics, postgraduate students and other researchers based in the UK, and are worth up to £500 each. 

International Stipends – available to scholars and other researchers from outside the UK and are worth up to £1500 each.

The monies are to be used for travel and accommodation costs incurred while visiting the Museum to undertake significant research that will be enhanced by access to its collections. Proposed research should contribute to publications or other demonstrable outcomes, such as films or artworks. Successful applicants will be required to write a blog post for the museum’s website about their research following their visit.   You will find details of previous years’ stipends and the blogs that stipend holders contributed at http://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk/research/research-at-the-bill-douglas-cinema-museum/stipends-at-the-bill-douglas-cinema-museum/  The monies should be spent by the end of December 2024.

Read more: https://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk/news/new-call-for-stipends-to-visit-the-museum-in-2024/

BPH has only just spotted this...Are you an experienced Senior Curator and a specialist in photography? Do you have experience of mounting exhibitions, conducting original research, and publishing on the history of photography? Are you actively engaged in widening access to photography and making it more inclusive? Then we want to hear from you. 

This position is an ideal opportunity for an established Senior Curator to be part of our enthusiastic and dedicated team within Collection & Research. You’ll work across all four of our amazing Galleries based in the heart of Edinburgh. 

In this role you will be researching, managing, and helping to use and share our exciting and extensive photography collection and related archives for our audiences. You’ll also represent the organisation at conferences / seminars. You’ll be responsible for our world-class collection of 55,000+ photographs and its growth in areas that fulfil our commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion.  

You’re likely to have a wide network of contacts as well as experience in competing and securing funding through philanthropy and public grant-giving bodies. You must also have exhibition and publication experience with excellent communication skills. 

Senior Curator (Photography)
National Galleries of Scotland
Information: https://ngs.ciphr-irecruit.com/Applicants/vacancy/230/Senior-Curator-Photography
Closing date for applications is 12 noon on Wednesday, 13 March 2024

Meet John Herschel,  much less famous today than either his father or his aunt yet in his day he represented the very definition of what a scientist should be.  In 1824, as the BRLSI began, he too was just starting out. On the 8 June, there will be a Conference dedicated to every aspect of the life & work of this great man, but for today let’s just get to know him. What did he do? Why should we care about him? What were his politics? What was his family life like? Come along on 3rd March and find out.

This introduction to John Herschel will prepare us for the all-day conference on Saturday 8th June 2024,

Emily Winterburn is one of the authors for the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to John Herschel. She is also the author of a biography of John’s aunt, Caroline Herschel (The Quiet Revolution of Caroline Herschel, 2017) and completed her PhD on the Herschel family in 2011. She is the former curator of astronomy at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. Today she is a teacher and writer living in Leeds. She is also honorary vice president of the Society for the History of Astronomy.

Introduction to John Herschel
Emily Winterburn
organised by the Herschel Society, Bath
Hybrid, 3 April 2024 at 1930
Details here: http://herschelsociety.org.uk/2024/03/07/wednesday-3rd-april-2024-introduction-to-john-herschel/

Rare early photographs of Chinese women from the Loewentheil Photography of China Collection will be exhibited for the first time in New York as part of Asia Week New York.  Dragon Women: Early Chinese Photography curated by Stacey Lambrow runs from March 14th – May 15. Admission is free.

Dragon Women: Early Chinese Photography celebrates the Year of the Dragon and the representation of women in the earliest photography of China. This is the first exhibition devoted to the depiction of Chinese women in early photography. The 50 photographs include the first photographic portraits of Chinese women, most made in the 1860s and 1870s. Many have never before been shown. The exhibition examines women’s place in society in the late Qing dynasty and their depiction in historical photography of China. It also presents work by the few known early female photographers of China.

Highlights include a rare photograph by the first known Chinese female photographer, Mae Linda Talbot, and works by Hedda Morrison, Isabella Bird, and Eva Sandberg Xiao. Masterworks abound including photographs by Chinese and international artists such as Sze Yuen Ming Studio, Pun Lun Studio, A Chan Studio, Lai Fong, John Thomson, and Thomas Child. The exhibition showcases the diversity of Chinese women and their experiences during the final decades of imperial China.

The dragon is an integral part of Chinese culture. The origin of dragons in Chinese mythology extends back to the earliest recorded dynasties, where male and female dragons were revered as powerful and benevolent creatures created by the gods to govern the world. Unlike the evil, fire-breathing European dragon, the Chinese dragon is an auspicious and multifaceted figure. It is both powerful and benevolent, fierce and elegant. The dragon also symbolizes imperial power.

This exhibition held in the Year of the Dragon reclaims the feminine power of the dragon and honors all Chinese women. It includes iconic photographs of Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) by her Court photographer Yu Xunling (c.1880-1943). Cixi, one of the most powerful women in Chinese history, was referred to as “Dragon Lady.” Some caricatured her as a uniquely sinister, manipulative, and cold-blooded ruler. However, scholars agree that the Empress’s contribution to empowering and advancing opportunities for women is an important part of her legacy, thereby revising this one-dimensional view.

The early photographic portraits of women in Dragon Women challenge the negative and shallow stereotype of the “dragon lady.” The term remains a pervasive stereotype, often used against women who are unapologetically driven or have agency and power. It is particularly pernicious as a Western stereotype of East Asian women.

The exhibition portrays and honors women of various ages, classes, and social circumstances.  The diversity of the “dragon women” in the photographs more authentically reflects the power and complexity of the dragon. 

For the majority of women at the end of the Qing dynasty, being photographed was off-limits for social and financial reasons. Qing society perpetuated the conservative ideas of previous dynasties, and the majority of women were isolated in their homes. Some of the women in these images chose to be photographed, while others submitted to the photographer for other reasons. Some of the photographs were made as personal family photographs and others were produced for popular consumption to portray the women as “exotic.” Regardless, the camera immortalized their images and offer us a rare and complicated view into the lives of Chinese women during a period of modernization in China.

Most late Qing dynasty photographs of Chinese women depict unnamed sitters and a great number of the portraits were created by photographers who at this time remain unidentified. As research into the history of photography of China advances, more of the names of the Chinese women appearing in nineteenth-century photographs will be discovered and more of China’s pioneering photographers will be identified. Certainly, more of the early photographers working in China will prove to be women. 

The Loewentheil Photography of China Collection includes the largest selection of nineteenth-century photographs of Chinese women in the world. In photography’s most formative years Chinese women were involved in the art in a myriad of ways. Their presence exerted a profound influence on the development of the art of photography. Women worked alongside men in photography studios, sometimes as the wives and daughters of studio owners, or as printers, finishers, retouchers, colourists, camera operators, or studio managers. In addition, women participated as subjects of early photographs. Early photographs of Chinese women, rank among the greatest nineteenth-century photographs ever made.

Dragon Women: Early Chinese Photography. First Exhibition of the Earliest Photographs of Chinese Women
10 West 18th Street 7th Floor, 14 March – 15 May 2024
Opening Celebration March 15 from 6pm to 9pm, with a Lion Dance with rare Female Dancers at 7:00
 https://loewentheilcollection.com/

 About the Loewentheil Photography of China Collection

The Loewentheil Photography of China Collection, based in New York, is the finest and largest holding of historical photographs of China in private hands. It contains many thousands of photographs spanning the earliest days of paper photography from the 1850s through the 1930s. The majority date to before 1900, including the largest selection of nineteenth-century photographs of Chinese women in the world.

The University of Brighton's Centre for Design History is hosting a double professorial book launch on 17 April at M2. The event will launch Cold War Photographic Diplomacy: The U.S. Information Agency and Africa, by Darren Newbury and Art without Frontiers: The Story of the British Council, Visual Arts and a Changing World, by Annebella Pollen. It will be an opportunity to hear from the authors and celebrate the publication of their books. 

Book launch
Wednesday, 17 April 2024 at 1800-2000
M2 at Grand Parade Building, Brighton
Details here: https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/centrefordesignhistory/2024/03/01/event-book-launch-with-darren-newbury-and-annebella-pollen-april-17-2024/

PhotoMuse - The Museum of Photography in Kerala, India, is hosting a new exhibition Curated by Dr. Unni Pulikkal S , the Director of PhotoMuse, the exhibition marks a significant milestone in the nation's photographic history. It serves as the inaugural event for the newly constructed permanent museum. Scheduled to commence on March 10th at 1100, the exhibition will be inaugurated by Mr. Murali Cheeroth , a distinguished artist and Chairperson of the Kerala Lalit Kala Academy. The event will also be graced by the presence of Mr. Herbert  Ascherman Jr. , an internationally renowned photographer and photo-historian, who will dedicate the new museum to the people of the country.

Running for the next three months from its opening date, the exhibition will showcase a collection of historical and modern photographic processes. Spanning from the 1850s to the present, it meticulously traces the evolution of photography as a handheld object over two centuries.

PhotoMuse is India's first public museum dedicated to the art, history and science of photography. Through the pursuit of photography and photographic history, PHOTOMUSE documents, interprets and promotes the natural and cultural inheritance of humanity. With photography-based outreach and educational programs, the museum emphasizes education, conservancy and India’s photographic legacy.

See: https://photomuse.in/

FORMAT photography festival in Derby has a number of talks and activities around the exhibitions. On 16 March Peter Jordan-Turner is talking about the carte-de-visite. 

The Cartes de Visite craze in the second half of the nineteenth century was recognised, even at the time, as a social phenomenon.  

Join Peter Jordan-Turner as he reveals how problematic early photographic technologies were swept aside by a method of production and usage that welcomed all but the very poorest into the studios that sprang up in every town and city in Britain. Cooks and countesses, railway porters and aldermen could all see themselves as never before, almost instantly, and their likenesses were shared with their social circle, or sent to family and sweethearts to cement relationships in an age that saw greater mobility around the country and the Empire. This new sharing of photographic portraits established a habit that has grown stronger as each new technology placed photography closer to the people who ultimately use it, and is the true ancestor of Instagram and every other photo sharing platform.’ 

Peter Jordan-Turner is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Derby and the University of Gloucestershire, and is a Trustee for the W.W.Winter Heritage Trust. 

He is also pursuing a doctorate in the history of nineteenth century commercial photography, titled Reconnecting with a Historic Photographic Archive: The case of W.W.Winter (Derby) as a model for public and academic access to a significant archive of commercial photography, and is author of ‘From Darkroom into light: Photographic archives and community cohesion’ to be presented at the 5th CAA Conference in Greece in April 2024. 

Cartes de Visite: The Original Social Media
Peter Jordan-Turner
16 March 2024 at 1100
QUAD, Derby
Free, or suggested donation of £3
See: https://www.derbyquad.co.uk/events/cartesdevisite/

Continuing its series of seminar days the Martin Parr Foundation has announced British Photography in the 1990s which will take place on Saturday, 11 May 2024. Speakers include Vinca Petersen, Stephen Gill, Juergen Teller, Joy Gregory and Richard Billingham. This event follows on from previous seminar days exploring photography in the 70s, 80s and Another Country, showcasing an overview of British Documentary Photography since 1945.

Past seminars have filled up very quickly so early booking is recommended.

British Photography in the 1990s
Saturday, 11 May 2024, 0930-1730
Bristol: Martin Parr Foundation
£55 / regular
£48 / MPF member
£48 / students
Lunch, teas and coffees included

Full details and bookings: https://www.martinparrfoundation.org/events/british-photography-in-the-1990s/

Image: From Ray's a Laugh © Richard Billingham

This symposium welcomes researchers, curators and photographers from all geographical areas. Proposals may concern any post-colonial period from the 19th to the 20th century. Abstracts in english or french (approx. 500 words) must be sent by May 31, 2024 at the latest, with a short biography, affiliation information, and a bibliography (for researchers). Authors will receive an answer in June 2024. Travel and accommodation expenses for selected participants will be covered. We welcome proposals addressing one or more of the following topics: 

Histories of Photography from the Struggles for Independence: practices, circulations and aesthetics
Abstract submission by: 31 May 2024
Conference: 28-29 January 2025JAN 28-29, 2025 International Conference
INVISU / INHA, Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris
Details: https://invisu.cnrs.fr/seminaires-et-conferences/colloque-histoires-de-photographies/histories-of-photography-from-the-struggles-for-independance/

For centuries, portraiture has played a vital role in shaping the public’s perception of the Royal Family. Over the past 100 years, no artistic medium has had a greater impact on the royal image than photography. Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography will chart the evolution of royal portrait photography from the 1920s to the present day, bringing together more than 150 photographic prints, proofs and documents from the Royal Collection and the Royal Archives. The photographs presented in the exhibition will be vintage prints – the original works produced by the photographer, most of which have never been on public display.

The works on show will demonstrate how the Royal Family has harnessed the power of photography to project both the grandeur and tradition of monarchy, and at times an unprecedented sense of intimacy and relatability. The exhibition will examine the changing status of photography as an art form and consider the cultural, artistic, and technological shifts that influenced the work of the most celebrated royal photographers, from Cecil Beaton and Dorothy Wilding to Annie Leibovitz and Rankin.

Archival documents and unreleased proofs will shed light on the behind-the-scenes process of commissioning, selecting and retouching royal portraits. From photographers’ handwritten annotations to never-before-seen correspondence with members of the Royal Family and their staff, these materials will reveal the stories behind some of the most enduring photographs ever taken of the Royal Family.

The exhibition will open with the 1920s and 30s, the golden age of the society photographer. Post-war prosperity and technological advances led to a boom in photographic studios, and members of the British and European Royal Families were among the ‘Bright Young Things’ eager to be captured on camera. Many of the new studios were operated by women, and female photographers such as Dorothy Wilding and Madame Yevonde were among those experimenting with a bolder, more modern aesthetic.

In the mid-20th century, no royal photographer had a greater impact on shaping the monarchy’s public image than Cecil Beaton. The exhibition will present some of Beaton’s most memorable photographs, taken over six decades. These include Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother’s famed 1939 shoot in the Buckingham Palace Gardens, dressed in her ‘White Wardrobe’ by Norman Hartnell, and Beaton’s original Coronation portraits of Queen Elizabeth II – arguably the most prestigious photography commission of the century. 

Close relationships between royal sitters and photographers will unfold throughout the exhibition, seen most clearly through the lens of Lord Snowdon (born Antony Armstrong-Jones). One of the most sought-after photographers of the 1950s, Snowdon’s unpretentious style soon attracted the attention of the Royal Family, and he became a member of the family himself when he married Princess Margaret in 1960. His remarkably intimate portraits of the Princess, taken both before and during their marriage, hint at the depths of trust and collaboration between them.

The exhibition’s final room will explore the innovations in digital and colour photography that revolutionised the medium between the 1980s and the 2020s. During this period, photography came to be recognised as an art form in its own right, and the perception of the role of the photographer shifted from image-making craftsperson to celebrated artist. From Andy Warhol’s diamond-dust-sprinkled screenprint of Queen Elizabeth II to famed photographs by Rankin, David Bailey, Nick Knight, Annie Leibovitz and more, the bold and colourful works in this room will demonstrate the extraordinary variety, power and at times playfulness of royal portrait photography over the past four decades.

Alessandro Nasini, curator of Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography, said: ‘This is the first exhibition from the Royal Collection entirely dedicated to modern portrait photography, an artistic medium that has helped to shape how the world views the British monarchy. We are excited for visitors to discover the beauty and materiality of these original prints, many on display for the first time, and we hope they will also enjoy a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the creative process behind some of these iconic royal images.’

Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography
17 May – 6 October 2024
The King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London
See: https://www.rct.uk/whatson/event/1118538/Royal-Portraits:-A-Century-of-Photography

 Images: (top): Cecil Beaton, Princess Elizabeth, 1942. (lower): Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, Proof with handwritten instructions, 1958. Photograph: Antony Armstrong-Jones

Periodically something appears at auction which deserves a wider audience. Coming up in a Bonhams European Decor and Design auction in the United States is a stunning Carlo Ponti Megalethoscope with original bill of sales from 1876. It is estimated at US$8000-12,000.  Details are below:

floral carved viewer with ebonized trim, lg. 35; set on a marble top rectangular table cabinet with carved panel doors and sides and set on carved and turned legs, with carved labels "Ponti Venezia", "Megaletoscopio" and "Privilegiato", ht. 30 1/2, d. 25, lg. 39 1/2 in.; with photographic prints.

 

Provenance: