Michael Pritchard's Posts (2976)
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The National Coal Mining Museum for England will be hosting a symposium, entitled ‘The Narrator’s Gaze, fifty years of documentary photography’, on Friday 26 March 2010, from 10.30am until 4.30pm. The event is being held in association with the new special exhibition, ‘Northern Soul, John Bulmer’s images of life and Times in the 1960s’.
After more than 150 years the British Journal of Photography is to cease weekly publication and will return to being a monthly. Established in 1854 as a monthly, the BJ went fortnightly in 1857 and then weekly in 1864. The 3 March 2010 issue will be the first of a redsigned monthly magazine. The move leaves Amateur Photographer (established 1884) as the only weekly British photographic magazine.
Changing market conditions and the growth of the internet have precipitated the change. The BJ has a strong web and blog presence but for the last few years its influence within photography has declined as it has focused more on press, fashion and the image, moving away from a more general concern with photography. It's heyday was probably during the 1980s when a range of contributors under the editorship of Geoffrey Crawley kept readers informed about everything from holography and history, to interviews with business personalities as well as photographers. It's worth quoting one of the aims of the journal from issue no. 1 of January 14 1854: 'The admirers of the art naturally desire to have more particulars, and the practical operators more full and precise records of the suggestions, experiments, and successes in various parts of the world' by the end of 1854 it was able to be claim that it held 'the position of principal Provincial organ of Photography'.
The change is the end of an era for the British photographic press. For most of its history the BJP was always the most important journal of photography reporting news and features across the full spectrum of photography. It is sad that has now ended.
Read nore here: http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=873499
The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions has published its latest survey of UK museum and gallery visitor numbers. In 2009 the National Media Museum, Bradford, saw 613,923 visitors - a decline of 18 per cent on 2008. The 2008 figure was 745,857 which had been a 4 per cent rise on 2007. Many other museums and galleries - especially those with free admission like the NMeM - had seen a boost to their numbers with the public turning to free activities due to the recession.
Colin Philpott, the NMeM Director commented: "We are disappointed that our visitor numbers were down in 2009 but this comes on the back of a period of considerable growth in the previous three years.
A number of factors have had an impact on our visitor numbers. Our summer holiday programme did not prove as popular as in previous years. Along with some other West Yorkshire attractions the ‘staycation phenomenon’ (people holidaying in the UK rather than abroad) appears to have passed us by as “stay at home” holidaymakers chose traditional UK tourist destinations such as the coast and cities like York.
Maintaining growth in visitor numbers is a challenge for any attraction and we have not had a major new gallery opening since Experience TV in 2006. However during 2010 we have already invested in a £400,000 redevelopment of the foyer area including a new Games Lounge, an interactive exhibition examining the history of videogaming, which opened last week and which is already proving extremely popular. More improvements are planned and we are confident we can improve visitor numbers over the coming years.
As important as visitor figures are, the Museum is doing extremely well in terms of other measures of success. Survey results show that our visitor satisfaction rates remain consistently high. In addition, the National Media Museum, alongside its sister venues - the National Railway Museum and the Science Museum - were last year named as the first museums in the UK to be awarded World-class Customer Service status."/font>
Richard Morris a descendent through his wife's family of John Dillwyn Llewellyn provides details of a series of events to celebrate the bicentenary of his birth in 1810.
12 January 2010 - Bicentenary of the birth of John Dillwyn Llewelyn (b. 12 Jan 1810)
5 February - Launch of the Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn Diaries online, a new resource of the Swansea University Library Historical Collections. Details to be announced.
20 February - Penllergare – A Space Odyssey. Llewelyn Hall, Penllergaer. A family event organised by the Friends of Penllergare in association with Astro Cymru. (Free admission) 10.30am - Exhibition, Workshop and Activities. 2.30pm - Talk. From JDL to the Universe, Paul Haley (Director of Astro Cymru & the Share Initiative 3.30pm - 200th Anniversary Tea
3 March (provisional date) - Swansea Museum exhibition on Fellows of the Royal Society from Swansea
17 March - Residents of the Penllergare Orchideous House – A Botanist’s Perspective, Dr Kevin L Davies (research botanist & orchid specialist). 7.30pm. Llewelyn Hall, Penllergaer, organised by the Friends of Penllergare. (Free admission)
18 March - The Scientific Heritage of Wales: The Way Forward, a one-day conference at Cardiff Museum, 9am-4pm. Speakers include Professor John V. Tucker (Swansea University) whose paper, ‘A National History of Science’, includes work on the Dillwyns. A full programme is here. For booking and more information contact the organisers:Events Office, National Museum Cardiff, Cathays Park, CARDIFF, CF10 3NP; T: 029 2057 3148/3325 F: 029 2057 3321; post@museumwales.ac.uk
22 April - South Wales: 250 years of Landscape Change, Richard Keen (TV presenter & Chairman of the Historic Buildings Advisory Council). Organised by Friends of Penllergare. 7.30pm. Swansea Museum, Education Room.
15 May - Penllergare - A Paradise almost lost. Joint study day between West Glamorgan Branch of Welsh Historic Gardens Trust and Penllergare Trust. 10.00am - 5pm approx. at the Civic Centre, Swansea. Tickets available from WHGT Branch Secretary, 2 Cwmbach Road, Llanelli SA15 4EF. £30 including lunch etc. £25 for members of the WHGT and Friends of Penllergare. r.m.lees@coedmor.demon.co.uk, or send an SAE to Rita Lees, West Glamorgan WHGT Branch Secretary, Coedmor, 2 Cwmbach Road, Llanelli SA15 4EF
19th May - ‘The Dillwyns’, Richard Morris.2 pm, at “The Wednesday Club”, Rhossili Village Hall, Middleton. £1.50 admission.. Contact Dudley Thomas, 01792 390242. 29 May - Shooting Stars Astronomy Workshop/ In celebration of the bicentenary of John Dillwyn Llewelyn’s birth, learn about how Victorians viewed the stars in Wales and make your own stellar collage. Waterfront Museum, 11.30am, 1pm & 3.30pm Families 5 - 11. Space Today UK. Families (age 5 – 11) / Free/Delivered by Space Today UK/ pre booking recommended Tel 01792 638950
30 May - Funky Photograms! How did early photographers make their earliest images - without a camera? Find out and make your own using just shadows and light! National Waterfront Museum 11.30am, 1pm & 3.30pm. Families (age 5 – 11) / Free/book at reception on the day
30 May - Sunday Talk and Demonstration: Early Photographic Techniques with Richard Morris FRPS. Leading John Dillwyn Llewelyn expert Richard Morris will discuss Llewelyn’s pioneering work in the field of photography and bring alive his techniques in a practical demonstration. National Waterfront Museum, 2.30 pm Adults/Free/seating first come first served
25 June - Dillwyn Symposium: Science, Culture and Society. A one-day symposium organised by Swansea University. 9.00 am – 5.30 pm at Swansea Museum, followed by a reception (6pm) and evening lecture. A full programme to follow. Contact Kirsti Bohata at k.bohata@swansea.ac.uk
3 July - John Dillwyn Llewelyn’s Penllergare. A walk round the Penllergare estate. 2.15pm. Meet in the Penllergaer Council Office Car Park, (off the A48). Organised by Friends of Penllergare.
18th September - John Dillwyn Llewelyn’s Photographic Legacy. Leading John Dillwyn Llewelyn expert Richard Morris will give a talk and demonstration of the calotype photographic process of 1841 as used by JDL. [Time to be confirmed], at the Woodland Centre, Penllergare. Bookings only as space limited from Friends of Penllergare, Coed Glantawe, Esgairdawe, Llandeilo SA19 7RT or 01558 650416
20 September - John Dillwyn Llewelyn and Photography, Richard Morris FRPS, MPhil. Swansea Camera Club 7.15pm. Web address for location and details: www.swanseacameraclub.co.uk
13 November - ‘Images of Glamorgan’ Glamorgan History Society Day School. A one-day event at The Orangery, Margam including a talk on John Dillwyn Llewelyn by Richard Morris, a talk on Early Photography in Glamorgan by Carolyn Bloore. Contact paulreynolds44@googlemail.com
The annual re-display which opens on Friday, 14 May will present some of the new works and will focus on showcasing photographs from the Collection dating from the 1970s to today. The exhibition will be accompanied by a display titled The Other Britain Revisited: The New Society Collection of Photographs, 1972 to 1982. New Society, a publication of the 1960s and 1970s, aimed to further research in the burgeoning fields of sociology and social work. The display will include photographs by leading names in recent British photography, including Martin Parr, Daniel Meadows, Euan Duff and Brian Griffin. It will also feature issues of
New Society magazine alongside the prints to provide a sense of the photographs’ original context.
The V&A Photographs department, in collaboration with the Black Cultural Archives (BCA) has been awarded funding by the Heritage Lottery Fund to collect photographs related to the black British experience. The aim is both to collect the work of earlier documentary photographers active in the 1950s to 1980s not currently represented in the Collection, and to build upon the existing holdings of work by more recent practitioners. This funding will also facilitate an oral history archive and an exhibition to be held at BCA.
Mention was made previously of this exhibition which is on at theMetropolitan Museum in New York. A member has posted a wonderful example of photocollage on this site here: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/unusual-family-album. There is a useful review of the show on the blog Gallery Crawl which is reproduced below. For those in the UK the catalogue is available on Amazon.
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“Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Michelle Jubin
There are few surprises in the latest nineteenth-century photography exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but there is plenty to delight in this jewel-box display of photocollages from the 1860s and 1870s. Works from the Met’s collection have been used as part of this exhibition, "Playing with Pictures: The art of the Victorian Photocollage," which originated at the Art Institute of Chicago. The Met collection has always been skewed toward the connoisseurial, even before the scholarly Thomas Campbell took over the Montebellian reins as museum director in 2008. Its encyclopedic collection has traditionally been employed in the pursuit of Enlightenment notions of ideal forms and idealized iterations of these forms by a hierarchical coterie of artists.
In the case of "Playing with Pictures," the elevated few whose works are displayed were, if not perhaps "artists," certainly already high-society. What makes this exhibition interesting, however, is the focus on a practice that hasn’t always been fodder for "high-art" exhibition spaces. The catalogue terms it "photocollage," but today we might also know it better as scrapbooking. Practiced within the home by mothers and daughters, often with the intention of creating a family heirloom or keepsake, it’s refreshing to see this slice of specifically female craft culture on display at a major museum. Long before Hannah Hoch got out her scissors and planted the Dada flag on the practice of reframing the photographic image, Victorian ladies were at it across the Western hemisphere. Their photocollages consisted of watercolor backdrops – usually domestic scenes, coquettish trompe l’oeil, or fanciful, delicately painted tableaux – with the visages of family and friends pasted atop in careful hierarchy. The exhibition reveals the intimacy of these collages, originally destined for private albums to be shared amongst close relations, and allows the viewer a novel insight into Victorian visual culture, a realm already heavily fetishized in academic and museum circles alike.
The exhibition opens with a "straight" photograph André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri a celebrated court and studio photographer of mid- and late-nineteenth-century Paris (reportedly, Napoleon stopped off at his studio en route to Waterloo). The format Disderi made famous is the eight-image carte-de-visite, the precursor to the modern multi-image passport photo, created with a multi-lensed camera. The curatorial team obviously wishes to make clear, in one checklist item, the increasing ubiquity of the photographic image from the 1850s onwards. The introduction of "wet paper" techniques from 1851 onwards facilitated cheap, easy, and quickly produced miniature studio photographs, and the opportunity to create not only one’s portrait but to fashion one’s public image. The photocollages created by aristocratic women with excess leisure time relied on this expanding technological field, turning it inwards, towards the privacy of the home.
Hung beside Disdéri’s carte-de-visite is a leaf from the Filmer Album of the mid-1860s, in which Lady Filmer has snipped away at family photographs to create a fanciful family tree in the shape of a green and black umbrella bedecked with five male relatives. The shape of the umbrella, as the wall text accompanying another collage employing a parasol suggests, points metaphorically to the popular nineteenth century accessory, used for flirtation or as a method of camouflage for gossiping underneath. The ‘Madame B’ Album – created by Madame Marie-Blanche-Hennelle Fournier, the wife of a career diplomat - displays photographs of family amidst carefully rendered snowy boughs. Fournier used her album to establish herself in the tricky familial position as her husband’s second wife, while also serving as a travelogue as she followed him from post to post across Europe. Other women patchwork their own families with members of various royal houses, reminding us again that the photograph could be refashioned in any number of ways to cement or suggest social status, linking one’s own family with kings and queens. Georgina Berkeley’s album shows nine figures pasted together within a viewing box, red drapes painted around them. The theatricality and performance of photographic poses are suggested innately in the arrangement of family figures taking in the spectacle of the opera.
The exhibition is successful for a few reasons, not least the fact that it takes a neat slice (two small rooms total) of ephemeral visual culture and creates a strong, convincing narrative for this practice within the origin story of photographic history. The exhibition also includes computer hubs where visitors can view further examples of photocollage, rather than cluttering the walls, and provides catalogues for public perusal with several essays by curators at the Art Institute of Chicago, including "The Page as Stage" and "Society Cutups."
Photographic appropriation? Performance and play with social rules and roles? "Playing with Pictures" has it in spades, pointing to the moment in the nineteenth century that foreshadowed our own contemporary obsession with the post-production manipulation and the social spectacle of observation that are part-and-parcel of what the photographic means today. Richard Prince and Sherry Levine have nothing on these ladies.
Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage runs through May 9th
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
Take to 6 train to 77th street or the 4 or 5 train to 86th Street
Museum Hours: Tues-Thurs, 9:30-5:30; F and Sat, 9:30-9; Sun, 9:30-5:30
With thousands of highly significant items encompassing television, cinematography, photography and new media, the National Media Museum’s diverse collections are of national importance. You’ll help us protect them for future generations by administering recent acquisitions, formalising records of objects and arranging indemnities and commercial insurance. You will also contribute to the delivery of exciting temporary exhibitions by effectively organising loans in and out.
Required Skills:
With a good track record in a similar environment, you’ll have experience of co-ordinating collections management procedures, completing relevant documentation and using a collections database. You should be a real team player with superb attention to detail too, even under pressure! If you can also add great communication, organisational and problem solving skills, you’ll have exactly what we’re looking for.
Application Instructions:
Interested? Please email your CV and covering letter to: recruitment@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk
We regret that we can only respond to successful applicants.
No agencies please.
We are an equal opportunities employer.
Assistant Registrar
14.4 hours per week (fixed term - 23 months)
Bradford
£16,605 per annum (pro rata) (£6,642)
Closing date: 8th February 2010
