At a special colloquium yesterday invited attendees previewed the National Gallery's new exhibition Seduced by Art and explored some of the images and the links between photography and art. The exhibition is the Gallery's first major photography show, despite a relationship with photography which goes back to the Gallery's Keeper and first Director Sir Charles Eastlake who was the first President of the Photographic Society of London. It hopes to attract 50,000 people to the exhibition. 

This exhibition explores early photography from the thirty years from photography's announcement in 1839 to 1870 and the its most recent thirty years to 2012. Showing photographs from the mid-19th century and the most exciting contemporary photographs, alongside historical painting. It takes a provocative look at how photographers use fine art traditions, including Old Master painting, to explore and justify the possibilities of their art.

Work by leading photographers such as Martin Parr, Craigie Horsfield, Tom Hunter, Sam Taylor-Wood, Richard Billingham, Julia Margaret Cameron and Gustave Le Gray will be on display beside key paintings from the National Gallery collection.

The exhibition has been co-curated by Hope Kingsley from the WIlson Centre of Photography and Christopher Riopelle from the Gallery. As one delegate commented 'Hope is the only person with the knowledge and background to make such an exhibition, and to make it work so well'. The exhibition's thesis is explored in a coherent way and accessible way with appropriately chosen images from both mediums. The selected photographs and works of art help the curators make their points and the physical exhibition space is well used with the hanging and lighting used to give balance to the photography and paintings.Excellent use is made made of the doorways of the exhibition space to frame works beyond. The exhibition is a triumph in its conception and execution and, will be seen as a landmark exhibition. A catalogue is available at £19.95 (softback) or £30 (hardback). 

The exhibition opens on 31 October until 20 January 2013. More information is here: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/seduced-by-art-photography-past-and-present

About the exhibition

Paintings and early and contemporary photographs are presented together according to traditional genres such as portraiture, still life, nudes and landscape, highlighting the universality of the themes and influences across all the works, both past and present.

Drawing attention to one particular and rich strand of photography’s history – that of the influence and inspiration of historical painting – the exhibition features pictures by the greatest British and French photographers alongside work by an international array of contemporary artists. It includes new photography and video specially commissioned for the exhibition and on public display for the first time, plus works rarely seen in the UK.

Exceptionally, three ‘interventions’ of contemporary photographs by Richard Billingham, Craigie Horsfield and Richard Learoyd will be displayed within the Gallery’s collection, juxtaposed with great 19th-century paintings by Constable,Degas and Ingres.

Works on display

The show includes almost 90 photographs alongside selected paintings from the National Gallery’s collection. Key photographs will come from the Wilson Centre for Photography, Tate, Victoria and Albert Museum, National Media Museum in Bradford, Fundació La Caixa in Spain, and direct from the photographers themselves.

Travelling exhibition

The exhibition will travel to CaixaForum Barcelona (21 February 2013 – 19 May 2013) and CaixaForum Madrid (19 June 2013 – 15 September 2013).

Paintings and early and contemporary photographs are presented together according to traditional genres such as portraiture, still life, nudes and landscape, highlighting the universality of the themes and influences across all the works, both past and present.

Drawing attention to one particular and rich strand of photography’s history – that of the influence and inspiration of historical painting – the exhibition features pictures by the greatest British and French photographers alongside work by an international array of contemporary artists. It includes new photography and video specially commissioned for the exhibition and on public display for the first time, plus works rarely seen in the UK.

Exceptionally, three ‘interventions’ of contemporary photographs by Richard Billingham, Craigie Horsfield and Richard Learoy are displayed within the Gallery’s collection, juxtaposed with great 19th-century paintings by Constable,Degas and Ingres.

In 2013 Wolverhampton Photographic Society will be celebrating its 125th anniversary and the 200th anniversary of its most famous photographer's birth, Oscar Gustave Rejlander (1813-1875). To celebrate this a commemorative plaque will be laid on Rejlander's unmarked grave in Kensal Green Cemetery (http://www.kensalgreencemetery.com) on Saturday, 3 November 2012.

The project has been fully funded from WPS funds and from personal donations from members of WPS Historical Group.The project has taken two years to come to fruition, and the WPS is very grateful for the help and support it has  received from staff at Kensal Green, and especially Joe Hughes from the Friends of Kensal Green. The memorial plaque was hand-carved and gilded by the sculptor David Kelly.

Everyone is invited to attend a short ceremony to mark the laying of this plaque at 12 noon on Saturday 3rd November 2012. The event will start at the Anglican Chapel, Kensal Green Cemetery, and then proceed to Rejlander's grave for the formal laying of the commemorative plaque. Afterwards it will move to the Dissenter's Chapel for refreshments. The event will end at around 1.30pm.

Booking is Essential. If you wish to attend, please email: d.h.kingston@yahoo.co.uk

Postscript

After the event why not pay homage to Frederick Scott Archer who's grave is also in the cemetery (http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/wet-plate-collodion). There are also plenty of other photography related individuals 'resting' there...

Pete James, Head of Photographs at Birmingham Central Library talks to Andrew Lacon and Stuart Whipps about the work they are making for REFERENCE WORKS: the Library of Birmingham Photography Project. The project, Birmingham’s largest photography commission, sees four photographers and four students/graduates from Birmingham City University making creative responses to the existing and new library building. The discussion will outline the scope of the commission; describe the process of making new work and the vital role of the Library’s nationally and internationally significant collections at the heart of the new iconic cultural institution.

The event is the first in a series of Photographers Talks linked to REFERENCE WORKS, the Library of Birmingham Photography Project.

www.reference-works.com

Thursday 1 November 2012

6.00 – 7.30pm

Library Theatre, off Chamberlain Square, Birmingham B3 3HQ

Admission Free

Photography The Whole Story concentrates on the pictures and stories behind them. In a world where billions of snapshots are taken every year, why are some photographers and their works considered so significant?

People have always tried to capture moments as images and over the centuries it was the task of artists to select subjects and set them down, but in 1839 a new medium appeared: photography. Originally messy and time-consuming, the photograph rapidly evolved to become a means of capturing the world 'in the blink of an eye'.

If you love photography and would like to know more, Photography: The Whole Story is a celebration of the most inspiring photographs that have come from this very modern medium. Illustrated, in-depth essays cover every photographic genre, from early portraits and tableaux to the digital montages, split-second sports images and conceptual photographs of today.

The book begins with a succinct overview of photography, placing it in the context of the social and cultural developments that have taken place since its arrival. The book then traces chronologically the rapid evolution of photographic style, period by period and movement by movement.

The ideas and works of key photographers are assessed to reveal what motivated them and what each was striving to achieve. Detailed cultural and individual artist timelines clarify historical context.

Supporting each essay are close analyses of key works that single out the characteristics of each period – such as use of colour and visual metaphor, quirks of composition and technical innovations – enabling us to grasp each work’s full meaning. Here are the tiny but telling details of social portraits; the stark, graphic qualities of urban landscapes; the erotic, or the undertones of nude studies; and the humour, anger or pathos of conceptual works.

• ISBN 9780500290453
• 24.50 x 17.50 cm
• Flexibound PLC (with jacket)
• 576pp
• With over 1000 colour illustrations
• First published 2012
• £19.95

See: http://www.thamesandhudson.com/Photography_The_Whole_Story/9780500290453

A new book simply titled Photographers was launched last night in London. Written by BPH's Michael Pritchard's it looks at photographers and their cameras. The photographers featured include well-known names from Picture Post and Life magazines, press photographers and names such as Cartier-Bresson, Bailey, Donovan, Eistenstaedt, Burrows and many others. The Leica, Nikon, Speed Graphic cameras are amongst those shown.

The book is published by Reel Art Press and is available at a pre-publication price of £30. See: http://www.reelartpress.com/catalog/edition/47/photographers

Image: Michael Pritchard, left, with publisher Tony Nourmand. 

London auction house Bonhams has closed its London Photographs Department as part of a wider reorganisation. In future photographs will be handled by the Book department. The department was established in 2009 under the leadership of Jocelyn Phillips and it had held a number of successful sales, establishing Bonhams as an leading place to sell photography in the United Kingdom. Prior to 2009 photography had been sold across multiple departments.

Christie's and Sotheby's have realigned their own departments over recent years to concentrate on specific areas of the market such as fashion and contemporary photography. Sotheby's moved its department from London to Paris.

Prior to joining Bonhams Phillips spent over five years at Sotheby’s, working on single owner sales of the collections of Dr William K Ehrenfeld and Marie-Thérèse & Andre Jammes. At Bonhams she had held a selling exhibition of David Bailey's photographs of the 1960s as well as regular photograph auctions. Phillips is the author of Collect Contemporary Photography, published in 2012 by Thames and Hudson. .

Publishers are invited to submit up to ten of books published in 2012 for the Best Photography Book and the Best Moving Image Book categories of the 2013 Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards. The author/s of the winning book in each category will receive a cash prize of £5,000. The initial submissions deadline is 5^th December 2012.

Books on photography or the moving image (including film, video or television, digital imaging and animation) published between 1 January and 31 December 2012 may be eligible for the 2013 awards. Please refer to the rules and conditions attached for further details. 

To be considered, one copy of each of your submissions must be mailed together with the attached entry form to me here at the World Photography Organization, 9 Manchester Square, W1U 3PL, with a deadline of Wednesday 5^th December 2012.

Kraszna-Krausz Foundation chairman Michael G. Wilson, renowned film producer, photography collector and founder of Wilson Centre for Photography, is delighted to announce that the Book Awards will, for the third year, be presented at the 25^th April 2012 Sony World Photography Awards. 

For further information visit the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation and World Photography Organization websites:

http://www.kraszna-krausz.org.uk

http://www.worldphoto.org

The National Media Museum (NMeM) in Bradford is undertaking a three week consultation as it launches a spending review as part of a wider restructure designed to cut running costs after visitors numbers halved in 10 years (see http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/2680769:BlogPost:55593).The review aims to bring down the running costs while also looking at ways to increase visitor numbers through improved public exhibitions, events and cinema programme. There will be job losses amongst staff, including curatorial and collection support roles, and a number of staff are having to apply for a smaller number of roles. 

Heather Mayfield, deputy director of the Science Museum Group - to which the NMeM belongs - announced a 'back to basics' review to 'reconnect the museum to its audiences'. She added: 'We recognise that this is an extremely difficult time for staff and will ensure that consultation will be conducted with the utmost consideration for any staff member affected.'

In a statement, the museum added: 'Visitor numbers have seen a decline from a peak of almost one million in 2001 to 500,000 in 2011 - although this decline has been stabilised over the past 12 months with the opening of the new Life Online gallery and an improved family offer at holiday periods. 'The review aims to deliver an improved public exhibition, events and cinema programme, which appeals more to audiences locally and nationally, supports its status as a national museum and increases access to its world famous collections of film, photography and television.'

A recent review carried out by the museum’s parent organisation, the Science Museum Group, found that average costs per visitor at the National Media Museum were 30% more than at the Science Museum in London, the National Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester and the National Railway Museum in York.  

The museum has been based in Bradford since opening in 1983 as the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television. Despite reports of an 'axe' hanging over the museum the review may represent an attempt to take it back to a focus on its world-class collections under its new Head Jo Quinton-Tulloch as it addresses the relationship between Bradford and the London-based Media Space. Sadly, it seems that job losses amongst curatorial staff will make it far more difficult to realise the review outcomes which will inevitably require better curatorial support.

Update2: A report in Amateur Photographer today (see: http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/photo-news/539224/media-space-project-at-heart-of-cash-strapped-nmm) quotes a museum spokesperson as saying that Media Space remains at the heart of the museum's strategy to open up the Collections despite the review.

As the full funding for Media Space has not been secured this suggests that some of the savings made in Bradford through cutting staff and services will be used to underwrite Media Space's future costs. 

A member writes...Mr Paul Bucherer-Dietschi harbours a rare collection of historical images of Afghanistan, among them a large collection of images created by the Royal Engineers in the Afghan wars. I was fortunate to do approx. 1 year's voluntary work at the Swiss Afghanistan Institute to assist in transcribing English letters of the Royal Engineer photographers and artists and assessing the photographic material. This collection also includes a wonderful set of albums called the "souvenir d'Afghanistan". The online collection can be found here: http://www.phototheca-afghanica.ch/index.php?id=33&no_cache=1

David Bruce writing in the Scottish Society for the History of Photography's (SSHoP) newsletter SSHoP Talk reports that the ambition of building a dedicated centre for Scottish photography at the former Royal High School on the Calton Hill in Edinburgh was not likely to be realised and the vehicle to do it, Hill Adamson Ltd, has been wound up.

The project proved to be beyond reach, financially, and a subsequent attempt to create a network of interested galleries and local institutions failed to meet Creative Scotland’s approval. David discusses the project and what it has achieved as well a potential beacon for the future. Despite the failure of the Calton Hill project Scottish photography both old and new is well and truly on the map.  

SSHoP can be found here: http://sshop.org.uk/

Read more of the history of the SNPC here.

The National Gallery has a number of events around its Seduced by Art: Photography Past and Present exhibition which runs from 31 October 2012 - 20 January 2013.

• 27 October there is a colloquium in the exhibition space in the Sainsbury Wing on Level -2. Numbers are very limited and by invitation only.    
• 1 November, Hope Kingsley, co-curator, will give a free lunchtime lecture in the Sainsbury Wing lecture theatre: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/calendar/lunchtime-talk-1-november-2012
• 9 November Chris Riopelle and Hope Kingsley will be 'in conversation' 
• 14 November at the Courtauld is a free research seminar. This is not bookable so arrival early to secure a place. http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/researchforum/events/2012/autumn/nov14_HistPhoto.shtml
• There will also be artist's talks and workshops on other dates 

Full details are available below and further events will be added throughout the exhibition's run.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/seduced-by-art-photography-past-and-present/*/tab/2 

Expanded Photographies is a two-day symposium exploring ideas of photographic technology, notions of 'expanded' practice and rethinking photography within this context. It takes place on 25-26 October at Southampton Solent University. Amongst the speakers is Charlotte Cotton. See: http://www.expandedphotographies.com

Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales and the European Centre for Photographic Research (eCPR), University of Wales, Newport are pleased to announce a series of free lectures reflecting on photography and the Museum. To launch the series, leading Spanish artist Joan Fontcuberta, reflects on his edited anthology ‘Photography - Crisis in History’ of 2002 on 17 October 2012. The book explored the significant challenges of producing histories or archaeologies of photography. For this lecture he will offer a fresh perspective - 10 years on - of these complex relationships in a new age outlined by the internet and digital culture.

With nearly four decades of dedication to photography, Fontcuberta has developed artistic and theoretical work that focuses on conflicts between nature, technology, photography and truth. The lecture series accompanies a major project being undertaken by Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales to work on its rich and diverse historic photographic collections – a project made possible through a major gift from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. 

In partnership with the eCPR, at University of Wales Newport, the lecture series will reflect the exciting work that the Museum is undertaking from 2012 to 2015.

A full programme of forthcoming lectures will be available shortly.

For further partner details visit:
http://www.newport.ac.uk/research/ResearchGroups/ecpr/Pages/eCPR.aspx
http://www.museumwales.ac.uk

Doors to the Reardon Smith Lecture Theatre open from 5.15
The event is FREE but booking is essential as places are limited.
To reserve your place, please email: Historic.Photography@museumwales.ac.uk

Media Space's Gala Opening has been put back to June - on a day yet to be confirmed - according to information published by the Science Museum for its Patrons. The brochure notes: 

Media Space gala opening
Date to be confirmed
Join us for the gala opening of our new flagship gallery. Using the unrivalled collections of the National Media Museum, Media Space will present photographers’ and artists’ perspectives on science, technology, photography and visual media through a rich programme of exhibitions and events.

This represents a change from the previously published March or 'Spring' opening previously publicised.

BPH exclusively published the first photograph of Media Space recently (http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/michael-wilson-honoured-and-media-space-revealed) 

Since 1978 the History and Archives department of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie (DGPh) has given an award that recognises scientific research into the history and theory of photography. A call for the 2012 award has been made.  

The Erich Stenger Award was initially aimed exclusively at published books, it was transformed into an advancement award in 1981.

 Its present reorientation as the DGPh Research Award for the History of Photography emphasizes the award’s international, broadly-based orientation to all elements of the photographic. Besides traditional history and theory of photography, topical areas are thereby also addressed that deal with photography’s societal significance and the traces that it has left behind, beyond its own object, in societal life.

The award is aimed at researchers from all fields of the humanities, cultural studies, and social sciences whose scientific work represents an autonomous, innovative, and original contribution to these areas.

Applications and manuscripts for the DGPh Research Award for the History of Photography may be submitted in either English or German. It is possible to divide the award into two halves. Allocation will be the decision of an expert jury, whose decision will be published. The jury may hand the award to one applicant or to two applicants in equal parts. The jury’s decision will be final and binding.

The award is worth a total of 3,000 Euro and will be handed over at a public ceremony.

Required submissions:

• a completed manuscript in paper form () and in electronic file form (pdf). 
• The final date for submissions is 1 December 2012 (date of postmark). Recipient’s address is: Geschäftsstelle der DGPh (Overstolzenhaus, Rheingasse 8-12, D-50676 Cologne, dgph@dgph.de).

To be enclosed with the application:

• An abstract of the submitted work (approx. 3,500 keystrokes), including information regarding the status of the manuscript (dissertation, research project – funded or not funded), essay (accepted in specialist magazine or not accepted); is there already a publisher for this manuscript (target publication date); has publication of the manuscript already been funded by another body?
• A Curriculum Vitae (résumé)
• A list of publications

More information about the German Photographic Society: www.dgph.de

DCMS has released visitor numbers broken down by month for various UK museums for financial years from 2004/5 to 2011/12. BPH has published these in the past.  These have been put together in an accessible form and are available here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AonYZs4MzlZbdEpQUFZHUC0yYUtXUHZxczFIc0NBSHc#gid=5

The figures for the first few months of 2012 appear to show an increase in numbers compared to 2011 reflecting the opening of the new Life Online gallery. 

The National Media Museum numbers are shown below: 

The history of photography has largely been dominated by concerns about aesthetic production and its political framings. Such ‘art historical’ approaches have marginalised the study of the economic base of the medium manifested through a developing photographic industry, its related trades and its mass consumers.  Work is now emerging in this field, scattered across a number of disciplines: history, anthropology and history of science in particular. While there has been extensive research on both the politics and the affective qualities of popular photography, family albums, for instance, the missing component in the analysis is often a detailed and empirically informed understanding of the social and economic conditions of product development, labour forces, marketing and consumer demand. This two-day conference aims to bring together a critical mass of research in this area, to explore the state of play in this overlooked but crucial aspect of history of photography, and to suggest new directions for research in the economic, business and industrial history of photography. The conference will explore the period 1860-1950: from the rise of a clearly defined photographic industry, which had a profound effect on the practices and thus social functions of photography, to the expansion of mass colour technologies.

Abstracts of no more than 300 words, for 30 minute papers , should be sent to Professor Elizabeth Edwards (eedwards@dmu.ac.uk) and Dr Kelley Wilder (kwilder@dmu.ac.uk) by November 30th  2012.

Details of the conference will be posted in December 2012.

UPDATED: 

DMU is pleased that the generous support of the Economic History Society has enabled us to offer three student bursaries to the value of £150 each towards travel and accommodation costs for PhD students to present their work at this conference. If you wish to be considered for a bursary please state this in your abstract submission.

Workers and Consumers: The Photographic Industry 1860-1950

Photographic History Research Centre, De Montfort University, Leicester

24-25 June 2013

Photo: The Thornton-Pickard camera factory, Manchester, c.1890. Courtesy: Michael Pritchard

The Black Star Collection of approximately 292,000 black and white photographs is one of the world’s most significant collections of photojournalism. Tracing the social and political history of the 20th century, the iconic images were gifted to Ryerson University by an anonymous donor. The Black Star Collection now makes its home at the Ryerson Image Centre (RIC), Toronto's newest cultural destination.

The collection includes spectacular images of famous figures from every avenue of life (Marilyn Monroe, Fidel Castro, Muhammad Ali, Marc Chagall, etc.) as well as photo essays documenting key historic events of the past century, such as the Great Wars, the Spanish Civil War, the American Civil Rights era and the Vietnam War.

New York’s Black Star Agency commissioned the images for publications that defined 20th century journalism, including Life, Look, The Saturday Evening Post, The New York Times, Time and Newsweek. The agency worked with some of the most influential photographers in the history of photography: the father of modern photojournalism, Henri Cartier-Bresson, legendary war photographer Robert Capa, Britain’s famed Bill Brandt and the early 20th century female photographer Germaine Krull among many others.

“The Black Star Collection forms a valuable repository of collective global memory,” says John Isbister, Interim Provost and Vice President Academic, Ryerson University. “The Black Star Collection — the single largest gift of cultural property ever made to a Canadian university — has allowed us to build our Centre on a foundation that will lead to years of cutting edge scholarly research and creative activity.”

The story of The Black Star Agency is fascinating in and of itself. In 1935, Ernest Mayer, owner of the Berlin-based Mauritius photo agency, fled Nazi Germany, bringing with him some 5,000 images to New York. Together with fellow émigrés Kurt Safranski, a literary editor, and Kurt Kornfeld, a literary agent, he created The Black Star Agency, located in the Graybar building near Grand Central Station. The Black Star Agency went on to represent major photographers documenting cultural, social and political history.

Ryerson University has been entrusted with preserving this historic visual archive, and making the photographs accessible to the public through exhibition and publication. The Black Star Collection - the “raison d'être” of the RIC, as Doina Popescu, Director of the Ryerson Image Centre, puts it - already functions as muse to Canadian artists and image makers. The Ryerson Image Centre’s grand opening exhibition, Archival Dialogues: Reading the Black Star Collection, features the multi-disciplinary response of internationally renowned Canadian artists Stephen Andrews, Christina Battle, Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Stan Douglas, Vera Frenkel, Vid Ingelevics, David Rokeby and Michael Snow, to the collection. Reflecting on their respective processes of working with the Black Star Collection, each of the artists has also produced six artist pages for the exhibition catalogue. Their interpretations bring new and contemporary meaning to the powerful, historic Black Star Collection.

Co-curated by Doina Popescu, Director of the Ryerson Image Centre, and Peggy Gale, Archival Dialogues: Reading the Black Star Collection opens on September 29, 2012 to December 16, 2012

New works by Stephen Andrews, Christina Battle, Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Stan Douglas, Vera Frenkel, Vid Ingelevics, David Rokeby and Michael Snow inspired by the Black Star Collection at Ryerson University.
Curated by Doina Popescu and Peggy Gale. 

Ryerson Image Centre: 33 Gould Street, Toronto, Canada

Admission to The Ryerson Image Centre is free.
www.ryerson.ca/ric

Image: Charles Moore; Reproduction from the Black Star Collection at Ryerson University. Courtesy of the Ryerson Image Centre

Archival Dialogues: Reading the Black Star Collection is made possible through the generous support of the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, Ryerson University, the Goethe-Institut Toronto, Partners in Art, The Howard and Carole Tanenbaum Family Charitable Foundation, and The Paul J. Ruhnke Memorial Fund.

The Ryerson Image Centre (RIC), a new public gallery in the heart of the city, has opened heralding the transformation of Gould Street into a public cultural destination and a pedestrian-friendly environment, complete with the Ryerson Image Centre art gallery, adjacent park with pond and rock garden, Balzac's café, outdoor patio, trees, and a car-free street.

The RIC is part of Ryerson University's major city-building initiative in the core of downtown Toronto – Canada's economic, academic, research and cultural capital. The RIC is located in the new Image Arts Building, designed by Toronto-based Diamond Schmitt Architects, one of the world’s top ten design firms for the cultural building sector.

The Image Arts Building is a rare example of a building that is digitally programmable, making the structure itself a work of art as the public and artists can program the illuminated glass walls transforming Toronto’s night time skyline. The building also features the Salah J. Bachir New Media Wall, a unique grid of arts-dedicated LED screens that are visible from the street. “The Ryerson Image Centre is an international academic facility for teaching, research and exhibitions, but it is also a terrific opportunity to make so many of Ryerson’s holdings - amazing images and works of art - accessible to the public,” said Sheldon Levy, President of Ryerson University. “We are thrilled to be opening this new gallery in the heart of our campus, in the heart of our city.”

The inaugural exhibition, Archival Dialogues: Reading the Black Star Collection, co-curated by Doina Popescu, Director of the Ryerson Image Centre, and Peggy Gale, features new work by eight of Canada’s foremost artists. Internationally-renowned Canadian contemporary artists Stephen Andrews, Christina Battle, Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Stan Douglas, Vera Frenkel, Vid Ingelevics, David Rokeby and Michael Snow have each created new work, commissioned for the grand opening of the Ryerson Image Centre and inspired by the Black Star Collection at Ryerson University.

The RIC grand opening also features an exhibition of works by current students and recent alumni of the School of Image Arts, entitled The Art of the Archive, curated by Gaëlle Morel, Exhibitions Curator at the Ryerson Image Centre. The Ryerson Image Centre brings an exciting new voice to the arts dialogue in Toronto and across the country. Exhibitions and public programs that reflect highly relevant contemporary themes speak to and welcome people from many different walks of life, part of a growing trend toward creative inclusion and openness that will bring the world to Toronto.

Archival Dialogues: Reading the Black Star Collection is made possible through the generous support of the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, Ryerson University, the Goethe-Institut Toronto, Partners in Art, The Howard and Carole Tanenbaum Family Charitable Foundation, and The Paul J. Ruhnke Memorial Fund. Ryerson Image Centre Grand Opening Saturday, September 29, 2012 7 p.m. to Sunday, September 30, 2012 7 a.m. Part of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Archival Dialogues: Reading the Black Star Collection New works by Stephen Andrews, Christina Battle, Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Stan Douglas, Vera Frenkel, Vid Ingelevics, David Rokeby and Michael Snow inspired by the Black Star Collection at Ryerson University. Curated by Doina Popescu and Peggy Gale. September 29 - December 16, 2012 Admission is free. Ryerson Image Centre: 33 Gould Street (one block northeast of Yonge and Dundas), Toronto, Ontario, Canada www.ryerson.ca/ric

Autograph ABP one of the UK’s leading arts agencies, working nationally and internationally in the fields of photography, cultural identity and human rights is looking to appoint a Deputy Director with the proven track record to help the organisation build on its successes and assist in the next phase of business and artistic development.

The candidate will play a key role in managing the organisation’s staff, projects and business, including finance and HR issues. They must have extensive experience in a public sector arts organisation at a senior level, be calm under pressure and able to prioritise and undertake a wide range of duties.

The post holder will report to the Director.

Deadline for applications: 22 October 2012.

We regret that applications received after that time will not be considered.

We proudly promote cultural diversity and equal opportunities.

See: http://www.autograph-abp.co.uk/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=ABP_Programme&FRM=CMSRightFrame:ABP_558