The dates have been announced for the 2011 London Photograph Fairs which will take place on 20 February, 15 May, 11 September and 20 November 2011. The venue will be the Holiday Inn, Coram Street, London, close to Russell Square tube station and within walking distance of Euston, St Pancras and Kings Cross mainline stations. Admission is £3. For more information see www.photofair.co.uk
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Geoffrey Crawley, one of Britain's best photographic editors and scientists, has died aged 83. Crawley was editor of the British Journal of Photography between 1967 and 1987 and worked there until 2000, when he joined Amateur Photographer as photo-science consultant. He wrote for the magazine until recently.
Crawley had a long career in photography and invented the developer Acutol which was sold by Paterson from 1963. He also investigated the Cottingley Fairies hoax and was, for the first time, able to conclusively show how the 1921 fairy photographs had been produced. Crawley was widely consulted within and outside the photographic industry for his expertise in photographic chemistry and science. His active involvement in photography and photographic publishing brought him into contact with many of the leading photographers and photographic personalities from the 1940s onwards.
Fuller obituaries have been published in Amateur Photographer and the British Journal of Photography click the links to read them.
8/11/10 update: there is a rather nice obituary of Geoffrey here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/world/europe/07crawley.html?_r=1
which sums up the Cottingley Fairies story ands his role in it rather well.
BBC Radio 4 included a feature on Crawley as part of its Last Word programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00vryrj/Last_Word_12_11_2010 the Crawley section begins at 22mins 58 secs and contributors include Colin Harding from the National Media Museum and Chris Dickie, a former editor of the BJP.
Michael Pritchard writes... I first met Crawley in the late 1990s when he decided to sell at Christie's the Cottingley fairy cameras, photographs and related material that he had acquired as part of his research into the story. An appeal was launched and the material was subsequently passed to the then National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford. I visited him at his house in Westcliffe-on-Sea and spent an enjoyable morning listening to his stories about the BJP in the 1960s and the wider photographic world. I proposed that he be interviewed as part of the British Library's Oral History of British Photography but sadly the suggestion was not taken up by the project. He was an impressive man with a great recall of people of events that have now passed into British photographic history.
See: Geoffrey Crawley, 'That Astonishing Affair of the Cottingley Fairies' in British Journal of Photography Part One (24 December 1982, pp. 1374-1380); Part Two (31 December 1982, pp. 1406-1414); Part Three (7 January 1983, pp. 9-15); Part Four (21 January 1983, pp. 66-71); Part Five (28 January 1983, pp. 91-96); Part Six (4 February 1983, pp. 117-121; Part Seven (11 February 1983, pp. 142-145, 153, 159); Part Eight (18 February 1983, pp. 170-171); Part Nine (1 April 1983, pp. 332-338); Part Ten (8 April 1982, pp. 362-367)
Geoffrey Crawley, 'Cottingley Revisited' in British Journal of Photography, 24 May 1985, pp. 574-562.
Elinor Carucci‘s photographs have consistently explored the types and levels of intimacy, focusing on her own body, her parents, her husband, and more recently, her children. Often photographing in close-range, Carucci relies on bits and pieces, expressions and symbols to communicate joy, pain, and the sometimes-elegiac sentiments that accompany relationships.
Born 1971 in Jerusalem, Elinor Carucci graduated in 1995 from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design with a degree in photography, and moved to New York in the same year. She was awarded the International Center of Photography's Infinity Award for Young Photographers in 2001 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002. Carucci has had solo exhibitions at galleries including Edwynn Houk Gallery, Fifty One Fine Art Gallery and Gagosian Gallery, London. Her photographs are included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Brooklyn Museum of Art and Houston Museum of Fine Art, among others. She has published two monographs to date, Closer (Chronicle, 2002) and Diary of a Dancer (Steidl, 2005). Carucci is represented by James Hyman Gallery, London.
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
6.00pm, Research Forum South Room,
The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN
Open to all, free admission
Contacts:
Alexandra Moschovi (alexandra.moschovi@courtauld.ac.uk)
Julian Stallabrass (julian.stallabrass@courtauld.ac.uk), or
Benedict Burbridge (benedict.burbridge@courtauld.ac.uk)
Back in October 2009 BPH reported on the National Media Museum's revised signage project and subsequently reported on the positive reaction to it. The London-based designers behind the project, Carter Wong, have published their own short report on the signage project. Click here to read it: http://www.carterwongdesign.com/projects/national-media-museum.php
An archive of Brunel material consigned by a descendant of Sir Marc Isambard Brunel was sold at auction on 2 November 2010 (click to see the full sale) by Tooveys in Sussex. Included in the sale were several items of photographic interest, click to see the full descriptions:
- BRUNEL, Isambard Kingdom (1806-1859). - Robert HOWLETT and George DOWNES (photographers). A stereoscopic 'double' patent, titled on pink paper label verso '16. "The Leviathan" Steam Ship. Portrait of Mr. Brunel'. [London:] Photographic Institution, [n.d. but circa 1857?]. Overall card size 174 x 85mm. (images with arched top, each 75 x 73mm.). - And four other related images (stereocard views of the Great Eastern). Provenance: Lady Sophia Macnamara Hawes neé Brunel (1802-1878), sister of Isambard Kingdom Brunel (inscriptions verso). Sold for £17,000
BRUNEL, Isambard Kingdom (1806-1859). - Unknown photographer. A shaped photographic portrait of Brunel. [N.p.: n.d. but circa 1857 or earlier]. Irregularly shaped and laid down on thin card. (Faded). Provenance: Lady Sophia Macnamara Hawes neé Brunel (1802-1878), sister of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Apparently a calotype, sold for £2200
HAWES, Sir Benjamin, (1797-1862), and Lady Sophia Macnamara HAWES neé BRUNEL (1802-1878). An album of topographical, military and portrait photographs, apparently assembled by or for Sir Benjamin and Lady Sophia Hawes. [N.p.: n.d. but circa 1857-1868]. Large 4to (283 x 226mm.), 66 leaves mounted with an original pencilled watercolour portrait of Lady Hawes by her daughter, dated 1865; 96 mounted photographic portraits (most carte-de-visite format, including 16 of royalty, a number accompanied by clipped signatures); 59 British topographical photographic views; 5 topographical photographic views of Canton (one inscribed 'taken by Corporal Wotherspoon R.E. April 1850' but torn into image area); 35 photographs of cannons, military equipment and constructions (one with associated label 'Photographic Establishment of the War Department'). (The majority slightly faded.) Original green morocco gilt, g.e. (scuffed, lower joint split). Note: Sir Benjamin served as Minister of War during the Crimean War. Sold for £13,000
DICKINS, Frederick Victor (1838-1915, ?compiler). - Unknown photographer. An album of mounted topographical photographs of Japan. [Japan: n.d. but circa 1870-1879.]. Folio (360 x 260mm.) 54 mounted photographs (most 210 x 283mm.); 35 mounted coloured scenes of Japanese life printed on cloth; 4 mounted Japanese botanical prints on paper, on 55 card leaves. Original green half-morocco (worn). Provenance: Thomas Dickins (Edgemoor House, Manchester, bookplate). Note: Frederick Victor Dickins, an orientalist of note and translator of Japanese literature, lived in Japan from 1871 to 1879. He appears to have annotated the album for Thomas Dickins. Sold for £4000
RAILWAYS. Unknown photographer. A fine side view of 'The Puffing Billy'. [N.p.: n.d. but circa 1855-1862.] 1 photograph (200 x 278mm.) backed onto paper with early manuscript caption slip. (Somewhat faded). Note: 'The Puffing Billy is one of the two earliest surviving locomotives. Sold for £750
PHOTOGRAPHS. A carte-de-visite album containing a good selection of photographs depicting 19th Century authors, scientists and others. [N.p.: n.d. but circa 1870-1890.] 4to (285 x 215mm.) 23 leaves with 140 carte-de-visite or cabinet photographs, a few with associated clipped signatures, subjects include C. Darwin, T. Huxley, L. Pasteur, T. Edison, H.W. Longfellow, N. Hawthorne, C. Dickens, E.A. Poe, Gen. R.E. Lee, Charles Peace, J.E. Millais. Original morocco (worn). Sold for £4000
TALBOT, William Henry Fox (1800-1877). A mounted calotype from 'The Pencil of Nature', with manuscript title to mount 'Bust of Patroculus' [n.p.: n.d. but 1843]. Calotype (143 x 139mm.) With ruled ink border, on original thin card mount (303 x 240mm.), with number '17' below lower-right corner of the calotype, and title in ink at lower-right corner of the mount. (Print faded, light soiling to mount). Note: plate 17, showing Talbot's plaster cast of a Hellenistic marble, from his 'The Pencil of Nature'. Sold for £600
Monday 8th November will be a dark and creepy evening at the John Rylands Library, Manchester, as Professor Heard, the world’s finest Phantasmagoria Magic Lantern Projectionist, will be performing a show in the library.
There will be 2 performances, a family friendly show at 4.30 – 5pm, then at 7.30 – 9pm an evening event where things get a bit more sinister and spooky!
ALL WELCOME, the event is free, however booking is essential! call 0161 06 0555 to reserve yourself a free seat or email jrul.events@manchester.ac.uk at the John Rylands Library, 150 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3EH.
Leicester, UK: The De Montfort University Photographic History Research Centre (PHRC) draws together and integrates scholarship across a diverse range of disciplines and research on primary sources from the 19th through the 21st centuries of photographic history. It has strong strategic alliances with institutions such as the British Library, V&A, National Media Museum, Société française de photographie, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, reflecting its standing as an internationally recognised centre of research excellence. Current Centre members include Dr Kelley Wilder, Senior Research Fellow and MA Photographic History and Practice Programme Leader; Roger Taylor, Professor Emeritus of Photographic History and internationally renowned specialist in mid-19th century photography; Professor Stephen Brown, Head of the Department of Imaging and Communication Design and Director of Knowledge Media Design at De Montfort University.
You will have a clear vision of the future of photographic history, that will enhance the profile and status of photographic history and conservation internationally. You will raise the international standing of DMU in the area of photographic history, by attracting research students and producing excellent research scholarship. In addition to being Research Professor, you will become the first Director of the Photographic History Research Centre (PHRC), a rotating position to be held for up to five years. You will encourage the initiatives already begun at PHRC and bring your own vision to the Research Centre.
You should have a PhD (Equivalent qualifications accepted) or equivalent relevant experience in the field, extensive publication experience and have produced scholarship considered by peers to be ground breaking in the field. You should also have a track record of winning grant funding and have supervised students at MA and Phd levels.
Closing Date : 26 November 2010
Interview Date: w/c 3 January 2011
Application forms and further details are available from our website: http://www.dmu.ac.uk/jobs
Alternatively telephone 0116 250 6433 (24 hour answerphone). Or write to:
The Human Resources Team, De Montfort University,
The Gateway, Leicester LE1 9BH.
Salary to be set by the Vice Chancellor in accordance with the Senior Staff Pay and Grading Structure. Please Quote Reference : 6605
Presented by Dr Luke Gartlan (School of Art History, University of St Andrews). In 1876 at the height of his career, the Yokohama-based photographer Baron Raimund von Stillfried travelled to Shanghai to undertake a portfolio of 'Chinese characters'. All but forgotten since its completion, this paper argues that the commercial failure of this portfolio highlights the potential schisms that could emerge between the work of nineteenth-century expatriate photographers and the expectations of their international clientele. By importing the aesthetic conventions of Yokohama souvenir photography—or Yokohama shashin—to the Chinese context, Stillfried destabilised many of the prevailing imperialist codes that conceived of the two nations in diametrical terms.
This seminar is co-sponsored with the History of Photography journal.
The History of Photography research seminar series aims to be a discursive platform for the discussion and dissemination of current research on photography. From art as photography and early photographic technology to ethnographic photographs and contemporary photography as art, the seminar welcomes contributions from researchers across the board, whether independent or affiliated with museums, galleries, archives, libraries or higher education, and endeavours to provide scholars with a challenging opportunity to present work in progress and test out new ideas.
The seminars usually take place once a term, on Wednesday evenings at 5.30pm in the Research Forum, unless otherwise stated. The papers, and formal discussion, are followed by informal discussion over a glass of wine.
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
5.30pm, Research Forum South Room
Open to all, free admission
Contacts:
Alexandra Moschovi (alexandra.moschovi@courtauld.ac.uk )
Julian Stallabrass (julian.stallabrass@courtauld.ac.uk)
Britain's flagship photography institution will lose 15% in Government grants over the next four years as a result of the Comprehensive Spending Review, Amateur Photographer has revealed.
Last week the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £81 billion pounds worth of public spending cutbacks.
A spokesman for the National Media Museum (NMM), which is based in Bradford, West Yorkshire told Amateur Photographer today: 'We know that our grant-in-aid will be reduced by around 15% in real terms in stages over the next four years, starting in April.
'We have already been working to prepare for a range of scenarios and to seek efficiencies that can serve to minimise the impact of the cuts. The museum's London presence in not under threat.
'Over the next few weeks we will confirm our plans for accommodating this reduction.'
See the full report here: http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/Flagship_photography_museum_faces_15_cuts_news_303151.html
The Photographers’ Gallery is the largest public gallery dedicated to photography. This is a very exciting time for the Gallery. Construction work has recently begun on a major redevelopment project to expand and transform the Gallery’s premises on Ramillies Street, just off Oxford Street. Scheduled to reopen late 2011 it will include three galleries, an education floor, enhanced retail spaces, a ground floor café and full disabled access.
The Development Officer (Admin) will be primarily responsible for administration of the Development Department, including administration of the Patrons’ and Associate Members’ schemes; recording and processing donations, managing the department’s budget, and providing support to the Head of Development and Head of Business Development. This is a period of growth for The Photographers’ Gallery and we seek an enthusiastic individual who will use their initiative to grow in the role and take on more responsibility as needed.
Details of the application process can be found here: http://photonet.new.mindunit.co.uk/index.php?pid=243
Call for Papers: The Versatile Image 24-26 June 2011, University of Sunderland. The 21st century digital universe is undoubtedly a “hypervisual” environment with photographic images dominating every aspect of our life. The “digital revolution”, as professed with awe and skepticism some twenty years ago, has come to stay, and, together with the developments in mobile-phone technology and the overwhelming possibilities of Web 2.0, has ushered in a rapid transformation of photographic practice across the board.
Far from being “over”, as was the central hypothesis in a recent conference about the current state of the art, photography, a slippery medium by definition, has expanded, transgressing anew set boundaries between media and disciplines, practices and functions. In this “expanded” (and still expanding) field, what has been most appositely called “Photography 2.0” has revolutionized image making. Being more ubiquitous and accessible, some say even “democratic”, than ever, the new photographic technology, paired with micro-publishing platforms and social networking media, has introduced a whole different culture of producing and consuming photographs. It is the diverse manifestations of this new and significantly larger in scale second phase of photography’s so-called “democratization” that this conference endeavours to examine.
Cutting across disciplinary borders, we welcome papers from researchers, visual artists and curators working in the areas of art history, visual culture studies, museology, media studies, visual anthropology and sociology that may reflect upon the following questions:
Are these developments purely a case of technological expediency?
What are the ontological, conceptual or other commonalities and/or differences with photography as we knew it?
What novel currency does the photographic vernacular acquire against the new contexts of viewing and (re)distribution that social networking media and photo-sharing platforms offer? Where is the line between the private and the public drawn and what is the social currency of such private imagery?
What is the new urgency that the eye-witness record taken by “citizen journalists” has acquired in reporting news events among peers and targeting a wider public?
How are issues of objectivity, subjectivity, authenticity and originality relating to the document being challenged anew?
How can this predominantly non-art imagery be appropriated in material and conceptual terms in contemporary art practices?
Can these amateur practices be conventionalized and/or institutionalized in the mass media and the art scene?
All papers will be considered for publication.
Please send abstracts of ca. 250 words for twenty-minute papers to alexandra.moschovi@sunderland.ac.uk with the indication ‘The Versatile Image’ by 30 November 2010. For further information you may visit the conference website at http://www.photography-at-sunderland.co.uk /.
The National Museum of Science and Industry - the parent body of the National Media Museum - is to be retained by government 'on grounds of performing a technical function which should remain independent from Government'. Its role was being reconsidered as part of the government review of all quangos. The level of the funding cuts is due to be announced next week.
The Cabinet Office notice is here.
The collection includes exhibition prints and smaller reference prints, spanning Blakemore’s career from his first photographs made in Libya in 1956 through to large colour works exhibited in 2002. It represents not only the final photographs exhibited or published, but also allows for a comparative study of the artist’s development, especially through the inclusion of some pairs of prints made from the same negative at a distance of several years, and the rich selection of hand-made books beginning with his first, made in 1984, and including others made within recent years.
Pete James, Head of Photographs, Birmingham Library and Archive Services, said: “The John Blakemore Archive, a comprehensive collection of the artist’s best-known work, allows for the in-depth study of the development of the work of one of the leading figures in recent British photographic history. John's profound, yet accessible work, will engage, enthrall and help develop new audiences from all walks of life. This is an important addition to the Birmingham Photographic Collection as we develop the Library of Birmingham. When it opens in 2013, we will be able to showcase our collections for the first time, with state-of-the-art exhibition gallery space and new online facilities.”
“The Library has received a number of grants from the Art Fund enabling it to strengthen and diversify its collections, enhance its reputation as an international centre of excellence, and provide free public access to important material reflecting the history of photography in the UK and in the Midlands region.”
John Blakemore said: “I like the idea of my archive, having become used to the idea that I have such a thing, being housed close to my birthplace, and to the areas where the bulk of the work has been made.”
Stephen Deuchar, Director of the Art Fund, said: “With its arresting observations of nature, captivating portrait shots and beautiful still lives spanning several decades, this archive also includes negatives and hand-made books that have never before been on public display. We are delighted to fulfil John Blakemore’s wish in making this extraordinary archive available for future generations to experience, in the area where he is from.”
Professor Huw Davies, Dean Faculty of Arts, Design & Technology, University of Derby, said: “John Blakemore is a passionate educator who has inspired many generations of students and still continues to do so to this day. We are delighted to collaborate in the creation of this archive of his work, which provides a fitting and lasting legacy of his contribution to the photographic arts”.
Birmingham Central Library holds one of the UK’s national collections of photography. The collection was awarded Designated Status in 2006 in recognition of its national and international significance.
John Blakemore was born in Coventry in 1936. He discovered photography during National Service with the Royal Air Force in Tripoli in the 1950s and is self-taught. Wartime childhood experiences and Edward Steichen’s The Family of Man exhibition inspired him initially on his return home to photograph the people of Coventry and its post-war reconstruction. He initially worked as a freelance photographer for the Black Star agency and then in a variety of studios. He has worked in diverse areas of photography from documentary, through portraiture to still life, and is recognised as one of England's leading landscape photographers. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Photography at the University of Derby, where he taught from 1970 to 2001. Holding an MA in film studies, he is also an external assessor for the Royal College of Art.
The industrial photographer Maurice Broomfield whose work documented the inner landscape of industrial Britain from the 1950s to the 1970s has died. He succeeded through his striking photographs in revealing both the grit and beauty of the people, factories and processes which manufacture the everyday objects around us. The V&A have recently taken possession of the photographer's archive.
A full obituary can be found here.
Following recent discoveries in the John Rylands Library Special Collections, UNDEREXPOSED is an exhibition in Collaboration withThe Museum of Science and Industry, celebrating the life of one of Manchester’s early photographic pioneers, J.T. Chapman.
Chemist, inventor and photographer, Chapman invented some of the processes that were to become standard in early photography. However, he is widely omitted from history books as he published his formula under the pseudonym ‘Ostendo non Ostento’ (I show, not boast). Working from Deansgate, Manchester, Chapman also invented and sold his own cameras and projectors.
The exhibition also showcases a selection of glass plate negatives, recently discovered and linked to the Langford Brooke family of Mere Hall in Cheshire, which have been cleaned, re-housed and digitised by CHICC.
CHICC is The Centre for Heritage Imaging and Collection Care, a JISC funded project to develop a Centre for Heritage Digitisation, based within the University of Manchester.
The John Rylands Library will be holding a series of events associated with the exhibition, for more information please contact 0161 306 0555 or email jrul.events@manchester.ac.uk
The exhibition is at the John Rylands Library, Crawford Room, from Wednesday 29 September to Sunday 28 November. Admission is free.
There will be a curator tour on Wednesday, 3 November between 1200-1300 and 1400-1500, both of which are free.
