The National Media Museum, Bradord, is looking for a cataloguer to work full-time for 16 weeks to help transfer information and images of objects from the collections onto a website which will showcase thier world class collections. As a member of the National Media Museum Project Team, you will ensure that object data is delivered on time and to a high quality to meet the needs of this project. This involves documenting up to 40,000 objects from iBase, enhancing object records and supporting authorities in the museum object database (MIMSY XG) in line with cataloguing standards and guidelines.

Required Skills:

To succeed in this role you will need to be able to demonstrate that you can check and create accurate object records and deliver high volume, high quality object cataloguing to very specific deadlines. You will be a real team player, with excellent communication skills and a flexible approach to your work. A knowledge of and an interest in the history of photography, cinematography and new media would be fantastic, but the ability to plan and schedule work to ensure timely delivery is key.

The Museum:

Award winning, visionary and truly unique, the National Media Museum embraces photography, film, television, radio and the web. Part of the NMSI family of museums, we aim to engage, inspire and educate through comprehensive collections, innovative education programmes and a powerful yet sensitive approach to contemporary issues.

Application Instructions:

To apply, please email your CV, together with a covering letter explaining clearly how you meet all our stated requirements, to recruitment@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk

We regret that we can only respond to successful applicants. No agencies.

Closing date: 9th May 2010

Interview date: Thursday 20th May 2010

We are an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all sections of the community in which we work. We particularly welcome applications from disabled people and we guarantee interviews to suitably qualified disabled applicants.

In a ceremony at Kensal Green cemetery today, Saturday, 1 May 2010, Frederick Scott Archer was honoured with the unveiling of a plaque on his grave. In addition, those present were able to see for the first time a surviving link to Archer with the re-erection of the original head stone recording his death that had long been lost. Also, John Brewer announced that photo-historians had incorrectly recorded Archer's death as 2 May 1857 when, in fact, he had died on 1 May 1857.

The event was organised by a group of artists called The Collodion Collective who started work on a plan to honour Archer and to put a headstone on his grave. Money was raised through the publication of a book World Wet Plate Collodion Day 2009. The group arranged a demonstration of the collodion process after the plaque unveiling and organised an exhibition of modern wet-collodion images on glass and on paper.

Brewer while researching Archer went back to his original death certificate to discover the correct date of his death. A number of historians including Helmut Gernsheim had relied on incorrect contemporary reports of his death was they incorrect ascribed to 2 May. The newly located headstone also correctly records Archer's date of death.

Archer by all accounts was buried in an unmarked grave but his death was subsequently recorded on the headstone of his sister, Sarah and brother, James who were all buried in the same plot. The headstone was hidden by vegetation and removed and was only discovered close by the plot as plans for the commemoration were made. It confirms Archer's correct date of death and his siblings.

The headstone reads: The Sacred to the Memory of Sarah Archer who died 3rd Decr 1839 aged 24 years. Also of James Archer and brother of the above and third surviving son of Thos. Archer, formerly of Hertford, who died March 17th 1819 aged 36 years. Also Fredk. Scott Archer, brother of the above, 105 Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, who died May 1st 1857 in his 44th year.

Finally, as I walked through the cemetary I spotted memorials to another photographic notable, the society portrait photographer Alexander Bassano (10 May 1829–21 October 1913)...

Michael Pritchard

The Victoria & Albert Museum's Photography Gallery's annual redisplay opens from 30 April 2010 and features many recent acquisitions. Accompanying this is The Other Britain Revisited: Photographs from New Society.

More here: www.vam.ac.uk/photography

Amateur Photographer magazine reports that election rules mean that the National Media Museum is barred from saying whether it fears government cutbacks may scupper its plan to open a base in London.

The NMM, which is Britain's flagship photography museum, has yet to confirm whether it has been granted government funding for the project which is expected to see the creation of 1500m2 of exhibition galleries at a location in the capital yet to be named.

In the run up to the election it is not yet clear where precisely an incoming government will cut spending in order to tackle the huge budget deficit.

Asked whether any government cuts would delay or curtail the project altogether, a spokesman for the Bradford-based museum remained tight-lipped, telling us that it is bound by strict guidelines issued by the Cabinet Office during the election period.

He told Amateur Photographer: 'This means we cannot comment on anything that could be interpreted as making a political statement or relates to governance and financially related issues until after the election.'

See the full report here

Working closely with the Senior Project Manager, you’ll lead internal and external stakeholders to ensure major projects are completed on time and budget. Whether managing external supplier contracts, overseeing the CDM process or co-ordinating the delivery of work packages, you’ll inspire project teams to buy into our vision and deliver a great standard of work.

Coming from a similar role, you’ll already have experience of working with major funding bodies, managing budgets of £2million+ and complex stakeholder management. You’ll be a PRINCE2 qualified practitioner trained in NEBOSH and CDM too, with a good grasp of contract management, change management and risk management. If you can add the leadership, communication and interpersonal skills to manage a multi-disciplinary team, you’ll make a huge impact here.

The National Museum of Science and Industry aims to continually improve its cultural offering through exciting and ambitious projects, such as the Science Museum’s forthcoming climate science gallery, the creation of a dedicated Internet Gallery at the National Media Museum and NRM+, the multi-million pound regeneration of the National Railway Museum’s Great Hall. Based at the National Media Museum, you’ll manage the successful delivery of major projects like these across all our sites, helping us offer an even better experience to visitors.

The National Museum of Science and Industry is a respected family of museums, which includes the Science Museum in London and Swindon, the National Media Museum in Bradford and the National Railway Museum in York and Shildon. Together, we aim to become the most admired museum in the world.

To apply, please send your full CV and covering letter, clearly explaining how your skills and experience meet our requirements, to: recruitment@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk

We regret that we can only respond to successful applicants.

No agencies please.

More here: http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/job/987913/major-projects-manager?RSSSearch=0&gusrc=gu_jobs_box_Media&link=Media_jbx_vac&INTCMP=ILCJOBTXT259

De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, is currently recruiting students for the second year of its innovative MA programme in photographic history. The course offers a one-year full-time or two-year part-time programme of study and provides a series of modules ranging from photography and theory to practical work in photographic archives. The first year attract an international intake of students and the course has been widely acknowledged as the best in the field.

This course is dedicated to the study and focusing on the important technological, visual and historical material which makes it an interdisciplinary subject. It aims to help students develop the necessary critical tools to research photography history, and provides access to primary materials through visits to local, regional and national archives and collections. The course is part of an active research community and benefits from visiting subject specialists and opportunities provided by course partners which include the National Media Museum, Bradford, Birmingham Central Library, the British Library and the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Some further information about the teaching methods used can be found here: DMU HoPP.pdf

The course is for students from a variety of disciplines including conservation students, archivists, historians of science and those from various fields of visual studies, for instance visual anthropology, photography or art history. The MA Photography History and Practice is delivered on a full-time weekly basis, over three semesters and includes workshops, lectures, seminars and practical sessions, with written and oral assessments, and a dissertation, or part-time over two years.

Potential students also have the opportunity to apply for a Wilson Fellowship which provides a scholarship of £5,000. Applications for the bursary close on 1 August 2010. This scholarship is available to one student entering the M.A. Photographic History and Practice in September 2010. Funding has been made available by The Wilson Fellowship in Photographic History, and can be used towards tuition fees and other programme-related costs. Click here to link to a PDF giving further information about the Fellowship.

For more information about the course click here or contact the Course Leader: Dr Kelley Wilder by email at: kwilder@dmu.ac.uk or telephone: +44 (0)116 207 8865.

Web Content Co coordinator £22,500, Bradford. Fixed term until 1st April 2012. Award winning, visionary and truly unique, the National Media Museum embraces photography, film, television, radio and the web. Part of the NMSI family of museums, with a world-leading online presence, we aim to engage, inspire and educate through comprehensive collections, innovative education programmes and a powerful yet sensitive approach to contemporary issues.

We are looking for a Web Content Coordinator to bring our websites alive with dynamic, engaging and audience-focused content.

Coming from a similar role, you're an expert at writing punchy and eye-catching web copy for a wide range of audiences, copy-editing content from other sources, and updating sites using content management systems. An organised and tenacious team player with extensive experience of supporting and working with stakeholders, you have a solid mastery of basic HTML and web technologies, simple image manipulation skills and an understanding of social media and its implications. Above all, you know how to make web content contribute to a fantastic user experience, and have the creativity and drive to make our web presence stand out from the crowd.

To apply, please send your full CV and covering letter to: recruitment@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk

Closing date: 25th April 2010

We regret that we can only respond to successful applicants.

No agencies please.

We are an equal opportunities employer

Man and Cameraman is a project to conserve, catalogue, digitise and promote the photographic collection of George Bernard Shaw. Shaw collected around 16,000 photographs taken by himself and others and these will be fully investigated for the first time to reveal Shaw's activities and the evolution of photographic processes. Bernard Shaw was not only a prolific playwright, writer and social-political commentator and thinker but an avid amateur photographer: taking and collecting images from the 1860s until his death in 1950.

Shaw left his paper and photographic archives to London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the British Library and his home (Shaw's Corner, Hertfordshire) to National Trust (NT), it is here the photographs were initially housed before being transferred to LSE. Thus the project extends his desire to open up his collections to researchers and interested parties.

Photography lets us peer into the past and Shaw's photographs give us an informal view into his circle including writers, reformers, actors and actresses. Photographs show us how places used to look and what people did in their private lives - they inform our knowledge of society and its famous personalities: revealing the heritage of us all. Shaw's images include informal prints of people such as: Auguste Rodin; Augustus John; Beatrice and Sidney Webb; Harley Granville-Barker; and Lilliah MaCarthy. They offer a glimpse into the early 20th century theatre and film and include images of stars of Shaw productions such as Vivian Leigh as well as visuals of sets.

Now photography is regarded as an artistic form but in Shaw's time it was not, the collection lets us see how photographers were pushing the boundaries and using it in experimental and artistic ways. Shaw played with light and perspective to advance his craft. He also wrote on the subject for example, reviewing early photography shows.

The project partners (LSE and the National Trust) have worked with free-lance conservators, staff and volunteers to dust and re-house the photographs in high-purity storage materials. Shaw's photographic albums have been conserved in a specialist studio to repair damage and will be photographed so people can look through them. As well as prints there are about 8,000 negatives, these are particularly fragile as they degrade in even moderate conditions. They will be sealed in special bags and frozen to halt their deterioration.

Work on cataloguing the 16,000 photographs and digitising 8,000 photographs and all the negatives is now underway and this will let people know what the collection contains. Cataloguing can also reveal stories behind the images as each one is researched. Digitising will provide virtual access to those images taken by Shaw and those out of copyright ensuring their long-term preservation and revealing for the first time Shaw's photographic legacy to the nation and providing a window into his world.

For more information click here.

Our aim is to create a museum that engages people as it evolves. Our membership scheme is an exciting part of that vision. Your role is to implement a marketing strategy that promotes Museum membership and encourages our audience to be a part of our future. Through a combination of literature, events and local business liaison, you will help to attract a diverse membership base, grow membership levels and, ultimately, generate maximum income for the Museum.

Experience of marketing practices in a similar sector is essential, including direct marketing and print production. You must be adept at using databases and your administrative skills will be exceptional, with strong attention to detail. Flexible and adaptable, you will be comfortable liaising with a wide range of people: members of the public, internal and external stakeholders.

This is an opportunity to help grow the Museum’s reputation, build a loyal audience and ensure that we enjoy a profitable, prosperous future.

For more details click here.

Hours: 35 per week

We regret that we can only respond to successful applicants. No agencies please. We are an equal opportunities employer.

Closing Date: 19th April 2010

Interview date: 26th April 2010

Award winning, visionary and truly unique, The National Media Museum embraces photography, film, television, radio and the web. Part of the NMSI family of museums, it aims to engage, inspire and educate through comprehensive collections, innovative education programmes and a powerful yet sensitive approach to contemporary issues.

BPH reported that the Culture Minister had placed an export bar on a Fenton orientialist photograph sold at at auction. The Art Newspaper reports that the National Media Museum in Bradford, Britain’s main collection of photography, hopes to raise the money, and a spokeswoman told us it is “assessing potential funding opportunities”.

Pasha and Bayadère was staged in Fenton’s London studio, with the photographer posing as a pasha (Ottoman official) watching a bayadère (dancing girl). The role of the musician was taken by Frank Dillon, an artist friend of Fenton. The photograph passed to one of Dillon’s descendants, and it has just been sold privately to a foreign buyer for £109,000. An export licence is being deferred until 1 May, to enable a UK buyer to match the price, and this period could be extended for a further three months. Only one other example of this important Orientalist photograph survives, which was bought by the Getty Museum in 1984.

Photographs are only occasionally subject to UK export licence deferral (they have to be over 50 years old and worth above £12,160 before this can be considered). In one case a vintage photograph which did not have an export licence was exported illegally. Alice wearing a Garland, by Charles Dodgson (the writer Lewis Carroll), was sold for £55,000 in 2001 and then illegally shipped to the United States. The UK authorities would welcome information on its present whereabouts.

Last year BPH reported that Derek Wood's excellent website dealing with his publications and research was to close early in 2010 (click here to see the original posting). Derek Wood has emailed to say that the 'Midley History of early Photography' will now continue to be permanently available. The British Library has archived it at the UK Webarchive and it can be found here: http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100311230213/http://www.midley.co.uk/:

The archiving has been done well without any missing pages, images or links. It will continue to be live at the original address until July.

The Midley site also had a subdomain, 'Midley Search39 on History of Photography' ( http://search39.midley.co.uk/ ) intended to provide a way of making a single search over approximately thirty-nine websites judged by Wood to be of high value for the history of photography. Sadly, that will go off line in July. The UK WebArchive have rightly decided, that as 'Search39' depended on an external service, that it was not appropriate to archive it along with the main www.midley.co.uk site. However, all is not lost, for the Midley Search39 facility will remain available at least for several, or many, years at a Google Custom Search engine (CSE) page at
http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=015777431052609043336%3Apoauettouhg

This is excellent news. As anyone who has read Derek Wood's published papers and research notes knows they remain key texts for their respective subjects. Their continued availability outside of their original publications is to be warmly welcomed.

A draft guide has been published to the photographers and collections of photographs held by the National Monuments Record at English Heritage. The guide has been compiled by Ian Leith and is intended to help users with the new EH Archives website: see www.englishheritagearchives.org.uk

A copy of the guide can be Archilist 2010.03.24 FINAL 01.doc.

The shortlisted titles for the Best Photography Book are:

• Oil by Edward Burtynsky (Steidl)
• Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans by Robert Frank, edited by Sarah Greenough (Steidl)
• Paul Graham by Paul Graham (Steidl)
• Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and ’70s by Ryūichi Kaneko and Ivan Vartanian (Aperture Foundation)

The shortlisted titles for the Best Moving Image Book are:

• The Tactile Eye by Jennifer M. Barker (University of California Press)
• Being Hal Ashby: The Life of a Hollywood Rebel by Nick Dawson (The University Press of Kentucky)
• Eisenstein on the Audiovisual by Robert Robertson (I. B. Tauris)
• The New Yorker Theater by Toby Talbot (Columbia University Press)
• Michael Haneke’s Cinema by Catherine Wheatley (Berghahn Books)

Over 150 titles were submitted across the two categories for the awards, which have been narrowed down to a final nine books by the two judging panels chaired by Philippe Garner (Photography) and Francine Stock (Moving Image). The judges were looking for clearly written, well illustrated works, which make a significant contribution to the understanding of photography and/or the moving image.

The photography shortlist includes: an essay by Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky, chronicling the infrastructure of the oil industry and the implications of our dependence on the fuel; an expanded re-issue of legendary photographer Robert Frank’s seminal work The Americans; a retrospective of Paul Graham, the pioneering UK photographer and winner of the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2009; a survey of the Japanese photographic print culture of the 60s and 70s, which has since had a profound influence on photographic publishing worldwide.

Philippe Garner comments:

The field was strong and the excellent shortlist reflects a wide range of approaches. They include: single-minded and engaging investigations of sometimes very narrow topics, made riveting by the passion of the authors; excellent monographs on or by photographers from all areas of photographic practice; and a number of quirky, category-defying projects.

The moving image shortlist includes: Jennifer M. Barker’s theory that the connection between film and viewer goes beyond the visual and aural, to become something visceral; a portrait of the life of the underappreciated rebel 1970s Hollywood Director, Hal Ashby; Robert Robertson’s revealing exploration of Eisenstein’s ideas about the audiovisual in cinema; memoirs by Toby Talbot, co-owner of Manhattan’s influential home of art-house film, the New Yorker Theatre; the first English language analysis of the films of Austrian Director, Michael Haneke, by UK film critic Catherine Wheatley.

Francine Stock comments:

The books that impressed us above all were the ones that inspired a deeper love of film. The shortlisted authors each combined passion and original research in a format that suited their subject. Whether it was intimate memoir, biography, history, critique or a call for a radical new understanding of the way we experience cinema, these books were both focussed and involving.

More details of the requirements the Natuonal Media Museum require for its London presence have emerged which start to add shape to the project...

• Temporary exhibitions that centre on pivotal moments and themes within the histories of photography and film
• A programme of screenings, courses, discussions, performances, and recording sessions that map the creative potency of the media we encompass
• A focus upon the production and dissemination of printed media manifested through an open shelf library, the creation of publications, and debates about the future of publishing.

The founding principles of the London Galleries project revolve around providing the spaces and the levels of welcome for visitors to step over the traditional dividing line between the ‘institution’ and the ‘public’ and, instead, create a space within which our collective points of view, practices and experiences are synergised into the programme of debates, screenings, book launches, courses, conversations, exhibitions and the very life of this media-oriented space.

The National Media Museum, Bradford, and Getty Conservation Institute, have announced a major international conference on recent advancements in scientific, art historical, and conservation research relating to the photographs which Joseph Nicéphore Niépce brought to England in 1827. The conference will take place in Bradford from 13-14 October 2010 and additionally will provide a unique opportunity to examine three Niépce plates out of their frames.

This two-day conference will present the results of new, unpublished research and scientific investigations, which have been undertaken during the NMeM and GCI Collaborative Research Project. In the Royal Photographic Society Collection at the National Media Museum are three plates by Niépce and the conference will address the research and conservation of these photographic treasures, and will discuss future conservation measures that would provide for their long-term protection and preservation. The reason why Niépce brought these plates to England, and their subsequent history, will also be outlined more fully than previously published.

A copy of the announcement brochure is available here: Niépce First Announcement.pdf

Aims and objectives

The conference will examine:

• Joseph Nicéphore Niépce and his work

• The first six photographs brought to England by Niépce in context

• Scientific investigation into the three Niépce photographs in the NMeM collection

• Dating and conservation of the original frames

• Conservation and preservation issues related to the Niépce plates

The speakers have yet to be formally announced.

Registration

Attendance to the conference is limited. All registrations will be handled on a first-come, first served basis.

Formal registration for the Niépce in England conference will take place in May 2010. To register initial interest, contact the NmeM at rsvp.nmem@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk. The museum will hold your details on file and email you registration information in May 2010.

The cost is:

• Regular registration (does not include dinner) £90

• Student registration at reduced rate £70

• Wednesday evening dinner £22

Information

For more information, contact the museum via email at rsvp.nmem@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk and it museum will respond to your query accordingly. If you would like to make contact by post, please send correspondence to:

Niépce Conference

c/o Cultural Events Organiser

National Media Museum

Pictureville, Bradford

West Yorkshire BD1 1NQ United Kingdom

The National Media Museum has six floors of free galleries, including two temporary spaces. You’ll help us fill them with inspiring exhibitions by leading project teams, liaising with stakeholders and managing budgets of up to £50,000. You will plan and oversee installations, and complete all relevant admin duties, from contracts and insurance to transportation, ensuring all exhibitions are delivered on time and to the highest standard.

Coming from a similar role in a museum or gallery, you’ll already have a good understanding of exhibition administration and delivery procedures, as well as sound knowledge of display techniques, including video and new media display technologies. You should have experience of managing projects, coordinating internal and external stakeholders and developing interpretation strategies too. If you can combine this with good communication, organisational and IT skills, you’ll help us show some wonderful work to visitors!

Award winning, visionary and truly unique, the National Media Museum embraces photography, film, television, radio and the web. Part of the NMSI family of museums, we aim to engage, inspire and educate through comprehensive collections, innovative education programmes and a powerful yet sensitive approach to contemporary issues.

Contract:

• Hours: Full Time
• Salary: £21,900

Contract Type: fixed term until 31st March 2011

Closing date: 21 March 2010

More details here: http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/job/974202/exhibitions-organiser/?CMP=EMCJOBEML281&email=jobsbyemail&lijbeid=9948200