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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 About the Loewentheil Photography of China Collection

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

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

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

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

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

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

See: https://photomuse.in/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Image: From Ray's a Laugh © Richard Billingham

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Provenance:

Newcastle's Side Gallery which closed last year after losing its Arts Council England NPO status (see here) is seeking the views of supporters and the public as it looks to the future. In an email from Laura Laffler, Director at Amber Film & Photographty Collective she said:

Thanks to your support, we can continue to digitise our archive, take part in exhibitions nationwide and support the next generation of North East documentary artists. We will find out about several major funding opportunities in the next few weeks, and you’ll be the first to receive an update.  But right now, more than anything, we need your feedback. Galleries should exist for everyone, and we believe the best way to relaunch our space is with community and collaboration at its core. Our next steps are to take survey responses and turn them into an in-person event where, together, we can co-create the next chapter of the Side Gallery.

To share your views click here

Four Corners is offering a paid 12-month internship as part of its new National Lottery Heritage Fund project, The People’s Gallery. This is an exciting opportunity to work on Four Corners' Archive collection whilst gaining skills in archiving and collections management, and experience in delivering community and exhibition projects. 

Details:  https://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/work-with-us

Natonal Science+Media Museum curator Vanessa Torres discusses how she and other colleagues at the museum prepare four Julia Margaret Cameron photographs for display at the National Portrait Gallery's forthcoming exhibition, Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In, which opens on 21 March 2024. 

Read the blog here: https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/blog-from-the-basement-julia-margaret-cameron-loans/

The Bodleian Library has reported on some of its photography acquisitions over the past two years via a series of posts on X - formerly Twitter - from its photography curator Phillip Roberts. He highlighted the following, which he says are are all available to view with a library card. He adds that exhibitions from some of the material are likely over the next few years.

• a set of prints from Jim Mortram'‘s Small Town Inertia project, along with films and podcasts
• a set of prints by Dafydd Jones, showing Oxford students in the 1980s
• a vast collection of vintage vintage news photos by Kenyan photojournalist Mohamed Amin who documented every political crisis in Africa for forty years (see image above)
• a sequence of 350-odd photos documenting the unfolding Tiananmen Square protests by Edgar Huang, taken from among the protesters themselves
• a handmade one-of-a-kind artist’s book by Deborah Parkin using cyanotypes to explore her father's death
• the complete archive of master portraitist Bern Schwartz
• the complete archive of Paddy Summerfield, 'Oxford’s greatest ever photographer'
• The Wilson Collection. 200 boxes of masterpieces from the late-19th and early-20th century. The early history of photography, told with a global focus
• the Handsworth Self-Portraits from Ten-8 which set up a studio on the street in Birmingham and let everyone who walked past photograph themselves. This is the only complete record of the project (left)
• every Cafe Royal book there, now and in the future. A vast history of British photography in 600+ books
• 2000+ modernist photobooks collected by Charles Chadwick-Healey
• part of the archive of portrait photographer Pamela Chandler
• Pictures From the Garden, an intimate collective study of Paddy Summerfield’s world, by Alex Schneiderman, Sian Davey, Alys Tomlinson, Jem Southam, et al
• Victorian cat photographs by Harry Pointer
• 6,000 dog photographs from the 19th century
• Lewis Bush's Depravity's Rainbow project
• Gary Fabian Miller's books
• Brian Heseltine's photograpphs of the Caribbean from the 1950s
• Henri Cartier-Bresson in Oxford

BPH also understands that there is other photography heading the way of the Bodleian including a British Magnum photographer's archive and another thematic collection. 

The second edition of the Vienna Vintage Photo Fair takes place on 7 April 2024. The inaugural event at the MuseumsQuartier Vienna drew over 1,000 visitors in June 2023. This one-day event offers a unique opportunity in German-speaking countries to explore and acquire original photo-historical rarities. Thirty-five dealers from Austria, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Argentina will showcase art and vernacular photography spanning two centuries. The offered pieces range from the first daguerreotypes (the pioneering photography process from 1839) of the 19th century to subsequent black and white photographs, up to color photographs from the second half of the 20th century.

The Vienna Vintage Photo Fair is a sales fair for creative people looking for inspiration, for curators, historians, regional researchers, nostalgics, interior designers and generally for an art and culture-loving audience. The event is not only a platform for like-minded people, but also aims to stimulate interest in historical photography. Engage in conversations with collectors and experts in the field to discover more about their approaches and passion. The supporting programme will feature photo conservator Janka Krizanova from Bratislava who will teach about the daguerreotype, the earliest photographic process. Photographer Markus Hofstätter will offer live portrait shootings using the historical collodion wet plate photo process (www.markus-hofstaetter.at). Vienna based Photoinstitut Bonartes will present scientific publications on historical photography topics and the Friedl Kubelka School of Artistic Photography will present current works by its students. Take the opportunity to travel back in time from the perspective of the first photographers of the 19th and early 20th centuries and acquire a piece of history.

The Vienna Vintage Photo Fair assembles memorabilia and found objects from three centuries creating a visual cabinet of technical and artistic curiosities. Nostalgia, hunting instinct and thirst for knowledge tempt you to browse extensively. For the smartphone generation, this immersion in the physical cosmos of images is no longer a given: the analogue photo has now become a rarity. The Vienna Vintage Photo Fair provides the ideal contrast program for this. It offers a tactile experience, allows room for serendipity, and provides space for a diverse range of ideas. The aura of the original encourages reflection on its origins and history, as well as imaginary journeys into the past.

All photographs offered are so-called “vintage prints”. These are prints from the respective era that were made immediately after the negative was created, usually by the photographers themselves or under their personal supervision.

Vienna Vintage Photo Fair 2024
Sunday, April 7, 2024, 1000 – 1800
MuseumsQuartier Vienna - Architekturzentrum/Podium
Vienna 1070, Austria
Free admission!
Trade fair with 35 domestic and international dealers and experts.

mail: info@photofairwien.com
Instagram: photofairwien

Image: ”Gehfotograf”, Graz, around 1930, gelatin silver print, 8.5 x 17 cm, coll. Mila Palm 2024

Meet Dr. James Hyman... James is a man of many parts; art historian, author, editor, critic, curator, dealer, advisor, collector, philanthropist, visionary founder of the Centre for British Photography alongside husband and father. he is interviewed by David Glasser.

James Hyman in conversation with David Glasser
Hosted by Ben Uri Research Unit /https://www.buru.org.uk/
£7.50, online, 27 February 2024 from 1830-2000 (UTC)
Booking:https://www.trybooking.com/uk/events/landing/55598?

Associate Professor Donna West Brett will give a lecture on the collection of photobooks donated to the Bodleian Library in 2020 by Sir Charles Chadwyck-Healey. Conveying meaning through photos alone, the photobook is a radical format that enabled the widespread dissemination of modernist aesthetics. This lecture will take a closer look at the way photobooks portray the ‘everyday’ – the familiar, the practical, the ordinary – and its intersection with the visual languages of politics and propaganda.

Donna West Brett is Associate Professor and Chair of Art History at The University of Sydney. She is author of Photography and Place: Seeing and Not Seeing Germany After 1945 (Routledge, 2016); co-editor with Natalya Lusty, Photography and Ontology: Unsettling Images (Routledge, 2019), and has published widely on photographic history. She is Research Leader for Photographic Cultures at Sydney, and Editorial Member for the Visual Culture and German Contexts Series, Bloomsbury. Brett is a recipient of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Ernst and Rosemarie Keller Fund, and Sloan Fellow in Photography at the Bodleian Libraries for 2024.

Modernist Photobooks, Propaganda and the Everyday
In person, Tuesday, 27 February 2024, from 1300-1400 (UTC)
Weston Library, Oxford
Free or donation
Book here: https://visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/feb24/modernist-photobooks

The National Portrait Gallery’s new publication, Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In draws parallels between both photographers with new fresh research, rare vintage prints, and previously unseen archival materials alongside some of their best-known photographs.The book accompanies the exhibition of the same name opening at the National Portrait Gallery, London (21st March – 16th June).

Living and working over a century apart, Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879) and Francesca Woodman (1958–1981) experienced very different ways of making and understanding photographs. Yet the two share more similarities than expected. This publication presents the artists’ exploration of portraiture as a ‘dream space’, but also includes exciting new research and contributions on both artists, as well as number of works that are being published for the first time.

Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In makes new connections between their work, which pushed the boundaries of the photographic medium, and highlights their experimentation with ideas of symbolism, transformation and storytelling.

“Both Woodman and Cameron worked for a relatively short and concentrated period; neither was active for more than a decade and a half. Not either enjoyed significant critical or popular success in their lifetimes. Yet both left an influential body of work that has shaped the history of photography and has posthumously received widespread attention and reassessment.”  Magdalene Keaney

The book includes ten thematic sections interspersed with the works of both artists, but the publication begins with three feature essays, which consider Cameron and Woodman simultaneously. One of which is written by curator of the exhibition Magdalene Keaney and is an extended in-depth piece that is a major new contribution to the field, offering new ways to think about the work of both photographers and about the relationships between 19th and 20th century photography and portraiture.

Also writing for the exhibition publication is leading and highly-respected photo historian and writer specialising in women photographers Helen Ennis who was awarded the Royal Photographic Society J Dudley Johnston medal in 2021.

Portraits to Dream In includes works by Julia Margaret Cameron from the collections of major international museums including the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Metropolitan Museum, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Science Museum Group; the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and the National Portrait Gallery’s own collection. Prints made by Francesca Woodman in her lifetime, nearly 20 of which have not been previously published or exhibited, as well as presenting a number of letters, sketches and contact sheets from the Woodman archive which have been provided primarily by the Woodman Family Foundation in New York, who have collaborated closely on the creation of the publication.

The National Portrait Gallery is delighted to be able to bring this exhibition and accompanying book to new audiences and devoted followers of both Woodman and Cameron, to offer an inspiring and fresh take on their inimitable work.

Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In published on the 21 March alongside the opening of the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition, and is available to pre-order from the Gallery’s online shop: https://npgshop.org.uk/collections/books/products/francesca-woodman-julia-margaret-cameron-portraits-to-dream-in-hardcover