The 50th anniversary of Daniel Meadows’ Free Photographic Omnibus and Charlie Phillips’s 50-year work on Afro Caribbean funerals in London will be the two lead exhibitions considering communities opening at the Centre for British Photography on Thursday 5 October. Community-focussed work of three other photographers will also be on show: Grace Lau’s Chinese portrait studio; Dorothy Bohm’s photographs of London street markets; and Arpita Shah’s portraits of young British Asian women. 

James Hyman, Founding Director of the Centre for British Photography, said: “Building a community around photography in Britain is central to our aims and I am delighted that our autumn exhibitions present a range of voices, across generations, to celebrate different communities. I am also pleased that as well as curating our own shows, we are again providing a London venue for exhibitions and bodies of work that that would not otherwise reach this audience.”

The exhibitions are: 

Charlie Phillips - How Great Thou Art, 50 Years of African Caribbean Funerals in London

Charlie Phillips’ How Great Thou Art - 50 Years of African Caribbean Funerals in London is a sensitive photographic documentary of the social and emotional traditions that surround death in London’s African Caribbean community. This will be the first time that the Centre for British Photography’s main space will present a solo exhibition. 

Daniel Meadows - Free Photographic Omnibus, 50^th Anniversary

On 22 September 1973, Daniel Meadows set off on a long-planned adventure in a rickety 1948 double-decker bus that he had repurposed as his home, gallery and darkroom. He was intent on making a portrait of England. He was 21 years old. 

Over the next 14 months, travelling alone, Meadows crisscrossed the country covering 10,000 miles. He photographed 958 people, in 22 towns and cities. From circus performers to day trippers. He developed and printed the photographs as he went along, giving them away for free to those who posed for him.

This exhibition will feature dozens of photographs, including loans from The Hyman Collection, as well as previously unseen works of documentary reportage that Meadows made during his travels.

Dorothy Bohm - London Street Markets

London’s street markets and especially the people who worked there were an important aspect of Bohm’s engagement with London. Having run a successful portrait studio in Manchester in the late 1940s and 1950s, it was only in the 60s and 70s, after she settled in London, that Bohm turned her lens on the city that remained her home until her death earlier this year. The markets she depicted include the old Covent Garden fruit and vegetable market, Smithfield, Billingsgate, Petticoat Lane, Portobello Road, Farringdon Road book market, as well as stalls in Camden Town and Hampstead. 

The exhibition will be made up of familiar and unfamiliar works.

Grace Lau – Portraits In a Chinese Studio

Grace Lau’s Chinese portrait studio is not just an entertaining pop-up studio but also addresses issues around Imperialism by inverting Western notions of the Chinese as an exotic ‘other’. The studio will be set up in the Mezzanine Gallery at the Centre for British Photography and visitors will be able to book a spot to pose for the camera at times throughout the exhibition’s run. Portraits from two previous incarnations of the studio will surround the studio.

The first photographic portrait studios in China were set up in the mid-19th century by Western travellers, and focused on ‘exotic’ subjects such as beggars, opium smokers, coolies and courtesans. Many of these images were reproduced as postcards to send back to amuse a European audience. In 2005, Lau created her own version of an old Chinese portrait studio in which she would document the residents and tourists to Hastings as ‘exotic’ subjects.

Arpita Shah – Modern Muse

Drawing from and subverting the conventions of Mughal and Indian miniature paintings from ancient to pre-colonial times, Arpita Shah’s Modern Muse visually and conceptually explores the ever-shifting identities and representations of South Asian women in contemporary Britain. The portraits give an insight into the perspectives of what it means to be a young British and Asian woman. Shah examines the intersections of culture and identity, drawing on the women’s lived experiences and her own journey and life. Commissioned by GRAIN projects, this body of work has not been shown in London before.

Centre for British Photography
London, Jermyn Street
5 October – 17 December 2023
Free entry
See: www.britishphotography.org

Over 530 pamphlets, handbooks and trade catalogues relating to photography dating from 1839-c.1907 bound into volumes by the Royal Photographic Society as part of their Library and now in the collection of the National Art Library at the V&A Museum, London have been digitised and are available online here:  https://archive.org/details/national-art-library-rps-bound-pamphlets . 

The V&A wishes to acknowledge the support given by V&A Americas Foundation through the generosity of The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, which facilitated the cataloguing, conservation, and digitisation of the Royal Photographic Society Bound Pamphlet collection in 2021. 

The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the V&A was acquired with the generous assistance of the Heritage Lottery Fund and Art Fund.

With thanks to Ella Ravilious

To mark the fifth anniversary of the 1948 Nationality Act, Vanley Burke, the ‘Godfather of Black British Photography’ is in conversation with Diane Louise Jordan broadcaster and founder of the project, The Making of Black Britain.

Vanley Burke’s photographs and art capture experiences of his community's arrival in Britain, the different landscapes and cultures he encountered, and the different ways of survival and experiences of the wider African-Caribbean community.

Making of Black Britain is a story-telling project, created to document and preserve life experiences, for us and generations to come. It’s a ‘living’ archive, particularly poignant for communities whose history has been truncated or lost. Vanley is the official photographer of the project and has been travelling the length and breadth of Britain with Diane, capturing the portraits of The Making of Black Britain story-tellers - those who make up Britain today, every colour, creed, class and generation from the Windrush generation through to the present day - to mark this significant moment in history. To explore what it means to be British. And what it means to belong.

1948 Nationality Act is a pivotal moment in British history - in the transition from Empire to understanding how we live today.

Vanley Burke in conversation with Diane Louise Jordan
28 July 2023 at 1900
National Portrait Gallery
£15, plus concessions
Details and booking: https://my.npg.org.uk/12913/12916

Clare Freestone, curator of the exhibition Yevonde: Life and Colour introduces the trailblazing twentieth-century photographer Yevonde.

Throughout the lecture, you will be taken behind the scenes into the planning and staging of this exhibition of Yevonde’s pioneering colour photography, highlighting work undertaken with her negative archive. The talk explores key exhibition themes, including Yevonde’s position as a woman photographer and the dissemination of her work through the illustrated press.

Curator’s introduction: Yevonde: Life and Colour
National Portrait Gallery, The Ondaatje Wing Theatre
21 July 2023, 1900-2000
£15 (members/concessions)
Booking: https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/2023/yevonde-life-and-colour/curators-introduction-yevonde-life-and-colour

The National Stereoscopic Association's 49th 3D-Convention is taking place from 31 July-7 August. On the 4 August the History of Stereoscopic Photography sessions are scheduled. These are in person only. 

• Carleton Watkins Through the Looking Glass. Prof. Bruce Graver
• Politics in the Stereoscope: Promoting and Lambasting the Regime of Napoleon III. Denis Pellerin
• Arizona Stereographer Joseph C. Burge, Milton Sage, and Spring 1883 at the San Carlos Reservation. Dr Jeremy Rowe
• George Barker, The Most Famous Landscape Photographer in the World. Dale Rossi
• Underwood & Underwood: Beyond The Third Dimension. Andrew Lauren
• That Banjo! in Stereo and Culture from the Late 18th Century to the 20th. Dr Melody Davis
• Stereoscopic Pioneer: James Edward Ellam and the Press Photo Revolution. Dr David Barber

Details of the convention and registration are here: https://www.3d-con.com/

Dick Wendling has published a blog looking at the life and career of Lena Connell (1875-1949), an important photographer of the women’s suffragette movement in the early 20th century. She claimed to be the first woman photographer not restricted to women clients and photographed politicians and others. In an interview for The Vote in May 1910, Lena said she became committed to the suffragette movement when she photographed Gladice Keevil, after her release from Holloway prison in 1908.

Read the full blog here: http://kilburnwesthampstead.blogspot.com/2023/07/lena-connell-suffragette-photographer.html and read more and her her work here: https://www.sistersofthelens.com/lena-connell

Image: Self portrait of Lena Connell,1910

The elements of Being There have become fragments of biographies that collectively follow the progress of picture journalism from the advent of the miniature camera through to the arrival and impact of the digital age. It covers a ninety-year period from ca.1923 to 2012 and provides a critical compilation of encounters with influential photographers and their visual icons. 

The predominant narrative to this book relates to the photographic documentary in Europe and America and the individual interviews reflect this. Many of these interviews have been published in the photographic press and are reproduced here in edited or expanded form, while others have been interviewed specifically for this book. They cover five periods: 1923-1940 with the emergence of the picture magazine; 1940-1975 the golden age of photojournalism and the arrival of the ‘colour supplements’; 1975-2000 which provides new thinking and looking; 2000-2010 that sees the arrival of the democracy of photography; while 2011-2012 reviews concerns and queries, outcomes and polarities of Armageddon and renewal.

Michael Hallett’s publication has evolved over a thirty year period and is now revised and updated and presented from a 2023 perspective. His conversations with such photographers as Tim Gidal, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Carl Mydans, Sebastiāo Salgado as well as more recent practitioners all reflect the time of their particular interview.

Being There: 
Michael Hallett
ISBN: 978-1-3999-4034-8
£20 plus postage, 319 pages, softback
Order from: https://www.michaelhallett.com/shop/BEING-THERE-p554517650

Dick Weindling has published a blog on the Willesden factory which produced colour Vivex prints as Colour Photographs Ltd and hen as Colour Photographs (British and Foreign) Ltd. Vivex prints form much of the new Yevonde exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. The first directors were involved with the Raphael studio in London's Knightsbridge.  

Read the blog post here: http://kilburnwesthampstead.blogspot.com/2023/07/early-colour-photography-willesden.html

De Montfort University (DMU) is looking to appoint a Lecturer in Photographic History. DMU is an ambitious, globally minded and culturally rich university with a strong commitment to the public good. We strive to maintain a stimulating and inclusive environment that champions difference and celebrates success.

Faculty / Directorate

BA (Hons) History at De Montfort sits within the School of Humanities and Performing Arts in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Humanities. The School has a vibrant cluster of programmes which comprise of History, Creative Writing, English Language and Literature, Politics and International Relations. The university is one of just 17 universities worldwide to be an ambassador for the UN Sustainable Development Goals and one of 17 in the UK with the Race Equality Charter Mark. We are proud of our commitment to excellent teaching and learning, and our outstanding research profile.

Role

As a lecturer in Photographic History, you will teach and assess across a range of BA History and MA Photographic History modules, and take on a supervisory role for dissertations. You will take on some administrative duties, provide pastoral care and contribute to the student experience. Knowledge and willingness to contribute towards recruitment is desirable. The History team is research active and you will contribute through your research and scholarship to the Institute of History. Alongside the History team, you will work closely with the Photographic History Research Centre.

This is a temporary, full time (1.0 FTE) post to provide 12 months or when the post holder returns cover for maternity leave. We are looking for the successful candidate to start 1st September 2023.

Ideal Candidate

The successful candidate will have teaching experience and research interests in any period of modern history since c. 1780. A specialisation in one or more of the following is essential: Photographic History, Cultural History; History of Medicine is preferred. You will be expected to teach the BA History modules ‘Photography and Conflict’ and ‘Global Cities’ and postgraduate modules ‘Photography, Ethic and Emotions.’ You will also contribute to other team-taught courses on historiography and methodology. The successful candidate should be actively engaged in their own research and have experience of teaching and researching within a Higher Education environment. A PhD in a related area is essential. You will possess excellent communication, inter-personal and networking skills, with a strong commitment to delivering an excellent student experience and to working within a team.

Details: https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DBD082/lecturer-in-photographic-history

Carolyn Peter started a new role as Assistant Curator in the Department of Photographs at the Getty Museum on 12 June. Carolyn joined the Getty Museum as a part-time curatorial assistant in 2018 after a varied career as a museum director at the Laband Art Gallery (2006 - 2016), and curatorial positions in photography and graphic arts at the Hammer Museum, LACMA, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

She has her M.A. from London's Courtauld Institute of Art, where she wrote her thesis on the status of photography at the 1855 Exposition Universelle. Carolyn will be the presenting curator for 19th-Century Photography Now (curated by Karen Hellman) and the co-curator (with Karen Hellman) for Hippolyte Bayard: A Persistent Pioneer, both opening here on April 9, 2024. 

See: https://www.getty.edu/author/peter-carolyn/

Analogue photography is an industry of many moving parts; photographs are made of precious metals and materials that have complex histories. This series unpicks some of the politics of colonial projects and environmentalism, and how these link to analogue industries. We will draw on these discussions to enable us to develop more sustainable thinking and practice in photography.

This is a three-part, online workshop taking place over three Tuesdays in August: 1st, 8th and 15th from 5-7 GMT pm online. Experience open - we welcome practitioners wanting to build critical thinking skills.

Session 1: Groundwork: Towards A Decolonial Ecology (1st August)

Engagement with debates surrounding empires, environmentalism and analogue industries, and how these entangle in our present epoch of the Anthropocene:

How was colonialism rationalised and how does this continue to permeate contemporary photographic industries and worlds? What are some critiques of environmental movements? Who or what was sacrificed to make way for analogue industries?

In session activities include show & tell and short writing tasks

Self-directed work includes watching a video lecture by Dr. Malcom Ferdinand

Session 2: Material Mapping (8th August)

In this session we will analyse the material base of photographs and examine the many worlds that they entangle with. What are the metals, minerals and animal products that form photographic film and papers ?

You will be guided through how to trace materials relevant to your own practice (ie dye/ toner / paper) and generate a map of images that poetically describes the relations between this material and wider human and more-than-human worlds.

Self - directed work includes reading an article and preparing images for the final session.

Session 3: Light & Leaf: Connecting Worlds (15th August)

This final session culminates in a chlorophyll printing workshop. Chlorophyll printing is a simple photographic process that uses sunlight to print images directly on the leaf surface.

This session aims to combine the critical explorations of the first two sessions, with ecological printing methods.

Image, Empire & Ecology: Critical Perspectives
Alice Cazenave, co-director at the Sustainable Darkroom
Online, 1st, 8th, 15th August 2023
£80-95
Book: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/image-empire-ecology-critical-perspectives-tickets-668066483837

For over 100 years, when you’d often have to wait a week to see your photos, film processors used photo wallets - cheery illustrated envelopes - to return your pictures to you. They showed what subjects were considered suitable for a snapshot: bright-eyed children, laughing couples, adorable pets and perfect landscapes; they also reinforced prohibitions by what they omitted.

On Thursday 29 June join Annebella Pollen (Professor of Visual and Material Culture at University of Brighton) to discuss her latest book More Than A Snapshot: A Visual History of Photo Wallets. The book charts a century of popular photography in Britain: the birth of a new mass leisure pastime mainly marketed towards women, and the growth of camera ownership after the Second World War. It commemorates a time when you never knew if you had captured a treasured memory or your finger in front of the lens.

More than A Snapshot: A visual history of photo wallets with Annebella Pollen
29 June 2023, doors 1830
Tickets £3 with a complimentary drink or £12 with a copy of the book (and a drink)
Village Books, 10-12 Thorntons Arcade, Leeds, LS1 6LQ
Book here: https://villagebooks.co/products/talk-more-than-a-snapshot-a-visual-history-of-photo-wallets-with-annebella-pollen

Hundred Heroines has launched the Dorothy Wilding Appreciation Society to create a legacy and nurture the next generation of women photographers from Gloucester. 

It writes...

The Conway Library contains contains almost one million photographs of world architecture, architectural drawings, sculpture, decorative arts and manuscripts.  It has been constructed over a period of almost a century, though some of the photographs held are considerably older.

This talk provides a focused evaluation of the historiography of the library’s origins, and how and why it was built upon Conway’s original donation.  A wide spectrum of issues and considerations are examined ; the scale and scope of the market for, and availability of, architectural photographs from the time of Conway’s undergraduate career; Conway’s philosophy and approach; channels of distribution and acquisition; the physical constraints of the solander boxes and the range of photographic formats available; of colour photography; of image classification systems; and photographic print processes. There are also cultural and anti-semitic dimensions linked to the Warburg Institute and the role of pre-WW2 German emigrees to London. Cross-references between photographers and their photographs represented in the Conway help link this matrix together and provide further insights into the library’s significance and influence.

The Conway Library: historiography, colour, and bibliography
Thursday, 6 July 2023, from 1730-1830 (BST)
Free, in person only 
The Courtauld Vernon Square Campus, Vernon Square, Penton Rise, London, WC1X 9EW
Details and booking: https://courtauld.ac.uk/whats-on/the-conway-library-historiography-colour-and-bibliography/?dm_i=AHZ,8BOYZ,ML3WGR,Y9OPW,1

Anthony Hamber is an independent photographic historian, specialising in the 19th century.  He was the photographer and head of visual resources at the History of Art Department, Birkbeck College.  His PhD was published as A Higher Branch of the Art / Photographing the Fine Arts in England 1839-1880 (1996) and most his recent book is Photography and the 1851 Great Exhibition (2018). He has published and lectured widely. His current research projects include an annotated bibliography of photographically illustrated publications 1839-1880. Anthony researches the historiography of art and architecture photographic collections, photographic print processes, and colour reprographics process.

Organised by Dr Tom Nickson (The Courtauld)

The preview of the re-opening of the National Portrait Gallery last night was extravagant, full of supporters and donors. Photography was around the nineteenth century and later galleries, from daguerreotypes and carte-de-visite (nice to see one of Silvy's daybooks open) to traditional portraiture, and contemporary work. 

The opening exhibition of Yevonde which tells her story and focuses on her colour work, following the NPG's acquisition of her colour negatives is a highlight and a very worthy opening show. Curated by Clare Freestone it does full justice to Yevonde's photography and career, through well-written labels and an engaging design which all come together superbly. The accompanying book is equally strong.  The NPG re-opens to the public on 22 June. 

https://www.npg.org.uk/

Announced today, a selection of remarkable and beautiful photographs by Walter and Rita Nurnberg capturing post-war working life in three Norwich factories will go on display from 21 October 2023 at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery. The Nurnbergs photographed factories and their workers across the UK in the post-war period, including three Norwich manufacturing institutions – Boulton and Paul, Mackintosh-Caley, and Edwards & Holmes.

As well as capturing the craft and industry of the subjects and their labours, they also applied a stunning modernist visual aesthetic to their documentation of a city striving to rebuild itself economically after the war.  The resulting black and white images – which owe as much to Rita’s skilful printing as they do to Walter’s compositions – are both a fascinating record of this key period in British social history and timeless works of art in their own right.

From 21 October, visitors to Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery will be able to see the Nurnberg’s wonderful images on display for the first time since their pioneering Camera in Industry exhibition at the Castle in 1953, 70 years ago. The exhibition will showcase the Nurnberg’s distinctive and influential photographic practice, focusing on the extraordinary visual record they created of Norwich’s working communities during a pivotal moment of massive societal and cultural change. 

It will include over 130 original photographic prints representing three key Norwich Works: shoe-making at Edwards & Holmes’ Esdelle Works; steel construction, woodworking and wire netting at Boulton & Paul’s Riverside Works; and sweet-making at Caley-Mackintosh’s Chapelfield Works. The photos will be displayed alongside objects from Norwich Castle’s own collections relating to the city’s industrial past and newly digitised archive film.

The exhibition is a partnership between Norfolk Museums Service, The University of East Anglia, Norfolk Record Office and The East Anglian Film Archive.

The exhibition is curated by Dr Nick Warr, Lecturer in Art History and Curation at the University of East Anglia, Academic Director of The East Anglian Film Archive and Curator of Photographic Collections (UEA), and Dr Simon Dell, Associate Professor of Art History at the University of East Anglia.

Describing the origins of the exhibition and the significance of Walter and Rita’s work they say: “A serendipitous invitation to advise on a photograph album at the Museum of Norwich back in 2019 initiated the discovery of a wonderful collection of rare photographic prints at the Museum and the Norfolk Record Office. East Anglia has a rich photographic heritage, but the dramatic images made by Walter and Rita Nurnberg of post-war Norwich industry are distinctive for their vivid and empathetic portrayal of Norwich factory workers. Our perception of the past is shaped by the old photographs we see. The ubiquity of anonymous, sepia-toned images of yesteryear reinforces the divide we feel between then and now. With their stylized, monochrome compositions, the images of the past that the Nurnbergs have left us possess the immediacy of the present, as the hands and faces of the workers they depict still feel within our reach.”

Margaret Dewsbury, Cabinet Member for Communities, Norfolk County Council says: “Norwich is more often associated with its picturesque medieval heritage but this exhibition is a powerful reminder that industry has always been a vitally important part of city life. The Nurnbergs’ respect for the workers and their work shines through in the artistic care with which they captured their subjects. The result is a moving exhibition which will enable visitors to rediscover a remarkable photographic legacy.”

German émigré, Walter Nurnberg (1907-91), a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, was already a celebrated photographer in 1948 when he embarked on a 13-year project to document Norwich’s major industries. Together with his wife, Rita (1914 - 2001), they brought the aesthetic of the Bauhaus and the dramatic lighting of Expressionist cinema to bear on the factory environment – both the machinery of its production lines and the people who operated them.

Their beautiful, stylised compositions occasionally border on the surreal. Mysterious machinery casts dramatic shadows while striking portraits of workers lean into the glamour and beauty of Hollywood’s golden age - from the time-worn faces of the master artisan to teenage apprentices shining with enthusiasm.

The process of creating the photographs was complex, involving the use of a large format camera and elaborate lighting rigs. Walter’s meticulously choreographed images were then processed by Rita to produce photographic prints of extraordinary quality – it is these prints which form the core of the exhibition.

A substantial number of their photographs of Norwich have been housed in The Museum of Norwich at the Bridewell and Norfolk Record Office, where they have been safely stored since the industries that Nurnberg photographed ceased to operate in the city.  

This exhibition is a wonderful opportunity to rediscover these important photographs of Norwich’s past and to celebrate Walter and Rita’s artistic partnership.

Norwich Works: The Industrial Photography of Walter & Rita Nurnberg 
Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery
Saturday 21 October 2023-Sunday 14 April 2024
To book tickets in advance and information on opening times and admission prices visit: www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk/norwich-castle/whats-on/exhibitions/norwich-works-the-industrial-photography-of-walter-and-rita-nurnberg

A programme of related talks and events will be announced nearer the time.

A fully-illustrated exhibition catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

Images: top: Walter & Rita Nurnberg, Stitching shoe linings, Edwards & Holmes, Esdelle Works, Norwich, Gelatin silver print, 1948. ⓒ Norfolk Museums Service(Museum of Norwich). Lower: Walter & Rita Nurnberg, Check weighing and closing cartons, Mackintosh Caley
Chapelfield Works, Norwich, Gelatin silver print, 1958. ⓒ Norfolk Record Office

With the development of photomechanical printing techniques around 1900, the dissemination of visual information about art objects expanded on an unprecedented scale. For the first time, editors, publishers, gallerists, auctioneers, artists, art historians, and associations had access to a seemingly unlimited supply of images. Together with photographers, studios, and photo agencies, these figures became key actors in a distribution model in which photomechanically reproduced artworks played a central role. As a consequence, those who worked in the fields of art and art history now had to deal with entirely new visual objects: from illustrated books and periodicals to facsimiles, postcards, calendar pages, and clipping collections. All these items were kept on shelves and in boxes, included in scrapbooks, or pinned to walls, as part of personal or institutional archives. They served both as research documents and as evidence of personal visual obsessions or new collective ideas.

The diversity of these novel photomechanical sources, the system that produced and surrounded them, and their distribution and cultural impact are still an open field for investigation, one that seems all the more important to address as this visual information – made widely accessible by the digitization campaigns of recent years – can form the basis for a material and medial counter-history of twentieth-century art. In order to reflect on the specific nature of photomechanical reproductions of art (with regard to their materiality, distribution, and uses), the conference will navigate between the fields of the history of art and photography, periodical studies, visual and media studies, and the digital humanities.

Which actors and techniques were involved in making photomechanical reproductions of works of art? What were the socio-economic and aesthetic drivers of the activities of photo agencies and publishers? Which subjects whose identity has so far remained in the background – such as women or minorities – can be reclaimed by analyzing reproductions from a material and systemic perspective? What role did pictures of works of art play in the editorial and cultural policies of their time? What do we know about their reception? How did the photomechanical reproduction of artworks affect art historiography, teaching, criticism, and the canon? Which narratives that have fallen out of the canon can be restored through digital methods?

These questions take on a new urgency with the increasing importance of the digital processing of image data, as it has opened new horizons for studying reproductions on a large scale, removed some of the limitations of accessibility, and paved the way for larger comparative studies. At the same time, these new tools raise critical questions that have not been fully explored, and require greater awareness of the objects, techniques, processes, and contexts under consideration. We invite speakers from across the methodology spectrum: from close to distant reading, from traditional to digital-based approaches. The goal is to open a discussion between scholars conducting qualitative research and the growing number of digital experts working in interdisciplinary teams.

We invite submissions for maximum twenty-minute presentations that address (but are not limited to) the photomechanical reproduction of art from the following perspectives:

● Networks and individual actors involved in the production of photomechanical reproductions of art – photo agencies, studios, photographers, printing companies, etc. Their histories, styles, and cultural role.

● Physical objects and techniques related to the photomechanical printing process: clichés, negatives, photographic and printing equipment, retouching, templates, etc. The effects and meanings created by the materiality of the tools.

● The socio-economic, legal, institutional, and political conditions under which photomechanical reproductions of art were produced and circulated.

● Printed media and their dissemination as a social practice: the role of clients, artists, art dealers, publishers, editors, and curators.

● The relationship between image and text: the use of captions, layouts, and the epistemological role of pictures in art literature.

● Critical debates concerning the reproducibility of art through photomechanical printing.

● Reception: the impact of photomechanical reproductions of works of art on artistic production, historiography, criticism, teaching, and public culture. Their role in shaping the emotions of the audience and/or encouraging the democratization of art.

● Quantitative approaches and new methodological challenges: advantages, case studies, and problems faced by the digital humanities in the study of photomechanical art reproductions.

Keynote Speakers:

Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel (Université de Genève)
Megan R. Luke (University of Southern California)
Jens Ruchatz (Philipps-Universität Marburg)

Please submit an abstract of max. 300 words and a short biography to balbi@udu.cas.cz by 30 July 2023. The results of the submissions will be notified by September 15. The conference will be held in English. It will take place in person in Prague on 5–6 December 2023.

This conference is part of the project The Matrix of Photomechanical Reproductions: Histories of Remote Access to Art, which is being implemented at the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, supported by the Lumina Quaeruntur fellowship.

For any further information please contact us at balbi@udu.cas.cz or masterova@udu.cas.cz.

A new exhibition at the Museum of Bath at Work, shows people ‘face to face’ from 130 years ago, using over 300 photographs from the 1890s and 1900s, all of them portraits taken in the studio of Tom Carlyle Leaman which was at number 7, The Corridor. The photographs were made from the original negatives which were digitised by the museum. 

The pictures give us a real window on the past, especially the clothes that were then in fashion, accessories, and the way people styled their hair.  Many of the plates have a surname written on the back, and volunteers at the Museum of Bath at Work have researched some of them.  In the exhibition you can meet Mr David Press who ran a confectioners and bakery in Broad Street; the girls of the Candy family whose parents were farmers at Bathampton; Mr Charles Moutrie the General Manager at Bath Racecourse; and Miss Daisy Fentiman who worked stitching corsets.

Museum Director Stuart Burroughs says:

“Face to Face: Victorian and Edwardian Portraits of Working People in Bath shows us the faces of ordinary people, and gives a snapshot of the kind of jobs they did and where they lived.  There are many portraits where the person’s identity remains a mystery – come and see if you recognise anyone from your own family album!”

Face to Face: Victorian and Edwardian Portraits of Working People in Bath
until 31 October 2023

The Museum of Bath at Work
Julian Road, Bath BA1 2RH
Daily from 1000-1700
www.bath-at-work.org.uk
https://www.facebook.com/BathAtWork/
@BathAtWork

The National Science and Media Museum celebrates its 40th birthday on 16 June with a new short film, showcasing favourite memories from the last four decades and looking towards the future.  Museum Director J Quinton-Tulloch has set a target of 500,000 visitors when the museum re-opens in 2024. 

In the film, visitors, friends, staff and community members take a trip down memory lane, sharing their favourite moments at the museum, beloved objects and what the museum means to them, along with what the next 40 years might look like. From fond memories of first trips to the museum as children, to favourite objects and moments, the film reflects on the importance of the museum and its impact on people’s lives over the last four decades.

Opened on 16 June 1983 as the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, the museum has welcomed millions of visitors, telling the story of sound and image technologies, and their impact on our lives. From the world’s first photograph to Louis Le Prince’s ground-breaking work in film, as well as the cameras that captured the famous Cottingley Fairies photographs, and the millions of images from the Daily Herald Archive, once the world’s top selling newspaper, the museum tells the story of countless pioneering firsts.

The museum is also home to three cinema screens, including Europe’s first IMAX which also opened in 1983. To Fly! a documentary made about the history of flight was the first film ever screened in the museum’s IMAX, and was the only film shown for 15 months. 

Memorable moments from the museum’s history include the iconic magic carpet; Pierce Brosnan flying in via helicopter to reopen the museum following a refurb in 1999; the launch of the first ever live broadcasting studio in a museum; Tim Peake’s spacecraft in the foyer, plus many more. 

Commenting on the monumental occasion, Jo Quinton-Tulloch, Director of the National Science and Media Museum said: “This year marks a special anniversary for us as the museum celebrates its 40th birthday in June, and it feels especially fitting as we enter an exciting new phase. Our new film not only celebrates and reflects on the last four decades, but also looks ahead to the future and the exciting things to come. The opening of our new Sound and Vision galleries will be truly transformational, and we hope to continue to inspire our next generation of visitors from Bradford and beyond.” 

The museum is currently temporarily closed to the public until summer 2024 as it undergoes a £6m once-in-a-generation transformation. Thanks to support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and money raised by National Lottery players, the major Sound and Vision project will create two new galleries, an additional passenger lift and an enhanced foyer space. In addition to funding received from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project also has support from the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund 2022-24, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, and the Science Museum Group, which the National Science and Media Museum is a part of. 

Helen Featherstone, Director, England, North at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, added: “We wish the National Science and Media Museum many happy returns as they celebrate their 40th birthday. We are delighted that we have been able to work with this museum over the years, investing over £14m of National Lottery Funding to support exciting heritage projects, that have created lots of wonderful memories for visitors the world over. 

“We are also thrilled to be supporting the museum’s journey beyond this momentous milestone and look forward to seeing the new Sound and Vision galleries, which are sure to provide inspiration or years to come.”

For more information about the museum’s 40th birthday celebration and to watch the new film, visit: https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/happy-birthday-life-begins-at-40/   

To send the museum a birthday gift, donate here: https://bit.ly/3WV8M4v

Back in 2015 BPH reported on the outcry as the Royal Society for Asian Affairs sold rare photographs and books from its collection. Amongst the items being sold were important albums by J C Watson showing China c.1867-1870; John Thomson's Antiquities of Cambodia, c1867; J C White photographs of Sikhim and Tibet and others. The lots can be seen here. The RSAA hoped to realise £250,000 to safeguard its survival but in the end the sales realised £136,000 before commissions. 

The RSAA has issued a statement concluding that that judgement was wrong and that the decisions leading to the sale were flawed both in principle and in implementation. BPH and other objected to the original sales.  The statement reads: 

In 2015-16 the Royal Society for Asian Affairs sold at auction a number of items from its collections.  The sales were controversial, and concerns were raised by RSAA members and scholars in the field.  At the time the Society held that the sales were its only option to ensure its survival. 

In late 2022 and early 2023 an internal review showed that the Society’s decisions leading to the sales were significantly flawed in principle and in implementation.  The RSAA’s Board of Trustees is therefore taking steps to rectify as far as possible the mistakes that were made and to mitigate their consequences.

The entire proceeds of the 2015-16 sales, £171,391, will become a designated fund solely and directly for the benefit of the collections, their long-term sustainability, use and development.    

Within the next twelve months, the Society will commence a multi-year project to digitise its collections and to make its catalogue a more effective tool for researchers.

The RSAA’s Trustees will also consider whether there are additional skills and experience that the Society’s Board needs in order to provide effective future oversight of the Society’s affairs.        

By these means the RSAA seeks to avoid any recurrence of past mistakes; to demonstrate to its many supporters and donors that the Society’s collections are and will remain a high priority; and that best practice and appropriate investment are the basis on which the collections will in future be managed.

As the RSAA's chief executive noted to BPH "although it is not possible to undo the actions of 2015-16, the RSAA's Trustees and I hope that the steps that we are taking will go some way to reassuring you that the Society is now committed to its collections in a way that was not always the case in the past". 

See the original BPH post here: https://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/outcry-as-royal-society-for-asian-affairs-sells-off-photographs which includes a link to the photographic lots