For much of the twentieth-century, the contribution of William Friese-Greene to cinema was disputed. Having famously died at a meeting of cinema exhibitors with only the price of a cinema ticket in his pocket, cinemas around the country shut down their projectors to mark his funeral. The film The Magic Box – made for the Festival of Britain and released just before it closed in 1951 – told the story of Friese-Greene and his pioneering work and claimed him to be one of the inventors of moving images. By the time a plaque was unveiled at his birthplace in Bristol to mark the centenary of his birth in 1955, Friese-Greene’s reputation had begun to decline and some film historians said he was overrated, his inventions failed to move the technology forward, and he took ideas from others to claim as his own.

Film director and historian Peter Domankiewicz has spent over 20 years researching Friese-Greene and is about to start a PhD on the subject. He has discovered a different Friese-Greene: someone who should be credited with more than he has been to date, including his support of women photographers and his willingness to collaborate on projects. Domankiewicz is joined by writer and commentator Sir Christopher Frayling, one of Britain’s leading writers on cinema, to discuss Friese–Greene, early British cinema and The Magic Box. Both have contributed essays to the forthcoming Bristol Ideas’ book, Opening Up the Magic Box. The conversation will be hosted by Bryony Dixon.

Opening Up the Magic Box – a heritage element of the Film 2021 programme – marks the centenary of the death of Bristol-born film pioneer William Friese-Greene and the 125th anniversary of the first public cinema screening in Bristol, which took place at the Tivoli on 8 June 1896, as well as celebrating Bristol – a UNESCO City of Film since 2017.

Peter Domankiewicz and Christopher Frayling: Who was William Friese-Greene?
Sunday, 1 August 2021
1400-1500 (BST)
£8.50 full / £5.00 concessions / £5.00 under 24s, refugees and asylum seekers.
Bristol: Arnolfini
Book here: https://www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/10811/who-was-william-friesegreene#

Autograph is seeking a consultant or consultants, to deliver a cataloguing and collection accreditation project for our unique photography collection, between October 2021 and October 2022.

This project offers a wonderful opportunity to get to know the Autograph holdings which are located at Rivington Place, London. The growing collection – a living archive – includes approximately 7,500 prints, 10,000 + negatives, 5,000 slides, archive film, several thousand digital and analogue contact sheets, plus related ephemera.

Please click here to download the Brief for Services, which sets out the history of our collection and its uses, the project deliverables, expected outcomes, required competencies, fee, timetable and tender process.

Tenders must be submitted by noon on 26 August 2021
Please send your tender to cherelle@autograph-abp.co.uk

For any questions about this opportunity please email holly@autograph-abp.co.uk in the first instance with a short paragraph outlining your query and provide a contact telephone number. Please note that queries will not be answered after 19 August 2021 due to annual leave.

Consultancy interviews will be held on 15 September 2021 either in person at Autograph, Rivington Place EC2A 3BA or via Zoom, subject to public health regulations in place in September.

Curator Jan Brazier introduces the Australian women working in commercial photography 1850-1920. On 12 June 1871, the Illustrated Sydney News observed about 'Lady Photographers’  that the womanly attributes of ‘Delicacy, cleanliness, patience and … long suffering’ were the conditions essential for success for working in photography. Women certainly did work in commercial studios in a range of roles, yet uncovering their contribution is difficult.

This talk explores this history by looking at the stories of some of the women working in photography in Australia from the mid-19th to the early 20th century. It supports the exhibition The business of photography at Chau Chak Wing Musuem, Sydney. 

Thursday, 22 July 2021 at 1830 (AUZ) | 0930 (BST) | 1030 (CET)
Free
Detail and register here: https://www.sydney.edu.au/museum/whats-on/talks-and-events/out-of-focus.html

The exhibition can be explored here: https://www.sydney.edu.au/museum/whats-on/exhibitions/the-business-of-photography.html

The Golden Fleece is, in its opening statement, 'the home of The Creative Camera Archive, plus notes on photography, photographers and photographic ephemera'. It includes a searchable archive of Creative Camera 1-362  and DPICT issues plus a list of features.  Elsewhere it has resources on Tony Ray-Jones, Raymond Moore, Edwin Smith, Olive Cook and the Cambridge Darkroom.  Plus features on Frederick Evans, Hugo van Wadenoyen, Modfot One and Peter Soar. 

Details here: https://the-golden-fleece.co.uk/wp/

HSBC have just launched their new History Website, documenting and sharing its heritage journey and story. The archive, which has amassed a diverse range of material and content over the decades, reaches right back to their early foundation in 1865. As one of the largest financial organisations in the world, HSBC has survived the Great Depression and the Second World War, going on to grow exponentially in scale and reputation, recognised as pioneers in technology.

The unique HSBC History Website contains over 150 years of heritage and was launched on 6 July 2021. This site will act as a single point of reference for internal and external stakeholders, such as employees and customers, facilitating access and research, and exploration and discovery.

We are thrilled that this vast digital collection is managed and shared via our PastView platform and that visitors will be able to uncover a wealth of born-digital and digitised HSBC assets in a host of new and digitally immerse ways.  

Photographs feature with the earliest from c1863. 

You can access the HSBC History Website here: https://history.hsbc.com

Image: Photograph of Wardley House, the first head office of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in Hong Kong, c.1870s. HK 0117-0001

Scottish Transport & Industry Collections Knowledge Network (STICK) is inviting submissions for papers for its 2021 conference – 'Snapshot in Time' – to discuss the importance of photography as a documentation and advocacy tool for industrial and transport heritage. The conference is scheduled for Wednesday 17 November 2021.

Photography is an invaluable tool for recording industrial and transport history – it is ideally suited for rapid documentation in a world where dramatic or catastrophic change can occur to the fabric of industry, almost overnight, and revolutionised the documentation of historic sites. 

Papers for presentation will be accepted on a broad range of subjects, including:

• Case studies in photographic survey
• The use of photographs for education, outreach and advocacy
• The research utility of existing archives of photographic material
• Developments in photographic survey techniques and their future (e.g. photogrammetry)

STICK anticipates the conference to be hosted online via zoom. 

STICK would welcome 200-word submissions from academics, enthusiasts and heritage professionals for talks of 45 minutes. Proposals may be submitted to Matthew Bellhouse Moran at matthew@hmsunicorn.org.uk with “STICK Conference Proposal” as the email title.

See: https://stickssn.org/call-for-papers-snapshot-in-time/

Image: Hillbank Works, Dundee. A flax mill and jute mill on Alexander Road/Dens Road in Dundee.

The V&A Museum, London, has announced its 2022-2023 programme. Of particular interest to the photography world are new photography displays although photography will feature in exhibition highlights including Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature, Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear, and Africa Fashion. 

In November 2021 the Photography Centre will be entirely rehung with two new displays: 

• Maurice Broomfield: Industrial Sublime in The Bern and Ronny Schwartz Gallery. The exhibition will showcase the late photographer’s spectacular photographs of mid-century British industry,
• Known and Strange: Photographs from the Collection in The Sir Elton John and David Furnish Gallery 6 November 2021-6 November 2022 will focus on the contemporary – highlighting photography’s power to transform the familiar into the unfamiliar, and the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Phase 2 of the Photography Centre is due to open in 2023. 

Image: Maurice Broomfield, Tapping a Furnace, Ford, Dagenham, Essex, 1954. © Estate of Maurice Broomfield

The Royal Society has digitised books and archival material held in its collection. These include Anna Atkins' Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843). The volume was given to the Royal Society by Anna Atkins. Other material of photographic interest are travel and photography notes from John Herschel (c.1838-); and the visitors book for Birr Castle (1850-2-14).

See: https://royalsociety.org/collections/turning-pages/

George Shaw was one of Birmingham's first photographers and a key member of the emerging professional classes in Victorian Birmingham with a wide ranging network which encompassed his work as a patent agent, chemistry professor and his involvement in the arts. In this talk, artist Jo Gane will discuss Shaw's life and work, alongside presenting new photographs she has made which expound upon his story.

This talk is free but places are limited. The talk will take place via zoom and ticket holders will be sent a link to join on the day of the event.

21 July 2021
1830-1930 (BST)
Free 
Book here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/online-talk-george-shaw-a-photographic-pioneer-tickets-161213141847

Between 1914 and 1918, military, press and amateur photographers produced thousands of pictures. In her new book Picturing the Western Front: Photography, Practices and Experiences in First World War France (Manchester University Press, 2021) Dr Beatriz Pichel argues that photographic practices also shaped combatants and civilians' war experiences. Doing photography (taking pictures, posing for them, exhibiting, cataloguing and looking at them) allowed combatants and civilians to make sense of what they were living through.

Picturing the Western Front
28 July 2021 at 1800 (BST)
Free
Register here:https://rps.org/WW1

India will have its first memorial to Joseph Nicéphore Niépce on 5 July, the 188th anniversary of his death.  Renowned painter and sculptor Mr. Sunil Kumar from Trivandrum is the creator of the statue. The memorial is being built by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce Foundation, Mavelikkara, and will be located in Mavelikkara, Kerala. 

Foundation bearers are the following: Patron – A P Joy (Managing Editor, Fotowide Photography Magazine), Chairman - Saji Ennakkad (writer, photographer and photography historian), Vice Chairperson - Dr. Bindu D Sanil (writer and professor), Secretary – T L John (painter and photographer), and Treasurer - Anil Ananthapuri (professor). The memorial is set to be dedicated on his next birth anniversary.

This is the first memorial dedicated for the inventor of photography in India.

The photographic art reproduction came into being simultaneously with the invention of the medium: Joseph-Nicéphore Niépce captured engravings in his earliest heliographs, while William Henry Fox Talbot praised the reproductive capacities of the calotype in The Pencil of Nature (1844). As much as art has affected photographic reproduction (for instance, Louis Daguerre who arranged sculptural pieces into elaborate still lives recalling those by Dutch Golden Age masters or, perhaps, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin), the reproduction has affected art. As Walter Benjamin has influentially argued, it put the ‘aura’ of the original into question. Together with Paul Valery and Erwin Panofsky, Benjamin sparked a century-long debate on the interrelationship between the original and the copy, which is still far from any decisive conclusion with Peter Walsh, Michelle Henning, Georges Didi-Huberman, and Bruno Latour readdressing the problem in the last decade.

What is more, the other aspects of the photographic reproduction have received much less scholarly attention. Despite the valuable efforts of Dominique de Font-Réaulx, Stephen Bann, and Patrizia Di Bello, there is still much to be discovered with regards to its materiality, function, and reception: What technical challenges has photographic reproduction faced since the appearance of the medium and how has it resolved them? How have new technologies changed the relationship between the original and the copy? What were the multiple uses of photographic reproductions? What do they tell us about the aesthetic taste of their day? What impact has the photographic reproduction had on the fine arts since the nineteenth century? Does it itself have any artistic value?

This conference is free and does not require registration. See the full programme and get the link here: https://events.st-andrews.ac.uk/events/photographic-art-reproductions-from-1839-to-the-present/

Lynn Wray, Research Fellow at the National Science and Media Museum, introduces a new research initiative, ‘Communities and Crowds’. She writes...We have recently launched an exciting new research project called ‘Communities and Crowds’ that builds upon the participatory work the museum has been developing with local communities in Bradford as part of the Bradford’s National Museum project, and seeks to understand how this could be enhanced by citizen science methods.

Using the Daily Herald Photographic Archive as a case study, we will together examine how the benefits of local knowledge, in-person and in-depth material engagement with our collection objects and participatory, face-to-face collaborative working methods can be combined with the breadth and collective intelligence of remote, online citizen research to achieve a common goal. We will do this in order to make previously hidden objects visible, searchable and discoverable, bring to light hidden histories, and tell untold stories within our collection. We hope, in particular, to address questions of inequality in the collection by interrogating together how we might better document, categorise and interpret these photographs.

Read the full blog post here: https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/opening-up-the-daily-herald-archive-to-citizen-led-research/

In 2020 the Don’t Press Print conference organized by the RPS and CFPR brought together nineteen speakers from across the world to discuss historical perspectives on the collodion photographic process and how contemporary artists use the collodion process in their practice. The process was the dominant through the nineteenth century and has seen a resurgence of interest in recent years. The published proceedings are now available. 

Two keynotes papers were given by Mark Osterman looking at collodion as a medium, and from France Scully Osterman looking at Sally Mann’s use of collodion.  Other papers looked at collodion in Japan, Australia and India, the work of George Washington Wilson, the American Civil War, Miklos Barabas, collodion for halftone, and individual artists’  use of collodion            

This book brings together papers from all the speakers plus one additional paper. Papers are from: Frank Menger, Mark Osterman, Adrienna Lundgren, Rachel Wetzel, Ashleigh Black Zsuszanna Szegedy-Maszak, Tony Richards, Ian Chamblerlain, Chihoko Ando, Shreya Mukherjee, Bill Nieberding, Alan Hodgson, France Scully Osterman, Erin Solomons, Rob Ball, Paul Elter, Christian Klant, Steve de Grys, Niamh Fahy, Wilson Yeung, Jo Gane and Alex Boyd.

Don’t Press Print: De/Re-Constructing the collodion process
183 pages, illustrated, paper covers
RPS/ CFPR, 2021
£40
Order here: https://rps.org/DPP01

Spiritualism, Photography, and the Search for Ectoplasm. In this talk, award-winning photographer Shannon Taggart discusses the history of spirit photography and its influence on her own documentary work with the Lily Dale Spiritualist Assembly, recently published in her Fulgur Press book Séance. An artist based in St. Paul, MN, Taggart’s photographs explore the intersection between photography, and the representation of belief. Her work has been exhibited and featured internationally, including within the publications TIME, New York Times Magazine, Discover, and Newsweek. It has been recognized by Nikon, Magnum Photos and the Inge Morath Foundation, American Photography and the Alexia Foundation for World Peace. Taggart’s monograph, SÉANCE, was listed as one of TIME magazine’s ‘Best Photobooks of 2019.

The Media of Mediumship: Encountering the Material Culture of Modern Occultism in Britain’s Science, Technology, and Magic Collections is a one-year AHRC funded project which examines the relationship between science, technology, and occultism in modern Britain, using the unique collections of the Science Museum Group and Senate House Library to explore the entangled histories of human belief, perception, trust, and scientific evidence as experienced through sight and sound. The project is led by Prof Christine Ferguson at the University of Stirling and Dr Efram Sera-Shriar at the Science Museum, London. They are supported by team member Emma Merkling at University of Stirling and The Courtauld Institute of Art.

Over a series of talks, interactive activities, and creative performances, it tells the story of how unorthodox spiritual believers and sceptics alike have used new technologies and scientific instruments— photography, wireless transmission, telegraphy, tape recorders— to attest or debunk the existence of an unseen world. In so doing, the project will deliver original curatorial perspectives on collection materials whose occult histories of use have long been unknown or misunderstood.

All ‘Media of Mediumship’ events are free and open to the public. 

Register for this event here

See more about this, the project and upcoming events here: https://mediaofmediumship.stir.ac.uk/events/

The Photographic Historical Society of Canada is presenting a talk which examines doctor of medicine and anthropologist Richard Neuhauss' (1855-1915) use of a stuffed superb parrot as the test object of the Lippmann process; the photographic technology relying on standing waves for the rendition of colour, first disclosed in 1891 by Luxembourgian-French physicist Gabriel Lippmann (1845-1921). My research maps the use of stuffed animals in various color processes for testing the color sensitivity of emulsions as well as the photographer's own commitment to the image's genesis, focusing on this parrot as a colonial animal-object par excellence. Having photographed the parrot 300 times, I highlight the implications of Neuhauss' iconic image for the shifting relationship between color and nature within the rivalry between him and Hermann Wilhelm Vogel's three-colour printing technique. In doing so, I connect the entanglements of color photography and taxidermy in the history of science, media, and Empire.

Guest Lecture by Dr. Hanin Hannouch, Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin State Museums, Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation / Max-Planck, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz.

Dr. Hanin Hannouch Guest Lecture on the Lippmann Process
Thursday, July 22, 2021
1:00 AM – 3:00 AM BST
Free but book here. 

A lecturer in history of photography, full-time fixed term, is sought by Birkbeck’s History of Art Department during Professor Steve Edward’s Paul Mellon fellowship, where he be working on British Daguerreotypes-Antoine Claudet. 

You will contribute classes in your specialism to a range of team-taught modules on our BA and MA programmes, design and teach a ten-weeks MA Module based on your research, and undertake administrative roles which will include module director under the guidance of the Head of Department. You will be part of a supportive Department with a reputation for teaching and research excellence.

You should have a good first degree and have completed or be near to completing a PhD or equivalent qualification in a relevant subject area. A proven track record of relevant teaching experience at undergraduate and postgraduate level is highly desirable, as are administrative experience and evidence of published research.

See more and apply here: https://cis7.bbk.ac.uk/vacancy/lecturer-in-history-of-photography-449372.html

This opportunity is for a curatorial / academic researcher to project-manage the first dedicated publication to explore the legacy of Black women in photography active in Britain between the 1980s – 90s. This publication is based on an illustrated gallery lecture the artist Joy Gregory presented in 2018 at Autograph.

The role will involve working closely with Gregory to edit the book, including: re-working / transcribing her 2018 lecture into a written text and producing an extended in-conversation with Gregory; assisting and shaping the research direction; collating ephemera, textual and visual materials; writing interpretation and other short texts, where appropriate, about the selected artists’ practices/biographies; liaising with the various collaborators and institutions; managing the project schedule and deadlines with the teams at Autograph and MACK. The role can be adapted to the work and life commitments of the successful candidate, but we anticipate that it will either involve an estimated 2 days a week commitment over a 6-month period, or a block of approximately 40-50 days within an agreed time frame. The post is co-supported by Autograph and MACK.

The successful applicant will receive a fee of £7000 all inclusive.

Details here: https://autograph.org.uk/blog/new-opportunity-publication-researcher-black-women-in-photography/

Christie's is to offer The Herschel family collection of 69 offprints, extracts and separate publications by Sir John F. Herschel, 1813-1850. It is estimated at £20,000-30,000.

The collection of 69 original works by Sir John Herschel, assembled by his son, William James Herschel (1833-1917) collection includes offprints of Herschel’s three most important publications on photography: ‘On the chemical action of the rays of the solar spectrum on preparations of silver and other substances.’ [With:] – ‘On the action of the rays of the solar spectrum on vegetable colours, and on some new photographic processes’. [And:] – ‘On certain improvements on photographic processes.’ Offprints from the Philosophical Transactions for 1840, 1842 & 1843, the first two with authorial annotations. 

See more: https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6326125?COSID=40028000&cid=DM455843&bid=271566381

The Photo Morgue, The New York Times’ legendary photo archive, is so well known that ‘morgue’ has become a synonym for ‘press archive’. However, press photos in archives are far from dead. In this symposium we focus on the importance and use of press photo archives in researching the history of photojournalism.

The symposium will focus on the new field of research that has emerged over the past ten years thanks to the online publication of press photo archives. This development has turned the original negatives, colour slides and prints, which form the basis of every publication in the 20th century, into accessible research objects. The material aspects of press photographs provide a rich source on the production and dissemination of visual news in the 20th century.

For a long time, the history of press photography revolved around famous photographers, iconic photos or photos of iconic events. In short, the highlights. The digitisation and preservation of extensive collections of analogue press photos, newspapers and magazines slowly make what in online marketing terms is called ‘the long tail’ visible. Aided by advances in online collaboration and machine learning, the great mass of everyday events, photographed by countless anonymous press photographers for a wide range of media, is quickly becoming available for research.

As the focus shifts from the highlights to the whole, we can address new and fundamental questions: how did photojournalism reach and influence the masses in the 20th century? How does this relate to photojournalism today.