Michael Pritchard's Posts (3133)

Sort by

12201165868?profile=originalIn December 1920, The Strand Magazine published a series of sensational photographs taken by two young girls from Cottingley that allegedly showed real-life fairies dancing at the bottom of their garden. Their authenticity was vouched by no less a person than world-famous Sherlock Holmes creator and spiritualist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The images immediately triggered a fierce public debate: were they evidence of the existence of otherworldly nature spirits, of the technical craft and duplicity of their creators, or of the suspect nature of photography itself? The cameras used to produce the pictures, along with Elsie Wright’s famous 1983 “Confession” letter, are today held in the collection of the National Science and Media Museum.

In this talk, Professor Christine Ferguson, Chair in English Studies at the University of Stirling and Principal Investigator on the Media of Mediumship project, discusses what these objects can tell us about the long-standing relationship between technological innovation and alternative spiritual belief in modern Britain.

This talk will be delivered in hybrid format: bookings can be made to attend in person, or to watch online. All Media of Mediumship events are free and open to the public.

‘Fairies Photographed! The Cameo Camera and the Case of the Cottingley Fairies’, Professor Christine Ferguson
Part of the Café Scientifique series 
National Science and Media Museum, Bradford
Free, Online (available) and live (sold out) 30 September 2021, 1830-2000 (BST)

Booking information can be found here: https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/whats-on/cafe-scientifique

Read more…

12201165061?profile=originalTennants Auctioneers will be auctioning the library, pictures and camera collection of Eric Hosking OBE Hon.FRPS FBIPP (1909-1991), in its forthcoming Books, Maps & Manuscripts sale being held on 24 November 2021.

The collection is being sold by Eric Hosking’s son David, who is himself a professional photographer and collaborated extensively with Eric. Until recently he was with his wife Jean co-director of the Frank Lane Picture Agency, overseeing the management and licensing of Eric’s photographic archive. The collection contains a set of 30 original signed photographs by Eric Hosking, which are being sold in small groups to benefit the Eric Hosking Trust, with every group being offered with a complimentary copy of Eric Hosking’s Classic Birds (1993), each one of 1,000 copies signed by David Hosking. There are also signed copies of Eric Hosking’s own books including Which Bird? (1998), Just a Lark! (1984), Wildlife Photography (1973), Antarctic Wildlife (1982), and Eric Hosking's Waders (1986), together with items such as Guy Mountfort’s Portrait of a Wilderness. The Story of the Coto Doñana Expeditions (1958), inscribed by Mountfort and Viscount Alanbrooke to Hosking, who was the photographer on the expedition and whose photographs illustrate the book. Most books in the library contain Eric Hosking’s owl bookplate, recalling the famous incident in which he lost an eye to a tawny owl at the age of 28.

Eric Hosking is a name which will require little introduction for ornithology enthusiasts. The first professional bird photographer, he photographed over 1,800 species, and his pictures have appeared in some 800 books, including the popular New Naturalist series, of which he was photographic editor. His technological innovations include the use of flash photography for birds, and the invention of an electronic trigger-mechanism for ultra-high-speed photography of birds in flight. He was also the first to photograph owls in the wild, and famously lost an eye to a tawny owl at the age of 28, an event which proved no measurable hindrance to his career. The incident later inspired the ingenious title of his autobiography, An Eye for a Bird (1970), the foreword to which was written by HRH Prince Philip.

12201164876?profile=originalEric Hosking's centrality to the world of ornithological publishing is captured by a variety of outstanding presentation copies of books now up for sale, by figures including Peter Scott, Roger T. Peterson, Denis Healey (a keen amateur photographer) and David Attenborough, many with highly personalised and admiring inscriptions. Further highlights include excellent copies of Godman's Monograph of the Petrels (1907-10; estimate £1,500-£2,500), Legge's History of the Birds of Ceylon (1880; £1000-£2000), and J. G. Millais's Mammals of Great Britain (1904-6), inscribed by Millais for the illustrator G. E. Lodge, and subsequently inscribed by Lodge for Hosking (£300-£500).

To complement his library, Eric Hosking also built a fine collection of pictures by leading 20th century wildlife artists including Archibald Thorburn, Keith Shackleton and C. F. Tunnicliffe. The sale of his photographic equipment provides an unmissable opportunity to own a remarkable array of high-quality cameras, lenses and other apparatus by manufacturers including Contarex, Hasselblad and Zeiss, and will give skilled users the chance of recreating his photographic feats. 

Offered together in a single sale, Eric Hosking’s library, pictures and camera collection will evoke the life's work of a true pioneer and represent a major event in the year’s auction calendar.

An illustrated catalogue will be available on the Tennants website leading up to the sale: www.tennants.co.uk

For further information please contact Dominic Somerville Brown (books@tennants-ltd.co.uk)

Read more…

Alvin Langdon Coburn grave restoration

12201164098?profile=originalBrian Iddon is leading a project to restore the grave of Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882-1966) at Llandrillo-yn-Rhos, north Wales. Coburn's grave is an poor condition and the plan is to restore the grave and to produce an interpretation plaque at the graveyard in north Wales. The local stone masons have quoted £1122 for the work. The Universal Order which was the beneficiary of his estate has given permission for the restoration and has made a significant donation, along with several others. The balance is now sought. 

Anyone interested in supporting this initiative can reach Brian by email at: brianiddon53@gmail.com

Once the work has been undertaken a formal commemoration will be arranged. 

Coburn is a key figure in early twentieth century photography and significant collections of material are held in the Royal Photographic Society Collection at the V&A Museum, London, and at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library in Manchester. 

A picture of the grave can be seen here: https://historypoints.org/index.php?page=grave-of-alvin-langdon-coburn-llandrillo

Read more…

12201174879?profile=originalTo coincide with the 150th anniversary of Thomas Annan's Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow, photographer Frank McElhinney re-traces Annan's footsteps with a photo trail along the same streets where Annan made the original photographs. Annan's famous street studies of this historic area of Glasgow are shown in the windows of modern businesses along High Street and Saltmarket, taking the viewer on a journey through history.

One hundred and fifty years ago Thomas Annan published a series of thirty-one photographs of the old streets and closes of Glasgow. They are recognised as perhaps the world’s first attempt at what we now call social documentary photography. An 1866 act of parliament had approved the clearance of Glasgow’s overcrowded and epidemic prone slums. With the exception of one photograph made in the Gorbals, all of the rest were made in and around the High Street and Saltmarket. It was once assumed the photographs were commissioned by the City Improvement Trust, but there is no real evidence of this. It is more likely that Annan began the series on his own initiative motivated not just by a speculative commercial imperative but by a desire to highlight the slowly improving condition of Glasgow’s poorest residents. The title of the work suggests architecture was the principal subject but the photographs are teaming with life, full of men, women and children. Annan’s photographs give us a privileged insight into the living conditions of our forebears as no other city, with the possible exception of Paris, has a comparable archive from such an early period in the history of photography. - Frank McElhinney

Find out more and associated events here: https://www.streetlevelphotoworks.org/event/thomas-annan-photo-trail

Read more…

12201174099?profile=originalHelen Trompeteler is giving a talk Prince Albert. Patron of early photography. She will discuss the integral role that Prince Albert played in the advancement of photography. Alongside Queen Victoria, Prince Albert’s support for the new medium was a cultural and social catalyst – furthering opportunities for creativity, experimentation, and the exchange of photographic knowledge.

During his lifetime, Prince Albert cultivated a collection of some 10,000 photographs by pioneering nineteenth-century photographers such as Frances Sally Day, Roger Fenton, Oscar Gustav Rejlander, Charles Thurston Thompson, and George Washington Wilson. The Royal Collection is relatively unique in that there is such strong primary material in the Royal Archives that illuminates our understanding of the development of the collection. Many of the photographs and documents presented in this talk are part of Prince Albert: His Life and Legacy (albert.rct.uk). 

Helen Trompeteler is a curator and writer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is a committed advocate for the civic role of special collections as catalysts for contemporary dialogue and cultural exchange. Helen has eighteen years of experience leading exhibitions and partnerships for internationally significant collections, including the Royal Collection (2016-20) and the National Portrait Gallery, London (2002-16). Further roles include board member of Four Corners (2017-present), the Museums Association Transformers leadership program (2018-2019), and the Josef Breitenbach Research Fellowship at the Center for Creative Photography (2016). trompeteler.com

Prince Albert. Patron of Early Photography
Saturday, 11 September 2021, 1:30 pm (EST) | 1830 (BST) | 1930 (CET)

Hosted by the Daguerreian Society, $25 donation 
Register: https://www.daguerreiansociety.org/the-daguerreian-society-talk-series-2021/

Read more…

12201171292?profile=originalThe V&A museum has announced The Parasol Foundation Women in Photography Project, a major new curatorial programme to support women in photography. The Project, funded by Ms. Ruth Monicka Parasol and the Parasol Foundation Trust, encompasses a new curatorial post alongside acquisitions, research, education and public displays, aiming to foreground and sustain women’s practice in contemporary photography and highlight the role women have played throughout the history of the medium.

The Parasol Foundation Curator of Women in Photography – a new curatorial position, endowed for 25 years – will lead the Project’s activities. Recruitment for the role begins today and details of the role can be found here.

The Project furthers the V&A’s mission to nurture contemporary artists and share the museum’s collections, knowledge, and expertise in photography. Through commissioning women to create new work, acquiring photography by women artists, devising women-led displays, and organising talks, educational programmes and events, the Project’s ambition is to support contemporary women artists, develop programming, and investigate the roles of women photographers within the V&A collection. International in scope, there will be a particular emphasis on digital art, and the digital distribution of resources and information via social media. The Parasol Foundation Curator of Women in Photography will also develop a significant online presence for the Project, including a dedicated Instagram account to highlight works by women artists, which will launch in early 2022.

The Project is made possible through a major gift from Ms. Ruth Monicka Parasol and the Parasol Foundation Trust, a philanthropic trust established in 2004 that supports educational, health, culture and heritage initiatives. In addition to the Trust’s support of the Project, Gallery 97 at the V&A will be named The Parasol Foundation Gallery. This gallery, a space for displaying contemporary photography, is part of the V&A Photography Centre Phase Two development.

Duncan Forbes, Head of Photography at the V&A, said: “We are thrilled to launch this programme in support of women photographers at the V&A. It allows us to focus resources over a sustained period and to celebrate the creativity of women artists across the photography collections. The opportunity to bring work by contemporary photographers into dialogue with the V&A's rich historical archive is particularly exciting. The programme arrives at an energising moment for photography at the museum with the forthcoming expansion of the Photography Centre in 2023. We are very grateful to the Parasol Foundation Trust for its enlightened support.”

Ms. Ruth Monicka Parasol said: “I’m delighted to be working with the V&A to create the Parasol Foundation Women in Photography Project. We’re aiming to celebrate the achievements of women in photography and inspire the next generation of women photographers to fully express their creativity and achieve their potential. Our focus on digital art and social media will open up participation and help us connect with the widest possible audience.”

The V&A was the first museum in the world to collect photographs, beginning with its founding in 1852, and continues to collect and commission new work today. Phase One of the V&A Photography Centre opened to critical acclaim in 2018, sharing the breadth of the V&A’s world-leading photography collection, and Phase Two – with four new gallery spaces – will open in 2023.

The next 18 months will be a busy time for photography at the V&A. On 6 November 2021 the existing Photography Centre will be entirely rehung with two new displays. Maurice Broomfield: Industrial Sublime will open in Room 100, The Bern and Ronny Schwartz Gallery, and next-door, Known and Strange: Photographs from the Collection in Room 101, The Sir Elton John and David Furnish Gallery. The V&A will also be recruiting the second Curatorial Fellow in Photography, supported by The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation in 2022.

See ParasolCuratorofWomeninPhotography-JD-Sept21%20%281%29.pdf and the link here to apply. Applications close 8 October 2021.

Read more…

12201176285?profile=originalOn 18 September 2021 the Dialogue Foundation will organise the third edition of the Dialogue Vintage Photography Festival. As in 2019 the Festival will consist of a fair with dealers from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria and France.

In addition to the fair there is also have a lecture program which is put together by Maarten van den Heuvel, curator of the photography collection of the Leiden University. The theme of the lecture program is "NEW HORIZONS - PHOTOGRAPHY AFTER THE RESET", it will include talks by - among many others - Mattie Boom of the Rijksmuseum, Willemijn van de Zwaan of the Fotomuseum in The Hague and photo restorer Clara von Waldhausen.

Furthermore, there will also be workshops on collodion and cyanotype printing, an exhibition and presentations of highlights from Dutch photo collectors.

The full program can be found here https://www.dialoguevintagephotography.com/

Read more…

12201173458?profile=originalThe Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art has published a short film interviewing Wilfried E. Keil who was Rome Fellow at the British School Room from April-June 2021. During this time he used the BSR's extensive photographic archive to closely examine Robert Mcpherson's original photographs. He made a number of discoveries including an unknown photographic technique, new provenances and even a nineteenth-century thumbprint.

Watch this film to find out more about the importance of experiencing source material up close and personal. This project was supported by a Rome Fellowship. Find out more about the PMC Fellowships & Grants programme at https://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/... Find out more about the British School of Rome at https://www.bsr.ac.uk/

See the film here: https://youtu.be/hup8aRQifdQ

Read more…

12201176054?profile=originalEtc Fairs has announced the return of the Bloomsbury Photograph Fair, running alongside the Bloomsbury Book Fair on Sunday, 10 October from 0930-1500 at the Holiday Inn, Coram Street.

The Bloomsbury Book Fair will be taking place as usual in the Booker and Turner Suites, with the Photograph Fair will be held in meeting rooms on the first floor. Exhibitors lists and further details will be published shortly. 

https://etcfairs.com/2021/09/02/bloomsbury-photograph-fair-is-back/

Read more…

12201162072?profile=originalTo celebrate the 130th anniversary since the Kodak factory opened its doors in Harrow, Headstone Manor Museum is launching a digital exhibition showcasing its history as well as the many faces of the people who worked there. Through oral histories and memories, this exhibition will highlight historic moments in Kodak’s history in Harrow. A film will be available to view in this exhibition featuring recent oral histories recorded in 2021.

See: https://headstonemanor.org/events/kodak-in-harrow-celebrating-the-130th-anniversary/

Read more…

12201172666?profile=originalSlow Color Photography explores the remarkable science, art, and aesthetics of two of the German Empire's most ambitious photographers who created colour images using the Lippmann process around 1900: Doctor of medicine and anthropologist Richard Neuhauss (1855-1915) and physicist Hans Lehmann (1875-1917).

Slow Color Photography
until 30 January 2022
Preus Museum, Horten, Norway
See: https://www.preusmuseum.no/eng/Discover-the-Exhibitions/Current-exhibitions/Slow-Color-Photography

Read more…

12201174690?profile=originalPhotography arrived in China as early as the 1840s, fascinating Chinese and international communities as a revolutionary new way of making images. Photography has been a constant catalyst for creative dialogues in China: between modernity and tradition, past and present, and manual and mechanical reproduction. Photography resonated with China’s existing art ecosystem, encouraging a nationalist fervour, shaping popular interests and providing new meanings to China’s past. From its origins in the early 19th century to the present, photography has played a central role in the artistic, cultural, political, social, and economic challenges and changes that shaped modern China.

In this course you will be taught by leading international scholars, artists, and curators, allowing you to see this complex cultural phenomenon through multiple lenses. You will explore the changing practices and multiples trajectories that have shaped photography in China, from the advent of the medium in 1839 to contemporary times. How have photographs interacted with local and international cultures? What subjects, topics and themes have photographers been drawn to in the past 182 years? How do historic photographic archives shape contemporary experiments? How is photography from China curated and received today? By bringing together academic specialists, museum professionals and artists, these eight, weekly lectures will explore the role of photography in shaping and reshaping almost two centuries of Chinese visual culture.

Convened by Dr Marine Cabos-Brullé
SOAS and Photography of China

Photography of China: 1839-2021
Fridays, 8 October - 26 November 2021, 1200-1330
Online Learning, £500
https://www.soas.ac.uk/art-short-courses/photography-china/

Read more…

12201171456?profile=originalTurning 80 this year and still as creatively productive as ever, acclaimed British photographer Paul Hill has produced a limited edition set of platinum-palladium prints of some of his most recognised and seminal images.  Prized for their rich, subtle tonal quality, wealth of fine detail and stability, platinum-palladium prints are at the summit of traditional photographic printing.

Proposing a fresh interpretation of a selection of the original 35mm negatives from his renowned Prenotations series of the 1970s, these exceptional images have been printed at a larger-scale to truly celebrate Hill’s remarkable compositions together with the superior qualities that platinum-palladium has to offer. Boasting fine detail and extreme archival stability, these beautiful prints have been handcrafted with the assistance of contemporary technology.

For the past 18 months, Hill has been working with Studio of Light at top ten University of Loughborough - specifically the photographic research and development expertise of Alan Duncan and Ben Dolman - who have devised an innovative approach to platinum-palladium printing by uniting this 19th century historical process with contemporary image making.

Opting for images that would offer a strong tonal range and impact, the negatives were scanned and digitally processed to make optimal files for the enlarged negatives ready for contact printing in the darkroom. Mastering this challenging process, they can now create consistently superior and exquisite prints, as presented in this exhibition of just 10 photographs from Hill’s most memorable work.

Speaking about the project, Duncan and Dolman state: “This has been a wonderful opportunity for us at the Studio of Light to work with such an outstanding and distinguished photographer as Paul.  Producing a set of platinum-palladium prints from his treasured negatives has allowed us to showcase what we can offer to photographers, galleries and, in particular, museums in the production and archiving of exacting photographic artwork.

12201171299?profile=originalAs for Hill, he comments: "I was so excited to get this invitation from Loughborough to participate in their venture into platinum printing and have my work printed by Alan and Ben. Their reputation as photographic innovators is well known, so I knew I was in safe hands. This is particularly important as there is only ONE negative existing of probably my best-known image - Man Against Snow - made in 1974!  When they told me that the prints would last for at least 1,000 years it was an easy decision. To think that if a photograph was made by this process at the time of the Norman Conquest and it would still be OK today is phenomenal!"

Argentea Gallery is working with Hill and Loughborough University to exhibit these outstanding prints in The Midlands where much of Hill’s work was conceived.  These rare prints of such beguiling luminosity, made with premium noble metals, attentive patience and meticulous precision will appeal to collectors who relish both the unique materiality and exclusivity of these influential images.

Signed copies of the recently released 3rd edition of Hill’s notable book Approaching Photography, which includes several photographs from the exhibition, is also available to purchase alongside a selection of smaller, vintage prints from the Print Room.

Prenotations Remastered opens Friday 17 September 2021
Opening times: Wednesday – Saturday, 12noon – 6pm
Strict social distancing guidelines so the opening reception will take place throughout 17th September from 12noon - 6pm.
www.argenteagallery.com  

Images: © Paul Hill. Top: Man against snow. Lower: Girl in striped shirt. 

Read more…

12201161494?profile=originalDon’t Press Print is an annual conference organised by the University of West of England's Centre for Fine Print Research and the Royal Photographic Society. In 2020 the conference looked at the collodion process and its contemporary practice through the eyes of twenty artist-printmakers and photographic historians.

Registration is open. 

The conference will now be wholly online due to travel issues for speakers and potential registrants in attending and the cost has been lowered accordingly. 

See the full programme and register here: https://rps.org/photomech

Read more…

12201167296?profile=originalThe First Symposium of the Photography Network will be held virtually from October 7 through 9, 2021, jointly hosted by the Photography Network and Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen.

Over the last twenty years, the study of photography’s history has been characterized by, among other things, two opposing strands: a concentration on the photograph’s status as an object and a concern with the decidedly virtual quality of its images and practices. The 2019 FAIC conference »Material Immaterial: Photographs in the 21st Century« considered these two directions in photographic conservation, asking if the physical photograph still matters today as a source of teaching, learning, and scholarship when the intangibles of code now direct the production and archiving of images. Now, from a methodological direction, this Photography Network symposium seeks to inquire further into the historical implications of the increasing distance between photography’s status as an object and its life as what could be called the intangible »photographic.«

Given this consistent cleavage, the symposium asks; Where do the object-based and the virtual meet in photography’s histories? How can these two strands in photo studies be brought together and harnessed to reconsider existing problems or launch new investigations?

Full details and programme are here: https://foto.folkwang-uni.de/de/journal/news/the-material-and-the-virtual-in-photographic-histories/detail/

Read more…

12201166665?profile=originalThis online talk: 'the doing and the unfixing of family photographs' is a conversation event with Annebella Pollen (Reader in the History of Art and Design, University of Brighton) and Rachel Maloney (V&A / University of Brighton Research Fellow 2019-2021). This event will be held online but will be hosted live from the gallery space of Rachel's exhibition 'The Matriarchive' and will be chaired by Polly Wright from Brighton CCA.

'the doing and the unfixing of family photographs'
9 September 2021, 1630-1730 (BST)
Free, register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/online-talk-in-conversation-with-annebella-pollen-and-rachel-maloney-tickets-168716885747

Read more…

12201173285?profile=originalThe Public Domain Review has published an essay by John Bevis in which he explores the various feats of cunning and subterfuge undertaken by the Kearton brothers — among the very first professional wildlife photographers — in their pioneering attempts to get ever closer to their subjects. 

Bevis's latest book The Keartons: Inventing Nature Photography, was published in 2016 by Uniformbooks. For more information and contact, go to www.johnbevis.com.

Read the full piece here: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/stuffed-ox-dummy-tree-artificial-rock-deception-in-the-work-of-richard-and-cherry-kearton

Read more…

12201162681?profile=originalThe Eastern Daily Press has reported that the five-bedroomed house, formerly occupied by photographer Olive Edis in Sheringham, is up for sale with a guide price of £550,000. After marrying her husband, Edwin Henry Galsworthy in 1928, the couple moved into their new home on South Street. Edis had an extension built to copy her earlier studio in Church Street. The studio remains part of the property and features a high-vaulted ceiling, north-facing windows and an original solid fuel stove. After Edis's death in 1955 the house was bought by photographer Cyril Nunn, her former assistant. Nunn was responsible for much her archive being sold to Cromer Museum. 

12201163073?profile=originalOlive Edis is best known for her early colour, as the first female official war photographer and for her studio portraiture. The main collections of her work are held at Cromer Museum and IWM London. 

For details of the property: https://www.arnoldskeys.com/estate-agents/property-search/view/7239/

To see the full press report see: https://www.edp24.co.uk/lifestyle/property/sheringham-home-photographer-olive-edis-for-sale-8251160

Images: Top: the exterior of the house; left: the studio.  Courtesy: Arnold Keys.

Read more…

12201165665?profile=originalSome of the most famous and instantly recognisable faces of 20th and 21st century culture engage the viewer directly or appear to gaze distractedly elsewhere in Hampshire Cultural Trust’s retrospective of the internationally renowned photographer, Paul Joyce, in the year of his 80th birthday.

Celebrated for his painterly eye, Hampshire-born Joyce often chose formal or classic poses for his subjects, many of whom are icons of film, art, music, theatre and, of course, photography.

In A Life Behind the Lens, at The Gallery, Winchester Discovery Centre, Joyce’s sitters also mark historical moments in a variety of genres, not least his capturing of three legends of photography: Ansel Adams, Bill Brandt and Brassai, sitting together on a bench, in the garden of the V&A in 1976. His portraits of celebrated movie makers, including Sir Carol Reed, Francis Ford Coppola and Quentin Tarantino, show his fine eye for revealing character and expression through close-up shots of their faces.

The classic phrase ‘I’m ready for my close-up’ is exemplified by his portraits of film stars such as Dennis Hopper (shot in Venice, California in 1994), Sophia Loren (Geneva, 1995), Martin Sheen (West Hollywood, 1996) and Robert Redford (Sundance, 1994). This phrase came from one of Hollywood’s greatest film noirs, Sunset Boulevard directed by the legendary Billy Wilder, also a subject of one of Paul’s iconic portraits.

His artistic skills are also demonstrated in unflinching, but sympathetic, portraits of such luminaries as fellow photographer, Bill Brandt, writer and film star, Dirk Bogarde, and singer, Eartha Kitt. Joyce wonderfully captures both the fragility and deep intelligence of the comedian and author Spike Milligan, in an image that suggests the influence of Renaissance masters such as Titian, Raphael and Van Eyck on Paul’s own portraiture.

12201166076?profile=originalClose friend David Hockney appears several times in the exhibition, from a rather youthful-looking artist standing in front of one of his paintings in 1981, to a photo taken in Bridlington just a decade ago, which was inspired by Orson Welles’s film, The Trial. Here, the artist stands against a brick wall, with rays of light passing between the exterior stairs creating geometric shapes on the brickwork and Hockney’s suit.

The reciprocal aspect of their friendship is demonstrated by the inclusion of a painting of Paul, created by Hockney himself. 

Born in 1940, Paul Joyce spent his early childhood in Whitchurch, Hampshire, before building a global reputation as a documentary film maker, writer, photographer and painter. The great-great-nephew of James Joyce, it was perhaps inevitable that Paul would become a photographer and artist.

To celebrate his life and work, A Life Behind the Lens brings together more than 50 of Paul’s exceptional portraits, along with a selection of paintings and objects that reflect his remarkable career.

Although his first exhibition was in Nottingham in 1974 - followed by his breakthrough exhibition, Elders, at the National Portrait Gallery in 1978 – Joyce had already created an international stir, with his iconic, 1967 portrait of Jane Fonda as ‘Barbarella’. Ironically, having been invited to shoot a film about the making of the movie by Paramount Pictures, Paul had the chance to try his hand at photography and duly borrowed Nikon and Leica equipment from the Magnum photographer, David Hurn. It was the first time that he had seriously handled a still camera and he still thanks Hurn for this gesture of friendship and encouragement.

Relying on his guile, charm and wit, Joyce often had to coax his subjects into agreeing to be photographed. In the case of Beckett, he explained just how resourceful he could be: “He (Beckett) hated to be photographed. Sam was rehearsing Happy Days with Billie Whitelaw at the Royal Court Theatre in ‘79 and he’d invited me to the rehearsals. The theatre had a little yard where they used to back lorries in for scenery to be delivered, so I left the camera on a tripod outside, close to a pile of black rubbish sacks and a broken chair without a full set of legs. There was a fire escape up to the bar and I knew that Sam had a Guinness at lunch. So, I waited until he’d had a couple of pints and then said, “Photograph?” and he at first protested, but I said if you come down to the yard, you’ll see that it’s all set up down there. So, he went down the stairs and he looked outside and saw this tip below, and all those black and purple bags, and he said, “Ah, wonderful, rubbish!” And I said, yes, that’s right. Tons of it!” 

Complimenting the many famous and well-known faces, the exhibition includes a number of photographic landscapes, not least because Joyce cites the influence of the renowned landscape painters Paul Nash and Graham Sutherland on his work.

The exhibition is curated by Colin Ford CBE, former director of the National Museum of Wales. It was Ford who curated Joyce’s first London exhibition, Elders, at the National Portrait Gallery in 1978. He says “The introduction I wrote in the catalogue of Paul’s 2010 exhibition Unseen Portraits 1967-2009 begins “It is astonishing to be reminded (but impossible to deny) that Paul Joyce first showed me some of his early photographic portraits at the National Portrait Gallery more than thirty years ago.”  Now forty-five years later, it seems even more amazing, but very pleasurable, to be able to round off a story which began when I was the first curator of photography in any British national museum or gallery, and to recognise how well his pictures have stood up to the test of time.”

A life behind the lens: Paul Joyce
The Gallery, Winchester Discovery Centre, Winchester
27 August– 10 November 2021

For more information about A Life Behind the Lens and other exhibitions throughout Hampshire, follow @HantsCulture on Twitter and Instagram, like the Hampshire Cultural Trust Facebook page, or visit www.hampshireculture.org.uk

Image:s © Paul Joyce. Top: Sophia Loren . Lower: David Hockney.

Read more…

12201173254?profile=originalDominic Winter's auction of Printed Books, Maps, Autographs and 29th Century Photography on 8-9 September includes part one of the Richard Sadler collection (lots 287-308)  and other twentieth century photography. Richard Sadler (1927-2020) was a photographer, teacher and editor and is best known for his photograph of Weegee (1963). His collection includes work from John Blakemore, Bill Brandt, his own photographs and from other photographers. Other photographs in the auction (lots 309-342 include that of David Bailey, Ray Bellisario, Alvin L Coburn, and work from China, Hong Kong and elsewhere. 

The catalogue can be seen here: https://www.dominicwinter.co.uk/Auction/Details/SEP21-printed-books-maps--autographs-20th-century-photography/?au=774

Image: Richard Sadler, John Blakemore at home, c1990s. 

Read more…