A groundbreaking new tour tracing the footsteps of legendary 19th-century photographer John Thomson is set to launch this season. This unique journey offers photography enthusiasts, history buffs, and cultural explorers the chance to experience the people, landscapes, and traditions of China as Thomson did during his pioneering travels in the 1860s.

The John Thomson in China – A Photographic History tour takes travelers from the bustling streets of Guangzhou (Canton) to the imperial grandeur of Beijing (Peking), stopping along China’s historic coast to capture both timeless and modern scenes. Known for his remarkable documentation of the Far East, Thomson was one of the first Western photographers to record the diverse cultures of Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, and China. His work laid the foundations of travel photography and social reportage, revolutionising the way people understood life across the world.

A Journey Through History and Photography

Led by Deborah Ireland, an esteemed photographic historian and authority on Thomson’s work, the tour offers an immersive, educational experience. Ireland, who has lectured extensively on Thomson and written on the travels of the famous explorer Isabella Bird, will provide in-depth commentary and insights throughout the journey. Participants will visit many of the same sites Thomson documented, with opportunities to compare his 19th-century photographs to the scenes as they exist today.

The tour will engage with local historical societies to give travelers a richer understanding of China’s society, architecture, and everyday life during the late Qing Dynasty — the time Thomson conducted his work. In Beijing and Shanghai, guests will have the opportunity to explore traditional districts, some of which Thomson photographed, and discover the blend of history and modernity that characterises these vibrant cities.

What to Expect on the Tour: 

Guided tours through Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing, revisiting iconic locations Thomson photographed in the 1860s.

• Discussions on the impact of Thomson’s work on modern photography, travel, and journalism.
• Immersive experiences with local historians, ensuring a deep connection to China’s cultural and heritage.

Jon Baines, company founder and tour creator, commented: “John Thomson could be considered the godfather of travel photography. His work opened a window to a part of the world that was then largely unknown to Western audiences. He didn’t just capture the landscapes and architecture; he documented the spirit of the people — from emperors to everyday citizens. This tour is an extraordinary opportunity to walk in his footsteps, understand his vision, and see how much has changed — or remained the same — since the 19th century." He added, “Thomson taught photography at the Royal Geographical Society, of which he became a Life Fellow, and his work has stood the test of time.”

This tour is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for anyone interested in the convergence of history, culture, and photography. It promises not just an exploration of China’s visual history, but a deep dive into the evolving narrative of how photography has shaped our understanding of different cultures over time.

Tour Dates: 11 – 26 October 2025
For more information, please visit: www.jonbainestours.com/china 

About John Thomson
John Thomson (1837–1921) was a Scottish photographer, geographer, and traveler who was among the first to photograph the Far East. His work documenting the diverse cultures of Asia and the streets of London made him a trailblazer in both travel photography and social reportage, helping to lay the foundations of modern photojournalism.

About Deborah Ireland
Deborah Ireland is an accomplished photographic historian who has lectured widely on the work of John Thomson and the travels of Isabella Bird. She is known for her deep knowledge of 19th-century photography and her ability to bring history to life for modern audiences.

The Directory of Travelling Photographers. Part 1: 1841-1881 and the new Part 2: 1882-1921 are now both available online via the Romany and Traveller Family History Society (RTFHS) website. The website has just been updated with part 2. Additional records have been found for the earlier period, and for post -921. It is hoped to incorporate these into one consolidated volume later in the year in both chronological and alphabetical formats. 

The Directory is the result of research by Chy Hersey, a RTFHS member, who found that travelling photographers were little known or acknowledged. Several hundred individuals have been uncovered to date, coming from a variety of backgrounds. Some of these had Romany, showfolk or similar associations, but many did not. Some even became nationally recognised or claimed to have important and even royal patronage.

In due course even more travelling photographers will be included when the two volumes are consolidated and an A-Z listing is compiled. If you know of a travelling photographer who should be included – and especially any photographs of or by travelling photographers – please let the RTFHS know. Email:  editor@rtfhs.org.uk

As before, the primary aims are to create greater awareness of the role of travelling photographers within the wider community, and to assist with correlation of photographs to photographers. The extent of finds means that the Directory cannot provide full biographical details but it is hoped to provide some exemplar stories in due course. Both parts have short introductions with notes on search methods and related resources, followed by listings in chronological order.   Brief details are given, usually of first reference, together with source of information.  Entries can also be searched for surnames, locations, etc. The lists include some related details which place the lives of travelling photographers in context, such as their family links, area and methods of travel, perils and misfortunes.

See: https://rtfhs.org.uk/new-the-directory-of-travelling-photographers-part-2-1882-1921/

The receipients of the Archives Revealed Scoping Grant programme for 2025-26 managed by The National Archives have been announced. Inevitably photography is integral to many of the recipients' collections. The programme is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Pilgrim Trust, the Wolfson Foundation and The National Archives.

Of particular note is Oldham Archives which holds the Oldham Chronicle collection. The Chronicle archive is 77.3 cubic metres in size, which would fill around three quarters of a double decker bus, and consists of the firm’s own business records, photographs, negatives and glass slides dating back to the 1930s, as well as news cuttings covering key people, events, places, communities, crime and sport.

Lakeland Arts Trust, Cumbria Archive centre and Kendal Library hold the collections of Joseph Hardman, Lakeland photographer. Joseph Hardman’s photographic collection documents the changing face of the Lake District from the 1930s to the 1960s. With over 5000 glass plate negatives and 11000 photographs, the collection is an important record of how agriculture and rural traditions changed and sometimes disappeared in the mid to late 20th Century. The scoping grant will enable these organisations to work with a consultant and identify the best approach to making the collection accessible, through a unified catalogue, digitisation strategy, volunteer participation and community engagement. The consultant’s report will be a road map to sharing this important collection with a wider audience.

The Ouseburn Trust collection is a unique and wide-ranging record of the changes taking place in the area over the past few hundred years, from cradle of the industrial revolution to thriving urban village. Crucially, it tells the story of an intensive heritage-led redevelopment that took place from the 1980s that has become an important urban planning landmark and an exemplar of place-based regeneration. Ouseburn Trust will produce a scoping grant that will help them survey the organisation’s history and role in the regeneration, make the social history of the valley more accessible, and continue to collect stories sustainably. The collection consists of photographs, oral histories, and key planning documentation that help tell a story of huge change in the once predominantly working-class East End of Newcastle, but it needs help with accessibility and coherency.

Read more about these and the other recipients here. Past grant recipients are also available to view. 

Image: Oldham life in the 1930s. Oldham Archives

Apparently from Virginia, Birt Acres appeared out of nowhere in Britain aged 35, without a trace of his former life. Yet immediately he became a prominent figure in the late Victorian photographic world. He soon teamed up with Robert Paul to make a moving picture camera and then shot the first commercial films in Britain in spring 1895, in parallel with the work of the Lumière brothers in France, before repeating this in Germany. His innovations included being the first to establish a dedicated venue for watching films, to give a Royal Command Performance of moving pictures, to create screen advertising, and to design a home movie camera.

A disdain for showbusiness led to Acres squandering the commercial opportunities he created, and initiated the erasure of his remarkable story. From early in the twentieth century, film historians have consistently underestimated and undervalued his achievements.

In this book, for the first time, we see a detailed and compelling portrait of Birt Acres, with substantial new research on his early work in moving pictures and on the careers of his associates, leading directly to new interpretations of the importance of this elusive pioneer. It draws on a wealth of fresh sources, with a massively expanded filmography supporting this re-evaluation. Written by three specialists in early film history, this volume significantly revises the received story of Birt Acres as a photographer and film-maker, at the same time casting new light on the beginnings of cinema in Britain.

Finding Birt Acres. The Rediscovery of a Film Pioneer
Deac Rossell, Barry Anthony and Peter Domankiewicz
University of Exeter Press, 2025
336 Pages, 116 Black & white illustrations
£90. Discount code for a 30 per cent discount: ACRES30
See: https://www.exeterpress.co.uk/products/finding-birt-acres

The National Portrait Gallery, which owns twelve volumes of Camile Silvy's studio daybooks, has published a blog by Paul Frecker tracing the story of the daybooks and the missing volume 11 (July 1863-June 1864). Frecker also explores the importance of the books and Silvy's negatives. He is the author of Cartomania published in 2024 by September Publishing. 

Read the full blog here:https://www.npg.org.uk/blog/blog-container/camille-silvy-daybooks-missing-volume

Details of Paul Frecker's Cartomania are here

The National Archives, Kew, has announced a series of summer seminars. Of particular interest to photographic historians are: 

• Family photography archives: Practices, Silences, and Ideologies with Uschi Klein on 10 June from 1300-1330

  Drawing on the photographic family archive of three generations of amateur photographers from Romania covering the inter-war, communist and post-communist transition period of the 1990s, Uschi Klein (Senior Lecturer, School of Art and Media, University of Brighton) explores family photographs as visual narratives that document societal, cultural and political issues in a global context from a personal perspective. She will further investigate the practices, silences and ideologies of this particular family archive and how it constructs a narrative about Romania’s historical past, thereby functioning as the foundation of historical imagination and understanding.

  Uschi joins chair Giorgia Tolfo, Collections Researcher at The National Archives, to talk about image-making as a vernacular practice of resistance and survival in the context of political eras. Free. Details here

• Crowdsourcing the Past: Memory Projects in South Asia with Mallika Leuzinger on 24 July 2025 from 1300-1330

  Exploring her encounters with crowdsourced platforms whilst researching the development of amateur and domestic photography in the subcontinent, Mallika Leuzinger (German Historical Institute London) discusses how the platforms mobilise visual and material artefacts and a language of civic participation and range from purpose-built websites, Instagram accounts, and Facebook groups. Mallika traces the lives of these picture libraries to think through the will to ‘crowdsource’ the past in order to understand history as an everyday matter.

  Mallika joins chair Philip Carter, Academic Director at the Royal Historical Society, to discuss curatorial strategies, demographic entities, funding structures, political ideologies, and concerns about data collection attached to emergent archives. Free. Details here

Paul Messier, Director of the Lens Media Lab at Yale University’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, has nnounced that the lab will cease operations from 30 June 2025 as a consequence of a lack of funding. Founded in 2015 with funding and vision from the John Pritzker Family Fund, the Lens Media Lab led a pioneering research program, integrating physics, data science, art history, and conservation science to study 20th century photographic materials. Through advanced analytical techniques, including large-scale measurement of physical and chemical properties, computer vision, and the creation of reference databases, the lab identified, classified, and contextualized thousands of photographic papers and prints. This interdisciplinary approach provided profound insights into expressive properties of paper, artistic practices, manufacturing histories, and preservation needs of photographic collections.

Reflecting on the lab’s achievements, Messier stated, “When we began our work, the idea of applying empirical measurements to establish a ground truth for interpreting creative practice was untested and novel. Through deep interdisciplinary collaboration, we opened new doors for art history and conservation.” The initial gift enabled Yale to acquire Messier’s reference collection of historic photographic papers—comprising over 7,500 examples identified by maker, brand, and date. Considered the largest of its kind globally, press accounts describe the collection as the 'genome' of black-and-white photography.

The lab also organized two major symposia at Yale.  Material Immaterial: Photographs in the 21st Century(Link is external) (Link opens in new window) (2019) and Darkroom to Data(Link is external) (Link opens in new window) (2024) examined, respectively, the pivot from analog to digital photography and future research applications of the lab’s work.  

In 2024, the lab launched Paperbase, an innovative online platform that integrates semantic descriptions with precise measurements of visual qualities—including reflectance, texture, and tone—to characterize the material properties of photographic papers from the 20th century. Built on over 95,000 data points and approximately 15,000 images from the LML reference collection, users praise Paperbase for its groundbreaking approach to data visualization.

An early and significant resource developed by the lab is TIPPS(Link is external) (Link opens in new window) (Tipped-In Photographic Prints), an app focused on photographic prints in international photography journals and manuals published between 1855 and 1900.  Developed through a collaboration with Library of Congress researcher Adrienne Lungren and LML art historian Kappy Mintie, scholars widely cite TIPPS for its data exposing regional and international trade patterns in 19th century photography. Other notable contributions include an online compendium of manufacturer markings(Link is external) (Link opens in new window) applied to papers, and a site devoted to essays on the history of major manufacturers(Link is external) (Link opens in new window) of photographic materials. 

The online resources will remain accessible on the Institute's website.. 

Read more about the Lab here. 

With thanks to Helen Trompeteler for flagging this news. 

London's Photographers' Gallery is seeking a curator and an assistant curator. The Curator role involves curating, exhibition planning & delivery, and liaising with the wider Gallery team on budgeting, fundraising & development, press and communications, exhibition installation and events. As Assistant Curator you will support the work of the exhibitions team by providing key administrative support, as well as researching and delivering exhibitions at The Photographers' Gallery.

Details here: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/about-us/job-vacancies-tpg

This new book investigates the effects of mobility and place on a range of photographic archives and explores their potential for cross-disciplinary dialogue. It explores photographic images used in the study of art, as well as the implications of placing European images of non-European cultures in an archive, album, library, or museum. It also addresses questions of digital space, which renders images more visually accessible, but further complicates issues relating to location. The contributors consider these issues through case studies based on a variety of archives, institutions, and disciplines. Just as photographs are conceived as unstable objects, so conventional borders between disciplines and locations are challenged and opened up with chapters drawing on a range of disciplinary theories and practices.

The focus of the individual chapters is global, as seen in contributions not only on Euro-American topics, but also on Orientalizing approaches to photographing the Ancient Near East, photographic archives of Bedouin subjects, and digital photographic archives in an Iranian context.

This book will be of interest to scholars of art history, visual and cultural studies, anthropology, and archaeology, as well as those working on the history and theory of photography, and histories and theories of the archive.

Photo Archives and the Place of Photography
Geraldine A. Johnson, Deborah Schultz (editors)
£116, ebook £31.99, 246 pages 62 B/W illustrations
Routledge, 2025
Details here

LOOK OUT FOR A 20% DISCOUNT CODE WITH NEXT WEEK'S WEEKLY UPDATE - SIGN UP TO RECEIVE THIS

As part of the project “GENIAC: Generative Artificial Intelligence for Archival Images of the Colonial Period,” we are organising a one-day international workshop at Imperial War Museums, London, on Tuesday 13th May, from approximately 9:15 to 16:00.

This not-to-be missed event brings together leading professionals from the GLAM sector, AI researchers, historians and digital humanists to explore the ethical and technical challenges of applying AI to colonial-era photographic archives. Colonial historical records are often very sensitive, for example when they show violence and humiliation of colonised populations. Even when collections have been digitised, they are not always easily discoverable, for instance in the case of missing or problematic metadata containing racist or outdated language. Making archival records more accessible, in a responsible way, is a key priority.

The GENIAC project, funded by the British Academy, will harness AI to enable responsible access to colonial images from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Co-designed with source communities from formerly colonised countries, the project will lead to a series of outputs—such as datasets and AI-powered tools, including a chat box that will allow users to ask questions using natural language.

Our speakers include representatives from prominent cultural institutions such as the Imperial War Museums, National Museum of the Royal Navy, Musée de l’Armée (France), Royal Museum for Central Africa (Belgium), The National Archives UK, ECPAD, and the Digital Benin project. We will also welcome academic contributors from top universities and research groups across the UK and Europe, including King’s College London, Queen’s University Belfast, University of Oxford, KU Leuven, University of Amsterdam, and CNRS/INHA (France).

A collaborative session will focus on preparing a Horizon Europe collaborative proposal (2 to 3 million euros) for a future project on ethical access to colonial archival images.

To express your interest in participating, please email the following to L.zhao6@lboro.ac.uk and l.jaillant@lboro.ac.uk by 29th April 2025:

• A short bio (maximum 100 words)
• An Expression of Interest (maximum 100 words) explaining your expertise and your interest in this topic.
• There is a limited number of places for this event. We will contact you in early May to let you know if you have been selected.

We hope you can join us for what promises to be a rich and timely conversation.

Professor Lise Jaillant, GENIAC PI

Dr Lingjia Zhao, GENIAC research associate

While working as Beaford’s Photographer-in-Residence, renowned documentary photographer James Ravilious invited members of the public to share their historic photographs of rural North Devon. Ravilious re-photographed these for inclusion in the Beaford Photographic Archive and returned the originals to their owner. The resultant collection of around 9000 images became known informally as the ‘Old Archive’.

The Cataloguer will play a pivotal role in unlocking the full potential of the Beaford Old Archive collection by leading a cataloguing programme, which will bring continuity to this vast record of rural lives in North Devon. Working to high standards and clear targets, they’ll create a robust, industry-standard catalogue that will support more intuitive image searches and lay the foundation to improve and expand the current Beaford Archive website. This vital work will also connect the collection to broader archival and academic networks, vastly expanding its reach and impact.

Beaford Archive: The Lost Decades is a 2-year project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Project Cataloguer for Beaford Archive: The Lost Decades
Location: Hybrid role including some on location work in Barnstaple, Exeter (Devon Heritage Centre) in North Devon communities and home working.
Salary: £33,000-£35,000
Status:  Part time 0.5FTE (22.5 hours per week) fixed term appointment for 15 months
Annual Leave: 25 days per annum plus bank holidays pro rata
Closes: 19 May 2025
For further details on how to apply and to download a copy of the job description, please see: www.beaford.org/workwithus

Shifting Perspectives will explore how photography has shaped and recorded the urban architectural heritage of Scotland. By examining Scottish photography from the 1840s to the present day, architectural styles, photographic records, and the influence of new technologies, the conference will provide a comprehensive look at how cities and towns have been represented and perceived through the lens. Academics, students, architects, photographers, and cultural historians will gather to discuss how photography influences not only the perception of Scotland’s built environment but also the way our modern towns and cities are planned and designed.

The programme is now available and booking is  now open.

Shifting Perspectives: Scotland's Urban Architecture Through the Lens
20 May 2025
The Engine Shed, Forthside Way Stirling FK8 1QZ
Bookings can be made at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/shifting-perspectives-scotlands-urban-architecture-through-the-lens-tickets-1268472006919?aff=oddtdtcreator

Supported by Historic Environment Scotland, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and Scottish Council on Archives

The Isle of Man Post Office has announced the release of its latest stamp collection, Through the Lens of Leonard McCombe, celebrating the life and work of one of the Isle of Man’s most renowned photographers. The eight stamps in the collection feature aspects of Leonard’s career, including his early days in the Isle of Man, his time as a war photographer covering the Allied advance in World War II, and his life and work in the USA post-1945.

The stamp collection will be issued on 8 May 2025, to coincide with Manx National Heritage’s exhibition at the House of Manannan – Leonard McCombe: Through the Lens of War – which runs from 8 May until 25 October 2025, studying the 80th anniversary of VE Day through Leonard’s harrowing war photography.

Maxine Cannon, General Manager Stamps & Coins for Isle of Man Post Office, said: ‘We are grateful to Leonard’s son, Clark McCombe, and his wife, Dr Beverly McCombe, for their insight and assistance in producing this beautiful collection. By preserving and sharing Leonard’s photography portfolio, his work can be studied and appreciated by future generations. What is remarkable is that, in his later years, Leonard spent most of his time farming and his treasure trove of scrapbooks, writings, negatives, prints and books lay forgotten in his study. Many of the images used for the stamp issue have never been seen or published since the rolls of film were developed several decades ago.’

Born in the Isle of Man in 1923, Leonard grew up in Port Erin and had to drop out of school after contracting scarlet fever aged 14. While recovering, he took up painting and then photography, selling pictures of a local fire to the London Daily Express aged 16.

His photographs offer a fascinating view of Manx life in the 1930s and 1940s, with recently unearthed photographs documenting life in the Rushen Internment Camp, the only female camp in Europe – images of great historical importance, providing a rare insight into the camp which played a key part in the Island’s World War II story.

Leonard became a Junior Member of the Royal Photographic Society in 1941, an Associate two years later, and a Fellow by 1944. Between 1943 and 1945, he moved to England, where he was employed by Picture Post to cover the Allied advance across Europe. After World War II, he moved to the USA and worked for Life magazine until it closed in 1972.

By 1961, Leonard had married and had bought a farm on eastern Long Island, which he described as ‘making a journey back to the Isle of Man’. His wife, Gertrude, was diagnosed with cancer late in 2014 and while looking after her, Leonard fell ill. He died in 2015, with Gertrude passing away three years later. The Gertrude and Leonard McCombe Foundation, focusing on cancer wellness during treatment, was founded in their memory in 2019.

Clark and Beverly have worked closely with Isle of Man Post Office and Manx National Heritage to develop the stamp issue and the exhibition. Clark said: ‘We are thrilled to share some of my father's work. It was in the last few years of his life that he began to open up and talk about his humble beginnings on the Isle of Man and, later, his travels around the world. Early in his career, he created insightful photo essays of the American Cowboy and the American Navajo Nation. Spanning five decades, his work captured the images, emotions and history of a world recovering from World War II. He photographed Churchill, Truman, the Kennedys, Hollywood, and the Apollo Moon Launch. But I knew him as Daddy, who insisted I practice the piano.’

Matthew Richardson, Curator of Social History at Manx National Heritage, said: ‘It is unusual in this era to uncover a completely forgotten archive. Leonard was a man who did not court publicity, indeed in his later years seems to have actively avoided it, but in rediscovering his treasure trove of negatives and bringing them to a wider audience, Clark and Beverly have done those of us with an interest in the Second World War a great service. Leonard had a real eye for what would make a great photograph. Yet one of the consequences of his career as a photojournalist taking off, as it did after the war, is that he is perhaps not as well known in his native isle, as he should be. I hope this exhibition and stamp issue will bring his work – and his name – to the attention of a new audience.’

Source magazine is relocating offices and is making backsets of Source available at a discounted price. The sets include 100 print issues published from 1992 to 2024. In addition an exclusive back set of Creative Camera magazine is also available with 83 print issues published between 1986 and 2001.  Both offers are available via eBay at the links below. 

Source has been published since 1992 and remains one of the best regular sources of comment on the UK and Irish photography scenes, with reviews and news, and portfolios of contemporary photographers and showcases of student photography.

Source back set link  
Creative Camera set link

Details on Source magazine and subscriptions: https://www.source.ie/

As part of Photo Museum Ireland's Through the Lens lecture series, noted photography collector and historian William Fagan will explore the pivotal role of French photographers and techniques in shaping the early photographic landscape in Ireland. Unlike in England, the Daguerreotype process, considered ‘The French Gift to the World,’ could be practiced freely in Ireland, which led to French artists and practitioners like Le Chevalier Doussin Dubreuil and Edgar Adolphe establishing themselves in Dublin.

William will also highlight the impact of Louis Werner, an Alsatian photographer and painter and his son Alfred, and the Lauder family, who adopted the French title ’Lafayette’ and flourished in the Irish photography scene and outside of Ireland. This lecture will offer a fascinating look at the international connections and artistic exchanges that defined 19th Century Irish photography.

Through the Lens: Early Irish Photography – the French Connection
Wednesday, 30 April 2025, 1900-2000
Dublin, Photo Museum Ireland
Single Lecture €10 (€8 Member/Concession)
Details and booking here

The School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC) at Cardiff University has announced two funded PhD studentship opportunities in the field of photographic history.

The Valleys Archive at Ffotogallery: Community, Photography & Democracy in South Wales, 1978-2028 (with Ffotogallery)
https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/the-valleys-archive-at-ffotogallery-community-photography-and-democracy-in-south-wales-1978-2028/?p184218
Application Deadline: 16 May 2025
Cardiff University and Ffotogallery are delighted to offer a fully funded Welsh Graduate School for the Social Sciences (WGSSS) (ESRC DTP) studentship under the Journalism, Digital Media and Democracy Pathway. This co-creative interdisciplinary doctoral project is focused on a collection of historic documentary photographs commissioned by Ffotogallery in the 1980s known as ‘The Valleys Project’. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Ffotogallery in 2028, the studentship will examine how historical photographic archives can be harnessed to address pressing issues of community disenfranchisement and cohesion, of visibility and representation, and of visual literacy and skills development in the digital age. The project will be jointly supervised by Siân Addicott (Ffotogallery), Alix Beeston (Cardiff University) and Tom Allbeson (Cardiff University).

Social Inequality and British Documentary Style: Bert Hardy’s photographs for Picture Post magazine, 1940-57 (with V&A)
https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/social-inequality-and-british-documentary-style-bert-hardy-s-photographs-for-picture-post-magazine-1940-57/?p183989
Application Deadline: 23 May 2025
The V&A and Cardiff University are pleased to announce a fully funded Collaborative Doctoral Studentship from October 2025 under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships (CDP) scheme. The project will explore the work of photojournalist Bert Hardy for the photo-magazine Picture Post. Research will engage with material only recently made available by the Bert Hardy estate: over 2,000 prints donated to the Department of Photography, V&A; and his personal archive, now lodged at Special Collections & Archives, Cardiff University. The project will be jointly supervised by Martin Barnes (V&A) and Tom Allbeson (Cardiff University).

Image: © William Tsui from ffotogallery's The Valleys project

Melissa McCarthy ’s work considers photography as something that spreads: through time, over borders, beyond established categories. It leaks and expands, diffuses and clots. In her 2023 book Photo, Phyto, Proto, Nitro, she traces a route from Agamemnon at Troy, via the memory book and the botanical archive, detouring past excavations at Ur up to shark biology in Jaws and repetition in Twin Peaks. There is photographic practice and thinking in all of these artworks and texts, if we’re willing to tilt the page, consider the surface a little differently.

Melissa will read from her book and talk, and then Michelle will respond with thoughts relating to her own upcoming book A Dirty History of Photography: Chemistry, Fog and Empire.  The discussion will be opened up to the audience will include how we think of photography, and how photography might extend beyond the bounds of particular techniques and equipment, or even light sensitivity.

Melissa McCarthy is a writer based in Edinburgh. Her books include Photo, Phyto, Proto, Nitro (2023) and Sharks, Death, Surfers: An Illustrated Companion (2019). She has worked as a film curator and arts journalist in London and Durban, South Africa. For more details see: https://sharksillustrated.org/ and on Instagram @mccarthysharks

Michelle Henning is Professor in Photography and Media at the University of Literature. Her books include Photography: The Unfettered Image (2018) and A Dirty History of Photography: Chemistry, Fog and Empire (2025- forthcoming).

Absolutely Nebulous: Fog, Fuzzy Edges and Vagueness in Photographic Fields
Melissa McCarthy, with Michelle Henning
Wednesday, 30 April 2025, 1500-1700
University of Liverpool, School of the Arts Library, 19-23 Abercromby Square, Liverpool and online
Register here

To accompany Open Eye Gallery’s No Iconic Images exhibition, this one-day symposium will bring together experts in photography and media from the UK and Europe. Through keynote presentations and panel discussions, the participants will explore the historical perspective and most recent practices of working with photography to talk about conflicts.

Building on the success of “Symposium: Researching and Curating Photography from Ukraine”, organised by Open Eye Gallery and held at the University of Salford in March 2024, this second​ edition will take place at Open Eye Gallery, with contributions from prominent researchers,​ academics, and curators, as well as documentary photographers, including those working on​ the front lines.

​Speakers: Fiona Shields (The Guardian), Peter van Agtmael (Magnum Photos), Evgeniy Maloletka (Associated Press), Diane Smyth (editor of the British Journal of Photography), Tamsin Silvey (Historic England), Max Houghton (London College​ of Communication, University of the Arts London), Max Gorbatskyi and Viktoria Bavykina (curators), with more speakers to be announced soon.

On War Photography
1 May 2025, 1000-1700
Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool
Free, but registration needed
https://openeye.org.uk/whatson/symposium-on-war-photography/

Almost Nothing But Blue Ground is a research project by artists Matthew Benington and Tom Pope. “It started in 2017 with the intention to explore and celebrate the life and work of Anna Atkins, the first ever person to publish a book of photographic images. After 2 years of research, we began to focus attention on her second publication, Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns, made in collaboration with Anne Dixon. Out of 100 images, 25% represented Jamaican ferns, this led us to question why so many originated in Jamaica. Our research into the UCL Legacies of British Slavery database we discovered that Atkins husband, John Pelly-Atkins, and father in-law, Alderman Atkins, owned 9 plantations in Jamaica, thousands of slaves, boats, and docks. This shifted the focus of the project from celebrating the achievement of Atkins (particularly being a woman at that time) to acknowledging the origins of the privilege that allowed her to achieve it. The research informed a performative week long walk (2021) towing a trolley which exposed prints from Atkins home in Tonbridge to Ferring, where Dixon, her collaborator lived. Our walk went via Sir John Herschel's House in Hawkhurst, Herschel invented the process and would have shared it with Atkins. This research is presented in our work in a considered manner.”

The completion of the walk created an archive of cyanotype prints, negatives, artefacts, research, and diary entries.

In the performance assets are shared via a speaker, spoken word, visualiser, data projector and OHP.

Almost Nothing But Blue Ground - A Performance Lecture
Matthew Benington and Tom Pope
ffotogallery, Cardiff
Thursday, 1 May 2025, 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Free - All welcome (Booking recommended)
Booking : https://tinyurl.com/y88nyytj