The Helen Muspratt archive has been the subject of various BPH blogs in the past, most recently in connection with the upcoming Photo Oxford Festival exhibition Women & Photography: Ways of Seeing & Being Seen. Jessica Smith, Muspratt's daughter, writes to say that Oxford's Bodleian Library has accepted the gift of the Helen Muspratt Archive. This consists of over 2000 original prints, 30 old biscuit tins of negatives covering almost 30,000 sittings from her Oxford studio, and numerous documents and letters.

The Bodleian has decided to celebrate the gift with an exhibition of the work in the newly refurbished Weston Library.  The exhibition will be accompanied by a book of Muspratt's photographs and there will also be an online lecture.

The exhibition will be part of the Festival which will also host an online conference: Let us now praise Famous Women: Discovering the work of female photographers on 24 October when Jessica will give a talk on how she researched her book and assembled the archive. Other speakers include: Val Williams, Erika Lederman, Jessica Sutcliffe, Patrizia Di Bello, Deborah Cherry, Fiona Rogers, Max Houghton and Anna Fox. 

See: https://sites.google.com/view/photooxford2020/whats-on/exhibitions

and the conference: https://sites.google.com/view/photooxford2020/whats-on/events

Britain's photographic heritage is likely to be adversely impacted if proposals in a leaked National Trust discussion document come to pass. Written by the Trust's visitor experience director Tony Berry, it sets out a ten-year vision that will directly impact historic properties, curatorial and conservation posts and put collections in to storage. The Times newspaper (21 August 2020, p.5) reported on the paper and art historian Bendor Grosvenor, who also had sight of the document, flagged it on his Twitter account @arthistorynews

National Trust Director-General Hilary McGrady responded to the claims (https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/blogs/directors-blog/our-vision-for-places-and-experiences) as partial, but as Grosvenor noted she failed to deny a number of the claims, including that the Trust will 'dial down' its status as a 'major national cultural institution', make specialist curatorial staff redundant and take objects off display.

The Trust has been significantly impacted by COVID-19 not least a loss of £200 million in income caused by the closure of many of its 550 houses, parks and gardens and has already announced significant redundancies affecting some 13 per cent of its workforce, putting 1,200 employees at risk. The Trust has £1.3 billion in financial reserves, although much of these are designated and cannot be used for general purposes. 

So, what does this mean for photography? The short answer at the moment is that it is unclear. The Trust has significant collections of historic and important photography - at least 50,000 images, although more is yet to be documented, across its historic properties. This includes material that is significant in its own right, along with photographs collected and made by individuals associated with its many properties.

The following are areas that the wider photographic community should be aware of, and be prepared to support, should the need arise:

• The Trust appointed its first National Photography Curator in July 2019, providing oversight of photography across the Trust's properties. As a specialist curator this new role, which was a two-year appointment, appears to be under threat. 
• Roger Watson, curator of the Fox Talbot Museum is a specialist curator and, again, this role may also be under threat.  
• The Trust employs specialist photographic conservators. Photographic materials are fragile and susceptible to environmental deterioration, more so than many other objects, and it is important that light sensitive materials continue to properly assessed, conserved and stored. The National Photography Curator's role was - and remains - key in surveying the Trust's collections and identifying important material and that which needs urgent conservation. It also has a key part in opening up the Hardman House collections (see below).
• The possible closure of Trust properties (see below) and the move of photographs and photographic equipment into storage will limit access to material that is of national importance, beyond the Trust's own interests. 
• Although photography is in many of the Trust's properties two are particularly important:
  • The Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock, was opened in 1975 to show and interpret objects relating to William Henry Fox Talbot, his life and the development of photography,  and to exhibit photography.  In recent years the museum has broadened its remit to contextualise Talbot within a broader history of photography and the acquisition of the Fenton Collection in 2016 has allowed it to show a history from the 1830s to the 1990s.
  • Adjacent is the Grade 1 listed Lacock Abbey, Talbot's home, where many of his experiments were undertaken and the location of many of his early photographs. It is the birthplace of negative-positive photography. The house and the surrounding village of Lacock were given to the National Trust in 1944.
  • E. Chambré Hardman House, Liverpool. Opened by Burrelll and Hardman in 1923 the company remained in business until c1965/6. The building and negatives were acquired by a charitable trust and later transferred to the National Trust. 
  • in addition, many of the National Trust's other properties contain significant smaller groups of photographs. 

UPDATES >>

This piece by Grosvenor is worth reading and does not bode well for Lacock Abbey https://www.arthistorynews.com/articles/5685_Inside_the_National_Trusts_Beeching_Plan In the absence of anything from the National Trust one fears the worst. 

See also: https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2020/08/national-trust-defends-restructure-plans/

See also: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/comment/national-trust-restructuring-plan-job-cuts   

Images: © Michael Pritchard. Top: the entrance to the Fox Talbot Museum; lower: entrance to Hardman House.

Note: none of the individuals mentioned above have spoken to BPH in connection with this blog piece.   

This three-day course will investigate and highlight the role of women photographers from the 19th century to today and their influence in the field of photographic portraiture. Beginning by exploring the use of the camera by women during the birth of the medium, the course will go on to examine how 20th century women photographers embraced and challenged the documentary traditions of portraiture. We will end by looking at how staging, costumes and props became the recurring tools of photographic self-portraiture. The course will introduce a wide range of artists, covering works by Julia Margaret Cameron, Dorothea Lange, Diane Arbus, Claude Cahun, Cindy Sherman, Annie Lebovitz, Sally Man, Nan Golding, Carrie Mae Weens and Zenele Muholi.

This course will be delivered online via Zoom. All participants will receive information in advance about how to access the course before it commences.

What you will learn:

• Growing confidence in looking at and interpreting photographic portraiture

• Thorough knowledge of key women and non-binary artists working in photography

• Understanding portraiture as a core application and technique of photography

Christie's Education
17-19 November 2020
1330-1430, daily
£210

See more and sign up here

Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY, is hosting process historian Mark Osterman who will share techniques from the history of photography and demonstrating some of the methods.used. 

The talks are being held over four months and are free to attend, although pre-booking is required. They will take place via Zoom.  

The four demonstrations are: 

• Tuesday, 1 September 2020 at 1300 (1800 BST). Clouds and combination printing. Many nineteenth-century landscape photographs are cloudless. Early photographic negatives documented light blue and white as the same value, resulting in blank skies. In this live online program, Process Historian Mark Osterman will discuss the reasons for these cloudless skies and demonstrate the nineteenth-century technique of combination printing from two separate negatives.
• Tuesday, 13 October 2020 at 1300 (1800 BST). Early optics in photography. Before there was photography, there was the study of light and lenses. In this presentation, Process Historian Mark Osterman will demonstrate how light can be manipulated and used for photography and share the basics of optics that were foundational in the invention of photography: from classifying simple lenses to using a camera obscura for gazing, drawing, or photographic experiments. 
• Tuesday, 3 November 2020 at 1300 (1700 GMT). Early silver processes. The first successful process used for photography was based on the light sensitivity of silver chloride. Experiments in silver chloride date to the eighteenth century, but the chemistry was not fully understood until William Henry Fox Talbot conducted and documented his exhaustive tests in the 1830s. In this virtual talk, Process Historian Mark Osterman will share what Talbot built upon and then perfected.
• Tuesday, 3 December 2020 at 1300 (1700 GMT). Nineteenth century retouching techniques. The limited sensitivity of nineteenth-century photographic materials gave rise to a number of curious but effective techniques to make photographs appear more natural. In this live presentation, Process Historian Mark Osterman will show examples of early negative retouching and then demonstrate some of these rare techniques. 

The talks are free, but must be pre-booked. Click the link here.

They are supported by Art Bridges and the National Endowment for the Arts. 

The E. Chambré Hardman House in Liverpool is a photographic time-capsule and has been looked after by the National Trust since 2003. Currently closed due to COVID-19 the Trust has released a guided-tour film showing what is inside and how the collection of negatives and prints is being conserved.

Take a look here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsIEwC5OJOc&feature=youtu.be

With thanks to John Marriage for flagging it up. 

Amber Film & Photography Collective which includes Side Gallery, Newcastle-on-Tyne is recruiting for a series of part-time positions. 

• Audience Development Coordinator - https://www.amber-online.com/job-opportunity-audience-development-co-ordinator/
• Fundraising Manager - https://www.amber-online.com/job-opportunity-fundraising-manager/

Alexander Bassano established "one of the most important photographic studios of the Victorian era. His sitters included royalty, aristocracy, politicians, and leading names from the military, sciences and arts". Over 2,000 glass negative plates from the Bassano studio are housed at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Yet so little is known about the man, and the development of his studios. Bassano: The Making of a Court Photographer chronicles Alexander's life: his childhood in a musical, creative family; theatrical and artistic connections that shaped his early days; his previously unknown career on the pantomime stage; the influences that drew him towards photography, and the consequent establishment of the studios that bore his name.

BASSANO The making of a court photographer
Richard Peroni
80-pages, £12.91
Privately published, July 2020
ISBN-13: 979-8660004827
Available on Amazon. 

Displaced Visions: Émigré Photographers of the 20th Century was the title of a talk and conversation between Dr Nissan Perez, former Curator of Photography at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and photographic historian and curator Colin Ford CBE. 

The talk is available to view:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9swElGoYS4&feature=youtu.be

The Another Eye conference, celebrating the contribution of women refugee photographers who came to Britain after 1933. will be held online after its postponement earlier this year.  

Presentations will cover photographers’ work across portraiture, reportage, social documentary and architectural photography, and how the European cultural approaches that they brought with them informed British visual culture. In particular we will consider how their experiences both as outsiders and as women shaped their practice.

Speakers include:

• Valeria Carullo, Architectural Photography by émigré women
• Colin Ford, Lotte Meitner-Graf
• Michele Henning, A Hundred Years: Lucia Moholy and German Photography History in Britain
• Amanda Hopkinson, Woman to Woman: Photographic Friends Gerti Deutsch & Inge Morath
• John March, Disrupted and Changing Careers of Women Refugee Photographers
• Clara Masnatta, Photographer Grete Stern in London Transit
• Roberta McGrath, Edith Tudor-Hart
• Rolf Sachsse, Lucia Moholy: Science and Design in Exile
• Kylie Thomas, Anne Fischer’s Itinerant Vision: A German Jewish photographer between England and South Africa
• Barbara Warnock, The Rediscovery of Gerty Simon’s Work, Archive, Life and Career
• Anthea Kennedy and Tom Heinersdorff, Memories of Erika Koch and Elisabeth Chat

This free event will run over three afternoons from Friday 11 to Sunday 13 September.

Details and registration here: https://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/whats-on/another-eye-online-conference

The Four Corners exhibition Another Eye: Women Refugee Photographers in Britain after 1933, runs until 3 October 2020. 

The rare photographic images of Florence Nightingale are so famous and familiar – iconic even – that we tend to take them for granted. But what do we actually know about them, about the circumstances in which they were made, distributed and, more importantly maybe, about the photographers who took them? Come and discover the truth behind the iconic pictures of a British legend in a Zoom talk by historian, Denis Pellerin, from Dr. Brian May’s London Stereoscopic Company.

Florence Nightingale apparently loathed having her photograph taken. Why then did she accept to sit for these images? And why did she repeatedly lie about being photographed only once, by command of the Queen?

This is the story of a quest, of a search that took Pellerin and his assistant, Rebecca, to dozens of different places and archives, both on location and online. The talk is being given for the benefit of the Florence Nightingale Museum 

The talk is £5.98. To read more and book click here: https://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/they-mystery-of-florences-photos/ 

At an estimate of £60-100 a stereoscopic daguerreotype of Fox Talbot by Antoine Claudet could be yours. The lot is being offered by Kings Russell Auctioneers in London's Knightsbridge in an auction as lot 172 on 18 August 2020. 

The description is here: 

Antoine Claudet (French, 1797-1867), Portrait of William Fox Talbot, stereoscopic daguerreotype, mounted with photographer blindstamp to mount and label to verso No.4695 Mr.Claudet, Photographer to the Queen, 107 Regent Street, London, H.17cm W.12cm, full frame size H.25.5cm W.21.5cm

Estimate £60-100 / http://www.kingsrussell.com/index.php/component/catalogue/lots?auctionid=39&start=160

As most BPH readers will immediately see the lot is NOT a stereoscopic, NOT a daguerreotype and is NOT a portrait of William Henry Fox Talbot, but could be another William Fox Talbot. The auctioneer has been approached for more information about the attribution.

Fortunately, the auctioneer's terms of business state 'Should any Lot be sold other than specifically described in writing in terms of appearance or condition, authenticity or originality, the Buyer has 12 days from the date of sale to apply in writing for a refund of the purchase price'. 

As they say caveat emptor

The Black House was a hostel founded in the early 1970s by Herman Edwards, a charismatic Caribbean immigrant, better known to his community as Brother Herman. It aimed to provide accommodation and support for disillusioned black adolescents in Islington, London, many of whom had experienced prejudice, unemployment, and problems with the police.

Almost half a century later the Michael Hoppen Gallery has an exclusive video interview with 83 year old Colin Jones and considers the lasting impact of his iconic series of work. The Gallery also has available vintage works from The Black House series (1973-76).

See more here: https://michaelhoppen.viewingroom.com/viewing-room/10-colin-jones-the-black-house-1973-76/

The 35th Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards have announced the long and shortlisted titles. The books in the running for the 2020 Photography Book Award and Moving Image Book Award address diverse global issues related to race, justice, identity, and the construction of truth, history and memory.

Ranging from illuminating artist monographs and anthologies to in-depth critiques of photography or filmmaking, to photobooks reconstructing hidden stories, and much more, the lists reflect the Foundation’s enduring recognition of rigorous and original books that will likely have a lasting impact on their field.

Professor Elizabeth Edwards, Judge, Photography Book Award comments: “The significant themes that emerged from this year’s submissions clustered around identity, environment and the uses of history and memory. Overall the entries  demonstrate the centralityof photography as a major articulation of submerged, contested but vital histories.”

Dr Andrew Moor, Judge, Moving Image Book Award comments: “The longlist contains work that pushes at the  boundaries of the cinematic. It is a set of books that aims to reinterpret the past, reflecting how moving images mediate our lives, animate our memories and vitally record our presence.”

In lieu of an Awards Ceremony which usually takes place during Photo London, the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation has teamed up with The Photographers’ Gallery to announce the winners in September. A live stream event hosted by the Gallery will feature conversations about the two winning books. Sir Brian Pomeroy CBE, Chair of the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation said: “In this, our 35th anniversary year, the submissions have maintained an extremely high standard of image-making and authorship, carrying forward our mission to encourage and celebrate outstanding photo-books and books about the moving image. We are very pleased to be partnering with The Photographers’ Gallery in presenting the awards this year.”

Winners will receive prize money of £5,000 each. For both categories, the shortlist selected by the judging panel aims to showcase innovative and coherent bodies of work with a focus on cultural relevance for our current times and in the years to come. The judges also put precedence on each publication’s design, texture, and haptic qualities, aspects that are particularly poignant during this period of digital focus.

The Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards, first established in 1985, are open to all Moving Image and Photography books published in the previous year and available in the UK. Over 200 entries were considered this year.
The shortlisted titles are as follows:

2020 Photography Book Award (Shortlist):

La toya Ruby Frazier (Mousse Publishing & Mudam Luxembourg)
With its commentary on poverty, racial discrimination, post-industrial decline and its human costs, this work leaves a lasting historical legacy and forms a pertinent contemporary commentary about the American condition. The almost magazine-like production values add to this sense of historical ‘first draft’.
Photography, Truth and Reconciliation by Melissa Miles (Routledge)
Photography has been at the centre of the political, social and cultural processes of truth and reconciliation in response to oppressive regimes and dispossessing histories. Taking case studies from Argentina, Australia, Cambodia, Canada, and South Africa, Miles explores the dynamics through which artists have explored these compelling and difficult histories, raising questions of memory, identity and justice.
The Curious Moaning of Kenfig Burrows by Sophy Rickett (GOST Books)
Rickett’s book is a striking collection of 41 photographic works inspired by the life and work of 19th Century Welsh artist and astronomer Thereza Dillwyn Llewelyn. Through photography and text, Rickett charts her journey towards making sense of the sprawling and complex Dillwyn Llewelyn family archive.

2020 Photography Book Award (Longlist):
● The Canary and The Hammer by Lisa Barnard (MACK)
● Women War Photographers: From Lee Miller to Anja Niedringhaus by Anne-Marie Beckmann & Felicity Kom, eds. (Prestel)
● Seeing the Unseen by Harold Edgerton (Steidl co-published with the MIT Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts)
● LaToya Ruby Frazier (Mousse Publishing / Mudam Luxembourg)
● Signs and Wonders: The Photographs of John Beasley Greene by Corey Keller (Prestel)
● The New Black Vanguard: Photography Between Art and Fashion by Antwaun Sargent (Aperture)
● Dr. Paul Wolff & Tritschler: Light and Shadow – Photographs 1920 bis 1950 by Hans-Michael Koetzle (Kehrer Verlag)
● Photography, Truth and Reconciliation by Melissa Miles (Routledge)
● The Curious Moaning of Kenfig Burrows by Sophy Rickett (GOST Books) 22 July 2020
● Where We Find Ourselves: The Photographs of Hugh Mangum, 1897–1922 by Margaret Sartor and Alex Harris, eds. (University of North Carolina Press)

This two-part online research seminar event raises questions about how archives of ‘vernacular’ photographs inform and shape our understanding of both the present and the past. During the presentations, each speaker will examine how archives are re-activated within contemporary photographic practice as potential sites of critical political significance. Whilst the starting point originates with the material culture of the archive itself, the political relationships within the selected photographic materials will be critically evaluated. These discussions aim to expose and debate the continued complexity of gender, sexuality, race, class and politics held within the photographic archive.

Part 1 – The Personal Is Still Political
17th September 2020 
Sian Macfarlane, Coventry University (30 mins)
Lizzie Thynne, Professor of Film at Sussex University (30 mins)
Chair: Caroline Molloy, Programme Leader in Fine Art and Photography at UCA Farnham

Part 2 – The Living Memory Project
24th September 2020 
Geoff Broadway, Director of the Living Memory Project (30 mins)
Caroline Molloy, Living Memory Bursary Artist in Residence (20 mins)
Harmeet Chagger-Khan, Living Memory Artist in Residence (20 mins)
Chair: Dr Nicky Bird, Reader in Contemporary Photographic Practice, Glasgow School of Art

Family Ties Network:
The Political Geographies of the Archive
Online Research Seminar
17th and 24th September 2020 1800-1930
Registration is free but you will need to book a place to receive the Zoom links for the sessions. The links will be sent out shortly before the scheduled event. Book here

Image Credit: Swimmers at Reedswood Park open air pool, early 20th Century, courtesy of Walsall Archive used in the Women of Walsall Living Memory Project by Caroline Molloy

2020 coincides with the centenary of the first woman matriculating and graduating from the University of Oxford. What better time and place could there be for celebrating women and their diverse roles in international photography?

What themes are women photographers addressing from behind the camera? To what extent have muses become collaborators in the creation of their photographic image? Do selfies show more than self-generated objects of display?
Our festival seeks to draw attention to diverse viewpoints, relationships, and concerns that inform today's photographic culture.

Photo Oxford 
16 October-16 November 2020
Visit our website to find out more. 

Image: Hands and Feet © Helen Muspratt ca. 1932

Displaced Visions: Émigré Photographers of the 20th Century was a major 2013 Jerusalem exhibition and book that reconsidered the work of nearly 100 key immigrants, focussing in particular on the earliest photographs taken by them as artists in their various new countries, exploring how this work expanded photographic practices of the time and influenced the history of the medium. 

On Sunday 2 August from 1700-1830, Nissan Perez, former Curator of Photography at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, will give a talk about the topic of his book, as part of the 'Insiders/Outsiders' Festival. Nissan will reconsider the work and influence of key figures in modernist photography from the point of view of their status as refugees or immigrants, considering how this condition affected their vision and creativity and enhanced the development of the photographic language in general.

The session will be chaired by photographic historian and curator Colin Ford CBE and held in association with London’s Four Corners Gallery.

To see the rest of the programme clock here: https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/free-insiders-outsiders-online-events-programme

or to book directly click here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/displaced-visions-emigre-photographers-of-the-20th-century-tickets-112790816368

Four Corners has announced the launch of a Heritage Lottery funded project. The 3-year project will see it delve deeper into Four Corners Archive, evolving the collection into an active site for public events, study, socially-engaged practice and collaboration. Here's what is planned:

• On the Move: the history of the Half Moon Photography Workshop/Camerawork touring exhibitions, 1976-1984.
  More than 50 of these innovative, laminated touring shows were shown across the UK and beyond, in community halls, factory canteens, launderettes and other unconventional spaces. They provide unique insights into community activism, feminism, political struggle, working lives and disappearing traditions. We will research and document original material, leading to an exhibition in 2021.
   
• Research partnership with the Jo Spence Memorial Library Archive at Birkbeck.
  Jo Spence was one of the founder members of HMPW and Camerawork magazine. The project will support a research archivist to work across the Jo Spence and Four Corners archive collections.
   
• A Bengali Photography Archive of activist, family and community photographs to be developed in partnership with Swadhinata Trust and Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives.
   
• Exhibition on housing, squatting and homelessness in East London, to be developed with the Centre for Arts Memory and Communities, Coventry University in 2022.

Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, supported by a curatorial research grant from the Paul Mellon Centre. Project partners are Bishopsgate Insitute, Centre for Arts, Memory & Communities at Coventry University, Feminist Library,  Jo Spence Memorial Library at Birkbeck, Mayday Rooms, Swadhinata Trust, Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives.

See: https://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/whats-on/hidden-histories

When the National Library of Scotland and National Galleries of Scotland acquired the MacKinnon Collection, it made a joint commitment to preserve it in alignment with its growing world class photographic collections and provide access for ever-changing audiences. This talk describes our current cataloguing, digitisation and engagement activities, and explores ways in which the MacKinnon Collection compliments existing strengths in the NLS and NGS photographic collections. Join curator Blake Milteer to hear more. 

Thursday, 16 July 2020
From 1700-1730
Free
Book: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/saved-for-the-nation-where-does-the-mackinnon-collection-go-from-here-tickets-110249770030

Back in March BPH published a regularly updated blog of how museums, galleries, research venues and events were approaching lockdown with cancellations, postponements and closures. Finally, after more than twelves weeks, museums, galleries and libraries are allowed to open from 4 July, albeit with constraints because of social distancing, the need to protect staff and visitors, and, of course, financial considerations associated with ticketing, shops and cafes and a reluctance of visitors to use public transport or to visit indoor venues . The fact that some venues are able to open does not mean that they will do so. 

Below is an updated list of events and venues. Please comment with other photography venue openings if they are not listed here. Please check before visiting - many venues are now requiring pre-booking.

Events

• Photo London 2020 will take place at Gray’s Inn Gardens, London, from Wednesday 7 October to Sunday 11 October, with an invitation-only VIP Preview on Tuesday, 6 October. See: https://photolondon.org/visiting/ Will return live, possibly in September or October 2021. 
• Photography Show.  Now a virtual photography and video festival over two days on Sunday, 20 and Monday, 21 September 2020. See: https://www.photographyshow.com/ Will return live in September 2021. 
• FORMAT festival, Derby. Opens on 11 March 2021 as planned.

Most venues are operating pre-booking, reduced opening days and hours and not all parts of their building may be open. Check before making a special visit. 

Venues

• National Portrait Gallery. Closed for refurbishment until Spring 2023. Online exhibitions. https://www.npg.org.uk/
• Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol. Re-opens July 2020. See: https://www.martinparrfoundation.org/visit/  
• V&A Museum, London. Re-opening 6 August 2020. Photography Galleries on 27 August. No news of Print Room or NAL. See: https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/plan-your-visit
• National Science+Media Museum, Bradford Science Museum, London. Both re-open 19 August 2020. See: https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/visit
• Barbican Gallery and Centre, London,  Re-opens 13 July. See: https://www.barbican.org.uk/
• Tate Galleries. All four Tate galleries open on 27 July. See: https://www.tate.org.uk/
• Royal Photographic Society. Online only until January 2021. see: https://rps.org/news/bristol/2020/june/rps-to-remain-online-until-2021/
• The Photographers' Gallery, London. Re-opens on 14 July 2020. See: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/FAQs
• Autograph, London. Re-opening April 2021, but introducing new outreach programmes. https://autograph.org.uk/
• British Library, London. Gradually from 22 July.
• Gallery of Photography, Ireland. Late July.
• Four Corners, London. 9 July. See: https://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/
• Whitechapel Gallery, London, from 14 July. See: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/
• The National Archives, Kew, from 21 July. See: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/coronavirus-update/
• Site Gallery, Sheffield, from 9 September. See: https://www.sitegallery.org/news/plans-to-re-open-site-gallery/

First published 30 June 2020 and updated regularly.

Facing Britain brings together for the first time outside of the UK a particular view of British documentary photography. Long forgotten and only recently rediscovered photographers such as John Myers, Tish Murtha or Peter Mitchell who are shown alongside works by internationally photographers such as Martin Parr. The show offers an insight into the development of documentary photography in the UK, which is interwoven with that in continental Europe and North America, but also independent of them.

The documentary aspect is one of the great strengths of British photography, which is capable of depicting a part of geographical Europe in transition in a multifaceted, surprising and artistically original way. Facing Britain focuses on the period of Britain's membership of the European Union and its forerunner between 1963 until 2020. In view of the current Corona pandemic, the exhibition proves to be a break in the artistic development of an entire nation.

The photographers being exhibited include five women photographers, but missing are a number of significant photographers of colour who brought - and bring - a distinctive perspective to British documentary photography and the way in which they approached their subject matter.

Included are: John Bulmer, Rob Bremner, Thom Corbishley, Robert Darch, Anna Fox, Ken Grant, Judy Greenway, Paul Hill, David Hurn, Markéta Luskačová, Kirsty Mackay, Niall McDiarmid, Daniel Meadows, Peter Mitchel, David Moore, Tish Murtha, John Myers, Jon Nicholson, Martin Parr, Paul Reas, Simon Roberts, Dave Sinclair, Homer Sykes, Jon Tonks and others.

The exhibition describes the decline of the coal industry, the Thatcher era with the Falkland conflict, and the Brexit that divided the country. A special focus is on the 1970s and 1980s, which were influenced by David Hurn, Tish Murtha, Daniel Meadows and Martin Parr, when artistic documentary photography gained an importance worldwide. Martin Parr describes these decades as 'a formative period for British photography, in which the strength of the documentary movement really came alive'.

In Great Britain, photography was not considered an autonomous art form until the 1980s. The first major survey exhibition on British documentary photography in Great Britain did not take place until 2007 under the title How We Are: Photographing Britain at the Tate Britain, London. Subsequently, the British Council's exhibition No Such Thing As Society: Photography in Britain 1967-1987 toured the UK, Poland and Sweden from 2008 to 2010.

This late tribute to the pioneers of British documentary photography also demonstrated the difficulties of photography in Britain. British photography, with a few exceptions, had difficulty in asserting itself on the international market, not least because of its socially critical or political content and socially critical approaches, which are unmistakable in the work of Ken Grant, Tish Murtha, Homer Sykes, Paul Reas or Anna Fox.

Facing Britain presents a portrait of  Britain that is divided, unequal and interspersed with classes, but marked by deep affection, humanity and humour. The photographs speak for themselves, bear witness to artistic concepts and attitudes and convey historical contexts. They call for a view of today's United Kingdom beyond the clichés. Inequality and identity are still the key concepts that dominate the nation and define what makes the exhibition more relevant than ever. Previously virulent themes such as youth unemployment, the decline of the mining industry or protest and demonstration against the policies of Margaret Thatcher are historically illuminated in the exhibition and critically questioned by the participating photographers. Recent works by Kirsty Mackay, Paul Reas, Robert Darch or Niall McDiramid also reflect current issues on topics such as gender justice, consumer society, Brexit or migration.

Museum Goch 
Kastellstraße 9
D-47574 Goch
27 September-to 7 November, 2020
https://museum-goch.de/

Catalogue in preparation

The exhibition Facing Britain at Museum Goch is a cooperation with IKS Photo, Düsseldorf.
Curator:  Ralph Goertz