Ben Harman was appointed Senior Curator of Photography at the National Galleries of Scotland in 2024. In this illustrated talk, he will share his thoughts on the current status of photography in Scotland with reference to its history and the background to recent developments, current practices and trends. He will also look forward to the challenges and exciting future ambitions of curating Scotland’s photography collection.

Past, Present, Future: Curating Scotland’s Photography Collection
Tuesday 11 February, 12.45-1.30pm.
National Galleries of Scotland, The Mound, Edinburgh, EH2 2EL and online
Free, but registration required: register here for the: live event or streamed live

BPH has just been made aware of the passing of R Derek Wood. He was an important researcher in to the early history of photography and microscopy, in addition to his day job in medical imaging and research. He maintained an important website that housed his photography papers and writings published from c.1970-2008. 

Wood's career was in research on electron microscopy in bio-medical research laboratories in London and he published extensively in this area. Away from work he undertook important and meticulous research into the early history of photography mainly over the period from 1820s to 1860s. His subjects ranged from Niépce, Daguerre, Beard and Talbot, legal disputes, Herschel, J B Reade, daguerreotypy, and others. This was all undertaken at a time when there was little similar research taking place, and when digitisation and online resources were decades away, necessitating long visits to local archives, the Public Record Office, learned societies, and the British Museum reading room. His publications date from 1970 although he had an interest prior to this. His papers remain a valuable source of information. 

Wood was a member of the Royal Photographic Society for a time from 1966 and its Historical Group which was founded in 1972, leaving in 1972. He published a paper with Mrs E D Shorland on 'The Daguerreotype Portrait of Dorothy Draper' in The Photographic Journal, December 1970. His research appeared in a variety publications including Annals of Science, History of Photography, History Today and British Journal of Photography. 

He was member of the European Society for the History of Photography from its inception in 1977 and was editor/compiler of the ESHPh’s bibliography Photohistorica 1993/94 and he published in PhotoResearcher. He presented a paper 'Fourteenth March 1839, Herschel's Key to Photography, the Way the Moment is Preserved for the Future' at the ESHP's 30th anniversary congress, Vienna, in 2007. 

He was married to Alison. 

Rupert Derek Wood
Born: Romney Marsh, 1933- died: Bromley, Kent, 2024)

See archived website with papers at https://web.archive.org/web/20180314160924/http://www.midley.co.uk/

A long list of photography and medical papers can be seen at https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UAIzhg4AAAAJ&hl=en

Details of his website archive can be seen here: https://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/midley-history-of-early

Thanks for European Society for the History of Photography for advising of R Derek Wood's death. 

Professor Steve Edwards has been appointed Manton Professor of British Art. Beginning in April, he will serve as the inaugural Director of The Courtauld’s new Manton Centre for British Art, the new home for The Courtauld’s research and teaching on British art. Edwards is currently Professor of the History and Theory of Photography at Birkbeck, and before that had been at the Open University. 

Named after British art collectors and philanthropists Sir Edwin Manton and Florence, Lady Manton, The Manton Centre for British Art will serve as an intellectual hub for art historians, curators, artists, and students nationally and internationally, providing a platform for sharing world-leading research and teaching the next generation of British art specialists. It will be located initially at The Courtauld’s current campus at Vernon Square and will later be housed in purpose-designed premises at Somerset House.

The Manton Centre was established by the Corutauld in 2024 with a $12 million donation. The Centre, named after British art collectors and philanthropists, Sir Edwin Manton and Florence, Lady Manton, will help secure The Courtauld’s ambition of becoming a world leader in the field of British art, and marks the continued commitment of the Manton family to arts education. The Manton Centre for British Art will serve as an intellectual hub for art historians, curators, critics, artists and students nationally and internationally, providing a platform for sharing world-leading research and for teaching the next generation of British art specialists.

Located initially at The Courtauld’s current campus at Vernon Square, King's Cross, the Manton Centre will later be housed in the purpose-designed premises at Somerset House, providing the physical and intellectual home for The Courtauld’s research and teaching on British art. The Courtauld’s specialists in British art will become members of the Centre and help shape its activities and development. The Centre will operate as the base for students taking modules in British art as part of their MA degree and also provide a home for The Courtauld’s PhD students researching British art.

The Centre will present an ambitious and dynamic programme of events including:

• An annual lecture in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton
• An annual international conference devoted to a major topic in the field
• Regular workshops devoted to specific areas of British art
• An annual programme of seminars and lectures enabling scholars, curators, critics and artists to share their thinking and research
• An annual ‘scholar in residence’ programme, designed to host a leading figure in the field of British art.

The Manton Centre for British Art will also pursue collaborations with other scholarly and artistic institutions both in the UK and around the world. In pursing these collaborations and partnerships, the Centre will engage with all areas and periods of British art, and with a wide range of partners and interlocutors.

See: https://courtauld.ac.uk/news-blogs/2025/executive-dean-and-deputy-director-and-manton-professor-for-british-art-announcement/ and https://courtauld.ac.uk/news-blogs/2024/the-manton-centre-for-british-art-announcement/

https://www.bbk.ac.uk/our-staff/#overview

Edwards' Birkbeck biography notes:  Steve grew up on a council estate and he was a manual worker before going to art school with the intention of becoming a great artist, instead he found politics and theory. He studied the MA in Social History of Art at the University of Leeds with John Tagg and Griselda Pollock, receiving a Distinction, and then did PhD research at Portsmouth Polytechnic and the University of Leeds with Adrian Rifkin (and for a short while with the late Robbie Grey). Between 1991 and 1997 he was Head of Historical & Theoretical Studies in Photography at the University of Derby. In 1997 he was a visiting scholar at the Victoria & Albert Museum; the same year he moved to the Open University, where he contributed teaching material on nineteenth- and twentieth-century art to a variety of courses and edited three Open University textbooks. In 2006 he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan. Steve was made Professor at the OU in 2013 and, between 2012 and 2016, he was the Head of the Department of Art History. He joined the Department of Art History at Birkbeck in 2016 as Professor of History & Theory of Photography.
Administrative responsibilities: Research Director and REF lead; Co-Director History and Theory of Photography Research Centre
Visiting posts: Visiting Professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 01-2016 to 03-2006; Visiting Professor, Université Bordeaux-Montagne, 10-2018 to 12-2018
Professional activities: Senior Teaching Fellow HEA; Editorial Board: Oxford Art Journal; Editorial Collective Historical Materialism Book Series (Brill/Haymarket); Co-convenor Research Seminar Series 'Marxism in Culture', Institute of Advanced Studies, Senate House
Professional membership: Senior Teaching Fellow HEA; AHRC Peer Review College
He has published extensively on photography and is currently working on the book looking at the early business of photography. 

Image: © Michael Pritchard. Steve Edwards delivering a paper at A New Power symposium, Bodleian Libraries in March 2023. 

There are two conservator jobs being adevrtised at the moment. The V&A Museum is looking for a paper and photographs conservator (closes 9 February) and the British Film Institute is seeking a Senor Conservator - Film Laboratory (closes 5 February). Details on the links. 

A monograph on the photographer W J A Grant has just been published. Grant is best known for his photography with the expeditions of Benjamin Leigh-Smith, Sir Henry Gore-Booth and the Dutch national exploration vessel 'William Barents'. His first Arctic voyage took place in 1876. Grant was elected to membership of the Photographic society of London in 1863 and he exhibited in Society exhibitions from 1869. He was also a member/subscriber of the Amateur Photographic Association. 

W J A Grant (1851-1935). Arctic Photographer
Arthur G Credland
Illustrated, A4, 47-pages, privately published, 2025
Details of availability and price from the author: e: bracer@bracer.karoo.co.uk

The Scottish Society for the History of Photography has just published the latest number of Studies in Photography (Winter 2024). As ever it includes range of articles from across photography's history up to the present day, alongside reviews and interviews. Photographers featured include Calum Colvin, Ian Phillips McLaren, Nan Goldin, Alexander Hamilton and Mike Weaver. There are interviews with with Rebecca Hicks of Purdey Hicks Gallery and Frank Mckenzie from the Jospeh McKenzie Archive. Reviews include the V&A's Fragile Beauty and Zelda Cheatle presents her curator's choice. 

Studies in Photography
The Scottish Society for the History of Photography
126 pages
ISSN 1462-0510
Details here: https://studiesinphotography.com/

BPH has just become aware of the passing of Mike Weaver on 24 June 2024. For many he will be remembered as the co-editor with his partner Anne Hammond between 1991 and 2000 of History of Photography. From 1978 to 1983, he worked as chairman of the Photography Advisory Group of the Arts Council of Great Britain, and was a photographer in his own right, although he would claim otherwise.

Amongst other titles, he authored The Photographic Art: Pictorial Traditions in Britain and America (London: Herbert Press, 1986) and The Art of Photography 1839-1989 (Yale, 1989), and edited British Photography in The Nineteenth Century: The Fine Art Tradition (CUP, 1989). His published works stretched from Talbot, Cameron and Coburn, to Strand and Mapplethorpe.

I was fortunate to hear several of his conference lectures. They were always interesting and often provocative, offering a distinctive perspective and reading the work of historical photographers. As Geoff Batchen notes: 'Mike Weaver was always a powerful presence in any gathering devoted to the study of photography: learned, single-minded and articulate (and sometimes also irascible) and determined to bring the focus back to pictures and their artistic capacities, where he thought it belonged.'

An obituary by Geoffrey Batchen was published on History of Photography website on 10 December 2024: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03087298.2024.2417527?src=exp-la

Anne Hammond writes about Mike's own photography in 'Mike Weaver. The Eye of the Photo Critic' in Studies in Photography (Scottish Society for the History of Photography, Winter 2024, 122-123) 

A Polaroid portrait of Mike Weaver by Mark Haworth-Booth is in the NPG collection. See: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp152263/mike-weaver

Image: © Mark Haworth-Booth. Mike Weaver, colour Polaroid print, 1978-1983. NPG Collection, London, given by Mark Haworth-Booth, 2005. NPG x199233. Reproduced with the photographer's permission. 

You will lead a large multidisciplinary customer facing department. At IWM Visual Resources deliver a museum-wide service for multimedia digitisation of our collections for access and preservation, as well as marketing photography and video for on brand events and marketing. These outputs form key aspects of the IWM’s: public, commercial, collections access, collections preservation, and learning programmes.

You will inform the strategic development of this service, maintenance of the Collections Digital and Digital Futures Strategies and delivery of its access and preservation digital outputs. You will be skilled in commissioning specialist advice from internationally recognised experts on digital access and preservation, your team and liaison with senior management to recommend and deliver strategic programmes of work (running over several years) from concept to completion.

The post holder is responsible for all elements of management of this team including staff, equipment and systems.

Note that members of the Creative team are located at IWM London, and the Digitisation team at IWM Duxford; you will be expected to travel in this role. This post will be based at Duxford.

Head of Visual Resources
IWM, based at Duxford
Closes 10 February 2025
Details here

Barry Taylor, who was managing director of Olympus Optical Co (UK) from 1977 until 1999, has died aged 87 years. During his career at Olympus Barry was behind a series of memorable advertising campaigns, the establishment of Olympus’s London photography galleries, and through Olympus supported photography more widely across Britain.  

In 1975 Japan’s Olympus Optical Company took over an existing distributor – David Williams (Cine Equipment) Ltd and from 1 July 1975 it became the first Japanese manufacturer to distribute its own range in the United Kingdom. Headhunted from Polaroid, Barry became interim managing director and was the first managing director of Olympus Optical Co (UK) Ltd – later Olympus Cameras – when it became the first wholly owned subsidiary of a Japanese parent company in 1977. The firm moved from Glasshouse Yard to the familiar Honduras Street address. For the next twenty-two years Olympus, under Taylor, put itself in the public consciousness through a series of popular television and press campaigns, and partnerships including the London Marathon in 1993 and JPS Lotus.

Taylor and Ian Dickens, his marketing director, established Olympus as the leading photographic brand in the UK. Part of this was down to a series of memorable TV campaigns from 1977-1991, the most famous being for the Olympus Trip camera and featuring David Bailey and a range of celebrities including Michael Elphick, Eric Idle and James Hunt. Bailey appeared in over ten television commercials, and the phrase “David Bailey? Who’s he?” still resonates amongst a certain generation.

In addition to Bailey, Olympus forged relationships with many of the leading photographers and photojournalists of the 1970s and 1980s. They included Terence Donovan, Terry Fincher, Duffy, Patrick Lichfield, Lord Snowdon, Lord Lichfield, Barry Lategan, John Swannell, Don McCullin, Jane Bown, Mirella Ricciardi, Eric Hosking, Don Morley, and Bob Carlos-Clarke. Celebrities such as Peter Sellers were also brought to promote the Olympus OM camera range.

In many ways Olympus was ahead of its time when it established a photographic gallery, under the direction of Geoff Ash, in the colonnade next to London’s Ritz Hotel in 1979. The RPS’s Photographic Journal noted it brought a welcome addition to London’s limited gallery scene. It proved so popular that a larger gallery space in Princes Street, off Regent Street, London, under curator Martin Harrison, was opened in 1983 with the two spaces running concurrently for a period. Exhibitions had a five-year waiting list and featured the likes of Elliot Erwitt, Helmut Newton, Bruce Weber and Jacque Henri Lartigue. Today such brand-building spaces are more common.

Another project that Barry supported was the Olympus/Royal Photographic Society commemorative blue plaque scheme for photographers which was announced in 1995. Dickens notes: ‘Bailey had pushed English Heritage to put one of their plaques on the London house once owned by Roger Fenton and it eventually happened - the first for a photographer. We all agreed there should be many more, but the application process was very slow. As such, we came up with our own scheme in conjunction with the RPS. The plaques were blue and hexagonal in shape and we commissioned ten, each of which were unveiled by notable folk.’

The ten Olympus plaques commemorated: Julia Margaret Cameron, Henry Peach Robinson, Eadweard Muybridge, Samuel Bourne, James Craig Annan, Anna Atkins, Angus McBean, Lee Miller, Edward Chambré Hardman, and Alvin Langdon Coburn. Olympus, with Westminster City Council, supported a plaque for Terence Donovan in 1999. 

Olympus was also instrumental in saving Dimbola by purchasing the house when it looked like it would be demolished, and it remained committed to the project for many years. The house opened to the public in 1994. Olympus also supported various other causes including The Photographers’ Gallery appeal and the RPS’s National Centre of Photography appeal.

Barry was awarded a Royal Photographic Society Fenton medal and honorary membership in 1993 for his distinguished commitment to photography and the photographic industry. At the time of his award the British Journal of Photography’s (28 October 1993) Hector Crome commented ‘Olympus is fortunate indeed to posses such a charming, urbane and gracious gentleman to front its UK operations’

Dickens noted ‘working closely with Barry was a real privilege as the medium of photography was our focus’ and on the occasion of the Ritz gallery opening the RPS’s Journal noted that Olympus had ‘an almost unequalled record when it comes to supporting good photography’. Much of the credit for this belonged to Barry who recognised the wider value of supporting photography, building a brand and raising public awareness to grow sales.

He leaves a wife, Wendy, and three children to whom BPH sends its condolences.

Dr Michael Pritchard

POSTSCRIPT: Dr Brian Hinton MBE, Executive Chair, Julia Margaret Cameron Trust writes...

"I think it is only right to say that without Barry's support both personally and at Olympus the very existence of Dimbola as a flourishing museum and arts centre, with photography at its heart would not have been made certain. Barry was a wam and approachable man, while no one was in any doubt about his business acumen and drive. I could see the obvious affection and respect from the likes of Bailey, Lichfield, Lategan et al   He reassured a very shy Mary McCartney at Dimbola when we showed her Sadlers Wells project, and she blossomed in his presence.

We miss him dearly, both as a benefactor and a friend, and want to mark his life in some way in house, in a permanent way. 

The photographic world will not see his like again."

--------------------------

With thanks to Ian Dickens, former Olympus Cameras marketing director 1979-2000.
See nine of Olympus’s Bailey television advertisements here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnU91RWv8hkIm
Images: (Top:)  Barry Taylor, at the 1985 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Olympus was the co-sponsor of the JPS Lotus team; (middle:) two examples of Olympus celebrity advertising from 1976 with Peter Sellers and Patrick, Lord Lichfield; (Lower:) Blue plaque CC Simon Harriyott.

A paper just published in Studies in Conservation by Kim Bell and Robin Canham of Queen's University Library, Canada, has analysed the card mounts of stereocards, based on a limited sample of North American cards recently donated to the library. Their analysis by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy has indicated the significant presence of different heavy metals in the mounts, reflecting the chemistry used to colour them. This should not be a particular surprise as Victorian wallpapers, book cloths, papers and textiles have long been recognised as problematic. Bell and Canham's research is the first time XRF has been applied to stereograph card mounts. 

It is worth quoting part of their conclusion: While this is an initial study, this research identified the significant presence of potentially harmful heavy metals, specifically arsenic-, lead-, and chromium- based pigments on nineteenth century stereograph cards and highlights the pervasive use of toxic substances in Victorian-era consumer goods. These findings extend our understanding of the historical usage of toxic pigments beyond popular previously recognized mediums such as wallpapers, textiles, and books, and demonstrates the prevalence of health hazards in historical collections. and, they add, it is imperative that GLAM [galleries, libraries, archives, and museums] workers know the inherent risks present in their collection materials to protect themselves and their communities.

Although Bell and Canham do not make any assessment of the direct risk to individuals handling cards, by being in proximity with stereograph card mounts, or the risk through inhalation or ingestion, this new knowledge should act as a prompt for collections to update their risk registers, and ensure that staff and visitors are properly attired, made aware of the risk with handling or storage, and that any risk is mitigated.

Toxicity in 3D: XRF Analysis for the Presence of Heavy Metals in a Historical Stereograph Collection at Queen’s University Library, Canada
Kim Bell and robin Canham
Studies in Conservation, published 14 January 2025, online, open access
Taylor and Francis
See: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00393630.2025.2450976

Image:  The desktop setup of the Bruker III-SD pXRF with sample stage accessory on top. The stereograph card was placed on top of the sample stage with the edge of the card just covering the examination window. A sheet of Mylar® polyester film was placed on top of the stereograph to prevent abrasion. The accessory shield was placed on top of the film. Photo credit: Robin Canham.

With thanks to Rebecca Sharpe for drawing attention to the paper. 

Photo Oxford has announced a series of alternative process workshops during March and April to explore the art of cyanotypes, anthotypes, phytograms, botanicograms, chemigrams, caffenol film development, pinhole cameras, photography as performance, and psychogeography. They include: 

• Caffenol film processing with Melanie King
• Photography, Drawing & the Magic Lantern with Alexander Mourant
• Anthoptype with Nettie Edwards 
• Exploring Air - Bodies in Space with Diego Ferrari
• Phytography workshop with Dr Karel Doing
• Botanicogram workshop with Megan Ringrose
• Chemigram workshop with Sayako Sugawara
• Psychogeography workshop with Sean Wyatt
• Pinhole camera workshop with Ky Lewis
• Cyanotype workshop with Lucy Kane

Full details of timings and costs are on the festival website: https://www.photooxford.org/workshops

Image: Ky Lewis

A series of monthly blogs posts highlighting the rare photography material held in Leicester's De Montfort University's Special Collection has just started. DMU's Special Collections houses rare photography periodicals from Kodak Ltd's research library, the Robert F White collection of printed materials mainly relating to cameras and photographci technology, the Photographers' Gallery library, publications, books and auction catalogues from the Wilson Collection, and periodicals from Thomas Ganz, amongst many other items. All are accessible by appointment. 

The first blog by Professor Kelley Wilder (pictured above) showcases and discusses two photographically-illustrated books by Jessie and Charles Piazzi Smyth published in 1858, Teneriffe, An Astronomer's Experiment: or, Specialities of a Residence Above the Clouds London: Lovell Reeve 1858, and  Report on the Teneriffe Astronomical Experiement of 1856, London: Taylor and Francis, 1858. 

Read the blog here: https://library.dmu.ac.uk/archivesblog/home/PHRC-Takeover-1-Teneriffe-an-Astronomers-Experiment-by-Piazzi-Smyth-1858

Find out more about Special Collections access and holdings here: https://library.dmu.ac.uk/specialcollections

A behind the scenes look at the creation of the Lee Miller Archives which today houses more than 60,000 negatives of Lee Miller’s work, 20,000 vintage prints, many manuscripts and ephemera.

Ami Bouhassane (Co-Director of the Lee Miller Archives and grand-daughter of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose) presents the story of how Lee Miller’s family came to conserve and disseminate her work, that of Roland Penrose and their home Farleys, which has become an artists house that is open to the public. To self fund the archive produces a constant stream of books, films, exhibitions and works with Farleys to open the house. In 1977, when Lee Miller died her photography work had been mostly forgotten, this presentation tracks the history of the archives, its knock backs and some of the major exhibitions created that brought Lee Miller's work back into the public eye, whilst at the same time enabling the conservation, administration and financing of the archive which is privately run and supports itself though revenue received from its activities.

This story is an attestation to the 47 years of hard work and determination to preserve and continue the legacy of Lee Miller, Roland Penrose and their home at Farleys.

The 45 minute zoom presentation will be followed by a Q&A with Ami.

Attic to Archives - the story of the Lee Miller Archives
29 January 2025 at 1830 (UTC)
Free, or  with a £10 donation
Details and booking here

Image: boxes of Lee Miller's work in the attic, Farleys House, Muddles Green by Antony Penrose.
© Lee Miller Archives, England 2020. All rights reserved. www.leemiller.co.uk

This lecture addresses the application of cellulose acetate negatives in the world of photographs, focusing on their physical characteristics, historical significance, and deterioration. The discussion will cover its importance as support for photographic films throughout the 20th century, and the challenges associated with its conservation. The presentation will include the stripping method for conservation of acetate negatives, presenting two case studies of stripping treatment.

The speaker, Maria Júlia Costa is an emerging professional based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and has a bachelor’s degree in Conservation and Restoration of Artwork from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). She is a master’s degree student in Preservação e Gestão do Patrimônio Cultural das Ciências e da Saúde at Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Brazil.

Conservation and Treatment of Acetate Negatives
Maria Júlia Costa
February 11, 2025, 7pm, Virtual via Zoom (UK: Feb 12, 2025 12:00 AM)
Registration: https://lnkd.in/eaKVE9cD

See: http://princetonpreservation.org/

Princeton Preservation Group
Presents a Lecture in the
Susan Swartzburg Memorial Lecture Series

Image: https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/degradation-of-film-negatives-research-approaches-to-treatment-and-unsolved-issues/

Since its foundation in 1971, Fotostiftung Schweiz has built up one of the most comprehensive and representative collections of Swiss photography – from the beginnings up until the present. It oversees numerous archives of nationally and internationally significant photographers, as well as selected photo archives from companies, organisations or private individuals with a connection to Switzerland.

The Image Archive Online of Fotostiftung Schweiz provides an insight into the already catalogued collection and archive holdings and introduces selected photographers. It shows a cross-section of Swiss photography’s entire history, from the beginnings of photography, c.1840, to the present day.  The Image Archive Online is constantly being updated with new objects and texts.

Around 37,700 digitized works can now be explored, free of charge, at https://fotostiftung.zetcom.net/en/.

Image: Jean Gaberell Bergheuet ob Mürren mit Blick gegen Eiger und Mönch, 1930er Jahre. Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur

The Public Domain Image Archive (PDIA) — brought to you by The Public Domain Review (PDR) — is a curated collection of more than 10,000 out-of-copyright historical images, free for all to explore and reuse. Its aim is to offer a platform that will serve both as a practical resource and a place to simply wander — an ever-growing portal to discover more than 2000 years of visual culture.

A valuable image archive in its own right, offering hand-picked highlights from hundreds of galleries, libraries, archives, and museums, the PDIA also functions as a database of images featured in the PDR, offering an image-first approach to exploring the project’s content. The featured images each link to the relevant article on the PDR where one can read about the stories which surround the works. Visitors in search of more context will also find links back to the institutions where we found the image — from small college libraries to national repositories.

The list of participating institutions includes many with photograph collections, and include: the Briitsh Library, Paris Musées, Wellcome Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Getty, and Harry Ransom Centre, amongst many others. 

Search here: https://pdimagearchive.org/

Image: Beach Photographer, c.1890. National Science and Media Museum / Flickr: The Commons

The National Science and Media Museum reopened to the public on Wednesday, 8 January 2025. This soft launch was followed by a full day of events and activities on Saturday, the 11th. The re-opening was timed to coincide with the offical launch of Bradford's year as UK City of Culture. 

The reopening was partial in the sense that the two major new galleries Sound and Vision are still being installed and will open in the summer, most likely in June, in time for the last few weeks of the school year and the summer holidays.

On Saturday I was at the head of a fifty-plus strong queue of families and others waiting to enter the museum. There was a second queue at the Pictureville entrance. The animation-themed day celebrated the work of the Aardman studios with screenings of Wallace and Gromit films and activities based around animation. 

The revamped museum foyer is a more welcoming space. It is now less cluttered, with better visibility in to it from the outside, and with seating to encourage visitors to relax and linger. The visitor/ticketing desk is 'softer' than the previous desk and more inviting. The large media wall has gone. On the far side, to the right, is a quiet space, on the left a smaller retail space with more activity toys for children, some museum branded objects, and just a few books relating to the Hockney exhibition that opens on the 15th. The wider book offer of museum publications and general books on photography, film and television have gone. Beyond this is the café selling Costa coffee, snacks and meals. That is largely unchanged, and beyond that is the Pictureville cinema which had remained open for much of the museum's closure from June 2023. The IMAX cinema entrance remains accessible from the entrance foyer as before. 

And on to the galleries... The Kodak Gallery (-1 level) remains largely unchanged - or, at least, only with minor tweaks and changes.As before, the reflex camera obscura and Giroux camera greet visitors on entry. The Jabez Hogg/Beard studio recreation and original daguerreotype remain, but some of the early photographic equipment has been removed to accommodate the new lift (the cause of the delayed reopening). As one walks through the Kodak gallery the previous wet-plate studio space has been repurposed recreating Bradford's important Belle Vue studio. Engaging with local communities is a theme that will run through all the galleries. The Victorian parlour, darkroom and studio office remains. The main part of the gallery looking at Kodak cameras and popular photography remains much as it was, although the early three-colour cinematographic camera has gone. Circulating through the beach and pier displays, salon photography and amateur cameras from the 1950s brings the visitor to the 1980s and on to the digital revolution. This remains the weakest part of the displays, mainly because it stops in the early 2000s and digital photography's cameras and the ways we share images have evolved significantly since then. The internet and digital displays previously in the foyer have not been brought back. 

Insight, the museum's research and visitor object handling and collections-access space, and the Kraszna-Krausz room are beyond and remain closed, at least until the new galleries open. 

Moving to the upper levels: level 1 retains the Cubby Broccoli cinema in which curators were showcasing the Sound and Vision galleries and showing off objects from the museum collections. Next to this is The Connection Engine (curiously missing from the museum signage, perhaps suggesting it is temporary?) which allows users to investigate Bradford's own history through an interactive screen. Alongside is a large digital display of objects that asks us to think about the future of history. The special exhibitions space remains closed for installation work.  

Level 2 houses the special exhibiton space that opens with David Hockney: Pieced Together exhibition from 15 January until 18 May 2025.

On level 3 is a renewed Wonderlab with interactive exhibits for children and adults to learn about sound, vision and science. This level will also house new Sound and Vision galleries in due course. Level 4 is Makespace, a space primarily for school groups to undertake practical activities which on Saturday visitors were using to make animation figures. Levels 5 and 6 remain closed for Sound and Vision and Power Up galleries, respectively.

Saturday was a lively day, helped by a brass band, screenings and activities around the museum spaces, including object handling experiences and the making ghost photographs. Over the next few months the museum has an engaging offer for families and visitors. Some areas will be familiar, others less so. Listening in to conversations from visitors, who were mainly local, they seemed pleased to see the familiar parts of the museum return and Wonderlab was very popular. There was clearly a lot of affection for the museum. The improved spaces, ground floor toilets, and especially the foyer mark a real improvement for visitors. Museum volunteers were also pleased to be back and engaging with visitors. 

Much of the £6 million spend has been on parts of the museum building fabric that will be less obvious to the public: fixing roof leaks, fire and safety upgrades, new flooring, and that troublesome new lift. The Pictureville link to the main museum will need further work in due course as reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) was discovered during the closure and needs to be dealt with. For now the space has been made safe.

The two new galleries which visitors will see and engage with have yet to open, but based on the partial re-opening, they promise much. That said, when they do open they will draw attention to the need to update the Kodak Gallery which is well beyond its originally projected lifespan - although it remains popular and is object rich which visitors appreciate. 

The introduction to the Sound and Vision galleries given by Head Curator Dr Charlotte Connelly on Saturday emphasised the new themes that will be behind the galleries (a short film will explain more). They will be worth waiting for. For the museum, embedded as part of the wider Science Museum Group it will be delivering on its remit of 'exploring the transformative impact of image and sound technologies on our lives', and engaging with local communities using local examples to do this.

See: https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/

Sound and Vision project: https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/about-us/sound-and-vision-project

All images: © Michael Pritchard. Views from the newly re-opened museum spaces (more are available) and a portrait of Jo Quinton-Tulloch, Museum Director. 

In 2023 the Janette Rosing English photography collection was allocated to Historical England under the government's Acceptance in Lieu scheme. During the same year a collection of material relating to Julia Margaret Cameron was also hnadled by the reviewing committee and transferred to the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. 

The 2024 report notes: A collection of 18 Modern British works, a group of eight prints and a book of photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–79) was a pioneering female photographer in the 19th century and was particularly notable for her soft-focus close-up portraits of eminent Victorians. She only took up photography at the age of 48 after her daughter gave her a camera as a present.

The Hewat volume of eight albumen prints gives an indication of the range of Cameron’s subject matter and includes a portrait of the early photographer, mathematician and astronomer Sir John Herschel (1792–1871), as well as Pre-Raphaelite-inspired images of a number of Cameron’s friends. The collection of 20th-century British art put together by Anne (a direct descendant of Julia Margaret Cameron) and Angus Hewat focuses on such significant artists as the brothers Paul (1889–1946) and John Nash (1893–1977), Eileen Agar (1899–1991), Graham Sutherland (1903– 80), John Craxton (1922–2009) and the pioneering printmaker Cyril Power (1872–1951).

It will make a welcome addition to Pallant House’s outstanding holdings of this period. The Hewats were long-standing supporters of the Gallery and had assisted with the acquisition of the New Wing site which made possible the 2006 capital development of Pallant House.

The Panel considered the collection, accepted from the estate of Anne and Angus Hewat, pre-eminent under the first, second and third criteria. It has been permanently allocated to Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, in accordance with the condition attached to its offer.

The tax value was £316,890. 

The government's Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) Scheme and Cultural Gifts Scheme (CGS) enable UK museums, galleries, libraries and archives to acquire significant objects, in most cases at no cost to themselves. Managed by the Arts Council of England the 2023 report has just been published and there are two entries of particular interest to BPH readers. All applications and need to meet the Waverley pre-eminence criteria which is used in assessing objects offered under both schemes:

1. Does the object have an especially close association with our history and national life?
2. Is the object of especial artistic or art-historical interest?
3. Is the object of especial importance for the study of some particular form of art, learning or history?
4. Does the object have an especially close association with a particular historic setting?

See: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/supporting-arts-museums-and-libraries/supporting-collections-and-cultural-property/acceptance-lieu/cultural-gifts-scheme-and-acceptance-lieu-annual-report-202324

Image: The Angel at the Tomb (Portrait of Mary Ann Hillier) by Julia Margaret Cameron. Photo: Courtesy Pallant House Gallery