The Photographic Collections Network is seeking a manager. The initial contract will be for 15 months, freelance, part-time, but our intention is to make this a permanent position, subject to funding. The fee is £36,000.

Late in 2018, the PCN had a second grant confirmed from Arts Council England. This allows us to build and strengthen the network, and our programme of events, knowledge sharing, advocacy and research. We are seeking a manager to co-ordinate that process and deliver the programme, working with the PCN director and our specialist steering group. The person we appoint will be highly motivated, self-driven, trustworthy, diplomatic and a great communicator. They will have significant experience of project management and some knowledge of organisational development. They will be fluent with IT, experienced at writing reports and proposals, and possibly have links or experience in the photography, art, cultural, museum or collection world.

The deadline to apply is 5pm on 15 March 2019. See more here: https://www.photocollections.org.uk/recruit-manager-2019

Photo: Photographer Mattis Mathiesen at work on Jan Mayen, anonymous. From the Daily Herald Archive at the National Media Museum, via Flickr Commons.

Cambridge University’s Collection of Aerial Photographs, CUCAP, represents a unique, long and proud tradition of aerial survey and interpretation in the British Isles and Europe, started by the pioneering Roman archaeologist JK St Joseph. Much of the imagery is remarkable, of great technical interest (e.g. early colour aerial photography), of high academic value, including as it does records of coastal change, discoveries of archaeological sites and the pre-and post-industrial landscapes of Britain. The total assemblage of hard copy images, dating from 1945 to 2009, comprises 497,079 aerial images. The Collection includes both vertical and oblique aerial views of British landscapes, in both black and white and colour, and slides.

The university has made available 1500 images as a pilot project with the longer term aim of digitising the entire collection. 

See more here: http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/landscapehistories/1 and a BBC news report here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-47319251

Image: Bath looking NNE

This new book accompanies an exhibition of the same title which opened at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, on 14 February. Researched and written by curator Mattie Boom the book describes and illustrates Dutch amateur photography during a period of rapid growth as photography became easier to work with dry plates and smaller cameras which, in turn, acted as a catalyst for the growth of photographic societies and photography exhibitions. The book will be an important reference for anyone interested in the subject.

Everyone a Photographer is the first comprehensive study of the roots and early development of amateur photography. Very little is known about its origins, and the late nineteenth century can be likened to the dark ages in the history of photography. it is then that people first started to record their daily lives with small handheld cameras, which made photography more direct, faster and more dynamic. This process was boosted by young upper-class urbanites who had a seemingly insatiable desire for the latest technological innovations, accompanied by an eagerness to try them. There are striking similarities between developments in image production in the late nineteenth century and in the present digital era. Then as today, these were driven by rapid innovations in the creative industries. The meteoric rise in the popularity of amateur photography was responsible for the great turning point in photography and had a huge impact on the visual arts and visual culture in general.

Everyone a Photographer describes the rise of amateur photography in the Netherlands: the photographers, the photographs, the albums and the key figures. For the first time, the amateurs and their truly fascinating snapshots, which are of amazing quality and historical importance, are lifted out of anonymity.

Everyone a Photographer. The rise of amateur photography in the Netherlands 1880-1940
Mattie Boom
Rijksmuseum
€39.95

Order: https://www.rijksmuseumshop.nl/en/catalog/product/view/id/1661/s/everyone-a-photographer/

Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, which fills the role of Japan’s main photographic cultural centre, holds an exhibition every spring focusing on early photographs and this year, 2019, it will present The Origin of Photography: Great Britain exhibition.

Research into methods of photography began in the latter part of the 18th century, and with the announcement of the invention of the first photographic technology in 1839, the curtain was raised on photographic culture. In Great Britain, research developed by the members of the Victorian aristocracy was to have a broad influence on culture.

In this exhibition, which includes photographs from several major UK institutions as well as the TOP Museum's own collections, it will present numerous works, many of them for the first time in Japan, to show the varied developments in photographic culture that took place in Great Britain but which remain largely unknown in Japan. In addition, it will also allow visitors a rare view of Great Britain during the 19th century, captured through contemporary photographs. We hope that you will come and see the broad range of Great Britain’s photographic culture and history that served as an inspiration to the Japanese during the latter half of the 19th century.

A series of guest speakers include: Dr Luke Gartlan, Sebastian Dobson, Professor Larry Schaaf and others. 

The Origin of Photography: Great Britain
5 March-6 May, 2019
Closed ：Monday (however open on 29 Apr, 6 May)
Admission：Adults ￥900／College Students ￥800／High School and Junior High School Students, Over 65 ￥700
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue. 

See: http://www.topmuseum.jp/e/contents/exhibition/index-3111.html

Image: Don Juan, Count of MONTIZON, Hippopotamus at the Zoological Gardens, Regent’s Park, London, 1852, from The Ｐhotographic Album for the year 1855; being contributions from the members of the Photographic Club, 1852, Salted paper print, British Library © British Library Board (C.43.i.7)

Impact Photos agency and library which formed in the early 1980s has closed. Impact, as co-founder Philippe Achache put it so succinctly is ‘Pactin’…and is now in hundreds of cardboard boxes in a lock up garage in Queens park NW London awaiting collection by the nearly 400 contributing photographers from over the past 40 years.

The agency started life in the early 1980s as a co-operative of like minded photo-journalists who got together to cover the wedding of Charles and Diana. The founders were Philippe Achache, David Reed, Alain Le Garsmeur, Julian Calder, Sally Fear and Christopher Cormack. Brian Harris joined as a contributor in the mid 1980s after his years with The Times along with many other ‘news’ photographers of the day, including Jeremy Nicholl, Norman Lomax and Christopher Pillitz. Dozens of others contributed on an ad hoc basis, some with just a single story, others with stock and many story ideas

Brian Harris, describes the story and demise of the agency in a blog post here: https://brianharrisphotographer.wordpress.com/

Image: Brian Harris. 

FoMu Antwerp is showing an exhibition devoted to the Belgium photobook from 1 March-6 October 2019.  Photobooks have been one of the most effective means of expression for photographers since photography began.They remain in circulation, are portable and can be reissued, thus reaching a larger public than an exhibition ever could. To date, hardly any research has been conducted into Belgian photobooks. Photobook Belge aims to fill this gap by providing an overview of the evolution of the Belgian photobook from the mid-19th century to today. This exhibition and publication are finally giving the Belgian Photobook – a concept in itself – the recognition it deserves.

The publication Photobook Belge is published by FOMU in partnership with Hannibal.

Curator: Tamara Berghmans

https://www.fotomuseum.be/en/exhibitions/Photobook_Belge.html

A symposium at FOMU devoted to the same subject takes place on 21 March. Speakers include Tamara Berghmans, Sandrine Colard, Luc Derycke, Geert Goiris, Tine Guns, Steven F. Joseph, Ben Krewinkel and Stefan Vanthuyne.  Price: €25, €10 (-26) and free (FRIENDS and Academy). See more here. 

Stephen Furniss will talk about Victorian photography in general, but concentrate on the many Victorian photographers who are buried in Highgate Cemetery. Some of these were instrumental in making photography accessible and hugely
popular. Among those included in the talk will be Antoine Claudet, who was a leading expert in the Daguerrotype process and is attributed with inventing the red safelight, the Watkins brothers, who photographed over 1,500 celebrities, James
Perriman, a studio photographer who went to prison for displaying another photographer’s work outside his premises, and Valentine Blanchard, who took instantaneous photographs of London streets from a disguised van...

Stephen Furniss was an antiques dealer, is a longtime supporter of Highgate Cemetery and is an expert on Victorian photography and related subjects. The memorial photograph shown is from his extensive collection.

If you have any Victorian photographs you would like Stephen to look at for identification and dating, do bring them along with you.

'From Today, Painting is Dead’: Victorian Photographers in Highgate Cemetery
Stephen Furniss
Thursday, 21 February 2019
£9 at 7.30pm, doors open 7.00pm. Ticket includes a glass of wine
See more and book here

The Art Newspaper  has reviewed the Don McCullin retrospective exhibition at Tate Britain and has taken the opportunity to look at the position of photography in Britain's principal museum. It says: The Tate show symbolises a shift in photography’s significance in British museums, and not just because the Tate is correcting its historic disregard. Last year, the V&A opened phase one of its Photography Centre, an expanded permanent space for photography. Despite collecting photography since its earliest years in the mid-19th century, the museum had waited until 1998 before assigning it a dedicated space. There are vast photographic collections at the Imperial War Museums in London and Manchester, and at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG). At the NPG, in particular, there has been an increasing volume of (often extremely popular) photography exhibitions over the past decade.

Read the full piece here

With the introduction of photography in the 19th century, printers no longer had to transfer the image manually onto the printing surface, but were offered the possibility to transfer the image by sensitizing the printing surface and exposing it to light, through a negative or positive depending on the printing technique.

With computer technology, negative or positive film is often no longer necessary. The image is transformed into dots by the computer and the image is transferred to the printing surface by light exposure in the machine.

Since their invention photomechanical printing techniques have continued to develop further. There are many similar variations of the same technique, each named differently by its inventor. This can be very confusing in the process of identification.

In this seminar the most important photomechanical techniques of relief, intaglio, planographic, screen and digital prints will be presented.

The different techniques (artistic and reproduction) will be examined by studying original prints under magnification. Two participants will share a stereomicroscope. The distinctive characteristics of each technique will be worked out through closely looking at the original prints, and exercises in identification.

The two day course provides an opportunity to look at a great number and variety of original prints and to develop skills in the identification of their techniques. There will also be the opportunity to compare photomechanical with manual prints.

Registration requests should be sent to: hombu@freenet.de

Hildegard Homburger, Papierrestaurierung, 10555 Berlin, Germany

Tel: +49 30 3912503

Seminar: Identification of photomechanical prints
June 13-14, 2019 at Papierrestaurierung Hildegard Homburger, 10555 Berlin, Germany
Hosted by Hildegard Homburger in cooperation with the Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Archiv- Buch- und Grafikrestauratoren

www.iada-home.org 

The language of the seminar will be English.

Maximum participants: 8

Costs: 335 Euro or 290 Euro for IADA-members

See: http://www.hildegard-homburger.de/photomechanisch1.html

Why print a photograph in 2019? We are witnessing the historic transformation of photography from tangible objects—prints, plates, and negatives—to code: intangible bits, bytes, and pixels. As the tether between visual culture and the material world is recalibrated every day, a new form of literacy is required to draw meaning from physical media and its obsolescence. At the very moment when characterization and interpretation of the printed photograph is rapidly gaining ground, the momentum toward dematerialization raises the issue of the long-term relevance and sustainability of photography as a material fact. Does the physical photograph still matter today—as a source for teaching, learning, and scholarship—and will it matter into the future?

This three-day program is organized by Paul Messier, Director of the Lens Media Lab at Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage; Monica Bravo, Assistant Professor of History and Theory of Photographic Media at California College of the Arts; and colleagues at Yale University with the support and guidance of the FAIC Collaborative Workshops in Photograph Conservation advisory committee. The program and elective seminars will be geared for educators, students, curators, photographers and, particularly, for conservators whose core value proposition is most directly tied to the physical photograph. Insights from conservators, scholars, makers, and the art market will address the premise that physical photography is a closed set. The optional final day of the workshop will model interdisciplinary inquiry and seek to incubate collaborations focused on photography as a medium both material and immaterial.  New tools will be examined for characterizing and contextualizing the photograph both as object and disembodied image.

September 23 -25, 2019
Yale University, New Haven, CT
A Collaborative Workshop in Photograph Conservation

See more here: https://learning.conservation-us.org/p/material-immaterial#tab-product_tab_overview

Roddy Simpson, photographer and University of Glasgow honorary research fellow in the school of culture and creative arts has published a blog on Elizabeth Johnston Hall (1822-1901). Hall was one of the most famous photographed Scottish women because of the image of her produced in the mid-1840s by the pioneering Scottish partnership of David Octavius Hill (1802-70) and Robert Adamson. 

Read the full blog here: https://universityofglasgowlibrary.wordpress.com/2019/02/01/early-photography-elizabeth-johnston-hall-1822-1901/

Image: Elizabeth Johnston Hall by Hill and Adamson. Carbon print by Jessie Bertram 1916. University of Glasgow Library, Special Collections Dougan Add. 40

You will learn how to create exquisite, unique handmade prints on art paper. Make photograms from leaves & objects and/or images using your own photos. Book now so we can create your negs in time for the class. There will also be the opportunity to try toning, to create a wonderful range of different looks!

Darkroom workshops are led by Catriona Gray and are in small groups to maximise the learning experience.

All materials included. Cost £60

Darkroom London, Unit 10, Burmarsh Workshops, 71 Marsden Street, London, NW5 3JA

See more and book here: https://www.darkroomlondon.org/alternative-processes-cyanotypes/van-dyke-brown/polaroid-lift/lumen-prints/

Philip Banham collection of optical toys, optical prints, and stereoscopy including the Great Exhibition 1851 auction takes place at Bearnes, Hampton and Littlewood in Exeter on 6 March. In addition to the areas covered in the title the 236 lot sale also includes photographs, albums, persistence of vision devices and related equipment and images. 

The auction has over 200 lots and includes some rare and unique pieces such as a rare stereoscopic daguerreotype of the visit of Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to Crystal palace (shown left), Sydenham, 20th April 1855.   As well as rare pieces like this there are a number of good examples of stereoscopes, stereo cards and optical toys and prints that have been collected over a fifty year period. 

For more information please contact Brian Goodison-Blanks 01392 413100 bgb@bhandl.co.uk

The online catalogue is now live here: https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/bearneshamptonandlittlewood/catalogue-id-bearne10071

The Royal Collection Trust has a number of upcoming events related to the exhibition Shadows of War: Roger Fenton’s Photographs of the Crimea, 1855 at the Queen's Gallery, London:  

Creative course: Photography in Focus

Saturday, 9 – Sunday, 10 February, 10:00 – 17:00, £175

Enhance your photography skills on this two-day course led by award-winning British Army photographer Rupert Frere. Learn the theory behind taking a good photograph using Fenton's and Frere's own photographs as inspiration, before taking your new-found skills out into the heart of London under the supervision of your tutor. This course will improve your confidence, creativity, composition and help you find your photographic voice.

Book here: https://www.rct.uk/whatson/event/912681/Creative-course:-Photography-in-focus

Lecture: Roger Fenton: The First War Photographer

Wednesday, 20 March, 13:00–14:00, free with an exhibition ticket

Join Sophie Gordon, Head of Photographs, as she discusses Roger Fenton's photographs of the Crimean War, taken in 1855. The lecture will look at the commercial motivations behind Fenton's work and the public display of the photographs across Britain in 1855–6. It will also highlight the emotional content of this pioneering photography by comparing his images with the work of other Crimean War photographers.

Book here: https://www.rct.uk/whatson/event/912693/Roger-Fenton:-First-war-photographer

and at Windsor Castle:

Evening lecture: Crown and Camera: A Victorian Passion for Photography

Wednesday, 13 March, 18:30 – 20:00, £15

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were fascinated by photography from a very early date. Catlin Langford, Assistant Curator at Royal Collection Trust, considers the wide range of photography they commissioned and collected that provides us with a unique glimpse into their passions, beliefs and private family life.

https://www.rct.uk/whatson/event/912396/Crown-and-camera:-A-Victorian-passion-for-photography

Images: top: © Rupert Frere; middle and lower: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019.

The archive of British photographer Daniel Meadows was acquired by the Bodleian Library in March 2018. It had been at the Library of Birmingham from 2014-2018. Northern Narratives, working in partnership with Daniel Meadows and The Bodleian Library, is developing an exhibition drawn from Meadows' substantial archive which will tour to a number of international galleries throughout 2020-21. Dates and venues will be announced in Autumn 2019. The exhibition will be supported by a new book published by the library. 

Meadows' archive was assembled over nearly five decades.  It contains his life's work — all the negatives and contact sheets associated with his photo-documentary work also a great many contextualising documents including posters, magazines, books, receipts, newsletters, notebooks, diaries, audio tapes, digital stories, his PhD document and research material, and much correspondence besides. It is housed in the Bodleian's Weston Library and at the time of writing accessioning is currently underway with its catalogue being mapped onto the Bodleian's own so that, from 2019, it can be made available online. 

See: https://www.photobus.co.uk/the-archive/#LoB

https://www.northernnarratives.org/

https://www.bjp-online.com/2014/08/daniel-meadows-at-the-library-of-birmingham/

At a special event on 31 January 2019 Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s librarian, marked the conclusion of a six-year project to produce the William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue Raisonné Project which commenced in earnest in 2016. The project has transferred the records of the world’s leading Talbot scholar Professor Larry J Schaaf on to a searchable, illustrated, database. It has set a model for future online catalogues raisonné.  At the time of writing it features some 18,177 records, plus a supporting blog and contextual texts.  

The conclusion was marked by two lectures and a panel discussion from Dr Kelley Wilder of De Montfort University and Malcolm Daniel of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.  Hans P Kraus Jr paid tribute to, and spoke on behalf of, Schaaf who was unable to attend the event.

Ovenden similarly paid fulsome tribute to Schaaf without whom the project would have not been realised and noted that, although the funding for it had ended, Schaaf had agreed to continue to support and enhance the data records. He also highlighted the fact that ‘photography is now at the heart of Bodleian Library’. The library acquired the Talbot archive from Lacock Abbey and has been actively developing its photography holdings. 

The archive of British photographer Daniel Meadows was transferred from Library of Birmingham to the Bodleian Library in March 2018. Northern Narratives, working in partnership with Daniel Meadows and The Bodleian Library, is developing an exhibition drawn from Meadows' substantial archive which will tour to a number of international galleries throughout 2020/21. Dates and venues will be announced in Autumn 2019.

See:  https://talbot.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/

Phil Nichols and Robin Ansell the authors of the recent book Secure the Shadow: Somerset Photographers 1839-1939 will be speaking at the Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution, Queen Square, Bath, BA1 2HN on 25 March, on behalf of the Bath & Avon Family History Society. The talk is open to everyone. 

See more here: https://www.bafhs.org.uk/events/calendar-view/eventdetail/298/-/bath-group-meeting

Details of Secure the Shadow can be found here. 

‘Odd,’ wrote Roland Barthes in his renowned 1980 study of photography, ‘that no one has thought of the disturbance (to civilisation) which this new action causes.'

Recent years have duly witnessed an explosion of scholarship considering the social and psychological impact of taking photographs. This course draws on recent approaches to explore the wide-ranging changes in perception brought about by the technology since its invention in 1839. How has photography shaped the aesthetic sensibilities and ethical sensitivities of the modern world?

Through a series of discrete but related talks by experts in the field, this programme considers how the camera has informed our understanding of art, politics, nature and the self.

The programme is: 

21 February - ‘Introduction to Series:  What Is Photography?’

Dr Sean Willcock, Birkbeck, University of London. 

28 February - ‘Portraiture, the Album and the Self’

Dr Patrizia Di Bello, Senior Lecturer at Birkbeck University of London.

7 March - ‘Making an Art of Photography’

Dr Juliet Hacking, Program Director, Sotheby’s Institute of Art. 

14 March - ‘Reframing Fields of Vision: From “Pencil of Nature” to Environmental Futures’

Prof Liz Wells, Plymouth University. 

21 March - ‘War Photography: The Pleasure of Ruins’

Simon Norfolk, award-winning freelance photographer whose work has featured in many leading publications and galleries around the world.

Enrolment for the course is now open. To see the syllabus for the course or to book click here.

Photography and its histories
21 February to 21 March 2019
6:30 – 8:30 pm
Every Thursday for five weeks. 
Open to all and free to attend, but enrolment is required. 
London: Paul Mellon Centre

As The Photographers' Gallery approaches its fiftieth anniversary in 2021 it is seeking an archivist. The Gallery is the UK’s leading centre for the presentation and exploration of photography in all its forms and a dedicated home for an international photographic community. Established in London in 1971, the Gallery has been instrumental in reflecting photography’s pivotal role in culture and society and championing its position as a leading art form through a rich programme of exhibitions, talks, events, workshops, courses and other activities.

The principal job objective of the Archivist is to oversee the acquisitions, management, preservation and dissemination of the collections within The Photographers’ Gallery’s Archive. Core duties will include:

• Appraising, prioritising and safeguarding material for preservation and retention;
• Cataloguing and digitising The Photographers’ Gallery’s collections;
• Overseeing and maintaining the Archive’s database system;
• Setting/adhering to, and regularly updating, policy guidelines concerning the Archive (preservation, cataloguing, digitization and public access);
• Supporting funding bids for the Archive and activities related to it;
• Line managing the Archive Assistant, ensuring that their work contributes to a wider framework;
• Overseeing copyright clearance for identified material.

The ideal candidate will be someone with knowledge and experience of 21st century archiving practice within a visual arts organisation. The post holder will be diligent, resilient, flexible, proactive and a good problem solver with a keen eye for detail. Among other criteria, they will have 3 or more years' experience in an equivalent post, a strong commitment to digital preservation and a passion for photography and the visual arts.

Please apply by reading the full job description and using the application form on our website: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/about-us/jobs

The National Science and Media Museum in Bradford (NSMM) houses a 3-screen cinema operation including Europe's first IMAX. The NSMM Pictureville cinema (300 seats) and Cubby Broccoli cinema (100 seats) screen the best of independent cinema with selected mainstream titles and a Screen Arts programme. IMAX (218 seats) screens the best feature titles available in IMAX format and a regular programme of shorter educational IMAX films for families and pre-booked groups.

As of 31st October 2019, the Museum's cinema operation will transfer from Picturehouse Cinemas to the Science Museum Group, to be managed in-house.  To support our growth and vision, we are looking for a Project Manager to oversee this transfer on a fixed term contract until 31st December 2019.

Using your experience and a collaborative approach, you will work closely with the Project Steering Group and wider teams across Picturehouse, National Science and Media Museum and Science Museum Group, to ensure an efficient transfer of operations within the defined timescales.

Joining us, you will have enthusiasm for our vision and a passion for film. Bringing experience and an understanding of how projects are successfully planned and delivered, you will be able to drive decisions, manage budgets and proactively identify and mitigate project risks.

You will be offered excellent benefits, including 25 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays, a contributory pension scheme, BUPA medical and dental care, an annual season ticket loan and numerous staff discounts whilst developing your career in a world class museum group.

See more here.