The Martin Parr Foundation, a new centre for British photography and the works of Martin Parr, will open in Bristol on 25 October 2017. The Martin Parr Foundation was established in 2014 and will open to the public in the Paintworks complex, Bristol, and comprises a studio, gallery, library and archive centre.

The aim of the Foundation is to support and promote photography from the British Isles. It will do so by preserving the archive and legacy of Martin Parr, and by holding a growing collection of works by selected British and Irish photographers as well as images taken in the British Isles by international photographers. The Foundation will also house an expanding library of British and Irish photographic books.

Martin Parr (b. 1952) is one of the most significant documentary photographers of post-war Britain. He has developed an international reputation for his innovative imagery, his oblique approach to social documentary, and his contribution to photographic culture both within the UK and abroad. Alongside his reputation as a photographer, Parr is known as an important collector, especially of photobooks. Over the past 40 years, Parr’s dedication to discovering and promoting the overlooked, and his support of both photographers and photography has contributed to the way the history of the medium is understood and defined. His collection of around 12,000 photobooks, one of the most inclusive photobook collections in the world, has been both gifted to and acquired by Tate with assistance from the Luma Foundation, The Art Fund and Tate’s supporters. Some of the proceeds from this acquisition have been invested in the Martin Parr Foundation.

The Foundation gallery space will be open to the public on a regular basis and will present work related to British photography as well as images by Martin Parr. The first exhibition from 25 October – January 2018 will be ‘Black Country Stories’ by Martin Parr, followed by ‘Town to Town’ by Niall McDiarmid and the David Hurn ’Swaps’ show in Spring 2018.

The Martin Parr Foundation will house a collection of post-war documentary photography relating to the British Isles, both prints and book maquettes, including works by Keith Arnatt, Richard Billingham, Elaine Constantine, John Davies, Paul Graham, Ken Grant, John Hinde, Peter Mitchell, Tony Ray-Jones, Paul Reas, Simon Roberts, Graham Smith, Tom Wood and Eamonn Doyle. The collection will include two original maquettes of ‘In Flagrante’ by Chris Killip, the full sets of ‘Belgravia’ by Karen Knorr and of ‘Hackney Flowers’ by Stephen Gill and the original prints from Victor Sloan’s 1989 exhibition, ‘Walls’, from the Orchard Gallery in Derry.

Martin Parr’s archive held by the Foundation will consist of works spanning Parr’s career from his student days to the present, including ephemera, correspondence, books and published editorial work.

The Martin Parr Foundation will offer the facility to book group visits and individual research sessions alongside a programme of public talks, educational events, book signings and seminars, all related to photography in a wider sense. Parr commented, ‘Post-war British documentary photograph continues to be underappreciated and I wanted to make a small contribution to rectify this. The Foundation will support and preserve the legacy of photographers who made, and continue to make, important work focused on the British Isles.’

Jenni Smith has been appointed Director of the Martin Parr Foundation. Six trustees have also been appointed and will meet twice a year. The Foundation is also working closely with the University of the West of England, and will exhibit the final show of their newly established MA Photography course.

The Martin Parr Foundation is open to the public from Wednesday–Saturday.

Martin Parr Foundation, 316 Paintworks, Arnos Vale, Bristol, BS4 3AR, UK
(+44) 0117 329 3270

www.martinparrfoundation.org

Photos: Louis Little

UPDATED: There is an extensive interview with Parr by Gemma Padley in the BJP which gives more background to the Foundation and its objectives. It can be read here.

Considered one of the most important photo historians of the 20th century, Peter E. Palmquist (1936-2003) had a keen interest in the photography of the American West, California, and Humboldt County before 1950, and the history of women in photography worldwide. He published over 60 books and 340 articles and was a strong proponent of the concept of the independent researcher-writer in the field of photohistory. With co-author Thomas Kailbourn, he won the Caroline Bancroft Western History Prize for their book, Pioneer Photographers of the Far West. Professor Martha Sandweiss, Princeton University, wrote, “He (Peter) established new ways of pursuing the history of photography, and with his collections and research notes soon to be accessible at Yale, he will be speaking to and inspiring new generations of students and researchers forever.” Established by Peter’s lifetime companion, Pam Mendelsohn, this fund supports the study of under-researched women photographers internationally, past and present, and under-researched Western American photographers before 1900.

A small panel of outside consultants with professional expertise in the field of photohistory and/or grant reviewing will review the applications in order to determine the awards. Applications will be judged on the quality of the proposal, the ability of the applicant to carry out the project within the proposed budget and timeline, and the significance of the project to the field of photographic history. Each recipient of the award will agree to donate upon completion of the project a copy of the resulting work (i.e., published book, unpublished report, thesis, etc.) to the Humboldt Area Foundation to submit to the Peter Palmquist Archive at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library and a report to Humboldt Area Foundation at the end of the grant period. We ask that award recipients acknowledge the financial assistance provided by the Palmquist Memorial Fund in publications or other work products supported by that fund.

RANGE OF AWARDS: $500 - $1,500

ELIGIBILITY

Individuals researching Western American photography before 1900 or women in photography as well as nonprofit institutions conducting research in these fields are eligible to apply.

Completed applications must be postmarked by: November 1, 2017 by 5:00 pm, and submitted to:

Humboldt Area Foundation • 363 Indianola Road, Bayside, CA 95524 Award Recipients will be notified by January 15, 2018

For more information contact:

Humboldt Area Foundation at (707) 442-2993

Application available here in Fillable PDF format. All Humboldt Area Foundation grant opportunities are listed here.

We are looking for a  Curator to take responsibility for the conceptual development, organisation and co-ordination of exhibitions and publications assigned by the Director and Chief Curator, including budgetary management and fundraising. The Curator also contributes ideas to the Gallery’s programme, liaises with other internal departments as appropriate and represents the Whitechapel Gallery at relevant networking events. 

Conditions of Work

•    Full time permanent position
•    Hours of work: 9.30am – 5.45pm, Monday - Friday plus some occasional weekend and evening work, which will be compensated by time off in lieu
•    Salary: £32,000-35,000 per annum
•    The period of notice is 3 months in writing on either side
•    Probation period: 6 months

For further details, and how to apply visit www.whitechapelgallery.org

Deadline for applications is midnight on Monday 9 October 2017.

This major survey exhibition focuses on artists who have shaped our understanding of the British landscape and its relationship to identity, place and time. Exploring how artists interpret urban and rural landscape through the lens of their own cultural, political or spiritual ideologies, the exhibition reveals the inherent tensions between landscape represented as a transcendental or spiritual place, and one rooted in social and political histories.

Though primarily photography, A Green and Pleasant Land includes film, painting and sculpture by over 50 artists, illustrating the various concerns and approaches to landscape pursued by artists from the 1970s to now.

Artists included in the exhibition: Keith Arnatt, Gerry Badger, Craig Barker, John Blakemore, Henry Bond and Liam Gillick, Paul Caponigro, Thomas Joshua Cooper, John Davies, Susan Derges, Mark Edwards, Anna Fox, Melanie Friend, Hamish Fulton, Fay Godwin, Andy Goldsworthy, Paul Graham, Mishka Henner, Paul Hill, Robert Judges, Angela Kelly, Chris Killip, John Kippin, Karen Knorr, Ian Macdonald, Ron McCormick, Mary McIntyre, Peter Mitchell, Raymond Moore, John Myers, Martin Parr, Mike Perry, Ingrid Pollard, Mark Power, Paul Reas, Emily Richardson, Ben Rivers, Simon Roberts, Paul Seawright, Andy Sewell, Theo Simpson, Graham Smith, Jem Southam, Jo Spence, John Stezaker, Paddy Summerfield, The Caravan Gallery, Chris Wainwright, Patrick Ward, Clare Woods and Donovan Wylie.

Towner Art Gallery
Eastbourne
29 September-21 January 2018

See more: http://www.townereastbourne.org.uk/exhibition/a-green-and-pleasant-land/

Image: John Davies ‘Agecroft Power Station, Salford’ 1983, © John Davies.

In recent years scholars both in Japan and Australia have become increasingly concerned with the close ties between these two emerging nation-states in the nineteenth century. Whereas much of the scholarship on Japan’s international relations of the period has focused on the Euro-American ‘treaty port’ powers, this talk asserts the significance of merchants as transcultural mediators in the Asia-Pacific region. To do so, the analysis will focus on vernacular, often marginalised forms of visual culture such as family photograph albums, postcards, private art collections, and company adverts. Specifically, this talk will examine as case studies two business partners in Meiji Japan who shared strong personal ties to the Australian colony of Victoria: Samuel Cocking and Theophilus Alexander Singleton. Through their long-term careers spanning their entire adult lives in Japan, this talk aims to highlight the direct cultural ties between nineteenth-century Japan and Australia, and in so doing, to challenge those twentieth-century historical narratives that understood the two nations’ ties as mediated through the Euro-American metropolitan centres.

Luke Gartlan is Senior Lecturer in the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews and serves as editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed quarterly journal History of Photography.

Venue:Room: KLT

Organiser: Centres & Programmes Office & SOAS Japan Research Centre

Contact email: centres@soas.ac.uk

See more here: https://www.soas.ac.uk/jrc/events/seminar-and-events/25oct2017-trading-places-photography-and-anglo-australian-merchants-in-meiji-japan-.html

From 500,000 photographs and 2,000 films in the British Empire & Commonwealth Collection held at Bristol Archives, 27 people were asked to choose just one. This exhibition reveals their choices and the reasons for that choice explained in their own words.

The former British Empire & Commonwealth Museum collected photographs and film from people who worked in the Empire, their families, and companies and government departments working with the colonies. Some are from well-known people, such as the writer Elspeth Huxley, others from anonymous photographers. Some record great historical events, but many document the everyday lives of families living and working abroad. It is a fascinating collection, giving a broad view of the Empire and the early years of independence.

The selectors include artists, photographers, film makers, colonial workers and their families, development workers and local communities. Each brings a different perspective to how they ‘read’ the image and the legacy of Empire.

Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
30 September-31 August 2018
See more here: https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/bristol-museum-and-art-gallery/whats-on/empire-through-lens/

Shadows of War. Roger Fenton's Photographs of the Crimea, 1855 is a new publication to accompany the exhibition of the same name currently on show at The Queen's Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse until 26 November 2017. It will be shown in London at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace in 2018.

The book provides a description and context for the Crimean War and Fenton's photographs of the conflict, reproducing the photographs shown in the exhibition. The Royal Collection Trust holds one of the best collections of Fenton's work including 350 of his photographs of the Crimean conflict. Appendices, reproduce useful source material including original handwritten catalogue recording the photographs from 1855, thumbnails of the Fenton Crimean images in the Royal Collections and the Agnew and Co catalogue of 1855.

The book further extends the knowledge of Fenton and his photography we have from Roger Taylor and others. 

Shadows of War. Roger Fenton's Photographs of the Crimea, 1855
Sophie Gordon
Royal Collection Trust, 2017
£35, 256 pages

No Man’s Land offers rarely-seen female perspectives on the First World War, featuring images taken by women who worked as nurses, ambulance drivers, and official photographers, as well as contemporary artists directly inspired by the conflict. Commemorating the First World War Centenary, No Man’s Land features photographs by three women of the epoch, alongside three women making work a century later.

Highlights include photographs never-before-exhibited frontline images by nurses Mairi Chisholm and Florence Farmborough; photographs by Olive Edis, the UK’s first female official war photographer; and new work by contemporary photographer and former soldier Alison Baskerville. This is the premiere of the nationally-touring exhibition before it travels to Bristol Cathedral, The Turnpike in Leigh, and Bishop Auckland Town Hall.

Unconventional motorcyclist-turned-ambulance driver Mairi Chisholm (1886–1981) set up a First Aid post on the Western Front with her friend Elsie Knocker. Using snapshot cameras, they recorded their intense life under fire at Pervyse in Belgium, just yards from the trenches. The images on display in the exhibition, drawn from Chisholm’s personal photo-albums, record her vitality and humour in the midst of great suffering.

Pioneering Olive Edis (1876–1955) is thought to be the UK’s first female official war photographer, and one of the first anywhere in the world. A successful businesswoman, inventor, and high-profile portraitist, Edis photographed erveyone from Prime Ministers to Suffragettes. During the Armistice, she was commissioned by the Women’s Work Subcommittee of the Imperial War Museum to photograph the British Army’s auxiliary services in France and Flanders. Edis took her large studio camera on the road, often developing plates in makeshift darkrooms in hospital x-ray units. Her skilfully-composed images show the invaluable contributions of female engineers, telegraphists, commanders and surgeons.

On the Eastern Front, nurse and amateur photographer Florence Farmborough (1887–1978) documented her incredible experiences with the Russian Red Cross on the border of Galicia (present-day Ukraine and Poland). At a time when the British press avoided explicit images, Farmborough depicted the horrific consequences of war, including corpses lying in battlefields. Her images of Cossack soldiers, makeshift field tents, and Christmas in an old dug-out, offer rarely-seen views of the Eastern Front before Farmborough fled the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.  

Contemporary photographer Alison Baskerville is a former soldier with an insider’s perspective on women’s experiences in the armed forces. With Soldier ,  a new commission made specially for No Man’s Land , Baskerville has been directly inspired by Olive Edis to make a series of portraits of present-day women in the British Army. Working in collaboration with Ishan Sadiq, Baskerville has produced a series of digital autochromes — a contemporary version of the early twentieth-century colour technology pioneered by Olive Edis. Presented as lightboxes, the portraits have a distinctive hazy appearance, made up of thousands of tiny coloured dots that glow.

Contemporary artist Dawn Cole was inspired by the chance find of a suitcase in the attic of a family house, discovering the photographs and diary of her great-aunt Clarice Spratling, a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse in Northern France. Cole uses a many-layered technique incorporating photo-etching, digital manipulation and lace-making. She ‘weaves’ words from Clarice’s diary entries into images of lace-edged handkerchiefs and collars, creating photographic prints with hidden messages that explore the gulf between public face and private feelings.

Shot at Dawn by contemporary artist Chloe Dewe Mathews focuses on the ‘secret history’ of British, French and Belgian troops who were executed for cowardice and desertion between 1914 and 1918. Her large-scale colour photographs depict the sites at which the soldiers were shot or held in the period leading up to their execution. All are seasonally accurate and were taken as close as possible to the precise time of day at which the executions occurred. Made a hundred years later, her images show places forever altered by traumatic events.

Dr. Pippa Oldfield, Head of Programme at Impressions Gallery and curator of the exhibition , says, “Most people think of war photography as images of male soldiers, made by photojournalists in the combat zone. However, the work in No Man’s Land shows many other ways to photograph war, offering different viewpoints by women who have historically been excluded. I hope visitors will be moved and surprised by what they see”.

Alison Baskerville, exhibiting photographer, says “It’s a privilege to be exhibiting alongside such inspiring and fascinating women. Despite the distance of a hundred years, their images are still so raw and powerful. As someone who has served in Afghanistan, I recognise the challenges of being a women in a war zone, and the importance of sharing that story”.
 

No Man’s Land
Impressions Gallery, Bradford
From 6 October to 30 December 2017
http://www.impressions-gallery.com

No Man’s Land is curated by Dr. Pippa Oldfield and is a co-production by Impressions Gallery, The Turnpike, Bristol Cathedral, and Bishop Auckland Town Hall, supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

The exhibition is supported by Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Peter E. Palmquist Fund for Historical Research. Historical images are kindly provided by National Library of Scotland; Imperial War Museums, and Norfolk Museums Service. Soldier by Alison Baskerville is commisioned by Impressions Gallery.  Shot at Dawn by Chloe Dewe Mathews is commissioned by the Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford as part of 14–18 NOW, WW1 Centenary Art Commissions. No Man’s Land is a member of the First World War Centenary Partnership led by IWM (Imperial War Museums). 

The second edition of the St Andrews Photography Festival opens on 1 September. The full programme is available here.

Of particular note to photo-historians are: 

• 40th anniversary of Stills Gallery. Stills is presenting a display of exhibition posters from its archive. Dating from 1977 to the present day, these chart the organisation’s rich and diverse programmes of exhibitions over the last 40 years. In that time, Stills has brought work by many of the world’s most celebrated and historically important photographers to Edinburgh for the first time for Scottish audiences to discover and enjoy at home.
• Calotype views of St Andrews / Robert Douglas. Using the methods and Chemistry described by Dr John Adamson combined with Victorian lenses, Robert Douglas the “21st century Calotypist” brings you Calotype Views of St Andrews harking back to the infancy of photography before the art became industrialised. These were produced during the course of several visits to St Andrews each image taking many hours to produce. They are the result of much research, effort and passion.
• Valentines Scottish Islands. This exhibition gives a flavour of how the postcard firm of Valentine & Sons depicted the Hebridean Islands of Scotland during the period 1890 to 1960. Valentine’s postcards and photographs of any place was driven by what they thought would sell to the public and this lead to a different depiction of the country to the tourist view we have today. Many of the images taken and made into postcards are of the towns and villages of the islands and transport as well as the more recognisable tourist attractions of the countryside, castles and ancient monuments. The images in this exhibition thus reflect the commercial and social values of the times and the purpose the images served in being a souvenir to send home, or a photograph to show on returning home in a time when few people had cameras.
• The Kinnairds of Rossie Priory.  Rossie Priory is a country house and estate to the north of Inchture. An early calotype photographic studio was established here for George Kinnaird, 9th Lord Kinnaird with the assistance of Thomas Rodger around 1850. These images represent a wonderful array of early photographic practitioners posing at Rossie Priory with their apparatus, portraits of gentlemen and ladies in period attire, key figures from Scotland’s early photographic circle, and the darkrooms at Rossie Priory.
• plus a range of talks, demonstrations and events

The National Portrait Gallery is to stage an exhibition of photographs by four of the most celebrated figures in art photography, including previously unseen works and a notorious photomontage, it was announced today, Tuesday 22 August 2017.

Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography (1 March – 20 May 2018), will combine for the first time ever portraits by Lewis Carroll (1832–98), Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–79), Oscar Rejlander (1813–75) and Lady Clementina Hawarden (1822-65).

The exhibition will be the first to examine the relationship between the four ground-breaking artists. Drawn from public and private collections internationally, it will feature some of the most breath-taking images in photographic history, including many which have not been seen in Britain since they were made. 

Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography will be the first exhibition in London to feature the work of Swedish born ‘Father of Photoshop’ Oscar Rejlander since the artist’s death. it will include the finest surviving print of his famous picture Two Ways of Life of 1856-7, which used his pioneering technique combining several different negatives to create a single final image. Constructed from over 30 separate negatives, Two Ways of Life was so large it had to be printed on two sheets of paper joined together.

Seldom-seen original negatives by Lewis Carroll and Rejlander will both be shown, allowing visitors to see ‘behind the scenes’ as they made their pictures.

An album of photographs by Rejlander purchased by the National Portrait Gallery following an export bar in 2015 will also go on display together with other treasures from the Gallery’s world-famous holdings of Rejlander, Cameron and Carroll, which for conservation reasons are rarely on view. The exhibition will also include works by cult hero Clementina Hawarden, a closely associated photographer. This will be the first major showing of her work since the exhibition Lady Hawarden at the V&A in London and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles in 1990.

Lewis Carroll’s photographs of Alice Liddell, his muse for Alice in Wonderland, are among the most beloved photographs of the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection. Less well known are the photographs made of Alice years later, showing her a fully grown woman. The exhibition will bring together these works for the first time, as well as Alice Liddell as Beggar Maid on loan from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Visitors will be able to see how each photographer approached the same subject, as when Cameron and Rejlander both photographed the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson and the scientist Charles Darwin, or when Carroll and Cameron both photographed the actress, Ellen Terry. The exhibition will also include the legendary studies of human emotion Rejlander made for Darwin, on loan from the Darwin Archive at Cambridge University.

Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography celebrates four key nineteenth-century figures, exploring their experimental approach to picture-making. Their radical attitudes towards photography have informed artistic practice ever since.

The four created an unlikely alliance. Rejlander was a Swedish émigré with a mysterious past; Cameron was a middle-aged expatriate from colonial Ceylon (now Sri Lanka); Carroll was an Oxford academic and writer of fantasy literature; and Hawarden was landed genty, the child of a Scottish naval hero and a Spanish beauty, 26 years younger. Yet, Carroll, Cameron and Hawarden all studied under Rejlander briefly, and maintained lasting associations, exchanging ideas about portraiture and narrative. Influenced by historical painting and frequently associated with the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, they formed a bridge between the art of the past and the art of the future, standing as true giants in Victorian photography.

Lenders to the exhibition include The Royal Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin; Munich Stadtsmuseum; Tate and V & A.

Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography will include portraits of sitters such as Charles Darwin, Alice Liddell, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Thomas Carlyle, George Frederick Watts, Ellen Terry and Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London, says: ‘The National Portrait Gallery has one of the finest holdings of Victorian photographs in the world. As well as some of the Gallery’s rarely seen treasures, such as the original negative of Lewis Carroll’s portrait of Alice Liddell and images of Alice and her siblings being displayed for the first time, this exhibition will be a rare opportunity to see the works of all four of these highly innovative and influential artists.’

Phillip Prodger, Head of Photographs, National Portrait Gallery, London, and Curator of Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography, says: ‘When people think of Victorian photography, they sometimes think of stiff, fusty portraits of women in crinoline dresses, and men in bowler hats. Victorian Giants is anything but. Here visitors can see the birth of an idea – raw, edgy, experimental — the Victorian avant-garde, not just in photography, but in art writ large. The works of Cameron, Carroll, Hawarden and Rejlander forever changed thinking about photography and its expressive power. These are pictures that inspire and delight. And this is a show that lays bare the unrivalled creative energy, and optimism, that came with the birth of new ways of seeing.’

Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography is curated by Phillip Prodger Ph.D, Head of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, London. He is author and editor of eighteen books and catalogues, including the acclaimed Eggleston Portraits (2016). A recognised expert in Victorian photography, he is the author of the award-winning Time Stands Still: Muybridge and the Instantaneous Photography Movement (2003) and Darwin’s Camera: Art and Photography in the Theory of Evolution (2009), named by New York Times as one of the best art books of the year.

VICTORIAN GIANTS: THE BIRTH OF ART PHOTOGRAPHY

1 March -20 May 2018, at the National Portrait Gallery, London www.npg.org.uk

Tickets with donation: Full price £12 / Concessions £10.50

Tickets without donation Full price £10 / Concessions £8.50 (Free for Members and Patrons)

www.npg.org.uk/victoriangiants or 020 7321 6600 #VictorianGiants

Press View: Wednesday 28 February 2018 10.00-12.00 (with a curators’ tour at 10.30).

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated book by curator Phillip Prodger which will be available to purchase from the National Portrait Gallery shops priced £29.95 (hardback).

The exhibition will tour to Millennium Galleries, Sheffield June – Sept 2018

Images: Alice Liddell by Lewis Carroll, 1858 (c) National Portrait Gallery, London; Mountain Nymph, Sweet Liberty ) by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1866 © Wilson Centre for Photography, Photographic Study (Clementina Maude) by Clementina Hawarden, early 1860s © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Two ways of Life by Oscar Rejlander, 1856-7 (c) Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Drawn by Light is the title of a two-part podcast, totalling nearly two hours, looking at the move of the RPS Collection from Bradford to the V&A Museum, London.  It looks at the reasons behind the move and the processes which underpinned it through interviews with some of those involved and others with an interest in the move. It uses the move of the RPS Collection as a prism to examine some of the wider issues around the centralisation and the funding of the arts in the United Kingdom.

Part one opens with Colin Ford CBE, the founding Head of the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television (NMPFT), reprising his story of how a national museum of photography came to Bradford culminating in its opening in 1983.  ‘Colin’s gift’ of the museum, as the interviewer Callum Barton puts it, was the natural home of the RPS Collection both of which embraced the art, science and technology of photography. The Collection was acquired in 2003 by his successor Amanda Nevill. When the move from Bradford to London was announced in 2016 Ford described himself as angry and upset and the move as wrong for photography, politically and geographically.

The broader context for the move has been an increasing centralisation of the arts in London and disproportionate funding cuts in the regions associated with the government's austerity programme since 2010. In to that mix the Science Museum Group’s (SMG) move to a STEM agenda, in support of government policies, spelt the end of an holistic approach to photography in Bradford. ‘Cultural asset stripping’ and more emotive phrases were used at the time.

For the National Media Museum (NMeM), the root of this lay with the near closure of the museum in 2013 and a proposed 30 per cent cut in funding. The public outcry in Bradford and from the wider photography world led to Ian Blatchford the SMG’s director being questioned by a parliamentary select committee. He defended the proposal highlighting declining visitor numbers and the impact of a poorly considered rebrand from NMPFT to NMeM in 2006. The subtext was that there was not enough science at the NMeM which had become a priority for the SMG and its constituent museums. The NMeM was ultimately saved and a process of review was set in train. In late 2012 Jo Quinton-Tulloch, was tasked with a brief to focus on science and technology and to realign the museum within the SMG. The holistic approach to photography, taking on both its art and science, was dropped in 2013 and a new mission statement published which concentrated on science and culture.

The RPS Collection with its primary focus on art and a user based concentrated on its artistic holdings became increasingly untenable.  In 2015 259 visitors used the Collection; the cost of maintaining it and making it available did not sit easily in a climate of declining funding.

Part 2 examines the transfer in more detail. In March 2015 Quinton-Tulloch proposed that the Collection be moved to a new SMG research centre. This proved unviable and the decision was ultimately taken to transfer the Collection to the V&A which offered to open it more widely physically and digitally. V&A curator Martin Barnes describes this in detail.

The wider discussion of centralisation in London of culture, a dramatic funding imbalance and an inequitable relationship between the centre and the regions occupies much of this part. Local authority cuts of 17 per cent since 2010, the stronger ability of the London institutions to raise private funding, all impact adversely on the regions. Barnes confirms that the first £1 million of the £7 million costs of the photographic research centre has already been secured in the space of a few months, something the SMG could only imagine. In 2012 80 per cent of private sector support for the arts went to London.

The RPS Collection transfer is cited as an example of London-centric trustees making decisions without any democratic or local accountability. Public consultation was absent, there was a lack of sensitivity to Bradford and the region and there had been no input from the wider photography sector. The poor handling of public criticism of the transfer by the SMG only compounded the controversy.

While due process between the SMG and V&A had been followed, the original purchase of the RPS Collection in 2003 through HLF and other sources, described in the podcast as ‘public money’, should have required a different approach. The SMG did not seek any compensation for the loss of the £4.5 million collection and Barton argues that such an approach potentially compromises future funding bids from HLF.  A policy fix is needed for such acquisitions. There are 13 further collections at the NMeM (now the National Science and Media Museum) including Tony Ray-Jones, the Herschel album, Talbot material and NMPFT/NMeM acquired material that have been earmarked for removal. Most telling, Burton suggests, is that the opportunity was missed to consolidate in Bradford at the NMeM, around one of  the greatest photography collections in the world.

So, what does the podcast tell us? Austerity and funding cuts disproportionately affect the UK regions; people do not want to lose cultural assets even if they rarely use them; that the decentralisation that saw the NMPFT move to Bradford in 1983 has been reversed; and, there is a growing centralisation of objects and funding in London. Ultimately, arts policy needs a serious and thorough review to deal with these issues.

What the podcast doesn’t do is provide the full story of the move of the RPS Collection to the V&A. There is much more that could be said around many aspects, including the original transfer from the RPS to the NMPFT and there are valid counter arguments as to why the move from Bradford to London, might have been the right one which should also be explored. These deserve an equal airing.

In the end, the debate about the RPS Collection transfer is academic. The V&A must now deliver on making the RPS Collection accessible and central to its new photography centre as it promised; the handling of any future disposals from the NMeM’s successor, the National Science and Media Museum, must be done more openly; and the photography world needs to do more to make its presence felt; although it may have been overtaken by events the absence of a national museum of photography is still up for discussion, but, most importantly, there needs to be a harder look at national arts policy, and the UK regions need to work to get the government and Arts Council England to allocate limited resources in a more equitable way.

Drawn by Light is a non-profit production for Saccadence
  it features interviews with Colin Ford, Michael Terwey, Martin Barnes, Francis Hodgson, Jo Booth and others. 
Written, edited and produced by Callum Barton
Listen to both parts here: https://www.drawnbylightpodcast.org/

Fotografiska, Stockholm's centre for contemporary photography, is to open a new building to be called Fotografiska - London Museum of Photography in 2018.

Fotografiska - London Museum of Photography will occupy the lower ground floors and a new office pavilion at The White Chapel Building, designed by Fletcher Priest Architects, at 10 Whitechapel High Street, E1, This is Fotografiska's first gallery outside Stockholm and will add another important cultural and leisure hub to the fast improving Whitechapel area. Fotografiska is also believed to be about to lease a 45,000 sq. ft space in New York on Park Avenue South.

In London, the initial rent is £2.4m per annum or £27 per sq ft. with Fotografiska occupying the whole of Phase 2 comprising 89,000 sq ft on a 15-year lease.

John Burns, Chief Executive Officer of Derwent London, said: “We are very excited to welcome Fotografiska - The London Museum of Photography to The White Chapel Building.  We believe their arrival will be a major benefit to the area and Fotografiska’s character endorses the Group’s focus on good design.  This pre-let means that we will have successfully let the entire property."

Tommy Rönngren, Founding partner and Chairman of the Board of Fotografiska London, said: “Derwent is a developer with great creative vision and we chose to work with them because of the combination of the building itself and the creative heritage of Derwent.  Fotografiska has for a long time been searching for suitable facilities in London, one of the world's most dynamic cities when it comes to photography.  Whitechapel, which is one of London's most dynamic areas, will be a perfect location.  It will be really exciting to bring the concept of Fotografiska to London.”

Fotografiska, is a privately-run 'museum' of photography on the waterfront in Stockholm and opened 2010, although, as Wikipedia pithily points out, it is not a museum having no collection, conducting no research and it is for profit. Fotografiska describes itself as an international meeting place where everything revolves around photography. In practice this means exhibitions and commercial activities which attract some 550,000 visitors annually. The founders of Fotografiska are brothers Jan and Per BromanIt and it is co-owned by venture capitalist Jan Tommy Rönngren.

The V&A has a number of courses and workshops taking place during August, September and October which include practical photographic process workshops and a history of photography evening course. Details are below. 

Salt Print Photography

Practical Workshop

Sat 19 August

10.30 – 17.00

Explore one of the earliest historical photographic processes and discover how to use digital negatives to create salt print photographs. Be inspired by the Museum and learn how to coat, expose and fix your own salt print with artist Molly Behagg.

https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/L0Ed8Y7g/salt-print-photography-aug-2017

History of Photography

Evening Course

Tuesdays 3 October - 14 November

18.30 – 20.30

In 1852, the V&A became one of the first museums to acquire photographs for its collections, holding its inaugural photography exhibition in 1858. Today, the collection is one of the most important in the world with approximately 800,000 images dating from the 1820s to the present day. This course will present an overview of the history of the medium of photography, encompassing works by a broad array of historic and contemporary practitioners.

https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/Vn1NRayw/history-of-photography-2017

Photographic Processes

Practical Workshop

Mondays, 6 - 27 November

10.30 – 13.00
Join photographer Almudena Romero for a practical exploration of photographic processes, from 19^th century printing techniques to the latest 3D scanning technologies. You will learn a variety of processes, including those based on natural materials as well as digital processes.

https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/23okLE3l/photographic-processes-november-2017

Portrait Photography

Practical Workshop

Fri 1 & Sat 2 December

10.30 – 17.00

Improve your photographic skills with photographer Nigel Wilson and explore a range of approaches to portraiture. Draw inspiration from the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) collection and discover how the use of various camera techniques and lenses will bring the most out of your portraiture. 

https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/venDqXdY/portrait-photography-december-2017

The Female Gaze: photographic practices

Practical Workshop

Tuesdays, 31 October - 19 December

10.30 – 13.00

This extensive hands on photography course, led by Grace Gelder, will explore women's contribution to photography, from Julia Margaret Cameron to Deborah Turbeville. With access to original prints in the V&A's collection you will explore a range of approaches to creatively develop ideas.

https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/MkrqqdGD/the-female-gaze-photographic-practices-2017

Photo Oxford 2017 is presenting an afternoon of stimulating discussions with artists, curators and academics that draw on the themes and theories explored in Photo Oxford 2017, a series of explorations into the complex and often contradictory relationship between photography’s capacity to both conceal and reveal. Of particular note is Professor Val Williams on the practice of reconceptualising photographic archives and Martin Parr discusses the making of his newly-commissioned project Oxford, created for the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford University Press and Photo Oxford, with Richard Ovenden.

Thursday September 7th

The Weston Library’s Lecture Theatre

Bodleian Libraries

University of Oxford

See more and book here

Derby's historic photography studio W W Winter will be opening its doors between 8-10 September as part of Heritage Open Days. 

See more here: http://wwwinter.co.uk/historyandheritage.html Booking is essential at: office@wwwinter.co.uk

An opportunity for two library cataloguers has arisen to catalogue a unique photobook collection of 13,000 items. The collection has been meticulously assembled over decades and requires cataloguing to become part of Tate Library’s Special collections. It is both national and international in its range.

You will have a qualification in librarianship or related discipline combined with relevant post-qualification cataloguing experience with serials, monographs and exhibition catalogues using an automated library system, AACR2 and MARC 21. You will also have experience in cataloguing materials in English and in languages other than English as the collection is international in scope.

You will be joining a small, enthusiastic and friendly team of Librarians, all of whom participate in the delivery of research services to Tate staff and external researchers in the Reading Rooms at Tate Britain.  You will, therefore, have good communication and interpersonal skills with experience of delivering excellent customer service.  

Tate Library is part of the world’s largest repository of British art from 1500 and international art from 1900. The Library Collections are housed in the Hyman Kreitman Reading Rooms and Stores at Tate Britain.

The photobook collection is likely to be Martin Parr's collection of photo books which the Tate has acquired.

Applications close 20 August 2017

See more here:  http://workingat.tate.org.uk/pages/job_search_view.aspx?jobId=3406

A new website which showcases the Terence Pepper Collection which contains over 2,000 photographs including many by leading photographers and historic news picture libraries is now available. It launches officially on 1 October 2017.

Terence Pepper was for many years curator at the National Portrait Gallery and between 1977 and 2014 over 3,000 items from the collection were donated to the National Portrait Gallery, London and other museums. Digital records of this gift and the associated celebratory display can be found here.

Check out the website here: https://www.terencepeppercollection.com/

Image: Mary Quant, photographed by Vic Singh, 1961

The Nicéphore Niépce museum in Chalon-sur-Saône is looking for a new director. With a collection of 3 million photographs, prints, negatives, contact sheets, historic cameras etc., the Nicéphore Niépce museum is one of the first museums in the history of photography in France. Created in 1972, it holds the Musée de France label and was directed by Paul Jay and François Cheval. See more here 

Histories of Photography: Invention, Transformation & Affirmation is an eight-week course from The Photographers' Gallery, London. It introduces participants to the richness and diversity of photography’s histories. It takes its point of departure from photography’s early origins in the mid nineteenth century, it navigates through the many transformations that the medium has undergone since, and finishes with its definitive acceptance as an art form in the later half of the twentieth century.

The course follows some of the main trajectories through which photography’s histories unfolded over the course of around 150 years (1830s–1980s), such as the relationship with technology, science and other art forms. It maps out the key moments, practitioners, movements and exhibitions, touching upon the medium’s diverse relations with societies and political ideologies, and reflecting on the global scope of its influence.

Each week takes on a different theme or angle:

Week 1: Inventing a Medium

Week 2: Photography in and as Fine Art

Week 3: New Vision

Week 4: Surrealism and its Legacies

Week 5: The Social Field

Week 6: The Politics of Landscape

Week 7: Conceptual Uses of the Still Image

Week 8: Postmodern Documents

Weekly recommended readings will be accompanied by extended readings and a course bibliography. Suitable for all levels.

About the course tutor:
Jelena Stojković is an art historian and lecturer based in London. She holds a PhD from the University of Westminster and teaches across Fine Art and Photography courses at the University of the Arts London (Camberwell and LCC). Her book, Surrealism and Photography in 1930s Japan: The Impossible Avant-Garde, is forthcoming from I.B. Tauris in 2018.

See more: http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/course-histories-of-photography

Using his knowledge of art, botany, chemistry, and optics, William Henry Fox Talbot (British, 1800–1877) invented a means of turning an ordinary piece of paper into “photogenic drawings,” calotypes, and salted paper prints in 1839. Featuring more than 30 works, many of which have never before been shown, the exhibition will provide visitors a glimpse into the earliest days of photography. This is the largest exhibition of Talbot’s work in a North American museum in nearly 15 years, and the first show ever in Pittsburgh to present these important photographs from the dawn of the medium.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a beautiful, small-format book that serves as a primer on  the work of Talbot, featuring an introductory essay by curator Dan Leers and thematic groupings elucidated by noted Talbot scholar Larry Schaaf. With its luminous reproductions of Talbot’s fragile works, this publication (hardcover, 96 pages, 50 illustrations, $25) demonstrates that early photography required a form of magic-making and innovation that continues to inspire people today.

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Nov 18, 2017–Feb 11, 2018 
GALLERY ONE
http://cmoa.org/exhibition/talbot/

Image: William Henry Fox Talbot, “Black Cherry Leaves,” likely 1839, photogenic drawing negative, 7 1/4 x 9 in. (image/paper), The William T. Hillman Collection