The Centre for British Photography is seeking a Director of Development and Strategy. Established in 2020, the Centre (UK registered charity no. 1190955) presents an expansive overview of the diversity of photographic practices in Britain from a range of voices past and present. Its mission is to support all kinds of photographic practices in Britain and to provide platforms for these contributions that are educational, inclusive and inspiring for the benefit of all audiences. It has a particular focus on supporting the practices of women and emerging artists working in photography. It accomplishes these aims through community engagement, mentoring, grants, educational resources, exhibitions and events.

We are looking for a dynamic Director of Development and Strategy who will be critical to the delivery of Centre for British Photography’s mission and vision. The Director of Development and Strategy will work closely with the Founding Director and other Trustees in all aspects of strategic planning, with the specific responsibility of advancing the charity’s mission and fundraising for CBP’s permanent home.

The successful candidate will be an effective face-to-face fundraiser with extensive experience in securing high value donations and managing the full lifecycle of significant donor relationships across corporate, foundation, private and public sectors. You will have up-to-date knowledge of best fundraising and regulatory practices. As an advocate, you will be committed to the charity’s mission, vision and values; interested in and passionate about shaping the future of a young charity; and play a pivotal role in the development and execution of its fundraising strategy. Experience with CRMs a plus.

At present, the charity does not have a physical space; initially this role is a hybrid one where the successful candidate will WFH and attend meetings and events in Greater London area. The role’s emphasis is to build the charity and secure the funding for a permanent space.

Director of Development and Strategy
Full-time (35 hours/week), Permanent role
Hybrid ways of working as the role allows
£34,000 - £40,000 per annum, dependent on experience
Application deadline: 12pm (midday) on Friday 1 November 2024
Details: https://britishphotography.org/news/161-we-re-hiring-director-of-development-and-strategy/

Identify and Care for Your Photographic Collections, is a hands-on workshop designed to assist community archivists and enthusiasts in learning how to identify, care for, and preserve photographic materials. Hosted at Cupar Library, the workshop features experts from the University of St Andrews, including Laura Brown, the Curator of Photography, and Erica Kotze, an accredited conservator with over 20 years of experience.

Participants will gain practical knowledge on recognizing various photographic techniques, from historical to modern-day prints, and learn essential skills in handling, storing, and exhibiting photographic collections.

Morning Session:
Led by Laura Brown, participants will learn how to:
Identify different photographic techniques, ranging from early Daguerreotypes to modern colour gelatine prints, as well as negatives on both glass and plastic film.
Examine and handle photographs using practical tools like microscopes and torches.
Engage in a hands-on approach to identifying materials in photographic collections.

Afternoon Session:
Erica Kotze will cover:
Care and storage methods for photographic collections.
Basic conservation techniques.
Considerations for exhibiting photographs, including best practices for display.

What You Will Gain

• A foundational understanding of different photographic materials and how to handle them.
• Practical tips on how to store and preserve photographs safely.
• Insights into exhibiting and sharing photographic collections with the public.
• A certificate of achievement supported by SCA, CAHG, ARA & ICON.

The workshop is an excellent opportunity for those with no prior experience, especially for volunteers or groups working in community archives. If the workshop reaches capacity, it may be held again in early 2025.

Identify and Care for Your Photographic Collections
Wednesday, 30 October 2024
Cupar Library, Crossgate, Cupar, KY15 5AS

Details: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/identify-and-care-for-your-photographic-collections-tickets-1021733551557

This year's Home Movie Day is going to be extra special... London's participation in the worldwide Home Movie Day takes place on Sunday 20 October 2024 at The Cinema Museum, 2 Dugard Way (off Renfrew Road), London SE11 4TH UK.

Our archivists will be on hand to examine, evaluate and if ok, project your home movies on 9.5mm, Standard 8 and super 8mm. If you've home movies sitting in your attic or under your floorboards and you don't know what's on them, bring them along to London's Home Movie Day. Running from 10:30am until 4pm, this is a free, family friendly event and you don't even need a film to attend.

To tie in to this year's BFI London Film Festival Gala film, Steve McQueen's Blitz at 1pm, we'll be showing a very special home movie kindly lent from our friends at the Imperial War Museum London. Shot in 1941, Rosie Newman's film catalogues the devastation wrought on London's streets during the Blitz in April of that year. To bring some light and glamour to the day, we'll also be showing some exclusive home movies from the archive of ranconteur, actor, playwright and film director Noël Coward This specially curated programme will be accompanied by film composer and pianist, Neil Brand.

The day will be an astonishing love letter to all things #homemovies #films #london #family #cinema Plus, there'll be tea and homemade cakes! What's not to like?!

Please contact Louise Pankhurst at londonshomemovieday@gmail.com for further details. 

This new book was the subject of a call for papers last year. It features twenty chapters discussing different aspects of Edith Tudor Hart's life, photography and her impact, plus a timeline and selection of her photographs. It includes essays from Zelda Cheatle, Tania Cleaves, Mike Crawford, Rachel Dickson, James Hyman, Sian Mcfarlane, Drew Milne, Merilyn Moos, Elizabeth Otto, Stefanie Pirker, Beate Pittnauer, Larry Ray, Rachel Rosin, Daria Santini, Lou Taylor, Emery Walshe, Julia Winckler, Jenny Wilson, and Shirley Read. 

Poverty for Sale. Edith Tudor Hart in Britain
Edited by Shirley Read
Museumsetc, 2024
ISBN 0-978-1-912528-45-5
290 pages, paper covers
https://museumsetc.com/

Preserved in Print is an exhibition of photography by E Chambré and Margaret Hardman, both of whom were accomplished photographers in their own right, alongside artefects from the Hardman studio. The studio premises is now preserved by the National Trust with the the negatives and photographs housed by Liverpool Record Office. There is an active programme of cataloguing, conservation and digitisation taking place.

The exhibition has been extended until 19 October 2024.

In addition Amy Carney, Cultural Heritage Curator for the National Trust, and archivist Lindsey Sutton spoke about the E Chambré Hardman studio, the collection and conservation at a recent talk which can be viewed here. 

The exhibition has been produced alongside the the launch of the Trust's 100 Photographs book which featured Hardman's photography. 

Preserved in Print - The photography of Chambré and Margaret Hardman
Liverpool Central Library
extended to 19 October 2024
https://liverpool.gov.uk/libraries/explore-central-library/central-library/

Photograph courtesy of Jonathan Wallis, and thanks for bringing it to BPH's attention. 

Belfast Exposed, in collaboration with the Centre for British Photography, will unveil two shows this month featuring artists Jo Spence and Arpita Shah. Jo Spence: A Woman's Place?, an exhibition spotlighting the ground-breaking phototherapy work of the celebrated British photographer and feminist Jo Spence (1934–1992), provides an intimate and powerful look at Spence’s exploration of the roles and experiences of women within society.

Jo Spence was not just a photographer but a cultural critic and activist who used her medium as a tool for emotional and political self-exploration. A central aspect of this exhibition focuses on Spence’s practice of phototherapy, developed primarily with collaborator Rosy Martin. Spence’s phototherapeutic sessions combined photography with therapeutic practices, allowing her to confront the deeply personal and often painful aspects of her life in a social context that sought to marginalise and silence women’s experiences. The exhibition shines a light on Spence’s engagement with the complexities of womanhood, class, sexuality, and health, addressing themes often left unspoken.

Spence's work in A Woman's Place? showcases her lifelong exploration of the idea that the personal is political. It gives viewers a rare opportunity to engage with her deeply introspective yet socially critical perspectives. Her ability to draw attention to private moments - such as grappling with the shame of illness, body image, motherhood and sexuality - resonates profoundly today as we continue to question the roles women are expected to play in both the private and public spheres.

Modern Muse by acclaimed photographic artist Arpita Shah is a compelling exhibition that Belfast Exposed is delighted to bring to Ireland for the first time in collaboration with the Centre for British Photography. Originally commissioned by GRAIN projects, this ongoing series of portraits explores the evolving identities and visual representation of young British-Asian women. At the heart of Modern Muse is Shah’s desire to address and challenge notions of the 'muse' in art. By replacing the Mughal emperors of classical South Asian painting with modern British-Asian women, Shah subverts those historical representations and celebrates the strength, diversity, and individuality of each woman depicted in her series.

Deirdre Robb, CEO of Belfast Exposed, said: “At a time when femicide and racism dominate our headlines, we want to use our gallery to showcase this powerful work, which highlights the inequalities in our society. Jo Spence used photography as a form of therapy, a practice that we also use within Belfast Exposed to help communities with their mental health. Her messages about women’s roles have never been more important. Arpita Shah’s ‘Modern Muse’ looks at British-Asian identity and, in light of the recent racially motivated attacks across Northern Ireland, we think this show has a vital message to convey. We want visitors to Belfast Exposed to take time to reflect on ideas and preconceptions they have around ‘A Woman’s Place?’ in society.”

James Hyman, Founding Director, Centre for British Photography, said: “We are delighted to have collaborated with Belfast Exposed to bring these two important exhibitions to Belfast. These complimentary exhibitions bring to attention significant personal and political issues and are part of our mission to support the most powerful and challenging photographers past and present.”

José Neves, Curator of Photography, Belfast Exposed, said: “Curating these two exhibitions has been an enriching journey, allowing me to explore the intersections of identity, memory, and healing through the perspective of two distinct yet very powerful artistic voices. At the core of Spence and Shah’s work is the capacity for photography to be a transformative tool for self-exploration and cultural reflection. I am certain that the personal and collective histories on display will resonate with audiences in a profound way.”

Jo Spence: A Woman’s Place? | Arpita Shah: Modern Muse
Belfast Exposed, in Collaboration with the Centre for British Photography
17 October – 21 December 2024

For more information, visit www.belfastexposed.org

Main image: © Jo Spence / CBP. Below: © Arpita Shah. 

The next Bloomsbury Photograph Fair takes place on 13 October 2024 at  the Holiday Inn, Coram Street, London, WC1N 1HT. Open from 0930-1500. 

Details: http://www.etcfairs.com

Bradford's National Science and Media Museum has unveiled its plans for a phased reopening and revealed renders of some of its new spaces. The museum has been closed since June 2023.  First to open in January 2025 will be reconfigured foyer (shown above) with a new visitor welcome desk, seating and redesigned shop. A new lift - which was part of the cause of the extended delay in reopening - which will provide access to all floors.

The museum has stated an ambition to attract 500,000 visitors in 2025 and to bring 500 objects from the permanent collection, many of which have not been seen before, to be on display.

As part of the Bradford 2025 city of culture programme the artist collective Marshmallow Laster Feast is creating a new immersive installation for the museum's temporary exhibition galleries, laumnching in April 2025. Inspired by Born in Bradford, a major research programme that has been tracking the lives of more than 40,000 people across the district since 2007, the installation will take visitors on a multimedia ride through time and space, exploring who we are and what makes us human.

The new Sound and Vision galleries (shown right and below) will launch in summer 2025 and will celebrate all aspects of the museum's permanent collection including photography, film, audio, animation and gaming.

On reopening visitors will see the return of the interactive Wonderlab gallery, along with the IMAX – the biggest screen in West Yorkshire. its 2025 programme will also see the return of the museum’s annual Yorkshire Games Festival, the Widescreen Weekend film festival, and the Bradford Science Festival. 

Commenting on the plans for reopening, Director Jo Quinton-Tulloch said: “We’re looking forward to welcoming visitors back into the museum in January just as Bradford takes on the role of City of Culture. With an enhanced public programme, newly revamped spaces and improved accessibility including a new passenger lift, we’re ready to welcome many more visitors in 2025 and beyond. It’s going to be a momentous year for the district, and we’ve planned a fantastic lineup of exhibitions, festivals, and events including a new immersive exhibition in partnership with Bradford 2025; a supercharged Bradford Science Festival and the opening of our new Sound and Vision galleries in the summer.”

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

and https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0jsnfdh

Lydia Heeley has been appointed the Bern and Ronny Schwartz Curator of Photography at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, and will start in post on 2 October 2024. She replaces the inaugural curator Phillip Roberts who was appointed in 2022 and left earlier this year. The post was advertised in May. 

Lydia brings curatorial experience from her most recent post as Assistant Curator, Photography, at the museums of St Andrews University a role she has held since December 2022. Prior to this she was Digitisation Officer responsible for 3D and 2D digitisation at the museum, and has been at the university in various part-time and voluntary roles, including work on the James Valentine collection and on the St Andrews Photography Festival.

Her MPhil thesis which was undertaken at St Andrews, supervised by Luke Gartlan was titled Scottish documentary photography and the archive: George M. Cowie, Franki Raffles and Document Scotland in the University of St Andrews Photographic Collection. The first major retrospective of Raffles' work was shown at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and remains on view until 16 March 2025. Lydia blogged about her work on the exhibition. 

The curatorial post at the Bodleian was first announced in 2021 with the objective of caring for, and developing, the libraries' growing photography collections. It was realised through a 'transformational' gift of £2 million from The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation. The endowment accompanies the Foundation's donation of the archive of renowned American portrait photographer and businessman, Bern Schwartz, and the Bodleian will be delivering an exhibition of Schwart's photography.

The Bodleian houses a significant and growing collection of photography. It has major holdings of significant photographers such as William Henry Fox Talbot, Julia Margaret Cameron, Helen Muspratt, Bern Schwartz, Daniel Meadows, and Paddy Summerfield; photobooks from the Sir Charles Chadwyck-Healey Collection; prints gifted by James and Claire Hyman; albums from the Michael and Jane Wilson Collection of Nineteenth Century Photographs; as well as huge volumes of photography present in the Libraries' wider archive and print collections, for example the extensive photographic component within the archive of Oxfam GB. The study of and research into photography is increasing in prominence at the University of Oxford, and the post will be key to bringing together different strands of the University for research collaborations with various faculties, museums within the University, other organisations in the city, and with the History of Art department under the leadership of Professor Geoffrey Batchen, whose work focuses on the history of photography.

See Lydia's Linkedin profile here
The Baltic's Franki Raffles exhibition details are here

Portrait image: Lydia Heeley / Linkedin. 

Photo-Secession: Painterly Masterworks of Turn-of-the-Century Photography celebrates an intrepid group of photographers, led by preeminent photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who fought to establish photography as fine art, coequal with painting and sculpture at the turn of the 20th century. The Photo-Secession movement took cues from European modernists–who seceded from centuries-old academic traditions–to demonstrate photographic pictures' aesthetic, creative, and skillful value as art. An homage to Stieglitz, Photo-Secession includes some of the very images that established the appreciation of photography's artistic merits.

The UMFA will present this exhibition concurrently with Blue Grass, Green Skies: American Impressionism and Realism from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to draw attention to the cyclical dialogue between painting and photography in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this period, photographers manipulated their images at various stages of production to imitate painterly effects, while painters worked and reworked their oils to imitate the immediacy of photography, demonstrating a remarkable reciprocity between these two art forms.

Collection of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg / Exhibition organized by art2art Circulating Exhibitions.

Photo-Secession: Painterly Masterworks of Turn-of-the-Century Photography
29 December, 2024
Utah Museum of Fine Arts

Details: https://umfa.utah.edu/photo-secession

Image: Gertrude KÄSEBIER (American, 1852–1934), The Picture Book, 1903, Platinum print on paper

Side Gallery has released an update and a goodbye letter from its partners as the founders step down and the Gallery develops a sustainable governance model, and delivers on its National Lottery Heritage Fundxed programme. The update notes: 

Many of you might not know our history as an organisation. The Amber Collective  was formed in 1968 by a group of film and photography students who met while studying in London and opted to set up a working base in Newcastle. The original collective purchased the buildings in 1974 and in 1977 they opened the Side Gallery & cinema space you still know and love today. The Amber Film & Photography Collective CIC have rented the building from the 5 remaining collective members, officially the Amber Partnership, since the early 2000s, but it’s time for a new chapter for our founders and building’s caretakers. The building is officially for sale but will still be the home of Side Gallery. 

The letter sets out some important history of the organisation and relationship between the collective, the Amber Partnership and AmberSide Collective Trust and the new CIC: 

Amber Films was formed in 1968 by a group of film and photography students who met while
studying in London and opted to set up a working base in Newcastle. From 1971, the fledgling
organisation rented premises on Side, close to Newcastle Quayside. In 1974, the choice had to be
made between quitting the rented premises or buying the entire buildings. The group decided to
attempt the latter, negotiating a commercial loan which necessitated the creation of a formal legal
structure. Additional funds were raised via loans from family and friends, all of which were
subsequently repaid over the following ten years. Thus the Amber Partnership was born.

Although documentation of working-class experience was not fashionable in the 1960s and 70s, we
were determined to do this using a range of documentary media – primarily film and photography.
Since independent film groups and photographic galleries barely existed outside of London at the
time, our aims were quite ambitious. Public funding was extremely limited, so our projects had to
be financed by various means, such as through small production grants, crewing for TV, working in
education and via our first ‘commercial’ venture, Lambton Visual Aids. Our wages were based
around equal shares of what was left after the repayment of loans, building upkeep and funding of
projects.

A major step change came in the late 1970s and early 1980s. First, grants from the Arts Council and
the British Film Institute facilitated building conversions to create the Side Gallery and Cinema,
which were completed around 1978. Second, in 1984 the Channel Four/ACTT Workshop
Declaration established longer-term funding for major film projects. The Workshop Declaration
enshrined Amber’s own principles of non-profit distribution and an egalitarian wage structure.
The next 20 years would see an expansion of film and photography production. New photographers,
gallerists and film-makers joined the organisation, some opting to remain as employees, and three
joining the partnership. This brought responsibilities as well as rights. Partners were expected to
contribute a third of their wages towards the upkeep and development of the buildings. This was
supplemented by rents from other parts of the buildings. This reserve also provided the flexibility
needed in times of financial difficulty, for example when the Gallery lost its core funding.

With partners approaching retirement age in the early 2000s, thoughts turned to preserving the
Amber legacy. In order to ensure that all the work, both self-funded and publicly funded, was
retained in the public realm, we established The AmberSide Collection Trust to manage and
maintain the archive of photography and film work. A new Amber structure, a Community Interest
Company was established. All of the tools of Amber’s film and photography production were
donated by the partnership, as well as the right to use our work from the archive.

Thus, we the 5 remaining partners are left only with the buildings we originally bought in 1974. A
long-term lease for the new Amber CIC is in place. So now it is time for us to fully retire from the
caretaking responsibilities and sell the buildings. The premises have been an amazing resource over
the years and it is good to know that they will continue to facilitate important creative work. It is
time for a new generation to take up the challenge. We wish the CIC all the best on its forward
journey.

Finally, we want to say a big thank you to all those communities and organisations with which we
have worked over more than 50 years. Your voices have meant everything to us, and we are
confident that they will continue to be heard through the work of Amber/Side.

Richard Grassick, Ellin Hare, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Pat McCarthy, Peter Roberts

Read the full letter here: https://www.amber-online.com/a-fond-farewell/?mc_cid=7786c25151&mc_eid=b48467438a

https://www.amber-online.com/

Everyone who wishes to learn, explore and enjoy photography, is welcome to visit and browse our photography library.

Since the establishment of Stills in 1977, the organisation has accumulated over two thousand books on photography. This has largely been through artist donations, as well as donations from gallery visitors, production facilities users and other members of the Stills’ community. Many of these are now rare, out of print or hard to find in shops or in other libraries.

We have one of the largest publicly accessible collections of books on photography in Scotland and we offer:

• Open, accessible and welcoming access to publications for everyone 
• A unique heritage resource of photographies in Scotland and international photographies, from 1840s to the present day
• A safe space in which to access information, to learn about and look at photography
• Welcoming and knowledgeable staff who will help you use the library based on your interests
• Exhibition catalogues and information on previous Stills exhibitions since 1977

In 2024, we began the Stills Open Access Library Project. Through this project, we aim to significantly build on the accessibility of our library in a variety of different ways, including the creation of a lending library service and the digitization of exhibition catalogues from Stills exhibitions since 1977, which you can view here.

You can now borrow a wide range of monographs, anthologies, practical photography books, exhibition catalogues and critical writing on photography. Books can be borrowed for a period of two weeks with a possibility for renewal. You can borrow up to 6 books at once.

Want to start using the lending library?

Before borrowing books, library registration is required at a one-off cost of £15. We do not have any additional membership fees.  Please note that you must be 18 years or above to borrow books. To book a time for your library registration, email library@stills.org 

We continue to welcome donations for our library. If you have any donations, please email library@stills.org 

The Stills Open Access Library Project is supported by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC)’s Innovation and Development Fund.

Browse the library catalogue here: https://www.libib.com/u/stillslibrary?mc_cid=72f5cd938c&mc_eid=271af15832

https://stills.org/

The Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities at Coventry University extends an invitation for expressions of interest from candidates wishing to apply for a funded PhD studentship supported by the AHRC Midlands 4 Cities (M4C) consortium. These prestigious, competitive studentships offer a fee waiver and a maintenance grant for 3.5 years (full time) or 7 years (part time), as well as access to unparalleled training, additional funding, and networking. The Centre is particularly interested in potential candidates wishing to study photography history and cultural memory (from 1839 onwards), for example in remediation through film, television, and popular culture

Our aim is to work with a small number of applicants to help them prepare to submit an application to the M4C for a January 2025 deadline. There are therefore no guarantees, but successful applicants would start PhD study in September 2025.

We welcome expressions of interest in any of the fields represented by CAMC:

• Cultural Memory: Research within the cultural memory strand is concerned with the importance and meanings of sites, monuments, museums, art-works, objects, images and texts in shaping histories and identities of memory and belonging across cultures, with a core focus on transnational memory contexts.    
• Wellbeing and the Arts: This strand draws together researchers from various disciplines (including art, design, photography, literature and history) who are interested in the contribution creative subjects can make to the understanding and promotion of health, wellbeing and inclusion.  
• Critical Practices: The Critical Practices strand brings together practitioner-researchers in the fields of visual arts, the curatorial, and performance arts interested in working across disciplines and exploring innovative and speculative interdisciplinary enquiries that address and intervene in the world around us.  

Eligibility:

• Open to UK and International applicants
• Applicants must hold a Masters qualification (or be nearing completion), or relevant professional experience

We advise that candidates check carefully the detailed guidance to ensure they are eligible:

• M4C Guidance is available here
• Coventry University eligibility criteria are available here

All expressions of interest should be addressed to m4c.icc@coventry.ac.uk, with the subject line ‘CAMC EoI’. In your email, please include:

• A summary of your academic background and CV;
• A summary of your research interests and proposed PhD project, including:
  • Your research questions and a brief explanation of their importance and significance;
  • A brief summary of the relevant literature that has informed your proposed project;
  • The methodology you might use, and why.
• An indication of potential supervisor(s). A list of academic specialists in the Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities can be found here.

Deadline for Expressions of Interest: Monday 30 September 2024
Deadline for Submission of Applications: 10 January 2025

Studies in Photography Gallery in Edinburgh is delighted to announce In Search of the Blue Flower, a brand new exhibition and publication by renowned cyanotype artist Alexander Hamilton. In Search of the Blue Flower is set to coincide with World Cyanotype Day 2024 on September 28th, when a special launch event will take place at Studies in Photography Gallery, 6 William Street, Edinburgh, between 2pm and 7pm.

In Search of the Blue Flower: Alexander Hamilton and The Art of Cyanotype brings together almost half a century of Hamilton’s cyanotype based practice, which has seen the Edinburgh based artist explore the wonders of nature and the use of plants as symbols of male power through the cyanotype’s unique photographic properties. The book is the first extensive study of Hamilton’s practice, and features 140 colour and black and white images across 168 pages.

Over half a century, Alexander Hamilton’s extensive cyanotype work has included his critically-acclaimed Peace Rose series in the early 1990s, and his 4 Flowers series, exhibited at the Photographers Gallery in 1994. Moving into the twenty-first century, Hamilton explored complex social issues in The Great Divide (2002), a groundbreaking exhibition at Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery, which looked at the often-unseen effects of airborne pollution on plants.

Hamilton works only with plants, each flower creating a single, unique image through the direct contact process. The plant leaves a trace on the surface of the paper resulting in a cyanotype that cannot be replicated. Between 1989 and 1999, after twenty-five years of research, he perfected these beautiful cyanotypes using this early photographic process.

For Hamilton, the cyanotype process allows him to reveal the story of each plant under his observation. His cyanotypes are not print 'multiples'. As an artist, he is devoted to the practice of creating unique ‘unrepeatable’ images.

Since being discovered in 1842, by Sir John Herschel, the cyanotype is a process involving two chemicals – ammonium iron (lll) citrate and potassium ferricyanide – which, when combined with ultraviolet light, results in a beautiful Prussian Blue image. Images are made without a camera and use a direct contact process.

Early practitioners of the photographic arts, such as Anna Atkins, made images using plant and fabrics-based materials to create similar prints. A more modern-day equivalent would be the artist Man Ray with his ‘Rayograph’ prints.

Since 2015, World Cyanotype Day has been celebrated on the last Saturday in September, with artists and galleries across the globe taking part.

In Search of the Blue Flower: Alexander Hamilton and The Art of Cyanotype is a rich and valuable contribution from Scotland towards raising the profile of this neglected art form.

In Search of the Blue Flower runs at Studies in Photography Gallery is at 6 William Street, Edinburgh, EH3 7NH September 29th- October 20th, 2024. Tuesday – Saturday, 12 noon – 6pm.

A special opening event will take place on September 28th between 2pm and 7pm.

In Search of the Blue Flower: Alexander Hamilton and The Art of Cyanotype
Published by Studies in Photography April 2023 as part of Studies in Photography’s Scottish Photographic Artists Series.
It features 140 colour and black and white images across 168 265mm x 210mm pages.
Available in hardback £30, softback £20.
ISBN 978-1-8383822-6-1
www.studiesinphotography.com

Hundred Heroines, the Briitsh charity putting women photographers both past and contemporary centrestage, has been banned by Facebook for ten years for 'breaking community guidelines'. Not only has there been the writing of women out of histories in favour of men, structural issues that work against women working in photography, but Facebook's AI is now also conspiring against women. 

Speaking to Hundred Heroines founder Dr Del Barrett recently about the banning the issue seems to be the use of the term 'heroine' and Facebook's content moderating AI confusing it with 'heroin'. There have been repeated attenpts to speak to a person and resolve the issue without success, As Hundred Heroine's notes 'We'vbe reluctantly accepted this setback and created a new page, HH Museum'. It continues 'Had we been named 'Hundred Heroes' and referencing male achievements, would we have faced this ban? Of course not. Does the future of our world depend on so-called “intelligence” that cannot tell the difference between a woman admired for her outstanding achievements and an illegal substance? Let’s hope not...'

Follow and share the new HH Museum Facebook page. In the meantime HH is continuing to try and restore is banned page and content put together over many years.

Hundred Heroines is a contemporary museum, gallery and archive dedicated to women in photography, based in Gloucestershire.  We take world-class art out of the white cube and made it accessible to all. Admission to all exhibitions and participation in projects is free. Leading women photographers (the Heroines) challenge how we see the world. They push artistic boundaries and highlight issues of social injustice. Using their work (objects and images in our collection) as a starting point, we facilitate projects and provide a space for people to come together for shared creative experiences. This is particularly empowering for young women.

See: https://hundredheroines.org/

Images: Dr Michael Pritchard

By/For: Photography & Democracy is a collaborative partnership between three photographic historians, Dr Tom Allbeson, Dr Colleen O’Reilly, and Helen Trompeteler. The collective investigates photography’s assumed democratic credentials as an art form and a medium of mass communication. We believe a historical perspective on the complex relationship between photography and democracy is critical to understanding how the medium and related visual technologies can address the social and political issues of our time. 

For its inaugural 2024/2025 program, By/For is presenting a six-part series of virtual lectures and accompanying readings with Shawn Michelle Smith, Brenna Wynn Greer, Thy Phu, Darren Newbury, Ileana Selejan, and Patricia Hayes.

Learn more and register for upcoming events at https://www.byforcollective.com/.

The Bibliotheca Hertziana, the Max Planck Institute for Art History in Rome, and Folkwang University of the Arts will host a photo-historical seminar for doctoral and post-doctoral scholars. The seminar is generously supported by Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Stiftung, Essen. It will take place in Rome from March 17 through 21, 2025.

As in previous years, the seminar will be organized and led by Tatjana Bartsch (Bibliotheca Hertziana), Johannes Röll (Bibliotheca Hertziana), and Steffen Siegel (Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen) – in 2025 together with Luke Gartlan (University of St Andrews). The topic will be Centers and Peripheries: Photography’s Geography Lessons for which this call for proposals was published.

In 1851, the London-based photographer Antoine Claudet staged a captivating group portrait in front of his camera. He may have had a little role play in mind, imagining his son as an instructor teaching geography to his pupils. The globe, visible in this picture, serves as a valuable instrument for such purposes, as do the open travelogues and photographically illustrated atlases. In the middle of the nineteenth century, knowledge about the world could draw on various resources, old and new. Claudet’s “The Geography Lesson” lays open that the medium of photography had already gained pivotal importance in this context.

In 1839, Dominique François Arago had predicted such a function in his address to the Paris Academy of Sciences with remarkable clarity. Indeed, photographic practices have since proved indispensable for the scientific exploration of the globe but also for problematic forms of conquest, subjugation, and domestication. In the age of colonization, geography and photography entertained troubled forms of association. Such processes were driven and supported by a hierarchical logic that distinguished between centers and peripheries, most prominently dividing and apportioning the world in the era of “Western” empires. Yet, in the early twenty-first century, we must address a pressing question: Can we formulate all these observations in the past tense?

By no means has research dealing with the histories of photography avoided such problems. An increasing number of studies on the medium’s history and current moment have been engaging with visual cultures all over the globe, in local, national, and transnational contexts. We can observe promising tendencies that the medium’s historiography continues to open itself to a global scope. Yet, despite all reasonable efforts, we should wonder if such an overdue reconfiguration of our research interests will lead to historiographic models freed of all hierarchies. We still have to confront current research with problems of maintaining, extending, and deepening well-established differences that continue to shape our understanding of the histories of photography.

We should raise questions that address, in a forthright manner, the social fabric of our ongoing work. Thus, if we attend “Photography’s Geography Lessons” today, we should deal with the intellectual and institutional preconditions of how we conceive and justify our research interests. We have to address the relevant institutional frameworks for our work such as archival infrastructures, academic training, and access to publishing opportunities. And we must inquire how we involve research published in languages in distinct contexts and diasporic communities.

This seminar invites us to rethink the evident structures that have divided photography’s territories into centers and peripheries. Such a divide relates to the global state of current research—the people and their institutions—and the materials and questions at play. How can we reshape the landscapes of photography by challenging still accepted canons? How can we broaden, convert, and renew our knowledge by considering what has been overlooked, neglected, and actively sidelined? What are the possible impacts of the so-called peripheries and how are they modifying, diversifying, and challenging understandings of the medium’s manifold histories?

Drawing on these aspects, we invite applications from emerging scholars who will present new scholarship and, in the context of a week-long seminar, discuss a set of questions that relate to local or global histories of photography and that deal with problems of centers and peripheries, contested spaces, and the “imagined geographies” of photography and its cultures. Among the relevant questions that applicants may wish to consider and that will shape the seminar are:

• In what ways have photographs and their classification in archives enabled or prevented certain geographical imaginings of place in relation, for instance, to distance, proximity, locality, or mobility?
• How have photographic formats and forms of photography’s presentation – including, to name but a few, panoramas, postcards, albums, photo books, photo-essays, and exhibitions – responded to and reconfigured understandings of geography, locality, and community, as well as its dispossession, occupation, contestation, division, and actual and potential re-imaginings? 
• How might photo-historical research invite photographic encounters and imaginings of place and geography that center ecocritical, feminist, postcolonial, queer, migrant, and diasporic perceptions, experiences, and histories of location? 
• How do we recognize, define, and interrogate photography’s histories in terms not only of cartography, geography, and surveillance, but also nomadic, non-linear, disruptive or discordant strategies of place and travel? 
• In what ways has photography historically transformed or reformed the emotions of location, in relation to longing, estrangement, identification, absence, presence, nostalgia, or loss?
• In what ways have photo-historians and curators interrogated the historical language of center and periphery in association with photographs? In what ways has photography produced, defined, or critiqued terms such as view, vista, and scene, but also the liminal, the heterotopic, and the non-site. 
• How do we consider photographs and their archives in relation to concepts of center and periphery, the provincial, the rural, the metropolitan, the urban, the transnational, the migratory, and the mobile?
• What critical approaches address the exclusions and absences in the photographing of place and locality due, for example, to cultural, religious, or legal and governmental restrictions? 

We welcome proposals from Ph.D. students in the dissertation phase and recent post-doctoral scholars (maximum of three years since degree) in art history and related disciplines with a strong photo-historical component. The seminar language will be English. All participants will present some aspect of their current research projects, which must relate to the program’s subject matter. Visits to several photographic archives in Rome will be an integral part of the seminar.

The Bibliotheca Hertziana will provide lodging and reimburse the incurred expenses for traveling economy class up to 500 euros. Please upload the following application materials as PDF documents by October 27, 2024 here.

• Title and a 500-word abstract of the proposed topic (all participants will give a 30-minute formal presentation)
• Brief CV (maximum 3 pages)
• Brief summary of your dissertation or postdoctoral project
• Names and contact details of two references (but no letters at this point)

Questions and queries may be sent to: fototeca@biblhertz.it  

The deadline for proposals is October 27, 2024.

See: https://foto.folkwang-uni.de/de/journal/news/cfp-centers-and-peripheries/detail/

Paying homage to one of Britain’s leading photographers of protest, a new exhibition showcasing David Hoffman’s work, titled Endurance & Joy in the East End, has been curated by The Gentle Author and will open at the Museum of the Home in Hoxton this October. The exhibition coincides with the publication of David Hoffman’s monograph by Spitalfields Life Books, Endurance & Joy in the East End 1971–1987.

In 1973, when David Hoffman was a young photographer, he went to live in a squat in Fieldgate Mansions and it changed his life. Over the next decade, he documented homelessness, racism and the rise of protest in startlingly intimate and compassionate pictures to compose a vital photographic testimony of resilience. Thanks to the courage and determination of the squatters who stopped the demolition, Fieldgate Mansions still stands to provide invaluable housing to families in Whitechapel today.

Committed to telling the stories and human history of the East End, The Gentle Author has been writing a daily blog about the culture of London for the past fifteen years, bringing to life the rich tapestry of voices and diverse characters who have inhabited the area. Inspired by the way in which David Hoffman’s superlative photography speaks vividly to our own times, The Gentle Author has curated an exhibition of his breathtaking photography of Whitechapel in the 1970s, to reveal how much the world has changed in the past half century, yet not changed enough.

The Gentle Author comments, 'Characterised by a brilliant aesthetic flair, David Hoffman's reportage photography of Whitechapel in the 70s speaks across half a century as compelling evidence of a community that came together to face the challenge of racism and a housing crisis.'

Danielle Patten, Director of Creative Programmes and Collections at the Museum of the Home says, 'We are honoured to host this exhibition and celebrate David Hoffman's work as a powerful storyteller of resilience and solidarity. This exhibition not only highlights his extraordinary contribution to photography but also invites all to engage in important conversations about social justice and community resilience'.

Staged as a collaboration between the Museum of the Home and Spitalfields Life, a crowdfunding campaign saw £10,000 raised to produce the exhibition in the summer of 2024. The resulting project will be hosted by the Museum of the Home for six months from October 2024 until March 2025, accompanied by a programme of events exploring themes of homelessness, racism and protest.

Endurance & Joy in the East End 1971-1987, The Photography of David Hoffman
October 2024 - March 2025
Museum of the Home, 136 Kingsland Road, London E2 8EA

https://www.museumofthehome.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions-and-installations/endurance-and-joy-david-hoffman/

Image: Fieldgate Mansions, Whitechapel, 1978 by David Hoffman

ONE YEAR! Photographs from the Miners’ Strike 1984 – 85 explores the vital role that photography played during this bitter industrial dispute. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the miners’ strike, Four Corners is delighted to tour this exhibition from the Martin Parr Foundation. One of Britain’s longest and most violent disputes, the repercussions of the miners’ strike continue to be felt today across the country.

The exhibition looks at the central role photographs played during the year-long struggle against pit closures, with many materials drawn from the Martin Parr Foundation collection. Posters, vinyl records, plates, badges and publications are placed in dialogue with images by photographers, investigating the power and the contradictions inherent in using photography as a tool of resistance. They include photographs by Brenda Prince, John Sturrock, John Harris, Jenny Matthews, Roger Tiley, Imogen Young and Chris Killip, as well as Philip Winnard who was himself a striking miner.

The photographs show some familiar imagery - the lines of police and the violence - but also depict the remarkable community support from groups such as Women Against Pit Closures and the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners. Photography was used both to sway public opinion and to document this transformative period in British history.

The catalyst for the miners’ strike was an attempt to prevent colliery closures through industrial action in 1984-85. The industrial action, which began in Yorkshire, was led by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and its President, Arthur Scargill, against the National Coal Board (NCB). The Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher opposed the strikes and aimed to reduce the power of the trade unions. The dispute was characterised by violence between the flying pickets and the police, most notably at the Battle of Orgreave. The miners’ strike was the largest since the General Strike of 1926 and ended in victory for the government with the closure of a majority of the UK’s collieries.

ONE YEAR! Photographs from the Miners’ Strike 1984 – 85
20 September-19 October 2024
Four Corners, 21 Roman Road, London E2 0QN
Free admission. Opening hours 11am-6pm Wednesday - Saturday
Nearest tube: Bethnal Green, Central Line

The exhibition is accompanied by a series of talks and screenings. Further information here.

Image: Miners’ strike 1984 mass picket confronting police lines, Bilston Glen, Scotland. Miner Norman Strike at the front. © John Sturrock/Reportdigital.co.uk