Dominic Winter Auctions is to offer the only known example of a near full-face portrait of a Southwold fisherman dating from c.1886. The 34 x 29cm portrait is an albumen print rather than the platinum more usually associated with Emerson's work and is inscribed on the back by Emerson 'An Old Sea-Dog - Taken Direct, Negative untouched, by P.H. Emerson BA MB, (Copyright)'. It is estimated at £1000-1500.

The catalogue entry notes:  A completely full-face portrait of the same fisherman, titled 'Old Fisherman' is reproduced on p. 153 of Nancy Newhall's book, P. H. Emerson - The Fight for Photography as Fine Art (1975). On page 155 is another photograph of the same fisherman, who there appears standing between two seated fishermen in front of a shed with the sign 'Nyl-Ghau' above the door. Both are platinum prints and belong to Emerson's Southwold series of c.1886, copies of which are held by George Eastman House, New York.

The identity of the sitter remains elusive, but this particular 'old sea dog' clearly captured Emerson's imagination, as he very rarely took close-up portraits such as this. The light here falls beautifully on the subject's hair, eyes and facial features, giving the fisherman a well-lived, contemplative and poetic expression. In the known photograph, which Emerson typically produced as a platinum print, the sitter's gaze is directly at the viewer, rather than into the distance over the viewer's shoulder, as here. It is very unlikely that the negative exists and this print is quite possibly unique.

Photographs, Posters & Postcards, Autographs, Documents & Ephemera
Dominic Winter Auctions
20 May, 2026, live and online
See: https://www.dominicwinter.co.uk/Auction/Details/photo26a-photographs-posters--postcards-autographs-documents--ephemera/?au=892

In 1974, photographers Terry Dennett and Jo Spence made repeated visits to 'illegal' Gypsy and Traveller sites in and around London. They got to know the people who lived there, documenting their lives in sound and image. The results of their project never formed a dedicated exhibition or a comprehensive publication, either then or since. Our Studio Was The World makes this powerful and still strikingly relevant work accessible to a new audience, with over 280 newly scanned (and in some cases newly discovered) images and previously unpublished texts. 

As Dennett commented, Gypsies and Travellers were 'persecuted terribly... talk about the Nazis!' Today, they remain socially marginalised, over-policed and discriminated against.

Together and individually, Terry Dennett and Jo Spence are among the most influential figures in radical British photography, with their impact extending far beyond image-making - into publishing, exhibiting, teaching and shaping photographic theory. Our Studio Was The World is the first in a ground-breaking trilogy of books - alongside Terry Dennett: The Crisis Project and Jo Spence: The Unknown Recordings - which explores their unpublished work, ideas and committed socialist perspective.

Our Studio Was The World
Terry Dennett & Jo Spence
MuseumsEtc, 2026
£35 (print) or eBook £25
Details:https://museumsetc.com/products/our-studio-was-the-world?variant=42460921757777

To coincide with the publication of the publication of Hill and Adamson’s The Fisherwomen and Men of the Firth of Forth by Sara Stevenson, a strictly limited series of museum-quality modern prints has been created. Curated by Sara Stevenson and Michael Gray, five images have been selected to represent the depth and humanity of Hill & Adamson’s work. Each print is drawn from a limited edition of just 50, produced to the highest archival standards, and presented within a signed portfolio These prints are not reproductions in the ordinary sense—they are contemporary objects of craftsmanship, extending the life of the original images into the present.

The Fishermen & Women of the Firth of Forth (1843-1847)
Limited edition of 50. Archival pigment print on Awagami Bamboo paper.
Printed by A and M, Edinburgh and published by Studies in Photography 2026.
Individual print: £185
Complete boxed set (five prints): £750
See more here

Hill & Adamson Exhibition
until Saturday 20 June 2026
Studies in Photography Lower Gallery
See more here

To order the book see here

Image:  Hill & Adamson. Newhaven Harbour from The Fishermen & Women of the Firth of Forth Portfolio. Limited edition of 50. Archival pigment print on Awagami Bamboo paper. Printed by A and M, Edinburgh and published by Studies in Photography 2026.
Image size: 158 x 213 mm. Paper size: 400 x 277 mm

This exhibition restages ‘art – photography – therapy’, an exhibition of Jo Spence’s photography curated by Terry Dennett in 2008, for an international photo therapy conference in Turku, Finland. Discovered in a battered portfolio in the Jo Spence Memorial Library Archive, the original exhibition’s 41 panels include some of Spence’s best known and impactful work, from the series Remodelling Photo History (1981-1982) and The Picture of Health? (1982-1986) to various photo therapy collaborations with Rosy Martin and others, ending with the Final Project she made while coming to terms with a terminal diagnosis. 

The Project Remains Incomplete considers the role of Dennett in nurturing the educational and artistic legacy of Spence, after her death from leukaemia. Dennett, a lifelong collaborator of Spence’s, dedicated his life to stewarding her archive and making it available to students and the public. The title of the exhibition comes from Dennett’s own reflections about Spence’s unfinished Final Project.

This restaging also brings together archival material and voices that were not present in Dennett’s original curation in Finland. In so doing, The Project Remains Incomplete invites reflections on the role of curators and archivists in activating the past for use in the present, and in shaping artistic afterlives and reputations. Spence’s work continues to speak to current concerns with women’s self-representation, agency and the female gaze, as well as the therapeutic and political uses of photography. 

Led by Patrizia Di Bello, Professor of History and Theory of Photography at Birkbeck, the curatorial team includes Talia Ulrich, Olga Murphy, Kerry Hart, Julian Ehsan, Farzad Fazilat, and Chloe Griffiths. 

‘The Project Remains Incomplete’: Jo Spence, Curated by Terry Dennett
22 May – 10 July 2026
Peltz Gallery, 43 Gordon Square London WC1H 0PD
Free admission, Monday to Friday, 10AM to 8PM. Closed on weekends

Image credit: Jo Spence with Terry Dennett and David Robert, ‘Return to Nature’, from Final Project, 1991-92. Laminated plastic panel made by Terry Dennett circa 2008, 405 by 500 mm. All Jo Spence’s work © Image Centre, Toronto

The archive, both historic and personal with questions of authorship and authenticity, dominates the themes of the longlisted titles for the 2026 edition of the Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards, the UK’s leading prize celebrating excellence in photography and moving image publishing. In addition, deeply personal approaches to race, representation, identity, and sexuality; notions of ‘the other’; and the preservation and transformation of the past feature. Selected books are those which make original and lasting educational, professional, historical and cultural contributions to the field.

The longlisted publications will be showcased by the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation at this year’s Photo London (13-17 May 2026 - Booth P20, Publishers’ Section, National Hall, Level 1, Kensington Olympia, London) and POST, Brighton (3-5 July 2026). Following the longlist announcement, shortlisted publications will be announced in early June 2026. The winner of each category, sharing a £10,000 prize fund, will be announced at the end of June 2026. Events celebrating the 2026 Awards and the winners will take place in autumn 2026 in London at the Barbican and the V&A, South Kensington.

For the Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards two winning titles are selected annually, with prize money of £10,000 divided equally between the winning title in the Photography category and the winning title in the Moving Image category. Since 1985 the Awards have recognised individuals who have made an outstanding original or lasting educational, professional, historical and cultural contribution to literature concerning photography or the moving image (including film, television, video, and new media). Sir Brian Pomeroy CBE, Chair of the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation, says of the 2026 longlists, “It is a huge pleasure to be announcing such outstanding works in our two sets of long-listed books this year, evidence that the production of excellent books on photography and the moving image is alive and well.”

Since their inception in 1985, the Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards have reflected the changing landscape of photobook and moving image publishing. Past winners include leading figures from the worlds of photography and film including artists and writers such as Isaac Julien; Sunil Gupta; LaToya Ruby Frazier; Zanele Muholi; Edward Burtynsky; Susan Meiselas; Martin Parr; Larry J Schaaf; Mark Haworth-Booth; Griselda Pollock; David Campany and Simon Callow.

The Longlisted Titles for the 2026 Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award are:

• A Reprise by David Alekhuogie (Aperture)
• Black Chronicles: Photography, Race and Difference in Victorian Britain, edited by Renée Mussai (Thames & Hudson/ Autograph)
• Index²⁰²⁵ by Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa (Roma Publications)
• It’s Hard To Stop Rebels That Time Travel by Raymond Thompson Jr (Void)
• MAN by Erik Kessels and Karel De Mulder (RVB Books)
• Red Horse by Sasha Kurmaz (Éditions Images Vevey)
• Sound the Sirens by Bryan Anselm (Overlapse)
• Swan Moon’s Swan Moon by Swan Moon (TBW Books)
• The Fold by Hoda Afshar (Loose Joints)
• The Ramble NYC 1969 by Arthur Tress (Stanley / Barker)
• The Weight of the Word by Piero Martinello and Piero Casentini (Fw:Books)
• Too Many Products Too Much Pressure by Janet Delaney (Deadbeat Club)

The Longlisted Titles for the 2026 Kraszna-Krausz Moving Image Book Award are:

• Cosmosexuals: Screen Acting, Stardom, & Male Sex Appeal by Mark Gallagher (University of Texas Press)
• Hollywood's Others: Love and Limitation in the Star System by Katherine Fusco (Columbia University Press)
• June Givanni: The Making of a Pan-African Cinema Archive by Onyeka Igwe (Lawrence Wishart)
• Out There in the Dark by Katharine Coldiron (Autofocus Books)
• Read Frame Type Film: Or, Written on the Screen by Enrico Camporesi, Catherine de Smet, and Philippe Millot (MUBI Editions)
• Shaping Global Cultures Through Screenwriting: Women Who Write Our Worlds edited by Rose Ferrell and Rosanne Welch (Intellect)
• The Animist Imagination in East Asian Cinema by Pao-chen Tang (Amsterdam University Press/ Routledge)
• Toward a More Perfect Rebellion: Multiracial Media Activism Made in L.A. by Josslyn Jeanine Luckett (University of California Press)
• Transnational Cinema Solidarity: Chilean Exile Film and Video after 1973 by José Miguel Palacios (University of California Press)
• Understanding Video Activism on Social Media by Jens Eder; Britta Hartmann; and Chris Tedjasukmana (Intellect)

Fiona Rogers, the V&A Parasol Foundation Curator of Women in Photography and Judge of the 2026 Photography Book Award, said of the experience, “We were extremely impressed by the originality of the books submitted for this year’s KK book awards. The selection exemplifies the expansive nature of contemporary photographic practice and represents how visual culture impacts us all. It is inspiring to see so many varied approaches to portraiture, documentary, and the use of historical documents and archives as artistic, reparative interventions.”

David Martin-Jones, Professor of Film Studies at the University of Glasgow, and Judge of the 2026 Moving Image Book Award, explained, “The longlist expresses the great variety of books submitted. Both in terms of the different writing styles and approaches to the moving image, and, the great diversity of films currently being explored. The longlist celebrates works exploring filmmaking from all around the world, including dedicated works on African, Asian and Latin American cinemas; larger and smaller screens; more canonical films and those passed over or at risk of being “forgotten” by the canon; and most of all, the timeliness of so much scholarship on the audiovisual for our complex era. What the longlist shows, in a nutshell, is how important moving images are for how we process our relationship with the world.”

The call for the 2027 Awards will be issued in November 2026.

Image: from Black Chronicles: Photography, Race and Difference in Victorian Britain, edited by Renée Mussai (Thames & Hudson/ Autograph)

Studies in Photography is publishing the latest scholarship from Sara Stevenson Hill and Adamson’s The Fisherwomen and Men of the Firth of Forth. This new volume brings together many previously unpublished photographs by the pioneering Scottish photographers David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, created in collaboration with Jessie Mann. Across 160 beautifully produced pages, the book reintroduces one of the most important bodies of work in the history of photography.

Focusing on the fishing communities of the Firth of Forth—especially the village of Newhaven—these images are widely regarded as the world’s first social documentary photographs. At their heart are the fisherwomen: strong, resilient, and central to the life and economy of their community. Their presence, alongside the fishermen, is captured with extraordinary sensitivity through the calotype process, whose soft tonalities give these portraits a timeless immediacy.

This publication restores balance to the historical narrative and invites a fresh encounter with images that continue to shape our understanding of photography today.

Hill and Adamson’s The Fisherwomen and Men of the Firth of Forth 
Sara Stevenson
£25. Studies in Photography, 2026
Available on pre-order, publication 11 May 2026
Details and order: https://studiesinphotography.com/collections/books/products/pre-order-hill-adamsons-fisherwomen-and-men-of-the-firth-of-forth

In this talk Caroline Bressey will be reflecting on the research she is currently undertaking which is supported by a Paul Mellon Centre Fellowship.The work is drawing on new and previous research with photographic archives, to reflect upon the surfacing of the lives of ordinary people. Photographic archives have enabled her to find a way to develop Black and other bodies ‘of colour’ in archives of working people, often in institutions such as asylums and prisons. Although such institutional records do usually record histories of the poor and excluded in forms not of their choosing, they do retain a diversity of English life.

Ordinary Lives: Photographic Encounters with Black Victorians
Caroline Bressey
Research Lunch, in person  - 26 June 2026, 1:00 – 2:00 pm
Paul Mellon Centre
Free but Book tickets

The Burton at Bideford is seeking a socially-engaged photographer to work on a project with a group of women with complex needs. The project will use Historic England’s Janette Rosing Collection as a starting point.

We are excited to commission a socially-engaged photographer based in the South West to facilitate workshops with a group of women with complex needs. The aim of the workshops is to introduce the Janette Rosing Photographic Collection to participants, and use it as a starting point to explore themes of collecting, the landscape, the pastoral vs the sublime and rural histories. Through a series of practical photography workshops and photo walks, the group will develop new skills and creative engagement with landscapes documented in the collection. With the artist’s guidance, the group will learn how to improve their own photographs, through considerations in lighting and composition.

The appointed photographer will deliver 10 creative workshops, which will result in an exhibition at The Burton in 2026. The workshops will take place at The Burton, and will be supported by staff from The Burton’s Learning and Engagement Team and the charity Brave Spaces.

The Brief

The photographer will:

• plan and deliver 10 photography workshops.
  teach photography skills, and encourage experimentation. Participants will be using the cameras on their phones, but there’s an opportunity for experimenting with analogue photography methods if this fits the brief
• encourage the group to work on a theme, so that individuals end up with a body of work at the end of the 10 sessions.
• collaborate with the group to agree the best output for the final work.

Budget

Artist fee: £2,000
Artist travel and access budget: £500

Read more: https://www.burtonartgallery.co.uk/open-call-socially-engaged-photographer-2/

Image: Clovelly Harbour, Devon, c1885. Historic England Archive. 

Rackline Storage Systems has published a blog about how it implemented a new storage solution in a new museum storage area, to support the safe preservation of the Fox Talbot  Museum’s collection. 

The team at the Fox Talbot museum was looking to maximise their back of house museum storage. With a huge collection of photographic inventory, storage was needed to both house its existing collection, and the Fenton Photographic Collection which was being transferred from the BFI. To achieve this the collection store needed to be renovated and fitted out with a selection of high density shelving.  The biggest challenge was the diverse collection that it was to contain.

Read the full blog here: https://www.rackline.com/fox-talbot-photography-museum-storage-shelving/

This significant collection of historic photography offers a substantial visual record of Aotearoa New Zealand during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a period of profound transformation for the peoples of this land. Assembled over several decades by Roger Ward (1945–2023)*, whose deep affection for Aotearoa New Zealand shaped much of his life and collecting, this unique photographic collection reflects a sustained engagement with the country’s history and culture. It was brought together with dedication, discernment and considerable expertise.

The collection comprises more than 1,500 original photographs documenting communities, landscapes and the built environment at formative moments in the country’s history. Distinguished by its depth, coherence and quality, the collection includes original prints, stereoviews and cartes-de-visite rather than later reproductions. Many works were created by prominent professional photographers working in Aotearoa during the colonial era, including: The Burton Brothers (New Zealand), Josiah Martin (New Zealand), and brothers James and George Valentine (Scotland). Together, these images reflect the development of photography as both a documentary practice and a commercial enterprise, while also recording the sweeping social, cultural and environmental changes taking place across the country.

A notable strength of the collection lies in its breadth of subject matter. Expansive landscapes, townscapes and architectural views are complemented by portraits and ethnographic studies, including photographs of Māori individuals and groups, marae and carving traditions. These images provide insight into how Aotearoa was visually represented and circulated in the nineteenth century, both locally and internationally.

We recognise the importance of honouring the mana, tikanga and cultural significance embodied in images of Māori people and places, and we are committed to approaching their presentation with respect and responsibility.

The collection will be presented as an online-only timed auction running 24.04.26—10.05.26, with selected highlights available for public viewing at Webb’s Mount Eden Gallery, exhibited alongside the Material Culture Live Auction catalogue.

Roger Ward, who was born in Otago in 1945 and died in 2023, began forming his remarkable collection of photographs following his retirement from a highly successful career in book marketing, a profession that made him an international figure in publishing and bookselling. Despite living much of his life overseas, he remained closely connected to Aotearoa New Zealand and returned frequently for extended periods, eventually purchasing a property near Mārahau, Nelson, where he spent his final years. His enduring affection for Aotearoa New Zealand, together with a sustained engagement with its history and culture, is expressed through this distinctive photographic collection, assembled with care, discernment and deep knowledge of the medium.

An Important Collection of Historic New Zealand Photography Part I | He Kohinga o ngā Whakaahua ō-Mua o Aotearoa Kohinga 1 (#188AD)
Webbs auctions, New Zeland
24 April-10 May 2026, online
Details: https://auctions.webbs.co.nz/auctions/catalog/id/946?

Image: James Valentine, Pool of Bathers, Whakarewarewa

The V&A Museum has launched a new monthly blog focused on the RPS Collection project which aims to 'offer insight into our approach, share discoveries from the project, and explore how the museum’s stewardship of the collection will foster creative connections and inspire new narratives.' The first, written by Dr Erika Lederman, gives an overview of the project and where it is at as part of a five-year cataloguing and digitisation programme. The RPS project now has 16 staff working on it from across departments in the Museum, plus 38 volunteers and 2 MA students. 

Erike concludes: 'The increased visibility of the collection has already resulted in increased loans and displays and some innovative research, which we will feature in future posts. We are looking forward to sharing stories, revealing exciting discoveries, and presenting new narratives as the project develops.'

Read the full blog here: https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/projects/introducing-the-royal-photographic-society-rps-project

Among the lots in Flints forthcoming auction of Photographs, Optical Toys and Science on 12 May is a group of three lots of correspondence between John Spiller and William Crookes. Elsewhere is a mix of photographs and lantern slides including a quarter-plate ambrotype of St Lukes Church, Chelsea.

Photographs, Optical Toys and Science
12 May 2026
Live, but bidding online

See: https://www.flintsauctions.com/auction/search/?st=crookes&sto=0&au=110&sf=%5B%5D&w=False&pn=1

Image: William Crookes and John Spiller, c1855

The summary below is not an exhaustive list I am sure, and several of the events will have their own programmes of talks and exhibitions that will add another layer to the week.

Download the document (with clickable links) here:  PL Week.pdf

In her extensive work bridging photography and archival research, Dr Julia Winckler has witnessed the power of photography to connect people, to inspire a sense of validation, of feeling seen and valued and heard. That their story matters. That they matter. In this lecture, sharing examples from her own practice, Dr. Winckler will explore the creative mechanisms involved in making memory visible through photography. Through encounters, conversations, and the physical retracing of journeys, new work is made on location, creating a dialogue across time between new images and originals.

Julia Winckler is a photographer, writer, curator and Principal Lecturer at the University of Brighton's School of Art and Media, where she teaches on MA Photography and MA Fine Art and supervises PhD research. 

Making Memory Visible Through Photography
Dr Julie Winckler
7 May 2026
Brighton and online
Details and registration: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/making-memory

Image: Julie Winckler

This interdisciplinary Franco-British initiative brings together academics, curators and other photography specialists from across Europe and the US to discuss the challenges and advantages of exhibiting photographic publications. With the printed page a key site of photographic circulation, curators and researchers of photographic history often face the question of how to integrate publications into an exhibition. Coinciding with Photo London 2026, this event brings together museum professionals and specialist researchers to identify, discuss and propose solutions to these shared challenges.

The day, which will include talks and roundtable discussions, will build upon conversations begun at the National Archives (France) during Paris Photo 2025. It will consider how the histories of photographic magazines and press archives are being recorded, collected, and displayed in a contemporary context, and the complexities of navigating this mass material. How do we use press photography to tell compelling and complex histories? What constitutes an ethical curatorial approach when working with photo-magazine and photojournalism archives? What are the practical implications and creative solutions for exhibiting bound publications?

Speakers include Professor Niclas Östlind (University of Gothenburg) and Philippe Garner (independent auction specialist), alongside curatorial staff from Munich Stadtmuseum (Germany), National Portrait Gallery (UK), Palais Galliera (France), RIBA (UK) and the V&A.

This event is co-organised by Tom Allbeson (Cardiff University), Alice Morin (Université Paris III - Sorbonne Nouvelle) and Marie-Eve Bouillon (National Archives, Paris), with Martin Barnes (V&A) and Sarah French (V&A). 

London's Autograph ABP has received £499,995 from the government's Creative Foundations Fund (CFF). The Fund has allocated £96 million to 74 arts and cultural venues to help theatres, performing arts venues, galleries and grassroots music venues address urgent infrastructure needs.

The government announced today that 130 cultural venues, museums and libraries are set to benefit from a £127.8 million funding boost, helping to ensure that everyone can access arts and culture in the places they call home. Those organisations receiving funding today mark the first projects receiving cash from the government’s Arts Everywhere Fund. As the cost of living continues to affect families across Britain, funding for these venues will help provide welcoming, affordable spaces for communities to visit, come together and celebrate what makes their local area special.

Autograph's director Professor Mark Sealy told BPH: 'Autograph’s project will replace two failing, business-critical elements at its Rivington Place building – the leaking roof membrane and deteriorating sanitaryware – to safeguard its galleries, collection, studios and tenant spaces. A new insulated Sarnafil roof and fully upgraded accessible bathroom facilities will improve our environmental performance, reduce maintenance needs, and protect both the building and Autograph’s photography collection from risk of damage.

These essential works respond directly to the needs of all our building users, ensuring the organisation can continue delivering high-quality cultural programmes for its diverse audiences and communities.'

Earlier this year, the Culture Secretary committed up to £1.5 billion to the cultural sector over this parliament, with the Arts Everywhere Fund aiming to save more than 1,000 cherished arts venues, museums, libraries and heritage buildings across England. Today’s £127.8 million which is administered and delivered by Arts Council England on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is made up of three funds:

• the Creative Foundations Fund (CFF) has allocated £96 million to 74 arts and cultural venues; 
• the Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND) has allocated a share of £25.5 million to support 28 museums to undertake vital infrastructure works; and
• the Libraries Improvement Fund (LIF) has allocated a share of £6.3 million to 28 library services to help upgrade buildings and technology to better meet the needs of the community. 

Autograph ABP is the only UK organisation directly involved in photography awarded a grant out of the three funds. 

See: https://autograph.org.uk/

Image: Autograph ABP's building in Rivington Place, London. © Michael Pritchard.

Widely considered one of the doyennes of late twentieth-century British photography, Dorothy Bohm was born Dorothea Israelit in Germany in 1924. Sent to the safety of England in 1939, she attended school in Sussex and studied photography in Manchester before setting up her own portrait studio there. In the late 1940s, inspired by a visit to the artists’ colony of Ascona in the Ticino, Switzerland, she started working outside the studio, capturing moments in ordinary lives with profound humanity and an instinctive eye for composition. Her first exhibition was held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London, in 1969, where she met Roland Penrose, who memorably commented that ‘her camera does not only see, it also feels.’ In the early 1970s Dorothy was involved with the founding of The Photographers’ Gallery in London, where alongside founder Sue Davies, she helped introduce a British public to the great names of contemporary photography, as well as to nurture the careers of younger photographers.

In the mid-1980s Dorothy abandoned black and white photography for colour, infusing her images with texture and spatial ambiguity to convey humanity in increasingly abstract and allusive forms. Dorothy Bohm died in March 2023 at the age of nearly 99. She had continued to take photographs until her early nineties.

Farley House and Gallery commented: 'We are delighted to exhibit About Women at the Lee Miller Gallery, a show that features a significant number of delightful images taken in Sussex in the 1960s and 1970s. This important exhibition includes both black and white, and colour photographs. Taken across the world over many decades with women as their subject, they capture moments in ordinary lives with profound humanity and an instinctive eye for composition. When asked, Dorothy stated: “I think of women as the most natural subjects for me.” The exhibition title is taken from her book About Women, which was first published 2015 and is still in print. Dorothy’s images of women are always intensely empathetic and, at times, reveal an astute, implicitly critical, awareness of the male gaze.'

Dorothy Bohm - About Women
Farleys House & Gallery, Chiddingly, East Sussex, BN8 6HW.
Open: Thursday, Friday, Sunday & selected Saturdays, April-October 1000- 1630
See: https://www.farleyshouseandgallery.co.uk/

Image: Dorothy Bohm, Goodwood. © Estate of Dorothy Bohm. 

A couple of lots in the forthcoming Flints Auction on 29 April caught BPH's eye. First up is a Thornton-Pickard Type C aerial camera c.1915. The camera is part of a whole outfit used by the Royal Flying Corps. It is estimated at £4000-6000. Alongside this is a TP Hythe Type III camera gun, and a collection of documents relating to 2/Lt. Frederick Charles Victor Laws a significant figure in the early development of aerial photography and aircraft-mounted cameras.

Elsewhere is a glass rummer engraved to H H Leithead form H H Bright, R Miller and F B Burdon, Hartlepool 1857. Opposite is an engraving of a collapible wet-plate camera. It is estimated at £100-200. The lot was previously offered in a ceramic auction in 2024. Leithead was a member of the Liverpool Photographic Society in 1858.  

A Kodak Wide Angle Camera, c1940, with Carl Zeiss Jena Protar f/18 85mm lens, black, serial no. 307509, body, G, lens, VG, some light internal haze, complete with three DDS, is of the type used by Bill Brandt for his distorted nudes. A copy of his Bill Brandt: Nudes 1945-1980, is also included. Estimate £700-1000. 

Fine Photographica
Wednesday 29th of April 2026 at 10:00 BST Lots: 1 to 543
See: https://www.flintsauctions.com/auction/details/fcam18-fine-photographica/?au=107

What is a photographic society or club? What defines an amateur? How do photographic clubs and societies foster community, educate, and serve as social networking bodies?  Assessing amateur photographic communities as a phenomenon is more urgent than ever because many of these minor groups were poorly documented at the time, and the majority of their collections have been broken up, dispersed, or lost. These amateur groups show the unrestricted flow of photographic knowledge, often through exhibition, unimpeded by geography or language, and made possible by the efficacy of print communities. Some amateur societies and clubs were founded for specific specialisms, concerns, and aesthetic preferences in a variety of locations, while others evolved from learned societies and earlier forms of education.

The earlier trend of forming clubs and societies for scientific and associational activity reflected broader developments in national and global trade economies. The variety of local photographic clubs and societies, as well as the benefits they provided, served as a vector for new ideas, new values, and new kinds of social alignment, as part of a larger surge in new forms of national, regional, and local identity inspired variously by, for instance, learned societies, Victorian arts and crafts organisations, or medieval guild influences.

Yet, much of this associational world can be traced back to British culture in ways that have not previously been considered. However, these networks and influences cannot be contained within ideas of ‘national traditions’. To recover these voluntary associations and practices requires more to be done to map and research the impact of transnational networks on British amateur communities, and a shared history, not only with Euro-North American networks, but also with global south countries like South America, Asia, and Africa, especially in the postwar years following rapid decolonialisation. It would seem timely to examine the culture of sharing ideas through the rich written world of photographic publishing; the work of foreign correspondents; the circulation of lantern sets and prints; and the mobility of photographers and artisans through transnational exchanges and rigorous theoretical and historical reflection. This will allow us to rethink the role of British culture in the development of amateur clubs and societies, and their wider historical relationships across national boundaries.

This hybrid one-day event builds on a one-day workshop at Birkbeck in May 2023 and opens a critical conversation about the under-researched origins and evolution of photographic clubs and societies around the world, and outlines new agendas to research, theorise, and interpret the variety of historical amateur circles that brought together technology, science, and art to enable a constituency of dedicated non-professional individuals to learn from one another.

We invite papers for 15 minute presentations that investigate this global network in relation to class, gender, race, and imperial legacies in the global south, including Latin America, Asia, and Africa, as well as the origins of this associational life in Britain’s medieval guilds, freemasonry, arts clubs, and learned societies.

What can mapping clubs and societies tell us about how people experience nationalistic and patriotic sentiment? How did the intensely local desire and sense of local distinctiveness translate to the national or transnational level? What approaches might we use now to analyse the sociability of these networks which emphasise local forms of belonging while connecting practitioners across geographical borders? How long did it take a photographic innovation to circle around the world? What were the well-established and less-travelled routes for exchanging photographic knowledge?

Proposals might explore, but are not limited to:

• The history of learned societies or arts clubs in Britain
• Early photographic clubs and societies in Britain between the 1840s and 1860s
• Links with other types of bodies and emerging disciplines that sponsored photographic sections such as literary and antiquarian, geological, natural history, medical, and archaeological societies, companies
• the rise and fall of national and provincial clubs and societies in Britain, Europe, and North America between the 1870s and 1930s
• The role of periodicals and books in drawing together societies and clubs and consolidating imagined communities
• Amateur circles in schools, universities, workplaces, and colonies, among others
• Localism demonstrated through flourishing local clubs and societies, and local learned journals
• The rise of early clubs in East Asian countries like China and Japan, and in Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, Taiwan, and Vietnam after World War II
• The evolution of clubs in South America, India, and Africa between the 1950s and 1980s
• The relationship between class, gender, race, or imperial legacies and clubs, societies, and associations

 Paper proposals should be submitted as one Word or PDF document to Dr Jason Bate j.bate@bbk.ac.uk by Monday 29 June 2026. The document should include:

• Your full name
• Email address
• Institutional affiliation (when applicable)
• Paper title
• Proposal of no longer than 250 words for presentations of 15 minutes
• Indication of whether you would be presenting in person or online
• Short biographical note (100-150 words)

Event format: The event will take place at Birkbeck, the University of London (UK) in hybrid form, and we will be able to accommodate fifteen presentations. Eight speakers have already confirmed their attendance, including keynote speaker Professor Elizabeth Edwards, Professor Peter Buse, PhD student Sandrine Chene, Dr Sara Dominici, Dr Carolin Görgen, Dr Oh Soon-Hwa, Dr Michael Pritchard, and Dr Alise Tifentale.   

Importantly: Selected speakers will be invited to contribute extended versions of their papers to an edited volume on the same theme.

cfp: Globe-spanning Networks: Mapping Amateur Photographic Clubs and Societies in Local, National, and Transnational Contexts
Thursday 26 November 2026
Birkbeck, University of London, UK & hybrid
Deadline for paper proposals: by Monday 29 June 2026 to Dr Jason Bate j.bate@bbk.ac.uk

Image: Maidstone and Institute Camera Club outing, c.1908, Michael Pritchard collection.