May 2013 Blog Posts (30)

This book is the first extensive survey of early Chinese photographers in any language. It is profusely illustrated with more than 400 photographs, many of which are published here for the first time, including a fine selection of Foochow landscapes from the studios of Lai Fong, China’s leading photographer during this period, and Tung Hing.

Early chapters introduce…

Barbara Flueckiger, Professor, University of Zurich writes...I'm very excited to launch my new Timeline of Historical Film Colors today: http://zauberklang.ch/filmcolors/ With many scans from vintage prints, downloads, quotes, filmographies etc.  …

Photography is widely associated with truthfulness yet it has also been employed throughout its history as a means of telling stories and evoking the imaginary. This display includes photographs by some of the most influential contemporary artists working in this vein, such as Gregory Crewdson, Duane Michals and Cindy Sherman, alongside examples by 19th-century…

I wonder if any of you are aware of the existence of Francis Frith inventory lists of photographs in their stock from Indonesia (the Dutch East Indies) from the second half of the19th century?  If so, where can they be found please?

There are several Indonesian views that have been attributed to Francis Frith (the photographs are probably by one of his photographers rather than by Frith himself) and I wonder how reliable those attributions are? …

European travellers to the East were fascinated, particularly in the nineteenth century, with the lights, colours, and the different way of living. The newness of the environment they encountered inspired artists, writers and photographers and deeply impacted European art history. The Orient was seen as a far exotic land and from that dream the field of Orientalism came to…

In France, around 1860, from the loins of a traditional national fascination with all things diabolical, was born a new sensation – a series of visionary dioramas depicting life in a strange parallel universe called ENFER – Hell – communicated to an eager audience by means of stereoscopic cards, to be viewed in the stereoscopes which had already become popular in the…

John Stauffer is co-editing a book, Picturing Frederick Douglass:  The Most Photographed American in the Nineteenth Century. He has discovered that there are more separate poses of Douglass than of Lincoln and of other contemporaries (not counting, for example Twain, who was a generation younger).  

In his search through…

In a landmark partnership, Impressions Gallery is depositing its archive with the National Media Museum. It will become part of the National Photography Collection, where it will be titled as  'Impressions Gallery Archive' and receive the highest standards of collections management. It is believed to be the first time a publicly funded photography gallery…

Charlotte Cotton and members of Ph: The Photography Research Network will discuss ideas emerging out of Either/And (www.eitherand.org) , a collaboration between the National Media Museum and Ph.

Either/And has been devised as an online framework in which to debate and share…

Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution is exhibiting prints of some of the Reverend Francis Lockey’s photographs, taken between 1849 and 1861, at the Central Library, Bath, between the 20-25 May.

Copies of Shadows and Light. Bath in Camera 1849-1861. Early Rare Photographs, compiled by David McLaughlin and Michael Gray will be on sale.

For more…

The announcement today of the acquisition by the Ashmolean Museum of John Everett Millais’s celebrated portrait of John Ruskin at Glenfinlas marks a final chapter in the history of a painting intimately associated with one of Ruskin’s pupils, the photographer Sarah Angelina Acland. Lent and bequeathed by Ruskin to Miss Acland’s father, Henry…

Two important daguerreotypes showing Antoine Claudet and his son F J Claudet are being offered by Special Auction Services on Thursday, 16 May on behalf of a descendent of the family.

Antoine Claudet was an important daguerreotypist and photographic scientist from 1839 until his death in 1867 his portrait, although undated appears to be one of the earliest known. F J…

A priceless archive of golf photography covering the development of golf from the 19th century onwards, which includes the extensive golf photography archives of the Lawrence Levy collection and the collections of Scottish photographer George Cowie, is to benefit from the support of the…

An album of 71 albumen prints by John Thomson of Swatow (Shantou), Amoy (Xiamen) and Formosa (Taiwan) sold for £134,500 at Sotheby's London on 14th May 2013 in a sale of Travel, Atlases, Maps and Natural History. The album had been purchased from Thomson by Dr Edward Irwin Scott (1846-1914), who ran a medical practice with his brother Dr Charles Scott in Swatow. The album included a presentation inscription by Dr Edward Scott to his mother-in-law dated 8th March 1874. Link here:…

A group of 18 photographs of China by Felice Beato taken in 1860 was sold for £218,500 on the 14th May 2013 at Sotheby's London in the sale of Travel, Atlases, Maps and Natural History. The collection included a magnificent 6-part panorama of Beijing, the first ever taken showing the interior of the city. The price is believed to be an auction record for a group of photographs by Beato. Link:…

ENLARGING PICTURES FROM SMALL PHOTOGRAPHS. -On the evening of October 7, the members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held a soiree at the Guildhall, Cambridge, which was numerously and fashionably attended.

During the evening, M. Claudet exhibited pictures enlarged from small photographs. After having read on Monday, in Section A, a paper on the means of rendering more accurate the measurement of the distances which regulate the enlargement of small…

The draft programme for De Montfort University's Workers and Consumers: The photographic industry 1860-1950 conference which takes place from 24-25 June 2013 has been announced. The history of photography has largely been dominated by concerns about aesthetic production and its political framings. Such ‘art historical’ approaches have marginalised the study…

Noel Chanan’s latest hardcover, The Photographer of Penllergare - a life of John Dillwyn Llewelyn 1810 to 1882, is an in-depth, richly illustrated and forensically researched hardcover book. Llewelyn was married to a cousin of William Henry Fox Talbot, the British inventor of photography, and…

The Daguerreian Society will be celebrating its 25th anniversary in Bry-sur-Marne and Paris between 9-14 October 2013. Speakers include: Dr Dusan Stulik, Professor François Brunet, Dominique de Font-Réaulx, D.E.A., and Herman Maes, Daguerreobase Project.

The City of Bry, and its Mayor Jean-Pierre Spilbauer, have invited members of the Daguerreian Society (and…