Blogs

West Yorkshire Archive Service (WYAS) has recently been passed the photographic archive of the Ernest Ethelbert Slater (1850-1928). The large collection of lantern slides and negatives was transferred to WYAS by the Aireborough Historical Society. The collection had been stored in a dry well for many years before being passed to the Historical Society. Work has started on conserving the slides - some of which have suffered from damp and poor storage - and digitising them. The majority are still in their original wood slide boxes. 

Ernest Slater was a an amateur photographer in Yeadon, West Yorkshire, and a member of Yeadon Photographic Society which closed in 1905. Slater gave a number of lectures about photography including his own tour across Canada in the early 1900s. He very active in recording activities in the town and had an informal approach his photography often capturing people in relaxed activities and unawares that they were being photographed. Slater also documented his travels and the collection includes slides from Egypt, Canada, asd well as closer to home in Leeds, York and Cheshire. Slater was manager of Manor Mill in Yeadon and some of his slides include views of mill and its interior, streets scenes in Yeadon and posed shopkeepers outside their stores. The majority date from the 1880s-1910s. 

There is a display of images and some of the slides boxes from the collection at the WYAS premises in Morley. 

WYAS would welcome any information about Slater and his life and photography. Contact: WY Leeds Archives Leeds@wyjs.org.uk

Details of the opening hours to see the display are here: https://www.wyjs.org.uk/archive-service/contact-us-and-opening-times/leeds-archive-services-opening-times-and-information/

See: https://aireboroughhistoricalsociety.org.uk/yeadon/people-yeadon/slater-ernest-ethelbert-photographer-family-friends-photographs-c1870s-onwards-09/ and https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/23476841.photographer-ernest-e-slater-captures-evocative-images-times-past/

Images: right: Ernest Ethelbert Slater, c1900; left: a selection of images from the WYAS display. All are modern reproductions from original lantern slides. 

Chiswick Auctions has a number of interesting lots relevant to British photographic history in its next sale at the end of the month. These range from Alfred Buckham, Bertram Park through to Bob Carlos Clarke. Of particular interest is a letter from 1911 (lot 6) from Thereza [Charlotte Story-]Maskelyne to Lady [Caroline Julia] Dillwyn Llewelyn describing the daguerreotype in the 1840s and expressing an interest in the early history of photography as well as remarking on Charles Talbot, the collections at Lacock Abbey and The Pencil of Nature; lot 355 is a set of photographs of the Creative Camera/Coo Press offices in Doughty Street along with a portrait of Colin Osman. 

Elsewhere in the 473 lot sale is a selection of cameras, optical views, lantern slides, nineteenth and twentieth century photographs and albums, and photographic books including lot 120 The Book of Bread (1903).  

Photographica
Chiswick Auctions
31st Mar, 2025, starting at 1100
See the full catalogue here.  

Image:  Alfred Buckham (1879-1956), In the North Sea, c.1920, lot 116.

BBC Radio 4 Extra carried a series of programme related to photography on Saturday. They will be available for the next twenty-eight days. Catch up with: 

• The Photographer at Sixteen by George Szirtes George Szirtes reads his memoir
• Conversation Extra Sontag on Photography, a conversation between Susan Sontag and Philip French (1978) 
• Diane Arbus: Intimate Portraits (2023) 

Photograph albums of Victorian Britain have often been interpreted in terms of the social and familial networks of their compilers, but they also imply certain geographies – local and transnational, imagined and travelled – that are not always brought to the same level of critical attention. This keynote lecture delivered by Luke Gartlan examines an impressive album compiled by Cecilia Mary Jocelyn, née Elliot, which is currently on permanent display at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Luke Gartlan is Senior Lecturer in the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews. He is the author of A Career of Japan: Baron Raimund von Stillfried and Early Yokohama Photography (2016); and has co-edited two volumes: with Ali Behdad, Photography’s Orientalism: New Essays on Colonial Representation (2013); and with Roberta Wue, Portraiture and Early Studio Photography in China and Japan (2017).

A second keynote At the Center of the Periphery: East Berlin and the Face Value of Photo Books from Steffen Siegel is also being delivered as part of the same event. 

Navigating the Victorian Photograph Album: Itineraries, Histories, Erasures
Keynote Lecture as part of the photo-historical seminar “Centers and Peripheries: Photography’s Geography Lessons"
Dr Luke Gartlan
18 March 2025 at 1830 (CET) | 1730 (UTC/GMT)
Rome and streamed online, free 
See: https://www.biblhertz.it/events/41034/2206 

At the Center of the Periphery: East Berlin and the Face Value of Photo Books
Keynote Lecture as part of the photo-historical seminar “Centers and Peripheries: Photography’s Geography Lessons"
Professor Steffen Siegel
20 March 2025 at 1830 (CET) | 1730 (UTC/GMT)
Rome and streamed online, free 
See: https://www.biblhertz.it/events/41035/2206

New research about photographer, author and journalist Percy R. Salmon FRPS has been published to mark the anniversary of his birth (12th March 1872).

It reveals his role in the arrival and adoption of the Autochrome colour process in Britain in the summer of 1907.

View Pressphotoman blogpost

Salmon is best-known as editor of the weekly Photographic News (1901-1905) and author of more than 20 books that helped popularise photography in the early decades of the 20th century.

Royal Photographic Society film about Percy R. Salmon

Photo credit: Percy R. Salmon FRPS (1872-1959) by HD Halksworth Wheeler FRPS (1878-1937).  

Popular Visual Shows 1800-1914  is a forthcoming book that tells the story of the growth of picturegoing as a popular habit between 1800 and 1914. Encouraged by urbanisation and changes in transportation, education, and leisure patterns, the regular and widespread provision of exhibitions and shows became a defining characteristic of cultural life. Painted panoramas and dioramas awed with enormous tableaux; the stereoscope immersed viewers in a 3D world; the many varieties of peepshow promised a marvellously garish experience of patriotic battles, gruesome murders, and far-off places. If that was not enough, the ever-versatile magic lantern projected hundreds of thousands of slides of every imaginable subject, from travelogues and temperance tales to illustrated hymns and adaptations of popular fiction. Then, after 1896, audiences experienced the cinematograph, and were able to enjoy film at the many fixed venue cinemas that emerged from around 1908.

Moving and projected images were displayed not only in town halls, theatres, and other large exhibition spaces, but also in workhouses, schools, churches, empty shops, and fairgrounds. Picturegoing, in all its variety, became a national pastime, integrating itself more and more pervasively into the structures of everyday life as the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries progressed. Drawing on a wealth of new evidence, this book details the shows that were on offer, where and what they were, the networks and infrastructure they existed within, and, above all, how their audiences experienced them.

Popular Visual Shows 1800–1914. Picturegoing from Peep Shows to Film
Joe Kember and John Plunkett, with Rosalind Leveridge
Oxford University Press, published 22 May 2025
£113, 496 pages, hardcovers, eBook also available
ISBN: 9780192849861
Details here

Shifting Perspectives will explore how photography has shaped and recorded the urban architectural heritage of Scotland. By examining Scottish photography from the 1840s to the present day, architectural styles, photographic records, and the influence of new technologies, the conference will provide a comprehensive look at how cities and towns have been represented and perceived through the lens. Academics, students, architects, photographers, and cultural historians will gather to discuss how photography influences not only the perception of Scotland’s built environment but also the way our modern towns and cities are planned and designed.

The programme will be available from late March 2025, but you can book now to avoid disappointment as we expect this event to be very busy.

Shifting Perspectives: Scotland's Urban Architecture Through the Lens
20 May 2025
The Engine Shed, Forthside Way Stirling FK8 1QZ
Bookings can be made at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/shifting-perspectives-scotlands-urban-architecture-through-the-lens-tickets-1268472006919?aff=oddtdtcreator

Supported by Historic Environment Scotland, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and Scottish Council on Archives

There is still time to submit papers for the conference. The deadline is 24 March.
Details are available at https://studiesinphotography.com/blogs/news/studies-in-photography-conference-call-for-papers

The LSE has launch its new digital library. Containing 500,000 pages of digital content freely available to search, browse and download, it is a significant step in furthering access to the LSE's  collections to anyone who wants to use them. The site includes digitised and born-digital items from LSE Library’s flagship collections such as The Women's Library, the Hall-Carpenter Archives and the Charles Booth Archive. It includes a mix of copyright free and protected materials.  The new platform provides access to the full range of nationally significant collections available on the previous digital Library, as well as exciting new resources and a suite of enhanced user features. 

Of particualr interest to photographic historians is a digitised version of Street Life in London, photographs documenting women's suffrage and up to the Greenham Women Everywhere project of 2019-2021.  Amongst the prints papers I came across by chance are the Census of Production Reports 1907-1993 which include thos relating to photographic manufacturing, 

A new video guide has been made to help users and ensure that search and discovery of Digital Library content is now easier than ever. 

 https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk 

For more information contact: Henry Rowsell, Digital Library Manager, LSE Library, e: h.r.rowsell@lse.ac.uk 

Image: World Graphic Press Limited, Christine Pankhurst, Trafalgar Square, London, 1908. From The Women's Library collection. 

The body of photographic works created by Terry Hulf over the past 50 years tell epic stories of the area of Romney Marsh and its surroundings. He has had little need to travel further afield but rather the landscapes he records change over time. Indeed, he has made these views of the Marsh a focus of his life’s work, a project which he considers will never be finished.

It is important to consider that what continues to interest Hulf in the history of Romney Marsh are more often the effects and impact of human involvement has on the landscape, although people are rarely featured. Almost always what we see in his photographs is what humans have left behind, offering only a trace of presence. It is the same for the viewer looking harder at these images, like the man with the camera, we are just on the edge of being present ourselves.

Terry mainly uses the same standard lens with 35mm and larger format cameras pivotal length and film. In his practice he prefers early cold wintery mornings for his subject matter, there is hardly ever any cropping, so the composition is fixed, at the exact moment he chooses to release his shutter. The camera usually on a tripod remains at eye level, as a result the position of the horizon rarely changes.

The images captured reflect upon his own way of looking, a developed skill or maybe even a gift for avoiding the picturesque but recording instead extraordinary and beautiful ‘unblinkered’ landscapes as memory. Terry might not always remember the exact year the image was recorded but each image is in his memory, set in time and he clearly recalls every picture taken over the years. The hold your breath moment then the shutter is released, it’s like a negative has then been permanently scorched to his retina.

To say that Terry is particularly in touch with Marsh surroundings would be something of an understatement. As he moves quietly around the landscapes early in the morning, selecting his images in a relentless quest for creativity, a perfect picture carefully captured, then sometime later sharing this view, maybe as a beautiful silver gelatin print. Terry maintains, it is because he has so closely worked this land over the years that he feels so much a part of it. When he was younger, he was a Chestnut Paling maker, working beneath tarpaulin shelters, erected in the woods which covered the scratch where the chestnut was cleaved. During the months when the tree sap was rising, they would go fruit picking instead, all part of a natural symbiotic relationship with the land that they loved and worked.

Rye Art Gallery
This will be the first major photographic exhibition staged at the gallery, it also coincides with our first exhibition held sixty years ago, celebrating the opening of this historic building and museum of art in 1965. With fine art for sale, a programme of contemporary art exhibitions, and our own unique permanent collection, Rye Art Gallery continues to grow and develop.

Interestingly, the founder of the gallery the painter Mary Stormont (1871- 1962) who bequeathed her art collection and the buildings following her death in 1962, was also a keen photographer, documenting Sussex and Kent landscapes and recording local activities such as fishing, hop picking and harvest time particularly, from 1900 to the 1920’s. These photographs form part of our permanent collection archive in Rye along with personal photographs by the artist Edward Burra (1905 – 1976) and his close friend the society photographer Barbara Ker-Seymer (1905-1993).

Terry Hulf has over 70 framed works especially produced as monochrome prints for this show. They are available for sale and celebrate 50 years of photographing the Marsh landscapes, alongside this is a separate collection of 25 unique artists portraits also taken by Terry, the pictures tell an intriguing story of artists, a fantastic creative colony of people working here on the Sussex/Kent borders.

Commenting on the exhibition curator Dr Julian Day commented: "Terry is a dedicated and passionate artist which will be beautifully revealed in this his first major retrospective with a collection of so many of his photographic works on display for the first time. Like many other creative individuals, he is a person difficult to pin down, with so many talents he could be described as a true polymath, since he also paints in oils, is a musician and an accomplished fiddle player who has written many tunes connected to the landscapes that he photographs. For anyone who has seen his tango, you will know that Terry really means business!  Above all though, I believe it’s the photography in which he has found his true calling and purpose in life. We are delighted that Rye Art Gallery has been chosen to host this exceptional exhibition."

To accompany the show a book called Notes from a Landscape is available as well as a separate full catalogue of works exhibited. Rye Art Gallery is honoured to accept as a gift from Terry Hulf, his complete photographic archive, which will add significantly to our existing permanent collection held in Rye.

Terry Hulf at Rye Art Gallery: A Retrospective:
Notes from a Landscape with Terry Hulf
 Rye Art Gallery
Saturday 10 May - Sunday 29 June 2025.
Further details:           ryeartgallery@gmail.com

 Image: Grove Lane 2024

The University of Oxford and the Bodleian Libraries have announced the endowment of the post of Bodley’s Librarian and Director of University Libraries, thanks to the generous philanthropic support of the Helen Hamlyn Trust. The trust has been a strong supporter of the Bodleian Libraries over many years, and this £4 million gift towards the post has also resulted in the release of £2 million in matched funding from the University. The endowment means that Bodley’s Librarian, the most senior position at the Bodleian Libraries, will from now on be known as Bodley’s Librarian and the Helen Hamlyn Director of the University Libraries. The funding will ensure the permanence of the role, and support the sustainability of the Bodleian into the future.

Richard Ovenden has held the role of Bodley’s Librarian since 2014. The libraries’ endowment – essential for the sustainability of the organisation – has tripled during Ovenden’s time at the head of the Bodleian. During his tenure Ovenden has championed photography, and led on adding photographers' archives to the Library's special collection, and he was behind the appointment of the Bern and Ronny Schwartz Curator of Photography. Amongst the Libraries' most significant acquisitions was securing the personal archive of William Henry Fox Talbot, which has heralded a period of major collecting in the field of photography. He has also suppported photography within the institution by encouraging exhibitons, conferences, events, and the award of an Honorary Fellowship to photographer Gary Fabian Miller (see left). 

More widely, under his leadership, the libraries have made transformational improvements to their buildings, especially the renovation of the Weston Library which was completed in 2015 – celebrating its tenth anniversary this year – the KB Chen China Centre Library, and the refurbished Radcliffe Science Library. Major acquisitions under his leadership include the only surviving copy of a ‘lost’ poem by the poet Shelley, the papers of John le Carré, the archive of the NGO Oxfam, and the Kohn Bach Manuscript. 

See: https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/about/media/helen-hamlyn-trust-endowment

There's a really fascinating podcast interview with Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen on The Urbanaut just released on YouTube. Well worth having a look at.
https://youtu.be/uCAbzQcIqjo?si=N5DMY8JKC_WkDK9S

The British Film Institute is seeking a Curator and an Assistant Curator to join a team of archivists, a conservator and collections specialists in the BFI’s Special Collections team, working with one of the world’s most significant collections of photography and designs (posters, costume, production, animation), filmmakers’ paper archives, and special collections (scripts, pressbooks).  

Curator - closes 17 March 2025. Details here
Assistant Curator - closes 17 March 2025. Details here

Ever thought about studying history of photography at St Andrews? On Saturday April 5th, I'll be in St Andrews to meet anyone thinking of applying for the MLitt History of Photography program Those interested may wish to read the views of Sheila Masson, a former graduate of the program, available at https://alumni.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2023/12/22/from-mlitt-to-ncap/. And for further particulars on the program itself https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/subjects/art-history/history-photography-mlitt/.

And to sign up for the Visiting Day on April 5th, please see https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/study/meet-us/online/pg-online/pg/book/. Hope to see you there! Anyone otherwise interested but unable to make it in person is welcome to email me at lg321@st-andrews.ac.uk for the MLitt or other related study.

Best, Luke Gartlan

Image credit: Thomas Rodger, St Andrews, North Street, ca. 1860. Image courtesy of University of St Andrews Libraries and Museums.

For almost 50 years Flambards has been one of Cornwall’s most loved visitor attraction. It was a delight for all ages, but will be most firmly etched into the happy memories of many generations of Cornish children. But rising costs and falling visitor numbers forced its closure in November last year, and now its extraordinary contents will be auctioned. The auction will encompass all 50 astonishingly detailed shops in the Victorian Village, the similarly remarkable ‘Britain in the Blitz’ installation and the surrounding War Galleries, plus all the supporting historical displays, including the full size Concorde and the Avro Shackleton cockpit.

Of particular note to BPH is the inclusion of the photographer's shop front and contents. The shop front itself is being auctioned. The photographic contents include a studio camera, signage and studio furniture. 

The Flambards Sale
Lays Auctioneers
Penzance: 25-27 March 2025
See details here: https://www.davidlay.co.uk/auction/details/fl01-the-flambards-sale/?au=444

To mark what would have been photographer Mik Critchlow's 70th birthday on 7 March 2025, and two years since his passing, Woodhorn Museum in Northumberland has announced it will open a new gallery dedicated to the acclaimed photographer later this year. The Coal Town Collection will showcase more than 100 photographs from Critchlow’s Coal Town archive, which first went on display at Woodhorn Museum in November 2021. Chronicling the town and people of Ashington over four decades, ‘Coal Town’ provides a rare glimpse inside the town’s coalfield communities, and captures periods of major social, economic and political change in Northumberland. Critchlow personally selected each photograph from his archive for the original exhibition.

The Coal Town Collection will also feature personal items on loan from Critchlow’s family, including cameras he collected and used during his career, unseen photographs, and other personal ephemera that provide an insight into the man behind the camera.Mik's negatives and archive remains with his family. 

The new exhibition at Woodhorn Museum celebrates the legacy of Critchlow and his work, and the hugely important role he played in documenting the end of Northumberland’s mining history. Liz Ritson, Director of Programmes & Engagement at Woodhorn Museum, said: “With a career spanning almost 45 years, Mik’s work is one of the most important historical archives we have of the end of deep coal mining in Northumberland. It also captures the short and long-term impact of the industry’s closure on coalfield communities. His emotive and deeply personal photographs do more than capture a moment in time; they tell a story of the people and communities he was part of in the town of Ashington.

“Because of his close connections to the people he photographed, Mik was able to capture deeply personal moments in people’s lives. Throughout his career he sensitively documented moments of joy, sadness, and everyday life within the coalfield communities in Ashington. The new gallery celebrating his extraordinary body of work will give visitors to Woodhorn the opportunity to experience and enjoy his work, in Mik’s own words, “…back home where they all belong.”

Born and raised in Ashington, Mik Critchlow amassed an archive of over 50,000 pictures during his 44-year photography career. He began photographing the people and street life of his hometown in 1977 after seeing an exhibition by The Ashington Group (also known as the Pitmen Painters).

Part of a mining family, Mik often referred to coal as being ‘in our blood’. His family moved to Northumberland in the mid-1800s to work in the region’s coal mines. Mik’s grandfather worked at Woodhorn Colliery for 52 years, his father spent 45 years as a miner, and his two brothers also spent 25 years working underground. Mik died on his birthday  - 7 March 1955 -  aged 68 in Ashington, Northumberland.

Maureen Critchlow, Mik’s wife, said: “Mik saw the Coal Town exhibition as the culmination of his life’s work within the area. Even though he’d worked on many projects further afield, it was this one, spanning a period of over 40 years, that was most special to him. He had a deep understanding and empathy for the people who lived and worked in his home town.

“Mik had a longstanding association with Woodhorn Museum, having exhibited his work there many times over the years, and attending many a Miner’s Picnic day. The museum also holds a collection of his original exhibition prints from the 80s in its archive. He would have been honoured to have his work permanently housed in the museum to enable many more people to view it. It is fitting, therefore, for the anniversary of his 70th birthday to coincide with the announcement of the new Mik Critchlow gallery.”

Shona Brown, Mik’s daughter, added: “My Dad had an effortless ability to capture people’s emotions and personalities while simply going about their daily life. Quite often, when looking back on the mining era, it’s easy to automatically think of ‘the miners’ themselves, and not their families or the effects the devastating loss of the industry had on the wider community. The selected images were personally chosen by my Dad back in 2021, capturing community life over four decades and creating a breathtaking display. This permanent home of The Coal Town Collection will ensure not only that his legacy lives on, but also the memories and subjects in the images. It’s been a pleasure working closely with the talented team at Woodhorn Museum and I’m confident he would be delighted with the end result.”

Mik Critchlow’s work has also been exhibited and published by Side Gallery, Amber-Side Collection, Brunel University, Durham Art Gallery, Arts Council England, Northern Arts, British Journal of Photography, and Creative Camera. In 2019, his third solo book, Coal Town – which features a collection of images from the exhibition – was published.

Speaking about the Coal Town exhibition in 2021, Mik said: “For the past 44 years I have photographed the town, people and surrounding areas of Ashington, Northumberland, the town in which I was born, educated and still live. Ashington as a community owes its very existence to coal mining, and although the extraction of coal was the major dominant factor in their lives, miners and their families shared many interests. There was always a strong tradition of community life. People would often ask me, ‘Why are you photographing me? I’m not royalty’, and I would say, ‘you’re my royalty, you’re just as important’. I’ve always told people they’re important. I was photographing them for history really. After all these many years, I feel that I'm bringing these people back to life again, back home where they all belong." 

The Coal Town Collection will open at Woodhorn Museum in May 2025. The date will be announced shortly.

From 1 April 2025, North East Museums (formerly Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums) will manage Woodhorn Museum, Hexham Old Gaol and Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum on behalf of Northumberland County Council.

For more information about Woodhorn Museum visit: www.museumsnorthumberland.org.uk.

Images: © Mik Critchlow. Top: Mining apprentices with winding wheel, Ashington Colliery, 1981; Below: Miners coming off shift, Ashington Colliery, 1981. 

The landmark British photo-magazine, Picture Post (1938-57), was launched in the era of the Spanish Civil War and the Popular Front. Conceived for Hulton Press by Stefan Lorant (a Hungarian editor exiled from Nazi Germany), Picture Post had a transnational staff and a global outlook. It was the leading British example of an international phenomenon – the birth of photojournalism and the photo-essay. The equivalent of Life in the US and Paris-Match in France, the magazine achieved circulation figures of 1.7 million.

Before the establishment of large television audiences, the photographs published in this general readership magazine offered audiences a shared perspective on the UK and its place in the world. Picture Post reported extensively on the Second World War as it unfolded across the globe, as well as documenting both the Cold War and the wars of decolonization after 1945. It helped popularise a progressive attitude to society and politics, shaping the debate about postwar reconstruction and the establishment of the welfare state. Yet, its coverage also reflected sexist and racist ideas of the era, as well as patronizing or critical perspectives on disadvantaged communities and young adults.

To mark the opening of a major exhibition about Picture Post at Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales, we will be hosting a one-day public workshop that aims to bring together an international cohort of researchers, curators, archivists and librarians to discuss the development and impact of Picture Post.

We invite proposals for 15-minute papers or panels of 3 to 4 contributors. Please send a title, abstract (250 words) and short biography (150 words) to Tom Allbeson e: allbesont@cardiff.ac.uk.

We encourage contributors to engage with the multifaceted histories relating to the genesis, development and legacy of Picture Post. We are interested in a broad range of methodological approaches to the emergence of photojournalism and the photo-essay format pioneered by mid-century, general readership photo-magazines.

Picture Post (1938-57): Genesis, History & Legacy of a Photo-Magazine
One-day workshop, Cardiff, Friday, 13 June 2025

Deadline for CFP: Friday 14 March 2025
Programme announced: Friday 14 April 2025

Read the full call here (CFP - Picture Post Workshop, June 2025.pdf)

Organisers:
Dr Tom Allbeson, Reader in Media & Photographic History, Cardiff University, allbesont@cardiff.ac.uk
Dr Bronwen Colquhoun, Senior Curator of Photography, Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales, bronwen.colquhoun@museumwales.ac.uk 
The event is co-hosted by the Tom Hopkinson Centre for Media History (School of Journalism, Media & Culture, Cardiff University) and Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales. 

Do you have a broad knowledge of the history of photography and photographic technologies? Do you have the ability to research interesting stories in collections and then communicate this complex information to non-specialist audiences in an engaging way?

About us
The National Science and Media Museum holds internationally significant collections of photographic, film, television, sound and games technologies. In the photography and photographic collections alone, we care for millions of individual photographs and cameras, plus related technologies.

We are now recruiting for a Curator of Photography and Photographic Technology to join on a fixed-term, 12-month, maternity cover contract. This is a full-time role working 35 hours per week, based at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford with hybrid working also available.

About the role
The Curator of Photography and Photographic Technology is a key role within the museum’s curatorial team, working with and championing our world class collections of photography and photographic technology.

You will work with colleagues to understand, care for and facilitate access to our collections. This includes improving collections information and catalogue records, appraising and progressing potential acquisitions and undertaking collections reviews.

You will facilitate access to collections by responding to enquiries, developing content for displays, online content or in-person talks and tours, and by hosting research visitors. There is also scope for you to identify and develop your own project or specialisms within the period of this role. This might respond to recent or emerging technologies such as digital photo manipulation or generative AI, or it might respond to historic materials already held in the collection.

About you
Joining us, you will have a broad knowledge of the history of photography, of historical and contemporary photographic technologies and of their relationship to the wider history of science and technology. You will have good oral and written communication skills with experience of communicating complex information to non-specialist audiences, for example in exhibitions, articles, blogs, outreach or teaching.

Crucially, you will have good research skills which will enable you to find interesting stories related to our collection. You will be able to build relationships with internal/external peers, subject specialists and organisations and you will have a good understanding of collections management and curatorial procedures.

Curator of Photography and Photographic Technology
Bradford: National Sicence and Media Museum
Fixed term (12 months), maternity cover
Closes: 26 March 2025
Details here

The Hong Kong History Centre, based at the University of Bristol,put out a call for donations of historic materials, especially photographs, to its ‘Hong Kong Collection’, which is held in the University of Bristol Library’s Special Collections.

Established in 2022, and building on the previous seven years of successful work of the Hong Kong History Project at Bristol, the University’s Hong Kong History Centre is the only such research centre in the world. The Centre supports research on the history of Hong Kong and its peoples and provides public engagement and outreach, with the aim of raising public awareness of the history of Hong Kong and its global connections. The Centre leadership team consists of co-directors Dr Vivian Kong and Professor Robert Bickers, and Research Director Professor Ray Yep.

The Hong Kong Collection preserves materials with significant research value to the study of Hong Kong History. The collection contains archival materials in a wide range of physical and digital formats and media, in both English and Chinese. No other institution in Great Britain has the collection of material relating to Hong Kong’s history as a strategic priority. The photographic collection stands out as a highlight, offering a visual narrative of the evolving landscape and lives in Hong Kong across different periods. Our goal is to make these photographs freely accessible online internationally.

The Centre is seeking offers of donations of original photographs (loose or in albums), negatives, post cards, or magic lantern slides. It is looking for material that is likely to be of significant interest to scholars and students seeking to understand the diverse histories of Hong Kong. These could be small collections, or large ones; they could be rich in records of momentous events, or institutions, or rich in evidence of family life and social history. We are happy to hear about all sorts of materials, such as family letters, diaries, unpublished memoirs etc.

Professor Bickers was the founder of the Historical Photographs of China project which has now concluded, although the website remains live. 

Read more here: https://www.hkhistory.net/hphk-call/

Image:  Denis H Hazell, View from Victoria Peak, looking East towards Mount Parker, Hong Kong, 1924. https://hpcbristol.net/visual/Bk09-06. Courtesy: Historical Photographs of China. 

NEUMEISTER Münchener Kunstauktionshaus, in Munich, is offering a very early Richard Beard daguerreotype at auction on 19-20 March 2025. The subject is Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, founder of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Koháry. The prince and his family were visiting Queen Victoria and Prince Albert Windsor in January/February 1842 and it is possible that the daguerreotype was made during the visit. The daguerreotype is estimated at 350-500 Euro.

The lot description reads: 
Richard Beard and employees
1801 East Stonehouse, Devon - 1885 Hampstead
Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, founder of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Koháry
Inscribed "Beard / Patented" on the inner metal frame. Daguerreotype. Image size: 5 x 3.8 cm. Set in a red leather case. Damaged.

Ferdinand was the second son of Duke Franz Friedrich Anton of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1750-1806) and Countess Auguste Reuß zu Ebersdorf (1757-1831). In 1816 he married Countess Maria Antonie Gabriele Koháry de Csábrág et Szitnya (1797 Budapest - 1862 Vienna), the heiress of the House of Koháry. The House of Saxe-Coburg-Koháry emerged from this marriage. The couple had four children, including Prince August (1818-1881), who would marry Princess Clémentine d'Orléans.

The daguerreotype technique was the first commercially usable photography process in the 19th century. It is named after the painter Louis Daguerre, who helped develop it. It was published in 1839. In England, Richard Beard became aware of the new technology and secured the patent for England and Wales. In 1841, he founded the first English photography studio. Most of the photographs taken in Beard's studio were taken by employees. In our case, the name of the metal frame also refers to this.

Provenance: Clémentine, née Princess of Orléans (1817-1907), to her son Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (1861-1948). Estate of Dr. Alexander Eugen, Duke of Württemberg (1933-2024).
Provenance: estate of Dr. Alexander Eugen, Duke of Württemberg (1933-2024).

March-Auction and Ducal Treasures – Noble Sale. From the House of Württemberg
19-20 March 2025
Lot 1243
See: https://www.neumeister.com/en/auctions/ducaltreasures/#c27751