Fast Forward: Women in Photography announces the 7th edition of the Fast Forward conference, which is organized in partnership with A.J.K. Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia (Central University), New Delhi.

The research project Fast Forward: Women in Photography aims to explore the work and histories of women photographers, promote opportunities and question ideas dominating the field of photography by initiating thoughtful, new debates. Initiated in 2015 with a two-day conference at Tate Modern (UK), the project has become significant within the world of photography for examining the work of women photographers and for questioning the way that established canons have been formed. Between 2017 and 2025 the editions 2 to 6 of the Fast Forward conference took place in Lithuania, the UK, Greece, Croatia and Poland. 

The Digital era has prompted a new interest in archives, both material and virtual. Long-term preservation of analogue through digitization has been the most ubiquitous for both public and private archives. In many cases, material from family albums and personal collections now have public visibility in galleries, websites, multimedia projects and publications. Digitization has also inaugurated several online initiatives in which ordinary citizens scan photographs, documents and other ephemera and post these on the internet. 

Inspired by Arlette Farge’s pathbreaking book, The Allure of the Archives (1989) the seventh Fast Forward conference titled The Lure of the Archive: Photographs of the Home and Heart examines the burgeoning narrative sbeyond institutionalized archives through vernacular photography, family and personal collections and online archival platforms. Geoffrey Batchen has described the vernacular as “what has almost always been excluded from photography’s history: ordinary photographs, the ones made or bought (or sometimes bought and then made over) by everyday folk from 1839 until now, the photographs that preoccupy the home and the heart but rarely the museum or the academy.” (2000, 262)*

We are interested to discover how these most familiar and at times overlooked practices of photography have been used to reshape the very idea of the archive or to draw attention to its erasures and silences. We invite proposals from curators, artists, scholars, practitioners, students and others who critically engage with the vernacular to raise new questions about the past from the vantage point of the contemporary.

You are invited to submit a 500-word abstract to apply to make a presentation at the conference. 

Call For Papers: The 7th Fast Forward: Women in Photography conference 
The Lure of the Archive: Photographs of the Home and Heart
Conference dates: 3-4 February 2027
Deadline for abstract submission: 29 June 2026
Read the full call and suggested themes here: https://fastforward.photography/our-projects/call-for-papers-conference-7-in-new-delhi-india/

Images: Negative Jacket from Liberty Photo Flash, using Kodak Advertisement, Bhuj (Kutch), India c. 1950s. Source: From the personal collection of Rajendra Kuverba. Courtesy: Eastman Kodak Company / Manobina Roy: Portrait of Daughter Aparajita, Bombay, c.1960. Courtesy: Aparajita Sinha

De Montfort University's Photographic History Research Centre has announced the theme and dates of its 2027 conference. It will take place over the 14-15 June 2027 with a theme of Photography and Privacy. A call for papers will be made shortly.

For PHRC news and information about forthcoming events, visit and follow its Centre's website and blog. Events and seminars are delivered online and, with the exception of the annual conference, are free to attend, although advance registration is required.

Image: Aindreas Scholz, Gil Pasternak and Beatriz Pichel at the 2026 PHRC annual conference which took place on the 15-16 June 2026. © Michael Pritchard.

London's Warburg Institute has received a donation from Professor Elizabeth McGrath, in support of its Photographic Collection. The Warburg Institute's Photographic Collection was established by Aby Warburg in the late 1880s and contains around 400,000 photographs of sculptures, paintings, drawings, prints, tapestries, and other forms of imagery from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It also has an expanding online counterpart. 

See more here and https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/library-collections/photographic-collection

Image: Artefacts in the Warburg Institute Photographic Collection. Credit: the Warburg Institute.

One Hundred Heroines has blogged about the Australian society photographer Dorothy Welding (sic) (1894-1954) who deliberately modelled herself on the British photographer Dorothy Wilding with a simialr signature and studio logo. Welding was working in Sydney between 1931 and 1954. 

Read the blog here: https://hundredheroines.org/historical-heroines/dorothy-welding-1894-1954/

I have a photograph of Fetheresso Castle, Stonehaven, dated 1856 and which may have been exhibited in the Photographic Society of Scotland exhibition in Edinburgh that year.

Taken by Johnston Shearer and a collodion photograph.

I can't find too much about him or if this photograph might be of any value / interest to a museum or other collection.

Any information would be gratefully received

We cordially invite submissions for the conference 'Castles, Salons, and Darkrooms: Mapping the nobility’s impact on early photographic history in Central Europe (1840s–1860s),' to be held on 20 October 2026 in Prague. Submission deadline: 15 July 2026.

A significant portion of the earliest photographic heritage in Central Europe originates from aristocratic collections. Within photographic historiography, however, the role of the nobility has long been overlooked. Scholars have predominantly focused on photographic practitioners, treating the aristocracy as merely passive consumers of photographic technologies, services, and publications. Yet, as specialized studies suggest, the interest of the nobility and its extensive networks of contacts exerted a decisive influence on the expansion of the photographic field, both on institutional and personal levels, particularly within the Habsburg Monarchy.

This conference aims to invert the traditional perspective by focusing on members of the nobility as key agents who co-constituted the conditions for the development of photographic culture and the dissemination of photographic knowledge in Central Europe. The nobility’s active role took several shapes: acting as photographic collectors, patrons, and promoters of the earliest commercial photo studios; initiating specific photographic projects and publications; and participating as aristocratic amateur photographers.

Concurrently, particular attention is paid to the role of ‘go-betweens’ who enabled and enhanced the nobility’s access to this novel technology and its products. These intermediaries played a decisive role in transferring specialized knowledge between the photographic sphere and the aristocratic world in both directions. Furthermore, they instrumentally facilitated the transmission of photographic technology and expertise across national borders. This group included not only members of the aristocracy receptive to external technological innovations, but also the photographers and photographic enthusiasts granted access to the lower nobility and the strictly closed world of the high Austrian aristocracy. Alongside diplomats, these intermediaries often comprised personal physicians, estate administrators, ministerial officials, scientists and university professors, military officers, private tutors, and keepers of aristocratic collections. Leveraging personal contacts, intellectual and cultural capital, as well as robust institutional backgrounds, these individuals disrupted the rigid social boundaries of the aristocracy, thereby contributing to the reconfiguration of early photographic knowledge.

The conference seeks to explore both individual actors and the diverse contexts in which photography was deployed or distributed across Central Europe and beyond during its first decades, courtesy of the nobility. These contexts include, for example:

• Personal and familial representation
• Diplomacy, military, and maritime affairs
• Education and travel
• Estate management and economic development
• Collecting, fine art, and print culture
• The private sphere of aristocratic life

We welcome both case studies focusing on specific patrons, commissioners, or intermediaries of photographic knowledge, as well as papers tracking the trajectories, mechanisms, and communication channels fostered by the nobility that contributed to the development of early photography. Proposals may address, but are not limited to, the following questions:

• What were the primary motivations behind the nobility’s engagement with photography during the 1840s–1860s?
• Were economic capital and leisure time truly the primary determinants of aristocratic interest in photography during this period, as is frequently asserted in scholarly literature?
• Did photography reinforce the insularity and exclusivity of the aristocracy, or did it conversely help dismantle strict social boundaries and gradually ‘bourgeoisify’ the lifestyle of high society?
• What were the structural characteristics and formation processes of the earliest photographic collections assembled by the nobility?
• In what ways and to what extent was the prolific photographic culture of the British and French royal courts reflected in the practices of the Central European nobility?
• In what ways can the study of aristocratic networks map the transnational and cross-border circulation of photographic knowledge, despite the scarcity of preserved photographic collections?
• To what extent, and in what manner, might the nobility’s interest in photography have aligned with their political aspirations?

Submission Guidelines: We invite scholars from various fields engaging with nineteenth-century photography and aristocratic history to submit proposals for 20-minute presentations. Please submit an abstract of up to 300 words accompanied by a brief biographical note to Dr Petra Trnková at trnkova@udu.cas.cz by 15 July 2026.

Important Dates

Submission Deadline: 15 July 2026

Notification of Acceptance: 31 July 2026

Conference Date: 20 October 2026

Organizers: Dr Libor Jůn, Dr Francesca Strobino, Mgr. Denisa Tichá, Dr Petra Trnková

 For any enquiries, please contact Dr Petra Trnková at trnkova@udu.cas.cz.

We are pleased to inform you about our current summer sale list with original photographs and photobooks. Please use the following link to download the full list:  Summer sale

Kunstbroker GmbH | Gabriel S. R. Muller
Goldach - Switzerland

POST x Kraszna-Krausz Photobook Weekender

Sat 4 Jul 2026 10:00 - Sun 5 Jul 2026 16:30

POST, Second Floor, Industrial House, Conway Street, BN3 3LW

BOOKING HERE

Join us for a celebration of the photobook in collaboration with the Kraszna-Krausz Photobook Awards, where we will be showcasing the 2026 long-listed titles alongside a diverse programme of photobook related artist talks and activities.

WEEKEND SCHEDULE-

Saturday 4th July (only £10)

10am: Welcome and walk around exhibition of books longlisted for this year's Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards

10.30 - 11.00: Introduction and presentation by POST & KKF

11.00 - 11.45: Artist presentation by Jermaine Francis, photographer and judge of the 2026 KKF Photobook Award

12.00 - 13.00: A live Messy Truth with Charlotte Flint and Gem Fletcher, reflecting on Flint’s recent publication on Tee A. Corinne

13.00 - 13.45: Lunch

14.00 - 14.45: Panel discussion on prevailing trends in publishing with Rhiannon Adam, Charlotte Flint and Jermain Francis chaired by Simon Roberts.

14.45 - 15:30: Artist presentation by Amin Yousefi, discussing his debut publication with Luhz Press

15:30 - 16.00: Books signings including recent publications by Craig Easton, Eva Voutsaki, Gabrielle Motola Moy, Laura El-Tantawy, Marc Wilson, Martin Seeds, Sam Laughlin & Tom Shaw.

16.00 - 17.00: Panel discussion with the The Photobook Club Collective on the power of collective practice and issues related to contemporary photobook publishing

17.00 - 17.30: Book signings

18.30 - 21.00: Craig Easton's photography pub quiz, with POST prizes!

We will also be joined by the Brighton-based, independent publishers Jane&Jeremy and Harry Hardie, founder of Here Press, who will have copies of their publications.

Sunday 5th July (free!)

10.30 - 16.00:

The exhibition of KKF longlisted books will open to the public along with books published by individual photographers, members of The Photobook Club Collective and Jane&Jeremy.

Drop-in show & tell . Bring work that you're looking to publish as a photobook and share with fellow photographers and members of POST. 

Concurrently we’ll be hosting a hands-on 2-day photobook binding workshop, run by Stanley James Press & Eva Voutsaki.

Whether you're a photographer, publisher, or simply curious, this is a chance to engage with some of the most exciting voices and ideas shaping the photobook industry today! 

TICKETS:

Tickets provide entry to the main Photobook event on Saturday 4 July, 10.00 - 18.00. Please note that a small general admission entry fee helps POST to continue its cultural programme. Student tickets are available at a cheaper price. POST members can attend for free. 

There is no charge for entry to the exhibition on Sunday 5 July, 10.30 - 16.00

Tickets for the two-day Bookbinding Workshop on Saturday 4 - Sunday 5 July can be booked here separately.

BIOGRAPHIES:

The Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards are the UK’s leading prizes celebrating excellence in photography and moving image publishing. They recognise individuals who have made an outstanding original or lasting contribution to literature concerning photography or the moving image (including film, television and new media). kraszna-krausz.org.uk/

Gem Fletcher is a writer, cultural programmer, curator and podcaster whose work explores photography, art and contemporary culture. She hosts The Messy Truth podcast, a series of candid conversations that unpack the future of visual culture and what it means to be a photographer today. gemfletcher.com/

Charlotte Flint is a Writer, Curator and Senior Editor of Phaidon Press. She is also editor of 'Tee A. Corinne: A forest fire between us', published by MACK. She has held curatorial positions at the Hayward Gallery, the Barbican Art Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum. instagram.com/charlotteeflint/

Jermaine Francis is multi-disciplinary artist working with photography and video. He is an Associate Lecturer on the MA in Media Studies at the Royal College Art and on the MA in Documentary Photography course at London College of Communication. jermainefrancis.studio/ 

Rhiannon Adam is an Irish photographic artist and writer, living in London. Her books include Dreamlands, Wastelands and Big Fence / Pitcairn Island. Adam was one of eight crew members for the dearMoon project, a proposed lunar tourism mission and art project. She is a former longlisted artist for the KKF Awards. rhiannonadam.com/

Amin Yousefi is a writer, researcher, and image-based artist in London and Curator at Photoworks. He is about to publish his first book, 'Eyes Dazzle as They Search for the Truth' with Luhz Press. aminyousefi.com/

The Photobook Club Collective is an active community of 80 photographers whose members are engaged and united in the process of publishing, self-publishing and crowdfunding photography books. thephotobookclubcollective.com/

Jane&Jeremy are an independent publisher and design studio located in Brighton. They work with new & upcoming creatives as well as established artists to produce limited edition books with an emphasis on creating a crafted and considered object that reflects the individual artist in the parameters of the bookform. jane-jeremy.co.uk/

Harry Hardie is an educator and co-founder of Here Press, an independent publishing platform, directed by Ben Weaver since 2017. Here Press collaborates closely with artists to explore the use of photography in book form. arts.ac.uk/colleges/london-college-of-communication/people/harry-hardie

Craig Easton is an internationally renowned photographer, author of four critically acclaimed monographs and winner of multiple global awards. His most recent photobook, An Extremely Un-get-atable Place, has just been published by GOST books. craigeaston.com/

I would be interested to hear from anyone who knows of any surviving cased images, taken by Blackburn based photographers, in their own or any other collection.

Whilst John Eastham visited the town, as an itinerant daguerreotype photographer, in 1847 and 1848, it was not until July 1853, as the patent restrictions were ending, that Richard Holt opened a daguerreotype studio there.

Whilst I’ve never seen a Blackburn daguerreotype, I know of a couple of surviving ambrotypes taken by David Johnson (1827 – 1901).

One featured in the Arts Council exhibition “Masterpieces of Victorian Photography 1840 – 1900”, from the Gernsheim Collection, at the Festival of Britain 1951; it is now in the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas.

 The other is in my own collection. Johnson’s morocco leather cased images were embossed with his name in an oval (left). He used similar printed wording on the backs of the mounts of his early cartes de visite (right):

Hopefully some of you may know of other survivals. Thanks!

The International Journal on Stereo & Immersive Media (IJSIM) is an open-access and peer-reviewed journal that reflects on immersive media cultures developed by historical media and/ or state-of-the-art technologies. IJSIM is a Scopus-indexed journal edited since 2017 that explores the immersive features of modern media, ranging from Panoramas and Stereoscopic Photography to Extended Reality Media. 

For its 2026 issue, the International Journal on Stereo & Immersive Media welcomes papers addressing one or more of the following themes:
1- Stereoscopic Photography and Cinema;
2- Stationary and Moving Panoramas;
3- Optical Shows and Peep Media;
4- Cinema and Sound Media Archaeologies;
5- Media Art Installations;
6- Extended Reality (XR) Media;
7- Sonic Art and New Technologies;

Full paper submissions for Issue No.10 are due by 1 July. 

Find registration and submission information at http://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/stereo/information/authors 

Back numbers can be read here: https://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/stereo/issue/archive

Bonhams are to offer a large lot of spirit and medium photography with provenance, of photographic and other materials relating to the spirit mediumship of Jack Webber. The lot description reads: a collection of approximately 90 vintage gelatin silver print Psychic or Infra-red photographs taken of Webber during his séances (roped to a chair, with ectoplasm, trumpets and tambourines, levitating tables, his coat being removed by spirits, apporting objects from his body, voice boxes, etc.), often with other circle members (including the vendor's grandparents, see footnote), several with some white gouache amendments, one with the trumpet inked in as it was moving "so rapidly that in a 75th second exposure a precise image was not secured", 74 pasted into an album by Edwards (a few loose), with printed captions and ink annotations on mount; others mounted and framed (by "C.E. Ponsford, Fine Art Dealer, 240 Balham High Road"), typically approx. 150 x 200mm., some smaller; and approximately 60 later printings, and copper metal plates for use on Edwards' book.

It is estimated at £4000-6000. 

The auction also contains other photographs including Julia Margaret Cameron's Stella and PH Emerson's Reflections, 1899. 

Trans Asia Photography is the first and only open-access international peer-reviewed journal devoted to the interdisciplinary exploration of historic and contemporary photography from Asia and across the Asian diaspora. The journal examines all aspects of photographic history, theory, and practice by centering images in or of Asia, conceived here as a territory, network, and cultural imaginary. Bridging photography and area studies, the journal rethinks transnational and transcultural approaches and methodologies. By centering photographic practices of Asia and its diasporas, the journal foregrounds multiple ways of seeing, knowing, and being, which are distinct yet inseparable from other regional formations. The journal brings together the perspectives of scholars, critics, and artists across the humanities and social sciences to advance original and innovative research on photography and Asia, and to reflect and encourage quality, depth, and breadth in the field’s development.

Articles are published under a Creative Commons license (BY-NC-ND) and are open immediately upon publication. Authors are not charged any fees for publication and retain copyright and full publishing rights without restrictions in their articles. Readers may use the full text of articles as described in the license.

Trans Asia Photography publishes two issues annually. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year, and authors are encouraged to submit at any time. Accepted contributions will appear in forthcoming issues following peer review and editorial processes. For consideration in the Fall 2027 issue, we recommend submitting by November 2026; submissions received by this date will receive priority review. Articles (5,000–7,000 words) that broaden understanding of Asian photography in transnational contexts; and shorter pieces (1,000–2,000 words) in formats that include interviews, curatorial or visual essays, and portfolios. 

See complete submission guidelines here. 

All inquiries can be directed to: transasiaphotography@gmail.com

See: https://read.dukeupress.edu/trans-asia-photography 

Published today, the King's Birthday Honours list recognised two photographers. Professor Sunil Gupta, photographer, activist and writer, received an MBE for services to art and to the LGBTQ+ Communities. Sir Don McCullin CBE was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to Photojournalism. 

Read more about Sunil here: https://www.a-n.co.uk/fortieth-feature/40-years-40-artists-sunil-gupta/

Image: Sunil Gupta, self-portrait in his studio at Collier Street, Kings Cross, London, 1986

Kettle’s Yard is delighted to present Sunil Gupta: Life with a Camera, 1970 – Now, a new exhibition chronicling five decades of Sunil Gupta’s (b. 1953, India) pioneering contribution to photography and activism. Intimate and subversive, Gupta’s photography has been instrumental in raising awareness around the fight for queer rights internationally, particularly in India and the UK, laying bare the tensions between tradition and modernity, and public and private spheres. Featuring more than 140 works, this exhibition will reflect Gupta’s migrations between Delhi, New York, Montreal and his longstanding home in London, celebrating his love for his family, friends and partners, and his belief that everyone has the right to lead full and joyful lives, in which identity and sexuality can be celebrated.

Arranged chronologically and grouped in series bound by theme, time and location, ‘Life with a Camera’ will span street photography, portraits and both commissioned and personal projects. The exhibition will open with highlights from Gupta’s early career, including Friends and Lovers (early 1970s), Christopher Street (1976) – created while the artist was studying at the New School, New York, in the period after the Stonewall uprising – and Exiles (1986-1987), a series of constructed images of anonymous men in iconic gay cruising locations across Delhi. Created in response to the criminalisation of gay sex in India and, effectively, the public expression of gay identity, the series represents an act of defiance against the suppression of queer love.

The power of photography to make visible and confront discrimination continues in the series ‘Pretended’ Family Relationships (1985-1988), which expresses the principle underlying much of Gupta’s work – that his activism is fundamental to the creation of compelling and unique images. The series is titled after Section 28, a controversial amendment to the UK’s Local Government Act, passed in 1988 by Margaret Thatcher, which prohibited councils and schools from teaching about homosexuality as a ‘pretended family relationship’. At this time, the mere act of depicting queer love became a defiant act of protest. Here, by juxtaposing portraits of couples with photographs of demonstrations against the legislation, Gupta gestures both to the power of representation and the problematic nature of representation without equivalent political action. This idea is further explored in From Here to Eternity (1999), where Gupta pairs images of his body following his HIV diagnosis with photographs of gay nightclubs that have been shut down across south London. The series acts as an urgent call to action to protect spaces for the gay community in the fallout from the HIV pandemic.

As much as Gupta’s work is intrinsically related to his activism, it is equally concerned with experiments in digital image making. In his series Homelands (2001-2003), Gupta draws connections between photographs of life in Delhi, London and the US through a series of diptychs created with meticulously constructed compositions and shifting perspectives. Sun City (2010), meanwhile, draws on Chris Marker’s 1962 film La Jetée to create a series of stills from a fictionalised missing film, forming a cyclical storyline of romantic love.

Life with a Camera will conclude with Gupta’s more recent works, including Mr Malhotra’s Party (2007-2012), which covers a period of intense lobbying to change anti-gay laws in India. These works depart from the furtive cruising pictured in Exiles, with the artist’s subjects looking straight into the camera as they are photographed across the city. Dissent and Desire (2015), a collaboration between Gupta and Charan Singh, will also be on view, capturing the interior lives of queer people in Delhi. In charting Gupta’s own experiences, the exhibition will more broadly track shifts across queer rights and activism from the 1970s, culminating in images from the Trans+ Pride marches in 2025.

Sunil Gupta: Life with a Camera, 1970 – Now is curated by Andrew Nairne and Guy Haywood with Susie Biller. It will be accompanied by a new publication chronicling Gupta’s journey as both an artist and an activist, with new essays by Tausif Noor, Gregory Salter, Theo Gordon, Natasha Bissonauth, Gayatri Sinha and texts by Sunil Gupta.

Sunil Gupta: Life with a Camera, 1970 – Now
19 September 2026 – 31 January 2027
Kettle's Yard
See: https://www.kettlesyard.cam.ac.uk/

Image: Sunil Gupta, Untitled #22 from Christopher Street (1976). Images courtesy the artist and Hales Gallery, Materià Gallery, SepiaEye, Stephen Bulger Gallery and Vadehra Art Gallery. © Sunil Gupta. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2025.

Following the seminars held in 2019, 2023, and 2025, I am delighted to announce, for the fourth time, a week-long photo-historical seminar at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome in March 2027. The seminars bring together an international group of PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers working across the broad field of photo-historical studies.

With our everyday practices of viewing, making, using, and circulating photographs, we continually renew an experience that has shaped the history of photography since its inception: photography is fundamentally a collective endeavor. Even a cursory glance at nearly two centuries of photographic practice reveals countless instances in which the interplay of multiple actors has proven constitutive for the production, circulation, reception, and social efficacy of the medium. Such constellations range from the complex divisions of labor characteristic of commercial studio photography to the dense social networks formed by learned societies, amateur clubs, and photographic associations.

Contemporary photographic culture—shaped by digital platforms, participatory media, and globally networked image circulation—has only intensified the collaborative dimensions of photography. The collaborative production, distribution, interpretation, and archiving of photographs generate a distinctive social, aesthetic, and epistemic surplus that continues to define the medium in remarkable ways.

On the occasion of the photo-historical seminar Photographic Communities: How People Collaborate with Images, to be hosted at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in March 2027, we invite participants to examine these questions and dynamics.

Several perspectives may be distinguished within such debates; we particularly foreground three of them:

– First, photographic communities play a decisive role as subjects of representation, that is as photographed communities. In group portraits of families, circles of friends, school classes, professional associations, political movements, or other social formations, photography has developed a broad spectrum of iconographic conventions, oscillating between standardized formulas and highly singular visual articulations.

– Second, the history of photographic production can itself be understood as a history of manifold collaborations, whether in the commercial studio, the scientific laboratory, ethnographic and social-scientific fieldwork, journalistic production, or the making of photo books and exhibitions. Such collaborative constellations invite us to reconsider traditional notions of artistic autonomy and individual authorship that have long structured media historiography.

– Third, we seek to address the significance of photographic practices for the formation, negotiation, and representation of communities. Within manifold forms of collective life—and especially within marginalized and minority groups—photography frequently functions as a crucial medium of collective self-fashioning, historical memory, political visibility, and social cohesion, thus actively contributing to an understanding of such communities.

Call for Proposals: Photographic Communities: How People Collaborate with Images
Rome, Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max Planck Institute for Art History
March 15–19, 2027
The deadline for submissions is August 31, 2026.
Questions and queries may be sent to: fototeca@biblhertz.it

Read more: https://biblhertz.iwww.mpg.de/3792978/260610_CfP_Photographic-Communities_-How-People-Collaborate-with-Images

An old friend and former colleague JOHN HODGETT, formerly head of photography at Bourneville School of Art and Birmingham Polytechnic (now Birmingham City University), died on 4th June.

As well as being an inspirational teacher and exhibiting photographer John fought hard to establish a strong photography presence in Birmingham for many years and it was only when the late Pete James at the Library of Birmingham and separately, the late Rhonda Wilson with Rhubarb Rhubarb emerged around the1990s did that change. But John thought the second city should have a gallery solely devoted to the medium.  

Born in Glasgow, he completed a foundation course at Stafford College of Art in 1968 followed by teacher training in Portsmouth. He became head of art at King Edward VI School, Stafford in 1973 and remained there for 10 years before going to run photography at the renowned Bourneville School of Art. He did an MA at Birmingham Polytechnic before starting a PhD with me at De Montfort University, Leicester in 2001. From 1987 he ran the photography degree course at Birmingham Poly until he retired. He continued with many photographic projects that followed earlier ones on the construction of the M6 Toll motorway, and another using an early scanner to produce Ground Scans.  On his many visits to the Peak District, where his late father lived, he made scores of wonderfully revealing portraits of couples who visited the tourist honeypot of Dovedale.

He is survived by his wife, Wendy and children Beth and Tom.

In 1909, the New York art critic Charles Caffin approached Charles Lang Freer with a proposal to have the celebrated photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn come to Detroit to make color slides for a planned lecture on Whistler. What began as an experiment in the use of the new autochrome process expanded into a twelve-day marathon during which Coburn and Freer—working together despite vast differences in age and background—recorded over forty-seven Whistlers and fifty-two Asian and Middle Eastern objects. Join Professor Emerita Anne McCauley for a talk centered on the surviving autochromes and why their creation inspired such outpourings of mutual excitement and friendship. 

This program is part of the monthly lunchtime series Sneak Peek, where staff members and outside scholars share personal perspectives and new research related to the collections of the National Museum of Asian Art. 

Anne McCauley, David H. McAlpin Professor Emerita at Princeton University, has published extensively on 19th- and early 20th-century photography, including A.A.E. Disdéri and the Carte de Visite Portrait Photograph; Industrial Madness: Commercial Photography in Paris, 1848–71; The Steerage and Alfred Stieglitz (co-authored); and Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle (co-curated and co-authored). In 2017 she was the curator and primary author of Clarence H. White and His World: The Art and Craft of Photography, 1895–1925. She is currently writing a book on Coburn and the evolution during World War I of the vortographs, the “world’s first abstract photographs.”

Sneak Peek | A Colorful Meeting of the Minds: Coburn, Freer, and the Autochrome
Anne McClauley / Asian Art Museum-Smithsonian
Online, uesday, June 9, 2026, 12 – 12:45 PM EDT | 1700-1745 (BST) | 1800-1845 CEST
Free: register here: https://www.si.edu/events/detail?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D203956149

Image credit: Alvin Langdon Coburn; Photograph of a View of Works from the Freer Collection; United States, 1909; autochrome and glass; The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the V&A, acquired with the generous assistance of the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Art Fund. Featuring F1903.7, possibly F1908.113 or F1908.155 or F1908.184, F1908.115, F1908.161, F1908.159 from the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Collection

The Archives Centre at National Museums Liverpool is currently undertaking a project to catalogue and digitise prints by Stewart Bale Ltd. The project invites BPH readers to stay up to date with the project and discover newly digitised photographs by signing up to our mailing list.

Stewart Bale Ltd was a family run practice specialising in commercial and industrial photography, based in Liverpool from c.1911 to c.1980, with an additional London studio from 1949 to 1970. The quality of Bale’s photography is high and the firm was regarded as one of the best amongst its contemporaries. These photographs are a stunning record of 20th century British architecture, industry, leisure and commerce, including images of factories, shops, cinemas, exhibitions, churches, libraries not only in Liverpool but across the North West and the entire country.

With its eight volunteers hard at work cataloguing and digitising around 4,000 Stewart Bale prints, you can follow progress by subscribing to the newsletter.

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 Image credit: Photograph of Swansea Civic Centre, 1934, Stewart Bale Collection, the Archives Centre, National Museums Liverpool, SB/P/11401-1.

The V&A has created a range of PhD placements based in collections departments, archives, the National Art Library, research, and collections care and access to support the professional development of PhD researchers across the UK and internationally. In addition to on-the-job experience and mentoring from supervisors, PhD placement students will have access to the Museum’s wider range of workshops, talks and postgraduate training opportunities, alongside a training package designed for the PhD placement cohort. Depending on the project, placements may combine onsite and remote work, with the exact working pattern agreed between the student and placement supervisors.

This placement will explore the V&A’s collection of photographs documenting the construction of the 1862 Exhibition building, designed by Captain Francis Fowke and formerly located on the site now occupied by the Natural History Museum and Science Museum. The collection includes approximately 260 photographs, comprising images commissioned by the Department of Science and Art during construction and photographs of the completed building contained within Spackmann’s scrapbook. These materials provide a valuable resource for understanding the technical and social history of the building but remain relatively understudied.

The placement researcher will investigate the potential of the photographic collection through close analysis and primary and secondary source research. Working with V&A researchers and curators, the student will explore the construction process, architectural techniques, and social history documented by the photographs, including evidence of labour practices, prefabrication, and the role of the Royal Engineers. The project may also consider the potential for visual or 3D reconstruction of the building and will contribute to the V&A’s understanding and future public presentation of this important collection.

V&A PhD Placement – A Visual Narrative: Photography and the Construction of the 1862 Building
Apply immediately - no set expiry date
No salary
Supported by Simona Valeriani, Ella Ravilious, and Patrizia Di Bello
See details here