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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.

Subscribe via the following link: https://forms.office.com/e/PibS2fsZet

 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

A short article on an unusual photo-micrograph found buried in the State Library of NSW picture files. It was taken by an amateur photographer, Edward Wolstenholme Ward, who joined the Royal Engineers before coming to Sydney in 1854 to take up the position of deputy-master to the Sydney Mint. Here he worked with other keen amateur photographers Robert Fellows Hunt and William Stanley Jevons who were part of an active photography scene in Sydney in the late 1850s. full article

Dimbola Museum and Gallery, the former home of Julia Margaret Cameron in Freshwater, Isle of Wight, has renamed its main gallery space the Colin Ford Gallery. In a ceremony at the end of a two-day convening celebrating and exploring Cameron, her life and work, Sue Grayson Ford, Colin's widow, spoke about Colin's legacy and involvement with Cameron and inveiled the name plaque that will be installed in the gallery.

Colin Ford CBE was the first Head of the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television and a scholar of Cameron. He had supported the setting up of Dimbola as a permanent museum celebrating Cameron and her circle, and co-authored the Julia Maragaret catalogue raisonné. Colin died in December 2025. 

See the Dimbola website here

Images: © Michael Pritchard

Coinciding with the major exhibition The Joseph Hage Aaronson & Bremen Exhibition: Hepworth in Colour in the Courtauld’s Denise Coates Exhibition Galleries, this display brings together a remarkable group of photographs of Barbara Hepworth (1903–1975) and Ben Nicholson’s (1894–1982) shared London studio at 7 The Mall, Hampstead, taken in the early 1930s by the fine art photographer Paul Laib (1869–1958).

The photographs, which are held in the Courtauld’s collection, are among the most evocative and iconic studio images taken in Britain during the 20th century. As well as portraits and exquisite photographs of individual artworks, the images show their studio populated with sculptures, paintings and prints, carefully arranged side by side with carving tools, plants and other objects. The display has been curated by Gerlind May and Chloe Nahum. 

This display will offer a captivating insight into Hepworth and Nicholson’s London studio environment, which they occupied until moving to Cornwall in 1939, and which was the setting for a period of intense collaboration and experimentation for the two artists. It will also shine new light on Paul Laib, who photographed the work of many eminent British artists in the first half of the twentieth century.

Hepworth and Nicholson: The Hampstead Studio Photographs
6 June – 4 October 2026
Courtauld Gallery, Project Space, Floor 2
See: https://courtauld.ac.uk/whats-on/hepworth-and-nicholson-the-hampstead-studio-photographs/

alongside the display read an accompanying blog post: In the studio with Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson which discusses the photographs. 

Image: Paul Laib (1869-1958), The studio at 7 The Mall with various works by Ben Nicholson, June 1933. Modern gelatin silver print from the original glass plate negative. The de Laszlo Collection of Paul Laib Negatives, Courtauld Institute of Art. Ben Nicholson © All rights reserved, DACS; Paul Laib © The de Laszlo Foundation

The Hardmans’ Liverpool - A Legacy in Light: from Street to Studio invites audiences to experience Liverpool in the early to mid‑twentieth century through the photographic eyes of Edward Chambré and Margaret Hardman. See the city represented via evocative scenes before and after the Second World War. Everyday moments and familiar locations are elevated through an artistic play of composition, angle, light and shadow. As Margaret herself poetically wrote of one major Liverpool landmark ‘I know and love you in a thousand lights’.

From busy streets to serene studio sittings – this same creativity was applied to the Hardmans’ commercial portraiture, produced in their studios on Bold Street and later at 59 Rodney Street. Here they welcomed thousands of Liverpudlians and visitors to the city, photographing young children, newly-weds, artists, actors, soldiers, families and even pets to name a few. The studio took on particular significance during the Second World War, when portraiture of men and women in service – and the loved ones they left behind – played an important role in sustaining morale and supporting the war effort. Together with their photography documenting life beyond the studio, these works reflect the Hardmans’ exceptional vision of – and deep connection to – Liverpool.

The selected content on display, ranging from original photographic prints to letters and medals, is drawn from the National Trust’s vast Hardmans’ archive on deposit at Liverpool Central Library. The contribution of volunteers is reflected in the presentation of works recently conserved by them and staff over the course of several conservation projects – all supporting increased access and ongoing research into the Hardmans’ legacy. Additional material from the Hardmans’ House, including two of the photographers’ personal cameras, further enriches the exhibition.

Cultural Heritage Curator Amy Carney states “The Hardmans’ photographs have helped to shape how Liverpool is seen, remembered and understood today. Visitors are invited to consider their own relationship with the city, as well as with photography and memory itself.”

Enhancing this contemplation is the inclusion of images by Liverpool-based photographer and darkroom educator Rachel Brewster-Wright, founder of Little Vintage Photography. Commissioned to document The Hardmans House at 59 Rodney Street and to create new mini portraits of people posing in the historic Hardmans’ studio setting today, these prints instantly blend nostalgia with the present-day. National Curator of Photography, Anna Sparham, reflects how “They echo a shared desire to preserve meaningful moments – something that Chambré and Margaret’s customers sought, and successfully found, in their enduring and deeply relatable photographs of people and place”.

A further opportunity to experience being photographed in the original studio of The Hardmans’ House is available to book online, with sessions taking place on 26 August in collaboration with Little Vintage Photography. Free, limited sessions available. A guided Photo Walk between The Hardmans’ House and Liverpool Central Library is also programmed for 10 September.

In generous collaboration with Liverpool Central Library and supported by photo printing expert CEWE and Little Vintage Photography

The Hardmans’ Liverpool.  A Legacy in Light: from Street to Studio
5 June-28 September 2026
Hornby Library, Liverpool Central Library

Images: (Top): National Trust/capture Robert Thrift; (Below): © National Trust/Jayne Knight

In the first Photo History since Grace & Thurston published in 2022, I take a long look at the life of the celebrated campaigner and protest photographer David Hoffman, who I had the privledge to work with on Editorial Photographers UK (EPUK) between 2007 and 2015. A university friend of future Magnum president Chris Steele-Perkins, Hoffman has, since the early 1970s, compiled an extraordinary archive of images depicting protest and dissent, mainly on the streets of London.

Among Hoffman's most well known photographs are those he took during the Poll Tax Riot in central London on Saturday 31 March 1990, including Nidge & Laurence kissing. Hoffman's books Endurance & Joy and Protest! were published in 2024 and 2025 respectively.

David remains a tireless campaigner for the rights of photographers and today celebrates his 80th birthday.

Rebel Without Pause is a 75 minute read.

The Curatorial Fellowship in Photography, supported by The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation is an opportunity to further develop expertise in the history of photography by researching the collections of the V&A, while gaining vital curatorial experience working in a museum. The Curatorial Fellow will divide their time between key curatorial duties and pursuing an independent research project, which may relate to portraiture, colour photography or photographic processes, all areas of interest to the American photographer Bern Schwartz and The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation. The topic and scope of the project will be agreed at the start of the fellowship, depending on the Fellow’s expertise and the priorities of the Photography Section.

Details and apply: https://vam.current-vacancies.com/Jobs/Advert/4213163?cid=3279&rsid=24732&js=0&LinkType=1&FromSearch=False

For our project Mad About the Boy we are looking for contactdetails of Robin Shaw, Suzanne Greenslade, Harriet Thompson, Jane Ralley, Jane Erskine, and Diana Baylis.

Whose work was part of the book 'What She Wants - Women Artist Look at Men' (1994) by Naomi Salaman. In addition to the photographers, we hope to get in touch with Naomi Salaman.

If there are any other photographers you think shouldn't be missed, we would of course love to hear about that too!

Dirk Kome & Marloes Heineke

Some more info about the project;

We are two Dutch photographers and exhibition curators. In recent years, we have been researching female photographers who have photographed their loved ones nude. This serves as a counterpoint to the endless number of male photographers who have photographed their wives and girlfriends nude.

We have now found over 120 photographers, spread across the Americas, Asia, and Europe. The oldest photos date back to 1915 and the most recent to 2025. 

Our project is about love, lust, intimacy and the relationship between woman (as photographer) and man. In extension, we want to raise questions among the viewer about adopting a vulnerable stance within a relationship based on equality.  

Finding these images, however, turned out not to be that easy. Museum collections and image archives overflow with nude photos taken by male photographers of their wives/girlfriends. But why are so few images visible of female photographers who have immortalized their beloved naked? Are museums and their public not yet ready for these images? Is the male body not attractive? Do men prefer not to be photographed naked? Or are these photos hidden in boxes and hard drives because women think showing these images will hurt their careers?

The research we began in 2022 is still continuing. By examining the subject across such a broad range of time and geography, it reflects a wide variety of perspectives. It ranges from Imogen Cunningham (US), who photographed her husband as a faun in 1915, to Carla Franke (Germany), who captured her boyfriend with bat wings in 2025. From the conceptual work of Pixy Liao (China) and Snieguolé Michelkevičiūtė (Lithuania) to the more daring work of, for example, Lina Schenynius (Sweden) and Nan Goldin (US).

Birkbeck and MuseumsEtc warmly invite BPH readers to join them for the launch of an important new trilogy of publications by Jo Spence and Terry Dennett, featuring previously unpublished and unknown images, interviews and texts. Please join us for the book launch of these new, groundbreaking publications.

The event will also celebrate the 92nd anniversary of Jo Spence’ birth and raise a toast to Jo Spence and Terry Dennett’s legacies as part of the exhibition "‘The Project Remains Incomplete": Jo Spence, Curated by Terry Dennett' a, 2008 show Terry Dennett took to Finland, and restaged by a curatorial team from Birkbeck, led by Patrizia Di Bello at Peltz Gallery, London.  

In short talks, Patrizia di Bello, Birkbeck University, Shirley Read & Graeme Farnell (MuseumsEtc), Julia Winckler, (Series Advisory Editor, University of Brighton) and Andrew Dewdney (Series contributor), will introduce the new trilogy, followed by Q&A and tributes.  

‘I would like my life to be celebrated on my Birthdays (June 15th)’ / Jo Spence, 11 January 1992, in her notes ‘Thoughts on Dying (Being Constructive)’

Monday, 15 June, 18:00 – 20:00
Peltz Gallery, 43 Gordon Square London WC1H 0PD
RSVP to launch@museumsetc.com

See more: https://www.bbk.ac.uk/research/centres/peltz-gallery and https://museumsetc.com/

Brighton's first photographer, William Constable, was commemorated with a blue heritage plaque at the site of his studio, 57 Marine Parade. Constable was a Beard licensee and operated the daguerreotype process from late 1841 making it one of the first studios in Britain. The plaque was unveuiled on Friday by Claire Constable, William's great, great, great niece and biographer, and the historian Philippe Garner. Members of the extended Constable family, Brighton's blue plaque committee, and other guests were also present. 

Separately, work has been undertaken by Professor Annebella Pollen and two of her PhD students Sally Jones and Sylvie Jane Lewis, from the University of Brighton, alongside Shannon Perich of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. The museum owns 130 of Constable's daguerreotypes made between 1841 and 1861, donated by the collector Albert Boni (1892-1981) who purchased the Constable Collection from Parke-Bernet auction house in 1970. They were given to the museum in 1972 as part of a large group of photographic materials.

A digitisation project along with new research will go live in the summer. BPH will report further when the project goes live. 

The research was part of a AHRC Techne / Smithsonian Virtual Placements programme to research the photographer’s history, his contributions to the field and to Brighton, to improve museum’s catalogue records. 

See: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93xx23l9z3o

Claire's multi-volume series on the Constable family is out of print. The volume dealing with William is The Constables of Brighton and Reigate: William - the Photographer, Clair - the Town Clerk, (Book Guild Publishing Ltd, 2005,  ISBN 13: 9781846240058).

Image: (top): Philippe Garner and Claire Constable unveil the plaque to William. © Michael Pritchard; (right) The University of Brighton team with Philippe and Claire. © Michael Pritchard; (left): Portrait of Leone Glukman, William Constable and Clair James Grece. Daguerreotype by William Constable. c.1841-1850. PG 71 22 125.  Credit: Courtesy of Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. William Constable (centre) poses for a portrait with his friend and fellow daguerreotypist Leone Glukman (above), and his nephew, Clair James Grece (below). Constable used a rotating platform in his photographic studio at 57 Marine Parade to maximise the available natural light. This portrait shows the rotating platform in use.  

A former furniture store will become Bermondsey 223, run by the team behind Peckham 24, in what is claimed to become the UK's first public venue wholly dedicated to new talent in contemporary photography.The space is situated in The Blue Market, Southwark Park Road, London, SE16, in one of South London's historic working-class communities. The building which was acquired by Southwark Council in 2018 has been empty since then and will be fully refurbished by Ark Build plc. Construction started in March ready for handover in late 2026, with a programme set to begin in 2027. Peckham 24 was appointed in 2025. 

Cllr John Batteson, Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency, Jobs and Business, said:  'This latest step towards completing our very own photography-based arts centre in Bermondsey is exciting for the whole community. It will provide a creative space and cultural hub in a much-loved location in The Blue for everyone to access and enjoy. I look forward to Ark Build delivering a space that reflects that excitement and community feeling and we’re really pleased to have them on board for this project.'

As well as developing and incubating new talent, Bermondsey 223's social purpose will be to increase the presence of working class youth in the arts and make art accessible to all.  The fully refurbished building is situated in one of South London's most historic working-class communities. As well as developing and incubating new talent, its social purpose will be to increase the presence of working class youth in the arts and make art accessible to all. It will house: 

• A world-class cultural venue for contemporary photography and visual culture
• A public gallery and screening space 
• A year round programme of free exhibitions and events
• A community driven learning programme 
• A working community of affordable artist studios and creative workspaces

• A photo studio and event space for hire

The ground floor will feature a large public exhibition space and dedicated screening room, with a programme of four major exhibitions per year. All exhibitions will be free to enter. Also on the ground floor: a professional photography studio for hire and a flexible multipurpose space for artist talks, workshops, late-night openings, and community events. The first floor will be home to up to ten artist studios and creative workspaces, some of which will be subsidised as part of Bermondsey 223’s artist development programme. Subject to build specification, the venue will also offer rooftop access for photography shoots.

The learning and participation programme will span three areas: artist development (residencies, mentoring, work experience and employability pathways for emerging photographers and curators), youth education (after-school and summer photography clubs, multi-media skills training, curated exhibitions of young people’s work) and community programmes (including a Senior Photo Club addressing social isolation, a community archive project, and lifelong learning for local residents). The social context is stark. Fewer than one in ten arts workers in the UK have working-class roots — a figure that falls even lower in parts of London (Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, 2024). Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has pledged to ensure that 'creativity can be explored by all and not just the privileged few'. Bermondsey 223 is built to be part of that answer.

Alongside new artistic commissions, artists and collaborators from previous editions of Peckham 24 have been invited back to show how their practice has developed since they first exhibited with the festival — a living retrospective of a decade’s work and a tribute to the community the festival has helped to build.

Bermondsey 223 has been developed by the team behind Peckham 24, London's independent satellite event to Photo London which started in 2016. The new venue will be committed to supporting the careers of emerging talent in photography and to arts education in the local community.  Simon Bishop and Vivienne Gamble, Co-Directors P24 Photo CIC  commented: “For ten years, Peckham 24 has created career-defining moments for photographers who would otherwise have struggled to find a platform. Bermondsey 223 means we can now do that not just for three days in May, but every week of the year.”

Outreach activities are expected to start in the summer, in advance of the building opening. A nationwide Open Call for new UK talent to exhibit in the inaugural programme at Bermondsey 223 launched at Peckham 24. The P24 X Hahnemühle Spotlight Series will be a major new talent programme, offering much-needed exhibition and mentoring opportunities for graduates of university photography programmes around the UK, as well as opportunities for self-taught artists to access a platform to help develop successful artistic careers.

P24 Photo Ltd is a community interest company incorporated on 7 May 2025. Its two directors are Simon Bishop and Vivienne Gamble. 

Sign up for updated and see: https://www.bermondsey223.com/

Image: (left, top): 223 Southwark Park Road, courtesy Southwark News; (right and lower, left): visualisations of the new gallery space. 

Edinburgh's Lyon and Turnbull auction house has five lots of books relating to T & R Annan from the estate of the late Eric Sloane. Amongst the lots is a first edition of Glasgow Improvements Act 1866. Photographs of Streets, Closes, etc. taken 1868-71, with albumen prints (estimate £10,000-15,000). The photographer Thomas Annan, who had a studio in the city and who specialised in architectural photography, was appointed to record, between 1868 and 1871, the character and conditions of the area prior to demolition.A few copies (probably around 4-8 volumes) of 31 albumen prints from Annan's original negatives were collected together for the City Improvement Trust in c. 1871. Bound in green morocco leather, the album bore Glasgow’s coat of arms with the motto ‘Let Glasgow Flourish.’ These copies were probably distributed to members of the delegation, led by Lord Provost Blackie, which included Glasgow’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr William Tennant Gairdner, and John Carrick, which had visited the Continent in early 1866 to see examples of slum clearances and rebuilding in European cities. 

Other lots include: The Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry First edition,1870, one of 120 copies only (estimate £400-600), Memorials of the Old College of Glasgow, first edition, 1871 (estimate £400-600), and University of Glasgow Old and New, 1891, one of 50 deluxe copies on large paper (estimate £500-800).

Books & Manuscripts auction
16 June 2026
Lyon and Turnbull, Ediburgh
See: https://www.lyonandturnbull.com/auctions/books-and-manuscripts-905 (search Annan)

From 12 July to 27 September, Blenheim Palace will be showcasing a major photography exhibition, Life Through a Royal Lens, which explores the British Royal Family’s enduring relationship with the camera; from the reign of Queen Victoria right through to the present day. The display of over 100 of the most iconic royal photographs can be enjoyed in the Long Library, the largest room in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, which will be transformed into a gallery. Alongside iconic photographs will be intimate images which share a glimpse of the Royal Family off duty.

The exhibition features images by pioneering Victorian photographers, modern royal portraitists like Cecil Beaton, Marcus Adams, Annie Leibovitz, and Rankin, as well as photos taken by Royal Family members themselves. Highlights include the last public photograph of Queen Elizabeth II and portraits from the first three years of King Charles III and Queen Camilla’s reign, including Josh Shinner’s recent image of the Prince and Princess of Wales, and their children.

Life Through a Royal Lens has been curated by Historic Royal Palaces – the independent charity that cares for Hampton Court Palace, the Tower of London, Kensington Palace and Hillsborough Castle and Gardens – and is toured by Nomad Exhibitions.

To coincide with Life Through a Royal Lens, visitors are invited to step into the opulent State Rooms for daily tours at 12pm (12 July-27 September) led by a costumed guide, to give insight into the 300 year history of Blenheim Palace. Here, guests will also have the opportunity to see the Green Drawing Room dressed with a regal dining table, set up in preparation for a visit from the monarchy. The dining table setting design is to mark 130 years since the Prince & Princess of Wales visited Blenheim Palace.

The royal theme will continue to the Life Below Stairs, an immersive experience which offers a unique glimpse into the 1890s, showcasing the hard work and camaraderie of the Blenheim Palace team as they prepared for a royal visit, taking inspiration from the real-life event.

Life through a Royal Lens
12 July-27 Septemvber 2026
Blenheim Palace, Woodstock OX20 1PS
See more and purchase tickets visit www.blenheimpalace.com/whats-on/events/life-through-a-royal-lens/

Image: The Duke and Duchess of Windsor late in their marriage portraying a happy life with a jovial pug. © Royal Collection Enterprises Ltd 2025 / Royal Collection Trust

The adoption of photography for the reduction of maps was pioneered by England’s Ordnance Survey offices in 1855. Their work is outlined in detail in a rare book held by the State Library of New South Wales which provides some unique and important insights into the commercial development of photography beyond the confines of portraiture and landscapes.

Titled Ordnance Survey, Reduction of the Plans by Photography, 1859 it combines Committee Reports, photographic formulas, diagrams of the cameras, plans of the buildings, original albumen prints of the reductions and templates for setting up the camera viewing screen.

I have published an article on the book at https://geoffbarker.wordpress.com/2026/05/30/the-photographic-office-of-the-ordnance-survey-1859/

Today we remember David Wrightson, MCD BArch DipConservation (IoAAS York) RIBA and Freeman of the City of London (1940-2026) — an architectural photographer, historian, and architect whose quiet mastery preserved a Malta that no longer exists, and whose images transformed documentation into art.

In October 1964, as a young architecture student on a one-year scholarship in Rome, David Wrightson arrived in Malta at a pivotal historical moment, just weeks after Malta’s Independence. Hand-picked by the renowned architectural historian and professor Quentin Hughes to photograph material for Quentin’s publication Fortress, Wrightson produced an extraordinary body of work that captured the islands with remarkable sensitivity, precision, and humanity.

What began as an academic photographic assignment evolved into one of the most important visual records of post-war Malta. Through his lens, fortified cities, baroque streetscapes, vernacular houses, fishing villages, churches, harbours, and everyday urban life were immortalised with an eye that instinctively understood architecture not merely as structure, but as atmosphere, memory, and lived experience.

His photographs for Quentin Hughes’s Fortress Malta remain invaluable historical documents, yet they are far more than archival records. Wrightson possessed a rare ability to balance geometry with emotion — the harsh Mediterranean light against golden limestone, the monumental against the intimate, the timelessness of bastions alongside fleeting moments of ordinary life.

That same timeless quality defined his celebrated black-and-white architectural photography for books such as Seaport, Architecture in Glasgow, and Inn Liverpool. In these works, Wrightson demonstrated an extraordinary sensitivity to urban form, texture, shadow, and scale. His monochrome images stripped architecture down to its essential character, revealing rhythm, proportion, and atmosphere with remarkable clarity. Whether documenting the dense Victorian fabric of Glasgow or the layered urban identity of Liverpool, his photographs transcended mere architectural record-making; they became studies in memory, permanence, and the evolving life of cities themselves. Even decades later, the images retain a striking contemporary power.

For half a century, the negatives from that 1964 journey remained largely unseen, quietly preserved by David.  He was very pleased that they were eventually repatriated to Malta. Their publication in 2024 as Malta Through the Lens – David Wrightson introduced a new generation to the extraordinary vision of a photographer who had unknowingly created an irreplaceable cultural treasure. The updated volume revealed over 150 photographs — many never before published — documenting a Malta suspended between tradition and modernity.

There is something profoundly moving about Wrightson’s work today. The Malta he photographed in 1964 changed immensely, and upon his only return to the Islands after sixty years to the day from 1964, his disappointment was palpable. His images now stand not only as works of photographic excellence, but as acts of preservation — safeguarding streets, skylines, textures, and ways of life that have since disappeared or dramatically changed.

Though David Wrightson described himself modestly as an 'enthusiastic amateur photographer', his work tells a different story. His photographs demonstrate the discipline of an architect, the patience of a documentarian, and the eye of a true artist. His legacy now forms an essential part of Malta’s visual and architectural heritage. David Wrightson gave Malta more than photographs, he gave it memory, and Malta will remember David Wrightson lovingly and gratefully in return.

Dr Charles Paul Azzopardi, FRPS