Blogs

A paper just published in Studies in Conservation by Kim Bell and Robin Canham of Queen's University Library, Canada, has analysed the card mounts of stereocards, based on a limited sample of North American cards recently donated to the library. Their analysis by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy has indicated the significant presence of different heavy metals in the mounts, reflecting the chemistry used to colour them. This should not be a particular surprise as Victorian wallpapers, book cloths, papers and textiles have long been recognised as problematic. Bell and Canham's research is the first time XRF has been applied to stereograph card mounts. 

It is worth quoting part of their conclusion: While this is an initial study, this research identified the significant presence of potentially harmful heavy metals, specifically arsenic-, lead-, and chromium- based pigments on nineteenth century stereograph cards and highlights the pervasive use of toxic substances in Victorian-era consumer goods. These findings extend our understanding of the historical usage of toxic pigments beyond popular previously recognized mediums such as wallpapers, textiles, and books, and demonstrates the prevalence of health hazards in historical collections. and, they add, it is imperative that GLAM [galleries, libraries, archives, and museums] workers know the inherent risks present in their collection materials to protect themselves and their communities.

Although Bell and Canham do not make any assessment of the direct risk to individuals handling cards, by being in proximity with stereograph card mounts, or the risk through inhalation or ingestion, this new knowledge should act as a prompt for collections to update their risk registers, and ensure that staff and visitors are properly attired, made aware of the risk with handling or storage, and that any risk is mitigated.

Toxicity in 3D: XRF Analysis for the Presence of Heavy Metals in a Historical Stereograph Collection at Queen’s University Library, Canada
Kim Bell and robin Canham
Studies in Conservation, published 14 January 2025, online, open access
Taylor and Francis
See: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00393630.2025.2450976

Image:  The desktop setup of the Bruker III-SD pXRF with sample stage accessory on top. The stereograph card was placed on top of the sample stage with the edge of the card just covering the examination window. A sheet of Mylar® polyester film was placed on top of the stereograph to prevent abrasion. The accessory shield was placed on top of the film. Photo credit: Robin Canham.

With thanks to Rebecca Sharpe for drawing attention to the paper. 

Photo Oxford has announced a series of alternative process workshops during March and April to explore the art of cyanotypes, anthotypes, phytograms, botanicograms, chemigrams, caffenol film development, pinhole cameras, photography as performance, and psychogeography. They include: 

• Caffenol film processing with Melanie King
• Photography, Drawing & the Magic Lantern with Alexander Mourant
• Anthoptype with Nettie Edwards 
• Exploring Air - Bodies in Space with Diego Ferrari
• Phytography workshop with Dr Karel Doing
• Botanicogram workshop with Megan Ringrose
• Chemigram workshop with Sayako Sugawara
• Psychogeography workshop with Sean Wyatt
• Pinhole camera workshop with Ky Lewis
• Cyanotype workshop with Lucy Kane

Full details of timings and costs are on the festival website: https://www.photooxford.org/workshops

Image: Ky Lewis

A series of monthly blogs posts highlighting the rare photography material held in Leicester's De Montfort University's Special Collection has just started. DMU's Special Collections houses rare photography periodicals from Kodak Ltd's research library, the Robert F White collection of printed materials mainly relating to cameras and photographci technology, the Photographers' Gallery library, publications, books and auction catalogues from the Wilson Collection, and periodicals from Thomas Ganz, amongst many other items. All are accessible by appointment. 

The first blog by Professor Kelley Wilder (pictured above) showcases and discusses two photographically-illustrated books by Jessie and Charles Piazzi Smyth published in 1858, Teneriffe, An Astronomer's Experiment: or, Specialities of a Residence Above the Clouds London: Lovell Reeve 1858, and  Report on the Teneriffe Astronomical Experiement of 1856, London: Taylor and Francis, 1858. 

Read the blog here: https://library.dmu.ac.uk/archivesblog/home/PHRC-Takeover-1-Teneriffe-an-Astronomers-Experiment-by-Piazzi-Smyth-1858

Find out more about Special Collections access and holdings here: https://library.dmu.ac.uk/specialcollections

Just received the sad news that my old friend and teaching colleague, the legendary John Blakemore died last night after a short illness. He had been taken into hospital in Derby over Christmas.

Born in Coventry in 1936, he was probably best known for his landscape work, but he had worked in many areas of the medium and was an inspirational teacher, mostly at Derby University. His work has been exhibited all over the world and he has had several acclaimed books published. He has been the recipient of Arts Council awards, a British Council Travelling Exhibition and in 1992 won the Fox Talbot Award for Photography. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in 1998.

There is so so much more I could say about JB, but that will come later. For now, our thoughts are with Rosalind, his stalwart partner, and his extended family and close friends.

A behind the scenes look at the creation of the Lee Miller Archives which today houses more than 60,000 negatives of Lee Miller’s work, 20,000 vintage prints, many manuscripts and ephemera.

Ami Bouhassane (Co-Director of the Lee Miller Archives and grand-daughter of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose) presents the story of how Lee Miller’s family came to conserve and disseminate her work, that of Roland Penrose and their home Farleys, which has become an artists house that is open to the public. To self fund the archive produces a constant stream of books, films, exhibitions and works with Farleys to open the house. In 1977, when Lee Miller died her photography work had been mostly forgotten, this presentation tracks the history of the archives, its knock backs and some of the major exhibitions created that brought Lee Miller's work back into the public eye, whilst at the same time enabling the conservation, administration and financing of the archive which is privately run and supports itself though revenue received from its activities.

This story is an attestation to the 47 years of hard work and determination to preserve and continue the legacy of Lee Miller, Roland Penrose and their home at Farleys.

The 45 minute zoom presentation will be followed by a Q&A with Ami.

Attic to Archives - the story of the Lee Miller Archives
29 January 2025 at 1830 (UTC)
Free, or  with a £10 donation
Details and booking here

Image: boxes of Lee Miller's work in the attic, Farleys House, Muddles Green by Antony Penrose.
© Lee Miller Archives, England 2020. All rights reserved. www.leemiller.co.uk

This lecture addresses the application of cellulose acetate negatives in the world of photographs, focusing on their physical characteristics, historical significance, and deterioration. The discussion will cover its importance as support for photographic films throughout the 20th century, and the challenges associated with its conservation. The presentation will include the stripping method for conservation of acetate negatives, presenting two case studies of stripping treatment.

The speaker, Maria Júlia Costa is an emerging professional based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and has a bachelor’s degree in Conservation and Restoration of Artwork from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). She is a master’s degree student in Preservação e Gestão do Patrimônio Cultural das Ciências e da Saúde at Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Brazil.

Conservation and Treatment of Acetate Negatives
Maria Júlia Costa
February 11, 2025, 7pm, Virtual via Zoom (UK: Feb 12, 2025 12:00 AM)
Registration: https://lnkd.in/eaKVE9cD

See: http://princetonpreservation.org/

Princeton Preservation Group
Presents a Lecture in the
Susan Swartzburg Memorial Lecture Series

Image: https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/degradation-of-film-negatives-research-approaches-to-treatment-and-unsolved-issues/

Since its foundation in 1971, Fotostiftung Schweiz has built up one of the most comprehensive and representative collections of Swiss photography – from the beginnings up until the present. It oversees numerous archives of nationally and internationally significant photographers, as well as selected photo archives from companies, organisations or private individuals with a connection to Switzerland.

The Image Archive Online of Fotostiftung Schweiz provides an insight into the already catalogued collection and archive holdings and introduces selected photographers. It shows a cross-section of Swiss photography’s entire history, from the beginnings of photography, c.1840, to the present day.  The Image Archive Online is constantly being updated with new objects and texts.

Around 37,700 digitized works can now be explored, free of charge, at https://fotostiftung.zetcom.net/en/.

Image: Jean Gaberell Bergheuet ob Mürren mit Blick gegen Eiger und Mönch, 1930er Jahre. Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur

The Public Domain Image Archive (PDIA) — brought to you by The Public Domain Review (PDR) — is a curated collection of more than 10,000 out-of-copyright historical images, free for all to explore and reuse. Its aim is to offer a platform that will serve both as a practical resource and a place to simply wander — an ever-growing portal to discover more than 2000 years of visual culture.

A valuable image archive in its own right, offering hand-picked highlights from hundreds of galleries, libraries, archives, and museums, the PDIA also functions as a database of images featured in the PDR, offering an image-first approach to exploring the project’s content. The featured images each link to the relevant article on the PDR where one can read about the stories which surround the works. Visitors in search of more context will also find links back to the institutions where we found the image — from small college libraries to national repositories.

The list of participating institutions includes many with photograph collections, and include: the Briitsh Library, Paris Musées, Wellcome Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Getty, and Harry Ransom Centre, amongst many others. 

Search here: https://pdimagearchive.org/

Image: Beach Photographer, c.1890. National Science and Media Museum / Flickr: The Commons

The National Science and Media Museum reopened to the public on Wednesday, 8 January 2025. This soft launch was followed by a full day of events and activities on Saturday, the 11th. The re-opening was timed to coincide with the offical launch of Bradford's year as UK City of Culture. 

The reopening was partial in the sense that the two major new galleries Sound and Vision are still being installed and will open in the summer, most likely in June, in time for the last few weeks of the school year and the summer holidays.

On Saturday I was at the head of a fifty-plus strong queue of families and others waiting to enter the museum. There was a second queue at the Pictureville entrance. The animation-themed day celebrated the work of the Aardman studios with screenings of Wallace and Gromit films and activities based around animation. 

The revamped museum foyer is a more welcoming space. It is now less cluttered, with better visibility in to it from the outside, and with seating to encourage visitors to relax and linger. The visitor/ticketing desk is 'softer' than the previous desk and more inviting. The large media wall has gone. On the far side, to the right, is a quiet space, on the left a smaller retail space with more activity toys for children, some museum branded objects, and just a few books relating to the Hockney exhibition that opens on the 15th. The wider book offer of museum publications and general books on photography, film and television have gone. Beyond this is the café selling Costa coffee, snacks and meals. That is largely unchanged, and beyond that is the Pictureville cinema which had remained open for much of the museum's closure from June 2023. The IMAX cinema entrance remains accessible from the entrance foyer as before. 

And on to the galleries... The Kodak Gallery (-1 level) remains largely unchanged - or, at least, only with minor tweaks and changes.As before, the reflex camera obscura and Giroux camera greet visitors on entry. The Jabez Hogg/Beard studio recreation and original daguerreotype remain, but some of the early photographic equipment has been removed to accommodate the new lift (the cause of the delayed reopening). As one walks through the Kodak gallery the previous wet-plate studio space has been repurposed recreating Bradford's important Belle Vue studio. Engaging with local communities is a theme that will run through all the galleries. The Victorian parlour, darkroom and studio office remains. The main part of the gallery looking at Kodak cameras and popular photography remains much as it was, although the early three-colour cinematographic camera has gone. Circulating through the beach and pier displays, salon photography and amateur cameras from the 1950s brings the visitor to the 1980s and on to the digital revolution. This remains the weakest part of the displays, mainly because it stops in the early 2000s and digital photography's cameras and the ways we share images have evolved significantly since then. The internet and digital displays previously in the foyer have not been brought back. 

Insight, the museum's research and visitor object handling and collections-access space, and the Kraszna-Krausz room are beyond and remain closed, at least until the new galleries open. 

Moving to the upper levels: level 1 retains the Cubby Broccoli cinema in which curators were showcasing the Sound and Vision galleries and showing off objects from the museum collections. Next to this is The Connection Engine (curiously missing from the museum signage, perhaps suggesting it is temporary?) which allows users to investigate Bradford's own history through an interactive screen. Alongside is a large digital display of objects that asks us to think about the future of history. The special exhibitions space remains closed for installation work.  

Level 2 houses the special exhibiton space that opens with David Hockney: Pieced Together exhibition from 15 January until 18 May 2025.

On level 3 is a renewed Wonderlab with interactive exhibits for children and adults to learn about sound, vision and science. This level will also house new Sound and Vision galleries in due course. Level 4 is Makespace, a space primarily for school groups to undertake practical activities which on Saturday visitors were using to make animation figures. Levels 5 and 6 remain closed for Sound and Vision and Power Up galleries, respectively.

Saturday was a lively day, helped by a brass band, screenings and activities around the museum spaces, including object handling experiences and the making ghost photographs. Over the next few months the museum has an engaging offer for families and visitors. Some areas will be familiar, others less so. Listening in to conversations from visitors, who were mainly local, they seemed pleased to see the familiar parts of the museum return and Wonderlab was very popular. There was clearly a lot of affection for the museum. The improved spaces, ground floor toilets, and especially the foyer mark a real improvement for visitors. Museum volunteers were also pleased to be back and engaging with visitors. 

Much of the £6 million spend has been on parts of the museum building fabric that will be less obvious to the public: fixing roof leaks, fire and safety upgrades, new flooring, and that troublesome new lift. The Pictureville link to the main museum will need further work in due course as reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) was discovered during the closure and needs to be dealt with. For now the space has been made safe.

The two new galleries which visitors will see and engage with have yet to open, but based on the partial re-opening, they promise much. That said, when they do open they will draw attention to the need to update the Kodak Gallery which is well beyond its originally projected lifespan - although it remains popular and is object rich which visitors appreciate. 

The introduction to the Sound and Vision galleries given by Head Curator Dr Charlotte Connelly on Saturday emphasised the new themes that will be behind the galleries (a short film will explain more). They will be worth waiting for. For the museum, embedded as part of the wider Science Museum Group it will be delivering on its remit of 'exploring the transformative impact of image and sound technologies on our lives', and engaging with local communities using local examples to do this.

See: https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/

Sound and Vision project: https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/about-us/sound-and-vision-project

All images: © Michael Pritchard. Views from the newly re-opened museum spaces (more are available) and a portrait of Jo Quinton-Tulloch, Museum Director. 

Currently for sale on eBay is what the vendor believes may well be the earliest surviving piece of Daguerreian jewellery, a silver medallion, which measures c. 83 mm. x 63 mm. The images are the copyright of the vendor Robert Drapkin and are reproduced here with his kind permission.

According to the inscription the medallion was presented to Brother John Birch in open lodge on 22^nd December 1840. It was intended “as a tribute of respect and to testify the high sense they entertain of his Musical Talent and Gentlemanly bearing”.

The photographer is not named, so who might it be? There are a couple of likely contenders, though other members may have additional suggestions.

The early date predates the opening of Beard’s studio at the Royal Polytechnic Institution in March 1841. It places the medallion in the period when the English patent rights were controlled by patent agent Miles Berry, and before he assigned them to Richard Beard in June / July 1841.

1840 was still an experimental period when improvements were being sought to the apparatus, lenses and the chemical process to reduce exposure times. Exposure times were initially measured in minutes, so most early daguerreotypes were landscape views, initially from abroad, however, by the summer of 1840 English views were being exhibited. The exhibition by Messrs Claudet and Houghton in November 1840 included London views as well as “portraits from nature and figures from the living model”. Although Antoine Claudet had obtained a licence to take daguerreotypes in England directly from Daguerre in 1839, in March 1840 he felt obliged to purchase a limited licence from Berry which allowed him to make and sell daguerreotypes. Claudet subsequently won the case that Beard brought against him.

It is also known that during the summer and autumn of 1840 Richard Beard and John Goddard were experimenting with a Wolcott mirror camera at Medical Hall, Holborn. Again Miles Berry threatened legal action and although they were using Wolcott’s ‘American camera and process’, Beard and Goddard paid Berry for the right to continue taking images. They were subsequently visited by a reporter from the Morning Chronicle who waxed lyrically about the sharpness of their portraits which had “a really astonishing appearance of life and reality”. Most of the portraits seen were the common size of miniatures, “while some were taken on plates not larger than a sixpence which are adapted for bracelets, lockets etc.”

The medallion records that John belonged to Lodge 19 of the Ancient Order of Druids which had been established in 1797. Their meetings were held in their Lodge Room at the Ram Inn, High Street, Uxbridge. A Brother Birch was one of those named in a report of their annual festival in April 1852, as was the host Brother William Trawley.

As to the man in the photograph, there seem to be a couple of options, depending on the perceived age of the sitter, 51 or 24. It looks like both men were members of AOD Lodge 19. So are we looking at John Birch (1789 – 1873) a tailor and draper, or his nephew John Trenly Birch (1816 – 1903). a Professor of Music, and the son of John’s younger brother William Henry? The musical connections suggest the latter, however, to me at least, the physiognomy suggests the former. Your thoughts and comments are welcomed.

NOW FILMING explores the fascinating story of the Workers Film and Photo League (WFPL). The WFPL employed the camera as 'a weapon in the struggle' to represent working-class people’s lives and their campaigns against poverty, exploitation, and the rise of fascism. Bringing together newly discovered archival material, workers’ film newsreels, photographs and agitprop, this exhibition focuses on this unexplored moment of cultural resistance during the social conflicts of 1930s Britain.

The exhibition will also feature a series of short films, made by participants of the Workers Newsreel East End Stories project.

NOW FILMING. Art, Documentary and Resistance in 1930s East London
24 January-22 February 2025
London, Four Corners
https://fourcornersfilm.co.uk/whats-on/now-filming-art-documentary-and-resistance-in-1930s-east-london

In 2023 the Janette Rosing English photography collection was allocated to Historical England under the government's Acceptance in Lieu scheme. During the same year a collection of material relating to Julia Margaret Cameron was also hnadled by the reviewing committee and transferred to the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. 

The 2024 report notes: A collection of 18 Modern British works, a group of eight prints and a book of photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–79) was a pioneering female photographer in the 19th century and was particularly notable for her soft-focus close-up portraits of eminent Victorians. She only took up photography at the age of 48 after her daughter gave her a camera as a present.

The Hewat volume of eight albumen prints gives an indication of the range of Cameron’s subject matter and includes a portrait of the early photographer, mathematician and astronomer Sir John Herschel (1792–1871), as well as Pre-Raphaelite-inspired images of a number of Cameron’s friends. The collection of 20th-century British art put together by Anne (a direct descendant of Julia Margaret Cameron) and Angus Hewat focuses on such significant artists as the brothers Paul (1889–1946) and John Nash (1893–1977), Eileen Agar (1899–1991), Graham Sutherland (1903– 80), John Craxton (1922–2009) and the pioneering printmaker Cyril Power (1872–1951).

It will make a welcome addition to Pallant House’s outstanding holdings of this period. The Hewats were long-standing supporters of the Gallery and had assisted with the acquisition of the New Wing site which made possible the 2006 capital development of Pallant House.

The Panel considered the collection, accepted from the estate of Anne and Angus Hewat, pre-eminent under the first, second and third criteria. It has been permanently allocated to Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, in accordance with the condition attached to its offer.

The tax value was £316,890. 

The government's Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) Scheme and Cultural Gifts Scheme (CGS) enable UK museums, galleries, libraries and archives to acquire significant objects, in most cases at no cost to themselves. Managed by the Arts Council of England the 2023 report has just been published and there are two entries of particular interest to BPH readers. All applications and need to meet the Waverley pre-eminence criteria which is used in assessing objects offered under both schemes:

1. Does the object have an especially close association with our history and national life?
2. Is the object of especial artistic or art-historical interest?
3. Is the object of especial importance for the study of some particular form of art, learning or history?
4. Does the object have an especially close association with a particular historic setting?

See: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/supporting-arts-museums-and-libraries/supporting-collections-and-cultural-property/acceptance-lieu/cultural-gifts-scheme-and-acceptance-lieu-annual-report-202324

Image: The Angel at the Tomb (Portrait of Mary Ann Hillier) by Julia Margaret Cameron. Photo: Courtesy Pallant House Gallery

A collection of over 7,000 historical photographs of England compiled by Janette Rosing (1942–2021) has been transferred to Historic England under the government Acceptance in Lieu scheme. A previous tranche of Rosing's collection of Cornish photographs was passed to Kresen Kernow (Cornwall archives) under the same scheme in 2023.

The 2024 Cultural Gifts and Acceptance in Lieu Report notes: Janette Rosing, was historian and prominent collector, compiled this extensive survey of 19thcentury photographs over 50 years. Rosing’s research interests embraced the topographical history, built environment, social life and customs of England. The photographs were purchased individually or removed from albums and rearranged by Rosing. She made handwritten annotations on the reverses and borders of the prints that document her research and decisionmaking in building the collection. The collection includes many rare and early examples of different photographic processes, and features the work of such leading pioneer photographers as Francis Bedford, Linnaeus Tripe, Francis Frith and Frederick Scott Archer.

The Panel considered the archive, accepted from the estate of Miss Janette Rosing, preeminent under the first and third criteria. It has been permanently allocated to Historic England for its archives in Swindon in accordance with the condition attached to the offer.

The tax value was £21,536. 

The government's Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) Scheme and Cultural Gifts Scheme (CGS) enable UK museums, galleries, libraries and archives to acquire significant objects, in most cases at no cost to themselves. Managed by the Arts Council of England the 2023 report has just been published and there are two entries of particular interest to BPH readers. All applications and need to meet the Waverley pre-eminence criteria which is used in assessing objects offered under both schemes:

1. Does the object have an especially close association with our history and national life?
2. Is the object of especial artistic or art-historical interest?
3. Is the object of especial importance for the study of some particular form of art, learning or history?
4. Does the object have an especially close association with a particular historic setting?

See: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/supporting-arts-museums-and-libraries/supporting-collections-and-cultural-property/acceptance-lieu/cultural-gifts-scheme-and-acceptance-lieu-annual-report-202324

Image: Photograph of Wisbech Hunstanton Hall by Samuel Smith. Photo: Courtesy of The Historic England Archive.

The latest issue of the Science Museum Journal which has just been published includes several papers of photographic interest. Christine Ferguson looks at, Power at play in paranormal history.The contested object biography of the Cottingley Fairy artefacts in which she takes a fresh look at the Cottingley Fairies hoax;  Communities & Crowds: a toolkit for hybrid volunteering with cultural heritage collections makes use of the National Science and Media Museum collections to inform it with outcomes of a project partly based at the museum; and Elizabeth Edwards, Constanza Caraffa and Ruth Quinn are in conversation talking about photographic curatorship and photographic cultures in museums and research institutions.

The journal is free to access online here: https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/current-issues/

The French Ministry of Culture has announced plans to celebrate the bicentenary of photography over 2026-2027. Mrs Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture, called for a great, popular and festive celebration of the bicentenary of photography throughout France, to honour the invention and photographic heritage for more than a year. A press conference in the spring will unveil the highlights and projects that will make the bicentenary of photography a unique event for everyone.

Frenchman Nicéphore Niépce took the first extant permanent photograph which is dated 1826-1827 and which marks his invention. The bicentenary is an unprecedented opportunity to celebrate photography. France has major photographic collections, major festivals and dedicated fairs and a large network of specialised venues and publishers that make it one of the most dynamic countries for photography on the international scene. The bicentenary will promote these collections and offer access to them, and photography more widely. 

To support the celebration, the Minister announced the creation of a scientific committee which will support the Ministry of Culture in defining the major scientific and artistic activities for the bicentenary. It will be led by Dominique de Font-Reaulx, an art historian specializing in the nineteenth century and photography, and a general curator at the Louvre Museum. The scientific committee is composed of recognised experts in photography and images: Eléonore Challine, Alexia Fabre Michel Poivert, Pierre Singaravelou, and Antonio Somaini. 

The committee will appraoch all those involved in photography, from the institutions supported by the Ministry of Culture, to professional networks and artistic venues, in order to bring this festival as close as possible to the public, and geographically across France. They will participate in the development and implementation of a very diverse programme: exhibitions, screenings, publications, meetings, etc. Exhibitions will contribute to enriching the way we look at the medium, in its heritage senses to the most experimental.

Among the highlights of the bicentenary:

• a major exhibition-manifesto will mark the opening of the bicentenary in the autumn of 2026 at the Grand Palais, in partnership with the Centre Pompidou and the GrandPalaisRMN in order to promote the national photographic collections
• a historical exhibition around the figure of Nicéphore Niépce will be shown at the Nicéphore Niépce museum in Chalon-sur-Saône, in collaboration with the Bibliothèque nationale de France
• events will be offered throughout France with the support of Diagonal, a photographic production and distribution network
• A call has been launched for a major national commission, Reinventing photography, led by the National Centre for Visual Arts. Fifteen photographers will be selected to carry out their projects, which will question the medium in all its dimensions, from its primitive times to the most contemporary experiments
• further calls will be launched to professionals and the general public, in particular a national call for projects that will label events selected for their interest and their artistic, scientific or cultural contribution to the history and evolution of photography

Mrs. Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture, commented: 'Born in France two hundred years ago, photography is now part of our daily lives, especially that of young people. I call on all those involved in photography to imagine together a great popular and festive event, with all audiences, everywhere in France. From daguerreotypes to selfies, the bicentenary of photography is an invitation to celebrate the history of this major art in France through our unique collections, but also to show the diversity of the most contemporary creation'.

The scientific committee of the bicentenary of photography noted: "The celebration of the first photograph is a wonderful opportunity to retrace the major stages in the evolution of this art – from Niépce's heliography to digital images – to honour its creators, from 1826 to today, but also to bring us together around common and singular images. Photography has gradually become one of the most democratic artistic expressions. For two hundred years, it has been writing our common history.'

BPH will continue to follow developments as they are announced.

Image: enhanced image of Point de vue du Gras by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. Harry Ransom Center, Gernsheim collection. Original plate c.1826/1827

The Studies Gallery in Edinburgh will open the exhibition John Thomson in China on 29 January, bringing Thomson's photographs back to the city of his birth. A series of talks and an evening reception are being held on 10 February, including a walk through with curator Betty Yao. 

Thomson's birthplace in Brighton Street, Edinburgh, was commemorated in 2021 with a heritage plaque. See here

John Thomson in China
29 January-23 February 2025
Studies in Photography Gallery
6 William Street
Edinburgh
EH3 7NH
See: https://studiesinphotography.com/pages/welcome-to-6-william-street

Join Mary Phan, V&A Curatorial Felllow in Photography, supported by The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation as she reveals some of the more quirkier nature images from the Royal Photographic Society collection (RPS). Featuring a cast of stuffed animals, intelligent and not so intelligent birds, incredible high-speed images of insects, a one-eyed owl photographer, and the ingenious exploits of the Kearton brothers, who would do anything to get that perfect shot.

The Royal Photographic Society was founded in 1853 with the objective of promoting the art and science of photography. It is one of the largest collections of British photographic history with 400,000 objects, including original prints, archival correspondences and records, cameras and other technical equipment.

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAoa4Bn67U8

Fast Forward: Women in Photography together with University of Nicolaus Copernicus in Toruń announces the Polish edition of the Fast Forward conference Beyond The Canon, which is organized in partnership with Vintage Photo Festival.

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 2014 with a panel discussion at Tate Modern, the project has become significant within the world of photography for examining the work of women photographers and for questioning the way that the established canons have been formed. 

The sixth Fast Forward conference that will take place in Toruń, Poland explores the (hi)stories of women in photography with a particular reference to how women’s work is curated, exhibited and collected by museums, institutions, festivals, galleries and individuals. We are interested in the curators, the collectors and the photographers and through this inspiring conference intend to make a unique contribution to the study of women in the field of art by looking in detail about how exhibiting and collecting photography works. 

For years photography was considered as a mediocre medium by the art world, its museums and galleries. Towards the mid 1990s the position of photography in the art world started to change and today it has become the “hot topic” of the global art field with works being exhibited, bought and sold at the highest prices and shown in the most revered exhibition spaces. What place has women’s photographic work taken in this booming business? How have women provoked new discourses concerning the limitations/problems of the canon? How have women been exhibited, collected and conserved?

You are invited to submit a 500-word abstract to apply to make a presentation at the conference. Questions of interest include but are not limited to:

>> How do institution / museum collections address the equal representation of women and non-binary people? What challenges and experiences they face in this process?

>> What are the new ways to preserve and archive the women’s work in photography?

>> What can we do about the glass ceiling in the art marketplace and what effects does this market have on institutions? 

>> What collaborative methods are being used or have been used between individuals and institutions for making a real change?

>> Throughout histories and including the present how have women collected, make visible, and valuable other women? How do we measure the impact of women curators and collectors in shaping the narrative of photographic history?

>> How digital technology and online tolls support the processes of visibility and preservation of women’s photographic work?

We invite submissions that investigate artistic research, curatorial and collaborative methodologies, conservation and archival concerns, as well as new theoretical and practical discussion around women’s work in photographic field. We welcome abstracts from a range of scholars, researchers, curators, archivists, and cultural producers working in and around the above mentioned areas, in different continents and at different stages of their career. 

The conference will include exhibition and collection visits over a three-day period including two-day conference held at the Faculty of Fine Arts Nicolaus Copernicus University Toruń, Poland and one day visiting the exhibitions of the Vintage Photo Festival held in Bydgoszcz, Poland. We will also visit the conservation centre of the Nicolaus Copernicus University.

Beyond The Canon: exhibiting, curating and collecting photography by women
10-12 October 2025
Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Nicolaus Copernicus in Toruń, Poland
cfp deadline: 227 January 2025

Details: https://fastforward.photography/our-projects/cfp-fast-forward-conference-6-in-poland-october-2025/

Image: Janina Gardzielewska awaiting the opening of the Nicolaus Copernicus House Museum, Toruń, June 1, 1960, a photograph from the family album of Janina and Zygfryd Gardzielewski, from the collection of the University Library in Toruń

'The sun never sets on the British Empire' was more than a celebratory assertion of the vastness of colonial dominion; it embodied the ideological underpinnings of the British imperial project. Central to this ideology was the interplay between the symbolic and material constructs of 'light' and 'darkness,' through which the empire represented itself as an 'empire of light.' This framing, grounded in epistemological and symbolic discourses, positioned the British as agents of enlightenment tasked with dispelling the metaphorical 'darkness' of regions perceived as less developed, thereby legitimising the so-called ‘civilising mission’ (Dinkar 2020). Such narratives extended beyond abstraction, significantly shaping the physical and cultural landscapes of the colonies.

Within this binary of light and darkness, the colonial night emerges as a critical site of imperial meaning-making. Engrained in negative connotations and framed as a space “beyond our reach” (Phillips, 2023), the colonial night became deeply entwined with notions of eeriness, filth, and degeneration. These associations were often reinforced through the lenses of tropicalism and orientalism, which permeated colonial travelogues and literary accounts (Baker, 2015). Additionally, the night metaphorically served to construct racial ideologies, symbolising an unconscious darkness that underpinned imperialist perceptions of racial and cultural inferiority (Goggin, 2024).

The antithetical relationship between light and darkness also translated into the strategic implementation of illumination and electrification across the British Empire, particularly in colonial urban centres. The introduction of lighting played a pivotal role in colonial governance, symbolising the imposition of ‘modernity’ and the technological advancement associated with imperial control. By dispelling the obscurity of night and transforming public spaces into illuminated, surveillable environments, colonial authorities reinforced their dominance and sought to showcase the supposed benevolence and progressiveness of the imperial mission (Hasenöhrl, 2018; Schivelbusch,1995).

Building on this multifaceted context, this two-day conference seeks to deepen the emerging yet underexplored discourse on the visual construction of the night within the British colonies, spanning the late 19th to the mid-20th century – a period marking the height of imperial domination and the gradual processes of decolonisation. The conference invites critical engagement with the ways in which visual culture contributed to constructing and entrenching imperialist narratives about the colonial night, particularly through the symbolic and material dichotomy of light and darkness, while also examining how these frameworks were resisted, contested, and reimagined.

Based on the themes outlined above, key questions for exploration include:

• How were conceptions of night and nocturnality – and, by extension, light and darkness – visually constructed within the ideological frameworks of the British Empire?
• In what ways did colonial subjects engage with, subvert, or reconfigure these visual narratives?
• Furthermore, how might indigenous conceptions of nocturnality have been creatively employed to disrupt imperial discourses and assert alternative visual epistemologies?

While contributions focusing on the impact of photography on these narrations are particularly welcome, submissions addressing a broad spectrum of visual practices – including painting, illustration, advertising, posters, and beyond – are encouraged.

Potential themes for investigation could include, but are not limited to:

• The industrialisation of light and the modernity project in the British colonies
• The colonial night as a space of danger, vulnerability, and marginality
• The night as a site of othering
• Propagandistic constructions of gendered and racialised narratives of the colonial night
• Urban nocturnal public life and night entertainment in the colonies
• Nocturnal labour and productivity in colonial economies
• Nighttime journeys, exploration, and the exoticisation of nocturnal colonial landscapes
• Chiaroscuro and nocturne motifs (e.g., moonlit nightscape paintings)
• Domestic, institutional, and symbolic illuminated and unlit interiors
• The night as a time for indigenous spiritual practices, dreams, or supernatural encounters
• The night as a time for contestation and resistance
• Indigenous conceptions of light and darkness

Light and Darkness: Imaging the Night in the British Empire
Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, 26–27 June 2025
Deadline: 15 February 2025

Please submit a 300-word abstract and a 100-word biography to Manila Castoro at mcastoro@brookes.ac.uk by 15 February 2025. Contributions from diverse academic and geographic contexts are especially welcome. In your submission, kindly indicate whether you would attend in person or online, as hybrid panels will be available to facilitate participation from underrepresented regions.

Selected papers from the conference will be considered for inclusion in an edited volume with a respected academic journal or publisher.