Blogs

London's Autograph ABP has received £499,995 from the government's Creative Foundations Fund (CFF). The Fund has allocated £96 million to 74 arts and cultural venues to help theatres, performing arts venues, galleries and grassroots music venues address urgent infrastructure needs.

The government announced today that 130 cultural venues, museums and libraries are set to benefit from a £127.8 million funding boost, helping to ensure that everyone can access arts and culture in the places they call home. Those organisations receiving funding today mark the first projects receiving cash from the government’s Arts Everywhere Fund. As the cost of living continues to affect families across Britain, funding for these venues will help provide welcoming, affordable spaces for communities to visit, come together and celebrate what makes their local area special.

Autograph's director Professor Mark Sealy told BPH: 'Autograph’s project will replace two failing, business-critical elements at its Rivington Place building – the leaking roof membrane and deteriorating sanitaryware – to safeguard its galleries, collection, studios and tenant spaces. A new insulated Sarnafil roof and fully upgraded accessible bathroom facilities will improve our environmental performance, reduce maintenance needs, and protect both the building and Autograph’s photography collection from risk of damage.

These essential works respond directly to the needs of all our building users, ensuring the organisation can continue delivering high-quality cultural programmes for its diverse audiences and communities.'

Earlier this year, the Culture Secretary committed up to £1.5 billion to the cultural sector over this parliament, with the Arts Everywhere Fund aiming to save more than 1,000 cherished arts venues, museums, libraries and heritage buildings across England. Today’s £127.8 million which is administered and delivered by Arts Council England on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is made up of three funds:

• the Creative Foundations Fund (CFF) has allocated £96 million to 74 arts and cultural venues; 
• the Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND) has allocated a share of £25.5 million to support 28 museums to undertake vital infrastructure works; and
• the Libraries Improvement Fund (LIF) has allocated a share of £6.3 million to 28 library services to help upgrade buildings and technology to better meet the needs of the community. 

Autograph ABP is the only UK organisation directly involved in photography awarded a grant out of the three funds. 

See: https://autograph.org.uk/

Image: Autograph ABP's building in Rivington Place, London. © Michael Pritchard.

The singer-songwriter Nick Drake, who died 50 years ago today, was immortalised not only by his music.

Photographer Keith Morris (1938-2005) took many of the images inextricably linked with Nick and helped create his public persona.

Keith's work including two of his Nick Drake photographs feature in the National Portrait Gallery collection, London. 

My latest Pressphotoman blogpost is a longform piece about Keith and Nick's successful working relationshop.

Keith Morris (1938-2005)

Photo credit: Keith Morris, Hampstead Heath, London, 1995. Copyright: Author's collection.

Featured in the Pre-Raphaelite Society Review, Summer 2024 issue is my research into a photograph of Jane Morris by Herbert Watkins I rediscovered in the St Bride Library. It was mistaken for another, well known version. Together with another renctly digitised version these three different versions are now published together for the first time. They are from the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the William Morris Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery.The museums involved mention different dates (1858- 1860) and I have joined this community hoping to learn more about the details of this photography session (and any other photograph made of Jane Burden Morris).

Read the full article

At the Photography show in Birmingham earlier this year a roll of film was left in the donations box of the Disabled Photographers' Society. When developed and scanned it was found to be shot at the 1948 Olympic games in London. They are seeking clues as to the photographer and as many of the subjects as they can. They look as if they were taken from the trackside, so access was granted to areas probably not available to the general public.

https://www.facebook.com/thephotographyshowbirmingham/posts/pfbid04KHG6fTz5EcQpGcPy7V849HRM1mGLnc1VBRqPG22uGwCHFZGk9vt7kJYJQjoJG4el

The world is full of 35mm format cameras, both film and digital, with interchangeable lenses, but few people know that this practice commenced in Britain in the late 1920s before Leitz started its own range of interchangeable lens cameras with the I Model C, which was introduced in 1930. This involved conversions to the hitherto single lens Leica I Model A, introduced in 1925, to allow the fitting of some British made lenses, such as those made by Ross and Dallmeyer, both of whom had been optical giants in the British market since the mid 19th Century. German made Meyer lenses were also fitted to Leicas in London by A.O. Roth who was an importer for the brand. Some of the innovations created in Briatin fed into the later models introduced by Leica and others and, in one case, the feature still exists on all interchangeable lens cameras to this day.

My Video on YouTube was made for the Photographic Collectors Club of Great Britain  (PCCGB) and also gives the 'before' and 'after' sitaution as regards changing lenses without the use of a lens board.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOqNGCAIOsU&t=71s

Some photos (courtesy of Wetzlar Camera Auctions) from my video featuring a Dallmeyer Dallon Tele- Anastigmatic 4 inch lens on a Leica I Model A from 1929 are below. This conversion was done by Sinclair who had a shop at  9 &10 Charing Cross which became 3 Whitehall around 1930. The shop did not move, but the address changed

I have discovered yet another 19thC photographer in my family, this time on my Father's side and operating from the Old Kent Road area. I have found one of two examples of his CDV's but would welcome any further information?

Regards, Peter

Hemera, a London based curatorial collective specialising in photography, has just launched the London Photography Diary,  a website dedicated to listing photography exhibitions, events, and conferences in London: www.london-photography-diary.com.  The website also features photography related videos, reviews,  and an image sharing portal. Please check it out and join our mailing list to receive our weekly newsletters. The two curators who are editing the site are Sarah Allens and Rachael Graves.