Blogs

Born in 1832 in Le Havre, France, to American parents, the photographer John Beasley Greene was a student of the noted photographer Gustave Le Gray in Paris, who, as author and historian Eugenia Parry writes, was “a magician of change who inspired and shaped the genius of John Beasley Greene.” Greene’s unusual still lives made on a rooftop in Paris, probably during his studies with Le Gray, show the beginnings of his enchanted eye.

This exhibition at Hans P. Kraus Photographs features a rare group of more than 25 waxed paper negatives and salt prints exhibited for the first time.

http://www.sunpictures.com/html/

The RAI Photographic Committee invites you to attend the first salon, a convivial and informal evening of conversation and drinks exploring the relationship between anthropology and photography, aimed at graduate students and early career researchers.

Every participant will have the opportunity to talk about their work for no more than five minutes. If you are interested in attending please contact h.geismar@ucl.ac.uk with a brief introduction to you and your current project.

The first RAI Photographic Salon
7 December 2016,  6-8 pm
Royal Anthropological Institute 50 Fitzroy Street, W1T 5BT

From October 2016 London's National Portrait Gallery will celebrate photography with an installation dedicated to its extraordinary photography collection. The display will feature works by internationally renowned makers such as Edward Weston and Frederick Evans alongside photographs from the archives of Cecil Beaton and Madame Yevonde.

Included will be some of the Gallery’s great nineteenth century treasures – works by Julia Margaret Cameron, Lewis Carroll, Hill and Adamson, and many others. Also on display for the first time will be the recently acquired album of photographs by the Swedish émigré photographer Oscar Rejlander. The display will remain until October 2017. See a list of all photographs in room 29

Read more here: http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/display/2016/a-century-of-photography-1840-1940.php

Image: Adelaide Passingham
by Eveleen Myers (née Tennant), early 1890s

The Photographic Chemistry course was initiated by FAIC in 2015, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This series explores key elements of photographic chemistry that are essential to understanding the nature of silver-based analog photographs, their creation, and their deterioration mechanisms. These topics are critical for photograph conservators, but also of interest to photographers, artists, collectors, and other photography enthusiasts. This series of online self-study modules includes video lectures and quizzes on specific topics in the chemistry of photography. Each section contains about 10 – 20 units and each unit includes a video lecture of 3 – 10 minutes in length and a brief self-assessment quiz. The cost of the course includes access to a discussion forum where participants can ask an expert questions about the content. Study at your own pace and repeat sections as needed!

The fee for each section is $19, which provides access to:

• Unlimited viewing of the online video lectures
• Access to unit quizzes
• Access to the discussion forum

The following sections will be open to participants October 20 – March 20. Registrants will have access to all units in the sections they paid for during this time. Participants can access the modules on their own schedule and work at their own pace. Participants can register at any time before or during this period.

Section 1: Light Sensitivity of Silver Salts
Section 2: The Latent Image
Section 3: Chemical and Spectral Sensitization (delayed opening: modules will be available by November 14)

Additional sections will become available in summer 2017. Sections 1 – 3 will remain accessible to paid participants into the future.

Register for this course by clicking here: AIC/FAIC Store - Events

See more here: http://www.conservation-us.org/courses/collaborative-workshops-in-photograph-conservation/photographic-chemistry-course#.WBY4nC2LTIV

Throughout its early history, photography's authenticity was contested and challenged: how true a representation of reality can a photograph provide? Does the reproduction of a photograph affect its value as authentic or not? From a Photograph examines these questions in the light of the early scientific periodical press, exploring how the perceived veracity of a photograph, its use as scientific evidence and the technologies developed for printing it were intimately connected.

Before photomechanical printing processes became widely used in the 1890s, scientific periodicals were unable to reproduce photographs and instead included these photographic images as engravings, with the label 'from a photograph'. Consequently, every image was mediated by a human interlocutor, introducing the potential for error and misinterpretation. Rather than 'reading' photographs in the context of where or how they were taken, this book emphasises the importance of understanding how photographs are reproduced. It explores and compares the value of photography as authentic proof in both popular and scientific publications during this period of significant technological developments and a growing readership. Three case studies investigate different uses of photography in print: using pigeons to transport microphotographs during the Franco-Prussian War; the debate surrounding the development of instantaneous photography; and finally the photographs taken of the Transit of Venus in 1874, unseen by the human eye but captured on camera and made accessible to the public through the periodical.

Addressing a largely overlooked area of photographic history, From a Photograph makes an important contribution to this interdisciplinary research and will be of interest to historians of photography, print culture and science.

See more here: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/from-a-photograph-9781474266727/

From a Photograph. Authenticity, Science and the Periodical Press, 1870-1890
Geoffrey Belknap
Bloomsbury

An exhibition of 80 light boxes in 65 windows throughout Lewes, 1916: Lewes Remembers will show work from the years of the First World War by Benjamin Reeves, grandfather of the present Reeves photographic studio owner Tom Reeves.

This will include individual and group portraits of soldiers and their families, as well as civilian life during the war, and photographs of the thousands of men billeted in the town.  To help bring things to life, the photographs will be shown around Lewes in locations relevant to their subjects.

The Lewes Tourist Information Office will supply a free map of the light box trail.

In addition to the lightbox exhibition, there will be a series of associated events and activities. 

See more here: https://leweshistory.org.uk/2016/10/22/stories-seen-through-a-glass-plate-1916-lewes-remembers-29-october-to-20-november-2016/

Find out more about the Reeves Studion project here: http://www.reevesarchive.co.uk/

The photograph here shows the final resting place of pioneering photographer Robert Howlett - the man whose photograph of Isambard Kingdom Brunel is now one of the most famous images in history.

Howlett tragically died just one year later at the age of 27 and was not buried in London but in a quiet corner of Norfolk at his father's church of St Peter and St Paul, Wendling. At the time of his unexpected death he was at the peak of his career with commissions from Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and Brunel amongst many others during his brief professional career.

Howlett was described as being in the best of health, full of boundless enthusiasm with a great future ahead but lost his life as a result of a prolonged fever unrelated to his work, in the prime of his life. His father was the parish priest at this church and organised a large memorial to his son in December 1858. The 158 year old grave is showing its age and is now in need of a replacement base plus re-engraving of his name which is almost illegible.

As you can see from the photograph, taken in 2015, it is in need of a great deal of attention though it has now been cleaned. Quotes have been obtained for the base to be replaced, any necessary restoration to be carried out and the inscription to be re- engraved. It is hoped that his restored grave can be rededicated next year.

Any donation will be welcomed through a dedicated page at Justgiving.com https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/howlett-grave

A rare opportunity to be part of photographic history.

Image, above: Robert Howlett’s grave in 2015 © Rose Teanby. Right: Robert Howelett by B B Turner. 

Marking the 120th anniversary of the first medical X-Ray performed in Birmingham by radiology pioneer Major John Hall-Edwards, Hippodrome CREATIVE has commissioned an innovative new digital dance film and sonic soundscape that fuses performance with X-Ray imagery.

The film is a collaboration between performer/choreographer Mickael ‘Marso’ Riviere, sound artist Justin Wiggan and British Institute of Radiology artist in residence Hugh Turvey. It will also be screened at partner venues Birmingham City University and Birmingham Children's Hospital. 

Find out more more: http://www.birminghamhippodrome.com/calendar/x-ray-unknown-quantity/?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CRE-X-RayVIPInvite&utm_content=version_A&sourceNumber=

The Wellcome Collection has produced a short film looking the relationship between Julia Margaret Cameron and Sir John Herschel using materials from its collection. 

We are looking for somebody who can take responsibility for the successful delivery of the [James] Fenton Collection Project. With the support of volunteers, this project aims to catalogue a significant photographic collection of 4,500 items, consisting of photographs, cameras, pre-cinema object and printed materials. All of this will be carried out in the public gallery to maximise our opportunity to engage with our audiences.

What it's like to work here

What you'll be doing

Who we're looking for

The post-holder will be responsible for identifying and making accessible a largely unknown part of the Royal Collection's photograph collection. With the guidance of curatorial colleagues and the Picture Library team, the postholder is responsible for creating, editing and enhancing online records for selected groups of twentieth century photographs by significant photographers. None of the material has previously been made available to the public so the post-holder will be playing a key role in making the collection more widely available to as many people as possible.

The post-holder will:

• Identify significant groups of photographs that have not previously been published online;
• Create inventory records of these photographs which will be published online;
• Ensure that the selected photographs are digitised by our in-house photographic team;
• Ensure copyright is cleared for online publication of the photographs;
• Be required to contribute your knowledge of this material to other projects and the general ongoing work of the Photograph Collection, including in-house displays and group visits.

The position will run from January to December 2017.

Applications by 30 October. 

See more here: https://theroyalhousehold.tal.net/vx/lang-en-GB/mobile-0/appcentre-1/brand-3/xf-b902fade92ff/candidate/so/pm/1/pl/4/opp/1264-Collection-Online-Assistant-20th-Century-Photography/en-GB

I am currently researching the last photograph in this album - William Blackmore and Red Cloud, taken by Alexander Gardner in 1872.

I stumbled across this site and a very interesting blog from 2014 in which Kevin J McCann was researching an aspect of the William Blackmore Collection and both Paula Richardson Fleming and Antony Hamber contributed.

I am hoping that they might be able to answer some questions I have. I am awaiting the arrival of Antony Hamber's biography of William Blackmore and have consulted and enjoyed Paula Richardson Fleming's books on the Shindler Collection and Native American photography at the Smithsonian.

So I am trying to discover:

1 Why did William Blackmore choose to be photographed with Red Cloud? Was William Blackmore part of the 1872 delegation? If so, why, as he wasn't American.

2 Is it certain that Alexander Gardner took this photograph?

3 Was this album of photographs entirely of Red Cloud? 

4 Is the negative of the photograph in the Smithsonian?

5 When was the last copy made?

And specifically for Paula if she happens to read this blog:

1 What year did you come to the British Museum to research with Harry Persaud?

2 Did the Blackmore Collection include photographs from the Shindler Catalogue?

3 What state was the Blackmore Collection in when you began to catalogue and digitize it? Had it been touched since arriving at the British Museum in the 1930s?

4 To confirm: Blackmore had the photographs copied for the Smithsonian before the albums were sent to his museum in Salisbury. How many albums were sent?

5  It would be very helpful if you have any more information about the William Blackmore meets Red Cloud photograph. I had a very fruitful afternoon of research at the British Museum archive, but info on this particular photograph is elusive as it wasn't part of the Shindler Catalogue.

Any help on the above questions gratefully received! Thankyou!

Suzy Quinn

Birkbeck's History and Theory of Photography Research Centre has announced its Autumn/Spring 2016/17 seminar programme. Each is free and open to all, at 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD.

Monday 24 October, 6:00-7:30pm

Room 106

Tim Satterthwaite (Visiting Lecturer, University of Brighton)

Spiritualising the machine: the modernist photography of UHU magazine

The photo-illustrated monthly UHU was at the heart of the progressive photographic culture of Weimar Germany. In a stream of articles and photo-pages in the late 1920s, UHU showcased the work of modernist photographers, such as Albert Renger-Patzsch and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, alongside the radical new perspectives of scientific and aerial photography. UHU’s modernism offered more, however, than a simple embrace of technological modernity; like the great photographic exhibitions of the period, the magazine sought a reconciliation between the rationalising forces of the machine age and the organic principles of the natural world and traditional life. This talk describes how UHU’s modernist synthesis was expressed through a unifying aesthetic of repetition and regularity. The magazine’s photographs of microscopic plant forms, aerial landscapes, and the textures of urban life, were symbolic of alternative visions of social order – the organic or technocratic principles of an ideal future society.

Wednesday 16 November, 6:00-7:30pm

Room 106

Samuel Bibby (Association of Art Historians)

‘New! Art… Plus Added Social Purpose’: BLOCK and the Periodical Landscape of 1970s British Art History

Thursday 2 February 2017, 6:00-7:30pm

Room B04

Marcia Pointon (Professor Emeritus in History of Art, University of Manchester, and Research Fellow, Courtauld Institute of Art)

Robert Harris’s Photography at De Beer’s Kimberley Diamond Mine 1875-1890

Robert Shanebrook writes...In 2010, I published a 94-page book Making Kodak Film. The book provided a high level view of the technology used to provide silver halide films. The positive response encouraged me to write a second edition with much more in-depth coverage of the subject.  To gather information, I consulted over 100 photographic film experts.  This resulted in a 470-page book that includes an additional 225 illustrations and over 600 footnoted references.

The first edition provided a great deal of information that had never been published. Nearly all of the additional information in the new book has never been published. Certainly never gathered together in a comprehensive explanation of film manufacturing.

The book includes:

1. History of film base manufacturing including American Film, cellulose nitrate, cellulose acetate, Estar Base and others.

2.      Expanded discussion of historic and modern emulsion making processes and equipment.

3.      History of coating technology and expanded discussion of curtain coating including photographs of an operating Kodak curtain coater and the thread-up path of Kodak’s Building 38 Film Coating Machine.

4.      Expanded description and photographs of finished film configurations and the finishing processes. Of special interest is motion picture film finishing using high speed T-perforators.

5.      Detailed descriptions of photographic film image forming mechanisms for black-and-white films, color negative films, Ektachrome Films, and   Kodachrome Films.  

6.      Technical descriptions and history of Kodak Films that are used for consumer, professional, motion picture, x-ray, micrographic, graphic, aerial, and scientific applications.

7.      Description of past and current Kodak Worldwide manufacturing plants, interactions between the plants, and technology transfers.  

8.      First-hand description of working in Kodak’s film business in the 1980’s.  

9.      Information based on private communications with over 100 photographic experts.  

10.  Addition of over 225 photographs and diagrams.

11.  Identification of sources of information; over 600 footnoted references.

12.  A table of figures and an index to facilitate finding information in the book.

The book is 470 pages, 8.5 x 11 inches and four-color printed on 80-pound gloss paper.  It is gloss-film lamination hard-cover bound.  Shipping weight is 5 pounds.  It was printed and bound in Rochester, NY. USA

The price of the book will be $125 after December 31, 2016. Before then the price is $100. If requested books will be signed by the author.

                                                                          Priority Mail         Media Mail  

      USA with USPS shipping                                 $73.45               $65.45             

      to New York address with sales tax:                 $79.33               $71.33

PayPal is  makingKODAKfilm@yahoo.com     

International Shipping: I charge what USPS charges for shipping.  USPS flat rate shipping cost is about the same for 1, 2, or 3 books to many countries.

PayPal is  makingKODAKfilm@yahoo.com     All prices $US

                                                            1 book             2 books            3 books

Canada                                                $143.35           $245.95           $345.95          

United Kingdom                                 $165.50           $266.50           $366.50

France                                                 $154.35           $266.50           $366.50

Germany                                             $154.35           $266.50           $366.50

Italy/Switzerland                                $156.05           $266.50           $366.50

Australia                                              $164.70           $275.95           $375.95

Others                                                 contact  makingKODAKfilm@yahoo.com

The life, work and inventions of William Henry Fox Talbot, inventor of modern photography, are presented in a major exhibition at the National Media Museum, Bradford.

Fox Talbot: Dawn of the Photograph (18 November, 2016  – 5 February, 2017. Free entry) features more than 200 images and objects, including a selection of the earliest cameras and photographs in existence, as well as original documents relating to some of the first experiments in photography.

Scientist and inventor WHF Talbot (11 February 1800 – 17 September 1877) became interested in the idea of the photograph in 1933 during a trip to Italy. Having traced with a pencil a landscape as seen through the lens of a Camera Lucidia, he was inspired to start work on a process that directly reproduced the “inimitable beauty of the pictures of nature’s painting, which the glass lens of the camera throws upon the paper”.

Following several years of experimentation he announced the news of his photographic process in January 1839, just weeks after Frenchman Louis Daguerre had revealed his invention, the Daguerreotype, to the world.

Both men used light sensitive chemicals to permanently create a photographic image, however Talbot’s produced the image on paper (Daguerreotypes used silver-plated copper) and, significantly, allowed multiple copies to be produced. He called his system the ‘negative-positive’ process, and it became the foundation for mainstream photography for more than 150 years, until the advent of the digital camera.

Fox Talbot: Dawn of the Photograph features some of the original apparatus used by the British inventor including the famous ‘Mousetrap’ camera (named by Talbot’s wife Constance due to their small box-like appearance), his Calotype Camera, and Camera Obscura.

Also exhibited are examples of Talbot’s earliest photographs – images renowned throughout the world of science, photography and culture: The Haystack (c. 1844), Chess Players (c. 1844), Constance Talbot (portrait, 1840), Notre Dame, Paris (1843) - plus many taken around Lacock Abbey, Talbot’s home and workplace.

Five years after making his discovery public Talbot published The Pencil of Nature, the first commercial publication to be illustrated using photographs. It demonstrated that, alongside his artistic and scientific aspirations, Talbot had one eye on photography’s commercial potential, and an ambition to serve both a creative medium and one of mass production. 

The exhibition, which first appeared in Media Space at the Science Museum, is co-curated by Greg Hobson and Russell Roberts. Roberts, Reader in Photography at the University of South Wales said: “Photography without question was one of the most profound inventions of nineteenth century Britain. Talbot not only set in motion a new way of seeing but, through his writings and experiments, identified the distinctiveness of photography as an art, science and industry. He left an extensive visual record of the medium’s possibilities that reveals a sophisticated consciousness at work. This exhibition allows us to fully appreciate the extent of his achievements and to reinforce the impact of his invention on social and cultural life.”

Fox Talbot: Dawn of the Photograph explores how the work of this pioneer bridged art, science and industry to define what was possible in the formative moments of photography.  It also explores the relationships between a network of photographers who gravitated towards Talbot’s process but who each took photography into different territory. Assessing their cultural contribution and social legacy, it reflects on how enthusiasm for photography was initially limited to a small close-knit, elite group of people.

Fox Talbot: Dawn of the Photograph
18 November 2016 – 8 February 2017, National Media Museum, Bradford

The National Portrait Gallery has acquired a group of portraits of leading British cultural figures photographed in the 1990s - including Daniel Day-Lewis, Damon Albarn, Alan Bennett, Tilda Swinton, Bob Geldof and Salman Rushdie.

They have been saved from destruction after being rescued from a condemned warehouse in King's Cross. The important body of portraits from British photographic team The Douglas Brothers had sat in a disused storage unit in London for two decades.

The Douglas Brothers began working together in the 1980s, producing photographs for the magazine press and music industry. Their photographic partnership ended in 1995, with both pursuing separate careers in the United States directing movies and commercials. They are both now based in Los Angeles. The brothers stored their photographic archive in a King's Cross lock-up that, nearly 20 years later, was earmarked to make way for redevelopment.

Andrew Douglas says: 'The storage company took over a year to track us down. Even then it was nearly too late'. Stuart Douglas says: 'The building was about to be demolished. Ten years of work came very close to ending up as landfill.'

The brothers contacted London-based artist manager Tim Fennell (bonabattoir.com). 'I received a phone call asking me to drop everything,' says Fennell, 'and clear a lock-up on a demolition site. I had 48 hours before the building was bulldozed. I retrieved 30 crates of negatives and prints that hadn't seen the light of day for nearly two decades. It was a remarkable body of work, just sitting there, forgotten.'

Fourteen of their evocative and atmospheric portraits were accepted for the National Portrait Gallery's Primary Collection. The photographs feature Bob Geldof, Shaun Ryder, Tilda Swinton, Damon Albarn, Alan Bennett, Bryan Ferry, Daniel Day-Lewis, Eric Clapton, Ian McEwan, John Le Carre, Kazuo Ishiguro, Kenneth Branagh, Peter Gabriel and Salman Rushdie.

The Douglas Brothers (thedouglasbrothers.com) spent a decade photographing leading figures from the worlds of art, literature, film, music, sport and fashion. The brothers - real life siblings Stuart and Andrew Douglas - were once described as 'the most desirable photographers of their generation.' They were the last people to photograph Salman Rushdie before he went into hiding following the death threats made against him in response to the publication of his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses.

Dr Phillip Prodger, Head of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, London, says: 'The Douglas Brothers produced some of the most distinctive portraits of the 1990s. Although their photography has since become less well known, this is work that has stood the test of time. Making use of older, historic processes, their pictures are still as fresh and exciting as the day they were made, and make a wonderful addition to the national collection of photographic portraits.'

The Douglas Brothers' portraits will go on display at the National Portrait Gallery in August 2017.

Image: A portrait of Damon Albarn from the collection. Photograph: National Portrait Gallery London

The National Portrait Gallery houses a unique collection of all forms of portraiture of the people who have made or who are currently contributing to British history and culture. The Gallery attracts over 2 million visits a year and is among London’s most popular attractions, it reaches and engages these, and further UK and global audiences, with its extensive display, exhibition, research, learning, outreach, publishing, digital and national programmes.

Artist Lala Meredith Vula will speak about her exhibition Flowers of Earth and Blood and about her journey in photography documenting important political and social events. The audience are invited to view the exhibition in the Alison Richard Building before the symposium begins.

POLITICS THROUGH THE ARCHIVES OF PHOTOGRAPHY, FILM AND ART

SATURDAY 22 OCTOBER 2016, 2.00 – 3.00 PM

The 2016 Daguerreian Society auction is available on both the Daguerreian Society web site and on LiveAuctioneers. It is the first annual fully online auction and offers a spectacular collection of offerings thanks to Greg French, Tim Lindholm and the Auction Committee team.

Please register and follow the auction, mark your favorites and feel free to bid...

https://new.liveauctioneers.com/auctioneer/5675/the-daguerreian-society

This seminar will offer a talk about – and in the guise of – the South Kensington Museum, which was the original home of what was later split into the V&A Museum and the Science Museum. It was created by the government's Department of Science and Art, which was run by Henry Cole, the South Kensington Museum's founding director and the prime mover behind the Great Exhibition of 1851. The seminar will have a particular resonance for photographic historian because of the different ways that photography has been considered by the two institutions over their history. 

 By considering the prehistory of the Department and Museum, we intend to put the Victorian relationship between science and art into both long and local perspectives. We will cover the period of roughly 50 years during which the two collections lived in a single organisation, the reasons why they were split circa 1900, and the present-day opportunities in museums and universities for reconnecting them.

The Department of Science and Art Revisited: The View from South Kensington
Tuesday 18 October 2016, 13.00–14.00, Science Museum Lecture Theatre
Dr Tim Boon, Head of Research and Public History at the Science Museum Professor Bill Sherman, Director of Research and Collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Full programme details can be found on the Science Museum webpages:http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about-us/collections-and-research/news-and-events/autumn-research-seminars