Blogs

The Brotherhood of the Linked Ring is the subject of some new work and research by Dick Weindling which he has made freely available. Dick notes:  that Margaret Harker produced the most detailed study in her book The Linked Ring (1979). Using a study of the Link’s records she identified a total of 115 members who are listed in the appendix of the book. I have researched the addresses, and used a variety of other sources to show short biographies of the photographers in the following table, which also gives their dates as Link members.

The work can be seen here: https://historyofcamden.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-linked-ring-of-photographers.html

First large-scale retrospective devoted to the artist in Paris, the exhibition brings together some one hundred photographs, from her early experiments to her historical and literary compositions, as well as her figurative allegories and an impressive gallery of portraits of her contemporaries.

Few 19th century photographers have attracted as much attention as Julia Margaret Cameron. Her approach, highly personal yet strongly criticized at the time, from her photographic technique to her out-of-focus images with various mistakes, emerged as the hallmark of a visionary style, incorporating imperfections and accidents in an innovative fashion. Her timeless and original body of work, created within just over a decade, between 1864 and 1875, represents one of the most beautiful illustrations of the epic energy that characterized the beginnings of photography.

The University of Westminster (a member of the Techne consortium) and the Science Museum Group (SMG) are delighted to announce a call for applicants for a fully funded collaborative doctorial studentship from September 2024, under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Award scheme funded by Techne.

This PhD will be the first to focus on the user experience of combining photography and train technologies in Britain between the 1880s-1930s by bringing the photography and transport collections of the SMG’s National Science and Media Museum in Bradford (NSMM) and National Railway Museum (NRM) in York into conversation with one other. 

The successful applicant will have the opportunity to be embedded with the SMG and access the same levels of training, support, and expertise as members of staff, thus developing core heritage skills alongside academic capabilities. The project will be supervised by Dr Sara Dominici (Senior Lecturer in Photography Studies and Visual Culture), Professor Pippa Catterrall (Professor of History and Policy) and Dr Alison Hesse (Lecturer in Museum and Gallery Studies) at Westminster, and, at the SMG, by Dr Oliver Betts (Head of Research) at the NRM in York and Dr Ruth Quinn (Curator of Photography and Photography Technology) at the NSMM in Bradford. 

This inter-museum approach supports the SMG’s ambitious programme to understand and reimagine its collections by allowing for a relatable, human story to be told about how cameras and trains shaped people’s leisure experiences. Its collections-based approach expands the potential for public outputs, and the major redesign work of the NRM’s Vision2025 and of the NSMM’s photography displays offers a great opportunity to research and present these collections’ stories to the public through new displays, talks, and online content.

Context

The PhD will investigate how the interaction of camera technologies and rail travel influenced people’s leisure practices and, consequently, their understanding and use of the British countryside and its heritage between the 1880s and 1930s.

From the early 1880s, a growing number of middle-class photographers used cameras in their leisure time. By the 1900s, cameras had become almost ubiquitous amongst tourists (Dominici 2018), a class whose profile broadened significantly during the interwar years (Walton 2002). Despite the competition from road transport in the 1920s and 1930s, the train remained central to tourists’ experiences.

Fundamentally, the railway did not simply facilitate their movements but, as Schivelbusch (1977) demonstrated, it fostered a sense of detachment from one’s surroundings. Because photography was central to the lives of this growing number of tourists, it follows that camera practices also intersected with how people conceptualised their experiences.

However, while studies of photography and technologies of mobility, including railways, abound (Lyden 2003, Nead 2007, Solnit 2003), they have largely focused on famous photographers’ attempts at capturing movement, or on the visual language triggered by different forms of transport, overlooking the role of popular, yet predominant, photographic practices in shaping transport users’ engagement with their world.

Details: https://www.westminster.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research-degrees/studentships/techne-collaborative-doctoral-award-cda-studentship-photography-by-train

Bonhams is offering an important album of photographs of India, Nepal, and British Isles, compiled by Capt. Eugene Clutterbuck Impey and consisting of 94 abumen prints, dating from c1860-65 albumen prints, and with an estimate of £15,000-25,000. The catalogue footnote says: 

PRIZE AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATION ALBUM, INCLUDING IMAGES OF INDIA BY EUGENE CLUTTERBUCK IMPEY, IMPORTANT EARLY VIEWS OF NEPAL BY CLARENCE C. TAYLOR, AND FINE LANDSCAPES AND STILL-LIFES BY 1860S PHOTOGRAPHERS, many associated with the Amateur Photographic Association. Founded in May 1861, each year members supplied the Association with negatives for printing in exchange for prints from other members. "Prize Albums" such at this belonging to Impey appear to have been awarded to winners in annual competitions, then the contents added by the owner. In this case Impey has included many fine amateur photographers (some based, as himself, in Asia) with fine examples of Indian views by Bourne, Shepherd and other noted professional photographers.

Details here

Reading about the recent auction of a second set of Beard daguerreotypes of the Franklin Expedition, posted here  by Michael Pritchard on September 21, 2023, I read of the previously known set housed in the Scott Polar Research Institute, that “the twin images were a product of Beard’s mirror camera which had a singular feature: the mirror had a pivot something like a modern SLR camera, and by turning it the photographer could record two images on a single oblong plate. This gave Beard the opportunity to choose the better of the exposures, or – if both were satisfactory – provide two daguerreotypes and double his profit.”

The Posting here of the Re-creation of Beard's Mirror Camera (1840) Posted by Roger Wesley Smith on November 5, 2012 makes no mention of a double plate and I don’t remember reading of such a camera.

Not surprisingly, considering the time past, the finding of daguerreotype images taken at the same sitting is unusual, but not, I don’t think, rare. 

For example, I have in my collection two images of John Baker of Ilminster who was a junior assistant clerk to the magistrates of the Ilminster district. Comments?

The University of Westminster (a member of the technē consortium https://www.techne.ac.uk/) and the Science Museum Group (SMG) are delighted to announce a call for applicants for a fully funded collaborative doctorial studentship from September 2024, under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Award scheme funded by technē.

This PhD will be the first to investigate how the interaction of camera technologies and rail travel influenced people’s leisure practices and, consequently, their understanding and use of the British countryside and its heritage between 1880s and 1930s. It will do so by bringing the photography and transport collections of the SMG’s National Science and Media Museum in Bradford (NSMM) and National Railway Museum (NRM) in York into conversation with one other. While the research questions will be developed in consultation with the student, they will be expected to appraise the interaction of photography and railways in relation to these three complementary perspectives:

• The broadening class and gender profile of those who combined photography and rail travel, seeking to understand what they expected of their leisure excursions and, consequently, how this shaped their interactions with the British countryside and its heritage;
• The position of the railway companies, examining the infrastructure developed to cater for tourists-cum-camera, how this changed as their social makeup and demands diversified and, consequently, how this influenced local authorities’ and leisure providers’ management of natural and cultural sites;
• The potential links between the development of photography and railways, and the traces these have left in the material record through the close analysis of museum collections.

The successful applicant will have the opportunity to be embedded with the SMG and access the same levels of training, support, and expertise as members of staff, thus developing core heritage skills alongside academic capabilities. The project will be supervised by Dr Sara Dominici (Senior Lecturer in Photography Studies), Professor Pippa Catterrall (Professor of History and Policy) and Dr Alison Hesse (Lecturer in Museums and Gallery Studies) at Westminster; and, at the SMG, by Dr Oliver Betts (Head of Research) at the NRM in York and Dr Ruth Quinn (Curator of Photography and Photography Technology) at the NSMM in Bradford.

Applications should include:

• Personal Statement (max. 1,500 words) explaining why you are interested in researching this topic, including what you would bring to the project and how you think you would take it forward.
• Your CV
• A sample of academic writing (ideally this should be between 5,000 and 10,000 words but this is flexible, e.g., BA or MA Dissertation)
• Passport
• Qualification Transcript/Certificates

The deadline for applications is 5pm (GMT) on Friday 05^th January 2024.

Interviews will be held week commencing Monday 22^nd January 2024.

The chosen candidate will be invited to complete an application form with the proposed supervisors for technē funding in February 2024, and the studentship is subject to final approval by the Techne board in April 2024. The final decision on the allocation of studentships rests with the technē review panel.  Applicants must hold an offer with the University of Westminster before their application can be nominated to technē.

Full details here: https://www.westminster.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research-degrees/studentships/techne-collaborative-doctoral-award-cda-studentship-photography-by-train 

Recently sold at auction was the Frank Strike Collection of Cornish shipwreck photographs. Described as an important collection of 'Magic Lantern' slides, annotated, catalogued, well preserved and boxed, together with a magic lantern projector made by JH Steward (Optician) of 406, Strand and 457 West Strand London.

Grouped into categories; Shipwrecks: 221 slides, Life saving inventions: 24 slides, Porthleven: 68 slides, Breage: 9 slides, freedom of Helston: 12 slides. Multiple historical images, the majority taken by by the Gibson family of photographers and Alfred Hawke of Helston.

Shipwreck subjects include: Alexander Yeats 1896, Andola 1895, Bay of Panama 1891, early shipwreck diving on the Anson, Cromdale 1913, Cviet 1884, Glenbervie 1902, Jeune Hortense 1888, Lady of the Isles, Lamorna 1904, Marie Celine 1901, Minnehaha 1873, Mohegan 1898, Queen Margaret 1913, Seuvic 1907, Tripolitania, 1912, Barque William 1865 and multiple others.

This exceptional collection was put together by the noteable local historian Frank Strike, and used by him for many years to give illustrated lectures.

Frank Strike was born in 1895 and started out as a shipwright, later becoming a builder and undertaker. In 1929 he joined the coastguard, to which he dedicated forty years of his life. He held the Coastguard long service medal for 35 years as Number One in the Life-saving Team, during which time he was responsible for aiming and firing the rocket that carried the rope to the shipwreck. He started his slide collection in 1947 and went on to combine it with his passion for local history, particularly the history of Porthleven, by giving regular lectures with the slides. He gave lectures as often as once or twice a week.

Frank died in 1967 and his collection has been carefully preserved by his family.

Sold for £15,000 at Lays Auctioneers on 16 November 2023
See the lot description here

We invite international submissions for essays and notes to be included in this forthcoming book to be published by MuseumsEtc in July 2024 in conjunction with a major Edith Tudor-Hart retrospective exhibition in Salzburg.

Both communist and jewish, Austrian photographer Edith Tudor-Hart (née Suschitzky) fled to Britain in 1933. By the time of her death in 1973, her photography had almost disappeared
from view before being featured in the magazine Camerawork in 1980 and more recently in the exhibition and book Edith Tudor-Hart: In the Shadow of Tyranny. Her work is known for its focus on class relations, the “combative” socialist perspective which informed it, and its clarity of vision and composition. As her oeuvre is increasingly researched, reconstructed and reassessed, it has become a source of inspiration for those interested in exploring a realist tradition in photography.

Edith Tudor-Hart in Britain will be the first book to focus in depth on her British work. Drawing on her archive at Fotohof, Salzburg, and other collections throughout Europe, it will feature some 100 largely unpublished images, and will break new ground in examining the physicality of those historic prints which have survived, and in creating historically-informed prints from the surviving negatives.

SUBMISSIONS
Proposals are invited for (longer) Essays and (briefer) Notes from museum, gallery and heritage professionals, academics, photographers and researchers. We aim to prioritise the socialist perspective in Tudor-Hart’s work and to avoid viewing it from a nostalgic perspective. The book will focus entirely on her work as a photographer and not on her undercover work, although intelligence records may be of interest in so far as they illuminate her photographic work.

Essays
Aspects of interest include - but are not limited to - the following:
• Changes in the work over time
• Child education
• Class relations
• Disability
• People at their work
• Photographic work in books, periodicals and advertising
• Political perspectives
• Portraits and self-portraits
• Resistance and action
• Street photography
• The built environment
• The émigré perspective
• The representation of women
• Writings on photography

Notes
The book will feature a number of brief (probably illustrated) “in-focus” contributions. More informal in form where appropriate, these may examine detailed aspects of her work, or individual images. Aspects of interest might include - but are not limited to - the following:
• Captions and titles
• Composition
• Cropping
• Lighting
• Printing - historic and modern
• The analysis of individual images
• The analysis of one or more negatives
All authors will have access to the wide range of images being used in the book, for illustration purposes.

Editor
Shirley Read is a curator, writer and tutor in photography who, while an Editor at Camerawork, published the first-ever overview of Edith Tudor-Hart’s work. She has interviewed for the British Library’s Oral History of British Photography archive for 30 years and is the author of Photographers and Research (Routledge) and Exhibiting Photography (Focal Press). She holds a degree in History from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at the University of London, and an MA in Photography: History and Culture from the University of the Arts, London.

Submitting your proposal
You can propose either an Essay or a Note. Proposals for ESSAYS should be a maximum of 500 words in length. Proposals for NOTES should be a maximum of 200 words. Both should be accompanied by a biography of 100-300 words. All submissions should be in Microsoft Word format.

ESSAYS will be 2000-3000 words in length; NOTES will be 400-600 words. The inclusion of images is encouraged. Please prepare your proposal with these parameters in mind. The work should not have been published elsewhere. All contributions must be submitted in English - translation services will not be provided. Authors will receive a copy of the final publication and a 10% discount on further copies.

The deadline for proposals is 18 December 2023. Please email your proposal to ETHproposals@museumsetc.com. Any queries in advance of submission should be sent to
ETHqueries@museumsetc.com.

Key dates
PROPOSALS DUE: 18 December 2023
CONTRIBUTORS NOTIFIED: 21 December 2023
COMPLETED PAPERS DUE: 29 February 2024

Download the call ETH CFP.pdf

In May 1856, Alder's (left) in Blyth, Northumberland provided a shop window for the Downey brothers first portrait photographs.

New research about royal photographers W. & D. Downey of South Shields, Newcastle and London features in my latest Pressphotoman piece.

View here 

Photo: Courtesy of Blyth Library.

Photofusion are delighted to announce the appointment of a new Director to lead the UK based photography organisations at an exciting time in its development Jenni Grainger will be the new Director of Photofusion, starting in January 2024.  Joining Photofusion from a background of senior leadership in arts organisations, Jenni brings with her vast experience of leading and programming nationally and internationally significant activity with inclusion, access and creativity at its core.

Jenni says “I am delighted to announce that I will be joining Photofusion, as Director in January 2024, and look forward to driving the strategy and creative ambitions of this long-established photographic institution into 2024 and beyond. Photofusion is an important centre of photographic education and creative vision and I am keen to discover what more we can do to deepen and widen engagement in photography within the local community and far beyond. I also look forward to championing Photofusion as a vibrant and accessible new community space as it moves into its new home on Beehive Place, Brixton. I particularly look forward to continuing Photofusion’s strong relationships, locally and beyond, with stakeholders, artists, partners and its members, to champion the delivery of high-quality exhibitions and socially engaged projects."

Kim Shaw has recently stepped down as Director of Photofusion after 8 years. During that time, she steered the organisation through a period of huge change, achieving Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation status in collaboration with 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, and winning the bid for Photofusion’s new home on Beehive Place. Her vision and determination have been incredible, and we are going to miss her enthusiasm and on-going support of Photofusion members in particular.

For 30 years, Photofusion has championed, supported and celebrated photography and photographers. well known for the darkrooms, gallery space, digital printing facilities, and education programme, Photofusion has also worked collaboratively with young people, emerging photographers and makers as part of its growing community. Photofusion was established in 1990. Among the founding members were a group of female photographers who were concerned about the way women were portrayed in the media. They formed a cooperative to document real women doing real things: doctors, nurses, teachers, mothers. Representation, inclusion and diversity have always been at the heart of Photofusion. Many important images have been made and shown at Photofusion. Supporting some of the UKs most well-known and established photographers at early stages of their careers, Photofusion looks forward to doing more to develop the artform and ensure its accessibility for everyone.

See: https://www.photofusion.org/

The landmark Africa Fashion exhibition at the V&A highlights opportunities for original research into interconnections between African dress, adornment, colonialism, decolonisation and diaspora. Subjects embodied in African portrait photography located in national museum, private and family archives. The project will analyse; sitter, attire, styling, and setting as a conduit into understanding an archive of pictures social, cultural and political meanings. The scope of this approach is explicit in the oeuvre of photographers Seydou Keita – Bamako and James Barnor – Accra/London. 

The project may create, identify an original, or re-evaluate an existing African portrait photography archive; either in Africa or elsewhere. The analysis will seek to understand the collections agency in colonial, decolonising or diaspora contexts. A paradigm shift in the conceptualisation, articulation, interpretation and classification of African portrait photography is expected to elucidate race, discrimination, freedom struggles and gender narratives.  

Theoretical and methodological approaches will draw on a combination of subject disciplines which may include African studies; visual research methods from anthropology, photography, fashion and dress; theoretical perspectives from colonial, decolonisation research studies; taxonomy and ontology. Research as creative practice will be intrinsic leading to exhibition and publication expectations. 

Falmouth University
Project lead: Dr Simon A Clarke
No start or closing date specified
Details: https://www.falmouth.ac.uk/research/phd-mphil/doctoral-project-briefs/african-portrait-photography-archives#details

Various news outlets reported recently that Brian Edwards, a visiting research fellow with the regional history centre at the University of the West of England had identified the image of a Wiltshire thatcher, as seen on the cover of Led Zeppelin IV.

Edwards said he came across the image in a photograph album during continuing research extending from an exhibition he curated with Wiltshire Museum in 2021. It is understood that the Led Zeppelin lead singer, Robert Plant, discovered a framed, coloured photograph of the original image of the Wiltshire thatcher in an antique shop near guitarist Jimmy Page’s house in Pangbourne, Berkshire.

The original image was discovered in a Victorian photograph album titled: “Reminiscences of a visit to Shaftesbury. Whitsuntide 1892. A present to Auntie from Ernest.” It contained more than 100 architectural views and street scenes together with a few portraits of rural workers from Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset.

Beneath the stooped man’s image, the photographer wrote: “A Wiltshire thatcher.” Further research suggests the thatcher is Lot Long (sometimes Longyear), who was born in Mere in 1823 and died in 1893. At the time the photograph was taken, Long was a widower living in a small cottage in Shaftesbury Road, Mere. A part-signature matching the writing in the album suggests the photographer is Ernest Howard Farmer (1856-1944), the first head of the school of photography at the then newly renamed Regent Street Polytechnic, now part of the University of Westminster.

Farmer’s photograph is now in Wiltshire Museum in Devizes, and an exhibition featuring the image, along with others taken in the west of England during the Victorian era, is scheduled to be held at the museum in spring 2024.

See:https://www.wiltshiremuseum.org.uk/?exhibition=wiltshire-thatcher-a-photographic-journey-through-victorian-wessex

https://www.uwe.ac.uk/news/unidentified-figure-on-cover-of-iconic-album-revealed

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/researchers-have-finally-identified-the-mystery-man-on-a-led-zeppelin-album-cover-180983225/

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/nov/08/led-zeppelin-iv-cover-photo-revealed-victorian-wiltshire-thatcher and

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-67336495

The next few weeks see several auctions of photography and cameras: 

• Chiswick Auctions - 9th & 20th Century Photographs - 30 November 2023. Chiswick has an evening preview on 28 November from 1800-2000. RSVP to: photographica@chiswickauctions.co.uk. Catalogue here
• Dominic WInter Auctions - Photographs, Autographs & Historic Documents - 22 November 2023. Catalogue here
• Flints Auctions - Fine Photographica - 21 November 2023. Catalogue here

Four Corners latest exhibition tells the fascinating story of the Half Moon touring shows. In 1976, photographers at East London’s Half Moon Gallery developed an innovative approach to exhibiting. With little money, a leaky roof and a DIY attitude, they arranged their work on card panels and ran them through a laminator, creating unpretentious exhibitions-in-a-box that travelled the country via British Rail.

Bypassing elitist arts institutions, the exhibitions toured to alternative venues from community centres to left-wing bookshops, student unions, churches, a prison and even a laundrette. By 1984, over fifty shows had reached people across the UK, playing a pivotal role in how documentary photography was viewed and used. 

Documenting working lives and rural traditions, shedding light on international conflicts and injustices closer to home, the Half Moon touring shows introduced powerful imagery by an emerging generation of socially engaged photographers that still resonates today. 

Photography on the Move: The Half Moon Touring Shows 1976 - 1984
24 November 2023 - 27 January 2024
London: Four Corners
https://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/whats-on/photography-on-the-move-the-half-moon-touring-shows-1976-1984

Copy of a glass plate negative. Photographed from an approaching ship. Does anyone know or can suggest where this may be? 

 

- English: https://forms.office.com/e/e1kbXEgC15
- Portuguese: https://forms.office.com/e/19uPtaK6e6

Dear All, Photographic Exhibitiosn in Britain 1839-1865 is back up and running. Thank you for your patience!  Happy Researching!

Kelley Wilder. Photographic History Research Centre

Exeter-based auctioneers Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood is offering the lantern slides, lanterns and associated material collected and used by Philip Banham over many years. The auction takes place on 4 December 2023. The sale is particualrly strong in hand-coloured and transfer lantern slides, slipping and mechanical slides, with subjects ranging from comic to social history. Also included are lanterns, printed material, engravings, books and readings. 

Online catalogue: https://auctions.bhandl.co.uk/auctions/8741/bearne10139