Blogs

Following a recent Court of Appeal ruling on UK Copyright law art historian Dr. Bendor Grosvenor, a long-standing campaigner on academic image use, has written an interesting article in The Art Newspaper on how the case affects image fees and UK museums where the original artwork is itself out of copyright:  https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/12/29/court-of-appeal-ruling-will-prevent-uk-museums-from-charging-reproduction-feesat-last

He adds more detail in a thread on his Twitter (X) feed, including feedback that he has subsequently received from the National Gallery and the Tate: https://twitter.com/arthistorynews

It may well also interest map and photo historians.

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BPH editor's note: The ruling clarifies that copyright cannot for straight copies out out of copyright 2D works of art. In Grosvenor's words: "It means these photographs [of 2d artworks] are in the public domain, and free to use." However, with instititutions and galleries acting as gatekeepers for their collections the supply of high res files is likely to remain something that they continue to charge for. Any low (and rarely high res) files online or available for download of out of copyright work are now free to use. 

The basis for this is in Lord Justice Arnold's (THJ Systems v Sheridan, 2023), ruling that, for copyright to arise: “What is required is that the author was able to express their creative abilities in the production of the work by making free and creative choices so as to stamp the work created with their personal touch... “his criterion is not satisfied where the content of the work is dictated by technical considerations, rules or other constraints which leave no room for creative freedom”. As Grosvenor summarises: "if the aim of a museum photograph is to accurately reproduce a painting (which it must be), then it cannot acquire copyright." He concludes: "For art history, this is a judgement where everyone wins."

As I noted earlier, with instititions still controlling supply - and the conditions of use - then there may be little change in the cost of using images in publications, online, and especially for commercial use. The argument from institutions is that reproduction fees support digitisation programmes, the staff and photography departments needed to deliver photography, and the servers and tech infrastructure that make them available. There is now perhaps a stronger argument for publicly funded digital imagery of out of copyright material to now be made freely available in high res versions. For some commercial picture libraries this ruling may undermine parts of their business model, although they have tended to be better at watermarking and limiting material to low res images, and with a commercial remit have been under less pressure to change. Publicly-funded institutions have less of a defence.   

Institutions in the United States are ahead of the UK in this area with many making reproductions of their artworks (including photographs) freely available in low and high res versions for non-commercial use, and some even allowing commercial use. For photography where reproductions of the same artwork may appear in different collections US collections continue to be the first port of call for those seeking to reproduce material. 

There are several legal summaries and this is one of the more useful: https://www.vennershipley.com/insights-events/originality-in-copyright-a-review-of-thj-v-sheridan/

Dr Michael Pritchard

UPDATE: 

BAPLA has published its response to the case, reminding us that copyright and image fees are two separate things. See: https://bapla.org.uk/statement-from-bapla-on-thj-v-sheridan/

I posted during the year a notice about the talk I was giving at the extant 19th Century Darkroom at Strokestown Park House in Strokestown, County Roscommon, Ireland. The talk was well received and was repeated again at the site in late October. Also in October I gave a revised version of the talk online to the Research Group of the Photographic Collectors Club of Great Britain (PCCGB). That version of the talk has now been posted on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3tokUD-FGY&t=2178s

Comments would be greatly welcomed, particularly as regards the techniques employed by the photographer Henry Pakenham Mahon, some of which are described in his notebooks which survive. Of particular interest are the use of the exposure tables in Burton's Photographer's Notebook and also his use of Fitch's film which was relatively new in the late 1890s and early 1900s. 

London-born photographer Bert Hardy (1913-1995, UK) was an influential English press and documentary photographer known for his work as chief photographer for Picture Post magazine. Born into a working-class family in Blackfriars, Hardy was self-taught and worked as both a combat photographer and an advertising photographer during his illustrious career. 

Discover the key moments in Hardy’s unparalleled career – from self-taught news and sports photographer, to serving combat cameraman, renowned Picture Post photojournalist and successful advertising entrepreneur.  

As well as historic material from his work for Britain’s leading photo-magazine, Picture Post, this retrospective includes photographs during his time in the Army Film and Photographic Unit, including imagery from the Blitz in London to the liberation of Bergen-Belsen and war in Southeast Asia.  

Hardy’s extensive social documentary work in mid-century Britain in cities including London, Liverpool, Cardiff, Belfast, Tyneside and Glasgow, his travels across postwar Europe and images from the many conflicts he reported on will be on show, alongside a rich selection of material from Hardy’s archive, complemented by some of his lesser known colour work.

The archive, now held by Cardiff University, includes press passes, correspondence, diaries and original publications, as well as camera equipment. 

Bert Hardy: Photojournalism in War and Peace
Friday, 23 February 2024 - Sunday, 2 June 2024
London: The Photographers' Gallery
See: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/bert-hardy-photojournalism-war-and-peace

Image: Sugar Ray Robinson, 1951. © Bert Hardy

Sean Sexton is the subject of an interview by Orla Fitzpatrick on RTE's website and a television documentary. The interview focuses on Sean's collection of photographs of Ireland, arguably the most important of such material anywhere in the world. The collection of over 20,000 images spans the history of photography covering post-famine Ireland right through to the turbulent revolutionary years. The collection will be the subject of a forthcoming RTE documentary.

As Orla notes: 'Sexton's collection includes all formats, genres and processes, from early salt-paper negatives and once-off daguerreotypes through to snapshots and spy cameras. Portraits, landscapes and even nudes are in the collection.'  He began forming the collection from 1973, later funded, in part, by his purchase in Bermondsey market of a trove of photographs by Charles Jones. 

The collection has been featured in two books and is still awaiting a permanent home in Ireland where it rightly belongs.  

Framing Irish History - The Sean Sexton Collection will be screened on RTÉ 1 on December 28th at 6.30pm and on RTÉ Player

Read the article here: https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2023/1217/1422502-sean-sexton-photos-collection-ireland-history/ 

Print World magazine has an interview with Stuart Humphryes who posts on Twitter using the handle BabelColour @StuartHumphryes discussing his book The Colors Of Life which was published in September. Humphryes  discusses his practical approach to enhancing the colour of early images. 

See: https://www.printweek.com/content/features/reliving-the-colours-of-an-earlier-world

Tony Richards writes on Instqgram... Deep in the uncatalogued depths of The John Rylands Library sits original photographic plates of the vast collections. These are 12x16 inch plates of a Persian Manuscript, but the box labels I found of interest. R W Thomas & Co Limited, Dry Plate Factory. Originally a chemist, R.W. Thomas began to specialise in photographic goods in the 1850s. Later, the company began to produce dry plates, including one of the first nonhalation plates. These, if I remember rightly, mention nonhalation somewhere elsewhere on the packaging.

The Imaging Archive Project will start in January 2024. We aim to eventually catalogue, clean, digitise, rehouse, and create metadata of the full collection for investigation and comparison when linked to recent digital capture versions of the original works.

#johnrylandslibrary #librartspecailcollections #library #heritageimaging #digitisation #collectionsmanagement #photoconservation #metadatahttp

https://www.instagram.com/p/C1FI-SAoC_L/?igshid=YzZhZTZiNWI3Nw%3D%3D

This new publication, Veins of Influence. Colonial Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in Early Photographs and Collections by Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra is now available to purchased. The limited edition hardcopy of  Veins of Influence is available now at the iconic DAUNT BOOKS on Marylebone High Street and DAUNT online  Daunt Books- Veins of Influence. 

Ebook available on Amazon Kindle

"An impactful and far reaching contribution to the field of photography and visual impression."

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?

The two photography collections are: 

• The Bernard Howarth-Loomes collection of early photography has been accepted in lieu of tax. The daguerreotypes; daguerreotypes made into jewellery; a plate scene of Niagara Falls by Platt D Babbitt; ambrotypes and tintypes; cartes-de-visites, including the portrait by Robert Howlett of the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, set against the background of the chains of the Great Eastern; and pre-photographic equipment. Bernard Howarth-Loomes (c.1931-2003) was a photographic collector specialising in stereoscopic views. This collection encompasses many different photographic techniques including 13,000 stereographs and early and rare images. It provides a unique learning opportunity for the study of the history of photography and optical science, particularly stereography. It also provides a social insight into how the Victorians explored their world and how they chose to present themselves to their friends and family.
  
  The Panel considered the collection from the estate of Ethel Alma Howarth-Loomes, pre-eminent under the first, second and third criteria, in acceptable condition and fairly valued. The collection has been permanently allocated to National Museums Scotland in accordance with the condition attached to its offer.
• The Janette Rosing collection of photographs of Cornwall. This Cornwall and Scilly Isles-focused collection was carefully selected by Janette Rosing (1942-2021) over a 50-year period and comprises over 3,800 photographs dating from the early 1850s to the early 1900s. There are seven rare photographs by or attributed to Linnaeus Tripe (1822-1902) as well as a range of images not held in other public collections. The topographical nature of many of the photographs in the collection offers a visual history of Cornwall over the 19th century. The photographic postcards from the early 1900s provide social-historical insights into recreational and leisure activities in the region.
  
  The Panel considered the collection, accepted from the estate of Miss Janette Rosing, pre-eminent under all four criteria, in acceptable condition and fairly valued. It has been permanently allocated to Kresen Kernow in Cornwall in accordance with the condition attached to its offer. 

Read the full 2023 report and case studies here

Dogs have been a subject matter within photography since it was first introduced. Was this by hapless accident or have dogs been a central theme within photography since the beginning and why? Looking at the parallel trajectory of dogs (most notably pedigree dogs) and photography in Great Britain, Heidi Hudson, Curator of Photographic Collections at the Royal Kennel Club, will examine the role the dog plays out in early photography as subject matter, muse, prop, and symbolic representation.

Heidi Hudson is Curator of Photographic Collections at the Royal Kennel Club and holds a Master of History of Art with Photography from Birkbeck College. Heidi is a specialist on Victorian dog photography as well as contemporary dog photography. Heidi manages all photography on behalf of the Kennel Club including the world-famous Crufts dog show. Heidi owns a Portuguese Water Dog named Bob.

Lunchtime Lecture: Promoting the Dog through Photography- The making of man’s best friend in early British photography
Thursday, 8 February 2024 at 1300-1355
Free
Book here: https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/1pxJ5oVv1b/p23096-lunchtime-lecture-dog-photography-feb-2024

Image: W. G. Campbell, 'The Lesson', 1856, albumen print. Print taken from the 'Photographic Album of the Year, 1857' RPS.1211-2018. The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the V&A, acquired with the generous assistance of the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Art Fund.

Dancing Through Time: from Pop to Punk in the City of Derby is an exciting new heritage project, made possible thanks to funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, which will explore the social clubs, dance clubs, dance movements and music scenes in Derby from the 1960s to the late 1970s.  

In preparation for a series of FORMAT related exhibitions in 2024 and 2025 showcasing the project, Déda and QUAD are asking for help from the people of Derby and Derbyshire. They’re asking for those involved in the dance, clubs and music scene in Derby between 1960 and 1979 to submit any photos, memories and memorabilia they have of the venues, the people or anything that captures the overall feel of the scene. Were you there, or did you know someone who was? 

The project hopes to bring these venues alive once again and allow people to share memories while making sure this period of social change in the city is never forgotten. Due to this, an online archive will also be created with the images and is due to be launch in mid 2024. 

To get involved with the project, scan and share your images, memorabilia and stories via the online form, by emailing oceanf@derbyquad.co.uk or by following the @DancingThroughTimeDerby Instagram page and submitting  your images using #IWasThereDerby. Updates on upcoming public events will be announced periodically via the QUAD and FORMAT newsletters, social media and websites to stay tuned and get ready to dance through time. 

Image: Dancing on the stage at Clouds,1966. Photo: Eric Chapman

This two day course, led by Laura Clarke Oaten, will provide an introduction to Photopolymer Gravure plate making and printing. The course will allow participants to expose, develop and print their own plate using imagery they have bought with them, be it a drawing or a photograph. Once the plate has been made, they will learn how to print their plate, and leave with a beautiful original print of their own making.

Participants of the course will leave with their own hand printed artwork. They will also have a good understanding of the process of photopolymer gravure which would give them the confidence to return for future workshops, or to enter any print room and know what to do.

Introduction to Photopolymer Gravure Printing
Led by: Laura Clarke Oaten
Course Duration: 2 Days, 10am to 4pm
Dates: 18th & 19th April 2024
Price: £249.00 full price / £199.00 concessionary price
Details and booking here

Photographer Arai Takashi was born in the late 1970s in the Japan of the Cold War. During his youth he was exposed on a daily basis to representations of nuclear technology in films, anime, manga, and novels. The zeitgeist of the Atomic Age and its inseparable fears of an apocalypse formed the background sentiment of his childhood, while nuclear power plants mushroomed in the Japanese islands under the slogan ‘Atoms for Peace’. The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, followed by the Fukushima nuclear accident, was the first moment when his worst fears seemed to come true after Japan retreated into the amnesia of the bubble and post-bubble economy.

Since he started to make frequent visits to Fukushima, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and other nuclear sites in Japan and the US, he has been considering the complex disparities between the different levels of narrative told by individuals, communities, and nations. Like Svetlana Alexievich (awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature), he asks how we can break out of our shells and expand our imaginations to encompass the invisible, global, and multi-generational threats of nuclear catastrophe.

In this talk moderated by Simon Baker (Director of MEP: Maison Européenne de la Photographie and former Senior Curator, International Art at Tate), Arai will discuss his interdisciplinary approach to nuclear issues utilising the uncertainty of the daguerreotype, one of the earliest photographic techniques, and the instability and fragility of his body and mind as an individual artist.

The Daguerreotype at the End of Our World
18 January 2024
Live event: 1800-1900
Daiwa Foundation
See: https://dajf.org.uk/event/the-daguerreotype-at-the-end-of-our-world

Life was very hard for working-class people during the 19th century. This exhibition reveals how little indiscretions often led to harsh punishments if you were caught – even on the streets of a country town like Barnstaple. A rare photograph album containing the images of local Victorian men, women and children, was discovered by the local historian and author Dr Sadru Bhanji in 2009, all of whom were named. Dr Bhanji’s research revealed that all of the individuals had had their images taken at the Barnstaple jail, with each person having been arrested and imprisoned for committing crimes; including theft, fraud and embezzlement. The majority of these crimes were committed on Barnstaple’s streets, in its pubs, shops and markets.

The hidden stories from the album have now come to light thanks to Dr Bhanji’s research, and this exhibition draws on their once-forgotten stories to explore Barnstaple’s Victorian underclass. Dr Sadru Bhanji said ‘The exhibition owes much to the chance acquisition of an album of Victorian photographs which transpired to be of some of the inmates of Barnstaple Prison during the decade beginning 1867. As all but a handful of the 98 people depicted were named, curiosity was aroused. A fruitful exploration of contemporary sources then followed and made it possible to provide accounts of the subjects’ backgrounds and criminal lives and bring back into awareness forgotten members of one of Victorian Barnstaple’s underclasses.’

Dr Todd Gray, a historian of Devon, commented ‘This is an amazing discovery. It is the earliest collection of photos of members of North Devon’s working class. Each girl, boy, woman and man was photographed to provide a record in case they re-offended and a century and a half later they allow us today to gaze at their faces and begin to understand their lives. North Devon’s past has just become a little bit more accessible. I commend the museum for highlighting such a challenging collection with its exhibition. Another great contribution from the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon!’

Barnstaple Prisoners: unveiling Barnstaple’s Victorian underclass 1867- 1877
Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon
2 December 2023  -  17 February 2024
https://barnstaplemuseum.org.uk/whatson/prisoners/

The annual Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards celebrate excellence in photography and moving image publishing. They recognise individuals who have made an outstanding or original contribution to the literature, art or practice of photography or the moving image. Two winning titles are selected: one in the field of photography and one in the field of the moving image. The author/s or editor/s of each winning book receive a £5,000 cash prize, Submissions are sought for the 2024 awards in the two categories. Books must be published between 1 January and 31 December 2023 and =must be published, distributed or available to buy (including online) in the UK. 

Details: https://kraszna-krausz.org.uk/book-awards/

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport has just published monthly and annual visitor numbers for its sponsored museums. Of particular interest are those of the Naational Science+Media Museum, previously the National Media Museum. The data has been graphed below include an adjustment for financial to calendar year. Note that the impact of the pendemic necessiated the closure of the museum, and the museum closed its doors in the summer, although the cinema was open for a period. 

Graph by Michael Pritchard, data transcribed from financial to calendar year
See the full data set here: Museums and galleries monthly visits 

Peter Stubbs who has died aged 78 years joined the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) in 1993. He was awarded the first ever Fellowship for a website in 2005 in the Research category. The site was a monumental achievement exploring the history of the Edinburgh Photographic Society (EPS) and its members from its foundation in 1861 to 1999. The website showed that good research did not always need to be presented in book form. Peter continued to expand the scope of the website until recently. As a member of the EPS for over thirty years he became the memory of the Society through his diligent research into its formation and its progress from its inception. 

Peter also produced a fascinating record of the nineteenth century photographic businesses in the city, particularly in Princes Street, of which there were a large number.  He formed the view that Robert Louis Stevenson was aware of the Edinburgh studio scene when he wrote his novel Jekyll and Hyde 

Edinburgh was very much the focus of Peter’s photographic interests and over the years he created an archive of industry in the city.  His major contribution to photography in the city is contained in the website  edinphoto.org.uk.  It is a huge combination of photographs of people, places and activities in the city both historic and recent. This shows how the city has developed over an extended period, including what has physically changed and what has remained the same. The website remains live and a valuable resource although some links are now broken.

Peter was an actuary by profession, which probably explains his capacity to organise such an extensive project. He has left an important legacy for the city, for Edinburgh Photographic Society and for photographic historians more generally.

His enthusiasm for photographic history did not extend to using old fashioned plate cameras. Once on a cold spring day on Rannoch Moor, as a fellow member was demonstrating the use of his newly acquired half-plate camera and taking forever to do so, he observed that he never wanted to use a camera like that.  Indeed, as a member of the hillwalking group ‘All Year Ramblers’, he recorded their walks with his iPad. 

Douglas J May FRPS,
and additions from Dr Michael Pritchard FRPS

See: http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/ for earlier versions (which retain some of the now broken links see: https://web.archive.org/web/20230000000000*/http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/)

Image: peter_edinphoto / Instagram

This project uses the work of Daisy Edis (1888-1964) and the J.R. Edis Studio to interrogate histories of photography in Durham, a cathedral, university, and mining town in Northeast England. Working in partnership with Beamish, a ‘living museum’ of working-class history, the project centres photography as a site of identity formation for photographers, subjects, and viewers alike – and as crucial to both past and present notions of ‘history’ itself. It draws on archives related to the Edis Studio at Beamish and Durham University, as well as considering the studio’s afterlife as a working reconstruction in the 1900 Town at Beamish, a popular attraction where visitors can don Edwardian-style costumes and pose for portraits that evoke the era.

A Woman’s Work bridges historical research and contemporary heritage practice to examine the role played by the Edis Studio in Durham’s ‘town and gown’ community over its 70-year history. Given the centrality of empire to Durham’s knowledge and industrial economies, how might visually ‘banal’ photographs, which were the studio’s core business (such as college portraits and cathedral views), be understood within the imperial context? How typical or atypical was Daisy Edis’s own career, as a woman photographer and studio owner? What opportunities for public engagement does the Edis archive at Beamish present, in line with the museum’s goal of reflecting the diversity of working-class life in Northeast England? And how might insights from this project inform the wider museum sector’s approach to historic photograph collections?

This project will run as a collaboration between Durham University’s History Department and Beamish Museum. It will offer a unique opportunity for the PhD student to learn how museums develop interpretation and engagement activities, and to gain direct experience of research impact and knowledge transfer.

The supervisors for the project are Prof. Christina Riggs and Prof. Julie-Marie Strange at Durham University and Rosie Nichols and Dan Hudachek at Beamish Museum.

Questions about the project can be directed to Professor Christina Riggs at christina.j.riggs@durham.ac.uk.

Learn more about the project

 Main image: The Studio at 52 Saddler Street, Durham City in the 1920s. Photo: Gilesgate Archives.

The Centre for British Photography is to move from its premises in London’s Jermyn Street as it transitions to the next phase of its development inclduing securing a sustainable financial model. In a letter to supporters, founding director James Hyman set out the CBP’s achievements and looked forward to an earlier than anticipated building move in early 2024. The Centre’s landlords have chosen to take back the premises in January rather than later in the year.

Since the CBP opened in January it has attracted over 70,000 visitors (of which 30,000 came in the first three months), staged eighteen exhibitions, shown more than eight British-based photographers, held an Open Call for work that attracted over 1000 submissions and hosted events and screenings, and worked with 117 prebooked educational and other groups.

Hyman said that the Centre’s first ‘proof of concept’ phase had demonstrated the quality of what could be delivered and shown that there was an audience for photography. Phase two he tagged as ‘permanence’ which he defined as securing the additional funding to secure a permanent home for the Centre. At its launch in January 2023 Hyman was clear that he and his partner Claire would fund the Centre for two years, after which it would need public or other sources of funding to secure its future.

The Centre was launched in February 2020, originally as the Hyman Foundation, with a mission ‘to support all kinds of photographic practices in Britain and to provide platforms for these contributions that are educational, inclusive and inspiring for the benefit of all audiences’. It opened a permanent 8000 square foot space in January 2023.  At the core of the Centre’s research hub is the Hyman’s 3000+ strong collection of photography which the Centre holds and manages under an annual loan agreement. Although the Centre has started to develop its own sources of funding it is underpinned by loans from the Hymans of £97,370, plus £244,860 received for resale of donated goods valued at £244,860 from James Hyman.

Securing funding will be key to delivering Phase 2 and securing the achievements of the Centre’s first year.

See: https://britishphotography.org/

https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/5160653/charity-overview

Chris writes...The book I am currently preparing is the first of a new genre for me. Previously I have written on sport but this is a popular culture illustrated magazine called Lilliput (vol 1 (1937) vol 47 (1960). For the photographers section I have it in three parts. First are the Agencies and the people behind them; then photographers by first name and surname; then surname only.

Having recorded the agencies and photographers who contributed he has a list of names, usually surnames, that he is seeking further details, forenames and any biographical information. The third list - mainly showing surnames - and volume number - is below. If you can help please comment below.