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Amateurs and Artists: 19th and 21st Century Photography in the South West. A conference presented by Royal Photographic Society, Historical Group, from Friday, 13 May– Sunday, 15 May 2011 in the Lecture Theatre 2, Roland Levinsky Building, University of Plymouth Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA.

Early photography in Plymouth is an untold story. Robert Hunt, independent inventor of photographic processes, Richard Beard, the first daguerreotype licensee, Charles Eastlake RA, first RPS president, and Linnaeus Tripe, an early calotypist, were all from Plymouth. W.H.F. Talbot, inventor of the positive/negative (calotype negative) process, photographed Plymouth in 1845 and Roger Fenton photographed the Royal Albert Bridge, Saltash, in 1858. Local interest in photography was such that the Devon and Cornwall Photographic Circle was established in January 1854.

The conference is linked closely to three exhibitions. Amateurs and Artists: Early Photography and Plymouth at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, on display 9th April to 30th July 2011. Out of the Ordinary, a group exhibition of work by members of the Royal Photographic Society, South West Contemporary Group is on display at Sherwell Centre, University of Plymouth, 9th to 27th May 2011. The third exhibition, Chemical Traces, is a response to Amateurs and Artists: Early Photography and Plymouth, and will be on display in Scott Building, University of Plymouth. Tours of these exhibitions form part of the conference on Friday and there will be a special viewing of Amateurs and Artists on Friday, 5.30 – 7.00 pm.

The speakers, who represent a wide range of photographic expertise: curators, university staff, photohistorians and contemporary photographers, include Carolyn Bloore, Jon Blyth, Colin Ford, Rod Fry, Michael Gray, John Hannavy, Jenny Leathes, Richard Morris, Nigel Overton, Matthew Pontin and Jem Southam. Speakers correct at time of printing.

Friday 13th May and Saturday 14th May 2011 10.30am-5.00pm. Main speakers and lecture programme. 

Saturday 14th May 2011 7.30 pm (Optional)
Conference Dinner, Jurys Inn, 50 Exeter Street, Plymouth. Menu options are to be pre-booked, see menu choice sheet and booking form. The cost is an additional £19.95. Jurys Inn is conveniently located for the Roland Levinsky Building, University of Plymouth and Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery in Drakes Circus, Plymouth. Preferential rates have been agreed for overnight accommodation with Jurys Inn. See rates at bottom of menu choice sheet and booking information.

*Sunday 15th May 2011 Events 11.30 am – 4.00 pm (Optional)
A calotype demonstration. Revisiting the site of William Henry Fox Talbot’s photograph, The Victualling
Office, Plymouth, 1845, a view from the Battery at Mount Edgcumbe across Plymouth Sound. Meet at the
Orangery, (café) Mount Edgcumbe, 11.30 am. The Cremyll ferry leaves Admirals Hard, Stonehouse,
Plymouth at 11.15 am (ferry time 8 minutes). Departure times, 09.15 quarter to and quarter past the hour
until 21.15. Return journey depart Mount Edgcumbe 09.00 on the half hour and hour until until 21.00.
Single fares only £1.20.

2.30 – 4.00 pm Reconstruction of the position of the early 19th century Camera Obscura on The
Promenade, Plymouth Hoe. An opportunity to view the optics and the panorama within the Fotonow
VW Camper Obscura. The Fotonow VW Camper Obscura will be on this site, Friday – Sunday, 13th – 15th
May, 9 am until 6.30 pm.

Conference fee £50 per person  Conference dinner £19.95 per person (optional)

Booking forms and information can be downloaded from: http://www.rps.org/events/view/2052?m=0&y=2011&d=&t=0&g=Historical&r=0&reset=reset

For further information please contact:
Jenny Ford, Secretary, RPS Historical Group
Jennyford2000@yahoo.co.uk or tel. 01234 881459

The hatchet has finally come down, and the full extend of the government's austerity measures on the Arts Council and photographic galleries/organisations have been laid bare for all to see. A quick glance reveals the following:

Photography galleries and organisations that will receive increased funding from ACE: Open Eye Gallery (Liverpool): +15.4%; The Photographer's Gallery: +10.4%; Redeye Photography Network: +55.7%; Photoworks: +2.5%; Impressions Gallery: +5.1%; Focal Point Gallery (South-on-Sea Borough Council): +157.3%.

Photography galleries and organisations that will see their funding cut in part: Autograph: -2.2%; Rhubarb Rhubarb: -14.2%; Photofusion: -6.9%; De La Warr Pavilion: -6.0%.

Photography galleries and organisations that have lost their ACE funding: Side Gallery, Hereford Photography Festival, Pavilion, and Four Corners Film.

A full report can be found in the official Arts Council website here, and also in a BJP report here.

On a happier note, the recent Photographer's Gallery/Christie's auction as reported in a BPH blog raised over £325,000. The press release can be found here: AuctionR.pdf.

The Hampstead Photographic Society (HPS) will be celebrating its 75th anniversary next year (est 1937). The HPS has been busy researching the society’s history, especially in the society’s early years, as much of their own documentation was mislaid back in the 1980s.

Writing in last week's Camden Journal, the Chairman, David Reed, would love to trace individuals who helped create the society back in the pre-war period, plus any information about what happened to it during the war and when it became active again after the war. The society was called the Hampstead and North West London Camera Club before the 1960s and members used to enter a regular competition called the North London Exhibition in the 1950s and 1960s.

So if you are able to help, or know of any former members, then please do contact the HPS via their website.

Well, if you call stereoscopic photography magic, that is! You've listened to his music, got the T-shirt, the CDs/DVDs.

You then got his book and the owl stereoscopic viewer.

Now, get ready for Brian May's foray into his other interest - astrophysics .....

Probably best known for his writing on photography and photographic history - he co-wrote with Martin Parr two volumes of The Photobook: A History which 
won the 2006 book award for photography from the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation - Gerry Badger's photography skills are now on display in a solo exhibition. The images are unframed A4 portrait style taken from three of his photo-book projects. 
 Badger was one of ten photographers invited to shoot a series from their own part of the world: One Day June 21, 2010; Breakfast at Mario’s 2008-2010;  The Word on the Sidewalk 2009-2010.

Badger also curated a number of shows in the past, amongst them "The Photographer as Printmaker" for the Arts Council in 1980 and  "Through the Looking Glass: Photographic Art in Britain 1945-1989" in 1989.

Details of his solo exhibition can be found here.

The conduct of yesterday's (March 25th) photograph auction at Dorotheum in Vienna left a sour taste in the mouths of many buyers - mine included, where purchasers of most of the 19th century section found their winning bids cancelled.

The auction house had received a large consignment of 19th century prints from a geographical association and had divided it into 55 lots. The majority of lots sold, many at or above estimate.

I bought several lots and left the room. When I went to get my invoice I was handed a saleroom notice and told my bids had been voided, with all 55 lots aggregated and re-sold at the end of the section. I gather the notice had been read out at the beginning of the sale. I had wasted two days and 500 euros in expenses attending the sale.

The practice may be controversial, but is clearly not unheard of. What is however unacceptable, is that no effort had been made to inform buyers in advance that this selling strategy was going to be used - not highlighted either in the catalogue or on the website. To find out you had to be in the room for the start of the auction, and to speak German.

That they failed to draw this to the attention of buyers, and thus allow us to work out whether to invest time and money in such a lottery, ought to be below a prestigious auction house like Dorotheum, but clearly is not. It displays a disgraceful  arrogance and contempt for the customer, who pays just as much to the auction house as the vendor. I won't ever be going back, and I guess I won't be alone.

Once again a case of buyer beware - or even would-be buyer beware.

Held in a cold dark room, the exact opposite of the warm balmy glow that an Indian Summer conjures up, are a remarkable set of Victorian photographs collected by a Victorian businessman from Horsham. These incredibly delicate photographs, whose survival has occurred only because so few people have seen them, have been digitally copied and are now on display in Horsham Museum’s new photographic display ‘Indian Summer’.

The images on show range from the grand architecture for which the continent is known, through to the scene of everyday workmen. These images though show an India pre Edwin Lutyen’s, an India whose own striking architecture inspired and challenged Britain’s own idea of Imperial splendour. The images date from around 1865 to 70, at a time when India’s past and its culture provided a rich fascination for the English. This fascination would culminate in 1876 when Queen Victoria would be proclaimed Empress of India and continue through to the 1920s with the inspiration for Wembley.

The photographs’ were collected by Robert Henderson of Sedgwick Park, Horsham who undertook a tour of the country in January through to July 1874, before travelling to the rest of Asia and America, looking at his business interests. Some of the photographs were taken by the celebrated photographer Samuel Bourne whose photographs were described at the time as having a "luminescent quality". His work gave birth to a studio, Bourne and Shepherd, which still operates in Calcutta. As Bourne operated in India between 1863 and 1870 it is more than likely that Robert Henderson collected the prints from the studio itself. They were then pasted in to green leather bound albums and eventually donated to Horsham Museum in 1930.

Visitors can see four albums at the Museum, reconstructing Henderson’s tour. Volume One, from January to July 1874, shows India, Singapore and Jahore. The other three volumes contain images from Bangkok, China, Japan and America.

For further information please contact Jeremy Knight, Curator, or check out the event details here.

This exhibition entitled 'History Drawn with Light' opens with a handsomely appointed re-creation of a portrait studio of the antebellum era: oriental carpet, leather-upholstered armchair with stained-oak walls.  Adding to the domestic atmosphere are the presence of several contemporary paintings and an 1855 group portrait of society members. An 1877 panoramic photograph of the waterfront comes with a selection of smaller, numbered photographs of the waterfront today.  Light shields are available to offset the glare on the daguerreotypes on display. Boston boasted 43 daguerreotype studios by the end of the 1840s.

A news report can be found here, and details of the exhibition here. If you can't get across the pond, the Society has an interesting website with an online exhibition of early photography which can be found here.

Photo:  The Branded Hand (by Southworth & Hawes, Boston’s leading daguerreotypists) depicts punishment for trying to help slaves escape.

The Oxford Mail reports of an exhibition of rare original prints of images taken in Oxford by Victorian photographer Henry Taunt. More than 130 pictures from the 1850s to 1900s by Taunt and other early photographers are on show at Sanders of Oxford in High Street. They depict university buildings, parks and cobbled streets, with scenes include the Ashmolean Museum, Magdalen Tower and the view from Folly Bridge.

Gallery manager Phil Marston said: “It’s very interesting to see how little Oxford has changed since the Victorian times. Henry Taunt was born in St Ebbe’s in 1842 and became a professional photographer capturing hundreds of images of Victorian Oxford and the surrounding area. He was also responsible for producing a pioneering pocket guide with photographs of the River Thames. He was considered at the cutting edge of photography for his skilful use of tents, tripods. He was also hailed for using water to instantly develop images.

The exhibition runs until Thursday, March 31. For more details, call 01865 242590 or check Sander's website.

Photo:  Phil Marston, of Sanders of Oxford, with a photograph of High Street in the 19th century.

Who says luxury leather goods and vintage photography do not go together? The high-end French leather & fashion goods manufacturer has recently launched their new campaign entitled Double Exposure. As can be viewed in the video  below, photographer Tom Craig  uses the 19th century ‘wet plate’ photographic process to capture a series of intimate and ethereal portraits of Sam Taylor-Wood.

Patience is very much the virtue as Taylor-Wood had to pose for up to 12 seconds in some of the shots. In the video, she also  shares with us some of her most treasured possessions, amongst them her trusted Leica M7 .....

On a summer's day in 1858, in a garden behind Christ Church College in Oxford, Charles Dodgson, a lecturer in mathematics, photographed six-year-old Alice Liddell, the daughter of the college dean, with a Thomas Ottewill Registered Double Folding camera, recently purchased in London.
The author,  Simon Winchester, deftly uses the resulting image--as unsettling as it is famous, and the subject of bottomless speculation--as the vehicle for a brief excursion behind the lens, a focal point on the origins of a classic work of English literature. Dodgson's love of photography framed his view of the world, and was partly responsible for transforming a shy and half-deaf mathematician into one of the world's best-loved observers of childhood. Little wonder that there is more to "Alice Liddell as the Beggar Maid" than meets the eye. Using Dodgson's published writings, private diaries, and of course his photographic portraits, Winchester gently exposes the development of Lewis Carroll and the making of his Alice.

According to one review, fascinating as that story is, it has been told many times. What Winchester offers that is new, largely, is a detailed explanation the nascent field of amateur Victorian photography. He meticulously tracks Dodgson’s 1856 purchase of his first mahogany-and-brass folding camera. He carefully works through the history of the development of the camera, and explains the difference between the daguerreotype, the calotype, and the wet-plate collodion that Dodgson relied on. What is frustrating, however, is to hear a good deal about Dodgson’s photographs but to see only the one of Alice, as no others are reproduced in the book.

If you are still keen, you can purchase the book through the Amazon link on the right.

In recognition of St. Patrick's Day, Ancestry.com,  the world's largest online family history resource, today launched The Irish Collection -- the definitive 19^th century collection of Irish historical records. The collection provides nearly 100 years of insight into life in  Ireland in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Because few records exist from this time period, the collection is immensely valuable to people researching their Irish heritage and anyone seeking a more comprehensive view of Ireland before and after the Great Potato Famine, during which time many millions fled Ireland in search of a better life.

The Irish Collection, 1824-1910 includes The Lawrence Collection, 1870-1910 which is a collection of 20,000 photographs showcases the length and breadth of Ireland -- Howth Head in the East to Achill Head in the West and from Malin Head in the North to Skibbereen in the South -- through the eyes of William Lawrence's photography studio in Dublin.

The entire collection is indexed so they can be searched by subject, location, and county. The Lawrence Collection, one of the most significant early photographic collections documenting Ireland, consists of some 40,000 glass-plate negatives taken between 1870 and 1910. Chief photographer Robert French traveled to every county in Ireland taking pictures, and many of the photos were reproduced on postcards and in albums during the late 19th and early 20th century. The collection is named for William Lawrence, who opened a photography studio in Dublin in 1865 and hired French as one of his photographers. The plates are now housed in the National Library of Ireland.

Full details can be found here.

The National Media Museum in Bradford has announced a £30,000 commission for the creation of two new-media artworks to be included in a major exhibition as part of Yorkshire’s regional cultural programme for London 2012.

In the Blink of an Eye, which opens in March 2012, will explore themes surrounding the capture and synthesis of movement. It offers artists the opportunity to engage with and respond to images and artefacts from the Collections of the National Media Museum, including the work of Dr. Harold E. Edgerton, Roger Fenton, Tim Macmillan, Étienne-Jules Marey and Eadweard Muybridge.

Up to £15,000 is available for each selected proposal, of which £5,000 allocated as a fixed artist fee, and up to £10,000 available for development and production costs. Collaborative proposals and artworks created by individuals or groups of artists are welcome. Applicants are required to be UK residents and cannot be in undergraduate study. Artists from the fields of photography, film, digital or computer based art are invited to get in touch by the deadline of May 16. Application forms and submission guidelines can be downloaded here, and you can read the rest of the news article here.

Following on from the posting discussion the so-called Dodgson daguerreotype, I would like to discuss a present day problem which exists with internet sales of images. How often have we seen Daguerreotypes mislabeled as Ambrotypes (yet never in my experience the other way around)? This is sometimes the innocent mistake by a general seller who would not easily distinguish between the two, but have heard the name Daguerreotype used on similar items. This kind of seller will be most happy to alter the description when it is pointed out to them. As someone who watches a lot of images on Ebay, I will sometimes contact the seller and help with the description on mislabeled items. Unfortunately, as in the case of the Dodgson Daguerreotype, the seller sometimes appears not to really care about the veracity of the claims, as long as a good sale can be made. I have noticed that this kind of seller often will not include the well meant advice in the "Any Questions" box at the bottom of the item for sale page, thus keeping any prospective buyers unaware of the concerns. I wonder if this is an area that Ebay needs to look at, making all questions sent in about an item, visible to others?

Most sellers I have had dealings with have been fine, but on occasion I have come across dealers who have gone out of their way to make descriptions of the image for sale, shall we say, interesting! I remember one dealer who trades as Camera$ who often appeared to describe images in such a way. When I emailed them to advise that the Dag on offer was not likely to be a member of the British Royal Family, I was given short shrift!

It has happened again this week. Probably stirred on by the Dodgson posting, I contacted a dealer trading as iambwt, on ebay. They are currently listing a Dag of a young woman under the title of "Pretty GOLD MINERS WIFE Gold Nugget Jewellery Empty Vase" Item number: 140525548485. (Please check it out )

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140525548485&rvr_id=219785514456&mfe=sidebar

Well from the title I think that three words can be shown to be correct. Yes, though subjective, the young lady is pretty, and the vase is indeed empty! Apart from that I have my concerns. It appears to be a standard unattributed Dag with the ladies jewellery picked out in gold. As you all will know, this is not uncommon. As for the broach being a "Gold Nugget",  in my opinion is wishful thinking, and as for the relationship of this young lady with a gold miner, there is no evidence at all. Indeed looking at her fingers there is no sign of a wedding ring, which would normally be picked out. The starting price for this Dag is $299, which is far more than a Dag of this type would normally fetch. The seller, it would appear, is trying to attach the "Gold miner" connection in order to achieve a better price.

I alerted the seller to this, but surprise surprise, they were not interested, they did not alter the listing or show my question at the bottom of the page, for others to judge. My question to the photo community is, should we bother to try to put these misrepresentations right, and where does the legality lie? Should Ebay be more proactive in these maters? I'm usually in two minds whether to contact the seller over a major mislabeling, but I do hate to see people misled, intentionally or not.

BPH can reveal the strategic priorities and medium term plans for the National Media Museum (NMeM), Bradford. These are set within the context of a 15 per cent government grant-in-aid reduction for the period 2011–12 to 2014–15. This is alongside a capital allocation that has reduced by over 50% from the previous spending review period. Bradford and the expectation that external private funding will be much harder to secure. The impact of the closure of the UK Film Council is still to be gauged in relation to the NMeM.

As a result the National Museum of Science and Industry (NMSI), the parent body of the NMeM and the other constituent museums, has a programme of change aimed at reducing costs, increasing efficiency and increasing income which will inevitably impact on the NMeM and its activities.  Across NMSI Staff costs are due to be reduced by 10 per cent. On a positive note the development of the NMeM gallery, Media Space – formerly known as the London presence – in London, completing the Internet Gallery, and agreeing a plan for the longer-term development of the NMeM are all seen as NMSI priorities.

Action plan

The museum has redefined its objective which is now: to be the best museum in the world for inspiring people to learn about, engage with and create media

·         Collections care and management

The NMeM, as part of NMSI, has already started work on realising a number of objectives. It is in the process of relocating objects held in its Black Dyke Mills store, just outside of Bradford, to the NMSI’s high density store at Wroughton.  One of its 2011-12 deliverables it to ‘realise improvements in environmental standards at the NMeM main site, including the extension of conservation facilities’.  A conservator was recently appointed.

NMSI is also developing an archives management system aimed at presenting material in the collections online. Alongside this effort the NMeM is tasked with progressing ‘targeted strategic acquisitions at the NMeM and their links to programme revenue generation including photographic and film archives, gaming and animation, driven by brand essence and values’

·         Audience targets and context.

In 2010–11 the National Media Museum is on target to reach between 500,000 and 550,000 visitors – well below the historical average. Visitor numbers have declined for a second year after a previous period of significant growth. Although some factors influencing the numbers have been beyond the Museum’s control, the decline has brought into sharp relief the need to make urgent improvements to the visitor welcome and day-to-day programme delivery, to accelerate the refreshing of galleries and to convey a clear, confident and high-impact message about the Museum to the outside world.

In 2011–12 the visitor target is 575,000. It is believed that a brand awareness campaign, developments to the Museum’s on-going programme (including more live interpretation, the development of an evening offer for adults and a stronger exhibition programme) and the opening of the new city centre park can help deliver this target.

In line with physical visitors, online visitor numbers were also down in 2010–11. The 2011–12 online visitor target seeks to improve on 2010–11, with 772,000 online visitors, although this will remain below the 2009–10 high of 846,000. The launch of the Internet Gallery, coupled with regular content updates to the website and a more focused social media campaign, should mean this target is achievable.

2011–12 deliverables

·         Gallery developments

o   Complete and open the Internet Gallery

o   Carry out a series of short-term gallery improvements including the Magic Factory, Profiles, Kodak and Animation galleries and relocation of the Games Lounge

·         Exhibitions, programmes and displays

o   Deliver an enhanced temporary exhibitions programme and  associated web content including: The Lives of Great Photographers; David Spero: Churches; Donovan Wylie: Bradford Fellow; Daniel Meadows: Fieldwork

o   Cultural Olympiad exhibitions: In the Blink of an Eye: Studies in Time and Motion; Crossing Boundaries: Bodies in Motion

o   Design and deliver more daily live interpretation including live shows

o   Design and deliver themed programming with contemporary relevance six times a year, covering the main school holiday periods

o   Design and deliver a new evening adult programme

o   Deliver the new film strategy to achieve a higher profile for the cinema operation and financial breakeven

o   Continue to develop the touring exhibition programme

·         Learning

o   Support the creation and delivery of exhibitions, programmes and displays, especially through audience research and advocacy

o   Deliver training for volunteers, casuals and explainers to deliver learning programmes

o   Promote and disseminate the Anim8ed web resource to museums and schools throughout the UK

o   Deliver the Internet Gallery youth engagement programme

o   Increase visits from booked groups and associated income, including enhanced school programme packages generating revenue

o   Deliver collections-based programmes for booked HE photography groups along with an HE photography online resource on landscape

o   Deliver regular non-school group leader and teacher preview events

o   Deliver 60,500 booked educational visitors

o   Deliver 93,500 adult and child visitors participating in onsite and off-site organised activities

·         Digital

o   Develop a digital strategy

o   Support and promote the non-digital exhibitions, film and learning programme, repurposing content online where cost-effective, using experimental solutions where appropriate

o   Develop media ‘debate and share’ web presence

o   Continue curatorial and digitisation input of content into a newly redeveloped website

2012–13 to 2014–15 planning and deliverables

·         Media Space in partnership with the Science Museum (due to open in 2012)

·         Fully costed ten-year development plan for the galleries and other spaces, exploring additional affordable space through a joint redevelopment with the adjacent Bradford Central Library to include larger purpose-built and more efficient temporary exhibition and collections care and management spaces, improved group learning spaces, media training facilities and multipurpose spaces as well as improved catering and retail spaces

·         Explore whether any joint development with the library might also form part of a wider development with other organisations to help the regeneration of central Bradford

·         Deliver live programmes that inspire our audiences to learn about, engage with and create media to 130,000 visitors by 2015.

De Montfort University, Leicester, is offering a  PhD research studentship within the Photographic History Research Centre (PHRC), an international leading multi-disciplinary research institute, to suitably qualified UK or EU students.

The researcher will investigate an aspect of his or her own choosing that will address ‘The Nature of Kodak Research’. The researcher will have access to our partner institutions with substantial Kodak holdings: the British Library, the University of Rochester, the Victorian Museum, Melbourne, the National Media Museum, Bradford, and the George Eastman House, Rochester.

This research opportunity is funded by DMU in 2011/12 to build on our excellent achievements in the RAE 2008 and looking forward to REF 2014. It will develop the University’s research capacity into new and evolving areas of study, enhancing DMU’s national and international research partnerships.

The Nature of Kodak Research
Kodak, the company trading variously as Eastman Dry Plate Company, Eastman Kodak, Eastman Chemical Co, Kodak AG, Kodak Pathé and Kodak Ltd, is one of the icons of globalised industry.

‘Kodak’ became an uncommon eponym – a verb as well as a noun – and its research reached the heart of the global industries of defense, medicine, paper manufacture, chemistry and leisure. The four areas of Kodak marketing, business practice, research and manufacturing that united this global company provide unique insight into twentieth century history, through the lens of a photographic company.

In 2009, the Kodak Ltd archive entered the British Library, while the research journals were given to De Montfort University. These complement holdings at the University of Rochester, NY; The Media Museum, Bradford; the Victoria Museum, Melbourne, the George Eastman House, Rochester and Ryerson University, Toronto. A networking bid is already underway from the PHRC to unite these institutions in a formal Network.

The Photographic History Research Centre seeks a PhD candidate to research a specific aspect of The Nature of Kodak Research. The Kodak Research Laboratory was founded in 1912, with the installation of the Director Dr Kenneth Mees.

Subsequent research laboratories in other territories also took up directed and blue-sky research within their own organisations. Research at Kodak was many things: Emulsion research for scientific projects; chemical industry research; medical applications of photography; defense industry research on infra-red film; and colour research, among other things. The candidate may choose one of these specific areas, or an area reflecting his or her own specialist knowledge. The successful candidate will demonstrate an interest in the history of photography and the history of science.

Utilising the full spectrum of the networked archives, the successful candidate will participate in Network activities, and will have unprecedented access to the international spectrum of Kodak research. He or she will also have access to advice from all named partners in the Network, as well as the DMU supervisory team.

The Photographic History Research Centre has a strong track record in both the history of science and research of photographic industries. Among our active members working in this area are: Dr Michael Pritchard (British Industry), Dr Kelley Wilder (science and photography) and David Prakel (PhD candidate working on Kodak).

The PHRC seeks an energetic and team oriented person to join this growing scholarly community.
Applications are invited from UK or EU students with a good first degree (First, 2:1 or equivalent) in a relevant subject. Doctoral scholarships are available for up to three years full-time study starting October 2011 and provide a bursary of £13,770pa in addition to University tuition fees.

Applicants should contact the Faculty Research Office to receive an application pack, which requires a full CV with two supporting. Applications close Monday, 11 April 2011.

Contact:  Helen Harrison e: hharrison@dmu.ac.uk. Tel: +44 (0)116 257 7520 quoting ref: DMU studentships 2011

For a more detailed description of the studentship project please contact Dr Kelley Wilder on +44 (0)116 207 8865 or email kwilder@dmu.ac.uk  

Click here for more information: http://www.dmu.ac.uk/research/aad/scholarships-and-bursaries/phd-studentship-the-nature-of-kodak-research.jsp

A small group on Flickr has been formed dedicated to the calotype and its variant processes. It is intended both for modern day calotypists as well as for those with an interest in the calotype as an historic process.

Click here to visit and sign up: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1384661@N22/

Photographic collections are found in libraries, archives and museums all over the world. Their sensitivity to environmental conditions, and the speed with which images can deteriorate present special challenges. This one day training session is led by Susie Clark, accredited photographic conservator. It is aimed at those with responsibility for the care of photographic collections regardless of institutional context.

The day provides an introduction to understanding and identifying photographic processes and their vulnerability, information on common conservation problems and solutions, and the preservation measures that can be taken to prolong the life and accessibility of photographic collections. Contact with real examples of different photographic processes is an important feature of this training session which is therefore limited to only 16 places. At the end of the day participants will be able to:

•identify historic photographic processes
•explain how damage is caused
•implement appropriate preservation measures
•commission conservation work.
Feedback from previous participants
•I learned how to store photographic material, how to identify different photographic processes and techniques to preserve photographic stock.
•Very worthwhile due to practical nature of the training day. I am able to leave here today confident that we can improve and upgrade basic preservation solutions, particularly storage, based on information learned about photographic processes and supports.
•I will review our approach to preserving photographic collections, upgrade storage media, and survey collections to identify preservation priorities.

Programme
9.45 Registration
10.00 Welcome and introduction
10.15 History and identification of photographic processes
11.30 Break
11.45 Conservation problems and solutions

12.45 Lunch
13.45 Conservation problems and solutions
14.45 Break
15.00 Preservation measures
16.15 End (and further opportunity to look at examples)

Details: http://www.bl.uk/blpac/photographic.html

Preservation Advisory Centre Training Day

Friday 20 May 2011

British Library Centre for Conservation
96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB