The Victoria & Albert Museum's Photography Gallery's annual redisplay opens from 30 April 2010 and features many recent acquisitions. Accompanying this is The Other Britain Revisited: Photographs from New Society.
More here: www.vam.ac.uk/photography
Amateur Photographer magazine reports that election rules mean that the National Media Museum is barred from saying whether it fears government cutbacks may scupper its plan to open a base in London.
The NMM, which is Britain's flagship photography museum, has yet to confirm whether it has been granted government funding for the project which is expected to see the creation of 1500m2 of exhibition galleries at a location in the capital yet to be named.
In the run up to the election it is not yet clear where precisely an incoming government will cut spending in order to tackle the huge budget deficit.
Asked whether any government cuts would delay or curtail the project altogether, a spokesman for the Bradford-based museum remained tight-lipped, telling us that it is bound by strict guidelines issued by the Cabinet Office during the election period.
He told Amateur Photographer: 'This means we cannot comment on anything that could be interpreted as making a political statement or relates to governance and financially related issues until after the election.'
See the full report here
Working closely with the Senior Project Manager, you’ll lead internal and external stakeholders to ensure major projects are completed on time and budget. Whether managing external supplier contracts, overseeing the CDM process or co-ordinating the delivery of work packages, you’ll inspire project teams to buy into our vision and deliver a great standard of work.
Coming from a similar role, you’ll already have experience of working with major funding bodies, managing budgets of £2million+ and complex stakeholder management. You’ll be a PRINCE2 qualified practitioner trained in NEBOSH and CDM too, with a good grasp of contract management, change management and risk management. If you can add the leadership, communication and interpersonal skills to manage a multi-disciplinary team, you’ll make a huge impact here.
The National Museum of Science and Industry aims to continually improve its cultural offering through exciting and ambitious projects, such as the Science Museum’s forthcoming climate science gallery, the creation of a dedicated Internet Gallery at the National Media Museum and NRM+, the multi-million pound regeneration of the National Railway Museum’s Great Hall. Based at the National Media Museum, you’ll manage the successful delivery of major projects like these across all our sites, helping us offer an even better experience to visitors.
The National Museum of Science and Industry is a respected family of museums, which includes the Science Museum in London and Swindon, the National Media Museum in Bradford and the National Railway Museum in York and Shildon. Together, we aim to become the most admired museum in the world.
To apply, please send your full CV and covering letter, clearly explaining how your skills and experience meet our requirements, to: recruitment@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk
We regret that we can only respond to successful applicants.
No agencies please.
Carte-de-visite :The transformation
Pictures from the 1870s used by Barnardo's homes to attract funds,
ostensibly showing children "before" and "after" being rescued from the
streets. Barnardo was later accused of setting up the pictures in a
court case in 1877.
Photo: Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's View from the Window at Le Gras, 1826-27.
Photo by J. Paul Getty Museum.
A unique visual archive of 19th century Victorian Britain, including illustrations and photographs of events ranging from the Great Exhibition of 1851 to the Boer war, will be available online for the first time from today. The Illustrated London News archive holds 250,000 pages and as many as three quarters of a million illustrations, from as far back as 1842.
With its debut in 1842, The Illustrated London News became the world’s first fully illustrated weekly newspaper, marking a revolution in journalism and news reporting. The publication presented a vivid picture of British and world events – including news of war, disaster, ceremonies, the arts and science – with coverage in the first issue ranging from the Great Fire of Hamburg to Queen Victoria’s fancy dress ball at Buckingham Palace.
De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, is currently recruiting students for the second year of its innovative MA programme in photographic history. The course offers a one-year full-time or two-year part-time programme of study and provides a series of modules ranging from photography and theory to practical work in photographic archives. The first year attract an international intake of students and the course has been widely acknowledged as the best in the field.
This course is dedicated to the study and focusing on the important technological, visual and historical material which makes it an interdisciplinary subject. It aims to help students develop the necessary critical tools to research photography history, and provides access to primary materials through visits to local, regional and national archives and collections. The course is part of an active research community and benefits from visiting subject specialists and opportunities provided by course partners which include the National Media Museum, Bradford, Birmingham Central Library, the British Library and the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Some further information about the teaching methods used can be found here: DMU HoPP.pdf
The course is for students from a variety of disciplines including conservation students, archivists, historians of science and those from various fields of visual studies, for instance visual anthropology, photography or art history. The MA Photography History and Practice is delivered on a full-time weekly basis, over three semesters and includes workshops, lectures, seminars and practical sessions, with written and oral assessments, and a dissertation, or part-time over two years.
Potential students also have the opportunity to apply for a Wilson Fellowship which provides a scholarship of £5,000. Applications for the bursary close on 1 August 2010. This scholarship is available to one student entering the M.A. Photographic History and Practice in September 2010. Funding has been made available by The Wilson Fellowship in Photographic History, and can be used towards tuition fees and other programme-related costs. Click here to link to a PDF giving further information about the Fellowship.
For more information about the course click here or contact the Course Leader: Dr Kelley Wilder by email at: kwilder@dmu.ac.uk or telephone: +44 (0)116 207 8865.
"There were two criteria for photos to be selected, it had to be a good photo with historical significance and it had to be appropriate in telling the story of Shanghai," Liu said. He added that many of the old photos needed to be restored, a task that involved great skill and patience. All of the photographs also had to be verified to ensure their authenticity and accuracy.
Web Content Co coordinator £22,500, Bradford. Fixed term until 1st April 2012. Award winning, visionary and truly unique, the National Media Museum embraces photography, film, television, radio and the web. Part of the NMSI family of museums, with a world-leading online presence, we aim to engage, inspire and educate through comprehensive collections, innovative education programmes and a powerful yet sensitive approach to contemporary issues.
We are looking for a Web Content Coordinator to bring our websites alive with dynamic, engaging and audience-focused content.
Coming from a similar role, you're an expert at writing punchy and eye-catching web copy for a wide range of audiences, copy-editing content from other sources, and updating sites using content management systems. An organised and tenacious team player with extensive experience of supporting and working with stakeholders, you have a solid mastery of basic HTML and web technologies, simple image manipulation skills and an understanding of social media and its implications. Above all, you know how to make web content contribute to a fantastic user experience, and have the creativity and drive to make our web presence stand out from the crowd.
To apply, please send your full CV and covering letter to: recruitment@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk
Closing date: 25th April 2010
We regret that we can only respond to successful applicants.
No agencies please.
We are an equal opportunities employer
Drawn from the remarkable Alakazi collection of photography, this catalogue explores the arrival, dissemination and advancement of studio photography in Mumbai, through both European and "native" cameramen. A keen recording of castes and tribes of British officials, in time, gradually expanded to the experimentation with portraiture and performance in numerous studios such as S. Hormusji and Shapoor N. Bhedwar, among others. By the late-nineteenth century, professionals and independent firms, such as Bourne and Shepherd and Lala Deen Dayal and Sons, enlarged the ambit of photography's influence, with enduring images of families, events and landscapes, beautifully illustrated in official and personal souvenir albums, cartes-de-visite and even panoramic views of Mumbai City, a rising industrial metropolis at the time.
Man and Cameraman is a project to conserve, catalogue, digitise and promote the photographic collection of George Bernard Shaw. Shaw collected around 16,000 photographs taken by himself and others and these will be fully investigated for the first time to reveal Shaw's activities and the evolution of photographic processes. Bernard Shaw was not only a prolific playwright, writer and social-political commentator and thinker but an avid amateur photographer: taking and collecting images from the 1860s until his death in 1950.
Shaw left his paper and photographic archives to London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the British Library and his home (Shaw's Corner, Hertfordshire) to National Trust (NT), it is here the photographs were initially housed before being transferred to LSE. Thus the project extends his desire to open up his collections to researchers and interested parties.
Photography lets us peer into the past and Shaw's photographs give us an informal view into his circle including writers, reformers, actors and actresses. Photographs show us how places used to look and what people did in their private lives - they inform our knowledge of society and its famous personalities: revealing the heritage of us all. Shaw's images include informal prints of people such as: Auguste Rodin; Augustus John; Beatrice and Sidney Webb; Harley Granville-Barker; and Lilliah MaCarthy. They offer a glimpse into the early 20th century theatre and film and include images of stars of Shaw productions such as Vivian Leigh as well as visuals of sets.
Now photography is regarded as an artistic form but in Shaw's time it was not, the collection lets us see how photographers were pushing the boundaries and using it in experimental and artistic ways. Shaw played with light and perspective to advance his craft. He also wrote on the subject for example, reviewing early photography shows.
The project partners (LSE and the National Trust) have worked with free-lance conservators, staff and volunteers to dust and re-house the photographs in high-purity storage materials. Shaw's photographic albums have been conserved in a specialist studio to repair damage and will be photographed so people can look through them. As well as prints there are about 8,000 negatives, these are particularly fragile as they degrade in even moderate conditions. They will be sealed in special bags and frozen to halt their deterioration.
Work on cataloguing the 16,000 photographs and digitising 8,000 photographs and all the negatives is now underway and this will let people know what the collection contains. Cataloguing can also reveal stories behind the images as each one is researched. Digitising will provide virtual access to those images taken by Shaw and those out of copyright ensuring their long-term preservation and revealing for the first time Shaw's photographic legacy to the nation and providing a window into his world.
For more information click here.
As a group of specialist workmen refurbish part of the historic Manor House at Mount Grace Priory, near Northallerton, North Yorkshire, it was reported today that a photograph showing some of the original skilled workers has been donated by an anonymous visitor. The current work at the Manor House is part of a £150,000 project by English Heritage to restore two rooms, which were given an Arts and Crafts make over in the 1890s.
Now a photograph dating to the time of the works has emerged, offering the conservationists a window on the past. The picture was handed in anonymously by a local man who found it in an old drawer and shows artisan workmen who were employed by Priory owner, Sir Lowthian Bell.
The English Heritage custodian at Mount Grace Priory, Becky Wright, said: "There are more than 20 workmen shown in the photo, and that's
just about same number of people we have today reviving the two rooms. They played a big part in preserving the priory and we would be very interested to learn if anyone recognises any of them."
The original workers, circa 1890s, who restored the Manor House inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement
Our aim is to create a museum that engages people as it evolves. Our membership scheme is an exciting part of that vision. Your role is to implement a marketing strategy that promotes Museum membership and encourages our audience to be a part of our future. Through a combination of literature, events and local business liaison, you will help to attract a diverse membership base, grow membership levels and, ultimately, generate maximum income for the Museum.
Experience of marketing practices in a similar sector is essential, including direct marketing and print production. You must be adept at using databases and your administrative skills will be exceptional, with strong attention to detail. Flexible and adaptable, you will be comfortable liaising with a wide range of people: members of the public, internal and external stakeholders.
This is an opportunity to help grow the Museum’s reputation, build a loyal audience and ensure that we enjoy a profitable, prosperous future.
For more details click here.
Hours: 35 per week
We regret that we can only respond to successful applicants. No agencies please. We are an equal opportunities employer.
Closing Date: 19th April 2010
Interview date: 26th April 2010
Award winning, visionary and truly unique, The National Media Museum embraces photography, film, television, radio and the web. Part of the NMSI family of museums, it aims to engage, inspire and educate through comprehensive collections, innovative education programmes and a powerful yet sensitive approach to contemporary issues.
BPH reported that the Culture Minister had placed an export bar on a Fenton orientialist photograph sold at at auction. The Art Newspaper reports that the National Media Museum in Bradford, Britain’s main collection of photography, hopes to raise the money, and a spokeswoman told us it is “assessing potential funding opportunities”.
Pasha and Bayadère was staged in Fenton’s London studio, with the photographer posing as a pasha (Ottoman official) watching a bayadère (dancing girl). The role of the musician was taken by Frank Dillon, an artist friend of Fenton. The photograph passed to one of Dillon’s descendants, and it has just been sold privately to a foreign buyer for £109,000. An export licence is being deferred until 1 May, to enable a UK buyer to match the price, and this period could be extended for a further three months. Only one other example of this important Orientalist photograph survives, which was bought by the Getty Museum in 1984.
Photographs are only occasionally subject to UK export licence deferral (they have to be over 50 years old and worth above £12,160 before this can be considered). In one case a vintage photograph which did not have an export licence was exported illegally. Alice wearing a Garland, by Charles Dodgson (the writer Lewis Carroll), was sold for £55,000 in 2001 and then illegally shipped to the United States. The UK authorities would welcome information on its present whereabouts.
