On the occasion of Professor Elizabeth Edwards’ retirement, the 2016 PHRC Annual International Conference will address themes from her complex and wide ranging scholarship on the cultural work of current and historical social photographic practices. Thus, Photography: Between Anthropology and History aims to showcase scholarship driven by engagements with research methodologies that informed the material and ethnographic turns in the study of photographic history, and opened up a variety of innovative critical spaces for the re/consideration of photography and its history. Papers will consider questions related to:

• Photography in historical studies
• Photography and geography
• Photographic collections
• Photographic ethnographies
• Photography and material culture
• Historiography of the social history of photography
• Photographic practice and social as well as technical change

The provisional conference programme is now available here. 

A compelling, visually striking 3-D exploration of one of fashion’s most disastrous yet most celebrated garments, the Crinoline, featuring contributions from Vivienne Westwood and Zandra Rhodes – has been published to coincide with the V&A’s highly anticipated exhibition, Undressed: 350 Years of Underwear.

Crinoline: Fashion’s Most Magnificent Disaster, by Brian May & Denis Pellerin, is published in hardback (with a slipcase and 3-D front cover, accompanied by Brian May’s patent 3-D viewer, the Owl) at £50, and available to buy from all good bookstores and online at: www.londonstereo.com.

“A very special and wonderful book with enlightened research unveiling fascinating facts such as crinolines being considered an extremely dangerous form of clothing at one time. Great examples of 3-D pictures totally in keeping with its historical importance, complete with 3-D viewer.” Dame Zandra Rhodes

“Crinolines and Stereoscopic photographs were twin sensations of the mid 19th century. We, the authors of this book, decided it was fitting that they should be reunited in the 21st century, and their intimate association recognised at last. This book explores the history of crinoline ‘in depth’. It’s also an attempt to fathom the unique appeal of this dangerous fashion, which, surprisingly, is alive and well in the present day, and its place in popular culture.” Brian May & Denis Pellerin

The voluminous crinoline underskirt was immensely popular between the years of 1856 to 1867, but was by its very nature severely impractical: a strong gust of wind would blow the dress up exposing the woman’s legs and undergarments; worse still, the crinolines were cumbersome, caused accidents and proved to be a serious fire hazard. As the shapes of crinoline garments grew more and more extreme, artists were inspired to capture the absurdities and misfortunes of the wearers through stereo photos, as well as in cartoons and drawings. Just as Crinoline came into fashion, the stereoscope – the equivalent of TV and Film for the Victorians – became a huge craze. Stereo photographers capitalized on the ridiculous spectacle of the women in crinolines, giving impoverished Victorian husbands some consolation in laughter. Although the hoops and inflatable frames disappeared, this wonderful humorous imagery produced during the Crinoline decade has lasted intact over the centuries – and is rediscovered in this book.

The London Stereoscopic company, reborn in the 21st Century, explores 'fashion’s most magnificent disaster' in the form of a delightful, lavish coffee table book, containing high quality reproductions of the original stereo images from the period. Brian May and Denis Pellerin have spent decades collecting and digitally restoring the stereo cards that are published here. Viewing the result through the supplied OWL stereoscope, readers will thrill to the magical three-dimensional realism of these scenes, just as the Victorians did.

Crinoline – the book – begins with the emergence of the steel petticoat and the initial onset of the 'Crinoline Age', and then takes the reader on a fascinating visual journey, including a wealth of colourful 3-D imagery, to the historical moment when women began to protest against the 'cage' and it was eventually phased out. However, contemporary designers such as the late Alexander McQueen, Zandra Rhodes and Vivienne Westwood have reintroduced the crinoline to the catwalk, bringing the dramatic garment of the 19th century all the way into the 21st century with a modern twist.

Dame Vivienne Westwood says: "The crinoline idea had been with me for quite some time before I developed it into a collection. I wanted to save experimenting with the crinoline for a rainy day, so to speak…. The first time I ever saw a crinoline was in the ballet Petruschka and I was immediately drawn to it. The mini crinoline encourages you to walk with a certain swing and it swiggles, which I also like.”

The Photographers’ Gallery, in partnership with global technology company Ricoh, presents a major UK retrospective of acclaimed British photographer, Terence Donovan (1936-1996). 

Terence Donovan was one of the foremost photographers of his generation, with a career spanning almost 40 years. He came to prominence in London as part of a post-war renaissance in the creative industries, representing a new force in fashion and, later, advertising and portrait photography. He operated at the heart of London’s swinging sixties, both as participant in and observer of the world he so brilliantly and incisively captured with his camera. Gifted with an unerring eye for the iconic as well as the transformative, Donovan was a master of his craft, a technical genius who pushed the limits of what was possible with a camera.

Presented over two floors, Speed of Light reflects the breadth of Donovan’s career and the originality of his work across different genres and mediums. Incorporating a compelling mix of vintage material and previously unpublished works, the exhibition will also include the ground-breaking films and videos he produced for musicians such as Robert Palmer and Malcolm McLaren. Guest curator Robin Muir with the assistance of Alex Anthony of the Terence Donovan Archive, have conceived an immersive installation that offers insight into the little-seen processes behind Donovan’s work.  This will include ephemera comprising early magazine spreads from Man About Town (later Town), contact sheets, cameras used by Donovan, studio notes and previously unseen sketches and diaries.

Speed of Light was an expression Donovan used frequently and democratically, for those who knew and worked with him the words became indelibly linked to the man himself.  It was a phrase deployed to energise and provoke; a figure of speech suggestive of transformation and progression. As a title for the exhibition, Speed of Light encompasses the myriad and dynamic facets of the man, the work, and the pace of the changes he oversaw and instigated.

Born in East London, Donovan was part of a working class influx into the previously rarefied worlds of fashion, media and the arts, Donovan’s iconoclastic and sometimes irreverent photography established a new visual language rooted in the world he knew best – the streets of London’s East End. Taking his models to bomb-ravaged wastegrounds or balancing them off industrial building sites, his gritty and noir-ish style resembled reportage rather than fashion photography. Donovan’s passion for photography remained undiminished throughout his long career, remarking to a young Jean Shrimpton in 1963: Photography fascinates me. Instant fascination every time. When the fascination leaves me, I’ll give it up.

Javier Diez-Aguirre, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, Ricoh Europe, said: 
Ricoh is extremely proud to be working in partnership with The Photographers’ Gallery to celebrate the ground-breaking work of Terence Donovan through this major retrospective. As a global technology leader with a rich history in innovation, we pride ourselves on our use of imaginative thinking to drive positive change for the world we live and work in. Our involvement in this exhibition reflects a core belief in harnessing creativity and forms an integral part of our Ricoh imagine. change. Challenge programme, in which we challenge our employees and others to tap into their imaginative potential to inspire and drive change.
 
As part of the exhibition experience, Ricoh have enabled a dedicated space for audiences to explore some of the techniques and styles employed by Donovan and use them as a springboard for creating their own images.  The Ricoh imagine. change. studio offers visitors access to the latest Ricoh imaging equipment and will present a series of activities to encourage experimentation with fashion and portraiture and provide platforms for sharing and comment.

Image: Terence Donovan Terence Stamp, British Vogue, July 1967. Photographed on the set of John Schlesinger’s Far From the Madding Crowd. © The CondéNast Publications Ltd Courtesy of the Terence Donovan Archive

The Yale Center for British Art has put a call out for a conference which will take place in November. The conference seeks to investigate the various ways in which ideas about Britain have been communicated, inflected, and contested through the photographic image. How has photography been used at “home” and “abroad” to create a variety of images of Britain and Britishness, defined as much from the outside as the inside? How do photographs mirror, reinforce, or interrupt what constitutes “Britishness,” in national, local, imperial, colonial, and post-colonial contexts? What national and regional cultures and conflicts does the construction of British identity subsume? Can “Britishness,” indeed, have a photographic referent or it is itself an effect of representation?

We seek papers that consider how photography—as opposed to, or in tandem with, other modes of image-making—has been invested with the capacity to visualize, articulate and contest ideas about Britain. Papers may consider any period in the history of photography, and focus on individual case studies or broader historical questions. Proposals might address the work of individual photographers, photo agencies, or photographic archives; the photographic print or album; different photographic technologies such as lantern slides, stereoscopes, or digital photography; the uses of photography in pedagogy, advertising, news, propaganda; photography as a tool of surveillance and record; the display and exhibition of photographs; photography as art and document.

We invite proposals for papers from scholars in any field. Graduate students and early career scholars are particularly encouraged to apply. Travel and accommodation costs will be covered by the organizers.

Friday 4 November -  Martin Parr, keynote.

Please e-mail abstracts of no more than three hundred words and short CVs or bios, no more than 2 pages.

email: ycba.research@yale.edu

Deadline: May 16, 2016

More here: http://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/whats-on/forthcoming/photography-and-britishness

Two workshops by Michael Schaaf on behalf of the Royal Photographic Society will give participants the opportunity to learn about and make wet-collodion negatives and positives (17-18 June, Lacock) and Ambrotypes (19 June, Lacock). 

Find out more here: http://www.rps.org/events/2016/june/17/wet-collodion-two-day-workshop  and http://www.rps.org/events/2016/june/19/ambrotypes-workshop

An important display of photographs, which will reveal some of the stories of Black and Asian lives in Britain from the 1860s through to the 1940s, opens next month at the National Portrait Gallery. Black Chronicles: Photographic Portraits 1862-1948 (18 May-11 December 2016), has been organised in collaboration with Autograph ABP, a London-based arts charity that works internationally in photography and film, and will bring together some of the earliest photographs of Black and Asian sitters in the Gallery’s Collection.

These will be exhibited alongside recently discovered images from the Hulton Archive, a division of Getty Images. The display of over 40 photographs will highlight an important and complex black presence in Britain before 1948, a watershed moment when the Empire Windrush brought the first group of Caribbean migrants to Great Britain.

In addition, Black Chronicles: Photographic Portraits 1862-1948 will highlight new acquisitions including a series of portraits by Angus McBean, of Les Ballets Nègres, Britain’s first all-black ballet company and a selection of photographs of the pioneer of classical Indian dance in Britain, Pandit Ram Gopal, by George Hurrell.

Individuals with extraordinary stories, from performers to dignitaries, politicians and musicians, alongside unidentified sitters, will collectively reveal the diversity of representation within 19th and 20th century photography and British society, often absent from historical narratives of the period.

They will include the celebrated portraits by Camille Silvy of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, one of the earliest photographic portraits of a black sitter in the Gallery’s Collection. Born in West Africa of Yoruba descent, Sarah was captured at the age of five during the Okeadon War. She was thought to be of royal lineage and was presented to Queen Victoria, as if a gift, from King Gezo of Dahomy. As Queen Victoria’s protégée, Sarah was raised among the British upper class and educated in both England and Sierra Leone. In 1862, she married the merchant and philanthropist James Pinson Labulo Davies.

Black Chronicles: Photographic Portraits 1862-1948 will also feature Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a celebrated British composer of English and Sierra Leonean descent who was once called the ‘African Mahler’; Dadabhai Naoroji, the first British Indian MP for Finsbury in 1892; members of the African Choir, a troupe of entertainers from South Africa who performed for Queen Victoria in 1891; international boxing champion Peter Jackson a.k.a ‘The Black Prince’ from the island of St Croix; and Ndugu M’Hali (Kalulu), the ‘servant’ of British explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley, who inspired Stanley’s 1873 book My Kalulu, Prince, King and Slave: A Story of Central Africa.

Black Chronicles: Photographic Portraits 1862-1948 will include original albumen cartes-de-visite and cabinet cards from the Gallery’s permanent Collection, presented alongside a series of large-scale modern prints from 19^th century glass plates in the Hulton Archive’s London Stereoscopic Company collection, which were recently unearthed by Autograph ABP for the first time in 135 years and first shown in the critically acclaimed exhibition ‘Black Chronicles II’ at Rivington Place in 2014.

Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London says: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate with Autograph ABP and present this important display - bringing together some of the earliest photographs from our Collection alongside new acquisitions and striking images from Hulton Archive’s London Stereoscopic Company collection.”

Renée Mussai, Curator and Head of Archive at Autograph ABP, says: “We are very pleased to share our ongoing research with new audiences at the National Portrait Gallery. The aim of the Black Chronicles series is to open up critical inquiry into the archive to locate new knowledge and support our mission to continuously expand and enrich photography’s cultural histories. Not only does the sitters’ visual presence in Britain bear direct witness to the complexities of colonial history, they also offer a fascinating array of personal narratives that defy pre-conceived notions of cultural diversity prior to the Second World War.”

Liz Smith, Director of Participation and Learning, National Portrait Gallery, says: “Beyond the significant display, the partnership with Autograph ABP will enable the National Portrait Gallery to provide a rich programme for schools, families and young people and a one-day conference. This will enable a fuller exploration of perspectives on identity and representation and for the images to reach a wider audience.”

Black Chronicles: Photographic Portraits 1862-1948 (18 May - 11 December 2016). The display is shown across three Collection rooms: Floor 1, Rooms 23, 31 and 33. Admission free

Les Ballet Negres (On display from 18 May – 4 September 2016) in Room 31

Pandit Ram Gopal (On display 5 September – 11 December 2016) in Room 31

In conjunction with the display will be a programme of events to engage young people and schools, including talks, lectures and a conference. 

More here: http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/late-shift-1/tour-of-black-chronicles-19052016.php

Kodak Alaris has announced that it is likely to close it's Harrow site by the end of the year. The site - Kodak's first manufacturing plant outside of Rochester - was purchased in 1890 and started operations in 1891. Since the 1980s the site has been gradually been reduced as the business has contracted and today only makes colour photographic paper.

Much of the site has been sold for light industrial units and housing.  

See: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/closure-of-unviable-kodak-factory-in-harrow-could-cost-250-jobs-a3227811.html and http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/west-london-news/looking-back-125-year-history-11185897

and http://markoandplacemakers.com/blog/harrow-industrial-stories-kodak

This is an opportunity to use your great organisation skills and passion for cultural events to support the delivery of two exciting festivals in autumn 2016; Widescreen Weekend (October) and a new Games Festival (November)

You will have had experience in project coordination and project logistics ideally for film or cultural events. You will have fantastic communication skills and an ability to deal with a wide range of people. You will have experience of using administrative systems, including being able to create your own and be able to manage and prioritise information.

The National Media Museum is part of the Science Museum Group and is situated in the heart of Bradford, UNESCO City of Film. It contains one of the world’s greatest collections relating to photography, film and television, and holds three cinemas including the UK’s first IMAX theatre.

See more here: https://vacancies.nmsi.ac.uk/VacancyDetails.aspx?FromSearch=True&MenuID=6Dqy3cKIDOg=&VacancyID=1306

Link

In partnership with the Victoria and Albert Museum this doctoral project will combine scholarly research on Maurice Broomfield’s photographic archive with the exploration of digital media (both online and in-gallery) to conceptualise new ways of curating and interpreting institutional historic photographic archives in the digital realm. This project engages with emerging questions around the materiality of institutional photographic archives, their nature as collections and/or groups of individual ‘assets’, how they might be interpreted for audiences, and their capacity to converse with other cultural content/products in the digital realm, i.e. their ability to become connected.

The Victoria and Albert Museum’s Broomfield archive provides an ideal locus for this research, containing around 30,000 negatives of various formats, contact prints, press cuttings, exhibition prints and works order ledgers, documenting a pivotal period in post-war British industry from the 1950s to 1970s.

The successful candidate will have a large degree of freedom in developing her/his project, but it is envisaged that this PhD will undertake theoretical and empirical action research with a variety of stakeholders to (a) explore ways of engaging with historic photographic archives through digital media, while (b) posing questions around the curatorial and interpretive mechanisms that enable and/or challenge these new potentialities of engagement.

Media, Culture, Heritage PhD Studentship – Maurice Broomfield goes digital: curating and interpreting institutional photographic archives in the digital realm

See more and apply here: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/funding/sources/ukeustudents/sac20.html

The National Media Museum is looking for a creative Associate Curator to join the team in this exciting new role.  Working across the museum’s internationally significant collections of photography, film and television, the Associate Curator of Science and Technology will lead the museum’s contemporary collecting efforts, build partnerships with industry and universities, and curate thought-provoking exhibitions and events for different audiences.

We have ambitious plans at the National Media Museum including new galleries as well as new collecting and research initiatives. We are looking for someone who is motivated and driven to make a significant impact; to rise to the challenges and seize the opportunities at this exciting time.

The successful candidate will have demonstrable knowledge of the relevant subject areas gained through post graduate study and/or strong experience in a similar role. The right person for this role will have experience in collections management and in developing events or exhibitions relating to science and technology.

Closing Date: 8 May 2016

Interview Date: 17 May 2016

Full details here: https://vacancies.nmsi.ac.uk/VacancyDetails.aspx?FromSearch=True&MenuID=6Dqy3cKIDOg=&VacancyID=1300

I am looking for any expert opinions on who may have created this mammoth plate albumen photograph of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. My apologies for posting about a French photo, but I feel that, given the expertise of the members here, this is my best chance of finding an answer

This is an albumen photograph, mammoth plate, 18 x 22 inches. (46 x 66 CM) . it is clearly later than 1860, as it shows the spire created in that year.

I have searched for years , but have found no images of Notre Dame of this size.

The lower right corner is missing, and I have used similar colors of albumen prints to approximate the missing piece. (yes,on the photo with paste---is this sacrilegious?)

I wonder if the Missing lower right piece may have been cut off because it included a signature or other valuable mark?

A long-shot request  indeed, but I rely again on the members here to speculate.

Many thanks,   David

Hi, I have come across a set of glass negatives at a secondary school in Muswell Hill where I have been a resident artist.

They were contained in a box of Speed No- H&D400, Ilford Auto Filter Plates. From the production date of these plates I imagine the images are from 1920-30s. I would be grateful if anybody could shed some light on the possible locations or areas of England these could be from. Due to the number of the slides I have uploaded the bulk contact sheets but I can always scan an individual image if anybody wishes to have a better view on a particular image.

Thank you in advance. Sayako

Coming up again on Sunday 22nd May 2016 is Photographica 2016, London's Annual International Camera Collectors and Users Fair, it will take place at the regular venue - The Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Hall, 80 Vincent Square, London SW1P 2PB. 10am-4.00pm admission £5.

There will be up to 135 stalls selling user and collectable cameras, consumables, lenses, literature and images. It is not a trade show for new equipment.

Photographica2016 Flyer.jpg

It is organised by the Photographic Collectors Club of Great Britain. http://www.pccgb.net/

If you want early Buyers tickets or to check if there is still a sales table available please ring Angela on 01684 594526 .

Details and late breaking news are also available on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/photographicafair

It is a great day, you may find that rare item you have been looking for.

Thanks

I am researching my grandfather, Albert Edward Elsy, who managed the Langfier Finchley Road Studio from 1910 to his death in 1939. Little survives about the studio and his photographs, so anything would be great. He also established the Hampstead Art Gallery next door post WW1 which was a centre for emerging post war artists some who sat for him. Again anything would be great. 

In my collection I have a group of 7 cabinet cards and cartes de visite of Japanese diplomats and students from the circle of Arthur Diosy, founder of the Japan Society. The two cabinet cards are of Katsunosuke Inoue 1861-1929 who was chargé d’affaires ad interim in Berlin in 1886 and later became the Japanese ambassador in Berlin, and his wife. . I have trouble identifying the men on the cdv's though. Four of the images are inscribed: "to Arthur Diosy" Can anyone help?

Now in its seventh edition, NPS 2016 is organised this year in partnership with FORMAT International Photography Festival off year and QUAD. It explores three main themes: new online photographic communities that are revolutionising learning and showing of work; the challenges of making – and forgetting – visual history in an age when everything is recorded. It takes place in Derby from 20-22 April. 

On Friday, 22 April the NPS will examine the decision by the National Media Museum (NMeM) in Bradford to transfer a major part of the National Photography Collection, including the Royal Photographic Society Collection, to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London, and the consequences and possibilities this opens up. For the fist time since the announcement, representatives from principal parties involved, the NMeM, the V&A and the RPS, will be present.

Confirmed speakers for the day are:

Michael Terwey, Head of Collections & Exhibitions at the National Media Museum
Martin Barnes, Senior Curator, Photographs, Victoria and Albert Museum
Michael Pritchard, Director-General of The Royal Photographic Society
Colin Ford, first director of the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television
Anne McNeill, Director of Impressions Gallery, Bradford
Francis Hodgson, Professor in the Culture of Photography, University of Brighton
Jo Booth, artist and researcher

In addition Graham Harrison, Sarah Fisher and Paul Herrmann will take part.

See more here: http://www.uknps.org.uk/

Hello, I am researching this albumen print of - possibly  Karnak or the Temple of Mediate Habu. (Correct me if I am mistaken). What interests me is the photographer's monogram, lower left.  At one point, I was thinking it may be Frank Mason Good, but would appreciate some expert opinions.

Has anyone seen this monogram before?

Many thanks, 

David

London's Photofusion has a series of historical and alternative process courses coming up over the next few months. These including salt printing, Van Dyke printing, platinumn printing, wet-collodion and making digital negatives.

See more here: http://www.photofusion.org/course-category/upcoming-courses/alternative-processes/