I have finally pulled the trigger, and gotten my first tattoo. This logo has been a favorite of mine for years, Finally found the tattoo artist who could handle the details. I think that photographer's CDV back marks are so intrinsically related to early sailor tattoos, Happy with mine.
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Colin Harding who is researching a PhD on the photographer Horace Nicholls has written two blogs about his work so far. The blogs can be read here: http://blogs.iwm.org.uk/research/2017/02/happy-birthday-horace/#more
Image: A female coke heaver at the South Metropolitan Gas Works, Old Kent Road, London. Photograph by Horace Nicholls © IWM
The Spring 2017 edition of the Science Museum Group Journal carries two articles of interest to photographic historians. Elizabeth Edwards discusses Location, location: a polemic on photographs and institutional practices which poses the question what are photographs doing in collections. Michael Terwey, Head of Collections and Exhibitions at the National Science and Media Museum, discusses Contexts for photography collections at the National Media Museum. In an open and direct way, he looks at the process that led to the transfer of the RPS Collection from the National Media Museum to the V&A Museum, examines some of the controversy it generated and sets it in to a wider context.
Read them both here: http://journal.sciencemuseum.org.uk/issues/spring-2017/
Image: © Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library
A three-day conference exploring the practice, profession, scholarship, preservation and access to photography’s history, present day expression and projected opportunities and challenges for the future. Sponsored and organized by RIT Press, the Rochester Institute of Technology’s scholarly book publishing enterprise, and The Wallace Center at RIT, the conference is a forum for reporting research findings, sharing current professional and scholarly practices, and discussing subjects pertinent to the broadly defined, multifaceted history and future of photography, including motion pictures.
The conference will engage practitioners, librarians, archivists and the diverse scholarly disciplines on historically
significant subjects and topics of future interest.
Call for Papers: We invite scholarly papers and panel proposals for presentation consideration at PhotoHistory/PhotoFuture. Paper and panel proposals must be submitted through the conference website and received by November 15, 2017.
Acceptance notification will occur by December 31, 2017. The complete conference program will be published on February 1, 2018. www.rit.edu/photohistoryconference
The conference is an opportunity for the presentation, analysis, interpretation and assessment of original scholarship on photography’s history and future including applications, education, connoisseurship, preservation, and accessibility as viewed through multiple disciplinary lenses. PhotoHistory/PhotoFuture subjects to be explored include, but not limited to: Advertising & public relations, Documentary & fashion, Bodycams & traffic cams, Legal protection & infringement, Art and design, Biography & portraiture, Copyright & copywrong, Journalism & sports, Photographic technology, Environmental, architectural & landscape, Social & commercial dimensions of photography, Medical & industrial, Amateur, Social reform & advocacy, Preservation & access, Public policy & public access, Collecting &
hobbyist interests.
We invite attendance by a wide range of academic disciplines and by practitioners from an equally broad range of professions. Examples of professions are: archivists, image preservation and conservators, information managers, data and metadata specialists, photographers, museum curators, library and museum administrators, and managers from the for-profit and the not-for-profit sectors. Examples of academic disciplines are: history, archives, photography, communication, digital humanities, criminology and criminal justice, computer science, public policy, imaging, economics, museum studies, fine arts, and library science.
PhotoHistory/PhotoFuture
A Three-day Conference on the Archaeology and Future of Photography
April 20 – 22, 2018, Rochester, NY
www.rit.edu/photohistoryconference
For more information: Bruce Austin (585) 475-2879, BAAGLL@RIT.EDU or Laura DiPonzio Heise (585) 475-5819, LMDWML@RIT.EDU
Rose Teanby who has been researching Robert Howlett has turned her attention to one of Howlett's contemporaries, collaborator and close friend T Frederick Hardwich. Hardwich was an important figure in early British photography and lecturer in photography at Kings College, London, before he abruptly left to take up holy orders. He is perhaps best known today for his manual of photographic chemistry.
Rose's research can be read here: http://www.photohistories.com/Photo-Histories/75/the-two-lives-of-thomas-frederick-hardwich-1829-1890.
Hardwich's work at KCL was commemorated in a memorial service held in King's College chapel (seen below) on 26 April.
Image of King's College chapel, © Rose Teanby ARPS; portrait of Hardwich from the Photographic Society Club album, 1856, held at the Wellcome Library, London
Beetles+Huxley are pleased to announce an exhibition of over 70 vintage Cecil Beaton photographs. The photographs have been held in an American private collection for over 60 years and this April they will finally be brought back to London, where this unique group will go on display for the first time.
Originally purchased in the early 1950s, the works form a complete survey of Beaton's early photography ranging from portraits of the "Bright Young People" in the 1920s, innovative fashion pictures for Vogue, portraits from Hollywood in the 1930s, to his lesser-known wartime documentary photographs commissioned by the British Ministry of Information.
Portraits included in the exhibition include figures such as Queen Elizabeth (subsequently the Queen Mother), The Duke and Duchess of Windsor on their wedding day, Salvador Dali, Vivien Leigh, Augustus John, Charles de Gaulle, Orson Welles, H G Wells and Aldous Huxley.
Photographer, artist, designer and socialite, Cecil Beaton was born in Hampstead, London, on 14 January 1904, into the family of a wealthy merchant. Whilst at Harrow School, he developed a passion for both photography and social advancement which, combined with his natural talent for aesthetics, subsequently propelled him to the heights of fame.
As a prominent member of the "Bright Young People" during the 1920s a set he had purposefully adopted Beaton photographed a generation of glitzy young socialites and artists with unique style. His sparkling photographs provide a fascinating record of this enduringly popular group, but his ambition was not satisfied. In the late 1920s, he headed for Hollywood and New York, working for Condé Nast as a portrait and fashion photographer, and quickly created a formidable reputation, and an international demand for his work.
During the Second World War Beaton worked, like many artists, for the British Ministry of Information taking photographs that recorded various aspects of the war effort, from ship builders on the Newcastle docks to commandos in the African Desert.
After the war Beaton continued as before, albeit altering his style to fit with changing times. He also earned acclaim for his costume designs, winning Oscars for "Gigi" in 1957 and "My Fair Lady" in 1964. Beaton's brilliant eye, theatrical persona, ruthless ambition and addiction to social advancement kept him in work for over six decades.
More information is here: http://www.beetlesandhuxley.com/exhibitions/cecil-beaton.html-0
During the rise of industrialization in mid-19th century Scotland, Thomas Annan ranked as the pre-eminent photographer of Glasgow. For more than 25 years, he prodigiously recorded the people, the social landscape, and the built environment of the city during a period of rapid growth and change.
Thomas Annan: Photographer of Glasgow, on view 23 May-13 August, 2017 at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center, presents the first exhibition to survey Annan’s prolific career and legacy as both a photographer and printer via his engagement with Glasgow as his photographic subject. The exhibition includes more than 100 photographs, the majority on loan to the Getty, providing a rare opportunity to view key series by this photographer in the United States. Among the works to be featured are recently rediscovered prints Annan made at the end of his career and numerous photographically illustrated books that demonstrate technical innovations he perfected and championed.
“This exhibition is the first to explore Annan’s deep fascination with Glasgow and fully contextualize his contributions within the city’s history,” says Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “His work effectively recorded the transformation of greater Glasgow over the course of several decades, during an era when this ‘second city of the empire’ flourished. Annan’s photographs underscore the notion of progress that dominated this era and directed urban growth in the 19th century.”
Thomas Annan, who opened his own photographic firm in Glasgow in 1857 and remained active until his death three decades later, worked at a time when the city’s population increased dramatically and industry neared its peak. Initially Annan garnered attention for work that ranged from studio portraiture and reproductions of artwork to landscapes, but he also quickly emerged as an important documentarian of Glasgow and its outskirts. Near the outset of his career, Annan was tasked with documenting the construction of a 35-mile long aqueduct—located in a picturesque wooded glen called the Trossachs—from Loch Katrine to Glasgow. His photographs reveal how this colossal feat of engineering impacted the scenic landscape of the Scottish countryside, underscoring the industrialization associated with this era in British history, as well as the somewhat tenuous relationship between man and the natural environment. Annan continued to record the development and effects of the aqueduct for more than two decades.
One gallery in the exhibition explores his extensive commitment to the subject, featuring rare views from his 1859 documentation of the aqueduct scheme that will be on view for the first time since the 19th century. Today, Annan is remembered principally for his haunting images of tenements and passageways, known as closes, slated for modification or demolition as a result of the Glasgow City Improvements Act of 1867. Considered a precursor of the social documentary tradition in photography, Annan’s Photographs of Old Closes and Streets series (1868-71) not only reveals the difficult living conditions of working-class residents of central Glasgow, but also suggests progress underway as a result of the Improvements Act.
Despite challenges posed by weather, sanitation, lighting, and the labor-intensive photographic equipment/process he employed, Annan produced highly detailed, enigmatic photographs of the closes and the tenement dwellers that are testament to his technical and artistic mastery. On view will be albumen silver prints from the Old Closes and Streets series, including an original glass plate negative and publications that feature the closes. Throughout his career, Annan photographed construction efforts, engineering works, buildings, and other subjects that related to concurrent municipal initiatives. Among the civic projects that he documented, and that will be showcased in the exhibition, are the relocation of the University of Glasgow, the re-navigation of the River Clyde and the construction of Queen’s Dock at Glasgow harbor, and the beautification of Glasgow Cathedral. He also photographed numerous country estates and houses that were demolished or repurposed as part of the outward expansion of the city and the rising industrialist class. Transformation of the built environment in Glasgow during this time largely shaped the appearance of the city as we know it today, and Annan effectively documented this evolution.
Annan is also credited for promoting various photographic processes, specifically carbon printing and photogravure, for which he owned the licensing rights within Scotland. His legacy was extended by his eldest sons, James Craig and John, who worked as photographers and managed their father’s photographic firm upon his death. While James Craig pursued fine art photography and emerged as a leading figure in the Pictorialist movement, John carved out a steady career photographing architecture and industrial machinery in Glasgow. Their discrete areas of expertise reflected their father’s myriad interests and may have constituted the division of labor at the firm as well. “Though a pioneer in his field, Annan has remained a relatively marginalized figure in the history of photography,” says Amanda Maddox, assistant curator of photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum and curator of the exhibition. “This exhibition seeks to highlight the breadth of his output and the extent of his contributions to the medium, which we hope will prompt further scholarship and greater appreciation for this important 19th century practitioner.”
Thomas Annan: Photographer of Glasgow, on view 23 May-13 August, 2017 at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center, will coincide with the presentation of Now Then: Chris Killip and the Making of In Flagrante. Together these exhibitions represent a century of industry in Britain, from its height to its demise. A scholarly publication that shares the title of the exhibition and is focused on Thomas Annan’s photographically illustrated books about Glasgow will be released by Getty Publications in spring 2017.
Images:
Piping across the Balfron Road (1859). Thomas Annan (Scottish, 1829 – 1887). Albumen silver print. Image: 20.9 x 28.6 cm (8 ¼ x 11 1/4 in.); Sheet: 38 x 48.5 cm (14 15/16 x 19 1/18 in.); Mat: 40.6 x 55.9 cm (16 x 22 in.). Lent by Glasgow Life (Mitchell Library Special Collections) on behalf of Glasgow City Council. Image © CSG CIC Glasgow Museums and Libraries Collection: The Mitchell Library, Special Collections
High Street from College Open (1868 – 1871). Thomas Annan (Scottish, 1829 – 1887). Albumen silver print. Image: 40.5 x 54 cm (15 15/16 x 21 1/4 in.); Mat: 50.8 x 60.9 cm (20 x 24 in.). Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal. © Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal
De Montfort University's Photographic History Research Centre is recruiting students for the 2017/18 academic year for its highly regarded Photographic History MA. A postgraduate coffee evening is being held on 7 June.
Reasons to study Photographic History MA at DMU:
- Digital and analogue photographic histories
practices, images, theories and research methodologies are all elements that will be learnt on the course - Investigate social and cultural roles
in Photography throughout its history as well as its significance in present-day cultures and societies - Work alongside a renowned team of expert scholars
from the Photographic History Research Centre (PHRC) and beyond - Attend conferences, seminars and research activities
organised by the PHRC, and benefit from its outstanding links with major photographic museums, archives and collections in the UK and abroad - “A significant contribution to the landscape of photographic education”
as referred to by the External examiner Prof Darren Newbury, University of Brighton
Photography has shaped the way in which we imagine the recent past as well as the experience of life in many present-day societies and cultures. Using digital and analogue primary sources, such as archival photographic materials and manuscripts, digital databases, and a range of photographic objects, the Photographic History MA will provide you with the practical and conceptual skills needed to explore wide ranging professional, scientific and amateur photographic practices.
The internationally renowned teaching staff bring with them outstanding links with major photographic collections, archives, galleries and museums worldwide. Working within the PHRC’s vibrant research environment, you will gain an in-depth understanding of the relationship between photography, history, society and culture, and enhance your material handling and research skills.
Aimed mainly at social, cultural and visual historians, conservationists, archivists, visual sociologists and visual anthropologists, the Photographic History MA will offer you many opportunities to obtain hands-on research and professional experience, and prepare you for a wide range of careers in scientific museums and galleries as well as for further study.
Full information on the open evening, the course content and fees is available here: http://www.dmu.ac.uk/study/courses/postgraduate-courses/photographic-history-ma-degree/photographic-history-ma-degree.aspx
For nearly 100 years, the Yorkshire migrant photographer Ernest Lund Mitchell’s emblematic photographs have shaped ideas about Australia. But who was Mitchell and why did he succeed above his competitors
With unprecedented access to private collections and showcasing his extraordinary photographs, Agents of Empire charts Mitchell’s rise from his struggles as a migrant in New South Wales and Queensland to significant image-maker in Western Australia. It then follows the journeys of individual photographs across the world, and traces the stories behind the survival and destruction of parts of his archive.
Agents of Empire breaks new ground in showing ways that photographs can be used as historical evidence and how archives can shape our understanding of the past.
Further information and orders: scholarly.info/book/544/
Birkbeck’s History and Theory of Photography Research Centre hosts an evening of visual exploration, with members from Ph: The Photography Research Network. Notions of reality will be explored through work from emerging artists/researchers Lauren Winsor, Anne Pfautsch and Alexandra Hughes. From masquerade in 1930s Surrealist Germany to post war realism in the GDR and contemporary installations that explore our real and imagined encounters with wilderness. There will be plenty of time for discussion afterwards.
Talking Photography: Reality Check
Friday, the 19th of May ’17, 2pm-4pm
Room G04, Birkbeck, School of Arts
43 Gordon Square London
WC1H 0PD
Book your free place for ‘Talking photography’ via Eventbrite.
This 8-week course, led by Almudena Romero is an extensive hands-on overview of photographic processes, from nineteenth century printing techniques to today’s latest 3D scanning technologies.
Participants will learn photographic processes based on leaves and flowers (anthotype printing, lumen printing, chlorophyll printing), along with cameraless techniques (photograms, chemigrams, cyanotype printing) and digital processes including 3D scanning and DIY lenses for smartphones.
Suitable for beginners.
Click here to book a place or call +44 (0)20 7942 2000
Mondays, 8 May-3 July, 10.30-13.00
Victoria and Albert Museum
£400/£320 students & concessions
Image: Cyanotype print on glass. 2017
Poetic, penetrating, and often heartbreaking, Chris Killip’s In Flagrante remains the most important photobook to document the devastating impact of deindustrialization on working-class communities in northern England in the 1970s and 1980s. Now Then: Chris Killip and the Making of In Flagrante, on view May 23-August 13, 2017 at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center features more than 100 works that explore the artist’s process and the decision to reconsider and reshape work made decades earlier. The exhibition includes maquettes, contact sheets, and work prints, as well as material from two related and rarely exhibited projects—Seacoal and Skinningrove. The fifty photographs that constitute the first edition of In Flagrante (1988) are all drawn from the Museum’s collection and were acquired with the assistance of the Getty Museum Photographs Council.
“The successful documentary photographer must often somehow gain access to communities that would otherwise shun outsiders,” says Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “Killip was able to do this for his In Flagrante series, embedding himself in villages along the coast of England for several years, where locals shared with him the disintegration of their livelihoods and resulting social tensions in an unprecedented way. These photographs – rare insights into their world – are a testament to his dedication and to their trust in him to portray them with honesty and integrity.”
In Flagrante
Upon receiving a Northern Arts Fellowship in 1975, Killip (born 1946, Isle of Man) relocated from London to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. By that time, the process of deindustrialization in northeast England—considered the backbone of British shipbuilding and mining industries—was underway. Denied permission to photograph inside factories and shipyards, Killip instead chose to chronicle towns in the throes of decline and working-class communities teetering on the brink.
In 1988, he published a group of fifty pictures in the book In Flagrante, which represented the malaise and disrepair of the socioeconomic system of the time, and the perceived disposability of the working class. While some photographs resulted from chance encounters between Killip and his subjects, many evolved from personal, intense relationships he formed with the individuals and places depicted. In 2008, In Flagrante became accessible to a new generation through a reprint by Errata Editions, which creates facsimiles of classic, out-of-print titles to encourage and facilitate their further study. After rereleasing In Flagrante, Killip resolved to update the book and correct its mischaracterization as a record of the “Thatcher Years.” Released in 2015, In Flagrante Two included three photographs not reproduced in the first book. Images from both editions will be on view.
Seacoal
Between 1976 and 1981, Killip attempted to photograph at Lynemouth, a coastal village where a community of people made a meager living by collecting coal that washed ashore after it was expelled as waste from the nearby mine. The “seacoalers” always chased Killip away, fearful that he was spying on them to gather evidence of their undocumented income, which undermined their claims for unemployment benefits. He finally gained access to the community in 1982, and the following year moved into a caravan on the beach, where he lived intermittently for fourteen months to document the inner workings of the seacoal camp.
By 1984, as the proposed closure of coal mines across the Midlands provoked mineworkers to strike, the supply of coal had dwindled and the seacoalers were forced to find alternate sources of income. While fourteen photographs from this period were included in In Flagrante, much of the material remained virtually untouched until Killip revisited the material decades later, in the context of a retrospective exhibition held at the Folkwang Museum in Essen, Germany. In 2011 he produced the book Seacoal expressly about his experience in Lynemouth. More than twenty prints from the series, as well as related ephemera, will be presented in the context of this exhibition.
Skinningrove
The isolated village of Skinningrove, once considered the “valley of iron,” sits along the northeast coast of England. Many residents held jobs at the local ironworks and steel-rolling mill, but the closure of both sites forced people to work as fishermen by the mid-1970s. Described by Killip as “fiercely independent, fiercely protective, and . . . very hostile to strangers,” the town and its inhabitants fascinated him. He began visiting Skinningrove routinely in the summertime and, over the years, ingratiated himself with the young men who often appear in his images. Killip became a familiar presence and, despite his oversize view camera, could work discreetly to capture intimate moments. Never published in its entirety, the body of work is represented in In Flagrante by only two photographs. A short film by Michael Almereyda that features Killip recalling stories about the people of Skinningrove, and sometimes disclosing tragic details about their fates, will be on view alongside prints from this series.
Now Then: Chris Killip and the Making of In Flagrante is on view May 23-August 13, 2017 at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center. The exhibition is curated by Amanda Maddox, assistant curator of photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum. The exhibition will be on view alongside Thomas Annan: Photographer of Glasgow, also in the Getty’s Center for Photographs.
Image: Chris Killip (British, born 1946) Father and Son Watching a Parade, West End, Newcastle, negative 1980; print 1986. © Chris Killip. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Purchased in part with funds provided by Alison Bryan Crowell, Trish and Jan de Bont, Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, Manfred Heiting, Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck, and Lyle and Lisi Poncher.
'Don't look at the Camera' Lyddell Sawyer photographer, 1856-1927 is a useful survey of the life and work of Newcastle and London photographer Lyddell Sawyer. It reproduces many of his genre and pictorial photographs. The book is by Geoff Lowe and has been produced in an edition of 200 with some 60 remaining. The price is £15.00 plus £2 p&p orders to geoflowe@gmail.com
'Don't look at the Camera Lyddell Sawyer photographer, 1856-1927
Geoff Lowe
114-pages
Kirsty Fife, Curator of Library and Archives, at the National Science and Media Museum, formerly the National Media Museum, has published a blog discussing some of the archives the S+MM holds and how the museum is planning to make them accessible.
She says: 'Since July [2016] we’ve been working on a project to make our paper-based archives more accessible to the general public. Our paper-based collections include materials by seminal pioneers of technology including Henry Fox Talbot, Charles Urban and William and Claude Friese-Greene, as well as the records of organisations including Ilford (the photographic manufacturers), Gandolfi (the camera-making family) and PYE TVT (telecommunications). We also have archives with a lot of local significance including records relating to the refurbishment of the Bradford Odeon/Gaumont and a collection of cinema posters produced by W.B. Berry Ltd, based in Bradford.
Examples of some of the types of material you might find in our archive and library collections include posters, photographs, personal papers, business correspondence and organisational records, architectural drawings and plans, animation cells, instruction manuals, ephemera and trade brochures and rare books.'
Read the full blog post here: https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/insight-making-archives-accessible/
Photo London and Somerset House, in collaboration with Blain|Southern Gallery, presents Thresholds, a new virtual reality (VR) artwork by internationally acclaimed artist Mat Collishaw. Using the latest VR technology, Collishaw will restage Fox Talbot’s pioneering 1839 exhibition of photography. With the aid of careful digital reconstructions, this immersive experience will enable visitors to travel back in time to the moment when British scientist William Henry Fox Talbot first presented his photographic prints to the public in Birmingham.
In addition to the Thresholds installation, Mat Collishaw will be taking part in the Fair's Talks Programme, discussing his practice with Dr James Hyman, gallerist and collector.
Places are limited for entry to the installation and talks.
Book a place here: http://photolondon.org/event/mat-collishaw-thresholds/
Read more about the project here; https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/14/somerset-house-mat-collishaw-restages-1839-photography-show-in-virtual-reality?CMP=share_btn_fb
Birkbeck's History and Theory of Photography Research Centre has announced seminars this term which are free and open to all, at 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD.
Thursday 27 April 2017, 6:00-7:30
Room 106
Christina Riggs (University of East Anglia)
Photographing Tutankhamun: Photo-objects and the archival afterlives of colonial archaeology
In archaeology, the photographic image remains fixed as an ‘objective’ record of a site or object, or a self-regarding snapshot of famous excavators rescuing ‘ancient Egypt’. This paper uses the photographic archive of the excavation of Tutankhamun’s tomb (1922-33) to consider how archival processes were embedded in the practice of archaeological photography and in the ‘afterlives’ of these processes, as the archive was cared for in subsequent decades. Prominent as the tomb of Tutankhamun has been in colonial, postcolonial, and neo-colonial imaginaries, my discussion of its photo-objects and historical archiving underscores the need for more critical approaches to current archival efforts, which otherwise risk reinforcing the empirical positivism that underpinned the colonial project in the first place.
Monday 15 May 2017, 6:00-8:00pm
Room G04
Steve Edwards and Patrizia Di Bello (History and Theory of Photography Research Centre, Birkbeck)
The Jo Spence Memorial Library and Archive
After talks by Steve Edwards: ‘Further Thoughts on British Documentary in the 1970s’, and Patrizia Di Bello: ‘Jo Spence: the Archive as Feminist Family Album’, this workshop will consider the implications of the recent history of the archive of Jo Spence, the late British photographer, writer and 'cultural sniper’, and the significance of the labels applied to the material by different institutions: art, archive, library, or activist collection, arguably the term best describing the instructions Spence wrote before her death in 1992.
Wednesday 17 May, 2:00-5:00pm
Room G04
A collaboration with Birkbeck Architecture Space and Society Centre:
Sabine Wieber (Glasgow University)
‘Intimate Collaborations’ at the Photo Studio Elvira in Munich
Tag Gronberg (Birkbeck)
Architectural Relationships Past, Present and Future on the Côte d’Azur
Patrizia Di Bello, (Birkbeck)
Response: Women’s Practice: the View from Gordon Square.
This session explores how women engaged with architecture around the turn of the twentieth century in order to produce professional identities, by focusing on two iconic buildings: the Jugendstil Photo Studio Elvira in Munich (1896 by August Endell) and E-1027 (1926-1929) built in the south of France by Eileen Gray with Jean Badovici. We discover the ways in which the personal and the professional coincided in these bold architectural designs.
The National Portrait Gallery houses a unique collection of all forms of portraiture of the people who have made or who are currently contributing to British history and culture. The Gallery attracts over 2 million visits a year and is among London’s most popular attractions, it reaches and engages these, and further UK and global audiences, with its extensive display, exhibition, research, learning, outreach, publishing, digital and national programmes.
Assistant Curator, Photographs (Content and Interpretation)
Part-time, 24 hours (3 days) per week
£13,347 per annum (based on the full-time equivalent of £22,245 per annum)
Fixed-term position for approximately 12 months to cover maternity leave arrangements
Reporting to the Associate Curator, Photographs (Content and Interpretation), the post holder will contribute to the successful delivery of photographic displays and will help to facilitate the inclusion of photographs in the Gallery’s national programme and other Gallery initiatives. This post will support a programme to re-develop the collection displays as part of a major capital project and help to develop texts and website information for displays and exhibitions. Working closely with the Associate Curator, the post holder will be expected to support work on the interpretation and presentation of the Collection and help to curate temporary displays for the Gallery as approved.
The successful candidate will have a degree in Art History/History, and demonstrable relevant experience working on displays or exhibitions within a museum or gallery environment. Experience of and engagement with interpretation practices, including writing text for a general public audience, is also essential, along with public speaking skills and broad knowledge of photographic materials and methods. In addition to excellent written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills, this post requires strong organisational, research and planning skills, coupled with the ability to work calmly under pressure, meet tight deadlines and retain excellent attention to detail.
Full details of this and all other employment opportunities at the Gallery can be found here: http://www.npg.org.uk/about/jobs/assistant-curator or requested by e-mailing: recruitment@npg.org.uk.
Closing date for returned applications is 9.00am on Tuesday 25 April 2017.
Applications are invited for an AHRC-funded PhD at Durham University: “The Army Film and Photographic Film Unit, 1941-1945”. This is offered under the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership programme. The partner institutions are Durham University and the IWM. The studentship will be supervised by Professor Jo Fox and Dr James Smith at Durham University, and Fiona Kelly of IWM. This full-time studentship, which is funded for three years at standard AHRC rates, will begin on 1 October 2017.
The Studentship
IWM holds a collection of more than 20,000 records referred to as ‘dope sheets’ – unique documents created by members of the Army Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU) during the Second World War, that meticulously outline the content of each reel of film the cameramen shot, in some cases concentrating on technical aspects and factual information. The films they document record operations of the British Army in various theatres of war – from North Africa, Italy, North-West and Central Europe, to the Balkans and the Far East. Our understanding of events such as the Battle of El-Alamein, the D-Day landings, the crossing of the Rhine and the liberation of Bergen-Belsen has been shaped by the visual records captured by the cine cameramen and stills photographers of the AFPU. The little-known dope sheets reveal the creator’s view of unfolding events. Often seen as supplementary records, rather than as significant historical documents in their own right, this resource has not been the subject of study before, and therefore offers a unique opportunity for original research in uncharted territory.
The aim of the project is to use the dope sheets to explore the role of the cameramen in recording historical events. How far did they remain detached from what they were filming? How far did they change their position from being mere observers to active participants? What does the study of these papers and the language used reveal about the circumstances in which they were compiled? Concentrating on a small number of individuals, this project will investigate how the cameramen’s backgrounds and education influenced their work, how their perspective changed over time and how they reflected on the events they recorded in later years. The student will be encouraged to focus on the North African campaign – whose records have been less studied to date. The study also offers the opportunity to examine how the cameramen’s experience of being in Africa reflects contemporary attitudes to race, and other aspects of the colonial encounter.
IWM’s holdings are particularly rich in the area of research, and while the written documentation will be the main focus of this study, other important sources will be the actual films the dope sheets describe, the official photographs taken by Army photographers who worked alongside the cine cameramen, and oral testimonies by cameramen recorded by IWM since the 1970s. The student will be expected to contribute to the dope sheet collection documentation through enhancing the catalogue entries.
Subject to AHRC eligibility criteria, the scholarships cover tuition fees and a grant (stipend) towards living expenses. The national minimum doctoral stipend for 2017/18 has been set by Research Councils
UK as £14,553 plus £550 additional payment for Collaborative Doctoral Students. For more information visit: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/skills/phdstudents/fundingandtraining.
Students are also eligible to draw additional funding from a Student Development Fund to support the cost of training, work placements, and other development opportunities that will benefit the student’s doctoral research and future career development.
In addition, the student is eligible to receive up to £1,000 a year from IWM and will be able to apply for internal funding from the University to support archival visits and the delivery of academic conference papers.
How to Apply
Applicants should have a good undergraduate degree in history or another relevant discipline, and will need to satisfy AHRC eligibility requirements including Masters-level advanced research training or equivalent.
Applicants must be a resident of the UK or European Economic Area (EEA). In general, full studentships are available to students who are settled in the UK and have been ordinarily resident for a period of at least three years before the start of postgraduate studies. Fees-only awards are generally available to EU nationals resident in the EEA. International applicants are normally not eligible to apply for this studentship.
Applicants should submit via email a curriculum vitae (no more than 2 pages), a sample of writing, a brief letter outlining their qualification for the studentship, transcripts of undergraduate and masters qualifications, and two academic references to Kelly Groundwater (admissions.history@durham.ac.uk)no later than 5pm on 23 April 2017. Please note it is the responsibility of applicants to request references from their referees and ensure that they have been received by the Department of History by this deadline. All documents should be submitted in either a MS Word or PDF format. Please ensure the subject line of your email appears as ‘surname, first name – IWM/Durham studentship.’
Interviews are scheduled to be held in London on 15 May 2017.
Hello, I am researching these photos of the Officers and Crew of a Royal Navy ship. The seller says they are from the 1850s, but I believe that these are more 1870s, or later, The two are unmounted albumen prints, approximately 9 x 6 ".
The photo of the crew is amazing, each seaman is armed with a pistol, and maybe a sword? At first I thought that this must be a re-enactment, possibly a film shoot? The poses are just not 19th century? But, maybe they were in a jolly mood ?
Any information about the uniforms, or ship would be most appreciated,
Best, David
To support the registration and digitization project Print Room Online the conservation department is looking for a Conservation Technician for Photographic Materials. The main purpose of this project is to catch up with the conservation and registration backlog in the varied collections of the print room. The principal goal of this position is to efficiently and effectively maintain the physical condition of photographic materials. The head of the paper department is the supervisor of the project employee. A coordinator keeps track of the project and its progress on a daily basis.
For more specific information about the position, contact Idelette van Leeuwen, Conservation & Restoration Department, by phone at +31 (0)20-6747113. For questions regarding the application procedure, contact Lieke Boers, HR Advisor, by phone at +31 (0)20-6747324.
Please e-mail your application (letter and cv) to vacatures@rijksmuseum.nl by April 16, 2017. We plan to have interviews on April 24, 2017.
