Blogs

Chicwick Auctions is to offer an archive of photographic works and personal effects of Wolfgang Suschitzky in an auction on 6 June 2024.  The material is desecribed as 'A large collection of negatives, transparencies, personal records, photographic equipment, and selection of photographs, dating between the 1960s and the early 2000s, many with Suschitzky's handwriting, captions, notes, and labels affixed to objects'. It is estimated at £1000-2000. 

19th & 20th Century Photographs
6 June 2024 at 11000
Details here

Lempertz auction house is offering a Lippmann interferential colour process self-portrait of Richard Neuhauss photograph dated 1901 in an auction on 4 June 2024. The lot is estimated at €6000-8000. A comparable piece can be found in the Albertina Museum in Vienna. Neuhauss was closely associated with the Lippmann process. 

Lot 501
DR. RICHARD NEUHAUSS
Blankenfelde 1855- 1915 Groß-Lichterfelde
Self portrait, 1901

Interferential photograph (Lippmann process). 6.9 x 4.7 cm (8.5 x 6.3 x 1.9 cm).. Signed, dated,
titled and inscribed "Lippmann's Verfahren" in ink on the verso.
Estimate € 6,000 - 8,000

Provenance
Private property, Northern Germany
Supplement:
Anonymous
Stufenfarbentafel (Agfa), not dated
Interferential color photography (Lippmann process)
6.7 x 8 x 1.5 cm

Read more here (Präsentationen_1246_lot 501_en.pdf)

Details: https://www.lempertz.com/en/catalogues/lot/1246-1/501-dr-richard-neuhauss.html

The British Library is seeking a cataloguer to work on an archive of modern architectural drawings, photographs and maps related to Hampi Vijayanagara, a UNESCO World Heritage site in south India.

This archive, known as the Vijayanagara Research Project, was formed by Dr John Fritz and Dr George Michell from 1986 to 2006 and features the work of a number of architectural historians who systematically documented the topography and archaeology of the site. These important archaeological records provide a chronological continuation of the Library's historical collections related to the site and acts as an important resource for researchers working on cultural heritage. The collections were donated to the British Library in 2016.

The post-holder will be required to arrange, catalogue, edit metadata as well as research and identify archaeological and architectural sites in South Asia in order to make the collection accessible to users.

See full details: https://www.vercida.com/uk/jobs/cataloguer-of-visual-arts-british-library-st-pancras

DalkeithPhoto is an exciting new exhibition running at Dalkeith Palace from 8 September-6 October 2024. Featuring an exhibition of The Buccleuch Family Album Collection (first showing), work by Calum Colvin and RPS touring exhibition ~ Squaring the Circles on Neo Pictorialism ~ including Céline Bodin, Susan Derges, Joy Gregory, Takashi Arai, David and Angela Chalmers, Spencer Rowell, Tom Hunter, Ian Phillips McLaren and David George.

As part of this an impressive cast of expert speakers will be celebrating and exploring DalkeithPhoto, Neo Pictorialism and much more through presentations and conversation on Saturday, 7 September 2024. This symposium is a must for anyone interested in contemporary and historic photography.

With an introduction from Zelda Cheatle, photographer, curator and author and keynote speaker Sara Stevenson and talks from artists exhibiting in the accompanying exhibition Squaring the Circles: , the full symposium programme follows below.

Changing Ideals in Pictorial Photography. Pictorialism and the Royal Photographic Society. Michael Pritchard, Photo historian, Consultant

Constructed Photography. Exhibiting Scottish artist Calum Colvin in conversation with Squaring the Circle artists Tom Hunter and Spencer Rowell.

Cameraless Imagery and Early Printing Techniques. Artist Alex Hamilton in conversation with artists Susan Derges, Angela Chalmers and Joy Gregory.

Scottish Archives, Photographic Albums, Aristocracy and Collections. A conversation with Walter Dalkeith, Luke Gartlan and Alex Lindsay.

Keynote lecture: The Two-way Gaze: Scotland and the Invention of Social Documentary Photography. Sara Stevenson, photographic historian, writer and expert on early Scottish photography.

The Art and Application of the Daguerreotype.Takashi Arai, artist.

Tour of the Exhibition, the Interaction of Painting & Photography, Pictorialism and Neo Pictorialism with exhibiting Squaring the Circles artists Tom Hunter, David George and Celine Bodin.

Tickets are available priced £55pp. Tickets include refreshments and a light lunch.

Book here: https://www.dalkeithcountrypark.co.uk/event/dalkeithphoto-symposium/

Details of Dalkeith Photo2024 are here: https://www.dalkeithcountrypark.co.uk/event/dalkeithphoto/

The annual Photographica collectors fair takes place on May 19th at the Royal National Hotel, Bloomsbury. Organised by the Photographic Collectors Club of Great Britain, the show usually has an emphasis on cameras and equipment, but this year an increased number of image dealers will also be exhibiting. With a number of other events taking place in London that weekend, inlcuding the ABA Firsts book fair and Photo London, a number of dealers expressed an interest in finding a platform to exhibit.  Exhibitors taking part, who primarily deal in images, include  Richard Meara, Paul Frecker, Pump Park Vintage Photography, Lisa Tao, Iain Burr, Sean Sexton and Adnan Sezer. The fair opens at 10am and admission is £8 before noon, and £5 afterwards. 

Peter Kennard is a London-based artist and activist, and Emeritus Professor of Political Art at the Royal College of Art. A new exhibition, Archive of Dissent, marks one of the most extensive displays of Peter Kennard’s work to date and has been specially conceived for Whitechapel Gallery. Taking over three galleries within the former Whitechapel Library space, the exhibition brings together work from across the artist’s prolific and influential five-decade career, offering an important repository of social and political history while illuminating an artistic practice that has continuously countered and protested the status quo.

Since the 1970s, Kennard has produced some of our most iconic and influential images of resistance and dissent. From the Vietnam War, Anti-Apartheid Movement, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), and Stop the War Coalition campaigns in the 2000s, through to the present wars in Ukraine and Gaza and his ongoing commitment to environmental activism, Kennard has developed a unique visual practice that bridges art and politics for a broad range of audiences.

Reflecting the history of the spaces’ former library function, Kennard’s proposition for the exhibition takes the form of an active and constantly evolving archive, much of which will be presented as printed material displayed on walls, placards, in vitrines or on lecterns. These include the newspapers where his images were first published, as well as the posters and books through which they continue to circulate.    

The exhibition delves into the artist’s process of making, beginning with a selection of the distinctive photomontages he has been making since the 1970s. Inspired by the work of John Heartfield (1891–1968), who pioneered montage as a political tool in the 1930s, Kennard’s montages deconstruct familiar and ubiquitous images and re-imagines them through different formats and scales of publication. The works not only serve to expose the relationship between power, capital, war and the destruction of planet Earth but also ‘to show new possibilities emerging from the cracks and splinters of the old reality’. 

Archive of Dissent also includes two of Kennard’s most recent and ambitious installations Boardroom (2023) and Double Exposure (2023) which use light, glass and projection to deconstruct the medium of photomontage, as well as a new work, The People’s University of the East End (2024). Taking its title from the colloquial name for the former Library space, the work draws attention to its original purpose as a democratic local resource, while continuing to harness and evoke the iconography and forms of protest.  

Peter Kennard comments: “My art erupts from outrage at the fact that the search for financial profit rules every nook and cranny of our society. Profit masks poverty, racism, war, climate catastrophe and on and on…Archive of Dissent brings together fifty years of work that all attempt to express that anger by ripping through the mask by cutting, tearing, montaging and juxtaposing imagery that we are all bombarded with daily. It shows what lies behind the mask: the victims, the resistance, the human communality saying ‘no’ to corporate and state power. It rails at the waste of lives caused by the trillions spent on manufacturing weapons and the vast profits made by arms companies.”

Peter Kennard - Archive of Dissent
23 July - 24 November 2024
London: Whitechapel Gallery
https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/peter-kennard-archive-of-dissent/

Image: Peter Kennard, Thatcher Unmasked, 1986, Photomontage – Gelatin silver prints with ink on card. a/political collection. Courtesy the artist.​

Chris Chapman was born in Wigan, Lancashire in 1952. He began his photographic career at the Newport College of Art in South Wales where he was invited to join the Documentary Photography Course run by the Magnum photographer, David Hurn.

In 1975 he moved to Dartmoor, since when he has documented aspects of Dartmoor life. His photographs reflect traditional skills inherent in the indigenous population and emphasise the accumulation of knowledge associated with age and customs. He has a large archive depicting the culture and character of the region. He was a friend and collaborator with James Ravilious.

His photography has been widely recognised and is represented in both public and private collections, including those of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Arts Council of England and the International Center of Photography in New York. His work has been published under various titles, including The Right Side of the Hedge (David & Charles), Dartmoor: The Threatened Wilderness (Channel 4) and Wild Goose and Riddon.

The Dartmoor Photographs of Chris Chapman now make the most integral element of his work accessible to the public in one place in this free exhibition and the aim of this project is to expand the collection as time progresses.

A short presentation by Chris about his photography is free to view here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJL_Kk4_cHw&t

The Dartmoor Photographs of Chris Chapman
Permanent display, but check for opening days and times
Providence Methodist Chapel, Throwleigh, Dartmoor EX20 2HZ
See: https://thedartmoorphotographs.com

Chris's website is here: https://www.chrischapmanphotography.co.uk/

The Photographic History MA Programme at De Montfort University is now recruiting the new student cohort for the academic session 2024/25, with delivery modes available as full time, part time or per-module. Per-module applications from professionals looking for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunities are also very welcome.

Take advantage of the flexible mode of delivery to study around your job, family, and other personal or professional commitments.

The Photographic History MA is delivered online, enabling students to complete the vast majority of module activities and assessments asynchronously (i.e. you can complete them at your own time, day or night within the module schedule).

It will provide you with the skills needed to explore photographic materials, practices, processes, and critical field scholarship. Along the way, it will equip you with real-world professional expertise through remote fieldwork experience at leading photography organisations.

Term 1 Modules:

Learning Photographic History Online;

Material Histories;

Photography, Ethics and Emotions;

Producing and Consuming Photographs;

Photographic Historiography.

Term 2 Modules:

Photography and Politics;

Photography, Science and Technology;

Fieldwork Experience.

Term 2x Modules:

Dissertation or Heritage Project

NOTE: All modules are indicative and based on the current academic session.

Aimed at anyone with deep interest in photographic practice, communication media, visual history, or archival collections, the Photographic History MA will prepare you for further study and careers in the culture sector. Join us to discover how digital and analogue photography have shaped the ways we imagine the past and how we experience life in the present day.

For more information, visit Photographic History MA and should you have any questions please feel free to get in touch directly with me at gpasternak@dmu.ac.uk

Sir John Herschel (1792-1871), son of the astronomer William Herschel and nephew to Caroline Herschel, was the most influential natural philosopher of the Victorian period.
His long career encompassed astronomy, mathematics, physics, geology, chemistry, as well as art, literature, politics, and the invention of photography. Herschel’s 1831 Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy was the first book in English on the philosophy of science and had a formative influence on a generation of scientists, including Charles Darwin. This conference explores all aspects of Herschel’s life & work.

Of particular note is session three: 

Herschel’s Methodology

This exhibition celebrates the work of E Howard Farmer, who today is little-known but was a leading figure in the science of photography and as an educator. The exhibition features the image immortalised on the Led Zepplin IV album cover. Through the exhibition, we will show how Farmer captured the spirit. 

The exhibition shows how Farmer captured the spirit of people, villages and landscapes of Wiltshire and Dorset that were so much of a contrast to his life in London. It is fascinating to see how this theme of rural and urban contrasts was developed by Led Zeppelin and became the focus for this iconic album cover 70 years later.

A framed colour version of this image of an elderly man carrying a large bundle of sticks on his back will be recognised worldwide. It is the centrepiece of the iconic front cover of Led Zeppelin IV which famously features no words.

The origin of the central figure has remained a mystery for over half a century. It can now be revealed as a late Victorian coloured photograph of a Wiltshire thatcher. A grey beard underlining his weathered face, the figure stoops whilst apparently pausing for the photographer, his leathery hands grasp the pole supporting the bundle of hazel on his back.

The original of the photograph made famous by the band was recently discovered in a late Victorian photograph album. The discovery was made by Brian Edwards, a Visiting Research Fellow with the Regional History Centre at the University of the West of England, and is in the Museum collections.

Released on November 8, 1971, Led Zeppelin IV has sold more than 37 million copies worldwide. The album’s cover artwork was radically absent of any indication of the musicians or a title. The framed image, often been referred to as a painting, is understood to have been discovered by the band’s lead singer Robert Plant in an antique shop near guitarist Jimmy Page’s house in Pangbourne, Berkshire. Closer inspection reveals this framed image was a coloured photograph, the whereabouts of which is now unknown.

The black and white original Victorian photograph was discovered during ongoing research extending from the Ways of Seeing Wiltshire exhibition (20 May 2021 to 30 August 2021), which was curated by Brian Edwards in partnership with Wiltshire Museum. From paintings to photographs and artefacts to memories, Edwards’ research involved monitoring everyday sources that stimulates public engagement with Wiltshire’s past. While following up on some early photographs of Stonehenge, Edwards came across the Victorian photograph Led Zeppelin made familiar over half a century ago.

Featuring exceptional photographs from Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset, the Victorian photograph album contained over 100 architectural views and street scenes together with a few portraits of rural workers. Most of the photographs are titled and beneath the photograph made famous by Led Zeppelin the photographer has written ‘A Wiltshire Thatcher’. The Victorian photograph album is titled ‘Reminiscences of a visit to Shaftesbury. Whitsuntide 1892. A present to Auntie from Ernest.’

Brian Edwards said: “Led Zeppelin created the soundtrack that has accompanied me since my teenage years, so I really hope the discovery of this Victorian photograph pleases and entertains Robert, Jimmy, and John Paul.”

A part signature matching the writing in the album suggests the photographer is Ernest Howard Farmer (1856-1944), the first head of the School of Photography at the then newly renamed Polytechnic Regent Street. Now part of the University of Westminster, Farmer had worked in the same building as the instructor of photography since 1882, when it was then known as the Polytechnic Young Men’s Christian Institute.

A Wiltshire Thatcher – a Photographic Journey through Victorian Wessex
until 1 September 2024
Wiltshire Museum, Devizes
See: https://www.wiltshiremuseum.org.uk/?exhibition=wiltshire-thatcher-a-photographic-journey-through-victorian-wessex

A talk on the history of photography takes place on 16 July 2024: see: https://www.wiltshiremuseum.org.uk/?event=lecture-exploring-photographys-history-up-to-1939

Dr Sara Dominici, Senior Lecturer in Photographic History and Visual Culture, at the University of Westminster, has been awarded a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant to support her research project on The Photographic Darkroom in the Northern Transatlantic World, 1850s-1910s.

The project explores the development and use of the photographic darkroom in Britain and North America between the 1850s and 1910s. From portable dark-tents to dedicated structures, the darkroom was central to photographers’ lives as simultaneously a site of often unruly physical conditions and social relations, and a modern laboratory of memories and the imagination kindled by processing photographs. By reconstructing how people across the English-speaking world responded to the challenges and opportunities of operating the darkroom in vastly different environments, this study is the first to provide a comprehensive account of how this space affected photographers’ relationship to their practice and identity. In doing so, it elaborates a conceptual framework for historical studies of the darkroom globally. 

The grant will support the archival research into photographic journals, images, and darkroom equipment held in the UK and USA, and the dissemination of its results.  

The work builds on last year's conference on the darkroom convened by Dominci and a special issue of the ESHP's PhotoResearcher

See: http://www.eshph.org/journal/photoresearcher-no-41-2024/

Autograph, is recruiting a Exhibitions Manager to manage delivery of its contemporary exhibition, loans and touring activity, which have a strong focus on photographic practice. Autograph works with a wide range of institutions in the UK and internationally to lend work and tour exhibitions originating in London. We appeal to very diverse visitors who are attracted to the issues addressed by artists we show and appreciate the quality of our offer.

Based at Rivington Place, in Shoreditch, London which houses our two public galleries, small scale screening facilities, a learning studio and our specialist photographic collection, you will:

• Provide logistical support necessary to deliver Autograph’s artistic programme to a high standard, facilitating the curatorial vision agreed with artists for each project.
• Ensure that the highest standards of museum practice are delivered in design, build, procurement, risk management, health & safety (H&S), insurance and care of art works, working closely with curatorial and external stakeholders.
• Coordinate the installation and demounting of temporary exhibitions and collection displays on site with technical contractors and other suppliers.
• Manage, UK and international touring packages, loans and occasional artists’ projects off site.
• Contribute logistical insights to our programme development strategy which takes a team based approach to developing our public offer.
• Contribute to the team’s environmental sustainability work, feeding into and helping to shape the wider organisation’s environmental strategy.

Details here: https://autograph.org.uk/blog/news/exhibitions-manager/?mc_cid=ab2fed7cd8&mc_eid=b331f6dd6d

Applications are welcomed for two positions (PhD candidates) to become part of the research team of the project Associated Media of Austro-Hungarian Zoological Education (AMAZE) – Zoological wallcharts and glass lantern slides at the University of Vienna. The project is led by Assoz.-Prof. Alan S. Ross at the Department of Education and is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (fwf.ac.at).

AMAZE aims to establish visual and material studies as a central concern of the history of education. The usefulness of material sources for reconstructing the historical 'realities' of teaching, ie. the equipment, architecture and methods of teaching, has long been recognised, while their use for approaching epistemological and ideological questions was a marginal concern. Recent studies have shown that natural history education as a field in which objects and images were used to reinforce nationalist and imperialist as well as racist and specist ideologies in education.

However, multi-ethnic and multilingual states such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire have been largely ignored in the context of the propagation of nationalist and imperialist as well as racist and specist ideologies in education. The project aims to place the Habsburg Empire at the centre of visual politics during the nationalisation of education and the sciences in the late nineteenth century. The working hypothesis of the project is that visual and material culture was key to internal colonialism in the sciences of the Habsburg Empire.

The project will pioneer the exploitation of two types of serial media as sources for the history of education. The two collections originated in the former Institute of Zoology at the University of Vienna and are currently held at the Department of Evolutionary Biology. They depict images across the whole range of life-forms and were tied in to natural history teaching at the University of Vienna.

In their size and their documentation, these collections are unique in Europe:

1. a) one-off, handpainted educational wallcharts.
2. b) glass lantern slides.

The study of the Viennese collections advances the study of Habsburg imperial science both in terms of its relationship to other research centers in the empire as well as abroad. The exchange of educational media slides allows for the reconstruction of lop-sided relationships between center and periphery in the context of science and pedagogy.

Enquiries should be directed to the PI, Alan Ross: alan.ross@univie.ac.at

The lantern slide work stream which is likely to be of most interest to BPH readers is below:

The candidate will be in charge of the Work Package concerning the collection of approximately 8000 glas lantern slides produced between 1910 until 1970. Of these slides, approximately 1600 items (20%) were manufactured specifically for the collection.

The collection makes exceptionally clear the entanglement of older and newer media and the migration of visual topoi between them. On the one hand, it is possible to reconstruct in detail the sources for glass lantern slides. Photographers documented a large number of objects in the institute's collection of human and natural history specimens, producing, for instance, more than 200 photographs of skulls still extant at the Department of Evolutionary Biology. A considerable number of the Institute of Zoology's one-off wall charts were also reproduced as lantern slides. On the other hand, it is possible to reconstruct the international distribution of the glass lantern slides as well as their later role as source material for newer media. The detailed hand-written catalogue of these lantern slides also shows that lantern slides were exchanged with major research institutions abroad such as the American Museum of Natural History in New York. A considerable number of glass lantern slides have also been utilized in educational films. A large number of these have survived at the University of Vienna and are currently being examined and catalogued as part of a large project funded by the FWF.

What we expect:

The candidate will collaborate with the PI and the rest of the team as well as staff at the Department of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Vienna. The candidate will spend Year One of the project working through the collection of glas lantern slides at the Department of Evolutionary Biology and will collaborate with the staff of the department in documenting, digitizing and cataloguing the part of the collection that has not yet been digitized.

The candidate is expected to write a PhD thesis in the wider field of the research position and to publish preliminary results. The candidate is also required to attend fortnightly meetings with the PI and the other members of the team, to co-organize conferences and research meetings and to maintain the website of the project.

Preference will be given to graduates of history, the history of science, the history of art or educational science with a proven background in the history of the Habsburg Empire as well as some experience of working with visual and/ or material sources.

Very good language skills in German and English are required. Additionally, competence in a second language of the Habsburg Empire or the proven ability and willingness to acquire one during the project is expected.

What we offer:

- an international and lively environment.

- an inner-city research location.

- wide range of training possibilities.

- a fully equipped office space.

- 3-year contracts.

- a salary of 37.577 Euros per year.

How to apply:

Applications (titled SURNAME, Amaze, application 2024, glass slides) can be made in either English or German. They should be sent to the PI Alan Ross: alan.ross@univie.ac.at

The deadline is 15 May 2024.

The following material should be sent in a single PDF document:

1) A two-page letter of motivation. This letter should detail what skills and prior experience qualify you for the position. Outline how you think visual and material sources can help us understand the history of education and science and/ or the Habsburg Empire.

2) A CV, including a list of publications (if applicable).

3) A writing sample (for example an article or a comprehensive chapter of your MA thesis). The writing sample does not need to have been accepted by a publisher.

4) The name, email address and telephone number of at least two referees (do not send recommendation letters).

5) The certificate of your Masters degree.

Online interviews will take place at the end of May/ beginning of June 2024.

The Bodleian Libraries are recruiting The Bern and Ronny Schwartz Curator of Photography, a post generously endowed by The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation. You will increase the impact of our photographic holdings by carrying out the full range of work in relation to our photographic archives including: providing reference services in relation to the collections; developing the collections; appraising and cataloguing photographic archives; and contributing to public engagement activities.

You can expect to work with incredible collections, documenting photography from its earliest days through to contemporary photography. You will be passionate and knowledgeable about photography, possess the strong communication skills needed to share these collections with the Libraries’ many audiences, and the professional know-how to ensure the collections are managed in-line with the Libraries’ archival standards.

This is a full-time, permanent position, working 37.5 hours per week. Start and finish times are flexible, but you should be present in the Weston Library during core hours of Mon-Fri 10am–4pm. This role is an onsite role. It may be possible to work from home one day per week, depending on current activities. Participation in rotas for evening & weekend reading room supervision duties is required. For full-time staff, this is currently one evening from 5pm to 7pm every three weeks and two Saturdays a year.

Full details, including how to apply, can be found here: https://my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.display_form?p_company=10&p_internal_external=E&p_display_in_irish=N&p_process_type=&p_applicant_no=&p_form_profile_detail=&p_display_apply_ind=Y&p_refresh_search=Y&p_recruitment_id=171833

Only applications received online by 12.00 midday (BST) on Friday 31 May 2024 can be considered. Interviews are expected to take place during the week commencing Monday 24 June 2024.