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This two day international conference examines war photography as the result of pragmatic and strategic transactions and interactions concerning business, militarism and consumption. International speakers, including scholars, curators, picture editors and artists, will address the ways in which issues of supply and demand have shaped the field of war photography, and how this field has articulated with other forms of industrialised and commercial activity.

Speakers include Colin Harding (National Media Museum); Kevin Hamilton and Ned O'Gorman (University of Illinois); Anthony Penrose (Lee Miller Archives); Patricia Nelson (Stockholm School of Economics); Lívia Bonadio (Telegraph Magazine); and chairs include David Campbell (independent), Hilary Roberts (Research Curator of Photography, Imperial War Museum), and Janet Stewart (Director of Centre for Visual Arts and Cultures, Durham University).

The diverse papers encompass a range of geographic regions and modes of conflict from the early twentieth century to the present day, and reflect upon the relevance to war photography of commerce, industry, the military and marketing, as well as the role of workers, publishers, politicians, strategists, purchasers and consumers.

Subjects addressed include the British Army's use of Facebook; pictorial magazines of the Chinese Communist Party; photographic postcards from the First World War in Luxembourg; photo-albums of Finnish soldiers in the Continuation War 1941–1944; and contemporary sniper photographs in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

For full details of programme, abstracts, speakers, and how to register, visit Durham University School of Modern Languages and Cultures. 

Registration now open:

The Business of War Photography: Producing and Consuming Images of Conflict 

Durham University and Durham Light Infantry Museum & Durham Art Gallery, UK
31 July & 1 August 2014

Register by 14 July / £55 

Organisers and partners

The Business of War Photography is co-convened by Dr. Tom Allbeson and Pippa Oldfield, Head of Programme at Impressions Gallery and Doctoral Fellow at Durham University. The conference is presented in association with the Centre for Visual Arts and Cultures at Durham University, in partnership with Durham Light Infantry Museum & Durham Art Gallery and Impressions Gallery, Bradford. A limited number of concessionary places are supported by Royal Historical Society.

Location
The conference is held at Collingwood College, Durham University, UK. The opening session and an evening reception are held at Durham Light Infantry Museum & Durham Art Gallery, with the opportunity to view the photographic exhibition The Home Front by Melanie Friend, an Impressions Gallery touring exhibition curated by Pippa Oldfield.
 
Contact
Please address enquiries to bwp.2014@durham.ac.uk 

The European online daguerreotype database has published the first issue of its journal, Daguerreotype Journal.It is available free of charge here: http://www.daguerreobase.org/en/journal

AmberSide has to announced that it has received a confirmed grant of £1,121,200 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for its project, The AmberSide Collection: Access & Engagement.  It provides the key element in a £1.6m, three year programme of work. Securing a remarkable documentary film & photography collection, it supports:

• The capital redevelopment of Side Gallery on Newcastle’s Quayside, delivering full access, increased/enhanced exhibition spaces; a study centre with digital access to the collection and a library; improved work, exhibition development and conservation facilities (see image, right);

• A major exhibition at Newcastle’s Laing Art Gallery opening in June 2015, while Side Gallery is closed, exploring the rich narrative of the collection;

• A programme of volunteer involvement that will help to digitise over 7,000 images, 2,000 minutes of film & video as well as audio tapes and documents;

• The redesign and rebuild of Amber-Online, delivering access to the digitised collection and the rich network of connections between the different films and photographic bodies of work; 

• 18 projects working with the collection and the possibilities of documentary with primary schools, secondary schools, colleges, community groups and individuals - particularly in the communities whose histories have been captured in Amber / Side Gallery’s documentary works.

• The project will see the digitisation of photographs, video, documents and audio from an extensive T Dan Smith archive; together with the digitisation of a filmed interview with Mary Lowther on the Socialist Cafe, a key leftwing meeting place in Newcastle’s Royal Arcade.

Ivor Crowther, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund North East, said: “Documenting the lives of working class and marginalised communities in the North East over the last 40 years, the AmberSide collection is of significant local, national and international importance. HLF’s grant will not only conserve the historic building where the collection is housed, it will also drastically improve access and, by digitising the majority of items, create even more opportunities for people everywhere to learn about key moments in our history, including the decline of industry along the Tyne in the 70s, the redevelopment of Newcastle in Byker and images of Durham’s mining communities.” 

Founded by the filmmaker Murray Martin, the Amber collective came to the North East in 1969 ‘to collect documents of working class culture’. Collection accelerated after it opened Side Gallery in 1977. In 2011, the interlinked narrative of Amber’s films and the photography of collective member Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen was inscribed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World UK register. An influential voice in British documentary photography, it was a key player in the Film Workshop movement of the 80s and early 90s.

Collective member Graeme Rigby, said: “This is a hugely important award for us. Amber has created a living archive over the past 45 years. This gives us the opportunity to work with the collection and let people know just how beautiful and extraordinary it is. And it sets us up for the next 45 years!”

Matched funding is still being sought. 

See: http://www.amber-online.com/

The Isle of Wight County Press reports that one of the best known names in marine photography, Beken of Cowes, is for sale at £5 million. The Beken collection has more than one million images, taken by three generations of Beken, who have recorded all the major events on The Solent and also travelled the world to renowned regattas, including the America’s Cup and the Olympics.

After more than 40 years afloat with his camera, Ken Beken is retiring and has put 200 years of maritime history for sale. The assets of the business are the black and white archive, which goes back to 1888, and is on sale for £3.5 million, and the colour archive, which is up for £1.5 million.

The collection ranges from the era of glass plates to today’s digital images and has been described as a "national treasure". The business started in 1888, when chemist and photographer, Alfred Edward Beken, moved from Canterbury, Kent, to the Island and opened a pharmacy in Cowes.

Read more here: http://www.iwcp.co.uk/news/news/beken-marine-photos-go-on-sale-for-5m-60601.aspx

De Montfort University's Photographic History Research Centre's 2014 conference closed on 21 June after a successful two-day series of papers from international speakers presenting to an international audience.

At the conclusion Professor Elizabeth Edwards announced that the 2015 conference, to be held in June, would be titled 'Photography in Print' and would examine magazines, books and writing about photography.

A formal call for papers will be issued later this year.

Conveyor Arts has put out a call for writing submissions for a new book discussing the state of the photobook with an historical perspective. The deadline is 14 July 2014.

See: http://www.indiephotobooklibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/contemppb.jpg

Historians, curators and photographic practitioners have begun to re-examine older forms of photography, yet many cultural studies of nineteenth-century photography have been overly reliant upon twentieth-century theoretical constructions. 

This multidisciplinary conference will move away from these models, exploring issues such as early photographic 'authorship', traditional technological narratives, and the ideologies of photographic realism. 

Keynote speakers: Kate Flint, Lindsay Smith and Kelley Wilder. 

For more information contact: rethinkingphotography@gmail.com.

A celebration of photography inspired by Joseph Swan and his adventures with carbon, collodion and light.Joseph Swan is the inspiration for this festival of photography in Newcastle, running from Monday, 20 October to Sunday 26 October 2014. It marks the 100th anniversary of Swan`s death on 27 May 1914 and aims to highlight his important work in the field of photography.

Newcastle Photography Festival aims to create a platform for photography in the North East of England while celebrating one of photography’s greatest local sons, Joseph Swan. Taking place in venues across the city, it will present an exciting mix of exhibitions, participative workshops, photography walks culminating in a symposium where many of the participating photographers will visit to discuss their work.

Newcastle Photography Festival a non-profit organisation dedicated to the development and support of local involvement in photography. See more here: http://newphotofest.com/newcastle-photography-festival/

You are invited to a panel discussion on Saturday June 28 at Christie's, London, to celebrate the sale of important photographs to benefit the Shpilman Institute for Photography. The discussion will feature Martin Barnes, curator of photographs at the V&A, Shalom Shpilman, President and Founder, SIP, and Dr Nissan Perez, Vice President, SIP.

Please see attached invitations. London.pdf

De Montfort University is pleased to announce the availability of one Taylor Bursary for its MA in Photographic History. The Bursary offers £5,000 toward the defrayal of tuition and other costs related to the MA, and is open to all students UK, EU and International. To apply for the Taylor Bursary, please submit your cv and a proposal outlining your MA thesis topic, in English, to the Admissions Committee by 15 July 2014. This proposal should be no longer than 4,000 words. For questions about the MA programme or the Taylor Bursary Fellowship please contact Programme Leader, Dr Kelley Wilder at kwilder@dmu.ac.uk.

The Taylor Bursary will be awarded to applicants who will contribute significantly to the field of photographic history.

The MA in Photographic History is the first course of its kind in the UK, taking as it does the social and material history of photography at its centre. It lays the foundations for understanding the scope of photographic history and provides the tools to carry out the independent research in this larger context, working in particular from primary source material. You will work with public and private collections throughout Britain, handling photographic material, learning analogue photographic processes, writing history from objects in collections, comparing historical photographic movements, and debating the canon of photographic history. You also learn about digital preservation and access issues through practical design projects involving website and database design. Research Methods are a core component, providing students with essential handling, writing, digitising and presentation skills needed for MA and Research level work, as well as jobs in the field.

For further details on the course and application process, please see a course description: http://www.dmu.ac.uk/study/courses/postgraduate-courses/photographic-history-practice/photographic-history-and-practice-ma-pgdip.aspx

Brett Rogers, director of The Photographers' Gallery, London, has been awarded the Order of the British Empire, for 'services to the arts' in the Queen's Birthday Honours list published today. This was the only photography award made although other arts organisations were represented.

Brett Rogers, as Australian by birth, has thirty years of experience promoting photography and visual arts both in the UK and in Australia, where she worked as Exhibitions Manager at the Australian Gallery Directors’ Council from 1976 to 1979. She curated photography exhibitions where she was responsible for supporting original research into neglected areas of Australian women photographers, as well as touring photographic shows from abroad. In 1980, Rogers moved to the UK to complete an MA at the Courtauld Institute of Art. 

She joined the British Council in London, where she worked in the Visual Arts Department of the British Council and held the joint roles of Deputy Director and Head of Exhibitions. Rogers’ increased the profile and activity of British photography abroad with shows by such figures as Julia Margaret Cameron, Madame Yevonde and Martin Parr. Rogers was also responsible for initiating a series of important group shows including Documentary Dilemmas: British Documentary Photography in the Nineties, Look at me: Fashion and Photography in Britain 1960-1997, Reality Check - British Photography and New Media 2002-2004, and Common Ground, Aspects of contemporary Muslim experience 2002-2005.

Brett joined The Photographers’ Gallery as Director in 2006. She has overseen the Gallery’s move from Great Newport Street to Ramilles Street and a major redevelopment of the new premises. The refurbished building reopened in 2012. 

Check out an interview with Brett here: http://www.emahomagazine.com/2013/05/brett-rogers-30-years-of-curating/

The DGPh History of Photography Research Award 2014 will be open for all elements of research into photography’s many aspects. Besides aspects of traditional history and theory of photography, topics will be considered that deal with photography’s social meaning, or the impact that the medium has had on society. The applicant's work should represent an autonomous, innovative, and original  contribution to these areas. The award is open to researchers from all fields.

Applications and manuscripts for the DGPh History of Photography Research Award may be submitted in either English or German. Applications should consist of a published or unpublished manuscript produced during the last two years before the deadline. Project outlines, or yet unfinished manuscripts etc. will not be accepted.

Allocation will be the decision of an expert jury. The jury will publish its reasons to reward the winning entry. The jury consists of the  chairpersons of the History and Archives section of the DGPh, the previous prize winner plus one or a group of invited counsellor(s).

The decision of the jury will be final and binding. The award is honored with a total of 3,000 Euro. The jury holds the right to split the prize between two applicants in equal parts. The award will be handed over at a public event organized by the DGPh.

Submission requirements are:

- A complete manuscript in paper form (two copies) and as electronic file form (pdf)

- An abstract of the submitted work (approx. 300-500 words)
- A curriculum vitae (résumé)
- A list of publications.

The final date for submissions is August 19th, 2014 (date of postmark).

Submissions should be addressed to:

Geschäftsstelle der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Photographie
Overstolzenhaus
Rheingasse 8-12
D 50676 Cologne
Germany
email dgph@dgph.de

More information about the German Photographic Society: www.dgph.de

To commemorate the International Archives Day, the Municipal Archive of Girona (AMGi) and the Centre for Image Research and Diffusion (CRDI) of Girona’s City Council (Catalonia) have made available a resource for the preservation of their personal archives. This resource includes basic recommendations emerged from the experience of the archive's technicians.

This resource is available in English on http://www.girona.cat/sgdap/docs/dia2013_def-eng.pdf

BPH has just learnt that Roger Mayne died of a heart attached on Saturday, 7 June. A fuller obituary will be published later today. BPH sends its condolences to his wife Ann Jellicoe, their daughter Katkin and son Tom. 

UPDATED:

Tom Gitterman of his New York Gallery wrote in an email: 

Roger’s seminal body of work on the working class neighborhoods of London in the 1950s and early 1960s made him one of the most important post-war British photographers.

Photography was a way for Mayne to connect with people and explore the world around him. Mayne’s honest and empathetic approach to photography is evident in the candid response from his subjects and has influenced generations of photographers. 
 
Though his talent as a photographer was recognized early in his career, it was his solo exhibition at The Victoria and Albert Museum in 1986 and the subsequent use of his images on album covers and concert backdrops for the musician Morrissey in the 1990s that renewed interest in his work.  Thanks to the early support from his first dealer, Zelda Cheatle and Mark Haworth-Booth, former curator of photography at The Victoria and Albert Museum, and the continual support of my colleague Lindsey Stewart at Quaritch, his dealer in London, Mayne’s photographs are revered and included in numerous private and institutional collections worldwide.  Most recently, Mayne’s work was featured in Art of the ‘60s at the Tate Britain in 2004, Making History at the Tate Liverpool in 2006, How We Are: Photographing Britain at the Tate Britain in 2007 and Roger Mayne: Aspects of A Great Photographer at the Victoria Gallery, Bath in 2013.
 
Mayne first became interested in photography while studying chemistry at Balliol College, Oxford University from 1947-1951. In 1953 he developed an interest in the St. Ives School, which embraced the abstract avant-garde movement, and became friendly with the painters Terry Frost, Patrick Heron and Roger Hilton. Mayne consciously printed with high contrast to emphasize the formal qualities in his work and increased the scale of his prints to have a further dialogue with the painting of the time. 

In 1954 Mayne moved to London to become a photographer, and in 1956 he discovered Southam Street.  It was a street in a working class neighborhood of West London that would be demolished to make room for high-rise apartments.  During the five years Mayne photographed there, it was full of energy: teddy boys, jiving girls, and kids playing in the street.  Mayne also photographed other streets of West London and similar working class neighborhoods in Britain. For Mayne even the empty streets and dilapidated buildings had “a kind of decaying splendor.” Though modernization ended community life in the streets, Mayne’s work preserves the spirit of that time.  By 1959 Mayne’s images were so indicative of this period that Vogue used them to illustrate teenage styles.  Colin MacInnes used one of his images on the cover of Absolute Beginners, a novel told in the first person by a teenage freelance photographer living in West London that commented on the youth culture of the time.  

Throughout this period Mayne worked as a freelance photographer and his photographs were reproduced regularly in magazines and newspapers.  His work was included in group exhibitions at the Combined Societies, a progressive group of local photographic societies in Britain that broke away from the Royal Photographic Society.  His work was also included in Otto Steinert’s Subjektive Fotografie in Germany, a series of group exhibitions and books of international photography that emphasized personal expression and the aesthetic potential of the medium. Mayne had solo exhibitions in 1956 at the George Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y. and at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. As early as 1956-57 the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Art Institute of Chicago acquired his work.

It has been an honor and a pleasure to represent Roger. My relationship with him has affected me greatly, always reminding me to be as true to others as I am to myself. I will miss him.

Tom Gitterman

Gitterman Gallery
41 East 57th Street, Suite 1103
New York, NY 10022
212 734 0868
info@gittermangallery.com
www.gittermangallery.com

An obituary was published in The Guardian newspaper: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jun/13/roger-mayne

Image top: © Roger Mayne, Self-Portrait, 1956; Above: Edinburgh; Courtesy: Quaritch.

Does anyone know the true photographer of this image? I've seen it variously attributed to Thomson and A. Fong.  Published in "A New History of Photography" Edited by Michel Frizot (Page 149) as "attributed to Fong".

My copy has a letterpress description below… and is listed as No. 321, so obviously part of a series, book, or album, but I can find no information about this.

Thanks in advance for any help!

David

Doha News reports that plans for the proposed Qatar-based International Media Museum in Doha have been scrapped amidst staff and budget reductions. Several senior staff working on the Media collections have recently left. The newspaper reports that: 'QMA employees have also alleged that teams working on plans for three proposed museums – the Pearl, Media and Children’s museums – have been significantly reduced, and plans for individual museums scrapped.

'However, a QMA spokesperson told Doha News today that while the organization had considered establishing permanent homes for the Pearl and Media collections, these plans were never formalized. The collections remain, however, and their respective teams are still working on them, she said, adding that there had been “no change” to plans for the Children’s Museum.' Reference to the photography and related collections have been removed from the QMA, now Qatar Museums, website which has recently been updated.

The Qatar state has acquired significant holdings of photography, originally through the collecting of Sheikh Saud Al-Thani, and subsequently taken over by the state.  Al Thani collected photography, cameras and printed materials - from the late 1990s. The QMA collections include significant holdings of daguerreotypes and the S F Spira Collection amongst many others. According to the QMA: 'The IMM possesses one of the most outstanding and valuable photographic collections in the region and one that ranks with major collections through the world. The photographs are of exceptional quality and span from the 19th century to present. The collection includes photographs from early daguerreotypes through albums and photography - illustrated books to contemporary colour photographs and photographic advertising poster. Also IMM possesses a collection of films and photographic and film technology as well as a significant rare book collection.' Recently buying of photography by the QMA had largely stopped. 

Details of the QMA Photography collections can be found here: http://www.qma.org.qa/online/index.php/en/collections/photography

Plans for a photography museum, later re-named International Media Museum, were first drawn up by 2002 and were well advanced with designs (shown above, left) prepared by the renowned architect Santiago Calatrava. Construction never started.

In February 2013 World Architecture News revealed plans (image below, right) from Fernando Romero Enterprise’s (FR-EE) latest building concept: PH Museum in the Middle East. The location of the building was widely believed to be Doha. WAN noted: 'The main bulk of the 3,800sq m museum takes the form of a large canopy, shading visitors from harsh sunlight beneath a circular overhang. Romero has taken his cue from ‘the mechanics of a camera’, falling in line with the functionality of the space as a museum of photography and photographic equipment.

FR-EE explains: “Inspired by the mechanics of a camera, the organization of the museum reflects the complexity of a camera lens. The interior is organized radially from the center of the building and a spiraling ramp connects these spaces to emphasize spatial continuity.'

The proposed opening had been postponed several times since, most recently with a date of 2017 being suggested. This now appears to be unlikely as QM reviews its cultural strategy, assesses its budgets, appoints a new CEO after the departure of Edward Dolman, and adopts a policy of Qatarisation for employees. Sadly, the photography museum appears to have become a casualty of those changes. 

See: http://dohanews.co/qatar-museums-authority-announces-re-branding-amid-job-loss-uncertainty/ and 

http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/main/search/search?q=Qatar

The RIBA announces an international symposium on architectural photography in conjunction with the first major retrospective of the British architectural photographer Edwin Smith (1912-1971), whose prolific work helped redefine the notion of post-WWII Britishness. The symposium will take place on 13-14 November at RIBA in London. 

The symposium will honour the legacy of Robert Elwall (1953-2012), an acclaimed British historian of architectural photography and curator, since 1976, of the RIBA's Photographs Collection that now bears his name. With some million and a half architectural images, the Robert Elwall Photographs Collection is one of the most extensive resources for the study of the influence of photography on architecture and the creative process.

A call for papers

The RIBA invites papers from photographers, researchers, academics, curators and students in conjunction with the first major retrospective of the work of the British architectural photographer Edwin Smith (1912-1971) – Ordinary Beauty: The Photography of Edwin Smith . Interested participants are invited to submit a 300-word abstract, brief biography and a presentation title by no later than 31 July 2014. The call for papers is available here. 

See website for further details details http://www.architecture.com/WhatsOn/November2014/BuildingWithLightTheLegacyOfRobertElwall.aspx