Blogs

Edinburgh's Stills Gallery is seeking a director, to further develop the work of Stills so that it meets strategic objectives agreed with the Board, and that the organisation retains and advances a high national and international reputation achieved through quality programming, excellent stakeholder relationships, optimum income generation and effective management. The Director will be expected to work across the following areas:

A bold new study of Julia Margaret Cameron’s Victorian photographs charts the legacy of colonialism following the 1857 Indian Uprising. Julia Margaret Cameron, the celebrated Victorian photographer, was a child of the colonies. Born in 1815 in Calcutta, she was the daughter of a governing official of the East India Company. After relocating to London in 1848, Cameron was embraced by other British expatriates and a celebrated cultural network. This circle included literary personalities like Thackeray and Tennyson, painters and critics associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and political figures like Thomas Babington Macaulay and Lord Lansdowne.
 
In 1857, Indians rebelled against British rule, and in London, Cameron became absorbed by news of the Uprising. In the aftermath of the revolt, national and imperial politics transfixed England, some seven years before Cameron took up photography. The impact of those forces, and the inspiration of the literary, artistic, and political works produced by her circle, influenced her earliest imagery. Through close readings of these photographs, which she assembled in photographic albums, this book exposes how Cameron embedded in her work a visual rhetoric of imperial power.

Jeff Rosen is a former academic dean at Loyola University Chicago and professor of art history at Columbia College Chicago. He is now a scholar-in-residence at the Newberry Library, Chicago.

Julia Margaret Cameron. The Colonial Shadows of Victorian Photography
Jeff Rosen
Paul Mellon Centre
£45, 292 Pages, 215 x 269 mm, 101 colour + b-w illus.
https://yalebooks.co.uk/book/9781913107420/julia-margaret-cameron/

Photographers, particularly those in the North, will be sad to learn that after 26 years of supporting photographers and championing photography throughout the UK, Redeye, the Photography Network will wind down on 31 July 2024 due to a number of factors, including lack of funding.

Very sad - Redeye did some wonderful work over many years and I was so pleased to be involved with Paul Herrmann and the team over that time. With the Centre for British Photography on ice at the moment it is a worrying time for our independent photography community. 

From the Redeye Board:

Redeye was set up to advocate for photographers at every level and build networks across photography, delivering an innovative and vital programme. We are actively continuing to explore potential options for new provision of this service and hope to make a further announcement in the near future.

Over the next few weeks, we will celebrate our proud history of giving a voice to photographers, helping with professional development, and providing a platform to share photography events, photographers’ work and relevant opportunities. We will mark the many achievements the network has made through the hard work and dedication of Redeye staff and its board of directors. We would like to thank all our members, supporters and the photographers who have helped shape us, particularly in the North of England.

Please continue to check this social channel and our website (link in bio) for further announcements in the coming weeks.

Lindsay Taylor, on behalf of the Board of Directors:
Geoff Crossley
Asif Salam
Liz Wewiora
Suzanne St Clare
Verity Adriana
Simon Hyde

Redeye was created in 1998 by a group of photographers who met in Manchester to discuss research into what the region's practitioners needed in regard to North West Arts.With many facilities in demand such as darkrooms, exhibition spaces and help with legal matters, they decided that most photographers needed an environment in which they could network and learn from each other. By the beginning of 1999 these meetings had become regular. Some of the group, chaired by Len Grant, volunteered to help run the organisation. The award-winning British photographer Paul Hill gave the first of six talks that launched Redeye events in October 1999. The first paid member of staff was appointed in 2001, and a co-ordinator was selected the next year.

Image: Redeye, The Photography Network’s logo