Blogs

The number of deepfakes shared online rose from around half a million in 2023 to eight million by 2025. While much of this material is seen as humorous or satirical, deepfakes are increasingly used for scams, misinformation, and political manipulation, exploiting a long-standing human weakness: our tendency to trust what we can see.

The Long View explores a striking historical parallel — the Cottingley Fairies affair of 1917–1921. In post-First World War Yorkshire, two young cousins, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, produced photographs that appeared to show real fairies. The images were crude cut-outs, but photography was then a new “truth machine”, imbued with cultural authority. The photographs were believed not only by many in the public but by the famous writer and creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who championed them as evidence of spiritual reality. At the same time, rationalist sceptics weighed in, dismissing the photographs as fake and a polarised debate ensued. The girls did not fully admit the images were fake until the 1980s. Cottingley shows us not only that images can be faked but that - from early photography to today’s generative AI - every era over-trusts its latest representational technology before learning its limits.

Jonathan Freedland is joined by Dr Merrick Burrow from the University of Huddersfield and Marianna Spring, the BBC’s disinformation specialist to explore the Cottingley Fairies story and ask what lessons can be learned from it in today’s age of digital deception. Guests: Dr Merrick Burrow, Head of English and Creative Writing at the University of Huddersfield; Marianna Spring, BBC Disinformation Specialist

Listen on Radio 4 and now on BBC Sounds: The Long View:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002s4cv

A new photography fair offering vintage through to contemporary photography and photobooks is to take place on 16 May 2026. The Other Photography Fair will be held at the Hilton London Olympia Hotel which is a five-minute walk from the Photo London's new venue, a five-minute walk from Olympia railway station and a short journey from High Street Kensington tube and Chiswick Auctions Fine Photographs Gallery.

Exhibitor tables are 6 x 2.5ft and will cost £200 each. There is a 10% discount if you book more than one table. Discounted hotel accomodation is also expected to be available. The new fair comes during Photo London which runs from 14-17 May in its new venue at Olympia, and the day before Photographica on 17 May which mainly offers vintage and collectible cameras and takes place at the Royal National Hotel in Bloomsbury. 

Organised by Austin Farahar, the Other Photography Fair is being sponsored and marketed by Chiswick Auctions Fine Photographs Department. Prospective exhibitors are invited to signal their interest in participating by filling out an online form here. If you have any questions about the event, logistical or otherwise, Austin Farahar would be delighted to answer any questions. His direct line is (+44) 07843 348748. 

A Vixex colour print from Madame Yevonde has sold at an auction in the United States for $29,210 (approx £21,800). Metis which dates to c1935 was included in an auction of Photographic Masterworks from an Important Private Collection by New Jersey based Rago auctions on 12 February 2026. It had been estimated at $3000-5000. The print had been exhibited by Yevonde at the National Exhibition of Professional Photography held by the Institute of British Photographers in 1952.

It had previously appeared at Christie's auctions in 1992 and 2012 where it sold for £462 and €22,500 respectively. An example is also held in the National Portrait Gallery collection which holds the surviving Yevonde negatives.  

See: https://www.ragoarts.com/auctions/2026/02/photographic-masterworks-from-an-important-private-collection/100 and the NPG Collection print

The Albert-Kahn Museum’s current exhibition, A Return Trip to Benin. Shared Perspectives on Dahomey, from 1930 to today (Bénin aller-retour. Regards sur le Dahomey de 1930), offers a reinterpretation of the films and photographs produced during a mission to Dahomey (now Benin) led from January to May 1930 by Catholic missionary Francis Aupiais and camera operator Frédéric Gadmer for Albert Kahn’s Archives of the Planet. This immersion, meant as a Franco-Beninese dialogue, questions the views on non-European cultures in a context of colonial rule and the birth of ethnography.

Following on from a series of inaugural exhibitions dedicated to travel and gardens, the Albert-Kahn Museum continues to explore the fundamental themes of its collections, this time focusing on perspectives on non-European cultures and the ethnographic dimension of the Archives of the Planet, recently added to the UNESCO 'Memory of the World' Register.

The 1930 mission to Dahomey was unique in several ways: it was the only foray by the Archives of the Planet into sub-Saharan Africa, the last major expedition before the project was halted due to Albert Kahn’s bankruptcy, and the result of an initiative by an atypical clergyman, Father Francis Aupiais (1877-1945). This missionary priest, committed to a long-term endeavor to improve knowledge of African cultures, contacted Albert Kahn in 1927 and convinced him to finance his project to document Dahomey’s cultural and religious practices, in line with the philanthropist’s humanist views.

One of the first film collections of French ethnography

Father Aupiais’s goal was to promote an 'African recognitio' by documenting the traditional culture of Dahomey, particularly royal ceremonies and vodun rituals, which he held in high esteem. The mission lasted four and a half months, during which Frédéric Gadmer produced 1,102 autochromes (color photographs) and shot 140 film reels under Aupiais’s direction. These films, the first of this scale to be shot in Dahomey, constitute the largest collection of films in the Archives of the Planet and one of the first film collections of French ethnography, five years after the founding of the Paris Institute of Ethnology and one year before the Dakar-Djibouti mission.

Recently digitized in high definition (4K), these films constitute the narrative arc of the exhibition, which aims to present the outline, challenges, and legacy of this unusual mission, a century later. Projected in large format throughout an immersive journey, they offer unprecedented image quality and immerse visitors in the intimacy of Dahomey’s ceremonies and cults, forging links between yesterday’s protagonists and today’s visitors, between France and Benin.

Numerous objects, in a large part loaned by the musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, echo the still and moving images: emblems of power, vodun artifacts, and tools dedicated to divination are striking in their sophistication, matching the uses for which they were intended, documented in the films. These rare pieces also feature items exhibited in France by Father Aupiais himself.

Views from contemporary African artists

A Return Trip to Benin also questions the contemporary reception of images from 1930 through the eyes of artists from the African continent. Serving as a perspective and critical counterpoint, artworks by Ishola Akpo, Thulani Chauke, Sènami Donoumassou, Bronwyn Lace, Roméo Mivekannin, Angelo Moustapha, and Marcus Neustetter, several of which were created specifically for the exhibition, combine painting, photography, installation, and performance, reappropriating and reactivating the photographs and films.

The Albert-Kahn Museum

Located in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, the Albert-Kahn Museum preserves and promotes the work of Albert Kahn (1860-1940), a French banker and philanthropist who devoted his fortune to promoting knowledge and understanding between peoples. In addition to the collection of photographs and films in the Archives of the Planet, it features a four-hectare landscaped garden, the vegetal embodiment of its patron's universalist dream.

An ambitious renovation completed in 2022 significantly increased the space dedicated to exhibitions, notably thanks to a new 2,300-square-meter building designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, creating a dialogue between the image collections and the garden. The museum has welcomed more than 600,000 visitors since its reopening.

A Return Trip to Benin. Shared Perspectives on Dahomey, from 1930 to today / Bénin aller-retour. Regards sur le Dahomey de 1930
until 14 June 2026
Musée départemental Albert-Kahn – Albert-Kahn Museum, 2 rue du Port, 92100 Boulogne-Billancourt
Further information: albert-kahn.hauts-de-seine.fr

Image: Frédéric Gadmer, Vodunon performing the dance of Heviosso, Dahomey (Benin), 1930, film still © CD92 musée départemental Albert-Kahn / Archives de la Planète

The Peter Marlow Foundation (PMF) was established in 2018 to celebrate, preserve, and activate the archive of the late Magnum photographer Peter Marlow, while supporting contemporary photography and visual literacy across the UK, with a special focus on Kent and surrounding counties. As part of this mission, we launched our Archival Research Fellowship, funded through a Knowledge Exchange Partnership with the University for the Creative Arts. The fellowship invited a PhD student to help PMF investigate best practices for photographic archives and develop a training programme for local young people.

We were delighted to work with Camille Serisier as our inaugural Archival Research Fellow. Camille, a doctoral candidate at UCA with extensive experience in the GLAM sector, conducted a detailed scoping review of PMF’s resources, goals and organisational structure, and created an archival inventory, collections management documentation, plans for a training programme for local young people and a sustainability strategy.

A full report of Camille’s work and outcomes is available on our website and via the UCA digital research repository, UCARO. We hope it will support other photographers and archives, and we look forward to sharing more results from this knowledge exchange in the future.

Read more here: https://petermarlowfoundation.org/journal/announcing-our-archive-research-fellowship/

Image: Archival Research Fellow, Camille Serisier, working in the Peter Marlow Foundation archive in Dungeness. Photo Credit: Olivia Arthur/Magnum Photos

Quaritch has announced the publication of its latest book, The Photographer at Work: Documenting Civil Engineering 1853 to 1913. This catalogue of photographs highlights the intersections between civil engineering and photography from 1853 to 1915, lavishly illustrated with over four hundred photographic illustrations. Beginning with portrait photographs of the civil engineer  Robert Stephenson, The Photographer at Work highlights the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge and Montreal’s Victoria Bridge before featuring photographic albums on individual civil engineering projects, with a great deal of material on French infrastructure, the Paris metro, and the Panama Canal.

The photographs take centre stage, showing not only an impressive array of canals, water supply systems, harbours, lighthouses, railway bridges, and tunnels, but also fascinating portraits of builders and engineers at work.

The photographs and albums included in this catalogue are a part of the broader Andrews Collection of Civil Engineering. The overall collection of 7500 items includes not only printed books but also bound manuscripts, drawings, and an extensive archive of construction photographs, some of which have been presented here. The collection documents the development of engineering in the broadest terms and therefore includes European, Arabian, and Asian as well as North and South American material.

Mark E. Andrews has been collecting books about applied science and civil engineering since his university days in the late 1970s.  He is a member of the Grolier Club and the Association internationale de bibliophilie. In addition to writing numerous bibliophilic articles, he has published a series of catalogues documenting the books related to machines and hydraulics in his collection.

The Photographer at Work. Documenting Civil Engineering 1853 to 1913. 
Mark E Andrews
Toronto, AE Publications, 2025
£85, Square folio (280 x 280 mm), pp. xvi, 431, [9]; over 400 photographic illustrations, c. 150 of which full- or double-page; coloured endpapers, printed boards, with photographic dustjacket
See: https://www.quaritch.com/books/andrews-mark-e/the-photographer-at-work-documenting-civil-engineering-1853-to-1913/U70/

Charlie Phillips describes himself as a “Windrush kid”. He arrived in London from Jamaica in the late 1950s at the age of 11. It was a time of slum landlords and race riots. He spent his teenage years in Notting Hill – back then regarded as a ghetto – with few possessions, sharing a single, cramped room with his parents.

After a Black American GI looking for fun in the city left behind a Kodak Retina camera at a house party in Notting Hill (swapping it with Charlie’s father for taxi fare), Charlie’s life changed. Aged 14, he taught himself to develop 35mm film, turning his bathroom into a darkroom in the dead of night when everyone was asleep. A copy of The Saturday Evening Post the GI also left behind, with the painting The Runaway by Norman Rockwell on the cover, became his gateway to another world.

At first, he took photos of his friends and sold them at school, but then through the lens he began to document the world around him, the emerging one of musicians, street life, parties, families and rude boys in their zoot suits arriving fresh from Tilbury Docks; and the disappearing one, taking us into the unseen world of Afro-Caribbean funeral culture (a decades-long project called How Great Thou Art has documented changing fashions as much as changing attitudes) and photographing the final days of streets demolished for the Westway flyover. The relaxed nature of his subjects speak of Charlie’s own spontaneous style and personality, but the compositions tell a bigger story of a changing London and Britain.

Charlie Phillips - A Grassroots Legacy
Bluecoat Press
£50, 240 x 291mm, 112 pages
Cloth-bound hardcover with tip-in
With an introduction by Cecil Gutzmore and a preface by Paul Goodwin
https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/charlie-phillips-a-grassroots-legacy-1962-2010/

The Royal Anthropological Institute is a learned society, founded in its present form in 1871.Today, it has around 1850 members and Fellows, and a busy and varied programme of events, publications, conferences, and related initiatives.

The RAI cares for large and diverse collections. These comprise institutional archives recording the history of the institute and anthropology in the UK and a manuscript collection which includes fieldnotes, maps, transcripts, and other research materials from anthropologists working across the globe over the past 150 years. The photographic collections number over 120,000 images ranging from 19^th century colonial documentary images to recent field photographs across formats including glass-plate negatives, prints, film, and born-digital material. The collections also include historic films, and a smaller number of original artworks and objects.

The RAI regularly welcomes researchers and visitors to its collections as well as licensing images for publication. We also receive new collections each year.

About the role

The RAI are seeking to appoint a Collections Assistant to support the care of its archival and photographic collections. The Collections Assistant will work alongside the Archivist and Photographic Curator, focusing on the cataloguing, digitisation, and storage of uncatalogued and newly accessioned material.

The successful candidate will have experience in working with archive or museum collections, experience or interest in digitising historic photograph collections, and an interest in anthropology.

Key responsibilities

• To support the Archivist and Photographic Curator in organising collections and identifying appropriate structures and approaches to cataloguing them.
• To catalogue archival and photographic collections to ISAD (G) and SPECTRUM standards using the RAI’s FileMaker database and in-house archive cataloguing system.
• To identify items which may need additional levels of care or discussion e.g. fragile, damaged, or ethically complex documents or photographs.
• To digitise historic photographic collections using scanning equipment.
• To pack archival and photographic collections for safe handling and storage.
• To support the Archivist and Photographic Curator with day-to-day collections care and management including: supervising visitors to the collection; fulfilling publication requests for images; moving and rehousing collections, supporting exhibitions, acquisitions, and loans; and integrated pest management (IPM).

Location: London (in-office). Due to the nature of the work this role is not suitable for remote or hybrid working. 
Contract: Part time, Permanent
Hours: 2 days per week, working pattern may be negotiated
Start date: Early June 2026 
Pay: £29,694 pro rata (£11,877.60)

Read more about the photography collection here: https://therai.org.uk/photographs/

Details: https://therai.org.uk/publications/anthropology-today/vacancylink/collections-assistant/

As BPH hinted at the beginning of February there are changes coming at Impressions Gallery. The Gallery is to relocate pending finding a permanent space and its long-time director Anne McNeill is stepping down. Impressions Gallery will take up temporary residence in the former Bradford Club, an iconic and well-loved historic building in the city centre, when Impressions lease in Centenary Square ends in March. This marks the next chapter in the gallery’s long and successful history from 1972, as it continues developing plans for its new permanent home in Bradford.

The move coincides with a planned change in leadership, as Director Anne McNeill prepares to step down after 26 years in the role. Impressions Gallery has an established relationship with the Bradford Club, having presented pop-up exhibitions and events in the building in recent years. This relocation will enable the charity to continue its artistic programme in 2026 and 2027.

The upcoming programme, with a focus on sustainability, includes the national touring exhibition Clare Hewitt’s Everything in the forest is the forest at MAC, Birmingham (April to August 2026); offsite exhibitions launching autumn 2026; the development of the community-sourced digital archive Bradford Family Album; and outreach work with local communities and young people. Impressions base at the former Bradford Club will also act as a welcoming hub for photographers in the region to connect with each other, and receive guidance and support at regular events and drop-ins.

“Impressions Gallery has a strong track record of working beyond conventional gallery spaces,” says Anne McNeill, “returning to the former Bradford Club as a temporary home builds on our existing connection to the space, while allowing us to continue our work and think ambitiously about a permanent future in the city.”

Director Anne McNeill will step down from her role in March 2026, concluding 26 years at the gallery. During her tenure, McNeill has led Impressions through a period of sustained artistic and organisational development, cementing Impressions’ national and international profile in photography and visual culture. This includes the gallery’s bold move from York to Bradford in 2005, and the realisation of major international exhibitions for Bradford’s Year as UK City of Culture. McNeill will remain in post until the end of March 2026, working alongside the experienced and committed team to support the transition.

Anne McNeill, Director says: “After 26 years, now feels like the right moment to hand over the reins and make space for new leadership and fresh ideas as Impressions enters the next chapter in its long and successful history. It has been an absolute privilege to lead Impressions, firstly in York, then moving the organisation to Bradford in 2005 and opening the first purpose-built photography gallery in the UK, through to our role in helping Bradford to secure its title as UK City of Culture 2025. I have loved working with such dedicated colleagues and talented artists. I’m immensely proud of what the team has achieved together; nurturing talent, building communities, championing photographers and diverse voices that reflect the richness of society. As for me, I am looking forward to exploring new creative challenges, while remaining a passionate advocate for photography and for Bradford.”

Julian Rodriguez, Co-Chair of Impressions Gallery, said: “We sincerely thank Anne for her visionary and committed leadership and the immense contribution she has made to Impressions Gallery and the wider international photography sector. As Impressions move into this next chapter, we remain focused on delivering an ambitious programme and playing an active role in Bradford’s cultural landscape as it continues to strengthen and grow”.

Impressions Gallery Board of Trustees will begin the process of appointing a new Director in spring 2026. Further announcements about the organisation's relocation and longer-term plans for a permanent home will be made later this year.

Impressions in Residence, The Bradford Club, 1 Piece Hall Yard, Bradford BD1 1PJ
t: 01274 737843
w: www.impressions-gallery.com
Instagram: @ImpGalleryPhoto

In the last twenty years, Impressions has staged 65 exhibitions in its Bradford gallery space, showing the work of 207 a!tists and commissioning 37 new bodies of photographic work, which have then toured the UK and beyond. Last year Nationhood: Memory and Hope, a powerful and poignant photography exhibition celebrating the diversity of the UK by acclaimed Ethiopian photographer Aïda Muluneh and seven rising UK photographers became the first ever UK City of Culture project to take place in all four nations of the UK. Read more about Impressions Gallery's history and Anne McNeill.

Images: (top) Bradford Club; (lower) Anne McNeill. Courtesy Impressions Gallery. 

I’m delighted to share that a collection of amateur stereographs, deposited at Huntingdonshire Archives in 2025, has now been fully catalogued and listed on our online catalogue: https://calm.cambridgeshire.gov.uk

The material forms part of the personal papers of Dr William Reginald Grove of St Ives. Professionally, Dr Grove was a dedicated country doctor; but on a personal level he was an inquisitive and enthusiastic photographer who found enjoyment in stereoscopic imagery. The stereographs preserved within the archive represent only a portion of his photographic output, generously deposited by Peter Flower [Dr.Grove's grandson].

Alongside personal letters and diaries, the stereographs chiefly document family life in Huntingdonshire. However, the collection also includes photographs taken in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, London, Austria, Switzerland and France. There is even material relating to The United Stereoscopic Society. Particularly intriguing are several double-sided stereographs and examples that retain printed templates on the reverse for recording details of their creation.

The collection is under reference number: D1757 - Personal papers of Dr William Reginald Grove (1869 - 1948) of St Ives, and family members

I won’t go into further detail here, as Dr Grove’s enduring photographic legacy has already been explored by Michael Pritchard's blog post, which you can read here: https://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/publication-the-enduring-photographic-legacy-of-reginald-grove

The Kent County Council Art Collection began to be sold off at auction in 2025. A sale in July last year sold around 350 lithographs, linocuts, screenprints, etchings, wood cuts and engravings. Advice from an unnamed art historian was that the material might not represent any official historic value but was nonetheless interesting. The lots included scenes depicting Dover, Tenterden, Maidstone, Ivychurch, Canterbury and Sepham Heath near Sevenoaks with seascapes, wildlife and of course oast houses, all of which one might have thought would have been of interest and value across Kent. Cabinet Member for Community and Regulatory Services and Reform councillor Paul Webb said: “The reason for selling is a practical one, with the closure of the basement store where the art works are kept." The Reform council is under severe budgetary pressure and struggling to find savings which would allow it to deliver on a promised council tax cut.  

Most of the art was purchased forty years ago as part of the Kent Visual Arts Loan Scheme (KVALS) designed for lending to schools and work places. This offered the opportunity for people to experience and benefit from art on a daily basis when it might otherwise not have been a possibility. KVALS has not run for more than 10 years and the artwork has been in storage since that time. The catalogue can still be viewed online. The Kent County Council Art Collection runs from lots one to 92 with an estimated maximum value of £45,700 and individual lots varying from £200 to £1,500. The eventual hammer price was just over £40,000. 

Now a second group of some 160 lots from the Collection has been put up for auction which includes prints, oil paintings and a significant group of photographs from Tony Ray Jones, Andy Goldsworthy, Timothy Fagan, John Firman, Terry Hulf, Chris Shore, and others. The photographs run from lot 331-396. 

The Tony Ray Jones work consists of 33 prints mainly taken in Kent, but also including work from London, the Isle of Man and Brighton. All are estimated at £300-500. 

Thanks to Paul Reas for flagging up the sale.

Paint. Print. Sculpt.
Sworders, online auction
10 March 2026 
See: https://www.sworder.co.uk/auction/search/?au=1298

Image: Tony Ray Jones (British, 1941-1972), 'Trooping the Colour', 1967

A photograph of Oscar Wilde on his death bed in Paris on 30 November 1900 has sold for £279,800 (inc premium) against a presale estimate of £2000-3000. The megnesium flash lit photograph was taken three hours after Wilde's death by Gilbert Maurice at the request of Robert Ross. The 84 x 115mm silver-gelatine print carries an ink stamp on the reverse of 'William E. Gray, 92 Queen's Rd., Bayswater, W., Fine Art Photographer'.  Gray received his royal warrant to the King in 1904 and by 1910 was also photographer to the Queen. 

Bonhams note:  After receiving Extreme Unction from the Catholic Priest Father Cuthbert Dunne the day before, Wilde died on 30 November 1900 at his room in the Hôtel d'Alsace, Paris, in the presence of Robert Ross, Reginald Turner, and hotel proprietor Jean Dupoirier, who laid Wilde out, clothed in a white nightshirt. Shortly after Ross asked Gilbert Maurice to take this photograph. Gilbert Maurice "was a young marine infantryman... whom he [Wilde] picked up in the street having been struck by his beautiful eyes, and his fine profile... Although driven, initially, by passion, the relationship had its intellectual aspect" (Matthew Sturgis, Oscar: A Life, 2018). Jeremy Mason records, in a note included with the lot, that "Merlin Holland confirmed that the inscription on the back of the photograph is in the handwriting of Robert Ross...".

To honour Martin Parr following his death last December, the Martin Parr Foundation gallery will re-open in 2026 with an exhibition of Martin’s iconic series, The Last Resort. Shot around the English seaside town of New Brighton between 1983 and 1985, The Last Resort was one of the pioneering bodies of work driving British colour documentary photography and established Martin as one of Britain’s most influential photographers.

The Last Resort exhibition will include the full set of photographs from the original photobook, first published in 1986 by Martin under Promenade Press; this new show coincides with the 40th anniversary of both the publication and the landmark exhibition at Serpentine gallery, London. Exhibition prints will be on display alongside ephemera, including contact sheets, materials that influenced Martin at the time of making the work, and the original Plaubel Makina 67 camera Martin used, as well as a selection of photographs not included in the original book.

Across the 20 and 21 February the Foundation will host a series of talks and curator tours to commemorate Martin's legacy and the exhibition. A new book of The Last Resort published by Dewi Lewis will also be published.

Michael Pritchard writes... For a generation, or almost three, who missed the original exhibition of Martin Parr’s The Last Resort at London’s Serpentine Gallery in 1986 it’s hard to overstate the impact and controversy the show engendered, there and at subsequent showings.

Of course, prior to 1986 Martin was well known. He had shown his black and white work in many exhibitions in Britain, starting with shows at Impressions Gallery, then in York. His work up to The Last Resort was good but traditional documentary in style, although usually with an understated humour and Martin’s distinctive eye for a picture. That work remains powerful if under appreciated.

The Last Resort was a marked change of direction in Martin’s approach: through its use of saturated colour, daylight flash, and as Martin noted in an interview with William Bishop, he redefined himself away from being a documentary photographer which, he said, ‘has many problems attached to it’, continuing ‘I’m getting less interested in describing a place and more interested in describing my own feelings’. That was why The Last Resort and his previous project Bad Weather came with no captions: ‘This is a clue to the viewer that it is less about New Brighton than it is about my feelings about New Brighton’.

The accompanying book Martin published himself with some support from the Arts Council and, as he noted ‘a large amount of my own money’. He employed a journalist, Ian Walker, to write the text and a designer, Peter Brawne.

And what of that critical reaction? Liz Wells said the work left her ‘uneasy’ and she noted on her second visit that one member of the public liked the work ‘because it is lurid’ and another found it ‘grotesque’. It was the latter that echoed her own view. She employed adjectives that were regularly used by other critics to describe the work: ‘unsympathetic’, ‘patronising’, ‘unpleasant’ and ‘unkind’. Wells did acknowledge that the work’s authenticity was clear but considered it closer to the comic postcard than the pictorial postcard. I suspect Martin might not have been too upset with that comparison. The word pictorial, if nothing else would have been a red flag to him!

A contemporary review by Robert Morris of the exhibition’s accompanying book praised Walker’s essay as ‘entertaining and informative’ but described Martin’s photography as ‘grotesque’ (that word again), ‘unflinching’ and ‘savage’. Morris also noted that Martin no longer wanted his photographs to be a celebration of life, but wanted them to express the angst with which he viewed the world. But I think Morris also identified the crux of the exhibition when he said ‘Parr wants us to see the people as metaphors for the state of contemporary British society’. Taking the pictures at face value was missing their point.

While the critics were out in force there were also supporters of Martin’s work. Fay Godwin, herself a significant photographer, wrote a letter in response to Wells’s piece posing the question ‘why should photography be kind?’ She expressed astonishment that anyone should suggest art ought to be kind and described The Last Resort as ‘one of the most powerful sets of pictures to emerge in this country in the last few years’. She considered the pictures ‘wonderfully ironic, but not lacking in concern’.  As Martin had intimated, she considered them ‘more symbolic… both real and yet surreal’.

Martin told Bishop that he intended to move back down South and photograph in a much more middle-class situation.  He said: ‘If I look at the last ten years of British documentary work, I don’t think it tells me as much as I’d like to known about what state British society is in; and the fact that this country feels so much more selfish and a much more uncaring society, manifests itself as much in the middle-classes as it does in the oppressed North.’ He followed through on that move.

Morris questioned whether The Last Resort is ‘an uncharacteristic aberration or the production in transition, heading for visions darker still’ and Godwin awaited ‘with fascinated dread his exploration of the middle classes’.

Forty years on The Last Resort may not raise the extreme reactions it did in 1986. British society has changed dramatically and is now ‘darker’ as Morris suggested. Martin’s pioneering approach has been widely copied by other photographers, although very rarely have they had the same way of observing people and their activities, or impact, and none ever kept up with Martin Parr’s evolving ways of seeing.

Dr Michael Pritchard

The Last Resort. 40 Years On
20 February- 24 May 2026, Thursday-Sunday, 1000-1800
Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol
See details of the exhibition and events on the 20th and 21st

Read BPH's obituary of Martin Parr CBE here

Image: New Brighton, England, 1983-85 © Martin Parr / Magnum Photos

Discover how CEWE and the National Trust are working together to preserve the historic photography collection of Rosalie Chichester at Arlington Court, Devon. Through careful digitisation, research, and cataloguing, more of these remarkable collections are becoming visible across National Trust properties. Anna Sparham, National Curator of Photography, and Jess McKenzie, Collections & House Manager discuss the photography of Rosalie and her collection of albums.

The work is being undertaken in partnership with CEWE.

Watch the short film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siO5Lk0tJXs

Find out more about the house and how to visit it here

Jo Quinton Tulloch, direrctor of the National Science and Media Museum, has been interviewed by Museums Journal. In it she talks about her own career path - she moved to Bradford on a two-year secondment in 2012 - the impact of Bradford's 2025 Year of Culture and the evolution of the museum during her tenure. Of particular interest she says: 

Plans to redevelop its Kodak Gallery are already afoot, as many of its photography collections have been moved to the Sound and Vision galleries.  

“Our previous model was photography on display in one gallery, television in another and film and animation in another,” says Quinton Tulloch. “With Sound and Vision, we’ve brought them all together to draw more and better connections between the disciplines over two floors. 

“Photography and television have fundamentally changed because of new technology, but you can’t even begin to try to tackle current developments in a permanent gallery. For me, this museum would now benefit from a space that explores the impact of digital technologies. How do you do that? I don’t know yet.” 

The interview is free to read: https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/people/2026/02/profile-technology-can-isolate-people-a-museum-is-the-antidote-to-that/

Image: Jo Quinton Tulloch at the re-opening of the NSMM in January 2025. © Michael Pritchard

The V&A’s Royal Photographic Society (RPS) Collection holds around 290,000 photographs. It includes all kinds of original processes, from albumen prints and early colour works to lantern slides and classic gelatin silver prints – all unique historical photographs each with their own story.

As an RPS Cataloguing Volunteer, you’ll help unlock these stories by studying the collection and gathering information for our public online database, Explore the Collections. As part of a team of volunteers and supported by staff, you will be key to ensuring the collection can be digitally discovered, understood and enjoyed worldwide, preserving this remarkable photographic heritage for the future.

Based in offices at V&A South Kensington, you will be asked to flexibly give one or two days a week (10:00-16:00). You’ll get the most out of the role if you can commit for up to six months, but we’re happy to discuss shorter arrangements.

Information for applicants: If you are shortlisted, you will need to attend an informal group session at V&A South Kensington on Monday 23 February (14.00-16.00). This is a chance to get to know us and find out more about the volunteer role. If you are invited to join the team, you will need to attend an induction session on Tuesday 3 March (14.00-16.00).

Apply here: https://volunteer.vam.ac.uk/opportunities/107003-royal-photographic-society-rps-cataloguing-volunteer-2026-02-03

2026 marks the 50th anniversary of the first photography workshop in the UK - The Photographers Place - located in the Derbyshire Peak District. It was led by American Ralph Gibson (seated second from left), Thomas Joshua Cooper and the originator, Paul Hill. In April 1976 Paul and his late wife Angela opened their home in the Peak District, bought some ex-military bunk beds and chairs, and big pots and pans for the kitchen and created The Place.  

Paul heard that American Ralph Gibson was coming to the UK for a few weeks and his teaching colleague at Trent Poly, Nottingham, Thomas Joshua Cooper, also from the US, was free, so he asked them to lead as they both had workshop experience. The first participants who arrived that Easter weekend were an eclectic mixture of photographers, lecturers, students, and curators eager to eat, slept and talk photography for 3 days. Paul would be the ring master and serve the meals and process their films for those who wanted quick feedback.

"This informal, relaxed but concentrated formula emphasised sharing and positivity, as well as candour and commitment from all concerned - teachers and 'students'," recalled Paul. "Photographers wanted to see what made their heroes and heroines tick."  He was course leader of the Creative Photography course at Trent Poly at the time and soon realised he couldn’t do both, so left the poly in 1978. He was now able to build up The Place and extend the workshop movement and his teaching methods beyond Derbyshire.

The 'master classes' were the most successful although he and Angela did run some Beginners and Intermediate sessions.

Photographers like Fay Godwin, Paul Graham, Gina Glover, Mike Ware, Roger Taylor, Sheila Rock, Pat Booth, Joyce Edwards (see BPH blog) and other future 'stars' came as 'students' to learn from the likes of Charles Harbutt, Lewis Baltz, Paul Caponigro, Cole Weston, John Blakemore, Raymond Moore, David Mellor, Val Williams, Mari Mahr, Aaron Siskind, Jo Spence et al.

"But it was never a 'them and us' situation," Paul remarked. "Everyone joined in to make each session a more holistic experience too." 

 Amongst early attendees were Janet Hall, Virginia Khuri and Sam Tanner who went on in1987 to form London Independent Photography, which still thrives today. Over 20 years the couple also hosted workshops for the Arts Council, the Peak National Park, many universities and colleges, several corporations and specialist organisation, and even Mensa.

Paul is still running workshops (with Maria Falconer FRPS) as can be seen on his new website that also contains new projects and historic and rare articles and publications from 1969 to 2025.

Image: 2026 marks the 50th anniversary of the first photography workshop in the UK - The Photographers Place - located in the Derbyshire Peak District. It was led by American Ralph Gibson (seated second from left), Thomas Joshua Cooper and the originator, Paul Hill (seated third from right with wife, Angela).

https://hillonphotography.co.uk/

The National Stereoscopic Association is pleased to announce its seventh annual 'Sessions on the History of Stereoscopic Photography' at the 52nd annual 3D-Con on 16 July, 2026, to be held at the Clyde Hotel, 330 Tijeras Avenue NW, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Presentations are welcome on any art historical, visual studies, humanities or social historical scholarship in stereography from its inception to contemporary stereo-media. We project stereoscopically on the 3D-Con's big screen, and our growing community of international scholars represents diverse research from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century.

Please fill out the contact information form at the link below. Then upload on a separate file your abstract of 600 words maximum, followed by a biography of no more than 300 words, and up to five images. Final presentations may be delivered in person or prerecorded. 

cfp:  Sessions on the History of Stereoscopic Photography VII
The National Stereoscopic Association’s 52nd Annual 3D-Con
Thursday, 16 July, 2026
cfp deadline: 6 May, 2026
https://3d-con.com/history.php
Press the tab for “Sessions on the History of Stereoscopic Photography.”
Notification of acceptance by 14 May, 2026
Images due: 18 June, 2026

Bradford's Impressions Gallery has posted a notice on its website announcing that it 'is now closed to visitors as we prepare to leave Centenary Square when our lease ends in March. We are relocating to another city-centre venue while we work towards developing a new permanent home in Bradford. Following an incredible year, we are busy working behind the scenes and will be announcing our plans and programme for 2026 soon.'

BPH understands that more information will be made available as soon as some minor details around its new home are resolved.  

Join Impressions' mailing list on its website or follow it on Instagram @ImpGalleryPhoto Look out for updates there and on BPH shortly.

BPH adds historical background to Impressions Gallery and its long standing Director Anne McNeill below: 

Impressions Gallery, was founded in York in 1972 by Val Williams and Andrew Sproxton, just a year after London's Photographers' Gallery. It was one of Europe's first specialist photography galleries and started in a room above a shop at 39a Shambles. It moved to York's Colliergate in 1976 where it remained until 1992 then moving to the city's Castlegate. Anne McNeill took over as director in 2000. At the invitation of Bradford City Council the Gallery moved from York to the city opening in August 2007 as part of a strategic decision to align with Bradford's urban regeneration, and proximity to the National Media Museum. It shared a a new purpose-built space - the first purpose built public funded photography gallery in the UK - with Bradford 1 Gallery in Centenary Square. With the later move of Bradford's library into the same building it lost part of its space. The musuem, now the National Science and Media Museum, has housed Impressions Gallery's archive since 2013.

At the time of its tenth anniversary in Bradford the Gallery claimed visitors of 55,000. In 2024 the Gallery reported attracting15,500 annual visits which it expected to double to more than 36,000 by the end of 2025 during Bradford's year as City of Culture. In the year to 31 March 2025 it recorded 27,338 gallery visitors and reached over one million through its outdoor, digital and touring programmes. For many years it has had a significant programme of touring exhibitions and close links to the United Kingdom's regional photography galleries. and the tours reached 28,111 in the year to 31 March 2025. It is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation receiving £206,000 in 2024/25.

Impressions director Anne McNeill has played a central role in British photography as a curator, editor and writer in a career spanning nearly four decades. She began in the darkrooms at Camerawork in 1984, became founding Director of Photoworks in 1995, and was the Artistic Director of Photo 98, the UK Year of Photography. Since 2000, Anne has directed Impressions Gallery, a charity that helps people understand the world through photography and acts as an agent for change. She received the 2022 Royal Photographic Society Curatorship Award.

Two lots of particular photography interest are being offered over the next few weeks. Stephen Thompson's Photographs of British Museum Antiquities (1872) be at Lyon and Turnbull on 25 February and estimated at £700-1000. In an online auction ending on 19 February property from the late Professor Malcolm Yapp (1931-2025) is being offered which includes John Forbes Watson & John William Kaye's The People of India: A Series of Photographic Illustrations...of the Races and Tribes of Hindustan, in eight volumes (1868-75) estimated at £4000-6000. 

For the Thompson lot see here and the Watson & Kaye here.