Blogs

The restoration of the grave of John Thomson, one of the earliest photographers working in China and the Far East was commemorated today in front of an audience of twenty-five people.

The location of Thomson's grave was previously unknown until it was tracked down by photographic historian Terry Bennett and a crowdfunding campaign, led by Betty Yao MBE, raised the funds to reinstate the headstone which had fallen over and to restore the lettering had become illegible. The event was attended by photo-historians, photographers, local historians, archivists and three of Thomson's descendants.

Thomson photographed the people, landscapes and monuments across a large part of south east Asia, resulting in an important series of books describing the places he visited and his own experiences. His grave in Streatham Cemetery was lost for many years.

Betty Yao commented: “John Thomson’s photographs provide a rich and lasting visual record of the Far East. It is fitting that we restore his grave as a renewed memorial to the man and his work”.

Thomson, was born in Edinburgh in 1837 and died in London in 1921. He is widely acclaimed as one of the best photographers of China of the period. On his return to London in 1872 he ran a successful portrait studio gaining the royal warrant in 1881. He was a member of the Photographic Society from 1879.  Thomson also acted as the principal photography teacher for the Royal Geographical Society, training a new generation of travellers and explorers in photography.

His most important publications were Illustrations of China and Its People (1873/4) and Street Life in London (with Adolphe Smith, 1877).

He retired in 1910 and spent most of time in Edinburgh where he continued to write about photography.

Images: top: Terry Bennett; Betty Yao; the assembled group. © Michael Pritchrd. 

The Moon has always inspired photographers, from Bond and Whipple’s first daguerreotype exhibited at the Great Exhibition in 1851 to the work of James Nasmyth and James Carpenter, who frustrated by the technical difficulties of photographing the moon with wet collodion plates resorted to building large scale plaster models, which were lit for dramatic emphasis and photographed.  The resulting book The Moon considered as a Planet, a world and a Satelite published in 1874 is an intriguing publication. Taking a photographic perspective.

This talk gives an insight into how capturing the Moon has been challenging, even for astronauts, during the race for space.

To book place click here. 

One of the earliest travel photographers in Asia, John Thomson, who travelled extensively across China, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, in the 1860s and early 1870s, is being honoured at a ceremony on Saturday, 13 July 2019 which will celebrate his newly restored grave.

Thomson photographed the people, landscapes and monuments across a large part of south east Asia, resulting in an important series of books describing the places he visited and his own experiences. His grave in Streatham Cemetery which was lost for many years until its rediscovery by Terry Bennett has been restored following a crowdfunded project led by Betty Yao MBE.

Betty Yao commented: “John Thomson’s photographs provide a rich and lasting visual record of the Far East. It is fitting that we restore his grave as a renewed memorial to the man and his work”.

Thomson, was born in Edinburgh in 1837 and died in London in 1921. He is widely acclaimed as one of the best photographers of China of the period. On his return to London in 1872 he ran a successful portrait studio gaining the royal warrant in 1881. He was a member of the Royal Photographic Society from 1879.  Thomson also acted as the principal photography teacher for the Royal Geographical Society, training a new generation of travellers and explorers in photography.

His most important publications were Illustrations of China and Its People (1873/4) and Street Life in London (with Adolphe Smith, 1877).

He retired in 1910 and spent most of time in Edinburgh where he continued to write about photography.

The commemoration will take place in Streatham Cemetery, Garratt Lane, Tooting, London, SW17 0LT (lot 545, block F) at 11.00am, Saturday 13th July 2019. Everyone is welcome. The nearest underground station is Tooting Broadway, followed by a 10-15 short walk or buses 44, 77, 270, G1 (Streatham Cemetery stop). Afterwards, there will be celebratory drinks in a nearby pub to which everyone is invited. 

A photograph taken by James Robertson or his assistant Felice Beato entitled Head Quarters shows the British Army Headquarters outside Sevastopol in the Crimea. In front of the building is a man standing beside a tripod (see right). The Royal Collection Trust has the following description of the image on its website:

Photograph of the British Headquarters during the Crimean War. The building is a whitewashed bungalow with a tiled roof. Several horses and soldiers stand outside the building. A man, possibly the photographer Roger Fenton, stands beside a tripod to the left. A camp can be seen on the hillside behind the house.

The information about the identity of the man beside the tripod comes from a 1939 sales catalogue, which was advertising the copy of Head Quarters that had been owned by William Howard Russell, the war correspondent for The Times in the Crimea. However, was the man in the image Fenton or was the wording in the sales catalogue just a means of increasing the photograph’s perceived value to justify its price?

From evidence found in the subjects of their photographs, Robertson and Beato most likely landed in the Crimea on their first visit from Constantinople sometime in June 1855. Fenton’s only visit from England was from 8 March to 22 June 1855. Therefore, it is likely that the three were in the Crimea at the same time for only a possible maximum of 3 weeks in June 1855. There is no mention of any meeting with Robertson or Beato in Fenton’s detailed letters home. There is also no proof that Head Quarters was taken by Robertson or Beato in June 1855. However, there is evidence to suggest that it wasn’t.

Fenton’s portraits taken outside the headquarters building, which we know was on 6 June 1855, show trees to be in full leaf. However, the same trees in front of the building in Head Quarters are either leafless or have few leaves (see above and below). This indicates that the Robertson/Beato image was taken either in winter or early spring, but not in June. This is strong evidence that the man standing by the tripod in Head Quarters is not Roger Fenton.

The author believes that Head Quarters may have been taken in March 1856 during Robertson/Beato's second visit to the Crimea. They have another image taken at this time entitled South View of English Army Headquarters showing the other side of the  building with a leafless tree in the background.

Photographies journal has announced its second conference, which will be hosted in Singapore in January 2020. The two-day international event will bring together scholars, photographers, artists, curators, and critics to consider the rapid growth of photography in Asia and its impact in a global and international context.

Photographies is seeking proposals that explore the practices, theories and conditions of photography in and from ‘Asia’, considered as a heterogeneous geography and cultural formation. The conference aims to shed light on specific new issues relating to new technologies, cultural concerns and critical frameworks relating to photography and photography education in these regions. It is particularly interested in presentations or panels whether visual, theoretical or critically led, to address emergent problems and contemporary questions.

More specifically proposals for papers are sought that critically address the following themes or related
issues:

• The role of archives and memory in contemporary photography
• New practices, technologies, and cultural change
• Questions on the history of photography in Asia and photography education
• Environment, ecology and photography
• Festivals, collecting, and circulations of photography.

See more here: https://photographies2020.com/call-for-papers/

This five-week series of workshops led by Michelle Henning and Rowan Lear, with guest speakers Esther Leslie and Louise Purbrick, will examine the materials of photography from a range of critical, cultural and creative perspectives.

It will consider photographs not simply as images, but as chemical and physical objects, products of industrial processes, and as lively things that sense and react to their environments. Drawing on archival objects, short texts and images, we will share ideas around the sensual, social and ecological impact of photographic materiality.

The course will also explore the changing material infrastructures that underpin photographic production, from mines, abattoirs and gelatin processing plants, to pollutants and byproducts. What is it like to work with light-sensitive materials, which also react to human skin and changes in temperature and humidity?

These workshops are ideal for anyone fascinated by the material, industrial and alchemical aspects of photography. Participants are invited to bring in their own research and artwork for discussion and inspiration. Short readings or viewings will be made available in advance in preparation for sessions.

A collaboration with University of West London, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The Stuff of Photography builds on Michelle’s current research in the various archives of Ilford Limited, and develops Rowan’s recent project Planetary Processing.

See: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/workshop/stuff-photography

Almost immediately after the invention of photography, Scottish photographers took their cameras on the road to capture the stories of peoples and communities touched by the forces of British imperialism. For the next thirty years, their journeys would take them far from their homes in the Lowlands to the Canadian wilderness and the treaty ports and rivers of China.

The Global Flows of Early Scottish Photography describes the interplay between these photographers' ambitions and the needs and desires of the people they met. Anthony Lee tracks the work of several famous innovators of the art form, including the partnership of D.O. Hill and Robert Adamson in Edinburgh; Canada's first great photographers, the Scottish immigrants William Notman and Alexander Henderson in Montreal; the globetrotting John Thomson in Hong Kong; and Lai Afong, the first widely known Chinese photographer.

Lee reveals their pictures in the context of migration and the social impact wrought by worldwide trade and competing nationalisms. A timely book, it tells of an era when photography give shape and meaning to some of the most defining moments brought about by globalization in the nineteenth century. Beautifully written and richly illustrated in full colour, The Global Flows of Early Scottish Photography weaves stories together to show that even the earliest pictures were sites of fierce historical struggle

The Global Flows of Early Scottish Photography: Encounters in Scotland, Canada, and China

Volume 26 of McGill-Queen's/Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation Studies in Art History

Anthony W. Lee

McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 2019

£45.00.  ISBN: 0773558055 / 9780773558052

Order here: https://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/the-global-flows-of-early-scottish-photography

The core of the September Piazzi Smyth mini-festival is two full days of talks and debate by experts and researchers on topics related to the life and legacy of Charles Piazzi Smyth – mountain top astronomy, photography, meteorology, and pyramidology. This event is open to any interested member of the public.

Location

The meeting will be held in the Wolfson Lecture Theatre, at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, George Street, Edinburgh.

Dates

Sept 3-4 2019, between 09:00 and 17:00 each day

Registration

There will be a £45 registration fee. Note that the registration fee includes lunches, tea and coffee breaks, and tickets to the movie screening on Sept 2nd and the public lecture on Sept 3rd, so no need to book these twice.

Registration is through a University of Edinburgh registration page.

See more here: https://www.piazzismyth.org/piazzi-smyth-symposium/ 

Image: A very early “calotype” photograph taken by Charles Piazzi Smyth in 1840 – one of the very earliest photographs of South Africa.

Dominic Winter's auction of photographs on 3 October includes rare publications by John Thomson and other rare topographical photographs. The highlight is a newly discovered fifth copy of Thomson's first China photography book, Views on the North River (1870). 

Thomson was one of the first to extensively document the Far East, photographing there between 1862 and 1872, before returning to the UK and producing, in association with Adolphe Smith, the seminal and pioneering documentary photography book, Street Life in London (1876-77). Thomson published many of his images of China, Thailand and Cambodia in a series of books, often using actual photographs in the publications, making them costly small printings, and now all consequently rare. Most well-known is his four-volume work Illustrations of China and Its People. A Series of Two Hundred Photographs, published in 4 volumes (1873-74). The wide body of images in that work are reproduced as photogravures and so these fine images and the books are generally found in good condition.

More difficult to find in fine condition are the books published with mounted original photographs, of which the earliest, The Antiquities of Cambodia (1867), with 16 albumen prints, is the most familiar. Of Thomson's China books with real photographs, Foochow and the River Min (1873) with 80 carbon prints is the best known, even though only published in limited edition of 46 copies; the last complete copy at auction fetched £350,000 at Sotheby's, London, in 2012.

Rarest of all is Thomson's first China photography book, Views on the North River (1870), with 14 mounted albumen prints. On this expedition into the Guangdong province the weather was poor and Thomson was disappointed with his photographs. There are only four copies of this book known: at Hong Kong University, the National Library of Scotland, Cornell University, and one privately owned in North America. No copies have ever been offered for sale. The auction will offer a newly discovered fifth copy, held for 150 years in a private British family's possession, alongside four further related photograph albums of the 1860s/70s: views of Hong Kong by John Thomson, circa 1868; view of Hong Kong by William Floyd Pryor, circa 1870; and two albums of views of Hong Kong, China, India and Burma. The sale will also comprise further 19th-century Asian and other travel photography, both as individual prints and albums from various sources.

19th & 20th Century Photographs, featuring India, China & the Far East

Cameras & Photographica, Postcards, Scrap Albums & Ephemera

Thursday 3 October 2019

See: https://www.dominicwinter.co.uk/auction-previews

This enchanting feature documentary explores the life and work of a lost master of American photography. In his 2015 obituary The New York Times declared him 'one of the most accomplished recorders of the American experience.' yet most people have never heard of him.

The discovery in 2011 of vintage prints, contact sheets, and negatives spanning Feinstein’s 70 year journey in photography was the first chapter in the making of this film. The documentary took on a life of its own, urging the filmmaker to look beyond the pictures and into the life story of the inspiring man who’s search for beauty in the everyday compelled him to click the shutter and capture those moments. Harold Feinstein lived an extraordinary life and his photographs and this story are a gentle but powerful and timely reminder to all of us to stop and appreciate the wonder of life itself.

Last Stop would be a welcome tribute at any time, but it's especially bracing when today's constant deluge of visual images can't help but dilute the impact of photography. Dunn's film is fully attuned to the vibrancy and tenderness and sense of possibility in Feinstein's photos. 

Background
When Harold Feinstein was just 19, Edward Steichen bought three of his prints for the permanent collection at MoMA and during the 50’s and 60’s he was having shows with Saul Leiter, Gary Winogrand and others in the New York School of photographers. He was also a renowned darkroom printer - but he wasn't one to pursue a career, as he was a free- flowing artist with a healthy appetite for the good things in life.

Whether captured as a draftee in the Korean War, in a Bebop infused Manhattan loft or a rural hippy enclave in upstate New York, Harold’s 35mm black and white photographs captured the essence of life with a with a uniquely humanist eye. The rediscovery of Feinstein’s vast and diverse body of work came in his final years and the film meets him then; in his early eighties and with a zen-like appreciation for the life he lived.

Filmmaker Andy Dunn spent precious time with Harold in his Massachusetts home and also on one last road trip to his beloved birthplace, Coney Island. Through the testimonials of friends, lovers, family members and photography experts, this atmospheric film paints an intimate, yet critical, portrait of this complex and inspirational underdog of 20th century photography.

A renowned teacher and spiritual guide with a hedonistic outlook for life, Feinstein is remembered as a guru as well as an artist by those who knew him - a true original whose philosophy on life is as thrilling to discover now as it was in his prime. With unrestricted access to his archive, much of it unseen before, the film shows how Feinstein’s unique outlook on life was reflected in his life-affirming photography.

Last Stop Coney Island: The Life and
Photography of Harold Feinstein
Doc Days screening & Q&A at CURZON Soho
Monday, 15 July 2019, 6:30pm

Trailer & Info: www.feinsteinfilm.com

This talk will investigate structural colourism in the history of photographic processes, emphasised through the invention of colour correction cards in the 1950s. These were used by photography labs to calibrate skin tones, shadows and light during the printing process – favouring lighter skin tones, while leaving darker skin tones looking blurred or unidentifiable.

Photographer and activist Angélica Dass will discuss her project Humanae, investigating the chromatic range of human skin tones using a taxonomy adopting the format of the PANTONE® Guide – challenging social classifications of race and colour.

Film and theatre director Nadia Latif will look at how the evolution of cameras and lighting in film have influenced the depiction of black actors, actresses and characters.

COLOURISM & PHOTOGRAPHY

Tuesday,  2 JUL 2019
7PM, DOORS OPEN 6:30PM
LONDON: AUTOGRAPH
£5 / 4
See: https://autograph.org.uk/events/colourism-and-photography?mc_cid=cc34cbd9f6&mc_eid=dee88b2478

An exhibition of over 30 vintage photographs from Terence Donovan’s early career will go on display at Huxley-Parlour Gallery from 3-27 July. Donovan (1936-1996) rose to prominence in the 1960s as part of London’s post-war renaissance in art, fashion, graphic design and photography. Terence Donovan: The 1960s will showcase his best-known photographs from this period alongside some lesser-seen images to illustrate the scope of his work this formulative period.

The exhibition includes portraits of Julie Christie, Terence Stamp, Monica Vitti, Sophia Loren, Claudia Cardinale, Celia Hammond and Dave Brubeck amongst other cultural figures of the era, shot for a range of both advertising and editorial commissions. Also included are eight original and unique contact prints – small photographs made by laying the negative directly onto the surface of the light sensitive paper. Donovan meticulously reviewed his contact sheets, indicating his selected frames by piercing them with a pen or marking them with a pen or chinagraph pencil. He discarded the contact prints of the frames he did not want used, keeping only those that he felt good enough to print or publish. These prints provide an important insight into Donovan’s working methods and his creative process.

Charting Donovan’s early career from 1959, when he opened up his first London studio, to the heights of his success throughout the 1960s, the works in the exhibition show how he helped to redefine photography and shape the aesthetic of London’s ‘Swinging Sixties’. The honesty and energy of Donovan’s photographs quickly helped to establish his own visual language rooted in the world he knew best – the streets of London’s East End, where he had grown up. Often situating his models in bomb-ravaged ruins or in industrial building sites, his gritty and noirish style looked to reportage, rather than fashion photography, for its inspiration. He worked for some of the most progressive magazines of the time including Queen, Town and London Life and his images quickly became emblematic of the era and established Donovan as a new force in British photography.

Terence Donovan was born in London’s East End in 1936. At the age of 22, he opened his first studio in London, becoming an immediate success. He worked for leading advertising agencies and fashion and lifestyle magazines including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Elle. Later in his career he produced television commercials and advertising campaigns alongside editorial work for cutting edge magazines and newspapers, most conspicuously the now-legendary Nova magazine. He also directed the video for Robert Palmer’s song Addicted to Love (1986). His work has been the subject solo exhibitions at the Museum of London and The Photographers’ Gallery, London, and group exhibitions at the V&A, London; FOAM, Amsterdam; National Portrait Gallery, London and Cincinnati Art Museum amongst others.

Huxley-Pasrlour Gallery, London. https://huxleyparlour.com/exhibitions/

Image: Terence Donovan, Ros Watkins, Advertising Shoot for Acrilan, 3 March 1961.

Catherine Troiano has been appointed by the National Trust as Project Curator - National Photography Collections. The position was advertised in March. The role provides oversight of the Trust's photography collections with a particular focus on the E Chambre Hardman House in Liverpool and delivery of an exhibition based on that collection at the Walker Art Gallery. It is funded for two years and she takes up the post in July. 

Troiano has been at the V&A Museum as an assistant curator from 2015-2018. She was appointed Curator, Photographs in September 2018. Troiano has worked on a number of projects with the Hemera Collective, a curatorial collective specialising in photography and lens based media,

She completed at the University of Edinburgh and since 2016 she has been studying for a PhD at De Montfort University’s Photographic History Research Centre. Her research explores institutional representations of photography in Hungary, examining the complex socio-cultural and political environment shaping institutional practice in the after-post-communist moment.

The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh presents Holy Rood, an exhibition of black and white photographs by Norman McBeath of branches, wooden forms and carvings alongside the poet Robert Crawford's translation of the Old English poem, The Dream of the Rude, spoken by the tree that was hewn to make the cross on which Christ was crucified. The oldest, fragmentary text of this visionary poem survives in runic inscriptions on an eighth-century stone cross at Ruthwell in Dumfriesshire. The exhibition is on until 22nd June 2019 at The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh, 6, Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ.

Also on display is a selection of Norman McBeath's latest work, Noiseless Noise, which offers an insight into the simplest and most commonplace flora in exquisite detail. Two works from the Noiseless Noise series are currently showing in Gallery V at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London, on until 12th August.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) and The University of New Mexico have announced the groundbreaking findings of a two-year study of the plasmonic properties of daguerreotypes. Using atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, together with numerical calculations, the team of scientists from The Met and UNM, in collaboration with Century Darkroom, Toronto was able to determine how the light scattered by the metallic nanoparticles on the surface of a daguerreotype determines the characteristics of its image, such as shade and color.

The pioneering research titled — Nineteenth Century Nanotechnology: The Plasmonic Properties of Daguerreotypes, published recently in the journal PNAS — not only provides an in-depth understanding of these 19th-century photographs that are crucial for their preservation, but also introduces new possible approaches for color printing where nanostructures are directly manufactured by light.

“We are thrilled by these findings that help us better understand the fascinating properties of daguerreotypes and shed light on how to continue to advance the preservation of these incredible works of art,” said Silvia A. Centeno, a research scientist in the Department of Scientific Research at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“The team at the University of New Mexico embarked on this study to achieve a better understanding of the mechanisms that give rise to the optical response of daguerreotypes and to contribute to the development of protocols for preserving these fragile artifacts,” said Alejandro Manjavacas, assistant professor, UNM Department of Physics and Astronomy. “Thanks to the fantastic teamwork between scientists from both the cultural and scientific communities we were able to accomplish what we set out to do.”

Unlike other types of photographs, daguerreotypes rely on light scattering by metallic nanoparticles to create images that project off a reflective silver substrate. These early photographs can be recognized as the first examples of plasmonic color printing, an emerging research field that exploits the interactions between light and metallic nanostructures to produce vivid colors.

Daguerreotype in the study collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (artist unknown, ca. 1850s) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of different regions of the daguerreotype.

The image tones of a daguerreotype are dynamic and unique in that they can change with the viewing angle and, for the first time, this effect is explained by the authors, who found that the morphology and size of nanoparticles determines how these will scatter thus creating the visual outcome of the daguerreotype.

Studies of the image properties of daguerreotypes serve to inform the development of preservation protocols, as well as novel approaches to future color printing technologies inspired by past ones.

The team of scientists consisting of Andrea Schlather and Centeno from the Department of Scientific Research at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Paul Gieri and Manjavacas from UNM's Department of Physics and Astronomy, and the Nanoscience and Microsystems Program, and Mike Robinson from Century Darkroom, Toronto collaborated on this study.

The research was sponsored in part by The National Science Foundation (NSF) and by the Annette de la Renta Foundation, and made use of the computational facilities provided by the UNM Center for Advanced Research Computing.

See: https://news.unm.edu/news/trailblazing-findings-of-daguerrerotype-properties-revealed-by-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art-and-unm

The Centre for Image Research and Diffusion (CRDI) - Girona city Council (Catalonia) presents a new audiovisual product for a better understanding of the photographic process of developed gelatinobromide. This process was created by Richard Leach Maddox in 1871 and improved by Charles Harper Bennett in 1878. It has been very successful as it is the main photographic b/w process of the twentieth century.

This audiovisual, created using 3D animation techniques, is the sixth proposal of a series dedicated to the evolution of the photographic technique and photomechanical procedures that started in 2007. The script is done by the professor Josep Pérez  and the project execution is assumed by the CIFOG (Escola de Cicles Formatius de Girona). This audiovisual, unique in its presentation, has a clear dissemination function and, unlike the theoretical texts, allows the viewer to get a clear idea of this photographic procedure.

https://youtu.be/BOADnH-r4QQ

I am researching the life of Angelo Lewis who, before be became a full-time author, was at the Bar from about 1861 to about 1876.  Photographs exist of Lewis in later life, but I am trying to find one when he was a practising lawyer. His Inn of Court does not have any such photographs.

Could anyone suggest a resource that I could try?

Coming Soon is the largest museum show of movie “Coming Attraction” Glass Slides & Movie Posters. Included in the exhibition are works from famed British actors such as Charlie Chaplin, Madeleine Carroll, Ronald Colman, Twiggy, Boris Karloff, and more.

EXHIBITION INCLUDES EXAMPLES FROM THE EARLY 1900S TO 1980s, WITH A SPOTLIGHT ON THE GOLDEN AGE OF HOLLYWOOD.

The Norton Museum of Art presents the largest ever museum exhibition of movie “coming attraction” glass slides and classic movie posters from one of the most prominent private collections in the world. Titled Coming Soon: Film Posters from the Dwight M. Cleveland Collection, the exhibition includes 1,500 movie “coming attraction” glass slides which will be projected on two continuous loops on either side of the main entry hall and more than 200 posters representing comedies, British classics, musicals, Westerns, sci-fi thrillers, dramas, and more that date from the turn of the 20th century to the late 1980s.

Coming Soon will be on view from July 12 through October 29, 2019.

The exhibition is co-organized by guest curator Matthew Bird and Norton Assistant Curator J. Rachel Gustafson, who selected 215 posters, from the more than 3,000 held in the Cleveland Collection, to present a comprehensive history of movie poster art and the longstanding allure of Hollywood these objects helped promote. Posters included are from iconic films such as Casablanca, The Godfather, Singin’ in the Rain, H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, Lloyd’s of London, North by Northwest, and Grand Hotel, as well as memorable cult classics such as Barbarella and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.

“This exhibition is a landmark event for the art form, which has not been granted the respect of a stand-alone show,” says Chicago-based collector Dwight Cleveland. “Film posters have always been mixed with costumes, scripts, props, and other ephemera in previous exhibitions about movies. Most film buffs think all the art is on the screen, but I believe the best posters can represent the soul of the movie itself – and communicate volumes about the essence of the film.”

Movie posters have a complex 'job description'. They must grab the public’s attention, introduce a story, depict a foreign world, promote a celebrated cast, and ultimately fill theater seats. The subject of a full-length feature film has to be communicated in a single image, and movie poster artists had to become adept at simultaneously communicating glamour, aesthetics, and emotion in a very limited space. In spite of changing eras and technologies, today’s film posters do the same work the earliest ones took on, using ephemeral paper and ink to connect a film to its audience. The posters selected for Coming Soon illustrate the artistic techniques – pastel, oil painting, watercolor, photomontage, and airbrush – and printing techniques – lithography, hand-stenciling, off-set printing, and photographic reproductions – that artists have used to celebrate and promote iconic movie stars like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford, Carry Grant and Grace Kelly, Harrison Ford, and so many others.

Movies also have been one of America’s most popular exports for at least a century. Therefore, Coming Soon includes posters from around the world that have interpreted American movies, providing a window on how other cultures view the United States. Posters in the exhibition also come from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Additionally, posters advertising films that were produced abroad in countries such as Germany, Mexico, and Russia are exhibited in Coming Soon to illustrate the global reach and popularity of filmmaking.

From the earliest silent films, through the Golden Age of movie making, right up to our contemporary blockbusters, movie poster art tells the story of how the film industry developed, appealed to audiences, took on the challenges of an ever-changing entertainment landscape, and continues to enthrall us. Coming Soon not only celebrates one collector’s passion, but also provides a rare survey of an often overlooked art form that has become an important fixture in popular culture.

About Guest Curator Matthew Bird

Matthew Bird teaches design and design history at Rhode Island School of Design, and works to bring design-related content into art museums and present design to new audiences. His knowledge of manufacturing and materials informs his teaching and writing about design history, making the information understandable and exciting. At the Norton, he previously curated the exhibitions Wheels & Heels: The Big Noise around Little Toys (2014), and Going Places: Transportation Designs from the Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection (2015).

About the Norton Museum of Art

Founded in 1941, the Norton Museum of Art is recognized for its distinguished holdings in American, European, and Chinese art, and a continually expanding presence for Photography and Contemporary art. Its masterpieces of 19th century and 20th-century European painting and sculpture include works by Brancusi, Gauguin, Matisse, and Picasso, and American works by Stuart Davis, Hopper, O'Keeffe, Pollock, and Sheeler.

The Norton presents special exhibitions, lectures, tours, and programs for adults and children throughout the year. In 2011, the Norton launched RAW (Recognition of Art by Women), featuring the work of a living female painter or sculptor and funded by the Leonard and Sophie Davis Fund / ML Dauray Arts Initiative. In 2012, the Norton established the biennial, international Rudin Prize for Emerging Photographers in partnership with Beth Rudin DeWoody, in honor of her late father, Lewis Rudin.

In 2016, the Norton broke ground for a visionary expansion designed by architecture firm Foster + Partners, under the direction of Pritzker Prize-winning architect Lord Norman Foster. The project reoriented the Norton’s entrance to the main thoroughfare of South Dixie Highway, restoring the symmetry of the museum’s original 1941 design, and includes a new 59,000-square-foot West Wing that doubles education space, and increases gallery space for the Norton’s renowned collection. The transformation of the Museum’s 6.3-acre campus created a museum in a garden, featuring new, verdant spaces and a sculpture garden.

Location: The Norton Museum of Art -  West Palm Beach, Florida.
Date July 12 - October 29, 2019
https://www.norton.org/

The exhibition will present, Untitled (Murder Mystery People), some of Sherman’s earliest self-portrait photographs that were made in 1976, the year she graduated from the art department at the State University College at Buffalo, USA. The exhibition will also include the 16mm film, Doll Clothes, (1975) and a selection of works from Untitled Film Stills (1977-80), the series for which Sherman first gained international recognition.

This exhibition has been co-curated with Sebastien Montabonel and is part of the Edinburgh Art Festival 2019.

Cindy Sherman: Early Works, 1975-80
Stills Gallery, Edinburgh
28 June - 6 October 2019/ Open daily 11- 6pm / Always free

http://www.stills.org/

Photographer Terry O'Neill has been awarded a CBE for 'services to photography' in the Queen's birthday honours list published today. O'Neill joins a select group of photographers to be given the honour, including Don McCullin, Harry Benson and David Bailey. 

O'Neill is represented by Iconic Images. See: https://iconicimages.net/photographers/terry-oneill/