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/
One of Roger Fenton’s (right) more popular images from the Crimean War is entitled Council of War held at Lord Raglan’s Head Quarters the Morning of the successful Attack on the Mamelon, Portraits of Lord Raglan, Maréchal Pélissier, and Omar Pacha (below). It was originally shown under this title at an exhibition of Fenton’s Crimean pictures held in Pall Mall in London in November1855 according to the official catalogue. In the image, Lord Raglan, Omar Pacha, and Aimable Pélissier, the Commanders-in-Chief of the British, Turkish and French forces respectively, sit around a small table looking at a map seemingly discussing military operations. Omar Pacha and Pélissier are in full military uniform while Raglan wears a sun hat and civilian clothes. The title of the photograph suggests that they were adding the final touches to an attack that was to take place on Russian positions later that day.
The attack on the Russian-held White Works and Mamelon by the French and a position known as the Quarries by the British took place late in the afternoon of 7 June 1855. The image’s title indicates that Council of War was taken that morning. However, this was not the case. Fenton in his letters home wrote that on 5 June 1855 he had breakfast with Pélissier and arranged to take his likeness at the British army headquarters early the next morning. Fenton also reported that he intended to ask Omar Pasha to be there as well so that he could also take his portrait. This arrangement was confirmed by William Romaine, who was the Deputy Judge Advocate with the British army in the Crimea. He wrote in his journal on 6 June 1855 that Pélissier had arrived at British headquarters at 6.00 h that day with ‘a box full of finery’ in order to have his portrait taken by Fenton. He also reported that Pélissier, Omar Pasha and Raglan came out of the headquarters’ building at 10.00 h where a small table with a map had been placed and had their portraits taken in a group. Fenton took other pictures of Pélissier and Omar Pacha posing in their ‘finery’ at British headquarters on the same day.
The above information provides very strong evidence that Council of War was taken on the morning of 6 June 1855 and not 7 June 1855. It also reveals that Fenton arranged for Omar Pacha and Pélissier to be at British headquarters on the morning of 6 June 1855 for formal portraits and this was the main reason for their visit and not to discuss pending operations. Indeed, individual portraits of the two wearing the same ‘finery’ as in Council of War exist and these were presumably taken at the time.
The actual detailed planning session for the attack on the Mamelon, the Quarries and other Russian positions on 7 June 1855 is reported to have taken place on 4 June 1855 with seventeen French and British officers, many who were artillery and engineering experts, participating. Fenton must have realised on the morning of 6 June 1855 that he had a unique photo opportunity with all three Allied leaders at the same place at the same time. Why then was the wrong information on the day of the photograph and an impression created that those photographed were in the process of planning the forthcoming assault given in the picture’s title? One can only speculate that it was meant to heighten public interest so as to promote sales of the image at the London exhibition.
A Royal Collection Trust’s press release for its recent Roger Fenton exhibition read: -
The Council of War (June 1855) shows the three commanders of the allied armies planning their successful assault on the Russian fortifications at Mamelon on the morning of the attack. The photograph of Lord Raglan, Maréchal Pélissier and Omar Pasha became one of Fenton's best-known portraits …………..In August 1855, Queen Victoria wrote in her journal that she had viewed some of Fenton's work, commenting that the portrait was 'one, most interesting, of poor Lord Raglan, Pélissier & Omar Pacha, sitting together on the morning, on which the Quarries were taken’.
Victoria may not have been amused had she known at the time that she had been misinformed about the date!
This contribution to the blog was written because the facts concerning Council of War should be known by all Crimean War photo-historians. More information for those who are interested can be found in the article: Jones, D.R. (2017) The Council of War. The War Correspondent 35 (2), 34-36.
Finally, by an amazing coincidence, today is the 164th anniversary of Council of War as well as the 75th anniversary of D-Day!
The Life and Work of William Russell Sedgfield, Pioneer Photographer by Hardwicke Knight was published in New Zealand during 1998 as a two volume limited edition of 200 copies. Does any member of this forum own a copy of this work? I am particularly interested in Sedgfield’s visits to the Norfolk seaside town of Great Yarmouth and his association with George Nall, a printer and publisher of stereoscopic and Carte de Visite views of Great Yarmouth.
I am wondering if there are any references to Yarmouth and or George Nall within the pages of this publication? walkiephotos@yahoo.co.uk
Autumn 2019 will see a commemoration of the 1844 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in York at which Hill and Adamson Calotyped many of the participants. To celebrate the 175th anniversary of the meeting York Philosophical Society, York Museums Trust (YMT) and York Explore (YE – formerly York Central Library) will present an outdoor exhibition of modern reproductions in Museum Gardens of the Hill and Adamson Calotypes.
The exhibition will be supported by a series of events including a talk by Anne Lyden on 1 October.
Find out more about the project and the images here: https://www.ypsyork.org/groups/calotype-project-group/
Details of Anne Lyden's talk and booking can be found here: https://www.ypsyork.org/events/a-perfect-chemistry-hill-and-adamsons-use-of-the-calotype-process/
Image: Mrs Harcourt, National Galleries Scotland. Accession number: PGP HA 2919. Creative Commons - CC by NC licence.
In 1949, Georgia O’Keeffe and the Alfred Stieglitz Estate donated 1,311 photographs by Alfred Stieglitz to the National Gallery of Art and placed on deposit an additional collection of 331 portraits of O’Keeffe, which were later given to the Gallery in 1980. This collection, known as the Key Set, is an unparalleled selection of Stieglitz’s photographs, containing at least one print of every mounted photograph in his possession at the time of his death. It remains one of the most important photographic collections in existence. Carefully selected by O’Keeffe to include the finest examples, the Key Set traces the evolution of Stieglitz’s work, from its inception in the 1880s to its rich maturation in the 1930s, and thoroughly documents all aspects of his decisive contribution to the art of photography.
Previously available only in print, the Alfred Stieglitz Key Set Online Edition represents the definitive publication on the artist’s work. Incorporating updated scholarship, including recent conservation findings, as well as overviews of the major periods in his art, robust search functionality, and advanced image viewing and comparison tools, the Online Edition opens up new avenues for researching—and being inspired by—Stieglitz’s work.
Explore highlights of the Key Set, browse by subject or person, or search the Key Set to view all Key Set photographs and filter results by Key Set number, negative date, photographic process, or other criteria.
Access here: https://www.nga.gov/research/online-editions/alfred-stieglitz-key-set.html
Image: Alfred Stieglitz and/or Edward Steichen, Alfred and Kitty Stieglitz, 1907, Autochrome, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949.3.290. Key Set number 315
Showcasing works from the 19th and 20th centuries, Bloom..away explores the different ways in which photographers have chosen to document plants with their cameras. The exhibition is the first from the Sarah Wheeler Gallery.
Two large format cyanotypes of ferns - the blueprint process used to such good effect by Anna Atkins - will be displayed alongside images by masters of the medium including Charles Jones, Karl Blossfeldt, Man Ray, Adolf de Meyer, Heinrich Kuhn and Albert Renger-Patzsch.
Whilst works from the 19th century such as those by Adolph Braun and Charles Aubry emulate the tradition of botanical illustration and pictorialism, Blossfeldt, Renger-Patzsch and Jones celebrate the unique mechanical nature of the camera by creating strikingly modern images of plants, in a clear, apparently objective matter - making them prime examples of the German New Objectivity movement.
Opening to the public on 10 June Bloom...away - an exhibition of early botanical photography from 1850s to 1960s will run until June 19th at The Studio, 73 Glebe Place, London, SW3 5JB with a fully illustrated catalogue. The exhibition is open Monday to Friday, 10am - 6pm and by appointment over the weekend.
Bloom...away. An exhibition of early botanical photography from 1850s to 1960s
10th June - 19th June 2019
The Studio, 73 Glebe Place, London, SW3 5JB
For further information please contact: Sarah at Sarah Wheeler Gallery, t: 07932 735829
e: sarah@sarahwheelergallery.com
Image: Charles Jones (1866-1959), Hyacinth, Single Red, c.1900. Gold-toned gelatin silver print on printing out paper.
Confirmation of date of birth of Frederick Scott Archer. The website for him notes that he was baptised together with his siblings the same day in 1822. This website seems to be updated to 2013.
In case it hasn’t been recorded since, the true date of birth of FSA can be revealed by reference to the actual baptism register not a transcript. I have found that often when a family group are baptised on the same day a note of the dates of birth are recorded. The baptism register for All Saints & St John with the liberties of Brickendon & Amwell Hertford record that on 21st April 1822 3 children of Thomas (a butcher of Bull Plain) & Elizabeth Archer were baptised; James born Dec 12 1812, Frederick Scott Aug 30 1814 and Sarah 1816. Perhaps a new plaque on his grave is required to replace the one that states 1813.
I have just heard that ALAN BARNES, a former friend and colleague from the University of Derby died last week. He was an original thinker and researcher in the history of art and was particularly interested in the history of photography. The funeral is at 12.30 on 10 June at Trent Valley Crematorium near Derby. Can you please pass on this sad news to those you think should know. Thanks.
Pauline Heathcote's Archive of her research notes and letters for her publications is temporarily unavailable. The archive was stored in the attics at Bromley House and has had to be removed and stored off site while the library roof is repaired and the floors strengthened. We expect to reopen early in 2020.
Until then some of Pauline's published works are available including 'A Faithful Likeness' and its 5 volumes of appendices. for more information contact Eric Butler by email- photo@bromleyhouse.org
It is hoped that much of Pauline's published work will be made available on line during the closure.
Phillip Roberts, previously a researcher at Birmingham Museums and a researcher working with the National Science and Media Museum, has been appointed Associate Curator of Photography and Photographic Technology at the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford. Phillip completed his PhD at the University of York which was titled The Emergence of the Magic Lantern Trade in Nineteenth-Century England. He has published work in Film History, Cultural Politics, The Magic Lantern and Early Popular Visual Culture and is the editor of three special issues on media culture.
Photo historian Rose Teanby discusses how engineering giants Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Robert Stephenson have been represented in visual media, both photography and art. How does their visual legacy reflect both individual achievement and resilient professional friendship throughout their eventful but prematurely curtailed lives?
Rose Teanby is an Associate member of the Royal Photographic Society and biographer of Victorian photographer Robert Howlett. In 2017 she presented a lunchtime lecture looking at the iconic portrait of Isambard Kingdom Brunel by the launching chains of the SS Great Eastern. Last year Rose completed a tour in support of the Institution of Civil Engineers entitled Brunel Through a Lens, followed by a presentation at the Literary and Philosophical Society in Newcastle upon Tyne. Here she broadened her study to include Robert Stephenson and his civil engineering relationship with Brunel.
National Portrait Gallery, London
4 July 2019. Doors open at 12.45.
Lectures begin at 13.15 and last approximately one hour.
Book here: https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/event-root/july/lunchtime-lecture-04072019
Image: Robert Stevenson, by Horace Harral, after a photograph by Robert Howlett, wood engraving, 1858. NPG D6865
The Niépce Museum has made available online a selection of about 300 Amateur Photographer covers and plates that were presented on a screen in Julien Faure-Conorton's exhibition on French pictorialism at the same venue in 2018. The selection is made up of representative examples of European pictorialism published between 1908 and 1914.
It is available here: http://www.museeniepce.com/index.php?/collections/enjeux-de-la-photographie/The-Amateur-Photographer with all the covers as thumbails here: http://collections.museeniepce.com/fr/app/collection/16/view
On 6 June 1944 Robert Capa landed on the Easy Red sector of Omaha Beach with the 16th Infantry Regiment of the US Army. Born in Hungary, Capa made his name as a photojournalist covering the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), capturing evocative images that were published in magazines across Europe and America.
As one of four press photographers permitted to cover the American beaches on D-Day, he bore witness to the largest amphibious assault in history. These photographs were published in the 19 June 1944 edition of LIFE Magazine. With a circulation of approximately 3.25 million copies, they helped shape the world’s visual understanding of the landings. Although much of the mythology around the taking of these images and their subsequent integration in to the the history of photography has been demolished by A D Coleman, the images still powerfully record the D-Day landings.
On display are 10 of the photographs taken by Capa during the assault on Omaha Beach, alongside personal accounts and objects related to Allied soldiers who landed that fateful day.
See more here.
Image: Robert Capa, [American troops landing on Omaha Beach, D-Day, Normandy, France], June 6 1944. © International Center of Photography/Magnum Photos.
Cecil Beaton’s portraits from a golden age will be brought together the first time in a major new exhibition opening at the National Portrait Gallery, London, in March 2020. Featuring around 150 works, many of which are rarely exhibited, Cecil Beaton’s Bright Young Things will explore the extravagant world of the glamorous and stylish ‘Bright Young Things’ of the twenties and thirties, seen through the eye of renowned British photographer Cecil Beaton.
Through the prism of Beaton’s portraits the exhibition will present the leading cast, to many of whom he would become close, and who in these early years helped refine his remarkable photographic style - artists and friends Rex Whistler and Stephen Tennant, set and costume designer Oliver Messel, composer William Walton, modernist poets Iris Tree and Nancy Cunard, glamorous socialites Edwina Mountbatten and Diana Guinness (née Mitford), actresses and anglophiles Tallulah Bankhead and Anna May Wong, among many others. Brought to vivid life each of them has a story to tell. There are the slightly less well known too – style icons Paula Gellibrand, the Marquesa de CasaMaury and Baba, Princesse de Faucigny-Lucinge, the eccentric composer and aesthete Lord Berners, modernist poet Brian Howard, part model for Brideshead Revisited’s mannered ‘Anthony Blanche’, ballet dancer Tilly Losch and Dolly Wilde Oscar’s equally flamboyant niece. Also featured are those of an older generation, who gave Beaton’s career early impetus: outspoken poet and critic Edith Sitwell, the famously witty social figure Lady Diana Cooper, artist and Irish patriot Hazel, Lady Lavery, and the extraordinary, bejewelled Lady Alexander, whose husband produced Oscar Wilde’s comedies and who became an early patron of Beaton’s.
Cecil Beaton’s own life and relationship with the ‘Bright Young Things’ will be woven into the exhibition, not least in self-portraits and those by his contemporaries. Socially avaricious, he was a much-photographed figure, a celebrity in his own right. Beaton’s transformation from middle-class suburban schoolboy to glittering society figure and the unrivalled star of Vogue, revealed a social mobility unthinkable before the Great War. He used his artistic skills, his ambition and his larger-than-life personality to become part of a world that he would not surely have joined as a right. Throughout the twenties and thirties his photographs place his friends and heroes under perceptive, colourful and sympathetic scrutiny.
The exhibition will bring together loans from national and international collections and in particular an extensive loan from the Cecil Beaton Studio Archive at Sotheby's. Highlights will include vintage prints of Beaton’s earliest subjects, his glamorous sisters Nancy and Baba; the Vogue portrait of his friend George Rylands as ‘The Duchess of Malfi’, published when he was a student, and which set him on the road to fame. There are glimpses from high-spirited revels at country house weekends, including a rare vintage print of the leading lights dressed as eighteenth-century shepherds and shepherdesses on the bridge at Wilsford Manor, regarded now as the quintessential depiction of the Bright Young Things. In town, parties, charity balls and pageants were enlivened by an almost maniacal zeal for the theatrical and the extravagant in costume and attitude.
In addition to Beaton’s own portraits, the exhibition will also feature paintings by friends and artists know to Beaton including Rex Whistler, Henry Lamb, Ambrose McEvoy, Christopher Wood and Augustus John; portraits of Beaton by Paul Tanqueray, Dorothy Wilding, and Curtis Moffat; as well as letters, magazines, invitations, scrapbooks, book jackets and other ephemera.
Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London said: “We are delighted to announce this major new exhibition for spring 2020 and to bring together for the first time so many of Beaton’s dazzling photographs, high on art and artifice, which beautifully capture the original and creative world of the Bright Young Things.”
Robin Muir, Curator of Cecil Beaton’s Bright Young Things said: “The exhibition will bring to life a deliriously eccentric, glamorous and creative era of British cultural life, combining High Society and the avant-garde, artists and writers, socialites and partygoers, all set against the rhythms of the Jazz Age.”
The exhibition will be curated by Robin Muir, Curator of the Vogue 100: A Century of Style exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 2016 and a Contributing Editor to Vogue (to which Beaton himself contributed for over 50 years)
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated hardback catalogue, featuring around 150 beautifully reproduced works by Cecil Beaton and his contemporaries. In addition to the works illustrated there is an essay by Robin Muir, and biographies for each of the ‘Bright Young Things’. The catalogue will be available from 12 March 2020 via the Gallery shops and online npg.org.uk/shop
The exhibition will tour to the Millennium Gallery, Sheffield from 25 June – 18 October 2020 and The Wilson, Cheltenham’s art gallery and museum from 14 November 2020 – 28 February 2021.
Cecil Beaton’s Bright Young Things
12 March – 7 June 2020 at the National Portrait Gallery, London
Tickets without donation from £17 - £20
Tickets with donation from £19 - £22
Free for Members and Patrons
Spring Season 2020 sponsored by Herbert Smith Freehills LLP
Photoworks is currently recruiting! We are looking for two people to join our team and help shape our changing organisation. I’d really appreciate if you could pass on to anyone who might be suitable, circulate to your networks or share on social channels. Deadline is next week, Tuesday 28th May.
Audience Development & Communications Manager (£27-£30k pro rata, 3 days/week)
This post is an exciting opportunity to work with the Director and Deputy Director to develop and implement an organisation-wide communications strategy, raise brand awareness and grow the organisation’s audiences both on and offline. Key amongst the early projects for this role is to plan, develop and implement a successful rebrand of Photoworks to prepare for the organisation’s 25th anniversary in 2020. https://photoworks.org.uk/news/job-opportunity-audience-development-communications-manager-3-days-week/
Programme Administrator (£21k-£23k, f/t)
As Programme Administrator you will provide efficient and effective administrative, financial and programme support to the organisation. Alongside general administration and bookkeeping, you will play a key role in supporting exhibitions, events and Learning & Engagement projects, as well as supporting the Deputy Director with Board administration, stakeholder reporting and patron communications. https://photoworks.org.uk/news/35918/
The Science Museum Group - which includes the National Science+Media Museum, Bradford - is currently undertaking its most ambitious project in a generation, to move over 80% of its collections to the National Collections Centre to Wroughton, near Swindon, by 2023.
As part of this move, the SMG is re-evaluating the service it provides for researchers who consult our archives, objects, and libraries in the course of their work. If you have ever used the library, archives, or collections at: - Science Museum London (including Dana Centre Library and Blythe House) - Science and Industry Museum Manchester (formerly MOSI) - National Science and Media Museum Bradford (formerly the National Media Museum) - National Railway Museum in York - Locomotion in Shildon - National Collections Centre, Wiltshire (formerly Science Museum Wroughton) the SMG wants to hear about your research experience, and your suggestions for how it could improve in future.
The survey should take a few minutes to complete. You will be offered the chance to win a £50 amazon voucher for taking part in the survey – the draw will be made in June, and the winner notified by email.
BPH would ask that anyone who has used the photography collections in Bradford complete the survey to ensure that the photography, photographic technology and printed materials are not overlooked.
Survey for Researchers who have used Science Museum Group collections https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/G276CBK
A one-day symposium on science and photography will take place on 23rd October in St Andrews. The symposium is presented in conjunction with the 2019 St Andrews Photography Festival, ‘Science & Photography’ which runs throughout the month of October.
The symposium organisers welcome proposals from both a historical and contemporary perspective on themes including, but not limited to:
Panel proposals are also welcome and we particularly encourage early career scholars and PhD candidates to apply.
Please submit a proposal of no more than 200 words for your 18 minute presentation to Rachel Nordstrom at Rachel.Nordstrom@st-andrews.ac.uk no later than 17:00 on Friday 12 July 2019. All proposals are subject to a review process.
Science and Photography Symposium
Hosted by: University of St Andrews Library’s Special Collections Division
Wednesday 23rd October 2019
09:30 – 17:00
Lawrence Levy Studio, Byre Theatre, Abbey Street, St Andrews KY16 9LA
Image: Back of Hand and Shrivelled Apple. To illustrate the origin of certain mountain ranges by shrinkage of the globe by James Nasymth ,1874 (Photo-QB581-N2C2-Plate-2)
The University of Bristol Library is seeking to recruit an enthusiastic and experienced archivist to work on an exciting Wildfilm History Archive. This is a full-time, fixed term contract for 2 years. The two-year Wildfilm History Project will catalogue, conserve and make available a rich, diverse and important collection of wildlife filmmaking materials which document the changing cultural context of wildlife film making and how it has shaped our historical, social and cultural understanding of the natural world.
The Wildfilm History Archive is a mixed media archive of photographs, films and papers in a wide variety of formats with complex rights management issues. As well as creating a detailed catalogue of the collection (using CALM), the project archivist will ensure that due diligence processes are followed to establish rights holders, ensuring that these are properly documented and that the archive complies with other legal obligations such as the DPA 2018 and GDPR.
The Archivist will work alongside an audiovisual digitisation officer and a wildfilm expert who has extensive knowledge of the area and materials.
The post requires proven experience of archives administration as well as experience in dealing with mixed media archives. The successful candidate will also be expected to demonstrate knowledge and experience in dealing with complex rights management issues.
For more information about the role please contact Debra Hiom (d.hiom@bristol.ac.uk) or Hannah Lowery (h.j.lowery@bristol.ac.uk)
Closing date for applications: midnight Wednesday 22 May 2019
See more here: http://www.bris.ac.uk/jobs/find/details.html?nPostingID=40814&nPostingTargetID=136335
Two daguerreotypes by Antoine Claudet of Queen Victoria c.1854 have been revealed by the Museum of London. According to the Observer newspaper the pictures are among the most significant in the museum’s 150,000-strong collection, because not only are they two of the very earliest images of Victoria as Queen, then aged 34, but they also reflect her fascination with photography. The photos were never intended for public consumption – which is part of the reason they have never been seen – and will not be put on display at the museum. Publication in a national newspaper is seemingly of lesser concern.
Image: Museum of London
Phillips is an international auction house, conducting sales of 20th Century and Contemporary Art, Design, Photographs, Modern & Contemporary Editions, Jewels and Watches. Phillips is currently seeking an ambitious and motivated individual to fill a full-time Associate Specialist position within our Photographs department.
Based in London, the primary focus of the position will be to lead the cataloguing of property for auctions, valuations and private sales and conduct research to determine authenticity, provenance, bibliography and exhibition history, liaising with outside experts where relevant, while cultivating networks among collectors, dealers, curators and others in order to develop and maintain best-in-class knowledge of the Photographs market and to support the department in sourcing and selling property.
In addition to this, the Associate Specialist will be responsible for supporting the department co-heads with business getting efforts by driving and handling the groundwork for department business getting trips, undertaking client research and assisting with client development tasks in collaboration with the global client development team, working with the department administrator to finalise a schedule for client visits and handling estimate requests.
The full job description and application link can be accessed here: https://www.phillips.com/careers
