Please have a look at my Kickstarter campaign to help fund the publication of a new book on stereoscopy - Scotland in 3D
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I have just been appointed an AHRC Leadership Fellow from September 2018 through to late 2019, for a project centred on the work of Ilford Limited, and also looking at aspects of photographic culture between (roughly) 1914-1945. The grant funds the research but also aims to develop my research leadership skills and capacity, by providing masterclasses and workshops for colleagues and postgraduate students as well as funding an international conference in photography and film studies in 2019, on which I will work with my colleague Dr. Junko Theresa Mikuriya.
In the process I hope to engage with (in no particular order) industry participants, community groups academics, students, photographic practitioners, archivists, and museums who/which have expertise and/or interest in Ilford and this period of British photographic history. My own work is not a straightforwardly empirical project but places industrial photography history in the context of histories of the senses and cultural histories.
There are more details about the project on my blog and via my Twitter account @henningmc_ and via our research group account @ImageThinking . I am also offering talks, workshops etc. for PhD and MA students as part of the project. Obviously there is a limit to the number of these I can do, but let me know if this is something that may be of interest. I would also love to hear from anyone interested in participating in the conference in 2019, or engaging in discussion over issues related to this research. Obviously I am aware of the existing academic writing and publications on Ilford and this period, but please do let me know if you know of other archives or collections I might not know about.
The US Premiere will take place at the University of New Mexico on Saturday 3rd November. Full details https://www.spenational.org/conferences/conflux/schedule/2018/11/03/do-not-bend-the-photographic-life-of-bill-jay-film-screening-and-panel.
A new website explores the history of Polyfoto which began as a chain of high street photography studios in the United Kingdom and is best known for its sheets of multiple-pose images. The website has pull out a call for people's own Polyfoto images.
Rose Teanby's excellent research work looking at early British women photographers continues to grow. The most recent post is on Lady Emily Payne-Gallwey (sic) who joined the Photographic Society in 1853, it's inaugural year. The other photographers so far in the series are: Mary Ann Boulton, Elizabeth Stockdale WIlkinson, Jessie Mann, Elizabeth Vignoles, Caroline Taylor, Jane Nina Wigley, Catherine Verschoyle, Frances Monteith,
Rose will be a speaker at the Anna Atkins conference at the New York Public Library in October.
See more here: https://roseteanbyphotography.co.uk/early-women-photographers/
Image: D O Hill and RObert Admason, ‘Unknown Woman 15’, 1843-7, probably photographer Jessie Mann.
Scottish National Portrait Gallery (PGP HA 2442)
The recent departure of Michael Terwey as Head of Collections and Exhibitions at the National Science and Media Museum has provided an opportunity for the museum to re-thionk itts senior management, with a new role, Head Curator, recently advertised.
Across Science Museum Group, our curatorial team are committed to inspiring futures by sustaining and growing our world-class collection and delivering a creative and bold programme of outputs including exhibitions, galleries, events and online narratives.
To truly lead our curatorial department, build our research profile, develop our collections and deliver content for an ambitious ‘masterplan’, we are looking for a Head Curator to join us at the National Science and Media Museum (NSMM), in Bradford, on a permanent basis.
In this role, you will champion your team to realise our ambitions to collect more contemporary materials, developing and maintaining our collections and creating innovative ways to engage our visitors. You will also be a senior leader at NSMM, communicating our vision to stakeholders, promoting a culture of high performance and encouraging collaborative practice, as well as raising our museums profile and expanding our networks.
Joining us, you will use your significant experience of curating collections and communicating stories in unique ways. Having experience of team leadership and skills at strategically managing budgets you will be passionate about working collaboratively, bringing a well-established network to advocate for best practice and sharing knowledge to develop our collections.
You will be offered excellent benefits including 27 days annual leave in addition to 8 bank holidays, the ability to join our pension scheme, BUPA medical and dental healthcare and an interest free loan offer whilst developing your career in a world class museum group.
For further information please see the SMG website here.
Q: How do you define your work?
LH: Definitions are not for me to assign any real value to. I think of myself as a portrait photographer. That is to say, I photograph people in the context of some aspect of their environment. Sometimes I’ll call myself a social documentarian. And then, frequently, I’ll be at an event working directly alongside news photographers. Of course, the day after a photograph is in a newspaper then, that photograph becomes a documentary photograph perhaps even with some historic value.
Q: How do finance your work?
LH: I essentially earn my living from selling to collectors, museums and from grants from arts funding bodies and photographic companies. I also get commissions from various organisations, for example, the UK Trades Union Congress asked me to do the photography for a poster campaign they ran about low waged workers.
Q: What inspires you?
LH: I’m inspired to photograph directly from events in the world. I read as many as twenty - thirty different newspapers a month from many countries. The web has made this much easier than ever so often spending a couple of days in a library as I used to do.
I’m not very prolific and can work on independent projects for many years. I’ve never been an adventurer and so, after researching something, perhaps for a year or so, I decide that it’s important, then I’ll continue with it. I very well might be wrong about its importance, but I’ve got to feel that something is important.
A single photograph has to be lean, it can’t be about too much, but must link into that evasive “something” universal. There are many photographers who may very well feel things deeply. We have to be able to transcend those feelings and ultimately, make photographs with our intellect.
Q: Which of your photographs would you describe as your favourite?
LH: There is perhaps only a handful that I continue to like through the years. Quite frankly, my “favourite” images are those coming from projects I’m currently working on. How I define ‘”favourite” is constantly changing.
Q: Are there photographers who have influenced tour work?
LH: There are many photographs I like, but not many “life - time’s work” of specific photographers. I live and I absorb things as do other people, but I don’t feel influenced by any specific photographer.
Still photography is not related to cinema in my opinion. It’s nearest relation is poetry in that both art forms have an extraordinary capacity to be very explicit about a very specific thing. So, I read poetry all the time.
Q: And what projects are you working on now?
LH: There are two and I’m beginning to develop a third.
I’ve been documenting Londoners who are paid by the hour (waged) for more than seven years. Wars and the extreme degradation of the environment certainly mark our time, but the fundamental characteristic of our period in history is the extraordinary migration of people throughout the world.
According to the Population Division of the United Nations, virtually all population growth, expected in the world during the next 30 years, will be concentrated in urban areas. Also, in 2007 and for the first time in human history, the number of town and city dwellers equalled the number of people living in the countryside. So, by now, there are certainly more people living in towns and cities than in the Earth’s rural areas.
Another phenomenon also marks our epoch. Throughout the industrialised world, the majority of adult women are now in paid work and are working outside the home.
The other long - term project I’ve been working on is about “industrial Cuba”. I started shooting it a couple of years ago and I’m really just at the very beginning. The Cuban government and the country’s people are withstanding economic and frequent violent blows against it, primarily from United States governments of the last fifty - four years and now, the imprisoned “Cuban 5” are in the forefront of defending Cuban independence and self determination.
I’ve just begun researching a project about the political situation in northern Mali. I’ve been reading and having meetings about Western Sahara, the Polisario and some sections of the Tuareg people.
Q: You are very busy! What else do you do?
LH: If I were just a photographer then I would stop being a photographer. I’m an active trade unionist and sit on various national organisations including the Cuba Solidarity Campaign executive. I’m also secretary of the tenants’ association where I live.
Of course, we all have to think socially, but must learn to act politically. I’ve never been an adventurer with a camera or a tourist. As a photographer, I want to tell the world what I think of it and, as an activist; I want to contribute to its social change based upon human solidarity.
Q: When did you come to Britain?
LH: I emigrated in 1968 from New York during the Vietnam War and I’ve lived here ever since.
Q: What’s your photographic training?
LH: I trained as a sculptor. I had some student group shows and people said that I was “talented”. I was encouraged by my teachers. I never believed them and in the arts, you’ve got to believe that you are talented. You may be wrong, but you’ve got to believe it.
While still sculpting, I’d borrow a photographer friend’s camera and using it felt very comfortable and natural from the very beginning. I still remember when I first looked through a viewfinder and it was magical.
Q: What was it like when you first arrived in the UK?
LH: My concern was the Vietnam War and expressing solidarity with those people fighting the Americans. My partner, a Welsh woman, had given birth to a girl, soon after coming to the UK and that was wonderful. I was also trying very hard to discover how to become a photographer. There were an awful lot of new things going on - a new country, a new child and a new craft. And, all in the context of the tumultuous times of the 60's and 70's.
We didn’t succumb to eating cat food but it was a hard time. One day I just wandered into Norman Hall’s office at The Times. He was the then picture editor and you could simply knock on someone’s door in those days.
As I had lied to many Fleet Street editors that I had a trunk full of my work coming from the States, I also pulled that one with Norman and he called me out. He wagged his finger in my face and told me to stop lying and to wait a minute and left the office. He came back in several bewildering minutes and gave me 650 rolls of film and told me that he didn’t wasn’t to see me for a year. I suppose there are still a few young photographers out there getting breaks, but it’s hard to imagine that sort of things happening today.
Well, I returned to see Hall exactly year to the day and he started using my work. Paris Match and Life also published my photographs and I started having exhibitions and rapidly became a self - confident photographer.
Q: What were the events that propelled you into political activism?
LH: Beyond doubt it was the American Civil Rights Movement and the Second Wave of the Feminism and the Anti Vietnam War Movements that grew out of the fight against legal racism and American apartheid called Jim Crow. When I was about seventeen a friend took me to hear Malcolm X speak in Harlem. I was the only Caucasian in the hall and I heard Malcolm X say some very reasonable things and I believed he was talking to me.
Throughout all this intense activity and upheaval, I was still motivated by anger at what passed for civilisation but hardly had any alternative to advocate. This came, as with generations before me, through my experiences in Ireland. I spent a lot of time there, photographing primarily in the North, during the war, called The Troubles. Those years were truly a “university of struggle” for me.
I saw and photographed very brave people who not only hated the status quo, but were collectively organising against it and had a very good idea of where they wanted to go. I already knew that change was necessary but was taught by the North of Ireland people that change was indeed possible.
Q: What do you feel about art school training today?
LH: Schools and colleges don’t exist in isolation and reflect the neo - liberal ideas that dominate our world. Teaching is imbued with notions of “all is ok in art”. Of course, learning all about handling and manipulating machines and materials to force them to obey the will of the maker of something, is imperative. There is something very much more important that is lacking.
I was guest lecturing documentary photography students at an art college some years ago. Coincidentally, I was there when the American marines invaded Somalia. I asked the students for the name of the Somali capital city and only two people, among the thirty or so aspiring documentary photographers, could tell me.
Many of those students were talented but couldn’t articulate why they wanted to be photographers - what they wanted to do with their newly acquired skills. Very understandably, their entire experience was derived from the post - modern and neo-liberal world they were born into. This isolation and singular view was nurtured by the whole orientation of the degree course and badly equipped the men and women to have anything to say about the world.
Q: What boundaries should a photographer be pushing forward?
LH: Most photography is used to illustrate copy. For example, go through any newspaper today and a photograph might be half or a third of the page and the photographer’s by-line frequently will be four point feint running up the side while the writer’s name is in fourteen point and in bold. The incidental appreciation of photographs is something the journalist’s union, the NUJ, should be organising to change.
Photographers have to learn self confidence in that we have something to say and that image making has its own rich visual language. I don’t think most documentary and news photographs are very good. I may like a specific image but, mostly, they are boring because they don’t offer insights into the subject photographed. It’s, “here’s a report of a demonstration and here’s a photograph of the report.” Photographers should start with, “what do I want to say about an event and how do I best do that!”
Q: What equipment do you use?
LH: Over the years I’ve standardised a lot. I only use Ilford HP 5 and ID 11. I use three Leicas, a M3, M2 and a MP. The MP and M2 have 35mm, 1.4 mm Summilux lenses on them. The MP with the 35 lens are what I use ninety - five percent of the time. The M3 has a 90 mm, 2.8 Elmarit on it and I keep it in my pocket. I don’t even use it every year, but when I need it, it’s there. The M2 is a breakdown back up camera.
Interviewer: Pippa Jane Wielgos
© Copyright Pippa Jane Wielgos
10.09.2013.
When Roger Fenton arrived in the Crimea in March 1855 to photograph the war that had been raging for 12 months, the major battles of the campaign had already been fought. And yet, the images that he captured of exhausted troops and desolate landscapes would become some of the most significant visual accounts of conflict ever produced, giving birth to the genre of war photography.
The first exhibition of Fenton's Crimean works in London since 1856, Shadows of War: Roger Fenton's Photographs of the Crimea, 1855 explores how the photographer brought the stark realities of war into public consciousness for the first time, through more than 60 photographs from the Royal Collection. The exhibition also tells the story of the historically close relationship between the Royal Family and those who have served their country in battle, with contributions to the exhibition's multimedia guide by HRH The Duke of Sussex, photojournalist Sir Don McCullin and exhibition curator Sophie Gordon.
The Crimean War saw Britain, France, Sardinia and the Ottomon Empire allied against Russia's attempt to expand its influence into Ottoman territory. The impact of the war on the Victorian public was immense. Britain sent 98,000 men into the conflict, and thanks to improved communications and the presence of war correspondents, updates from the battlefield reached home in days rather than weeks. The advent of photography meant that reports were no longer limited to unillustrated newspaper accounts or artistic depictions of battle, and the public was able to witness authentic images of war for the first time.
Roger Fenton was already a respected photographer when he travelled to the Crimea, commissioned by the publishers Thomas Agnew & Sons to photograph people of interest for use as source material for a painting by the artist Thomas Barker. Arriving several months after the major battle of Balaklava and the famous Charge of the Light Brigade, Fenton spent three months producing approximately 360 photographs, travelling and working in a mobile darkroom that he had converted from a wine merchant's van. The limitations of 19th-century photographic techniques, coupled with Victorian sensibilities, prevented Fenton from producing scenes of battle and death. Instead, he evoked the destruction of war through portrayals of bleak terrains and haunted troops. In his most famous photograph, Valley of the Shadow of Death (23 April 1855), he places the viewer at the bottom of a barren ravine littered with cannonballs, subtly referencing the earlier battles in which so many had lost their lives.
Fenton spent several weeks photographing the key figures of the war. One of his best-known portraits, The Council of War (June 1855), shows the three commanders of the allied armies – Lord Raglan, Maréchal Pélissier and Omar Pasha – preparing for their successful assault on the Russian fortifications at Mamelon. Lord Raglan died on 28 June 1855, shortly after the image was taken.
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'. While the majority of Fenton's portraits depicted senior officers, his photographs also captured the conditions for troops on the frontline, from living and cooking facilities to the after-effects of battle. One of his more disturbing images is Lord Balgonie (1855), which is the first visual record of someone suffering from 'shell shock'. Balgonie was badly affected by the conflict and died in 1857 – his death at the time attributed to the war. The image demonstrates Fenton's proficiency in creating powerful photographs without resorting to explicit imagery.
Fenton returned to Britain in July 1855, and in September his Crimean photographs went on display at the Water Colour Society on Pall Mall, the first of four London venues. The images raised awareness of the conditions endured by soldiers at a time when the wounded began to arrive home. Queen Victoria, who had commissioned Fenton to produce portraits of the royal family in 1854, took a personal interest in the conflict and the welfare of the troops. Keen that her concern was publicly known, she was the first British monarch to meet and support wounded soldiers in public, personally greeting troops at Buckingham Palace and during visits to hospitals. She also instituted the Victoria Cross, which remains the highest award for gallantry in the British Armed Forces. On the exhibition's multimedia guide, recorded when the exhibition was first shown in Edinburgh in 2017, The Duke of Sussex speaks about how the photographs taken by Fenton and his contemporaries helped change attitudes towards those affected by their experiences on the battlefield.
Speaking about Fenton's image Lord Balgonie, the first visual record of someone suffering from 'shell shock', His Royal Highness says in the multimedia guide: 'There has always been a fascination about people returning from war, what they've been through and what they've seen. The psychological impact of being on the battlefield is something that servicemen and women have had to deal with, but have often found it hard to talk about. As a result of photographers like Roger Fenton and those who have followed him, the public have gained a better appreciation of these experiences and consequently, over the years this fascination has turned to appreciation and respect.'
Shadows of War: Roger Fenton's Photographs of the Crimea, 1855 is at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, 9 November 2018 – 28 April 2019, with Russia: Royalty & the Romanovs.
The accompanying publication, Shadows of War: Roger Fenton's Photographs of the Crimea, 1855 by Sophie Gordon, is published by Royal Collection Trust, price £24.95 from Royal Collection Trust shops and www.royalcollection.org.uk/shop.
Visitor information and tickets for The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace: www.royalcollection.org.uk, T. +44 (0)30 3123 7301.
Below image: Roger Fenton, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1854 Images for use in connection with the exhibition, Shadows of War: Roger Fenton's Photographs of the Crimea, 1855, The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, 9 November 2018 - 28 April 2019. Royal Collection Trust / (C) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018.
for all those interested in stereoscopy - please note my new website www.scotlan3d.com - it includes a list of all Scottish stereo-photographers known to me - any additional information gladly received thanks
Back in May the NLS / NGS advertised for a curator (see BPH here) for the newly acquired £1 million Mackinnon Collection. The newly appointed curator is Blake Milteer who has most recently been photography collections curator at the National Library of Scotland. Before that he had a number of curatorial and teaching posts in the United States.
The latest issue of the National Library of Scotland's Discover magazine (Summer 2018) includes a feature on the Mackinnon Collection (see BPH here). The Collection provides a visual record of how Scotland has changes physically, socially and economically since the 1840s.
Discover is free from venues in Scotland or can be downloaded here.
The Scottish Society for the History of Photography has been delivering a remarkable series of events, lectures, articles and scholarly texts on the world of historic and contemporary photography since 1986.
This issue of Studies in Photography contributes to the continuing debates around photography and performance in their expanded fields and presents a number of case studies in a diverse and international range of work. This includes Greek funerary practices, Scottish Victorian portraiture, Belgian surrealist work, and the performative image surgery of the French artist ORLAN.
Contents include:
- Photography and Performance
- Photopoetry
- ORLAN
- Paul Nougé
- Writer’s Choice - Janice Galloway
The Summer 2018 edition is now out. Of particular note is Sara Stevenson's article on Marcus Sparling and Fenton.
Copies can be purchased here
Drawing on the BBC's rich archive, this documentary reveals the working practices, lives and opinions of some of the greatest photographers of the last 60 years. From Norman Parkinson to David Bailey, Eve Arnold to Jane Bown, Henri Cartier-Bresson to Martin Parr, for decades the BBC has drawn our attention to the creators of what has become the most ubiquitous contemporary art form.
Pioneering BBC programmes like Arena, Monitor and Omnibus have given unique insights into the careers of photography's leading practitioners. Through a selection of fascinating clips, this programme brings into focus the key genres - fashion, portraiture, documentary and landscape - and the characters behind the camera who have helped defined them.
BBC4: On Camera: Photographers at the BBC
Wednesday, 29 August 2018 at 2300, and then on the BBC iPlayer
A recently issued catalogue from the booksellers Quaritch Victorian Work and Leisure includes a number of unusual photographs, stereocards and items of magic lantern interest.
Click here to download:
Organised by Dr Stephen Putnam Hughes and Emily Stevenson, SOAS Anthropology Department, with support from the Economic and Social Research Council and the SOAS South Asia Institute, this one-day conference looks at the role of the postcard in representing peoples and places. Of particular note is the presentation by Professor Elizabeth Edwards, 'Little marks of ownership: museum postcards 1913-1939'.
See the full programme and book here.
As part of a series of Twilight Talks at Bath's world-renowned fashion museum Keith Lodwick, Curator of Theatre and Screen Arts at the Victoria and Albert Museum, will share a treasure trove of 3D stereoscopic slides from the Vivien Leigh Archive.
Thursday, 13 September 2018 at 1815
£10 adults / £8 students
Fashion Museum, Bath
Tate's growing collection of Paper and Photographic artworks presents unique challenges for conservation and preservation, requiring innovative solutions.
You will lead the development of the team, supporting research and enhancing practice in standards of care. You will formulate a preservation strategy for the historic, modern and contemporary art works in our care and further the national and international profile of the team.
Our Conservation department brings excellence to the care of all Tate’s collections. As a member of the Conservation Management Team, you will work with the Head of Conservation in the strategic planning and leadership of the department. You will co-ordinate the delivery of Tate’s public programme and be responsible for the operational planning, management and development of a team of specialists.
Read more and apply by 21 September here.
The New York Public Library which holds a copy at Anna Atkins' British Algae is hold an an exhibition devoted to her from 19 October 2018-17 February 2019. Anna Atkins (1799–1871) came of age in Victorian England, a fertile environment for learning and discovery. Guided by her father, a prominent scientist, Atkins was inspired to take up photography, and in 1843 began making cyanotypes—a photographic process invented just the year before—in an effort to visualize and distribute information about her collection of seaweeds. With great daring, creativity, and technical skill, she produced Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, the first book to be illustrated with photographs, and the first substantial application of photography to science. Ethereal, deeply hued, and astonishingly detailed, the resulting images led her and her friend Anne Dixon to expand their visual inquiry to flowering plants, feathers, and other subjects. This exhibition draws upon more than a decade of careful research and sets Atkins and her much-admired work in context, shedding new light on her productions and showcasing the distinctive beauty of the cyanotype process, which is still used by artists today.
Details of a symposium devoted to Atkins and her work will be announced shortly.
A companion exhibition looks at how Atkins's legacy lives on through the works of artists today in Anna Atkins Refracted: Contemporary Works, on view September 28, 2018–January 6, 2019
Read more here: https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/blue-prints-pioneering-photographs-anna-atkins
Image: Anna Atkins, "Halyseris polypodioides" from Part XII of Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, ca. 1849, cyanotype.
The Royal Photographic Society has a long and distinguished history back to 1853. For much of its existence it has been the place where matters affecting photography’s technical development and its position as an artistic medium were debated and reported on. Its publications and membership are a key resource for anyone researching British photographic history.i
The Society has recently published a blog designed to help those researching its history, members and exhibitions. See more here: http://www.rps.org/blogs/2018/august/researching-the-society
