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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

We collectors of Mr. Wilson have much to celebrate this year with Professor Roger Taylor's just released new GW Wilson edition. Personally, my new acquisition of an album in the form of a book,containing 16 GWW views -- plus one other related to GWW's stereoscopic views -- P1180450.JPG delights me to no end. The views present , and some other circumstantial evidence, strongly suggest the 'book' belonged to a colleague of GWWs or a family member.I will write about this in detail later.

FOR NOW, PLEASE: Has anyone seen another example of this casing? Thank you very much. -- Edward McCann.

Can anyone help in locating where the image below was taken? It was found in a suitcase stuffed full of 5x3 film negatives, which was transferred to the Reach Central Archive, Watford at the end of 2017 when we moved the Surrey Advertiser Archive. From other negatives found in the suitcase we believe it is somewhere on the English South Coast taken in the late 1920s possibly early 1930s. Any thoughts?

I am selling a large part of my photography reference library: Over 450 books and many more catalogues. Most titles are viewable on this attached xl spreadsheet doc  photo books xl document, giving author, title, size and indication of what it covers - there will be more items than appears on this list, journals, pamphlets etc

There are a large number of photography sale catalogues, from the 1970s onwards.... quite a few in the 90s and early 2000s will have notes etc - 

Contact me for details, price etc

By working with photographs from the collections of museums and libraries, Michael Aird is testing whether historical photographs can become substantial evidence of Australian Aboriginal connections with land and place. He is studying images and combines archival research to contextualize how photographs can serve as more than illustrations, but they can also demonstrate historical continuities and change as well as connections to country over time. Who are the people featured in early photographs and what were the complex personal relationships between these individuals. Photographs can be used to ask research questions that may previously not been considered in native title claim research. This research methodology will question the value of photographs as historical documents, as well as how they are valued, and used by contemporary Aboriginal people as an important part of history and identity.

Michael Aird has worked in the area of Aboriginal arts and cultural heritage since 1985, graduating in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Queensland. Michael has worked in professional positions and as a freelance researcher, curator and publisher. In 1995 Michael was appointed Curator of Aboriginal Studies at the Queensland Museum, a position he held until 2000. His main research focus has been photographic history with a particular interest in native title and Aboriginal people of southeast Queensland. He has curated over 25 exhibitions, including curating Transforming Tindale at the State Library of Queensland in 2012, which was the first time photographs taken by Norman Tindale and Joseph Birdsell on their 1938 and 1939 expedition have been featured in a major exhibition. In 2014 he curated the Captured: Early Brisbane Photographers and Their Aboriginal Subjects exhibition at the Museum of Brisbane. In 1996 he established Keeaira Press an independent publishing house and has produced over 35 books. Much of what Keeaira Press has published focus on art and photography, which reflects Michael’s interest in recording aspects of urban Aboriginal history and culture. Michael is currently the Director of the University of Queensland Anthropology Museum and an ARC Research Fellow. 

RAI RESEARCH SEMINAR

SEMINAR SERIES AT THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE

From illustration to evidence in native title: the potential of photographs

Michael Aird, Director of the University of Queensland Anthropology Museum

Wednesday 12 September at 5.30 pm

This event is free, but tickets must be booked. To book tickets please go to https://michaelarid.eventbrite.co.uk

Location : Royal Anthropological Institute
50 Fitzroy Street
London
W1T 5BT
United Kingdom
http://www.therai.org.uk

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.

Click here to view the Vacancy Information Pack which provides you with details of the role and supporting statement questions.

More here too.

While working through the British Journal of Photography I came across a reference to John Traill undertaking a photographic expedition to Orkney in June 1860 (listed by Peter Stubbs on his Edinphoto website) . He read a paper on it to the Edinburgh Photographic Society on 17 July 1861, published in the Journal on 1 August p. 269. He had with him a stereo camera and a 12 x 10" plate camera.... but where are his photographs? This is in fact John Traill Taylor, who became editor of the BJP from 1864 and spent time in America where he set up The Photographic Times. See: http://www.luminous-lint.com/app/photographer/John_Traill__Taylor/A/

There is one stereo pair in the Orkney Library that may be his work: http://photos.orkneycommunities.co.uk/picture/number25396.asp

It shows the 'Prince Consort', the vessel he took from Edinburgh to Kirkwall in June 1860.

This is not simply another colloquium about African photography within the field of visual studies. It is concerned with the question of how histories are written or assembled, and the materials that are drawn upon to narrate or analyse the past of the African continent, and the relationships between them. The field of African history is usually dominated by texts and oral-based accounts. When we ask what images (particularly photographs) do to the constitution of pastness and how it is narrated, this opens another kind of discussion. Fundamentally this is about the way photographs sit in uneasy and ambiguous relation to other materials generated in the past. They organise time and space differently. 'Photographs change everything’ (Edwards). What analytical opportunities do these insights open to us?

One part of this thinking concerns the disruptions of photographs when brought into conversation with other historical materials. There is a discursive association of history with what is visible, and what is usually taken into account archivally, which photographs are not. Does this mean that photographs constitute a kind of historical unconscious, at the edge of history? 

A further part of our thinking is stimulated by the way photographs themselves work ‘at the edge of sight’, which goes beyond normative ways of seeing of, or through, photographs. Our keynote lecture will be presented by Shawn Michelle Smith of the Chicago Art Institute, author of On the Edge of Sight and co-editor of Photography and the Optical Unconscious. 

Papers are not geographically confined to the African continent. We invite papers that address the more general methodological and theoretical challenges of working with photographs in relation to other archives and media. Abstracts should be sent to visualhistoryuwc@gmail.com. Full papers for pre-circulation will be requested several weeks in advance of the workshop. 

The workshop is organized by the National Research Foundation (NRF) SARChI Chair in Visual History and Theory, Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape. All workshop accommodation and meals will be covered. A limited amount of funding is available for travel costs.  

Deadline for abstracts: 31 July 2018

Contact: Patricia Hayes, visualhistoryuwc@gmail.com

On the Edge of History: Photographs and African Archives 

International Workshop on Visual History & Theory

Cape Town

27-28 September, 2018

The University of St Andrews Library, Special Collections Division will be hosting a conference on Stereo Photography from 18-19 October, 2018 in conjunction with the St Andrews Photography Festival 2018: (Stereo)Views of Scotland.

The topics are broad reaching and will cover both the historic as well as the contemporary; from the rivalry between Sir David Brewster and Charles Wheatstone to how we have used, understood and interacted with 3D photography over the past two centuries.

This two day conference is an opportunity for researchers, historians, photographers, collectors, curators, collections staff and photo-enthusiasts alike to come together, in the home of Scottish Photography and picturesque town of St Andrews to gain a better understanding of the birth, development and evolving media that is stereoscopy.

All 3D presentations throughout the conference are delivered with the generous support of the London Stereoscopic Company.

For registration and to see the full programme click here: http://ow.ly/oI7m30l6KX9

The V&A Museum has released details of forthcoming exhibitions which include a number of photography shows, although many of the other highlights will include photography. 

V&A Photography Centre / Opening 12 October 2018
The world’s first photographic experiments, pictures by 20th century greats Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen, recent
acquisitions by Linda McCartney, and newly commissioned works by Thomas Ruff are displayed as phase one of the V&A’s new Photography Centre opens this October. Designed by David Kohn Architects, the first phase of the Centre more than doubles the space dedicated to photography at the V&A, and includes a ‘Dark Tent’ projection space and digital wall to show the world’s most cutting-edge photography. Drawn from the V&A’s world-class collections, not least the Royal Photographic Society Collection, the first temporary displays bring together 600 objects from across Europe, North America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia to trace a history of photography through the lens of collectors and collecting.

From Daguerreotype to digital, highlights on display will include the work of early colour photography pioneers, Agnes Warburg, Helen Messinger Murdoch and Nickolas Muray, and recent acquisitions by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Cornelia Parker and Mark Cohen. A pioneering botanical cyanotype by Anna Atkins, images by the world’s first female museum photographer, Isabel Agnes Cowper, and motion studies by Eadweard Muybridge, join photographs by some of the world’s most influential modern and contemporary photographers, including Eugène Atget, Man Ray, Walker Evans, Cindy Sherman and Martin Parr.

Dorothy Bohm / 3 November 2018 – 17 March 2019. Museum of Childhood
This intimate and joyful display of works by eminent photographer Dorothy Bohm explores the universality of childhood. Bohm escaped Nazi Germany for Britain in 1939 with a Leica camera, a parting gift from her father. She went on to help establish the Photographers’ Gallery in 1971, has written several books and has exhibited her work internationally. On display will be highlights from Bohm’s vast collection of photographs of children, taken over the last 75 years from around the world. Despite her photography  covering so many decades, different cultures and countries, our shared experiences of childhood shine through in Bohm’s unique and exceptional photographs.

Tim Walker HonFRPS / 7 September 2019 – 8 March 2020 / Tickets on sale Spring 2019
This exhibition is an immersive journey into the fantastical worlds created by photographer Tim Walker. The V&A has been a continuous source of inspiration for Walker over the past 25 years and at the heart of the exhibition will be a brand new series of photographs directly influenced by his research into the V&A’s enormous and eclectic collection. The show pays tribute to Walker's distinctive contribution to image-making,

while also exploring the work of his creative collaborators. It will shine a light on the important roles played by set designers, stylists, make-up artists, models and muses, who all help bring Walker's unique ideas to life. Designed by leading British art director Shona Heath, the exhibition encompasses photographs, films, photographic sets and special installations across the museum, providing a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process of one of the world's most inventive photographers.

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 support this vision, we are looking for an Associate Curator of Broadcast and Television to join us in at the National Science and Media Museum, in Bradford, on a 12-month, fixed-term contract.

In this role, you will work across the breadth of our subject area, undertaking research to identify objects, create rationales for acquisition and disposal and draw out meaning from our extraordinary media collections, whilst allowing you to develop your existing understanding in the material culture of broadcast and film.

Joining us, you will bring excellent collections development experience and storytelling ability, allowing you to carry out research and work with specialists to communicate your knowledge of the history of broadcasting and television to non-specialist audiences.

You will be offered excellent benefits including 25 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays, BUPA medical and dental healthcare, the ability to join our excellent pension scheme, an interest free loan offer and numerous staff discounts whilst developing your career in a world class museum group.

For further information please visit our website http://bit.ly/2Jy0fgp

Hello, my name is Julia Green and have just recently joined this group.  I am particularly interested in the cdv/cabinet world of photography and more specifically the work of two of my photographer ancestors.  I began collecting their works around 18 months ago and like most collectors search on-line daily in the hope of finding examples .... so, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to ask if anyone has any photographic works by R.V.GREEN, COVENTRY or his brother A.V.GREEN, ATHERSTONE, I would love to hear from you.  At the moment I have around 60 cdv’s and cabinet cards of the GREEN brothers but they were long standing photographers so I’m hopeful there’s more to find! I’m also confident that I’m going to learn more about Victorian photography from other members in the group. 

Hello, I am seeking information about this leather case, marked Lock & Whitfield, 178 Regent Street. It looks like an average daguerreotype case, but the size is very large, and doesn't seem to correlate to known sizes.

The exterior is 18.3cm x 15.8cm. (7-1/8 x 6-1/4 in.)

The glass inside is 16.5 x 14 cm. (6-1/2 x 5-1/5 in.)

I know Lock and Whitfield through their Woodburytypes -Men of Mark,1870s-80s, But this appears to be earlier. Since the mark doesn't include the King's Road location, founded in 1864, I assume this is earlier.

Could it be a case for a half plate dag with a very large gilt matte?

Or perhaps another sort of image?

Any information would be appreciated.

David

The National Trust for Scotland is inviting papers for the first Morton Photography Symposium, to be held on Tuesday 9 April, 2019 at Broughton House & Garden, Kirkcudbright: The Camera, Social Networks and The Inaccessible, from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day. This symposium is inspired by a collection of photographs held at Broughton House in Kirkcudbright; the home of Scottish painter, Edwin Atkinson Hornel.

Comprising glass plates and prints taken in Japan, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Burma (now Myanmar) and Scotland, the collection shows how photographs inspired Hornel’s artwork.  He joined a photographic society in Japan, was sent photos by his fellow artists in Scotland and worked with a photographer at home in Kirkcudbright. The camera and these social networks gave him access to people, places and subjects that may otherwise have been hard to reach.

Papers on any aspect of the photographer and social networks, as well as on how the camera creates a distance that can justify access to ‘foreign’ sites or inaccessible subjects, will be considered. It is hoped the conference proceedings will be published at a later date.

Subjects may include (but are not restricted to): 

• The camera’s ability to provide access to inaccessible people, places and cultures.
• How social networks – from 19th century photographic societies to contemporary sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – can provide forums for sharing photographs and accessing the inaccessible.
• The networks created and used by Scottish artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• The influence of the camera on Scottish painting.
• The camera as a tool of colonialism and/or stereotyping.
• How the camera can provide new opportunities for, or give a voice to, marginalised people, places and cultures.

Please send a proposed title and abstract of 200-300 words for a 20-25 minute paper to Ben Reiss at breiss@nts.org.uk by Friday, 12 October. Scholars at any stage of their career are encouraged to submit proposals. 

Any enquiries about delivering a paper or attending the symposium may also be directed to Ben at this address, or please phone 07864 918969.

He may be best known as the guitarist for legendary band Queen but Brian May will visit Aberdeen in August to celebrate the work of another great who rose to fame thanks to a very different royal connection.

The musician and song writer will appear at the University of Aberdeen in his capacity as photographic historian and Director of The London Stereoscopic Company for the launch of a new book dedicated to Scotland’s great Victorian photographer George Washington Wilson, who hailed from the city, written by the aptly named Professor Roger Taylor. The university houses the GWW archive. 

Wilson rose to fame after he was appointed to document the construction of Balmoral Castle and became Photographer to the Queen. His innovations in stereoscopic photography during the 1850s created some of the most captivating stereo (3-D) images of the Victorian period.

May has contributed to a new book George Washington Wilson, Artist and Photographer written by Professor Roger Taylor, the world authority on George Washington Wilson. It will be launched in the city on August 16 at the University of Aberdeen which holds the largest collection of Wilson’s work.

Wilson was a technical and aesthetic innovator and when he began taking two shots of a scene which when viewed together created a three-dimensional image, it quickly became a craze first in Britain and then across the world.

To view the images in their full glory, a special viewer is required and to mark the entry of LSC into book publishing, May created the OWL stereoscope.  This unique viewing device allows modern audiences to see the photographs in the same way as their Victorian counterparts and is included with every book.

May will join Professor Taylor for a celebration of the life of George Washington Wilson at the University of Aberdeen’s King’s College campus. It is a fitting venue for the event as the University holds some 38,000 of the estimated 40,000 glass plate images Wilson captured around the world during his prolific career.

The pair will trace Wilson’s career and show key examples of his work, as featured in the book, using a stunning new 3-D projection system. The audience will also be provided with the highest of quality 3-D glasses to enjoy the images as they were intended.

Professor Phil Hannaford, Interim Senior Vice-Principal of the University of Aberdeen, said he was delighted to be able to celebrate the launch of the book in Wilson’s home city.

“The city of Aberdeen and the University has a long association with George Washington Wilson – a true pioneer of photography – and we are proud not only to hold the world’s largest collection of his work but to have undertaken extensive work to digitise this wonderful collection and make it available to the public.

“The book George Washington Wilson, Artist and Photographer is an outstanding work which will bring his work to new audiences. “We are delighted to be able to welcome Brian May and Professor Roger Taylor to our campus to celebrate the launch of this new work and look forward to hearing their fascinating insights into his life and work.”

Brian May said: “It’s my great pleasure to introduce to you all this beautiful book, at the request of its author, my great friend Professor Roger Taylor. It’s been many years in the making, and I’m confident it will have been worth every minute. It presents the life and work of celebrated Scottish landscape photographer George Washington Wilson, who with great skill and flair, photographed the unique beauties of the Scottish countryside in the 1860s with his stereoscopic camera. The resulting 3-D images proved immensely successful and established Wilson’s national reputation as a pre-eminent photographer. Now, courtesy of the Lite OWL included with every book, Wilson’s images can be experienced in exactly the same way they were enjoyed by the Victorian public.”  

Tickets for the launch event, which will be held in the Art’s Lecture Theatre, King’s College, Old Aberdeen on August 16, are available from www.abdn.ac.uk/events/13419/

George Washington Wilson: Artist and Photographer, by Prof Roger Taylor, Intro by Brian May, The London Stereoscopic Company, publishes on 15 August 2018, £30

Making the collection available to the public

In 2011 the University of Aberdeen made available online more than 35,000 high resolution digital versions of images originally taken between 1853 and 1908 by the Aberdeen photographic firm George Washington Wilson & Co.

The images, taken throughout Scotland the UK and beyond, allow the examination of details previously hidden from the naked eye.

The George Washington Wilson online archive can be viewed at www.abdn.ac.uk/historic/gww/index.htm

Dimbola Museum and Galleries, Isle of Wight, is to host the first major retrospective exhibition of the work of pioneering aerial photographer Captain Alfred G Buckham. 

Creating spectacular images in the face of technical and physical adversity the madcap daredevil Captain Alfred G Buckham (1879-1956) was the foremost aerial photographer of his day. Between 1908 to the early 1930s Buckham risked life and limb to create aerial portraits that are awe-inspiring, poetic and works of technical brilliance. His 1923 photograph of London, The Heart of Empire, was voted by The Sunday Times as one of the world’s greatest photographs and more recently it was included in The Royal Photographic Society exhibition and book, Drawn by Light, highlighting the world's most important photographers.

‘Alfred Buckham was courageous, almost recklessly so, insecurely squeezed with his large plate camera into a flimsy aircraft taking photographs nobody before had even dared.  What he captured was a new world, its atmospherics; lost temples in the jungle, cities framed from the air, the wrecks of war, at considerable personal risk.  The last crash he endured left him virtually speechless.  But his glistening images are things of rare beauty, and Dimbola is proud to be allowed to host the first proper retrospective, and acknowledge Buckham’s genius’ Brian Hinton, Chairman of Julia Margaret Cameron Trust

Spirited artistry with the blood of a risk-taker coursing through his veins, Buckham was a one-off. His first ambition was to be a painter but after seeing an exhibition by Turner he went home and burnt his own work. Those painterly yearnings however did not go up in smoke and they found expression in his aerial photography. During World War 1 he was the first head of aerial reconnaissance for the Royal Navy and later made Captain in the Royal Naval Air Service. However by 1919 he was discharged as one hundred percent disabled, the result of some nine crashes that left him breathing through a tube in his neck for the rest of his life – but did that stop him soaring to dizzying heights risking loss of consciousness to capture spectacular images with his unwieldly large format camera? Definitely not, in fact to add to the drama he would often prefer to go up in stormy weather!

 “I always stand up to make an exposure and, taking the precaution to tie my right leg to the seat, I am free to move about rapidly, and easily, in any desired direction; and loop the loop and indulge in other such delights, with perfect safety,” he wrote in 1927!

In an arcane precursor to Photoshop, Buckham also manipulated photographs marrying different cloud formations to landscapes, adding in airplanes and even painting features himself illustrating his aesthetic desires to get the image right.

Among a select group of admirers is Graydon Carter, ex-Vanity Fair editor. Carter, writing for American Photographer, sums up Buckham’s exceptional contribution perfectly, ‘a photographer blessed with a painter’s eye and a hotspur’s heart could only have accomplished what Buckham did, in a body of aerial portraits that are, ultimately, breathtaking.’

When you consider not only the tremendous technical challenges he faced but also the restrictions posed on him by his disability, Buckham’s body of work is unquestioningly a marvel of photographic genius. In romantic tradition, the vast spectacle of land and cloudscape is fixed by the lens of Buckham, the sky traveller, and renders the viewer simultaneously insignificant and potent. As Turner is undoubtedly one of Britain’s greatest painters so is Buckham one of our greatest photographers. 

The Sky Traveller will be shown in the Olympus and Charles Hay Galleries 5 October - 16 December 2018. 

http://www.dimbola.co.uk/

Dimbola Museum+Galleries is the former home of the pioneering Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron and the birthplace of fine art photography. Dimbola now houses the largest public collection in the UK of Cameron’s photographs and an historic camera collection.  As well as hosting a programme of regularly changing contemporary photography and art exhibitions Dimbola is also home to a permanent display on the history of the Isle of Wight Festival.