Blogs

Celebrating beach photography by some of Britain’s most popular photographers, featuring Tony Ray Jones, David Hurn and Simon Roberts and new work by Martin Parr at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. 

The exhibition will explore our changing relationship with the seaside over the last six decades and will hold up a critical and affectionate mirror to a quintessentially British experience, captured by photographers who share a mutual love of the seaside. The Great British Seaside will include images from the archival collections of each of the photographers, new films, and new work by Martin Parr. 

Read more at https://www.rmg.co.uk/see-do/great-british-seaside

Image: Herne Bay, Kent, 1963 / David Hurn/Magnum

From April 2018, two photography exhibitions at The Lightbox gallery and museum in Woking will display a rarely-seen, carefree side to the iconic artist, Pablo Picasso. In the Upper Gallery, Lee Miller: Picasso Portraits will depict Picasso enjoying the company of a lifelong friend, while a fascinating selection of never-before-seen photographs will show the artist on holiday in Four Days with Picasso, in the Art Fund Prize Gallery.

Lee Miller: Picasso Portraits (14 April – 17 June 2018) will consist of thirty portrait images of Picasso taken over a period of over three decades by Lee Miller, American model, turned Surrealist photographer. Miller first met Picasso around 1929 but their friendship really began from 1937 onwards when they became romantically linked and Miller became a temporary muse for Picasso. Their friendship was to endure until the artist’s death in 1973 and Miller’s husband, Roland Penrose, became a champion of Picasso’s work.

Picasso is often presented in photographs as a somewhat fearsome figure, his fierce stare was famous. However, many of the images selected for the exhibition have been chosen for their easy intimacy; portraits of off-duty Picasso, less work – more play. Miller got the sort of access only close friends and confidants ever get, the photographs show that Picasso was entirely comfortable and fully trusted her.

Also included in the exhibition are shots of Picasso’s famously chaotically messy studios, portraits alongside other artist friends and holiday snaps.

Alongside this, Four Days with Picasso (10 – 29 April 2018) tells the remarkable story of a chance encounter on the beach of Antibes, France in the summer of 1954, between the amateur British photographer Stanley Stanley and Picasso. The two men hit it off and Picasso invited Stanley to spend time at his nearby villa.

Stanley spent several days with Picasso, his family and circle of friends, and during this period the artist allowed Stanley to record the visit in a series of photographs. What resulted was a sequence of images which are magical in their informality and which are being publicly displayed for the first time in this exhibition.

These exhibitions will be running to complement the Main Gallery exhibition Picasso: Paper and Clay (17 March – 24 June 2018), celebrating 70 years of Picasso’s work, showcasing his boundary-pushing creativity in drawing, printmaking and ceramics.

Visitor Information: The Lightbox is situated in Woking (25 minutes from London Waterloo by train) open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 10.30am – 5.00pm, Thursday 10.30am – 9.30pm and Sunday 11.00am – 4.00pm. For more information please visit www.thelightbox.org.uk or call 01483 737800.

Image: © Lee Miller Archives

A display of Walter Benington's photographic portraits, which include leading members of Oxford and Cambridge Universities as well as renowned figures such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Albert Einstein.

Oxford, Bodleian Library

Opening times:
Monday to Friday 9am-5pm
Saturday 9am-4.30pm
Sunday 11am-5pm

Weston Library Information desk - 01865 277094

See: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/whatson/whats-on/upcoming-events/2018/jan/walter-benington

The Yale Center for British Art Significantly Expands Its Collection of Modern and Contemporary British Photographs with a Major Gift from the London-based collectors Claire and James Hyman.

NEW HAVEN, CT (January 16, 2018)-The Yale Center for British Art has expanded its collection of photographs through a generous gift of 125 works from the London-based collectors Claire and James Hyman. The gift includes prints by famed British photographers Bill Brandt (1904-1983), Tony Ray-Jones (1941-1972), and Martin Parr (b. 1952), and it introduces works by Bert Hardy (1913-1995), Roger Mayne (1929-2014), Fay Godwin (1931-2005), John Blakemore (b. 1936), Colin Jones (b. 1936), Anna Fox (b. 1961), and many others who are not yet represented in the Center's steadily growing collection. A selection reflecting the range of British photographers and approaches to the medium represented in this gift will be on display at the Center beginning on Tuesday, January 16, mounted by Assistant Curator of Photography Chitra Ramalingam. This arrangement will be on view in the second-floor galleries through March 29, 2018.

Hyman said: "Claire and I hope that by making this donation at such a seminal moment it will help provide a platform for the Center's ambitions to develop its engagement with British photography," said Dr. James Hyman. "This gift marks the continuation of a special relationship with Yale University that began in 2001, when the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies for British Art, London, in association with Yale University Press, published my doctorate The Battle for Realism: Figurative Art in Britain during the Cold War (1945-60)."

Highlights from the Hymans' gift to the Center include British landscapes, from the layered intimacy of a riverbank in Blakemore's Lathkill Dale, Derbyshire (1979) to the bleak, ruptured majesty of Godwin's Meall Mor, Glencoe (1989). Several photographers whose work is included in the gift, such as Hardy, Brandt, Jones, and Jane Bown (1925-2014) worked for illustrated magazines, such as the mid-century Picture Post or the Observer, the long-lived illustrated Sunday magazine, which fostered both social documentary and graphic innovation in British photography. Prints from two Picture Post photo-essays by Hardy trace the everyday realities of wartime and postwar Britain: A Trawler in War-time, March 1942, captures fishermen trawling in the North Sea under brutal conditions, while Life in the Elephant depicts citizens of south London during the winter of 1948. Jones recorded life in postwar industrial landscapes, foregrounding British steel-working and coal-mining towns in the 1970s. Fox's photographs document the unsettling customs and rituals of British life in a small, picturesque village in Hampshire.

"We are delighted to make this gift to the Center as part of our commitment to promoting British photography internationally", said Dr. Claire Hyman. "The donation includes British photographs that span the last century by many of the most important figures from Bill Brandt to Anna Fox. We are especially excited to make the gift at such an important time in the Center's engagement with photography."

The Hymans' largesse builds on a precedent set by the Center's founder, Paul Mellon (Yale College, Class of 1929), whose own extraordinary gift to Yale included early and rare examples of books and albums with photographic illustrations. Among the most notable are a copy of William Henry Fox Talbot's photographically illustrated book Sun Pictures in Scotland (1845), depicting sites from the life and work of Sir Walter Scott; Relics of Old London (1875-1886), a portfolio of carbon prints by several late Victorian photographers memorializing historical London buildings in danger of demolition; and the William Field scrapbook (1895), an extraordinary album compiled by a commercial photographer to record the collective memory of his family and its relationship to the distant past. The newly acquired prints complement the Center's rich collection of historic photographs and drawings made with optical devices, such as the camera obscura and camera lucida, which both played a key role in the genesis of photography.

"We are deeply grateful to the Hymans for advancing the Center's collection of modern and contemporary British photographs. Their magnificent gift includes works by many notable practitioners new to the institution's holdings," said the Center's director, Amy Meyers. "Their generosity comes at an opportune moment, since we have begun to develop our collection of photographs both actively and strategically to represent the wide breath of the medium, as well as its historical and social significance to British culture."

In addition, Ramalingam noted, "the Center wishes to build its photography collection in innovative ways that reflect not only the multifaceted nature of photography as a practice but also the complexity of Britishness at this moment in history. The photographs included in the Hymans' gift compel us to examine both these questions, as the Center launches research projects and exhibitions that deepen our understanding of the material, aesthetic, and social history of photography."

Currently, the Center houses more than six thousand photographs, including works inbooks and albums, and cartes de visite. Over the last decade, the institution has made a firm commitment to expand the breadth and depth of its holdings in this area, with works that range from early photographic experiments to contemporary innovations with the medium: from a cameraless salt print by William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877) to a digital print by Yinka Shonibare MBE (RA) (b. 1962).

The Yale Center for British Art is a public art museum and research institute that houses the largest collection of British art outside the United Kingdom. Presented to the university by Paul Mellon (Yale College, Class of 1929), the collection reflects the development of British art and culture from the Elizabethan period onward. The Center's collections include more than 2,000 paintings, 250 sculptures, 20,000 drawings and watercolors, 6,000 photographs, 40,000 prints, and 35,000 rare books and manuscripts. More than 40,000 volumes supporting research in British art and related fields are available in the Center's Reference Library. In May 2016, the Center reopened to the public following the completion of a multiyear project to conserve its iconic Louis I. Kahn building.

Read the full press release here. 

Looking for development opportunities and support in 2018? Membership of the Photographic Collections Network is now OPEN!. Join us to support our work, receive access to specialist events, opportunities and advice around UK photo collections and archives, and support @ukpcn

The Photographic Collections Network (PCN) is a new organisation that aims to bring together anyone connected with photo collections or archives in the UK. The network shares knowledge and expertise across the UK’s diverse photographic collections to help secure, and build enjoyment, of our shared visual heritage.  We want to protect and share the UK’s diverse photographic collections and archives - no matter how big or small, new or old - for everyone. 

As a member (for £25 per year [£20 concs]), you can share your collection, contribute to research, exchange knowledge, ask advice, connect with others, receive offers and access specialist information and events.

We are a Subject Specialist Network funded by Arts Council England & Art Fund. Colleagues from The Royal Photographic Society, The V&A Museum, The National Science and Media Museum, Photography and the Archive Research Centre and Redeye, along with Professor Francis Hodgson, make up our current Steering Group.

See more at www.photocollections.org.uk

Please do contact maura@photocollections.org.uk if you have any queries or questions.

This is the start of a series about restoring and photographing with a nineteenth-century stand camera - and the outcomes of the experience. The story began in 2010 when I was given a 15” x 12” Victorian camera, with the words “who knows, you might be able to get it working again.”  It was a generous gift and I had admired the camera from a distance for years. Beautifully made from polished mahogany, brass and maroon leather the camera reminded me of Lewis Carroll’s Hiawatha’s Photographing:

From his shoulder Hiawatha

Took the camera of rosewood

Made of sliding, folding rosewood;

Neatly put it all together,

In its case it lay compactly,

Folded into nearly nothing;

But he opened out the hinges,

Pushed and pulled the joints and hinges,

Till it looked all squares and oblongs

Like a complicated figure

In the second book of Euclid.

Only at this stage my camera did not have a case. It did have a maker’s plate, announcing it was  ‘The British’ made by J. T. Chapman. Searching the web produced more information than I expected. J. T. Chapman (1843-1907) was a Manchester-based photographic chemist who, in the 1870s, developed new formulae for producing reliable gelatino-bromide dry plates. He also designed and sold cameras, starting with the quarter-plate Manchester camera in 1883 followed by the ‘British’ range in 1886: my 15 x 12” was the largest in the range. Seen next to an M3 Leica, it makes the 35mm camera look like a miniature or toy.

Then I found that the Manchester Museum of Scientific Instruments also owns a 15 x 12” Chapman ‘British’ which had belonged to James Mudd who, with his assistant George Grundy, used it to photograph railway engines built by the Beyer Peacock works in Manchester. The Museum’s camera looked identical to mine except that a second tripod bush has been fitted to the base plate (which had split badly around the original bush) and was missing its lens, dark slides and ground glass focussing screen. The focussing screen on my camera had a series of diagonals and square guidelines drawn in pencil, marked ‘engine’ and ‘engine and tender’. I was a safe bet that it too had belonged to Mudd and/or Grundy.  The ‘British’ was well-suited to making large, highly detailed plates of industrial machinery. The front lens panel allows forward and backward tilt and vertical shift, but no lateral shift and no swing; the camera back allows forward and backward tilt, but no swing or shift, and can be fixed in either ‘landscape’ or ‘portrait’ orientation. It is a fine example of Victorian design and craftsmanship: the camera body is surprisingly light for such a large object.

My camera came with its lens and lens cap, three double dark slides and a single wet-plate holder. The lens is a Dallmeyer Rapid Rectilinear, serial number 24042, which was logged in the Dallmeyer stock book on 27 May 1875. It has an equivalent focal length about 450 mm and a very fine iris diaphragm marked with f-stops from f8 for f32, alongside Dallmeyer's own system of diaphragm numbers.

Made to fit the individual camera, the double-sided ‘book slides’ open with a hinge and are designed to take two glass plates, separated by a sheet metal spacer with springs to keep the plates seated in place. Like the camera body, the slides are made of mahogany with brass fittings and ebony inlays to reinforce the corners. Signs of wear and tear showed that the double dark slides had been heavily used, but the wet-plate holder was virgin.

L. Parker Stephenson Photographs will present a selection of British Photography at Classic Photographs Los Angeles, featuring gallery artists John Davies and Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, and work by Paul Hill, Chris Killip, and Marketa Luskacova.

In addition the Gallery will show work by Kikuji Kawada, Malick Sidibe, Jacques Sonck, and Witho Worms.

For additional information or to request images, please contact the Gallery at +1 212 517-8700 or by email at info@lparkerstephenson.nyc 

Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Kids with Collected Junk, Near Byker Bridge, Byker, 1971

John Davies, Stalybridge, Cheshire, 1983

Marketa Luskova, On the Promenade, 1978

Classic Photographs Los Angeles will be held at

BERGAMOT STATION | 2525 MICHIGAN AVE. | SANTA MONICA, CA 90404

Admission is Free.

Hours are:

Friday February 2 (Opening Preview) 6-8pm

 Saturday February 3 11am-7pm

Sunday February 4, 11am-5pm.

L. Parker Stephenson Photographs celebrates its representation of John Davies (b. 1949) with the first solo exhibition of his work in the United States. Nominated for the Deutsche Börse prize in 2008, Davies is best known for his 1980s photographs documenting the broad, complex and changing topography of industrial and post-industrial Britain. Over a dozen large vintage and modern gelatin silver prints have been selected for presentation from his series The British Landscape (published in book format by Chris Boot, 2006). The Gallery is pleased to host an opening reception on Friday, December 8, 5-7pm.

John Davies’ engagement with documentary photography emerged as a response to the economic and social upheavals taking place in the UK in the late 1970s and 80s. This important transitional era was examined in the Museum of Modern Art New York’s 1991 exhibition and accompanying catalog British Photography from the Thatcher Years, which presented the work of John Davies, Paul Graham, Chris Killip, Martin Parr and Graham Smith. Davies’ exhibited images from A Green and Pleasant Land examined changes to the environment wrought on it by industrialization and urbanization. This 1986 title was the first book published by Dewi Lewis while he was Director of the Cornerhouse art center.

Working through long-standing British traditions of painterly and literary scenes, Davies utilizes the sharp descriptive power of large format photography for his fine gelatin silver prints to include a range of details that exceeds a complacent reading of the terrain, emphasizing instead its flux. He honors and preserves the layers of cultural history while the past is regularly erased and replaced. Tensions between Arcadian nature and engineered economy are also illustrated, informing an understanding of the earth as both symbolic identity and as a resource. Viewed from an elevated perspective, the pastoral lanes, gothic cathedrals, railroad bridges, coal factories, nuclear power plants and apartment towers captured in Davies’ images relate to classical landscape painting as well as the precision of map-making. His style has been credited as influential to contemporary artists, among them, Andreas Gursky.

Davies’ continued focus on the evolution of rural and urban environments throughout Western Europe over the course of almost 40 years has resulted in over twenty monographs and dozens of solo and group exhibitions. His most recent book, Shadow: Slag Heaps of Northern Europe, (Edition Loco) was published in 2016. The V&A Museum, London and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris are both presenting his work from their collections in current group exhibitions. The Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne also has his prints on view through 2018.

In addition to institutions throughout the UK such as the Barbican Art Gallery, Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, the British Council, Arts Council of England, the National Museum and Galleries and the National Library of Wales, Davies’ work is in the collections of or exhibited by international museums including MoMA, NY and SFMoMA; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Centre Georges Pompidou Paris; and MAXXI in Rome among many others in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

Limited editions of The British Landscape book accompanied by a print are available through the Gallery.

For additional information or to request images, please contact the Gallery at +1 212 517-8700 or by email at info@lparkerstephenson.nyc

Happy New Year. 2018 is the 125th Anniversary of The Stereoscopic Society. Founded in 1893 to promote 3D Photography it continues to support all aspects of 3D Imaging, with regular monthly meetings in London and Coventry. 

Here is possibly the earliest group photograph from one of the early gatherings in St Ives, Cambridgeshire in 1927.Best Wishes for another fun year of 3D.
Andrew Hurst
President
The Stereoscopic Society
www.StereoscopicSociety.org.uk

While stocks last, John Hannavy is offering a limited number of copies of his 2015 book The Victorian Photographs of Dr. Thomas Keith and John Forbes White to BPH readers at half the published price.

To order a copy at £10 + P&P (instead of the listed £20 + P&P), contact john@johnhannavy.co.uk quoting ‘BPH1855’.  Currently the cost of 2nd class postage to the UK, with the book in a sturdy jiffy bag, will be £3. Postage outside the UK will be added at cost.

Originally published in 2015 in a limited edition of 500 copies you can read more about the content here: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/publication-thomas-keith-and-john-forbes-white

Explore London after dark in a new, evocative photography exhibition at the Museum of London, opening in 2018.

Fusing portraiture, documentary, conceptual photography and film, London Nights will reveal the city after dark through photographs ranging from the late 19th century to the present day. Drawing from the Museum's extensive collection and loaned works, 50 artists, including Alvin Langdon Coburn, Bill Brandt, Rut Blees Luxemburg and Nick Turpin, will be represented through over 200 works.

London Nights will take visitors on a dramatic, nocturnal study of the capital. From the unexplored to the imagined, from Soho to Sydenham, see stunning images of a city illuminated by limited natural and artificial light. Uncover the more threatening side of night-time London, and see how Londoners work, rest and play when the sun goes down in one of the biggest metropolises in the world.

If you are visiting as a group of 10 or more, please book your visit in advance using the group booking form. Groups receive discounted exhibition tickets and can also book an introductory tour with the exhibition curator. Visit the group visits page for more information.

See more here: https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/museum-london/whats-on/exhibitions/london-nights

Image; George Davison Reid

John Hannavy's collection of Victorian photography and photographic ephemera is being put up for auction in the spring. The collection comprises, amongst other things, the largest collection of thermoplastic Union Cases in the UK – including many by John Smith, the only known British union case manufacturer – hundreds of cased and framed inages from the 1840s to the 1860s, a collection of Roger Fenton's Crimean War images (below), some of Francis Frith's views of the Nile Valley, and a rare Julia Margaret Cameron print titled ‘ ove’ with provenance back to Cameron’s daughter.

Hannavy has been collecting 19th and early 20th century photographca for over forty years. As well as providing illustrations for several of his books, the collection served as a teaching aid in his academic career at the University of Bolton, where he was Professor in Photography and Photographic History. The collection is being sold as his interests have moved to industrial archaeology and heritage.  

Amongst the early daguerreotypes which will be included in the sale is a pair of very rare framed portraits by Berlin photographer Gustave Oehme – the one illustrated here (above, right) is identified as Louise Brause, the other is of her sister. Oehme is believed to have been taught the process by Daguerre himself. Daguerreotypes by Kilburn, Mayall, Claudet, and others, and a rare stereo daguerreotype showing the interior of the Great Hall of the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris are also to be sold. 

 Many of the items to be included in the auction are illustrated in John’s 2005 book Case Histories – the Presentation of the Victorian Photographic Portrait, published by the Antique Collectors’ Club.

 The sale will be held at Dominic Winter Auctioneers in Cirencester on 9 March 2018. More information will be available from the auctioneers in due course: http://www.dominic-winter.co.uk/

Image: Roger Fenton, Chasseurs d'Afrique. 

The Faculty of Humanities at the University of Amsetrdam provides education and conducts research within a strong international framework and in a large number of disciplines in the field of language, history, and culture. Located in the heart of Amsterdam, the Faculty maintains close ties with cultural institutions in the capital city and beyond.

Based within the Faculty of Humanities, the four-year Graduate Programme in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage is the sole programme for conservation in the Netherlands. It offers a two-year Master in Conservation Studies in one of nine conservation specializations. The master programme is followed by a two-year Post-master phase that leads to the qualification of conservator.

The faculty invites applications for the part-time position of Lecturer in Photograph Conservation to teach master and post-master students photograph conservation.

Job description

The successful candidate will collaborate with the Programme’s current lecturer in photograph conservation and will build upon and teach theory and practical coursework in photograph preservation and conservation, history of photography, and materials and techniques in photography. He/she will also teach an introduction to photograph conservation in the BA minor programme as well as photograph identification and preservation to students in related fields of conservation such as book and paper conservation and contemporary art conservation. The candidate will supervise photograph conservation treatment and research projects and provide mentoring and advice to the students during their 4 years of study.

The photograph conservation lecturer will actively participate in the activities of the department, including:

• coordination of and lecturing in the object-based hands-on classes in photograph conservation;
• organization of and coordination of the guest lecturers involved in the programme;
• supervision and mentoring of the research and hands-on projects in photograph conservation;
• up-keeping and maintaining the photograph conservation laboratory and the photography documentation studio;
• building client relations in regards to internships and acquisition of photographs for student hands-on sessions and research;
• serving on department and university committees, participating in department and university events, and advancing the department's public outreach initiatives.

Requirements

• MA degree or higher in photograph conservation, which may include certificates from internationally recognized academic conservation programs;
• evidence of ability and commitment to teaching photograph conservation at the graduate level;
• advanced experience and skills in the conservation of photographic materials of all kinds;
• evidence of scholarly work such as published research and lectures on relevant conservation issues at (international) conferences;
• fluency in English (oral and written);
• well-developed communication skills; evidence of ability to work co-operatively and collegially within an interdisciplinary work environment;
• the ambition to learn Dutch.

Further information

For further information candidates may contact:

• Clara von Waldthausen, Programme Director and Lecturer in Photograph Conservation
  Website Clara von Waldthausen
  T: +31 (0)6 11378974

Appointment

The appointment is for a period of 3 years, for 19 to 25 hours per week. The gross monthly salary will range from €2,588 (scale 10) to €4,757 (scale 11) per month, based on a full-time appointment (38 hours per week). The Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities is applicable.

Job application

You may send a letter of application, including a detailed curriculum vitae and two names of referees, to Prof. Maarten van Bommel, Professor of Conservation Science via secretariaat-cenr@uva.nl. Please state  job vacancy number 17-657 in the subject field. #LI-DNP

Hello fellow British Photo History Members,  A very Happy Holidays and New Years to you all! I am seeking information about how to 'float' an albumen photograph off of it's mount. Here I have an early English of French photograph, 22 x 17cm, showing a great old tree, with a few young people, bottom left.

I think that it is either a varnished salt print, or an 1850s albumen print, as it has just a very slight sheen. It is mounted on a heavy page from an album, the reverse looks like it previously held CDVs. My idea is that there may be information on the back of the photo, so I want to remove it from the mount. I have successfully floated albumen prints from their mounts by soaking them for several hours in warm water, but am unsure about how to proceed after this.

Before I undertake this method on this photo, I would like to hear members experiences/ ideas about how to properly dry, press, and remount photos like these.

Any information would be appreciated.

Best wishes,

David McGreevy

Tony Richards has recently written on his blog about a little known resource, The Strines Journal, compilied by Joel Wainwright and John M. Gregory, 1852-1856.

The monthly journal, produced in manuscript as a single copy only, records events in Strines and Marple, and wider occurrences, with articles on scientific, industrial and literary subjects. It is illustrated with watercolours, pen-and-ink drawings, and photographs. Joseph Sidebotham contributed drawings, photographs, and articles. Through him the editors were introduced to James Nasmyth, who contributed an article on the Moon, and there were several other notable contributors.

There are five bound volumes in total, plus an extraordinary issue on the occasion of Joel Wainwright’s marriage in May 1856. These volumes are now in the Rylands Collection at The John Rylands Library, University of Manchester.

Read Tony's full blog posting here and see links to the fully digitised five volumes. 

The Photographic Collections Network is a new organisation established to save and share the UK’s visual photographic history. Arts Council England has generously supported the PCN as a Subject Specialist Network.

The steering group includes The Victoria & Albert Museum, The Royal Photographic Society, Photography and the Archive Research Centre and the National Science + Media Museum. The website and individual membership were successfully launched in November 2017.

The PCN is now soliciting individual member and recruiting founding supporters. Find out more and join on the werbsite. See more at: www.photocollections.org.uk

In my final months as Chair of the Royal Photographic Society’s Historical Group – I am pleased to share two events that we have arranged which may be of great interest. 

The first event on Tuesday 23 January 2018, is the

Inaugural lecture  of the Colin Ford Lecture Series celebrating significant photographers and collections.

'André Kertész - The Real Biography?’ given by Robert Gurbo.

Robert Gurbo is the Curator of the André Kertész Estate in New York and has promised a fascinating first-hand perspective on Andre Kertész, celebrating his life and work.

The venue is the Royal Philatelic Society, 41 Devonshire Place, London, United Kingdom
W1G 6JY - 18:00 - 20:00

Places can be booked online at

http://rps.org/events/2018/january/23/colin-ford-lecture-series

Image copyright and courtesy of the Estate of André Kertész ©2017 All Rights Reserved.

The second event is the

Historical Group’s Afternoon Lectures at the V&A

Saturday 14 April 13:30 - 15:30, V&A Seminar Room 5, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, SW7 2RL

The afternoon comprises a series of fascinating lectures ranging from the recently exhibited to those yet to be.

Sophie Gordon Head of Photographs, Royal Collection Trust will speak on the latest exhibition from the Royal Collection - Shadows of War: Roger Fenton's Photographs of the Crimea, 1855

Dr Ed Bylina will present his perspective on ‘Early Photography in the Medical Profession’

Betty Yao and Deborah Ireland will be speaking on John Thomson’s photography in London and the Tropics

Places can be booked online at

http://rps.org/events/2018/april/14/historical-group-afternoon-lectures-2018

Just after last week’s weekly BPH blog reminder email had been sent out Lacy Scott and Knight (LSK), an auction house based in Bury St Edmunds, made contact to let me know that there were four lots of photographic interest coming up for auction on Saturday, 9 December. A quick look suggested they were important early material relating to Alfred Swaine Taylor (AST) (right). Their provenance of Thorne Court, an estate in Bury St Edmonds, confirmed this. Alfred Swaine Taylor's only daughter Edith, married Fred Methold, of Thorne Court, near Bury St Edmunds, and moved there in 1865. The information was duly posted on Wednesday.

One lot included some particularly valuable images, two Mayall stereo daguerreotypes, which I advised LSK that should be described in more detail, although they did appear in the catalogue pictures. More images were supplied to me.  The outcome of the auction was that the four lots sold considerably in excess of their estimates and totalled some £13,950 (£17,298, including 20% buyer’s premium and VAT). My own bids which had been left online, as I was attending the French early paper negatives conference in Paris, were exceeded very easily.  The buyer at this stage is unknown but had an agent bidding in the room on the day.

There is more to the story. A lot sold the previous week in a general sale at LSK also came from Thorne Court. In some ways it was even more interesting than the four on Saturday. It was listed as ‘A large quantity of unframed pictures and prints, to include; etchings, engravings, photographs, monochrome copies etc’. It contained a series of some thirty photographic images, both negatives and positives, camera views and copies of engravings. Many of these were initialled ‘C.T.’, which is very likely to be Caroline Taylor, AST’s wife (left). One other item in the lot was initialled ‘A.S.T.’ suggesting the respective initials indicated ownership or authorship. The earliest photographic image was captioned ‘King's College Chapel, Cambridge, 26 July, 1839’ another was a photogenic drawing of a plant, dated August 1839 (below, left).  One image (below, right) shows a photograph of an engraving cut in to three, with two annotated as ‘restored’ which is discussed in John Werge’s The Evolution of Photography (1890). Werge clearly knew AST and described him (p.106) as ‘a man of remarkable energy and versatility’. Other images included Calotype views of Paris dated 1850 and, again, initialled ‘C.T.’and an image also reproduced as figure 2 in Alt’s paper.

So, the lot included a series of very early images made within eight months from Talbot’s announcement of his photogenic drawing process in January 1839. It may also include work by one of the first women photographers, certainly the first outside of Talbot’s immediate circle, if the initials indicated authorship. Although the condition of many of the images was poor the lot sold for £4700 (£5828, including 20% buyer’s premium and VAT).

Taylor was discussed in two articles in History of Photography by Stephen White (July-Sept, 1987) and Laurence Alt (Winter, 1992) and AST has an entry in Taylor, Impressed by Light (Yale, 2007).

Lot descriptions from LSK

3457 (9 December 2017). *A pair of Victorian daguerreotype portraits of ladies, in gilt surrounds, housed in later velvet lined bakelite case in the form of a book, 5.5 x 5cm; together with various other Victorian daguerreotypes, mostly in fitted leather cases with hand-written annotations (12) Condition Report / Extra Information Two stereoscopic daguerreotypes - both labelled verso for Mayall's and of Edith C Taylor, both grubby otherwise good. Pair of small bakelite cased portraits - good. Daguerreotype of Edith Taylor with Emily, with numerous white spots on plate, otherwise good, annotated verso. two matching portraits of women, both corroding around all sides, one worse than the other. The last three framed portraits all good.

3456 (9 December 2017). *A Victorian hand-coloured daguerreotype three-quarter length portrait of a seated gentleman, in fitted J.C. Barrable Photographer red leather case, with hand-written label verso 'Alfred Swayne Taylor' and dated 1859, 12 x 9.5cm; together with four other Victorian portrait daguerreotypes, each in fitted leather cases with hand-written annotations (5)Note: Dr Alfred Swaine Taylor has been considered as the 'father of British forensic medicine' and was an important early pioneer of photography. Condition Report / Extra Information Daguerreotype of Swaine Taylor - numerous spots to glass plate, fine scratch lower left, otherwise good. Daguerreotype of Edith Taylor and her mother, 1847, some dust under glass case, otherwise appears excellent. Three remaining portraits - each with some losses.All annotated verso.

3455 (9 December 2017). *A Victorian hand-coloured daguerreotype three-quarter length portrait of a lady, in fitted leather case, with hand-written annotation 'Mrs Harris, aunt of D.A.S. Taylor, died 1863', together with a lock of her hair, the case with J.C. Barrable Photography, 24 Regent Street label, 12 x 9.5cm; together with four other Victorian hand-coloured daguerreotypes, each in fitted leather cases with hand-written annotations (5) Condition Report / Extra Information All slightly grubby. Hand-coloured. With some fading. Otherwise good.

3454 (9 December 2017). *A Victorian daguerreotype three-quarter portrait of a young girl, in fitted leather case, with hand-written annotation 'Edith C Taylor, aged 3 years, taken by Mayall, 1847', 7.5 x 6cm; together with various other Victorian daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and over-painted photographic portraits, each in fitted leather cases, many with hand-written and dated annotations (7)Note: Edith Taylor was the daughter of Dr Alfred Swaine Taylor, who has been considered as the 'father of British forensic medicine' and was an important early pioneer of photography. Condition Report / Extra Information The largest with significant mould residue all over.Both 'cabinet portraits' are overpainted, with some fading, otherwise good.Miss Larisa (elderly woman) in very good condition.Family group with losses to edges and some crazing in several areas.Edith Taylor aged 3 - daguerreotype, some minor spots to spots, otherwise good.Small oval female portrait on glass - very good.Small oval male portrait on glass - very good.

1061 (2 December 2017). *A large quantity of unframed pictures and prints, to include; etchings, engravings, photographs, monochrome copies etc

Acknowledgments

With thanks to Darran Green for detailed lot information.

Photographs: Lacy Scott and Knight and Darran Green.

Photographic collections are found in libraries, archives and museums all over the world. Their sensitivity to environmental conditions, and the speed with which images can deteriorate present special challenges. This one day training session is led by Susie Clark, accredited photographic conservator. It is aimed at those with responsibility for the care of photographic collections regardless of institutional context. The day provides an introduction to understanding and identifying photographic processes and their vulnerability, information on common conservation problems and solutions, and the preservation measures that can be taken to prolong the life and accessibility of photographic collections. Contact with real examples of different photographic processes is an important feature of this training session which is therefore limited to only 16 places.

At the end of the day participants will be able to: identify historic photographic processes explain how damage is caused implement appropriate preservation measures commission conservation work.

See more and book here: https://www.westdean.org.uk/study/short-courses/courses/bl34-preserving-historic-photographs