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As The Photographers' Gallery approaches its fiftieth anniversary in 2021 it is seeking an archivist. The Gallery is the UK’s leading centre for the presentation and exploration of photography in all its forms and a dedicated home for an international photographic community. Established in London in 1971, the Gallery has been instrumental in reflecting photography’s pivotal role in culture and society and championing its position as a leading art form through a rich programme of exhibitions, talks, events, workshops, courses and other activities.

The principal job objective of the Archivist is to oversee the acquisitions, management, preservation and dissemination of the collections within The Photographers’ Gallery’s Archive. Core duties will include:

• Appraising, prioritising and safeguarding material for preservation and retention;
• Cataloguing and digitising The Photographers’ Gallery’s collections;
• Overseeing and maintaining the Archive’s database system;
• Setting/adhering to, and regularly updating, policy guidelines concerning the Archive (preservation, cataloguing, digitization and public access);
• Supporting funding bids for the Archive and activities related to it;
• Line managing the Archive Assistant, ensuring that their work contributes to a wider framework;
• Overseeing copyright clearance for identified material.

The ideal candidate will be someone with knowledge and experience of 21st century archiving practice within a visual arts organisation. The post holder will be diligent, resilient, flexible, proactive and a good problem solver with a keen eye for detail. Among other criteria, they will have 3 or more years' experience in an equivalent post, a strong commitment to digital preservation and a passion for photography and the visual arts.

Please apply by reading the full job description and using the application form on our website: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/about-us/jobs

The Val Williams Archive is to become part of the collection at the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol. The archive consists of papers, letters, audiotapes, video, manuscripts, published material, invitations, posters, press cuttings and research materials documenting the work of one of the UK’s most important curators and writers on photography. 

The material spans Williams’ entire career from the early years of Impressions Gallery, through to more recent exhibition projects and books including The Other Observers (1986), Who's Looking at the Family (1994), How We Are (2007) and a full archive of Val's writing about photography in publications such as Creative Camera, the New Statesman, The Guardian, The Independent and many other publications. 

Highlights of the archive include a collection of letters from Martin Parr, many written while he was working and living in Ireland at the end of the 1970s, the handmade dummy book for Daniel Meadows’ National Portraits, the original manuscript for The Other Observers: Women’s Photography in Britain, published by Virago in 1986, the exhibition files made by Val Williams and Susan Bright for How We Are at Tate Britain (2007) and the vintage projection slides for Plastic Metropolis, the outdoor projection for the 1998 Shoreditch Biennale, featuring the work of Derek Ridgers, Hannah Starkey, Nick Knight and many others.

Preserved by Val Williams over the last 40 years, and also including important sets of magazines, including Picture Post, i-D and The Face, the archive represents a unique record of one of the most important periods in British photographic history. It was previously held at the Library of Birmingham. 

The archive was explored in the recent film Storage, made by Wendy Short, Belinda May and Hannah Blackmore, to coincide with Val Williams’ Professorial Platform in 2011. 

Almost 200 boxes of archived material have been transferred to the Martin Parr Foundation, which opened in 2018, and which includes extensive holdings of books and photographic works of British photography. The archive will be accessible to researchers later in 2019. 

Val Williams said: "I am delighted that my archive will now be part of the Martin Parr Foundation and that it will form a new resource for the study and interpretation of photography and cultural networks from the early 1970s. The Foundation is preserving and disseminating the history and heritage of British Photography as well as supporting contemporary photographers. I have worked with Martin Parr throughout my career, and am very impressed by the energy and enthusiasm of Martin and the team at the MPF."

Martin Parr commented: "I am delighted to welcome the Val Williams Archive into the collection of the Martin Parr Foundation. Val is one of the most esteemed British photography curators, with a long and illustrious career.  But also for me, we have intertwined career trajectories from early days at the Impressions Gallery in the 1970s, when Val offered me (and colleague Daniel Meadows) our first shows, during our college days, then a few years later, staged the 'Home Sweet Home' exhibition. Val also edited and wrote my retrospective book, published by Phaidon (in 2002, revised 2012) to accompany my show at the Barbican Gallery, which Val also curated."  

https://www.martinparrfoundation.org

www.valwilliams.uk

Roger Fenton’s (shown right) letters home from the Crimea in May 1855 indicated that he was taking stereoscopic pictures of the ruins of Inkerman, the valley at Inkerman and the battlefield of Balaklava. However, these views have never come to light.

It has been suggested by Roger Taylor and Denis Pellerin that they were taken for Wheatstone’s reflecting stereoscope (which by 1855 had been almost totally superseded by the most portable Brewter-type instrument) and that later the various halves may have been mistaken for two copies of the same print and dissociated.

A search in various collections for Roger Fenton’s images taken at Inkerman and the heights above the Plains of Balaklava has now revealed the existence of images that appear to be stereoscopic pairs. To date, two of these stereoscopic pairs have been found for Fenton’s landscapes: The Plains of Balaklava IV and The Quarries and the Aqueduct at the Head of the Harbour. Other possible pairs are still being assessed. This discovery seems to have solved the mystery surrounding Fenton’s lost stereoscopic images.

The two pairs of stereoscopic pictures are shown as anaglyphs (red/cyan) courtesy of Denis Pellerin. 

The National Science and Media Museum in Bradford (NSMM) houses a 3-screen cinema operation including Europe's first IMAX. The NSMM Pictureville cinema (300 seats) and Cubby Broccoli cinema (100 seats) screen the best of independent cinema with selected mainstream titles and a Screen Arts programme. IMAX (218 seats) screens the best feature titles available in IMAX format and a regular programme of shorter educational IMAX films for families and pre-booked groups.

As of 31st October 2019, the Museum's cinema operation will transfer from Picturehouse Cinemas to the Science Museum Group, to be managed in-house.  To support our growth and vision, we are looking for a Project Manager to oversee this transfer on a fixed term contract until 31st December 2019.

Using your experience and a collaborative approach, you will work closely with the Project Steering Group and wider teams across Picturehouse, National Science and Media Museum and Science Museum Group, to ensure an efficient transfer of operations within the defined timescales.

Joining us, you will have enthusiasm for our vision and a passion for film. Bringing experience and an understanding of how projects are successfully planned and delivered, you will be able to drive decisions, manage budgets and proactively identify and mitigate project risks.

You will be offered excellent benefits, including 25 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays, a contributory pension scheme, BUPA medical and dental care, an annual season ticket loan and numerous staff discounts whilst developing your career in a world class museum group.

See more here.

A little modern than most posts but quite unusual images worth seeing and a good story of what can be done with an archive of almost 60 year old fascinating images. A Kickstarter project for a book based on the archive photographs of the Rough Stuff Fellowship - the worlds oldest off road cycling club. I usually see their stall at the cycling rally in York, and their back issues of their magazine have proved interesting reading.

Nice to see them having instant Kickstarter success to publish the images in a book.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/688905218/the-rough-stuff-fellowship-archive-book?ref=project_email

The Pitt Rivers Museum has been awarded £70,500 in the latest round of DCMS/Wolfson funding awards, aimed at helping museums increase access to their collections.

This award will fund Engaging the Senses: Activating the Pitt Rivers Museum’s Photograph and Sound Collections through digital audio-visual technology. This project will improve visitors’ engagement and introduce elements of digital exploration and learning in the galleries for a variety of audiences. A digital interactive table top, listening station and interactive screen will display unique photographs and sound collections, improving the visitor experience for visitors with disabilities, local communities and the wider public.

In 2018 the Pitt Rivers Museum welcomed a record 502,000 visitors. These new audio-visual elements will allow the growing number of visitors to not only see the objects that are on display but also search the Museum’s digital collections, hear unique historical field recordings, and view film footage and photographs from around the world.

Welcoming news of the award, Dr. Laura Van Broekhoven, Director of the Pitt Rivers Museum,said: ‘We are very grateful to DCMS/Wolfson for this opportunity to allow our visitors to access the full breadth and depth of the collections, now also giving access to unique sound recordings, photography and film. The project will allow us to show many more fascinating historical and cultural facets of the collection.’

The Pitt Rivers Museum has just recently launched a new website with a wealth of information to enhance the visitor experience but also wants to bring new material into the Victorian age space of the Museum itself. The challenge of Engaging the Senses will be to sensitively show and share the unique material in the photo, film and sound collections without distracting from the objects on display.

Curator of Photograph Collections, Dr Chris Morton said: ‘This very welcome funding will bring collections such as the fabulous travel photographs of Sir Wilfred Thesiger, author of ‘Arabian Sands’ and ‘The Marsh Arabs, into the galleries for all our visitors to explore and enjoy, as well as the incredible collection of sound recordings of polyphonic singing made by Louis Sarno among the Bayaka of Central Africa. There is currently very little opportunity to show these collections to our visitors among the Museum’s dense displays, but the sensitive use of digital interactive technology in the historic museum space will allow us to enhance the visitor experience considerably.’

The DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund supports national and regional museums across England to improve the quality of displays, enhance exhibition spaces and public access, and increase awareness of their collections.

https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/

Make exquisite rich brown images using this 19th century print technique.  Led by local photographic artist Catriona Gray who specialises in alternative processes, this short, three-hour workshop, will show you all you need to make your own exquisite and unique Van Dyke Brown prints.

You will learn how to coat your own photographic paper, and expose it to light using the photogram technique of placing objects directly onto the paper. There will also be the opportunity to make a photographic print from a digital negative (if you want to do this, please email your image in plenty of time before the workshop).

We encourage you to bring your own objects, leaves, flowers etc. along to the workshop, to make the images truly personal.

See more here.

Courses take place on 27 January, 21 February and 27 March, book here.

Edinburgh auction house Lyon and Turnbull is offering a group of photogenic drawings dating from May 1839 in its forthcoming auction of books and photography. The group are believed to have been made by William Thomas Salvin of Croxdale Hall, County Durham. They are estimated at £2000-3000. 

The catalogue description is below: 

[COUNTY DURHAM] PHOTOGENIC DRAWINGS, BY WILLIAM THOMAS SALVIN (1767-1842) OR WILLIAM THOMAS SALVIN (B. 1808)  OF CROXDALE HALL, COUNTY DURHAM 

3 of feathers, c. 108 X 174mm., annotated on verso, "Magpie feathers May 1839 W. Salvin" and "W. Salvin, May 15, 1839"; 4 of plants, from 75 x 105mm. to 175 x 105mm., annotated on versos in pencil "April 1839, W. Salvin", "May 1839. W. Salvin" (x 2) "[?] from High [-]oile, Salvin, 1829", one of the armorial bookplate of W.T Salvin Esq., annotated "May 16th 1839, W. Salvin", & 3 totally faded; all somewhat faded, one creased
Note: These must be amongst the earliest "photogenic drawings" produced in Co. Durham. First conceived in England by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1834, photogenic drawing is the first photographic process capable of producing negative images on paper. The inventor did not publicize his experiments until the Daguerreotype was introduced in January 1839. The first photogenic drawings were produced of flat objects (plants, fabrics, drawings or manuscripts, etc.), being placed directly on light sensitive paper, following the principle of a photogram. Talbot had presented his discoveries of photogenic drawing to the Royal Society in January and February 1839, and it is therefore likely that William Thomas Salvin (1767-1842) or his son, also William Thomas Salvin (b. 1808) was present at Talbot's Royal Society lecture and was inspired by it to make some of his own photogenic drawings in May 1839.

See more here.

Alexander Lamont Henderson (1838-1907) was a photographer who was distinguished for his services by Queen Victoria of Britain and a member of the Royal Photographic Society. The information related to his life and work is poor as his "royal" images were destroyed after the death of Queen Victoria and his "commercial" work which was donated to the library of the London Guildhall Museum in 1907 was destroyed in 1940's bombing. A set of what he himself called "Holiday snaps" could possibly be the only part of his work that is saved nowadays. It consists of photographs taken between 1884 and 1906 during his trips in Mediterranean countries.

In 1884, Queen Victoria awarded him with a Royal Warrant. This permitted him to depict moments from the everyday life of the royal family and was also responsible for printing portraits of members of the British royal court on porcelain plaques destined to be mounted on jewellery.

After the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, Henderson retired. It was then that he made a series of photographic tours in countries such as France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Algeria, Egypt, Turkey, and Australia. Upon his return to London, he turned the negatives produced on his trips into lantern slides and presented a series of these pictures during special projection events called ‘Lantern Lectures’ on the occasion of the annual exhibitions of the Royal Photographic Society in London.

What makes his Greece body of work so special is that his camera did not follow the iconographic stereotypes of the time and disregarded the systematic recording of ancient monuments.

In addition to panoramic views of Athens, showing newly built neoclassical mansions, Henderson recorded snapshots of the social and everyday life of the city with images of street vendors being particularly prominent.

The views from the royal palaces of Athens and Tatoi are of particular interest, as they record for the first time their original interior decoration. Furthermore, the photographs from the halls of the National Archaeological Museum and from the first permanent exhibition of the National Historical Museum in the main building of the National Technical University of Athens provide important information on museum displays of the time. Leaving the confines of the city of Athens, Henderson toured Faliro and the port of Piraeus, where he captured unique snapshots of vibrant everyday life. His Greek tour concluded with a short visit to Chania and Patras.

In spite of their limited number, his photographs distinguished themselves by the variety of their subject matter, their defined composition and their outstanding chemical treatment; they clearly demonstrate the work of an excellent professional photographer rather than that of a tourist finding himself equipped with a camera in early 20th century Greece. In total, they constitute a valuable treasure from which unique information about the history and the physiognomy of our country can be drawn.

Henderson died in 1907 and his photographic work was donated to the London Guildhall Museum, which unfortunately was destroyed during the Second World War when the German Air Force bombed London causing major damage. A small portion of Henderson’s work, indicated as ‘Holiday Snaps’, was discovered in the family house and was preserved by the photographer’s son-in-law, William Henderson Gray. This set, probably the only body of Henderson’s work that survived the Blitz, included about 4,000 subjects, produced mostly during the trips he made in the latter years of his life. Among them were the 86 glass lantern slides held today in the Photographic Archives of the Benaki Museum. For the exhibition, the material was processed and part of it was digitally printed.

Guided tours to the exhibition will be carried out by the exhibition curator Aliki Tsirgialou who will attempt to trace Alexander Lamont Henderson’s travels in Greece.

For more information go to @TheBenakiMuseum on Instagram or search #HendersonHolidaySnapsBM

See more here: https://www.benaki.gr/index.php?option=com_events&view=event&id=5752&Itemid=559&lang=en 

#HendersonHolidaySnapsBM

Opening on 30 January, 2019 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Monumental Journey: The Daguerreotypes of Girault de Prangey presents masterpieces of early 19th-century photography by one of its unsung pioneers. A trailblazer of the newly invented daguerreotype process, Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (1804–1892) travelled throughout the Eastern Mediterranean from 1842 to 1845, producing more than one thousand daguerreotypes - the largest known extant group from this period and the earliest surviving photographs of Greece, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, and Jerusalem, and among the first depicting Italy.

Featuring approximately 120 of his daguerreotypes, supplemented by examples of his graphic work—watercolors, paintings, and his lithographically illustrated publications—the exhibition will be the first in the United States devoted to Girault, and the first to focus on his Mediterranean journey. Many of the sites depicted have been permanently altered by urban planning, climate change, or conflict.

The exhibition is made possible by the Arête Foundation/Betsy and Ed Cohen.

Additional support is provided by Jennifer S. and Philip F. Maritz and the Alfred Stieglitz Society.

It is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in collaboration with the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.

Daguerreotypists in the early 1840s faced enormous technical challenges, especially in the desert, so daguerreotypes from these years are exceedingly rare. No other photographer of the period embarked on such a long excursion and successfully made a quantity of plates anywhere near Girault’s production of more than a thousand daguerreotypes. The resulting photographic campaign remains an unparalleled feat in its appearance, scope, scale, and ambition. Using an oversize, custom-made camera, he exposed more than one image on a single plate to create at least six different formats, including unexpected horizontal panoramas and narrow vertical compositions.

The fact that a collection of this size survived at all is extraordinary and attests to the achievement of an unheralded innovator working with unprecedented technology. The survival of this monumental and exemplary collection is also a result of Girault’s meticulous archival process—precocious at the time, even if today it seems commonplace. The artist stored his daguerreotypes in custom-built wood boxes; in addition, he carefully sorted, labeled, and dated the images so that he could retrieve them for future use, occasionally recording when he utilized them, for example, as the basis for a painting or published print. He also had them inventoried several times during his lifetime. In essence, he created the world’s oldest photographic archive.

“The exhibition reveals Girault as the originator of a thoroughly modern conception of photography, by which visual memories can be stored, retrieved, reassembled, and displayed,” stated Stephen C. Pinson, Curator, Department of Photographs. “At the same time, it is perhaps more important than ever to recognize that Girault was himself the product of a complex network of political, social, and historical forces that had far-reaching impact on the West’s relationship with the world he photographed.”

The exhibition presents a unique opportunity to experience these rarely seen works, as Girault never exhibited his daguerreotypes and died without direct heirs in 1892. In 1920, a distant relative, Charles de Simony, purchased Girault’s estate outside Langres, France, and discovered the photographs—labeled and carefully stored in their original wood boxes—in a storeroom of his  dilapidated villa. A handful of intrepid collectors and curators were henceforth aware of the collection, but its dramatic content and scope remained little-known to the world until 2003, when the first of several auctions of material drawn from the original archive was held.

Monumental Journey: The Daguerreotypes of Girault de Prangey is curated by Stephen C. Pinson, Curator in the Department of Photographs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The catalogue is made possible by the Diane W. and James E. Burke Fund.

The exhibition is featured on The Met website, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter via the hashtag #MonumentalJourney.

We at Bazar Nadar added a chapter 'UK photographs' to our 'Collections'. You can find anonymous masters and photographs from Fenton, Rejlander, Polyblank, Cameron and others. We will add more items soon. 

Feel free to check our inventory or ask your questions. 

https://bazarnadar.bigcartel.com/category/uk

Hubert Weston King, the owner of the W. W. Winter studio in Derby has passed away on Xmas day 2018, just shy of his 87th birthday. The Winter studio is the longest operating photographic studio business in the UK, if not the world and second longest operating from the same address in the UK, after the Reeves studio in Lewes, Sussex. The business was established in 1852 by Emmanuel Nicolas Charles with Walter William Winter joining in 1862 and taking it over in 1863 following Charles' death. It has operated as W. W. Winter from the same address in Midland Rd, Derby since 1867 where it has remained as the leading studio in Derby.

In 1896 William Henry King joined the studio as an assistant and in 1910 he bought the business. It has been in the King family ever since, passing down to William's grandson Hubert, who at 14 joined the business then run by his uncle, in 1945. In addition to portrait photography, the studio has long chronicled events in the Derby district and its scope extended to industrial work, product photography for advertising, line work for print and food photography. The studio is currently managed by Angela Leeson and Louisa Fuller is the photographer.

An ongoing Heritage Lottery Fund backed project with tireless work by the studio staff and a large team of volunteers has seen the conservation, cataloguing and digitisation of thousands of the firm's old film and glass negatives as well as an exhibition chronicling the incredible photographic heritage of the studio. Annual Heritage Day events provide a wonderful insight into the studio's past, chronicling so much of Derby's people and events. I had the fortune to spend a day at the studio during a visit from Australia in 2014 and Hubert was gracious enough to provide a private guided tour of the premises. It was as exhilarating experience for anyone interested in photographic history.

The University of Leeds and Leeds Film are partnering to offer a funded PhD to produce an analysis of the history of independent cinema exhibition in Leeds. This collaborative doctoral project seeks to break new ground by enabling a student to carry out an analysis on independent film exhibition in Leeds informed by both academic scholarship and practical experience of a series of regional film initiatives under the umbrella of Leeds Film.

Such an analysis will fill a significant gap in cultural memory within the city: despite Leeds’ link with film innovator Louis le Prince and early movie making, and despite currently having the largest number of DIY film exhibitions in the UK, very few discussions of film in Leeds appear in literature, academic or otherwise.

A comprehensive historical overview of independent film exhibition in Leeds constitutes the first aim of the PhD project, with a number of potential research questions providing a specific focus. 

Click here for more information. 

The Royal Collection contains a significant body of work which reveals the historical and contemporary importance of women photographers. Join Catlin Langford, Assistant Curator at the Royal Collection Trust, as she discusses key moments in photographic history, from the development of accessible camera technologies to the advent of colour photography, framed through the work of pioneering women photographers.

Book here: http://www.thelightbox.org.uk/Event/pioneering-women-photographers-in-the-royal-collection

Image: Detail from Mary Steen (1859-1939), Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia, Queen Louise of Denmark, Alexandra, Princes of Wales, Amaliensborg, May 1892, RCIN 2927326

The 2019 Royal Photographic Society Hurter & Driffield Memorial Lecture will be given by award winning documentary film maker Anthony Geffen, Film-maker and CEO of Atlantic Productions, whose talk "From Attenborough to Hawking" will describe the challenges of pioneering immersive storytelling in Virtual and Augmented Reality.

As new technologies emerge, film-makers must re-engineer their art form to account for new platforms and more immersive experiences.  A pioneer in these mediums Anthony Geffen will talk about what it has taken him to stay ahead of the curve, over a career spanning more than 25 years and his vision for the future.

Anthony Geffen is one of the world’s leading documentary filmmakers and a pioneer in immersive storytelling who has won over 50 international awards including 4 BAFTAs and 8 Emmy Awards.  His diverse films include 11 projects with David Attenborough including the BBC series The Great Barrier Reef.  His theatrical films include The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest and his most recent television work was The Coronation with The Queen for the BBC.  He is widely considered a visionary for his innovative storytelling encompassing multiple platforms including 3D, interactive apps, and most recently immersive experiences in VR and AR with AI.  In 2017 he received the first British Academy Award for VR storytelling with David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef VR.  Current projects include Black Holes with the late Stephen Hawking.  Anthony is a fellow of St. Cross College, Oxford University.

Lecture open to all.

Date: 6 February 2019

Time: 18:00 - 20:30

Venue: Royal Philatelic Society, 41 Devonshire Place, London, W1G 6JY

Click HERE for tickets and further information 

Registration is opwn for the symposium Women, work and commerce in the creative industries, Britain, 1750-1950 which takes place on 7 and 9 February 2019 in London.

This two-day conference adds to the growing body of feminist scholarship that is deconstructing the male-dominated history of commercial and industrial artistic production. The programme will bring together current interdisciplinary perspectives on women’s experiences of work and the gendered dynamics of commerce in the creative industries in Britain between 1750 and 1950.

Keynote Speakers: Dr Kyriaki Hadjiafxendi (Bath Spa University), Dr Patricia Zakreski (University of Exeter) and Dr Jan Marsh (National Portrait Gallery)

Confirmed Speakers: Rachael Chambers (V&A), Isobel Cockburn (Independent Scholar), Barbara Cohen-Stratyner (Independent Scholar), Caroline Douglas (Royal College of Art), Sarah French (University of Sussex & Hastings Museum), Amy Goodwin (Norwich University of the Arts), Zoe Hendon (Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture, Middlesex University), Ruth Hibbard (V&A), Johanna Holmes (RHUL, University of London), Catlin Langford (Royal Collection Trust), Rebecca Luffman (V&A), Michael Pritchard (Royal Photographic Society), Pamela Roberts (Independent Scholar), Benjamin Schneider (Merton College, University of Oxford), Christine Slobogin (Birkbeck, University of London), Deborah Sutherland (V&A), Rose Teanby (Independent Scholar), Katie Lloyd Thomas (Newcastle University), Helen Trompeteler (Royal Collection Trust), Grace Williams (Independent Scholar).

Day 1, Friday 8 February 2019: 10am – 5pm

Seminar Room 5, Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Rd, Knightsbridge, London SW7 2RL

Day 2, Saturday 9 February 2019: 9.30am – 5pm

Fyvie Hall, University of Westminster, 309 Regent St, Marylebone, London W1B 2HT

Spaces are limited and early booking is recommended: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/women-work-and-commerce-in-the-creative-industries-britain-1750-1950-tickets-53903735524

Image detail: Image credit: Pen and watercolour caricature of art students in the original V&A paintings galleries by Florence Claxton, Great Britain, 1861 © Victora and Albert Museum.

One of the most famous nineteenth-century collaborations between a poet and a photographer has found a home at the University of St Andrews Special Collections.

Poet Laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, and Other Poems, 1875, photographically illustrated by Julia Margaret Cameron, one of the most celebrated women in the history of photography, will take pride of place as part of the University’s extensive photographic collection. It is believed to be the only copy in a Scottish collection. 

Tennyson is one of the most well-loved Victorian poets. Born in Lincoln in 1809, he published his first solo collection at 21 and his second collection in 1833. His second collection was met with such criticism that he did not publish again for ten years. His third collection, which included his seminal poem Ulysses, was received with more success.

In 1850 Tennyson published In Memoriam AHH. Dedicated to his late friend Arthur Hallam, it was a favourite of Queen Victoria, who said the book helped to comfort her after Prince Albert’sdeath. With Victoria’s patronage, Tennyson was acclaimed as the greatest poet of his day and was appointed Poet Laureate, succeeding William Wordsworth. Tennyson’s most famous works include Maud, The Charge of the Light Brigade and Crossing the Bar.

Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) is one of the most celebrated women in the history of photography. Best known for her powerful portraits, Cameron described her photographic subjects in the categories ‘Portraits’, ‘Madonna groups’, and ‘Fancy Subjects for Pictorial Effect’. Cameron was criticised for her unconventional techniques, but also celebrated for the beauty of her compositions and her conviction that photography was an art form.

Cameron’s close friendship with Tennyson resulted in the Poet Laureate choosing her services as a photographer to illustrate the proposed ‘people’s’ edition of Idylls of the King in 1874. Both lived in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight, Cameron moved there in 1860 having visited Tennyson’s estate on the island. In the event, only three of her photographs were used and those were from woodcut copies. Tennyson encouraged her to fund the publication of two large-format albums with the full-size photographs tipped in and excerpts from his poems lithographed from her handwriting. The first volume appeared in December 1874 with Volume II published in 1875. The University has purchased a copy of Volume II, which contains thirteen albumen prints including a frontispiece portrait of Tennyson and text for the poems all printed in a facsimile of Cameron’s hand. The copy belonged to Dr Rolf S. Schultze (1902–67), Kodak’s research librarian and curator of the Kodak Museum in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also the honorary librarian for the Royal Photographic Society in London.

The acquisition of Idylls of the King greatly strengthens the University’s reputation as an important centre for the study of the history of photography and enhances our collection of photographically-illustrated books. The addition to the Special Collections of Idylls of the Kingaugments the University’s Tennyson collection which includes first editions of Poems, Chiefly Lyrical and In Memoriam. The book has already been accessed by academics and there are exciting plans for using the book in research and teaching projects.

Gabriel Sewell, Head of Special Collections, University of St Andrews, said: “Idylls of the King is one of the most famous nineteenth-century collaborations between a poet and a photographer and a rare and invaluable source for the study of Tennyson’s poetry and of Victorian culture.

“St Andrews has one of the most significant collections of early photographic material in the UK. Idylls of the King is the jewel in the crown in our collection, cementing the University’s reputation as one of the foremost important centres for the study of the history of photography.”

The University of St Andrews Library is very grateful to have received the support of the Friends of the National Libraries to purchase a copy of Julia Margaret Cameron, Illustrations to Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, and Other Poems. Volume II (1875).

Ian Smith (life dates unknown) photographed for the American magazine LIFE in 1945/6 and was listed on the masthead as a staff photographer. Numbers of his images of British politicians of the period, of movie stars, directors and producers, and his reportage of life in England in the aftermath of WW2, are held by Getty Images.

I have started a Wikipedia article on him. However there is scant information about his life. Does any other member have information on this quite significant British / Scottish photographer? I would be most grateful for any leads.

The Rijksmuseum’s curator of photography, Mattie Boom, has for the last few years been studying hundreds of photographs for her doctoral research into the emergence of amateur photography in the Netherlands. The results of her work will be on show from 15 February 2019 in Everyone a Photographer, an exhibition of more than 130 photographs, photograph albums and cameras that will take us back in time to the end of the 19th century.

The invention of small, easy-to-use cameras enabled amateurs to record important moments themselves for the first time. In Everyone a photographer, Boom shows how amateur photography brought about profound changes in visual culture; and how amateur photographs are the missing link in the history of photography.

Everyone a Photographer will run from 15 February-10 June 2019 at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

The accompanying publication Everyone a Photographer. The Rise of Amateur Photography in the Netherlands, 1880-1910 has been made possible by Familie Van Heel Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds/Wertheimer Fonds and Marque Joosten & Eduard Planting Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds.

See more here: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/whats-on/exhibitions-expected/everyone-a-photographer

Image: Aan boord, Willem Frederik Piek, c.1892-93.

Welcome to 2019. During the forthcoming year BPH will continue to report on news, exhibitions, publications, jobs and events relevant to British photographic history. It now has over 3000 subscribers and more than 3000 blog posts have been made since 2007, plus, of course, events, forum posts and images. 

To kick off 2019 here are five events that we have to look forward to:

• New gallery space: Fotografiska opening, London, Spring 2019. See more here.
• Exhibition: The Mackinnon Collection, Edinburgh, from 15 November 2019. See more here.  
• Conference: The business of photography, Leicester, 17-19 June 2019. See more here. 
• Exhibition: Women in Photography: A History of British Trailblazers, Woking, from 30 January 2019. See more here.
• Symposium: Women, Work and Commerce: Women in the Creative Industries, London: 9-10 February 2019. See more here.

2019 also sees the bicentenary of the birth of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert which, because of their particular involvement with early British photography, will be of particular interest to photo-historians.

If you know of any other exhibitions, news, publications or conferences taking place and relevant to British photographic history please add them or provide details. 

Dr Michael Pritchard