Blogs

Come and join photo historian Denis Pellerin for a free 3-D talk celebrating the life and achievements of Charles Wheatstone and the 180th official birthday of stereoscopy.

Charles Wheatstone started his professional career as a musical instrument maker and invented several instruments, including the Concertina. He was Professor of Experimental Philosophy at King's College London from 1834 to his death in 1875. On 21 June 1838, he presented to the Royal Society his newest invention, the Stereoscope, that enabled, even before photography was invented, re-creating the illusion of depth with two slightly different flat perspectives.

London: Kings College, Bush House
Thursday, 21 June 2018 
1830-2000
Book here. 

The exhibition provides a rich source of interest for understanding the 1970s and 1980s culture of radical film and photography that engaged with feminism, anti-racist protest, community activism and political struggle, and documented working class life and conditions.

It tells the fascinating story of Four Corners and Camerawork, two innovative cultural organisations characteristic of the radical 1970s and early 80s, whose work aimed to ‘demystify’  the process of film and photography and influenced a generation of practitioners. This included  the renowned Camerawork magazine, and Four Corners’ work with local, underprivileged young  people like Lil Warren and Ruhul Amin, who went on to have impressive careers in the arts.

It will include archive material and photographs from Daniel Meadows, Nick Hedges, Peter  Kennard, Mike Goldwater, Paul Trevor, Jenny Matthews, Ed Barber, Jo Spence, Susan Meiselas and many others, alongside exhibition posters, extracts from Four Corners’ films Nighthawks, Bred and  Born and A Kind of English, oral histories and an accompanying public talks programme. The collection’s visually inspiring and socially engaged material offers strong appeal to new, younger  audiences.

A new digital archive launches alongside the exhibition, bringing this little-known part of British  cultural history to general audiences for the first time. This includes all 32 issues of the renowned Camerawork magazine made available online for the first time. Loraine Leeson, Chair of Four Corners and early Camerawork contributor says: “I am delighted
that this significant work is at last being documented and made available to the wider public. The impact that Four Corners and Camerawork had on the UK’s independent film and photography sectors cannot be underestimated. Their work enabled many people from underprivileged and non traditional backgrounds to develop significant artistic work.”

Four Corners Archive project is made possible by a grant of £100,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). Over 50 volunteers have contributed to the project since 2016, gaining skills in archive research, digitization and oral history techniques. Stuart Hobley, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund London, said: “Thanks to National Lottery players,  this exciting project will explore and digitise an archive of work relating to 1970s and 1980s East End film and photography. HLF is pleased to support Four Corners as it strives to make the British history of community-arts movements more accessible to audiences.”

This is an exciting opportunity to work with the MacKinnon Collection—an outstanding collection covering 100 years of Scottish photography (1840s to 1950s), jointly owned by the National Library of Scotland (NLS) and the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS). The Curator, working with senior colleagues, will be responsible for the care, display and promotion of the 14,000 works in this key collection. 

The Curator will be employed by and based at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (SNPG), part of the NGS, but also work with colleagues at the NLS. The post is funded thanks to a grant provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) towards the acquisition and promotion of the collection. 

The Curator will be expected to have an enthusiasm for, and developing knowledge of, photographs and photographic practice, with a particular focus on Scottish photography from the 1800s. 

The post holder will have lead responsibility for accessioning the works, and will work with colleagues across both institutions to provide access to the collection physically and digitally, 

See more here

Click here for full job description

Organisational structure.docx

An exceptional collection of historic photographs that captures a century of life in Scotland is to be shared with the public following a special collaboration between the National Library of Scotland and the National Galleries of Scotland.

More than 14,000 images – dating from the earliest days of photography in the 1840s through to the 1940s – have been jointly acquired with support from the Scottish Government, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund.

The collection covers an expansive range of subjects – including family portraits, working life, street scenes, sporting pursuits, shops, trams, tenements, mountains and monuments. Until now, it was one of the last great collections of Scottish photography still in private hands.

The collection was put together by photography enthusiast Murray MacKinnon, who established a successful chain of film-processing stores in the 1980s, starting from his pharmacy in Dyce, near Aberdeen.

He said: “The collection covers the day-to-day lives of Scottish people both rich and poor, the work they carried out including fishing and farming, in order to survive, and their social life including sport and leisure. These were turbulent times what with industrialisation, shipbuilding, new forms of transport, the social upheaval caused by the First World War in Europe and the Boer War in South Africa. The discovery of penicillin and radiography heralded the development of medicine and the pharmaceutical industry in Scotland. I would like to thank all the people involved in acquiring this collection for the Scottish nation, and for their great efforts in making this acquisition possible.”

Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop welcomed the public acquisition. She said “The MacKinnon collection is one of the most remarkable collections of Scottish photography and an invaluable resource for researchers, students and the wider public. I am delighted that £300,000 of Scottish Government funding has supported the acquisition, curation, touring and digitisation of this collection, preventing it from being broken up or sold overseas. Our rich cultural and artistic heritage plays an intrinsic part in boosting our economy and tackling inequalities. I commend the National Galleries of Scotland and National Library of Scotland for their achievement in ensuring that this unique collection can now be enjoyed by the people of Scotland, enabling the public to learn more about our fascinating early photography tradition.”

National Librarian, Dr John Scally said: “Scotland has a unique relationship with photography which dates back to the work of the early pioneers such as Hill and Adamson. This acquisition is akin to buying Scotland’s photographic album of 14,000 pictures and bringing it home, and together with the National Galleries of Scotland, we were determined to make that happen. I am confident that every Scot will feel a connection with these wonderful photographs and we look forward to sharing them with the public over the coming months."

National Galleries of Scotland, Director General Sir John Leighton, said: “This collection superbly demonstrates the important role Scotland had in shaping the history of photography. Our ability to tell this story is greatly enriched by this acquisition, and we look forward to the exciting partnership with the National Library of Scotland in making these artworks accessible to all.”

Heritage Lottery Fund, Manager for Scotland, Lucy Casot, said: “Taken in the pioneering days of photography in Scotland, these historical images allow us to glimpse our ancestors going about their daily lives. Thanks to players of the National Lottery, this valuable resource has been secured for us all to enjoy. It’s a fascinating collection detailing what life was like and how that has shaped us as a nation.”

Director of Art Fund, Stephen Deuchar said: “We are proud to be able to support both National Library of Scotland and National Galleries of Scotland in acquiring Murray MacKinnon’s unparalleled collection for the nation. It is incredible to have these photographs join a public collection where they can be enjoyed for generations to come through their display and tours as well as digitally."

The photographs provide a visual record of how Scotland has changed physically, socially and economically since the 1840s.

Highlights include:

• More than 600 original photographs from the pioneering days of photography featuring work from David Octavius Hill (1802-1870) and Robert Adamson (1821-1848), James Ross (d.1878) and John Thomson (d.1881), Cosmo Innes (1798-1874) and Horatio Ross (1801-1886).
• Some of the finest work of Thomas Annan (1829-1887) and his son, James Craig Annan (1864-1946) including rare examples of their original albumen prints.
• Fine examples of the work of Scotland’s successful commercial photographers including George Washington Wilson (1823-1893) and James Valentine (1815-1880).
• Portraits of Scottish regiments from the Crimean War by Roger Fenton (1819-1869).
• A series of albums and prints depicting life in the main towns and cities from the late 1800s and early 1900s.
• Studies of farming and fishing communities in remote villages and hamlets.
• Scenes of shipbuilding, railways, herring fishing, weaving, whisky distilling, dockyards, slate quarries and other working environments.

The collection contains an exquisite view of Loch Katrine by William Henry Fox Talbot, who travelled to Scotland in the autumn of 1844. Talbot was the inventor of the calotype, a negative-positive paper process that was patented around the world, but, importantly not in Scotland, allowing for free use and experimentation. As a result, early Scottish photographers, such as Hill and Adamson and Ross and Thomson, were encouraged to take up the new technology, becoming key figures in developing its potential as both document and art form within its first two decades.

As the photographic medium evolved, Scotland once again was at the forefront when, in 1883, Thomas Annan and his son James Craig Annan secured the British rights for the previously secret process of photogravure. The photomechanical process created prints in large editions, revolutionising the publication and reach of photography.

While photography is known for its reproducibility, many of the artworks contained within the collection are unique, including daguerreotype portraits and hand-made albums. One such impressive example is the Fairlie album, consisting of family portraits and photographs by known makers including Julia Margaret Cameron. Using elements of collage, drawing and marginalia, the pages are a one-of-a-kind celebration of the Fairlie Family, from Fife. Reginald Fairlie was the architect of the National Library of Scotland building on George IV Bridge.

A major exhibition of the MacKinnon collection will be held at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery next year, with touring exhibitions around the country to follow. The entire collection will also be digitised over the next three years and made available online.

#ScotlandsPhotos

Notes 

The collection was purchased from a private collector, who bought the collection from Murray MacKinnon.

Breakdown of funding for the acquisition:

• Heritage Lottery Fund - £350,000
• Scottish Government - £300,000                              
• National Library of Scotland - £125,000
• National Galleries of Scotland - £125,000                                
• Art Fund - £100,000

TOTAL     £1 million

A collection of rare early modernist photographs of American railroads to be exhibited at The London Photograph Fair, 19-20 May at The Great Hall, King's College, London.

On 19-20 May, the special edition of The London Photograph Fair returns to The Great Hall at King's College, adjacent to Somerset House. The fair, which coincides with Photo London, is the only established fair devoted to vintage photography in the UK. For this year's edition, Andrew Daneman will present a collection rare photographs of American railroads from the early 1900's.

It was a chance discovery. In 1977, the American photography dealer and collector Andrew Daneman came across a collection of more than 300 beautifully blue toned cyanotypes. The images were of American railroads, trains, wagons, bridges, warehouses, supply stores, tools, workers, stationmasters and their families. While some images were of a documentary character, many others showed the photographer's distinct modernist vision, with surprising angles, close-ups and abstractions, all the hallmarks of the modernist photography championed first by Paul Strand in 1916, then
followed by Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Charles Sheeler, Edward Weston and Walker Evans.

Except, the photographer couldn't possibly have been influenced by the aforementioned masters. There was enough information in these images to make clear that they predated them by at least 10 years. So why weren't these images part of the photographic canon? And was it time to rewrite it?

And who was the photographer? There were no signatures, stamps or identifying information on the back of the prints, except for a few inscriptions, linking them to Wilmington, Delaware. Following some skilled detective work, Daneman finally had a name, Frank Bird Masters (1873-1955). And then it also became clear why Masters had taken the photographs and why they hadn't been included in the history of photography. Daneman explains, "Masters was a highly skilled illustrator. He worked for advertising magazines, book publishers and magazines such as Scribner's and The Saturday Evening Post. He took photographs as inspiration for his illustrations so they were never used for publication or exhibited. In some cases he followed the photographs very closely. In others, he used only specific details for his illustrations."

The images give a fascinating insight into the American railroads in the early 1900s and the people who worked on them. Daneman concludes, "We see throughout Masters' photographic imagery an attraction to dynamic lighting and powerful angles. Even in his recording of these details, though primarily intended as studies, he never relaxes his formal approach to composition. The result is nothing less than modernist abstraction of the highest quality"

Lancashire archives has revealed some of its photography holdings including the work of John Mercer's earliest experiments in colour photography using dyes and fabric printing circa 1850.

Read more at: https://www.thevisitor.co.uk/lifestyle/lancashire-s-pioneers-of-photography-1-9160626

We are looking for a specialist to set up and lead a new photographs department within a thriving and expanding  Auction House.  Our client is aiming  to establish themselves in the middle market for the sale of photographs that span the history of the medium but which may initially focus on modern, post-war and contemporary photography.

The successful candidate will have an excellent understanding of photographs and the marketplace, and have the skills and aptitude to establish the department.

Areas of Responsibility

Responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

Strategic and business development

• Develop business contacts and strategic opportunities, including developing auction and private sales strategies

• Identify and maintain relationships with all client categories (collectors, dealers, galleries etc), and particularly the ability to work with major clients in the consignments and sale of high value property

• Liaise on material in the field with other internal departments: pre-press, marketing, public relations etc.

• Proactively research and gather information into the marketplace/trends/buying & selling patterns

Valuations, cataloguing, pre and post-sale responsibilities

• Analyse and respond to incoming written, phone and photo enquiries to determine sale potential

• Work alone and with colleagues to determine provenance, authenticity, value, condition, and marketability of property

• Write and prepare catalogue essays, work on catalogue production and layout, as appropriate

• Coordinate pre-sale exhibition set-up

• Work with buyers during sales, including weekend exhibitions, to market and sell the sale

• Work with the Marketing team, to help develop a coordinated marketing plan to achieve budgeted sale totals

• Participate in telephone bidding with clients during the auction

• Participate in the full after-sales analysis, and implement any agreed changes

General

• Ensure compliance with all internal policies and procedures and any relevant external bodies or processes

• Participate in organization-wide meetings, activities and processes, and develop internal contacts, networks and interactions as appropriate

• Actively participate in events, valuation days, and other functions to represent the client

• Carry out other duties as required 

Person Specification

Essential skills and experience

• Extensive experience in the field, either at auction, within the trade or at another relevant institution e.g. gallery or own business

• Proven ability to develop relationships with the major collectors, dealers and galleries

• Excellent writing skills in English, and ability to combine an understanding of the material with a commercial sense of marketing and promoting value

• Excellent verbal communication and interpersonal skills, including first class spoken English

• Ability to work to tight auction deadlines, balancing photography, cataloguing, sale organisation, marketing and promotional details

• Experience working with on projects of all sizes, long- and short-term; demonstrated ability to prioritise a variety of concurrent projects

• Excellent knowledge of the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Outlook etc)
• Superior client service skills
• Strong follow-up skills with attention to detail
• Ability to thrive within a fast-paced team environment

Desirable qualifications

A qualification relevant to the field e.g. degree in photography, contemporary art, fine art

Deadline for applications 27 May 2018. See more here: https://jobs.theguardian.com/job/6716913/auction-house-specialist-photographs/

Sotheby's upcoming auction of photographs includes an album of rare early photographs of Oman and Iraq by Irishman Louis Maguire, a resident of Muscat in the 1870s who became United States Consul in 1880. This album was presented by him to fellow Muscat resident Colonel Samuel Barrett Miles, British Political Agent in the Gulf, in September 1885. 

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/travel-atlases-maps-l18401/lot.308.html

A complete set of Francis Frith’s mammoth photographs of Egyptian pyramids [c.1858]

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/travel-atlases-maps-l18401/lot.288.html

A collection of eight photographs from Captain Scott’s final expedition:

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/travel-atlases-maps-l18401/lot.363.html

A large collection of photographs of the West Indies from the 1860s to 1880s 

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/travel-atlases-maps-l18401/lot.327.html

The sale also includes topographical photographs of Malta, Siam & Cambodia, India, Japan, Hong Kong, Afghanistan, Burma, Ceylon, and important photographs and photobooks on Mecca and the Hajj (301-304). 

After much lobbying, and through the good offices of curator Anna Sparham and the Museum of London, the resource www.photolondon.org.uk has returned. The A-Z listing of photographic studios and other photography trades in London 1841-1901, created by the late David Webb is now back online and available as an A to Z listing. It is hoped that the search facility will be restored at some point in the near future.

The world’s first photographic experiments, pictures by 20th century greats Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen, recent acquisitions by Linda McCartney gifted by Paul McCartney and his family, and newly commissioned works by Thomas Ruff, will go on display this autumn as part of the V&A’s new Photography Centre.

Opening on 12 October, the first phase of the Photography Centre, designed by David Kohn Architects, will more than double the space dedicated to photography at the V&A. The inaugural display will trace a history of photography from the 19th century to the present day through the theme of collectors and collecting. Drawn from the V&A’s significantly expanded holdings, following the transfer of the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) collection, the display will show seminal prints and negatives by pioneers William Henry Fox Talbot, Julia Margaret Cameron and Frederick Scott Archer, alongside camera equipment, photographic publications and original documents to tell a broader story of international photography. It will also feature a digital wall to show the most cutting-edge photographic imagery.

To mark the opening, the V&A has commissioned internationally renowned German photographer Thomas Ruff to create a new body of work. Known for taking a critical and conceptual approach to photography, Ruff’s new series will be inspired by Linnaeus Tripe’s 1850s paper negatives of India and Burma from the V&A’s collection.

Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A, said: “The transfer of the historic Royal Photographic Society collection provided the catalyst for this dramatic reimagining of photography at the V&A. Our collection - initiated by the V&A’s visionary first director Henry Cole - now seamlessly spans the entire history of photography, telling the story of the medium from the daguerreotype to the digital. Our new Photography Centre will provide a world-class facility to re-establish photography as one of our defining collections. In an era when everyone’s iPhone makes them a photographer, the V&A’s Photography Centre explores and explains the medium in a compelling new way.”

The entrance to the new Photography Centre will be through a spectacular installation of over 150 cameras. Nearby, an interactive camera handling station will offer visitors an understanding of how photographers view the world through their equipment. Inside the gallery, focused sections will look at a series of collections and collectors, including an important group of William Henry Fox Talbot’s cameras and prints; Pictorialist photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn’s collection of photographs by his predecessors and contemporaries; and a selection of some of the most significant photojournalism of the 20th century collected by Magnum Photos’ UK agents, John and Judith Hillelson.

On display will be over 600 objects from across Europe, the US, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The Photography Centre will feature images by early colour photography pioneers, Agnes Warburg, Helen Messinger Murdoch and Nickolas Muray, and recent acquisitions by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Cornelia Parker, Linda McCartney 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, will 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.

The Photography Centre will feature the ‘dark tent’, a multimedia projection and lecture space inspired by 19th century photographers’ travelling darkrooms. Here, specially commissioned films revealing early photographic processes, including the daguerreotype, calotype and wet collodion process will be screened, along with a slideshow projection of rarely-seen magic lantern slides revealing the first attempts to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1921 and 1922.

The opening of the Photography Centre will be accompanied by a three-week spotlight on photography across the V&A, including a series of talks by leading photographers, screenings, events, courses, workshops and a Friday Late.

Situated in the V&A’s North East Quarter, the Photography Centre will reclaim the beauty of three original 19th-century picture galleries. It is part of the V&A’s FuturePlan development programme to revitalise the museum’s public spaces through contemporary design and the restoration of original features. A second phase of the Photography Centre, planned to open in 2022, will expand it further, providing a teaching and research space, a browsing library and a studio and darkroom for photographers’ residencies.

In addition, the first two titles in The V&A Photography Library, a new series of publications in partnership with Thames & Hudson, will accompany the opening. In September 2018, the V&A and Royal College of Art will launch a photography pathway as part of the History of Design MA programme. Students will learn about the history of photography through the V&A’s collections and expertise.

Following the transfer of the Royal Photographic Society collection in 2017, a new purpose-built storage facility has been created on site. When not on display, photographs can be viewed in the V&A’s Prints & Drawings Study Room. The V&A Photography Centre is supported by The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation and other generous donors. Upon opening, Gallery 100 in the new centre will be known as The Bern and Ronny Schwartz Gallery.

Images:

John French, John French and Daphne Abrams in a tailored suit published in the TV Times, 1957. John French Archive / Victoria and Albert Museum.

Benjamin Brecknell Turner. The Willowsway, Elfords, Hawkhurst, 1852. Albumen print. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 

Rudolf Koppitz. Movement Study, 1926. Carbon print. The RPS Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 

The Fellows Lunch: Curator Series is a set of four free lunchtime research talks given by recipients of Paul Mellon Centre Curator Research Grants. All are welcome but please book a ticket in advance. Two upcoming lunches are of particular photographic interest: 

• 15 May. How might women photograph war? With the support of a Paul Mellon Curatorial Award, Dr Pippa Oldfield investigated the ways in which women have responded to the First World War, both during the conflict and a hundred years later. She will share her research that led to the national touring exhibition No Man’s Land: Women’s Photography and the First World War, which opened at Impressions Gallery, Bradford, in 2017 and is currently on view at Bristol Cathedral from 7 April to 1 July 2018. Pippa will discuss pioneering women who made images at or near the frontlines, including Mairi Chisholm, a First Aid nurse and ambulance driver in Flanders, Belgium; Florence Farmborough, a nurse with the Russian Red Cross; and Olive Edis, the UK’s first officially commissioned woman photographer sent to a war zone. She will also reflect on contemporary responses by artists Alison Baskerville, Dawn Cole, and Chloe Dewe Mathews, and consider how assumptions of gender have shaped the practice of war photography. See more and book here: http://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/whats-on/forthcoming/fellowslunch-pippa/event-category/fellows-lunch

• 29 May. Four Corners and Camerawork were two examples of innovatory, workshop-based cultural film and photographic practice characteristic of the radical 1970s and early 1980s. This presentation will explore the curatorial approaches involved in assembling photographs, films, publications, documents and oral histories for an online archive and public exhibition. Through a discussion of the archival research process, this talk will trace the different and sometimes contradictory histories involved. The talk is given by by Carla Mitchell, Head of Four Corners' artistic programme development and Four Corners and Camerawork archive project. See more and book here: http://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/whats-on/forthcoming/fellowslunch-carla/event-category/fellows-lunch

The only London screening of Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay, produced and directed by Grant Scott and Tim Pellatt is being held at the Frontline Club on 8 May. 

Magazine editor, writer, lecturer, photographer, evangelist, mercurial force; Bill Jay was all of these and more. Bill Jay ignited the fire beneath British photography in 1968 with his magazine Creative Camera and fanned its flames via Album magazine, the ICA, the RPS, and camera clubs and polytechnics across the land before decamping to the University of New Mexico and on to Arizona State University. His lectures and teaching created a generation of American photographers, teachers, curators and publishers. He wrote twenty books and over four hundred articles, living a life filled with controversy and passion. 

Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay documents his life through archive images, audio and photographs alongside interviews with his friends, colleagues and family including Martin Parr, David Hurn, Homer Sykes, Ralph Gibson, Paul Hill, Brian Griffin, Daniel Meadows, Alex Webb, John Benton-Harris, Sue Davis, and Mary V. Swanson amongst others.

Following this screening, Grant Scott and Tim Pellatt will take questions from the audience.

To book click here: http://rps.org/events/2018/may/08/do-not-bend

A book published by www.caferoyalbooks.com titled Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay which features Bill Jay's portraits of photographers he interviewed and encountered will be available for purchase.  

Main image: © David Hurn / Magnum. Image above: © Tricia Kearney.

The History of Art department of the University of Oxford, is holding its Trinity Term Photography Seminar programme. Meetings takes places on Tuesdays from 1pm-2pm in St Luke’s Chapel, Radcliffe Humanities. The convenors are Geraldine Johnson and Sajda van der Leeuw. Open to all. 

May 1st (Tuesday, Week 2 – St Luke’s Chapel, Radcliffe Humanities)
The Literary Photobook: From Grangerisation to Post-Punk Box Sets
Paul Edwards (Paris Diderot University)

May 8th (Tuesday, Week 3 – St Luke’s Chapel, Radcliffe Humanities)
From Sandscapes to Glassworlds: The Visual Imagination of Vaughan Cornish, A Fin-de-Siècle Artist-scientist
Emily Hayes (Oxford Brookes University)

May 15th (Tuesday, Week 4 – St Luke’s Chapel, Radcliffe Humanities)
The Places of Malcolm Lowry and Kurt Schwitters
Cian Quayle (University of Chester)

May 29th (Tuesday, Week 5 – Note: Seminar Room, Radcliffe Humanities**)
Liu Shiyuan's As Simple as Clay: Photography and the Aesthetics of the Search Engine
Ros Holmes (University of Oxford)

June 5th (Tuesday, Week 7 – St Luke’s Chapel, Radcliffe Humanities)
Performing Portraiture in the GDR: Unreliable Narrators, Restaging Selves & Social Gists
Sarah James (University College London)

Photography%20Seminar%20poster-udated%20final-TT%202018.pdf 

* We meet in the Math Institute’s café for an informal lunch from 12:30pm to 1pm,
followed by the talk in St Luke’s Chapel or the Seminar Room, Radcliffe Humanities, from 1pm to 2pm.
Formal presentations begin at 1pm and finish by 2pm.

** Note: in Week 5 (May 22nd) only, we will meet in the Radcliffe Humanities’ Seminar Room.
Sponsored by the Department of History of Art (Centre for Visual Studies)

A fascinating collection of more than 4,000 photographs uncovered in the Historic England Archive is giving up its secrets after more than 70 years and is now accessible to the public. Staff at Historic England’s Archive in Swindon recently discovered 4,050 black and white photographic prints documenting healthcare in Britain between 1938 and 1943.

Capturing hospital staff, patients, procedures and practices, the images provide an invaluable and extraordinary insight into medical and nursing practices during the Second World War, and immediately before the foundation of the National Health Service.

Thanks to grant funding from the Wellcome Trust 2,100 images have been digitised as part of the year-long project to conserve, catalogue and digitise the entire collection. The collection is being made accessible to a wide audience for the first time and can be viewed and searched on the Historic England website.

Historic England has also produced resources for secondary school teachers to help students explore the history of medicine as we mark 70 years of the National Health Service in July.

The photographs were taken by the Topical Press Agency, but how and when they were acquired by the Archive remains a mystery. They record improvised wartime hospital wards, blood donation and transfusion, infection control, treatment of burns and early plastic surgery, alongside nurses in training and relaxing in their time off.

Each photograph is accompanied by a typed description which gives extensive background information including date, location and details of equipment and procedure. Many descriptions also include the names of the doctors and nurses shown as well as captions that capture the zeitgeist of the era, such as “the cares of house-keeping and raising a family can play havoc with a mother’s looks and bodily shapeliness.”

Duncan Wilson, Historic England’s Chief Executive, said: “The Historic England Archive is full of countless gems but the Topical Press Agency images are particularly striking. Thanks to the Wellcome Trust we are able to conserve these photographs and share them with new audiences. They have the potential to expand our knowledge of wartime medical practice and revolutionary treatments and help us delve deeper into the history of healthcare.”

Abigail Coats, Archive Cataloguing Officer at Historic England, said: “Working with this collection everyday has been fascinating and a real joy. The photographs reveal health and welfare provision at a time of social upheaval and change. But they also show staff having fun and unwinding after a long working day. You can see just how far some medical developments have come, but also what has stayed largely unchanged. I’m very proud to be a part of bringing this unique collection back to life and that we’re able to share this fantastic resource with the public.”

Chris Hassan, from Wellcome’s Humanities and Social Science team, said: “These unique images offer a wealth of insights and surprises. Taken at a time of transition and rapid development for healthcare in the UK, these photos bring to life this fascinating period of medical history.”

Memories of Nursing

We showed the collection to four nurses who trained and worked in hospitals in the North West in the 1940s and '50s. From bedpans and cut-throat razors to drainpipe climbing and hospital superstitions, watch Dorothy, Audrey, Margaret and Jean's testament to the spirit of the age. Video: https://youtu.be/Inx6etz-oYo

Our Archives 

The Historic England Archive is a national archive of the historic environment, with many major collections covering the architecture, archaeology and social history of England. The archives largely date from the mid-19th century onwards. They relate to the historic environment in the widest sense, including architectural and archaeological archives and aerial photography. 

The collection can be viewed at HistoricEngland.org.uk/medical

Travel back in time to Woking’s past at a new exhibition Photographs around Woking: Sidney Francis in the 1920s and 1930s which shows glimpses of what Woking was like nearly 100 years ago.

Taken by former Woking resident Sidney Francis (1891-1973), the photographs offer an insight into life in Woking and nearby towns and villages in the 1920s and 1930s. The fascinating and uplifting collection of photos includes wedding parties, sports teams, Eid celebrations, parades, dancers and musicians, and is testament to the vibrant and diverse community spirit that has always been a part of Woking.

Visitors to the exhibition will discover local residents dressing up and celebrating Woking Carnival in 1927; family-owned businesses such as dairies, butchers, printers and confectioners proudly displaying their wares; crowds gathering for Remembrance Day memorials; religious holidays at the Shah Jahan Mosque (Britain’s first purpose-built mosque) and families coming together for modest yet joyful weddings.

Sidney Francis was born Sidney Francis Patient in Southwark. By the time of the 1911 census, he was working as a photographer’s assistant in Crawley, Sussex. By 1916 he was working as a photographer in Godalming. During the First World War, he served in the Royal Air Force, possibly in a photographic unit.

From 1923 Francis lived at 88 Maybury Road in Woking, where he also ran his photography business. Often describing himself as a “photographic chemist”, Francis’ work included wedding photography, commissions for local businesses, event photography for local newspapers the 'Woking News & Mail' and 'Surrey Advertiser', and commissions for ‘The Islamic Review’.  

The glass plate negatives of Francis’ work are now housed in the archives of Surrey History Centre, who have worked closely with The Lightbox heritage volunteers to curate this exhibition. Jill Hyams, Archivist at the Surrey History Centre, will be in conversation with Peter Hall, Exhibitions Manager at The Lightbox, on Thurs 20 September 2018, 7.00pm, discussing Francis’ life and the places, people and festivities which he captured. 

www.thelightbox.org.uk

Tom Reeves, from the Edward Reeves studio in Lewes, is giving an evening of photographs of Lewes from the archives of Edward Reeves. This is always a popular event – this talk will include newly researched material from the Edward Reeves Archive – early booking recommended!

Tickets and information from: https://leweshistory.org.uk/2018/04/25/edward-reeves-photographs-talk-on-wednesday-9-may-2018-730pm/

An event is being held on Thursday, 24 May, to celebrate the launch of the W W Winters Heritage Trust, a Charitable Incorporated Organisation with the objectives: for the public benefit to advance the education of the public in the history of photography, and in particular relating to W W Winter Ltd, the city of Derby and the East Midlands, in all its aspects by any means as the trustees see fit, including through: the presentation of public meetings and lectures; the dissemination of knowledge through appropriate publications; financial and volunteer support for the W W Winter Collection Trust; and support to manage, care for, make accessible and develop the collection. The Winters studio has been operating continuously since 1852. 

The launch event will include three speakers and takes place at the University of Derby, Room BM310, Britannia Mill, Mackworth Road, Derby, DE22 3BL at 6.30pm for 7pm. 

All are welcome and there is no charge, but RSVP to friends@wwwinter.co.uk by 17 May 2018. 

Simon Murison-Bowie, who has been researching the viewpoints and timings of Talbot's Oxford photographs, has today published a very interesting post on Larry J Schaaf's Talbot Catalogue Raisoneé website. Scroll down for Simon's contribution.

http://foxtalbot.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/2018/04/27/whft-in-oxford-time-past-time-present/

The  Centre for the GeoHumanities is pleased to announce that Professor Joan M. Schwartz (Queen's University Canada) will give the third Denis Cosgrove Lecture on the 23rd May 2018. Elizabeth Edwards, Visting Professor at the V&A Research Institute will act as respondent.

In 1866, the young Englishman Frederick Dally opened a photographic studio in Victoria, at the time, capital of the Crown Colony of Vancouver Island. In the remarkable visual legacy he produced over the next four years, we can discern the origins of an enduring vision of British Columbia—as an outpost of Empire, as a gold rush colony, as a Royal Naval station, as the home of Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest. We can also recognize the power of photography as a tool of documentation, visualization, and imagination.

Dally's images reflect ideas about land and life brought to British Columbia by government administrators, Royal Engineers, and Royal Navy officers; by miners, merchants, and settlers. Compiled into personal narratives of colonial service, commercial enterprise, and individual initiative, his portraits and views helped to reinforce old world values and shape new world traditions. Pasted into albums taken back east, enclosed in letters sent abroad, published as engravings in books and the illustrated press, they have helped to focus our thinking, shape our writing, and construct our ideas about place and progress, identity and belonging in British Columbia.

Many of Dally’s images have become icons of British Columbia history. In this paper, I follow the lives and afterlives of some of these images as they moved through time and across spaces, both physical and digital. With an emphasis on context and meaning, order and materiality, this foray into oeuvre and archivesheds light on the role Dally’s photographs played in shaping both Victorian understandings of the nineteenth-century present and contemporary understandings of the Victorian past.

Moore Building, Lecture Theatre, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham

Admission is free, but booking required here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/3rd-denis-cosgrove-lecture-lives-and-afterlives-the-photographic-lens-and-legacy-of-frederick-dally-tickets-44717176278

Ever come across Edward Scott? He is listed in the 1861 census as one of the (many) servants in the Hawardens’ London household. His role is listed as “Photographic Attendant.” His age is given as 19 and his birthplace as Ireland.

Any idea who he was? I assume that he would have gone to work (and live) with Hawarden on the recommendation of an associate in the Photographic Society. Perhaps he went on to work in a studio after her death in early 1865.

Another point: I wonder how many amateur photographers had “photographic attendants” on household staff? 

Thoughts, info, comments all welcome!