Blogs

Having just joined the British Photographic History Group, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and the research that I am carrying out. My name is Peter Norman, I am a Technician working at the National Portrait Gallery in London and I am looking to develop a workable method to reproduce the Lumiere Autochrome colour process. Over the past year I have been learning the Silver Gelatin Bromide technique as well as producing the coloured starch mosaic that is integral to this process (see image). I have recently appeared in the BBC documentary, 'Olive Edis: Fisherman to Kings' explaining how the Autochrome works and the research that I am doing. Further to this I would like to make contact via this page with those who are interested in following my work and who have knowledge of the Autochrome process. Please feel free to post comments and here is a link to my instagram page. https://www.instagram.com/theautochromeproject/

An opportunity for two library cataloguers has arisen to catalogue a unique photobook collection of 13,000 items. The collection has been meticulously assembled over decades and requires cataloguing to become part of Tate Library’s Special collections. It is both national and international in its range.

You will have a qualification in librarianship or related discipline combined with relevant post-qualification cataloguing experience with serials, monographs and exhibition catalogues using an automated library system, AACR2 and MARC 21. You will also have experience in cataloguing materials in English and in languages other than English as the collection is international in scope.

You will be joining a small, enthusiastic and friendly team of Librarians, all of whom participate in the delivery of research services to Tate staff and external researchers in the Reading Rooms at Tate Britain.  You will, therefore, have good communication and interpersonal skills with experience of delivering excellent customer service.  

Tate Library is part of the world’s largest repository of British art from 1500 and international art from 1900. The Library Collections are housed in the Hyman Kreitman Reading Rooms and Stores at Tate Britain.

The photobook collection is likely to be Martin Parr's collection of photo books which the Tate has acquired.

Applications close 20 August 2017

See more here:  http://workingat.tate.org.uk/pages/job_search_view.aspx?jobId=3406

A new website which showcases the Terence Pepper Collection which contains over 2,000 photographs including many by leading photographers and historic news picture libraries is now available. It launches officially on 1 October 2017.

Terence Pepper was for many years curator at the National Portrait Gallery and between 1977 and 2014 over 3,000 items from the collection were donated to the National Portrait Gallery, London and other museums. Digital records of this gift and the associated celebratory display can be found here.

Check out the website here: https://www.terencepeppercollection.com/

Image: Mary Quant, photographed by Vic Singh, 1961

Hello, I am seeking any information about these two albumen photos. From my research, I believe that they are private photos of John Dawson Watson, RWS, in his April,1871 amateur production of Twelfth Night, at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.

Watson was photographed by David Wilkie Wynfield, in ancient costume.

Apparently, he created all of the costumes for this production.

Watson is such a fascinating character, I am looking for more information about his life and work.

Thank you in advance,

David

Later this year I will be publishing a collection of found photographs of twin sisters from 1850-1950 and would like to access a list of galleries and bookshops that stock books on photography.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

The Nicéphore Niépce museum in Chalon-sur-Saône is looking for a new director. With a collection of 3 million photographs, prints, negatives, contact sheets, historic cameras etc., the Nicéphore Niépce museum is one of the first museums in the history of photography in France. Created in 1972, it holds the Musée de France label and was directed by Paul Jay and François Cheval. See more here 

Histories of Photography: Invention, Transformation & Affirmation is an eight-week course from The Photographers' Gallery, London. It introduces participants to the richness and diversity of photography’s histories. It takes its point of departure from photography’s early origins in the mid nineteenth century, it navigates through the many transformations that the medium has undergone since, and finishes with its definitive acceptance as an art form in the later half of the twentieth century.

The course follows some of the main trajectories through which photography’s histories unfolded over the course of around 150 years (1830s–1980s), such as the relationship with technology, science and other art forms. It maps out the key moments, practitioners, movements and exhibitions, touching upon the medium’s diverse relations with societies and political ideologies, and reflecting on the global scope of its influence.

Each week takes on a different theme or angle:

Week 1: Inventing a Medium

Week 2: Photography in and as Fine Art

Week 3: New Vision

Week 4: Surrealism and its Legacies

Week 5: The Social Field

Week 6: The Politics of Landscape

Week 7: Conceptual Uses of the Still Image

Week 8: Postmodern Documents

Weekly recommended readings will be accompanied by extended readings and a course bibliography. Suitable for all levels.

About the course tutor:
Jelena Stojković is an art historian and lecturer based in London. She holds a PhD from the University of Westminster and teaches across Fine Art and Photography courses at the University of the Arts London (Camberwell and LCC). Her book, Surrealism and Photography in 1930s Japan: The Impossible Avant-Garde, is forthcoming from I.B. Tauris in 2018.

See more: http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/course-histories-of-photography

1894 seems pretty late for a tintype, but I am sure this show my 3 x Great Uncle Frank Walton's second wedding to Mary Bailey in Halifax in March 1894. Its certainly a great photo in terms of resolution and we know 4 of the 5 people in the photo. 

Any comments on the photo would be of interest...

Regards

Peter

See: unsure%20on%20tin.jpg

The V&A was one of the first museums to collect and exhibit photographs. Today, the collection is one of the most important in the world, recognised internationally for its breadth of content, including works that span the 1820s to the present day. This is a particularly exciting year for photography at the V&A, with the recent transfer of the vast collection of the Royal Photographic Society, and spectacular new photography galleries opening in 2018.

This course will present an overview of the history of the medium, encompassing works by a broad array of historic and contemporary practitioners. Subjects covered range from landscapes, portraiture and fashion imagery to contemporary camera-less photography and photobooks. Students will have the opportunity to view up-close some of the magnificent original works in the collection, as well as visit the behind-the-scenes areas of the museum where photographs are stored and conserved.

Course Leaders: V&A Curators Martin Barnes and Susanna Brown

Six weeks: Tuesday 3 October 2017-Tuesday 14 November 2017 at 1830 to 2030. The course will have half term on the 24 October
£303 full price, £273 over 60s, £259 concessions 
(concessions are available for ES40 holders and registered disabled people)

See more and register here: https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/Vn1NRayw/history-of-photography-2017#intro

Using his knowledge of art, botany, chemistry, and optics, William Henry Fox Talbot (British, 1800–1877) invented a means of turning an ordinary piece of paper into “photogenic drawings,” calotypes, and salted paper prints in 1839. Featuring more than 30 works, many of which have never before been shown, the exhibition will provide visitors a glimpse into the earliest days of photography. This is the largest exhibition of Talbot’s work in a North American museum in nearly 15 years, and the first show ever in Pittsburgh to present these important photographs from the dawn of the medium.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a beautiful, small-format book that serves as a primer on  the work of Talbot, featuring an introductory essay by curator Dan Leers and thematic groupings elucidated by noted Talbot scholar Larry Schaaf. With its luminous reproductions of Talbot’s fragile works, this publication (hardcover, 96 pages, 50 illustrations, $25) demonstrates that early photography required a form of magic-making and innovation that continues to inspire people today.

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Nov 18, 2017–Feb 11, 2018 
GALLERY ONE
http://cmoa.org/exhibition/talbot/

Image: William Henry Fox Talbot, “Black Cherry Leaves,” likely 1839, photogenic drawing negative, 7 1/4 x 9 in. (image/paper), The William T. Hillman Collection

Hello, I am seeking any information about these 3 Scottish photos,  The seller states that they "came with a group of later prints from original negatives by Hill and Adamson".

I assume those came from Thomas Annan.

Does anyone recognize these fine people?

Many thanks, David

Paul Laib moved to London from Hamburg at the end of the nineteenth century. For fifty years he worked as a fine art photographer from his studio in South Kensington, hired by artists to document their work. Using archive materials and pieces from the De Laszlo collection of Paul Laib negatives, this exhibition highlights the multifaceted relationship between photography, painting, sculpture and their practitioners. Through the lens of his niche vocation as contractor and creative in London's creative communities we see that an image of artwork can take many forms. 

Camera Obscured. The fine art photography of Paul Laib

Book Library Foyer, The Courtauld Institute of Art 

26 July-27 September 2017

http://courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/visit

Anthony Hamber's long out-of-print book 'A Higher Branch of the Art' (1996) which has been long out of print and rarely available on the secondhand market has been made available as a download by the author at Academia.com. The book can be downloaded here: https://www.academia.edu/33838583/Hamber_A_Higher_Branch_of_the_Art._1996..docx If you do not have an Academia account you will need to register for one. 

"A Higher Branch of the Art": Photographing the Fine Arts in England, 1839-1880
Anthony J Hamber
542 pages, 1996

As part of the Science Museum's Illuminating India season a new exhibition Illuminating India: Photography 1857-2017, will be an ambitious and unprecedented survey of the technological and cultural development of the medium in India, examining photography’s changing role in charting the recent history of the country. The other second exhibition in the series Illuminating India: 5000 Years of Science and Innovation, will celebrate India’s central role in the history of science and technology by exploring its influential contributions to subjects as diverse as space exploration, mathematics, communication and engineering.

Photography 1857-2017 is the first exhibition to trace an arc from the beginnings of photography in India in the mid-19th century to the present day, and pivots around 1857 and 1947: two key dates in India’s recent history.

Looking at those photographers who have been inspired by their own experience of the country, the exhibition explores evocative works from a roster of eminent international practitioners, from India’s first known photographer, Ahmad Ali Khan, to award-winning contemporary photographer Vasantha Yogananthan.

Arriving in India shortly after its invention in Britain in 1839, photography became a powerful tool in the hands of military men and colonial administrators in the drive to document and dominate the people, architecture and landscapes of the subcontinent. Western art history has tended to overlook the Indian photographers working contemporaneously with the first foreigners from the 1850s onwards. This exhibition aims to explore their work afresh in an international context as Indian art photography pioneer Marahaja Ram Singh II is exhibited alongside Samuel Bourne and the country’s first female photojournalist, Homai Vyarawalla, is shown with contemporary Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Drawing on exceptional loans from diverse international collections including the Royal Photographic Society Collection, some of which will be shown for the first time in the UK, the exhibition offers a visually sumptuous history of photography in India. From the very first fragile salt prints to the latest digital imagery, every iteration of the photographic medium will be on display. Photography 1857 –2017 reveals how illuminating a subject India has been for photographers across three centuries: and shows in turn how photography has illuminated India to the viewer, both as place, and as idea.

Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum Group, said: ‘India’s history and culture are built on a rich tradition of scientific thought and innovation. The stories we will be showcasing through this vibrant season not only shaped India but had global significance. By taking a global perspective on the development of science, technology and photography, we hope to engage new audiences and strengthen international relationships between British and Indian scholars and cultural institutions.’

An extraordinary series of public events will run during the Illuminating India season at the Science Museum, including film screenings, workshops, panel discussions and live performances. The full programme of events will be announced soon.

The Illuminating India events programme is presented in partnership with the Bagri Foundation. The Illuminating India season has additional support from The Helen Hamlyn Trust and The John S Cohen Foundation.

Illuminating India  
4 October 2017 to 31 March 2018
Free, ticketed

sciencemuseum.org.uk/indiaseason

@ScienceMuseum
#UKIndia2017

Image: top: Unidentified Woman of the Zenana, c.1870 (2012.04.0054-0028) © Trustees, Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, City Palace, Jaipur; lower: Mitch Epstein, Shravanabelagola, Karnataka, India 1981, Courtesy of Galerie Thomas Zander, Köln

This exhibition, which mirrors, but is not the same as, the standout exhibition at PhotoLondon in May (seen below), celebrates the major gift of photographs from David Hurn’s private collection and marks the opening of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales’s first gallery dedicated to photography. Throughout his career as a documentary photographer and member of Magnum Photos, Hurn has been an avid collector of photography. Remarkably, his unique approach to collecting focuses on the act of swapping.

The collection comprises approximately 700 photographs by leading 20^th and 21^st century photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eve Arnold, Sergio Larrain, Bill Brandt, Martine Franck, Bruce Davidson and Martin Parr, through to emerging photographers such as Bieke Depoorter, Clementine Schneidermann, and Newsha Tavakolian.

The exhibition presents a selection of works that reflect on Hurn’s own career and influences, his eye for a good photograph and the friendships he has developed with photographers along the way. Hurn has recent donated his collection to the museum as reported by BPH here.

Swaps: Photographs from the David Hurn Collection

National Museum Cardiff

30 September 2017 – 11 March 2018

https://museum.wales/cardiff/

Credit, top right  USA. Florida Keys. 1968. © Elliott Erwitt/Magnum Photos

BPH has covered the work on the Sutton Collection in the past. There is a recent blog posting by Sarah Allen who looks at the conservation work being undertaken on the negatives in the collection. 

Read it here

Special Auction Services's Fine Photographica auction includes two half-plate autochrome images showing First Eastern General Hospital on The Backs in Cambridge, c1914-15.  The auction takes place on 13 July 2017 at Newbury or online at the-saleroom.com. 

The description reads: 

Two half-plate Autochromes, of the First Eastern General Hospital on The Backs in Cambridge circa 1914-1915, possibly taken by J Palmer Clarke, interior view - wounded men, orderlies and nurses in newly-built open-sided ward, decorated with patriotic flags, and exterior view - with wounded men, doctors, nurses and orderlies, gardens in foreground, images probably used in production of colour postcards, G (2), with a linen-backed rolled-up wall chart showing graph of men treated, medical officers, orderlies, patients and death rates, 1914-1919, including small spike after the German 1917 Spring offensive and large spike caused by influenza coinciding with the Armistice in November 1918; the hospital was built rapidly at the outbreak of war, largely out of asbestos, became civilian housing after the war and was demolished in 1927, 2240mm long, only partly completed; see Cambridge University online documentary, Dr Sarah Baylis, ‘From the Front to the Backs, the story of the 1st Eastern General Hospital, Cambridge’, 2014

See more here.

UPDATED: The lots sold for £550 plus buyer's premium of 15%+VAT

Victorian 'Spirit Photographs'. Album of 29 photographs by Frederick Hudson and others. The majority of the photographs are evidently the work of a single photographer and are highly reminiscent of known photographs by F.M. Parkes. They are typical of "spirit photographs" produced in the late 1860s and early 1870s by manipulating collodion wet plates: "the photographs render the apparitions more diffusely, as though the spectral form had materialised short of the camera's range of focus" (John Harvey, Photography and Spirit (2007), p.87).

Auction Sotheby's London, 11 July 2017 (viewing 7-10 July)

English Literature & History, Lot 16

Click HERE for full details and catalogue: Sotheby's Auction 11 July, lot 16

The Garrett Herman collection is an unusually comprehensive group of works centred on Charles Darwin, his influences, and those who he influenced in turn. 

At the outset of his collecting life, Mr Herman concentrated on books included in Printing and the Mind of Man and Bern Dibner’s Heralds of Science, including Adam Smith (see lots 367–384) and Charles Darwin. But as the years wore on Darwin became central to the collection and Mr Herman’s acquisitions grew to encompass works by Darwin’s colleagues and friends. 

In 2004, highlights from the collection were exhibited at the Grolier Club, New York, and the accompanying book Darwin: The Evolution of the Man was published. In the introduction, Mr Herman explains his enduring fascination with Darwin: 

“I made Charles Darwin the focus of my collections because he and his life’s work have contributed to mankind in so many important ways. I particularly respect the positive values and traits he demonstrated… Darwin demonstrated humility, and kept his mind free of prejudices based on conventional wisdom of the need for recognition. When Alfred Wallace sent him a manuscript that drew conclusions similar to Darwin’s unpublished work on the same subject, Darwin chose to publish the thesis jointly with Wallace. His modest nature was also shown by his frequent references to the work of his peers. Charles Darwin was extraordinarily disciplined and fastidious, and his work exhibits quite original methods of cross-referencing and note-keeping. He saw seemingly mundane occurrences or patterns in nature in a whole different light. Through the wealth of information and data he gathered and organized, he created a platform from which to look beyond the apparent” (Grolier, Darwin, pp. 6–7).

The books on offer here (a small part of Garrett Herman’s wider collection) boast the great landmarks of Darwin’s work that one would expect: The Zoology of the Beagle (lot 252); The Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of the Beagle (lot 253); The Origin of Species (lot 265); The Descent of Man (lot 288), and so on. To this is added a wealth of supporting material of no less appeal: a group of autograph letters by Darwin, including one on the evolution of speech (lot 307); the famous photographic portrait by Julia Margaret Cameron (lot 247); a ticket to Darwin’s funeral (lot 313); and a rare broadside ballad lampooning the theory of evolution (lot 248).

Representing Mr Herman’s wider interests, the Adam Smith collection includes fine copies of both The Theory of Moral Sentiments (lot 367) and The Wealth of Nations (lot 375).

In offering these choice items from the Garrett Herman collection we can see a dedicated collector’s passion for and knowledge of the age of Darwin coming into focus.

The Age of Darwin: the Garrett Herman collection (forming lots 239-399 in English Literature & History)
Auction Sotheby's London, 11 July 2017 (viewing 7-10 July)