Blogs

Developed in Birmingham, celebrating the early history of photography in Birmingham, is a season of hands-on workshops, talks, walks and events which reveal, explore and celebrate the city’s significant role in the early history of photography. 

The programme connects and expands on two complementary exhibitions in Birmingham; Thresholds, a virtual reality exhibition by Mat Collishaw and A White House on Paradise Street by Jo Gane with Pete James and Leon Trimble. Developed in Birmingham presents a variety of exciting events in a range of venues and public spaces across the city.

The season of events has been made possible by funding from Arts Council England, University of Birmingham, Argentea Gallery and Millennium Point and is supported by BOM (Birmingham Open Media), Waterstones, Wild in Art and Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and neighbouring development, Paradise.

See: https://www.developedinbirmingham.com/

The dawn of photography in the mid-19th century made portraiture accessible to a much wider public. This exhibition explores early photographic studio portraiture, including the popular carte-de-visite format.

The exhibition discusses how photographic techniques, backdrops, props, costumes and poses enabled public figures – ranging from Oscar Wilde through Ellen Terry to Queen Victoria – to fashion and promote their own identities. It also suggests how studio photography contributed to the modern idea of celebrity.

Curated in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery and University of Birmingham MA Art History and Curating students, it also features loans from the University’s Cadbury Research Library and Research and Cultural Collections.

See: http://barber.org.uk/more-real-than-life/ for details of the exhibition and related talks. 

Image: Oscar Wilde by Napoleon Sarony, 1882 © National Portrait Gallery, London

Within the total number of photomechanical prints, artistic works represent only a small part. With the introduction of photography in the 19th century, printers no longer had to transfer the image manually onto the printing surface, but were offered the possibility to transfer the image by sensitizing the printing surface and exposing it to light, through a negative or positive depending on the printing technique.

With computer technology, negative or positive film is often no longer necessary. The image is transformed into dots by the computer and the image is transferred to the printing surface by light exposure in the machine.

Since their invention photomechanical printing techniques have continued to develop further. There are many similar variations of the same technique, each named differently by its inventor. This can be very confusing in the process of identification.

In this seminar the most important photomechanical techniques of relief, intaglio, planographic, screen and digital prints will be presented.

The different techniques (artistic and reproduction) will be examined by studying original prints under magnification. Two participants will share a stereomicroscope. The distinctive characteristics of each technique will be worked out through closely looking at the original prints, and exercises in identification.

The two day course provides an opportunity to look at a great number and variety of original prints under magnification and to develop skills in the identification of their techniques. There will also be the opportunity to compare photomechanical with manual prints.

Seminar: Identification of photomechanical prints
October 12-13, 2017 at Papierrestaurierung Hildegard Homburger, 10555 Berlin, Germany

Hosted Hildegard Homburger in cooperation with the Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Archiv-, Buch- und Grafikrestauratoren (IADA)   www.iada-home.org

The language of the Seminar will be English.

Maximum participants: 8

Costs: 330 Euro or 285 Euro for IADA-members

Registration requests should be sent to: hombu@freenet.de

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has revealed the first visual of its new, state-of-the-art Photography Centre, and has announced its first major supporter for the project – The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation.

Designed by David Kohn Architects (DKA), the first phase of the V&A Photography Centre will more than double the display space dedicated to photography by Autumn 2018. It forms part of an ambitious two-phased FuturePlan development project to dramatically reimagine the display of the photographic collection at the V&A which includes the RPS Collection.

DKA’s design for the Photography Centre will celebrate the original features of the V&A’s nineteenth-century picture galleries, while creating a rich variation of atmosphere through the use of lighting, and clever climate control to ensure a stable environment for fragile artworks. A modular system of display cases that can be easily reconfigured will allow for greater flexibility and varied displays of a wide range of objects, from photographs to cameras, publications and archive materials, exploring the relationship between art and technology. DKA were chosen as the successful practice following an invited competition and submissions from a strong shortlist.

The newly released render gives a glimpse into one of the largest galleries within a suite of spectacular rooms to be dedicated to photography at the V&A. Previously referred to as Gallery 100, the original nineteenth-century picture gallery will be renamed ‘The Bern and Ronny Schwartz Gallery’ in recognition of the generosity of The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation, the first major supporter of the Museum’s Photography Centre. The Bern and Ronny Schwartz Gallery will be a pivotal space within the new Centre, featuring a programme of displays showcasing both the greatest historic treasures from the V&A collection and cutting-edge contemporary photography.

David Bickle, Director of Design, Exhibitions and FuturePlan at the V&A, said: “We were delighted with the quality and inventiveness of DKA’s submission for the V&A Photography Centre, which answered the brief in the most effective and creative way. DKA’s design fuses traditional gallery spaces with new interactive interventions that will completely revolutionise how visitors engage with the V&A’s photography collection. I’d like to thank The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation for its generous donation, which gets us one step closer to realising our ambitions.” David Kohn, Architect, said: “We are delighted to be working with the V&A and their curatorial team on this landmark project, not least because of my personal passion for photography. Our approach has been to offer visitors the widest range of ways to engage with this world-leading collection, framed by the stunning architecture of the refurbished galleries.”

Bernard Lee Schwartz (1914-1978), known as Bern, took up photography late in life with great dedication and dynamism. A successful American businessman, at the age of sixty he began taking pictures and flourished as a portrait photographer, depicting well-known figures from across the globe. Bern and his wife Ronny were regular visitors to the UK and admirers of Britain’s museums and art galleries. In his short but prolific career, Bern photographed more than two hundred leading political, religious and cultural figures. His varied subjects included artists David Hockney and Henry Moore, dancers Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, and royals Prince Charles and Louis Mountbatten. Bern’s 1978 portrait of Sir Roy Strong, Director of the V&A from 1973 to 1987, has recently entered the Museum as a gift to The American Friends of the V&A through the generosity of The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation.

Michael Schwartz, son of Bern Schwartz and President of The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation commented: “The V&A has a world-class photography collection and the new Photography Centre, featuring a gallery devoted to the history of photography, will attract a vast international audience. We are delighted to help the Museum share this exceptionally rich resource. My parents considered London to be their second home and would have been thrilled to be a part of this project.”

Further design details and new visuals for the V&A’s Photography Centre will be released later this year. Photographs from the V&A’s collection can be accessed by visitors in the Prints & Drawings Study Room. In addition to developing the Photography Centre, the Museum has upgraded its storage facilities to better house its photography collection. An extensive project to catalogue and digitise the recently transferred Royal Photographic Society (RPS) collection is also underway to provide web access and research resources for audiences around the world. The V&A continues its programme of photographic exhibitions at the Museum, and other venues in the UK and overseas.

From 22 June 2017 until the end of August, the Atwater Library,1200 Avenue Atwater, Westmount,Quebec will host an exhibition of  Edward McCann's private collection of G W Wilson photographs. McCann is the  former Curator of the Royal Canadian Police Museum and volunteer curator of the library. For 188 years, the Atwater was known as the Mechanics' Institute of Montreal. Mr Wilson and his then partner Mr Hay, won a medal at the Aberdeen Mechanics' Institute in December,1853, so it seems an appropriate venue to revisit GW WIlson's best work.

The title of the exhibition is "The Artistic Mr Wilson." Attached is an image of the interior of Fingal's Cave that McCann considers one of Mr Wilson's masterpieces. It's an album format print -- 3 1/4x 4 1/4 -- a true half stereo negative size, in an early album of ten views of Staffa and Iona entitled "Photographs of Scottish Scenery by G. W. Wilson." nd P1050430.JPG

This major international conference was convened by Geraldine Johnson (University of Oxford), Deborah Schultz (Regent's University London), and Costanza Caraffa (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz—Max-Planck-Institut). It is the sixth in the Photo Archives conference series. This conference took place on April 20–21, 2017.

The conference investigated photographs and photographic archives in relation to notions of place. In this context, place was used to explore both the physical location of a photograph or archive, as well as the place of photography as a discursive practice with regard to its value or significance as a method of viewing and conceiving the world. Photographs are mobile objects that can change their location over time, transported to diverse commercial, artistic, social, academic and scientific locations. The photograph’s physical location thus has an impact upon its value, function and significance; these topics were explored at the conference through a range of archives and across disciplines. How might the mobility of photographs open up thinking about archives and, in turn, classificatory structures in disciplines such as Art History, Archaeology and Anthropology, or in the Sciences? The conference also addressed questions of digital space, which renders the image more readily accessible, but complicates issues relating to location. What is the place, or value, of the photographic archive in the digital age?

It was sponsored by the Kress Foundation, the John Fell Fund and the History Faculty's Sanderson Fund at the University of Oxford, and Christ Church, Oxford.

A series of podcasts from the conference is available here: http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/photo-archives-vi-place-photography

Drop by the Wellcome Collection and create your own camera-less photo. Use everyday equipment and objects for a modern twist on a traditional imaging process, inspired by our exhibitions ‘Electricity’ and ‘Making Nature’. Led by photographic artist Elaine Duigenan, discover the technique of making a cyanotype image to create your own nature blueprint or photogram.

These workshops are for young people aged 14-19. There are 20 spaces in each session - first come, first served. You’ll have the best chance of getting a space if you turn up 15 minutes before the start of the session. Each session will last one hour, and you’ll be able to stay on for the following one if there isn’t a waiting list.

The event is free. 

See more here: https://wellcomecollection.org/events/saturday-studio-alternative-photography?utm_campaign=764640_What%27s%20On%20in%20June&utm_medium=email&utm_source=dotmailer&dm_i=2PXJ,GE00,4NYE9V,1P80I,1

Only four years after the invention of photography was announced to the world in 1839, two Scots were producing works of breath-taking skill in extraordinary quantities. The current Scottish National Portrait Gallery exhibition A Perfect Chemistry demonstrates the uniquely productive and influential partnership of David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson. In her talk Anne Lyden, International Photography Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland, will explore their relationship, their work and the memorable images they produced.

Book tickets here: https://www.nationalgalleries.org/event/perfect-chemistry-hill-and-adamson

A Perfect Chemistry | Hill and Adamson
Scottish National Gallery
Hawthornden Lecture Theatre
Tuesday 13 June, 6:30-8:30pm

£12 for Gallery Friends - On sale Thursday 1 June at 10am

The BBC carries a short film of some of the historical film footage of exploration held in the Royal Geographic Society collection which has been digitised and is being made available on the www.player.bfi.org.uk website

See the film here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-40050903/see-the-world-through-adventurers-eyes

The third edition of Photo London which closed on Sunday 21 May 2017, saw a record 38,000 number of visitors and sales, including major acquisitions by international institutions and significant sales to private collectors. The Fair brought together 89 galleries from 16 countries. Photo London is supported for the second consecutive year by main sponsor Pictet Group, continuing a shared commitment to artistic excellence.

To its established mix of returning galleries, Photo London added several new additions including leading contemporary galleries Victoria Miro, Sprüth Magers and Alison Jacques Gallery. This year’s Fair also featured an expanded 'Discovery' section – a showcase for emerging galleries, publishers and artists, curated for the first time by Art Consultant and Curator Tristan Lund.

The Public Programme was also a strong draw for visitors with highlights including: a presentation of work (Image Atlas) by 2017 Master of Photography Taryn Simon; David Hurn’s Swaps exhibition to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Magnum Photos; and the virtual reality artwork Thresholds by Mat Collishaw, which restages Fox Talbot's pioneering 1839 exhibition of photography and continues at Somerset House until 11 June. Photo London’s pavilion commissions continued this year and included a special mural by legendary photographer William Klein together monumental photographic installations by Korean artists Bae Bien-U and Noh Suntag. The Fair also featured a special presentation of Isaac Julien’s award winning Looking For Langston which continues at Somerset House until 29 May.
Several initiatives were also launched at this year’s Fair including two awards – the Photo London Artproof Award and the Book Dummy Award – and The Crucible Project supported by the LUMA Foundation, a new virtual space for the exploration of photography that will take place throughout the year at a series of venues across the City. Michael G. Wilson OBE, major patron and photography collector, was also named Honorary President of Photo London, meaning he will play a key role in the selection of next year’s Master of Photography.

Michael Benson and Fariba Farshad, Founding Directors of Photo London, said: “Our third edition has seen Photo London come of age. It is now firmly established as part of the cultural fabric of the City and is a key date in the international artworld calendar – the event that anyone who is seriously interested in the past present and future of photography cannot afford to miss. We were delighted to present such a strong line-up of both new and returning galleries for the third edition of Photo London, as well as an incredible Public Programme with leading artists such as Taryn Simon, Isaac Julien, William Klein and Mat Collishaw, and our Talks Programme, which featured conversations between some of the finest photographers of our generation. The quality of our exhibitors translated into strong sales throughout the Fair and we are happy to report excellent visitor figures. We are looking forward to the fourth edition of Photo London and continuing the Fair’s upward trajectory. There is huge enthusiasm for photography in London and it’s great to know that Photo London is contributing towards the development of London as a key global centre for the medium.”

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “The success of this year’s Photo London shows that our great city is open to creativity, ideas and to people from around the world. I’m delighted that a record number of visitors came to experience the wide variety of exhibitions and events at Photo London, strengthening the capital’s position as a global cultural powerhouse.”

Philippe Garner, Chair of the Photo London Curatorial Committee, said: “We believe that Photo London has succeeded in presenting an exciting international overview of the ways in which the medium of photography has been explored in recent years, well punctuated with classic reference points from both the distant and more recent past.”

The fourth edition of Photo London will take place from 17-20 (preview 16) May 2018.

The British Journal of Photography carries an interview with the respected, and very active, research curator of photographs at the Imperial War Museum, Hilary Roberts. Read the interview here: http://www.bjp-online.com/2017/05/any-answers-hilary-roberts/

Image: Portrait by Tristan Bejawn

The May edition of The London Photograph Fair in Bloomsbury takes place this Sunday, 28th May. A week on from the successful Special Edition boutique event at King's College, the Bloomsbury fair - which has been going since 1982 - offers a wealth of C19th and C20th material, with something for every collector and dealer.

WHEN:

Sunday 28 May 2017, 10am - 4pm


EXHIBITORS:

Alan Cook, Albumen Gallery, Allsworth Rare Books, Arnaud Delas, Bruno Tartarin, photovintagefrance, Christine Wilhelm, Paul Cordes - Classic Photographics, Diana Howlett, Dr. Jens Mattow - Antiquariat für Buch und Fotografie, Eric P. Waschke FRGS Wayfarers Bookshop, Frédéric HOCH, Hugh Ashley Rayner, Iain Burr, Ian Sumner, Janette Rosing, Joseph Delarue, Linus Carr, Lisa Tao, Malcolm, Pablo Butcher, Pavel Chepyzhov, Philip & Rosemary Banham, Pump Park Vintage Photography, Richard Meara, Roland Belgrave Vintage Photography, Sasportas Fine Art, Shaun Caton, The Front, Tony Crombie.


LOCATION:

Venue: Bloomsbury Holiday Inn, Coram Street, London WC1N 1HT

Tube: Russell Square (1 min walk)
; King's Cross-St. Pancras (7-10 min walk)

FURTHER INFORMATION & TICKETS:

www.photofair.co.uk

[Image above: Francis Frith, Mammoth plate albumen print, 1857. Available to buy at the London Photograph Fair, Bloomsbury, on 28th May 2017]

Magnum photographer, David Hurn has donated over 2200 photographs from his own work and those he has swapped with other Magnum photographers to Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. Hurn is one of Britain’s most influential documentary photographers. Of Welsh descent, he lives and works in Wales. 

His generous gift comprises two parts: approximately 1500 of his own photographs that span his sixty-year career as a documentary photographer; and approximately 700 photographs from his private collection which he has compiled throughout the course of his career.A selection of works from Hurn’s private collection will be on display for the first time at National Museum Cardiff from 30 September 2017, in Swaps: Photographs from the David Hurn Collection of Photography, an exhibition that launches the Museum’s new gallery dedicated to photography.

Hurn has amassed his private collection over the past six decades, predominantly through swapping works with fellow photographers, including many of his Magnum colleagues. In doing so he has assembled a significant and diverse collection that includes leading 20th and 21st 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 Diana Markosian.

Over the last two years, Hurn has been selecting photographs from his own archive to create a definitive edit of his life’s work. The collection of approximately 1500 new prints includes work made in Wales, England, Scotland, Ireland, Arizona, California and New York. It includes some of Hurn’s most celebrated photographs, such as Queen Charlotte’s Ball, Barbarella and Grosvenor Square. However, it is his carefully observed photographs of his home country of Wales that are the focus of the collection. Following his generous gift, National Museum Wales is now the institution with the largest holdings of Hurn’s work worldwide.

David Hurn said, “My earliest visual/cultural memories are visiting the museum when I must have been four or five. I remember the naughty statue - Rodin’s ‘The Kiss’ - and cases full of stuff that people had donated. Well now I have the chance to repay, something of mine will be there forever, I feel very privileged.” National Museum Wales’ existing photography collections are uniquely inter-disciplinary and span subjects including Art, Social and Industrial History and the Natural Sciences. Importantly it includes some of the earliest photographs taken in Wales by pioneering photographer John Dillwyn Llewelyn and his family. The addition of Hurn’s gift will transform the Museum’s photography collections and provide exciting opportunities for expanding the collections in new ways.

David Anderson, Director General of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales: “This exceptional donation by David Hurn will raise the profile of Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales as an important centre for photography in the UK. We know that photography appeals to our visitors and the exhibition in September launches the Museum’s first ever permanent gallery dedicated to photography. We are extremely grateful to David Hurn for this generous gift, which will drive this important and much needed photography programme for Amgueddfa Cymru, benefiting the people of Wales and those further afield.”

The exhibition at National Museum Cardiff follows an earlier presentation of Hurn’s collection at Photo London, the international photography event held annually at Somerset House in London. Curated by Martin Parr and David Hurn, the Photo London exhibition marks the 70th anniversary of Magnum Photos.

Hurn will be speaking about his collection with Martin Parr as part of the Talks Programme at Photo London on Friday 19 May http://photolondon.org/event/david-hurn-in-conversation-with-martin-parr/.

• The Museum appointed Bronwen Colquhoun as senior curator of photographs in February 2016 (see: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bronwen-colquhoun-takes-up-senior-curator-of-photography-role)

Image: David Hurn,  Outdoor group fitness early in the morning in the retirement Sun City, 1980. © David Hurn/MAGNUM PHOTOS

Apollo magazine poses the question do UK museums take photography seriously and provides a useful survey of how photography is looked at in the UK, with comment from Martin Barnes, Colin Ford and Michael Pritchard. The question is contextualised around the move of the RPS Collection from Bradford to London. https://www.apollo-magazine.com/do-uk-museums-take-photography-seriously/

Image: Shop sign, rue Geoffroy-St-Hilaire, Paris, (c. 1900), Eugène Atget. © Victoria and Albert Museum

Bradford's Telegraph and Argus newspaper has an interview with Jo Quinton-Tulloch, Director of the National Museum of Science and Media, formerly the National Media Museum, who discusses the process the museum went through to come up with its new name. The exercise took several years, a short-list of 50 alternatives and the use of three consultancy firms.

Read the interview here: http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/15283691.Revealed__The_alternative_names_which_were_considered_for_Bradford_s_national_museum/

The BBC has a very short film on its website looking at the Getty Images Archive with Matt Butson. The archive houses some 80 million images of which only 1 in 200 is accessible. See the film here: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-39918329/inside-the-getty-images-archive

Photographer and Associate of the Royal Photographic Society, Rose Teanby discusses the origins, background and impact of Robert Howlett’s iconic portrait of Isambard Kingdom Brunel by the launching chains of the SS Great Eastern.

Rose Teanby is a photographer specialising in portraiture and Associate of the Royal Photographic Society. Her portrait of shot putter and strongman Geoff Capes was  acquired by National Portrait Gallery in 2015. She is the biographer of Robert Howlett and has written articles on him for Photo Historian (spring 2016, No. 175) and Royal Photographic Society Journal (January 2017, Volume 157). She featured in the BBC4 documentary Britain in Focus: A Photographic History, speaking about Howlett’s portrait of Brunel and is currently leading a project to restore his grave.

Public booking will open on Friday, 12 May 2017

Book here: http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/event-root/july/lunchtime-lecture-20072017

THE LONDON PHOTOGRAPH FAIR - the UK's only established vintage photograph fair - is delighted to announce the return of its Special Edition, to be held on Saturday and Sunday the 20th and 21st of May 2017 at The Great Hall, King’s College London, adjacent to Somerset House.

The boutique event will allow established international dealers specialising in vintage photographs and photo-books to present their own curated displays of their best vintage material.

The London Photograph Fair Special Edition coincides with the closing weekend of Photo London next door at Somerset House.


On display and for sale will be unique and original vintage works from the entire history of photography from the 1840s through the 20th Century. Vintage modern masters from the 1920s will rub shoulders with rare daguerreotypes and original 1960s film and fashion press prints.

Exhibitors bringing a their finest material are: Adnan Sezer - Bruno Tartarin, photovintagefrance - Christophe Lunn, Lunn Galerie - Clement Kauter, Le Plac'Art Photo - Daniella Dangoor - The Front, London - Ian Sumner - Linus Carr - Lisa Tao - Maggs Brothers - Pablo Butcher - Pierre Spake - Richard Meara

Photographs for sale - include works by: Richard Avendon - Norman Parkinson - Paul Strand - Brassai - Man Ray - Cecil Beaton - Roger Fenton - Lewis Carroll - Walker Evans - Bill Brandt - Edward Steichen - among many others.

Tickets are just £5, available from www.photofair.co.uk

BPH recently carried news of new research on Thomas Frederick Hardwich, the photographic chemist and author (see here). In addition, a Wikipedia page has recently been created for Hardwich which adds further information about Hardwich and his career. Both correct errors in earlier publications. 

Image: Thomas Frederick Hardwich, Wellcome Library, London.

The archival impulse, which remains a primary organising principle within contemporary art, is now, in an age of digital imaging and social media, also a mass-cultural phenomenon. These developments, together with a cultural field currently preoccupied with questions of history, remembrance and divergent conceptions of national identity, make an investigation of photography and the archive in Ireland particularly timely.

We invite proposals for 20 minute presentations from researchers working in diverse fields and disciplines, such as: photography; media, visual, material and cultural studies; art history; museology; archival and librarian studies; digital humanities; visual anthropology and sociology; history and geography; architecture; and philosophy and literature.

Submitted proposals might address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

 Art and the Archive

The archive and contemporary photographic practices in Ireland

Invented, found and (re) created archives

Ethics, aesthetics and the re-situating of photographs

Memory, Affect, Materiality

Photography, commemoration and remembrance

Materiality, affect and vernacular photography

Archives, albums and the production of family histories

Identity, Society and Culture

Geographies of representation: borders, space, place, migration and dislocation

Legacies of the colonial, postcolonial and neocolonial in Irish photography

Performing gender in the photographic archive

Archival Science: Collecting, Preserving and Cataloging

Museum, library and archive as linked sites of regulation

Institutional agendas and the photographic archive

Systems of classification, processes of collecting and conservation

Consuming Archives: Digital Repositories and Databases

Commerce, copyright and online photo banks in Ireland

Digitized photographic archives, networks, communities, users and researchers

Photography, social media and the production of digital identities

To propose a paper please send a 350 word abstract (excluding references) no later than

June 16^th 2017 to photographyarchivesireland@gmail.com

Proposals should also include the full name and title of the author, current affiliation, full contact details (address, email and phone number), and a brief biographical note.

Convenors:

Ann Curran (Programme Chair, BA Photography, DIT)

Fiona Loughnane (Assistant lecturer, Dept. of Visual Culture, NCAD)

Dr. Orla Fitzpatrick (Librarian, NMI)

https://photographyarchivesireland.wordpress.com/