Blogs

Don't Fence Me In provides an entire career retrospective, made with the enthusiastic cooperation of Fay Godwin, filming from 2001 until 2005, which turned out to be the last five years of her life. She graduated from taking family snaps to documenting Camden social services, followed by a remarkable sequence of literary portraits, before moving on to landscape photography for a series of walkers' books which evolved into photographic collaborations with major writers, notably Ted Hughes. In 1985 she published Land, a substantial volume which provided a conspectus of British landscape, followed in turn by the polemical Our Forbidden Land, 1990, made when she was elected President of the Ramblers Association and documenting much that is wrong with the way the landscape is managed. Godwin was appointed Photographer in Residence at Bradford's National Media Museum and wanted to work in colour for the first time, documenting the city's dazzling multicultural landscape. Illness caused her to move from the macro to the micro, and she became increasingly obsessed with details of gardens and plants close to home, often seen through glass, gauze and netting. Whilst for much of Godwin's career she used a black and white chemical darkroom, latterly she eagerly embraced digital colour technology with the same enthusiasm and eye for detail. Godwin herself recounts her life and the film is structured through her appearance on Desert Island Discs and around three major retrospective shows of her work, first at London’s Barbican Centre, then the Sainsbury Centre at the University of East Anglia and finally at Scottish National Portrait Gallery Edinburgh. 75 mins 4:3 aspect ratio

ADDITIONAL FILM Talking About Fay Godwin

Fifteen of Fay Godwin’s friends, colleagues, associates and family talk about her life and work: Geraldine Alexander (Fay’s assistant); Peter Cattrell (Photographer); Margaret Drabble (Novelist); Colin Ford (Founding Head, National Media Museum); Ken Garland (Graphic Designer & Photographer); Nick Godwin (son); Paul Hill (Photographer & Teacher); Richard Ingrams (Writer); Ian Jeffrey (Writer & Historian); Peter Melchett (Environmental Campaigner & Organic Farmer); Brett Rogers (Director, The Photographers’ Gallery); Tony Stokes (Gallery Owner); Maggie Taylor (Friend & Colleague); Roger Taylor (Photographic Historian) and Shirley Toulson (Writer). 60 mins 16:9 aspect ratio

ADDITIONAL FILM Optics & Chemistry

Fay Godwin’s technical explorations and methods and their impact on her work, from Agfa Rapid papers to the Zone System, are discussed and analysed. 27 mins 16:9 aspect ratio Filmed and Directed by Charles Mapleston Edited by Libby Horner & Charles Mapleston

Don’t Fence Me In

Fay Godwin’s Photographic Journey

Production Company: Malachite Ltd. www.malachite.co.uk 01790 763538

Fay Godwin - The Drovers' Roads of Wales and other photographs is being shown as MOMA MACHYNLLETH opening at 11am on Saturday, 18 February 2017 and runs until 1st April, 2017. Also A Clearly Marked Path - original photographs by leading British photographers reflecting Fay Godwin's influence at PEN'RALLT GALLERY BOOKSHOP 

The Ghost Road – MOMA, talk with writer, Mike Parker Sunday, 5 March, 10am – 1.30pm - £3.00

DAY EVENT

Saturday 11 March 2017, 10.30 – 3.30 - £15.00 (£10 unwaged) at MOMA, Heol Pen'rallt, Machynlleth, SY20 8AJ

A day of talks, film, discussion and homage to British landscape photographer, walker and campaigner, Fay Godwin (1931 – 2005) including Don't Fence Me In – exclusive film preview and gallery talk, lecture and panel with photographers: Peter Cattrell, Pete Davis, Marian Delyth (chair); Film-maker: Charles Mapleston; Fay Godwin archivist: Dr Geraldine Alexander, and Paul Hill.

For details, to book the walk and register for the day event contact: www.penralltgallerybookshop.co.uk, 01654 700559, penralltbooks@gmail.com

This conference investigates photographs and photographic archives in relation to notions of place. In this context, place is 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 are 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 addresses 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?

The conference features internationally-renowned speakers, with a keynote lecture by Geoffrey Batchen and a final discussion led by Elizabeth Edwards. Site visits to Oxford’s outstanding photographic collections are also planned, including to the Bodleian Library’s Talbot Archive, the Pitt Rivers Museum, the History of Science Museum, the Griffith Institute’s archives of archaeological expeditions, and the History of Art Department’s Visual Resources Centre. 

Photo Archives VI: The Place of Photography

April 20–21, 2017

Department of History of Art, University of Oxford
Conference Venue: Christ Church, Oxford

See more here: http://www.hoa.ox.ac.uk/events/photo/

I am researching these two ambrotypes, recently acquired through eBay. They appear to be images of John Lee, Astronomer, Numismatist, 1858 and 1861, antiquarian, philosopher, et al. of Hartwell House, Buckinghamshire.

I can only find one actual photographic image of Dr. Lee, an apparent albumen, via the Science Photo Library website here.

These two ambrotypes are in remarkably good condition, and quite large. The first is 9 x 12cm, and the second 12 x 15cm, visible areas, I am assuming that the actual sizes are larger.

Ink inscriptions on the back indicate that these were taken by 'George Axtel'. My preliminary research finds no such photographer. Maybe it was mistaken for Axtell?

I would posit that the Royal Meteorology Society, or Royal Astronomical Society, or Society of Antiquaries would want these.

Are these unrecorded images of Dr. Lee?   Any guesses out there?

Many Thanks,   David

This symposium marks the opening of ‘Usakos – Photographs Beyond Ruins: The Old Location albums, 1920s-1960s’, an exhibition at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, University of London. The exhibition centres on three private collections of historic photographs preserved and curated by four women residents of the former ‘Old Location’ in Usakos, an urban railway hub in central Namibia. With a view to reflect the resonances of these personal archives, Paul Grendon’s contemporary photographs enter a visual dialogue with the women’s collections, thereby providing a particular opening into the present and future.

Demolished under the apartheid plan for Namibia in the 1950s, the Old Location is remembered with nostalgia by its former residents, who were forcibly removed to a new township on the outskirts of Usakos. In the course of their research into Usakos’s history, Lorena Rizzo and Giorgio Miescher were introduced to the photograph collections of Cecilie //Geises, Wilhelmine Katjimune, Gisela Pieters and Olga //Garoës. These women had for many years been collecting, curating and circulating photographs taken in the Old Location, thus preserving and reshaping memories of this time and place.

These photographs, and the collections of which they are part, shed new light on southern African histories. Viewed from an urban history perspective, they differ strongly from hitherto dominant narratives of location life, focusing as they do on sociality and social relations, and the dignity and self-respect with which subjects presented themselves to the camera. In Usakos today, these images have become a particular historical form through which women negotiate their past, its bearing on their present and what it holds for imagining their future. Unlike the collections of African photographers’ studios, it is the people in the photographs to whom names can be attributed, and the photographers – some of whom were itinerant – who remain largely anonymous.

This conference takes the lead offered by this new research to focus on African women and photography. On the one hand, papers are invited that cover aspects of photographic practices defined in the broadest sense: African women as clients, as photographers, as photographic subjects and as collectors and curators of photographs and private photographic archives; women engaged in aesthetic practices that bridge conventional distinctions such as that between the visual and the oral; and women’s role in memory work – whether through purely photographic collections, or other private collections that include photographs, letters, identity documents, moving image, objects and other manifestations of material culture. We are particularly interested in the themes of historic collections and memory work, but will also consider papers looking at women’s engagement with photographic practice today.

On the other hand, the conference will reflect on how far female photographic practices constituted a domain in which women represented, commented on, responded to and made sense of their experiences of the transformations brought about by colonialism and apartheid. We invite papers which reflect on how women’s photographic and other archival and memory-work practices help to illuminate the specific histories of life under segregation, apartheid and colonialism more broadly – whether (for example) of urban planning, forced removals, housing, the railway system, migrant and domestic labour, cosmopolitanism, education and cultural life.

We expect that the majority of papers will focus on the African continent, but we also welcome proposals dealing with similar issues in the diasporic context.

The conference will be of relevance to academics and researchers in these fields as well as practitioners and a more general audience with an interest in Namibia and/or in African history and photography. Contributors are asked to bear this in mind when drafting their presentations.

The one-day conference will take place on Friday 14th July 2017 in the Senate Room, Senate House, University of London. More details and registration arrangements will be available shortly after the close of the call for papers. Unfortunately the symposium organisers are unable to assist with travel and accommodation costs.

Please send abstracts (300 words max.) and your name, title, affiliation (where appropriate) and contact details to:

Dr Giorgio Miescher, University of Basel, giorgio.miescher@unibas.ch and Dr Marion Wallace, marion.wallace@wallpear.plus.com by 17 March 2017.

Photographs Beyond Ruins: Women and Photography in Africa

A one-day symposium at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London

Friday 14 July 2017

Sponsored by:

Centre for African Studies, University of Basel

Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London

With support from:

Centre of African Studies at SOAS, University of London

College of Arts and Humanities, University of Brighton

Hutchins Center, Harvard University

For the Brunei Gallery exhibition see https://www.soas.ac.uk/gallery/forthcoming/.

For more information on the Usakos photographs see: http://www.chrflagship.uwc.ac.za/photographs-beyond-ruins/

and: Paul Grendon, Giorgio Miescher, Lorena Rizzo and Tina Smith, Usakos: Photographs beyond Ruins. The Old Location Albums, 1920s–1960s (Basel: Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 2015)

A combination of technological, cultural, and economic factors during the “long” nineteenth century made images more readily available in a wider range of media than ever before. These transformations raised new questions about the ownership and use of images.

On This Date In Photography presents an event that happened, or is happening, on the date of posting. Journalistic, not necessarily academic, it aims to broaden the interests of devotees of photography, with some posts specifically on British photo history, others more wide ranging.

Written on the day, of the day, your news of upcoming items for potential content, or other input, is most welcome.

(It's a 'labour of love' I am undertaking for one calendar year to revive my research and writing in preparation for penning a book on an aspect of photography next year.)

The redesigned Historical Photographs of China web site (https://www.hpcbristol.net/) has been re-launched and now contains over 10,500 images, including 1,400 recently added images from nine new collections.

 These including a large and diverse selection of photographs from Shanghai-based news photographer Malcolm Rosholt, the family photographs of Sikh life and work in Shanghai in the Ranjit Singh Sangha collection, and some of Felice Beato's photographs of the bloody 1860 North China Campaign. Mao Zedong, Rabindranath Tagore, the Tenth Panchen Lama, General Sir Robert Napier, Father Jacquinot, and sometime North China Daily News editor R.W. Little join the cast of personalities. The new images range from 1860 (with some earlier ones on their way soon), to 1949 (with some later ones on their way in the not too distant future).

On the relaunched HPC web site, we have tried to enhance discoverability and alleviate dependency on keyword searching, by offering several ways to find images, such as a 'Lucky dip' (random sampling of images), via collection names, via names of photographers and via some themed collections ('Featured Collections'), as well as an advanced keyword search facility.

Another new feature is a 'Related Photographs' link to other photographs linked in some way to the one displayed. We cannot say that coverage through this is comprehensive, but we are linking photographs where we can (where, for example, they might be split across albums, media (negatives and prints for example), or even collections.

Do please tell us what you think -- and we are always interested to hear how you use the site.  We'd be very happy too for notification of factual/name/location/date errors, typos, glaring omissions, etc.

 Developing the platform has been supported by awards from the British Academy, the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation, and Swire Trust, and with vital support from the University of Bristol's IT Services.

 Professor Robert Bickers (HPC Project Director), Jamie Carstairs (HPC Project Manager).​ Email: hums-chinaphotos@bristol.ac.uk

Image: Small Pagoda / Ba06-103. © 2008 Peter Lockhart Smith / HPC

Two exhibitions at the Keswick Museum and Art Gallery, both about photography, complement each other.Lakeland Pioneers in Climbing and Photography: The Abraham Brothers looks at the work of George and Ashley Abraham and celebrates their work with a range of their iconic climbing photographs and some of the well loved views they popularised and which are still admired today. Accompanying this is Instanto Outdoors. Which shows contemporary photographs by Henry Iddon, taken with a 100 year old Underwood Instanto camera, previously used by the Abraham Brothers. Both exhibitions run until 12 May 2017. 

See: http://keswickmuseum.org.uk/

In Italy the phrase “Photographic double ground - Crozat System - Patented” is well known by professionals as well as by vintage and historycal photography lovers. Indeed, it is stamped on the back of hundreds of cartes de visite produced in Italy between the second half of the 1860s and the early Seventies. Nevertheless, the information about the procedure as well as the biography of its inventor have hardly been known up to now. Though, the Crozat System, which included the photographic double ground, the instantaneous coloring and the preservative varnishing system, radically transformed and innovated Photography, especially in Italy. There, it was used by dozens of professionals in order to create a charateristic portrait type in carte de visite format, very much appreciated by the public for its æsthetic characteristics, transparency and brilliance and also for the possibility to color certain parts of the picture.

In the fall of 1862 Leandro Crozat and his younger brother Nicolás, born in Alcoy, Spain, sought and obtained from Her Majesty Queen Isabella II the privilege of industrial invention relates to the photographic double ground, a “mechanical process invented to obtain two grounds in the same photographic set” a shaded one and a general one. 

Since December 1862 Leandro had embarked on a long journey to advertise and sell the Crozat System in the most important Spanish cities. Then he tried to do the same in France (Marseilles), in the United Kingdom (London), Ireland and then in Italy (but also in Egypt and Portugal), before reaching South America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Uruguay).

Apart from being an itinerant photographer (proposing and teaching the Crozat system), Leandro was also a merchant, a chief manager, a founder as well as president and member of spiritualist associations, Vice-Consul, and responsible for the reading room of the National Library of Chile. He lived a full of adventures life -not too happily, according to him- and characterized by frequent moves. He was a bachelor throughout his life.

Read the Italian version of the book here: https://issuu.com/robertocaccialanzacremona/docs/crozat_impaginato

From the sepia-toned mass graves of the American Civil War to today’s drone shots of the destroyed Syrian city of Aleppo, war photographs have shaped and continue to inform our understanding of human conflict.  Far from neutral, war photographs challenge our sense of humanity in a complex exchange between ‘taking’ and ‘viewing’. Exploring this relationship through an analytical rather than aesthetic perspective, our six-week course will introduce you to the ethical, theoretical and practical issues connected with taking, viewing and reproducing war photographs.

Beginning with a historical overview and rare opportunity to view original war photographs from the Library’s collection, we’ll consider key themes including photography and truth, ethics and aesthetics, and the idea of cultural memory. Throughout the course we’ll refer to the Library’s extensive photography collections, and analyze photographic images using a variety of theoretical approaches.

Centering our course within contemporary practice, we’ll also spend an exclusive evening at the nearby Foundling Museum, where innovative documentary artist Mark Neville will talk frankly about his photographs taken on the frontline in Afghanistan, Ukraine and Kenya, on display in the exhibition Child’s Play (3 February–30 April 2017).

This course is led by Dr Eleanor Chiari (University College, London) with contributions from British Library curator John Falconer (Lead Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photography Collections) and documentary artist Mark Neville.

In collaboration with the Foundling Museum.

Course dates: Tuesdays 21 and 28 February and  7, 14, 21 and 28 March
Times: 18.00 – 20.00
Where: British Library, London

See more at: https://www.bl.uk/events/shooting-war-photography-history-representation

The 'Crozat's Photographic System' in Ireland and in the UK,1864-1871. Irish and/or British researchers of the history of photography and collectors who want to share information about the spread of the 'Crozat's System' in Ireland and in the UK and/or photographs made with this method, can contact us by writing to:

info@robertocaccialanza.com

See more about the publication here: http://www.robertocaccialanza.com/il_sistema_crozat_in_irlanda_-_the_crozats_sys.html.

Thank you.

Roberto Caccialanza (Cremona, Italy)

www.robertocaccialanza.com

You’re someone who’d love nothing more than to immerse themselves in The Hulton Archive. You’d thrive in a role where you can take a proactive approach to increasing its profile internally and externally. You’ll be establishing Getty Images as a recognised industry specialist in academic and museum circles as well as building increased awareness of our archive through emerging consumer division and related social media activities.

As a Curator you’ll be responsible for conservation, preservation, maintenance and accessibility of all analogue assets, including our special vintage collections. You’ll also project manage analogue assets for all brands and key point of contact for related issues such as library information, copyright information, legal support, pull & returns and asset locations are an additional aspect of the role, providing support and advice both in the UK and overseas, wherever analogue content maybe housed and maintained.

You’d join an office of 25 people which is made up of editors, production managers, curatorial assistants and researchers who are knowledgeable, passionate and world class photography experts.

Your next challenge:

• To have overall responsibility for existing, new and specialist analogue collections
• Manage a team of three Curatorial Assistants
• Maintain documentation (copyright, rights, acquisition’s register, storage locations etc.) databases and systems, including analogue/historic documentation
• Provide advice and assistance to internal & external clients regarding all aspects of analogue collections management
• Coordinate and build relations with related industry professionals, photographic partners etc. to maximise potential and exposure of archive collections
• Manage exhibition loans of vintage or analogue collections materials inc. gallery
• Advise on copyright, model release and R&C enquiries internally and externally in conjunction with Legal and R&C
• Assist in brand development and awareness through direct involvement in and input to social media, industry seminars, PR events and related activities, internal and external workshops, archival and related presentations, web-features, marketing, consumer activities e.g. web-features, internal communications and intranet documentation
• Research and curate activities both ad hoc and project related e.g. exhibitions, web galleries and features, web-based content events etc
• Manage the curatorial and conservation budget
• Reference and research into collections information e.g. valuations, captions etc

What you’ll need:

• Relevant and/or management experience within the media industry
• Knowledge of conservation practices, environmental tolerances etc
• Knowledge of library and classification systems
• Knowledge of History of Photography with special reference to photojournalism and commercial photography
• Experience within social media environment across most platforms e.g. Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat etc
• Identification and knowledge of historic photographic techniques (e.g. albumen prints, daguerreotypes etc.)
• Knowledge of market and insurance value of vintage material and recognised security procedures
• Curatorial skills e.g. exhibition/gallery management, museum standards and procedures
• Knowledge of EU copyright directives, IP rights, model release etc
• Project and Budget management experience
• Good presentation skills and familiarity with public speaking
• Relevant Arts Degree or Library Management related subject is advantageous

See more and apply here

The Manfred & Hanna Heiting Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds enables the Rijksmuseum to annually award two postgraduate Fellowships that stimulate outstanding object-based, photo-historical research by prospective curators from the Netherlands or abroad. Fellowships are awarded for a six-month period.

The focus of research should be related to the National Photo Collection held by the Rijksmuseum’s Print Room. The Rijksmuseum will endeavor to enable publication of the Fellow’s research in the series Rijksmuseum Studies in Photography. This could be an in-depth study of one photograph or photo book and/or its distribution; on a series of photographs or part of an oeuvre; on the aesthetic or technical aspects of photography; on the wider context of a photo book or album; or on combinations of art-historical research and research on materials and techniques.

The Rijksmuseum will provide working space for the Fellows, in order to stimulate an exchange of knowledge, ideas and experience. Access will be provided to all necessary information in the museum, as well as to the library and the resources of the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD) in The Hague.

The deadline for applications is 12 March 2017. Find our more here: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/manfred-and-hanna-heiting-fellowship

I am seeking information about this quarter-plate ambrotype of a young lad. There appears to be an etched signature above his left arm. Constant? 

Although this was bought in the UK, I suppose it might be French.

Does anyone recognize this signature?

Many thanks,

David McGreevy

Matt Isenburg, leading photographic collector and historian and driving force behind the Daguerreian Society, has passed away at the age of 89 on 14 November 2016.

Matt was a WW2 US Navy veteran and fascinated by history, in which he obtained a Bachelor's degree at Northwestern Universary. He started as a camera collector, with a major interest in Leicas but switched to collecting early photographica, focussing particular interest on the first 30 years of photographic history. He equally collected images, cameras and related photographic hardware and photographic literature, to tell the complete story of photography across his era of specialty using two collecting maxims, namely to collect the best of the best and to not be afraid to pay tomorrow's prices today. As a result, few private collectors have ever amassed anything like the diversity of important and rare material that Matt did.

Matt enjoyed writing about his extensive collection, producing many articles, a book with Charles Klamkin "Photographica : a Guide to the Value of Historic Cameras and Images" and he gave lectures on a wide array of photographic subjects over the years. In 1978 he founded the Daguerreian Society with John Wood, serving as President for many years. With Matt's encouragement, the Daguerriean Society held its 25th anniversary symposium in Paris in 2013 but his health prevented him from attending.

Matt possessed an unsurpassed collection of daguerrotypes, including a large family collection from the Southworth family (of the Southworth and Hawes studio in Boston), images of the Capitol Building and White House, a large number of full plate daguerreotypes of the Californian gold rush, 23 daguerreian cameras including the first one in America imported by Samuel Morse, numerous choice ambrotypes, tintypes, stereoviews and cartes de visite mostly from America but also other countries; photographic albums, frames and viewing apparatus; unexposed daguerreotype plates and developing outfits; advertising material; letters, documents and manuscripts relating to early photographers and extensive runs of daguerreian and wet plate era photographic periodicals in English, French and German and well as many of the key books on photography from that period.

Hundreds visited Matt's home in Hadlyme, Connecticut over the years to view his amazing collection and were regaled with not only the history of the items, but also the many stories of the chase in obtaining them and often into the very early hours of the morning! Matt possessed an intense passion for early photography and a driving desire to share it and was always generous in providing information and offering advice and encouragement.

In 2012, Matt sold his world class collection for $15, 000000 to media magnate David Thomson to be housed in the Archive of Modern Conflict facility in Toronto 2012. With his health failing, Matt realised his legacy had to continue to be utilised and enjoyed and he was comfortable with his decision, seeing his collection remain intact even though it was leaving the country. The collection has since been gifted to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa in 2015 for inclusion in a larger collection called Origins of Photography.

The Photographers’ Gallery presents the first major London exhibition of Roger Mayne’s (1929 - 2014) work since 1999. Roger Mayne is best known for his seminal and pioneering body of work on community life in London’s Southam Street in the 1950s and early 60s. Mayne’s humanistic approach to his subjects has influenced subsequent generations of photographers and made a significant contribution to post-war British photography. 

Self-taught, Mayne counted among his influences Cartier Bresson, Paul Strand (whom he met in Paris) W. Eugene Smith and most notably photographer Hugo van Wadenoyen, who would prove to be an influential mentor throughout his formative years. Moving to London in 1954, Mayne began working for clients including the Observer, Sunday Times, Vogue, Pelican Books and BBC TV. He mixed with diverse artistic circles, corresponding and conversing with a wide range of painters, sculptors, architects, and playwrights. His approach to photography and engagement with the critical discourses of the day were greatly enlivened by these relationships. 

It was, however, his admiration for the St Ives scene of Terry Frost, Roger Hilton and Patrick Heron that would have an enduring impact on his life and work, encouraging Mayne to experiment with large photographic prints, mounting methods and installation based exhibitions at a time when there was little or no precedent for this within photography. These methods, alongside his considered and vocal debates on the topic helped to shift photography in Britain from a technical and commercial practice and position it within the wider arts.

In addition to his depictions of Southam Street, the exhibition also features some of Mayne’s less well known work from outside the Capital. These include images from his young adulthood in Leeds (early 50s) where Mayne first developed his photographic interests. His early pictures of street life around the city chart his gradual move from pictorialism towards his characteristic realist style.

Between 1961 - 65 Mayne visited the newly developed estate of Park Hill in Sheffield for a variety of commissioned work. The high-rises may seem far from the decay and haphazard life of Southam Street that had previously inspired him, nevertheless, his photographs of the residents conveyed similar empathy and nuance observed in daily social interactions and children at play. In addition to his human subjects Mayne’s images were also concerned with the urban environment, capturing the sharp angles, shades and abstract forms of the buildings.

At the Raleigh Cycles in Nottingham (1964), Mayne embraced the dynamic setting and low lighting of the factory to produce a series of dignified portraits of the workers in his distinctive black and white tonality. Restaged for the first time since 1964 is Mayne’s pioneering installation The British at Leisure. Commissioned by architect Theo Crosby for the Milan Triennale it features 310 colour images projected on five screens to a commissioned jazz score by Johnny Scott.

Also included in the exhibition are further examples of Mayne’s interest in photographic and graphic layouts including magazine spreads, book covers, and photography and poetry books.  A selection of Mayne’s correspondence testify to his early critically engagement with arguments concerning the contemporary appreciation of photography as an art form and further cement Mayne’s significance in the history of British Photography.

The exhibition is co-curated by Anna Douglas and Karen McQuaid and in collaboration with Katkin Tremayne, Roger Mayne’s daughter.

Visitor Information

Opening times: Mon – Sat, 10:00 - 18:00; Thu, 10:00 - 20:00; Sun, 11:00 - 18:00

Admission: free until noon (Mon - Sun) and then £4 / £2.5 concessions

Address: 16-18 Ramillies Street, London W1F 7LW

Nearest London Underground Station: Oxford Circus

T: + 44 (0)20 7087 9300 E: info@tpg.org.uk W: thephotographersgallery.org.uk

Image: Roger Mayne Two boys in Southam Street, London, 1956
© Roger Mayne / Mary Evans Picture Library Courtesy of the Mary Evans Picture Library

Thresholds, is an innovate exhibition project about one of the first exhibitions of photography in the United Kingdom and is seeking support through a new Kickstarter Campaign. 

Using cutting-edge virtual reality technology, the project will re-present the exhibition of photogenic drawings staged at King Edward’s School, New Street in 1839 by the inventor William Henry Fox Talbot. 

There are four venues lined up for our tour: PhotoLondon at Somerset House in May, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery in June, Lacock Abbey in September, and the National Media Museum Bradford in November.

The project lead is artist Mat Collishaw, a visual artist with over 25 years experience exhibiting in galleries worldwide. He is supported by a team including: Paul Tennant at Nottingham University Mixed Reality Lab (part of their computer Science department), VMI Studio and The White Wall Company in London. The Mixed Reality Lab are developing the movement detection side of the project while VMI Studio are recreating our VR room in CG. The White Wall Company will be building the actual room. Work has been underway since January 2016 and we are now moving into the final phase. My partners on Thresholds are Pete James (a photographic historian), Larry Schaaf (an authority on Fox Talbot), The Science Museum, The British Library, The Royal Institution, The King Edward Grammar School, Lacock Abbey and The National Media Museum Bradford. 

The project has been kindly supported financially by King Edward's School, Birmingham, The Schools of King Edward VI in Birmingham, Colmore Business District, Birmingham City University and The Art Fund.

More information on the project and the rewards on offer can be found at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1817545913/thresholds-vr

The Thorn photographers were pioneers of the art in Bude, in Cornwall. this book celebrates their enormous contribution to Cornish history. over 250 images taken from their original glass negatives, many never before published, show the landscape, seascape and shipwrecks, of north Cornwall, as it was in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, packed with personalities and characters, recalling the hard but gentle pace of Cornish life as well as the incidents that live on in the memory of the Cornish people. the advent of photography captured the moment as it was. We are transported back to an age often regarded as romantic. however, life was so different from ours today: we have glimpses of the trials and tribulations of the time.

Harry Thorn was the first photographer in Bude village, as it then was, in the 1850s (population around 600). he started to record the events of the day. inevitably these included many shipwrecks which were a common occurrence. he did not have the advantage of wealth - his father was a carpenter and he was one of ten children, but he started a career in photography from very little and became accomplished at the new art. he was a true pioneer for Bude in a field with many hazards, particularly the chemicals used, about which not a lot was understood. it is probable that the chemicals led to his early death, at the age of thirty-eight, in 1876.

In the 1860s he was joined by his sister, brother and later his niece, who carried on the business after his death until 1928. Between them they have left us with a wonderful pictorial record of the area from Clovelly to Tintagel. after 1900, many of their photographs were printed as postcards which immediately appealed to collectors and this continues today. their legacy to Cornwall has not yet been fully appreciated – this book will give them the recognition they deserve.

Format: Large format hardback, 144 pages, 238 x 258mm, profusely illustrated throughout
Price: £24.99
ISBN: 978 1 906690 63 2

Orders here: www.thorns-of-bude-photographers.uk

Three new roles are on offer to work for the newly formed Photographic Collections Network.

Administrator/co-ordinator: freelance role with a fee of £20,000 working from early 2017 for 15 months. Would particularly suit someone with a commitment to photography and a track record of project co-ordination and admin.

Researcher: freelance role with a total fee of £5,000 working during 2017. Would particularly suit a researcher with a commitment to and knowledge of photography and its archives and collections.

Evaluator: freelance role with a total fee of £3,000 from early 2017 over a 15 month period. Would particularly suit an experienced project evaluator.

Deadline to apply is 09:00 on 10 January 2017.

See more here:https://www.redeye.org.uk/opportunities/work-photo-collections-network