An important display of photographs, which will reveal some of the stories of Black and Asian lives in Britain from the 1860s through to the 1940s, opens next month at the National Portrait Gallery. Black Chronicles: Photographic Portraits 1862-1948 (18 May-11 December 2016), has been organised in collaboration with Autograph ABP, a London-based arts charity that works internationally in photography and film, and will bring together some of the earliest photographs of Black and Asian sitters in the Gallery’s Collection.

These will be exhibited alongside recently discovered images from the Hulton Archive, a division of Getty Images. The display of over 40 photographs will highlight an important and complex black presence in Britain before 1948, a watershed moment when the Empire Windrush brought the first group of Caribbean migrants to Great Britain.

In addition, Black Chronicles: Photographic Portraits 1862-1948 will highlight new acquisitions including a series of portraits by Angus McBean, of Les Ballets Nègres, Britain’s first all-black ballet company and a selection of photographs of the pioneer of classical Indian dance in Britain, Pandit Ram Gopal, by George Hurrell.

Individuals with extraordinary stories, from performers to dignitaries, politicians and musicians, alongside unidentified sitters, will collectively reveal the diversity of representation within 19th and 20th century photography and British society, often absent from historical narratives of the period.

They will include the celebrated portraits by Camille Silvy of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, one of the earliest photographic portraits of a black sitter in the Gallery’s Collection. Born in West Africa of Yoruba descent, Sarah was captured at the age of five during the Okeadon War. She was thought to be of royal lineage and was presented to Queen Victoria, as if a gift, from King Gezo of Dahomy. As Queen Victoria’s protégée, Sarah was raised among the British upper class and educated in both England and Sierra Leone. In 1862, she married the merchant and philanthropist James Pinson Labulo Davies.

Black Chronicles: Photographic Portraits 1862-1948 will also feature Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a celebrated British composer of English and Sierra Leonean descent who was once called the ‘African Mahler’; Dadabhai Naoroji, the first British Indian MP for Finsbury in 1892; members of the African Choir, a troupe of entertainers from South Africa who performed for Queen Victoria in 1891; international boxing champion Peter Jackson a.k.a ‘The Black Prince’ from the island of St Croix; and Ndugu M’Hali (Kalulu), the ‘servant’ of British explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley, who inspired Stanley’s 1873 book My Kalulu, Prince, King and Slave: A Story of Central Africa.

Black Chronicles: Photographic Portraits 1862-1948 will include original albumen cartes-de-visite and cabinet cards from the Gallery’s permanent Collection, presented alongside a series of large-scale modern prints from 19^th century glass plates in the Hulton Archive’s London Stereoscopic Company collection, which were recently unearthed by Autograph ABP for the first time in 135 years and first shown in the critically acclaimed exhibition ‘Black Chronicles II’ at Rivington Place in 2014.

Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London says: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate with Autograph ABP and present this important display - bringing together some of the earliest photographs from our Collection alongside new acquisitions and striking images from Hulton Archive’s London Stereoscopic Company collection.”

Renée Mussai, Curator and Head of Archive at Autograph ABP, says: “We are very pleased to share our ongoing research with new audiences at the National Portrait Gallery. The aim of the Black Chronicles series is to open up critical inquiry into the archive to locate new knowledge and support our mission to continuously expand and enrich photography’s cultural histories. Not only does the sitters’ visual presence in Britain bear direct witness to the complexities of colonial history, they also offer a fascinating array of personal narratives that defy pre-conceived notions of cultural diversity prior to the Second World War.”

Liz Smith, Director of Participation and Learning, National Portrait Gallery, says: “Beyond the significant display, the partnership with Autograph ABP will enable the National Portrait Gallery to provide a rich programme for schools, families and young people and a one-day conference. This will enable a fuller exploration of perspectives on identity and representation and for the images to reach a wider audience.”

Black Chronicles: Photographic Portraits 1862-1948 (18 May - 11 December 2016). The display is shown across three Collection rooms: Floor 1, Rooms 23, 31 and 33. Admission free

Les Ballet Negres (On display from 18 May – 4 September 2016) in Room 31

Pandit Ram Gopal (On display 5 September – 11 December 2016) in Room 31

In conjunction with the display will be a programme of events to engage young people and schools, including talks, lectures and a conference. 

More here: http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/late-shift-1/tour-of-black-chronicles-19052016.php

Kodak Alaris has announced that it is likely to close it's Harrow site by the end of the year. The site - Kodak's first manufacturing plant outside of Rochester - was purchased in 1890 and started operations in 1891. Since the 1980s the site has been gradually been reduced as the business has contracted and today only makes colour photographic paper.

Much of the site has been sold for light industrial units and housing.  

See: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/closure-of-unviable-kodak-factory-in-harrow-could-cost-250-jobs-a3227811.html and http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/west-london-news/looking-back-125-year-history-11185897

and http://markoandplacemakers.com/blog/harrow-industrial-stories-kodak

This is an opportunity to use your great organisation skills and passion for cultural events to support the delivery of two exciting festivals in autumn 2016; Widescreen Weekend (October) and a new Games Festival (November)

You will have had experience in project coordination and project logistics ideally for film or cultural events. You will have fantastic communication skills and an ability to deal with a wide range of people. You will have experience of using administrative systems, including being able to create your own and be able to manage and prioritise information.

The National Media Museum is part of the Science Museum Group and is situated in the heart of Bradford, UNESCO City of Film. It contains one of the world’s greatest collections relating to photography, film and television, and holds three cinemas including the UK’s first IMAX theatre.

See more here: https://vacancies.nmsi.ac.uk/VacancyDetails.aspx?FromSearch=True&MenuID=6Dqy3cKIDOg=&VacancyID=1306

Link

In partnership with the Victoria and Albert Museum this doctoral project will combine scholarly research on Maurice Broomfield’s photographic archive with the exploration of digital media (both online and in-gallery) to conceptualise new ways of curating and interpreting institutional historic photographic archives in the digital realm. This project engages with emerging questions around the materiality of institutional photographic archives, their nature as collections and/or groups of individual ‘assets’, how they might be interpreted for audiences, and their capacity to converse with other cultural content/products in the digital realm, i.e. their ability to become connected.

The Victoria and Albert Museum’s Broomfield archive provides an ideal locus for this research, containing around 30,000 negatives of various formats, contact prints, press cuttings, exhibition prints and works order ledgers, documenting a pivotal period in post-war British industry from the 1950s to 1970s.

The successful candidate will have a large degree of freedom in developing her/his project, but it is envisaged that this PhD will undertake theoretical and empirical action research with a variety of stakeholders to (a) explore ways of engaging with historic photographic archives through digital media, while (b) posing questions around the curatorial and interpretive mechanisms that enable and/or challenge these new potentialities of engagement.

Media, Culture, Heritage PhD Studentship – Maurice Broomfield goes digital: curating and interpreting institutional photographic archives in the digital realm

See more and apply here: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/funding/sources/ukeustudents/sac20.html

The National Media Museum is looking for a creative Associate Curator to join the team in this exciting new role.  Working across the museum’s internationally significant collections of photography, film and television, the Associate Curator of Science and Technology will lead the museum’s contemporary collecting efforts, build partnerships with industry and universities, and curate thought-provoking exhibitions and events for different audiences.

We have ambitious plans at the National Media Museum including new galleries as well as new collecting and research initiatives. We are looking for someone who is motivated and driven to make a significant impact; to rise to the challenges and seize the opportunities at this exciting time.

The successful candidate will have demonstrable knowledge of the relevant subject areas gained through post graduate study and/or strong experience in a similar role. The right person for this role will have experience in collections management and in developing events or exhibitions relating to science and technology.

Closing Date: 8 May 2016

Interview Date: 17 May 2016

Full details here: https://vacancies.nmsi.ac.uk/VacancyDetails.aspx?FromSearch=True&MenuID=6Dqy3cKIDOg=&VacancyID=1300

I am looking for any expert opinions on who may have created this mammoth plate albumen photograph of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. My apologies for posting about a French photo, but I feel that, given the expertise of the members here, this is my best chance of finding an answer

This is an albumen photograph, mammoth plate, 18 x 22 inches. (46 x 66 CM) . it is clearly later than 1860, as it shows the spire created in that year.

I have searched for years , but have found no images of Notre Dame of this size.

The lower right corner is missing, and I have used similar colors of albumen prints to approximate the missing piece. (yes,on the photo with paste---is this sacrilegious?)

I wonder if the Missing lower right piece may have been cut off because it included a signature or other valuable mark?

A long-shot request  indeed, but I rely again on the members here to speculate.

Many thanks,   David

Hi, I have come across a set of glass negatives at a secondary school in Muswell Hill where I have been a resident artist.

They were contained in a box of Speed No- H&D400, Ilford Auto Filter Plates. From the production date of these plates I imagine the images are from 1920-30s. I would be grateful if anybody could shed some light on the possible locations or areas of England these could be from. Due to the number of the slides I have uploaded the bulk contact sheets but I can always scan an individual image if anybody wishes to have a better view on a particular image.

Thank you in advance. Sayako

Coming up again on Sunday 22nd May 2016 is Photographica 2016, London's Annual International Camera Collectors and Users Fair, it will take place at the regular venue - The Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Hall, 80 Vincent Square, London SW1P 2PB. 10am-4.00pm admission £5.

There will be up to 135 stalls selling user and collectable cameras, consumables, lenses, literature and images. It is not a trade show for new equipment.

Photographica2016 Flyer.jpg

It is organised by the Photographic Collectors Club of Great Britain. http://www.pccgb.net/

If you want early Buyers tickets or to check if there is still a sales table available please ring Angela on 01684 594526 .

Details and late breaking news are also available on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/photographicafair

It is a great day, you may find that rare item you have been looking for.

Thanks

I am researching my grandfather, Albert Edward Elsy, who managed the Langfier Finchley Road Studio from 1910 to his death in 1939. Little survives about the studio and his photographs, so anything would be great. He also established the Hampstead Art Gallery next door post WW1 which was a centre for emerging post war artists some who sat for him. Again anything would be great. 

In my collection I have a group of 7 cabinet cards and cartes de visite of Japanese diplomats and students from the circle of Arthur Diosy, founder of the Japan Society. The two cabinet cards are of Katsunosuke Inoue 1861-1929 who was chargé d’affaires ad interim in Berlin in 1886 and later became the Japanese ambassador in Berlin, and his wife. . I have trouble identifying the men on the cdv's though. Four of the images are inscribed: "to Arthur Diosy" Can anyone help?

Now in its seventh edition, NPS 2016 is organised this year in partnership with FORMAT International Photography Festival off year and QUAD. It explores three main themes: new online photographic communities that are revolutionising learning and showing of work; the challenges of making – and forgetting – visual history in an age when everything is recorded. It takes place in Derby from 20-22 April. 

On Friday, 22 April the NPS will examine the decision by the National Media Museum (NMeM) in Bradford to transfer a major part of the National Photography Collection, including the Royal Photographic Society Collection, to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London, and the consequences and possibilities this opens up. For the fist time since the announcement, representatives from principal parties involved, the NMeM, the V&A and the RPS, will be present.

Confirmed speakers for the day are:

Michael Terwey, Head of Collections & Exhibitions at the National Media Museum
Martin Barnes, Senior Curator, Photographs, Victoria and Albert Museum
Michael Pritchard, Director-General of The Royal Photographic Society
Colin Ford, first director of the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television
Anne McNeill, Director of Impressions Gallery, Bradford
Francis Hodgson, Professor in the Culture of Photography, University of Brighton
Jo Booth, artist and researcher

In addition Graham Harrison, Sarah Fisher and Paul Herrmann will take part.

See more here: http://www.uknps.org.uk/

Hello, I am researching this albumen print of - possibly  Karnak or the Temple of Mediate Habu. (Correct me if I am mistaken). What interests me is the photographer's monogram, lower left.  At one point, I was thinking it may be Frank Mason Good, but would appreciate some expert opinions.

Has anyone seen this monogram before?

Many thanks, 

David

London's Photofusion has a series of historical and alternative process courses coming up over the next few months. These including salt printing, Van Dyke printing, platinumn printing, wet-collodion and making digital negatives.

See more here: http://www.photofusion.org/course-category/upcoming-courses/alternative-processes/

As histories of photography are increasingly taking into account photographic practices beyond the Western canon, it remains unclear which methodological tools scholars should take on that journey. Categories and concepts such as colonial photography (including ‘the colonial gaze’) and cultural difference are under critique because they have proven inapplicable in many cases. As a result, the lines between insider/outsider and local/colonizer in imperial and other contexts are increasingly blurred.

Established concepts such as authorship are also in flux as power relations of photographic commission and patronage prove to be complex in some less-explored places. Furthermore, previously canonical models in photo theory seem incompatible with hitherto unknown locally-specific sources that enter the story, for example in the myriad ways photography was perceived in relation to reality. Finally, critical awareness of the self-perpetuating dynamics of archives from former colonial legacies that scholars are using complicates the story further. Just as problematic is the uncontrollable digital realm in which photographs are perceived and circulated globally.

This study day will allow anthropologists, (art) historians, and artists to present and debate case studies from across the globe that will serve as platforms for exploring possible avenues for future research. The regions and countries that will be considered by speakers and invited discussants include the Middle East, Central America, Japan, Egypt, India, China and Uganda, although other places and traditions will also be brought into the conversation.

Weston Library, Visiting Scholars Centre (2nd floor), Broad Street, Oxford, May 11, 2016 11am-5pm

Study Day sponsored by The Photography Seminar (Centre for Visual Studies, Dept. of History of Art, and Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford) Hosted by the Bodleian Libraries’ Centre for the Study of the Book

Space for audience members is limited. Registration details will be published in early April on: http://www.hoa.ox.ac.uk/events.html

Read more details here.

Image: Photographs being hand-coloured in T. Enami’s studio in Yokohama, c. 1895-97.

PROGRAMME

Chair (morning sessions): Mirjam Brusius (Dept. of History of Art/Bodleian Libraries)

11am-12pm: COLONIAL ARCHIVES: SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE AND SYSTEMS OF CONTROL

Christina Riggs (University of East Anglia) This is how we’ve always done it: Photography, Archaeology, and the Colonial Archive

Duncan Shields (De Montfort University)

Colonialism and Photography as Archaeological Conservator in Central America

12pm-1pm: THE EFFECTIVE IMAGE: THE SUBJECT AND THE PHOTOGRAPHER

Lucie Ryzova (Birmingham University)

Camera Time: Reflections of Photography and Cultural Difference in Egyptian Studio Photography

Emilia Terracciano (Ruskin School of Art, Oxford) (A)civil contract? Famine photography in Colonial India (1890-1943)

1pm-2pm: LUNCH BREAK

Chair (afternoon sessions): Geraldine Johnson (Dept. of History of Art)

2pm-3pm: MARKETS: TECHNOLOGIES AND THE POLITICS OF DISSEMINATION

Luke Gartlan (St Andrews University)

Negating Desire: Circumscriptions of Yokohama Photography

Richard Vokes (University of Adelaide)

Administrative Photography, Futurism, and the Politics of Affect in Late-Colonial Uganda

3pm-4pm: ELUSIVE IMAGES: LOCAL PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE GLOBAL NETWORK

Oraib Toukan (Ruskin School of Art, Oxford) When is the Present Concerned? Depicting and Disseminating the ‘Cruel Image’ in the Middle East

Ros Holmes (Christ Church, Oxford)

Is that Leg Loaded? Ai Weiwei, Instagram and the Politics of Networked Images in China

4pm-5pm: COMMENTARY AND FINAL ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION (tea/coffee provided)

Commentary: Elizabeth Edwards (De Montfort University)

Discussants: Craig Clunas, Anthony Gardner, Hanneke Grootenboer, Chris Morton, Richard Ovenden, Anita Paz, David Zeitlyn

Bob Crow's PhD thesis on Walter Benington, who started working as a portrait photographer for London studio Elliott and Fry and was a member of the Linked Ring, is now available and can be read, or downloaded, from the University of Gloucestershire's research repository. The abstract is reproduced below and the link to download the full PhD thesis is here: http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/2996/

Abstract: Walter Benington (1872-1936) was a major British photographer, a member of the Linked Ring and a colleague of international figures such as F H Evans, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen and Alvin Langdon Coburn. He was also a noted portrait photographer whose sitters included Albert Einstein, Dame Ellen Terry, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and many others. He is, however, rarely noted in current histories of photography. Beaumont Newhall’s 1937 exhibition Photography 1839-1937 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York is regarded by many respected critics as one of the foundation-stones of the writing of the history of photography. To establish photography as modern art, Newhall believed it was necessary to create a direct link between the master-works of the earliest photographers and the photographic work of his modernist contemporaries in the USA. He argued that any work which demonstrated intervention by the photographer such as the use of soft-focus lenses was a deviation from the direct path of photographic progress and must therefore be eliminated from the history of photography. A consequence of this was that he rejected much British photography as being “unphotographic” and dangerously irrelevant. Newhall’s writings inspired many other historians and have helped to perpetuate the neglect of an important period of British photography. As a result, the work of key photographers such as Walter Benington is now virtually unknown. Benington’s central involvement with the Linked Ring and his national and international exhibition successes demonstrate his significance within post-1890 British photography. Recent moves in the writing of histories of photography have called for the exploration of previously unknown archives and collections. A detailed examination of a cross-section of Benington’s work will illustrate that he was a photographer of great distinction and marked individuality fully worthy of a major reappraisal.

Image: Walter Benington, Fleet Street, 1905. Royal Photographic Society Collection / National Media Museum.

The New York Public Library has announced the launch of Photographers’ Identities Catalog (PIC), a collection of biographical data for over 115,000 photographers, studios, manufacturers, dealers, and others involved in the production of photographs. PIC is world-wide in scope and spans the the entire history of photography. So if you’re a historian, student, archivist, cataloger or genealogist, we hope you’ll make it a first stop for your research. And if you’re into data and maps, you’re in luck, too: all of the data and code are free to take and use as you wish.

Each entry has a name, nationality, dates, relevant locations and the sources from which we’ve gotten the information—so you can double check our work, or perhaps find more information that we don’t include. Also, you might find genders, photo processes and formats they used, even collections known to have their work. It’s a lot of information for you to query or filter, delimit by dates, or zoom in and explore on the map. And you can share or export your results.

How might PIC be useful for you? Well, here’s one simple way we make use of it in the Photography Collection: dating photographs. NYPL has a handful of cabinet card portraits of the actress Blanche Bates, but they are either undated or have a very wide range of dates given.

The photographer’s name and address are given: the Klein & Guttenstein studio at 164 Wisconsin Street, Milwaukee. Search by the studio name, and select them from the list. In the locations tab you’ll find them at that address for only one year before they moved down the street; so, our photos were taken in 1899. You could even get clever and see if you can find out the identities of the two partners in the studio (hint: try using the In Map Area option).

But there’s much more to explore with PIC: you can find female photographers with studios in particular countries, learn about the world’s earliest photographers, and find photographers in the most unlikely places…

Often PIC has a lot of information or can point you to sources that do, but there may be errors or missing information. If you have suggestions or corrections, let us know through the Feedback form. If you’re a museum, library, historical society or other public collection and would like to let us know what photographers you’ve got, talk to us. If you’re a scholar or historian with names and locations of photographers and studios—particularly in under-represented areas—we’d love to hear from you, too!

See: http://pic.nypl.org/

This new publication looks at recent British photographic education through interviews with teachers and educators and research in to current offerings.The author (and BPH member) is Yining He and the book is published as part of The Coastline Series by Chinese publisher Nationality Photographic Art Publishing House, Beijing.  The book is only available in Chinese at the moment. 

The aim of the book is to give Chinese students, professional and amateur photographers a better understanding of the dynamics of British photography education.

The author has interviewed most prestigious photography course leaders across UK and she acknolwedges: David Bate, Beverley Carruthers, Louise Clements, Itai Doron, Mark Durden, Anna Fox, Joy Gregory, Paul Halliday, David Hazel, Paul Hill, Tom Hunter, Dinu Li, Paul Lowe, Janice Mclaren, Alexandra Moschovi, Neil Mulholland Nigel Perkins, Lesley Punton, Daniel Rubinstein and Liz Wells.

One of the main objectives of the interviews is to look at the history of British photography education, what it looks like today and what is the future of photography education. 

See: http://heyining.com/lcc/study-photography-abroad-series-uk-book-project/

The book can be ordered easily through Amazon.cn here with very efficient and quick international airmail shipping to the UK totalling￥275.

英国摄影教室 2016-03

Photography in the British Classroom

何伊宁

At the age of just 21 Muspratt set up her first business in Swanage in 1926. Portraits of families, couples and children were her primary source of income but more progressive images followed as her skills developed into a recognisable and unmistakably modern style. Her early work includes an image of an unemployed miner which perfectly captures the melancholic atmosphere of the Depression era. Although taken in the studio, this image is an early indication of her later ventures into documentary photography and the immense social conviction and compassion for others that informed her later portraits.

In 1932, the painter Francis Newberry (a friend of the Muspratt family) introduced Muspratt to the young widow Lettice Ramsey. This meeting marked a turning point in her career as the two women formed a business partnership that had a significant impact on Muspratt’s life. Ramsey’s late husband, the philosopher and mathematician Frank Ramsey, had been part of Cambridge’s lively intellectual circles, which proved to be a valuable social connection for Muspratt.

In turn, Muspratt encouraged Ramsey to undergo the necessary training in photography and together they formally established their partnership as ‘Ramsey & Muspratt’ in 1932. While Ramsey concentrated on portraits of members of the Bloomsbury Group such as Roger Fry and Julian Bell, Muspratt captured emerging academics from Cambridge, including the writer C. P Snow and the influential neuropsychologist Oliver Zangwill.

During this period, Muspratt’s creativity flourished and the influence of Man Ray can be seen in her experiments in surrealist techniques, in particular solarisation, a technique which creates silvery outlines and a bleached effect by overexposing the negative. A dramatic set of portraits of the theatrical family the Spencer Watsons was undoubtedly Muspratt’s highest achievement of this technique, while a similar effect can be seen in her images of surrealist artist Eileen Agar whom she photographed in the summer of 1935, along with non-solarised images of her lover Paul Nash.

As Muspratt continued to socialise in Cambridge left wing academic circles she became increasingly influenced by their politics. In 1936 she embarked on a photographic tour of the Soviet Union, taking confrontational photographs of its citizens. She formed an overwhelmingly positive impression of the Soviet system and the state’s collective achievements in urban, agricultural and technological development. She was also impressed by the variety of roles that were open to women and her photographs of young female farmworkers in Kiev communicate the sense of empowerment she felt during her time in the Soviet Union.

Upon her return to the UK, she joined the Communist Party, and in 1937 married fellow communist Jack Dunman. Their commitment to their ideals led to an agreement that Muspratt was to be the main breadwinner in the family. She opened a second Ramsay & Muspratt studio in her new home Oxford, close to the university where she found many of her subjects. The partnership between the two women dissolved, leaving Muspratt with the Oxford studio but the two remained lifelong friends. Although she took fewer experimental photographs, her portrait photographs continued to reflect her desire to create honest and direct representations of her sitters.

Helen Muspratt: Photographer
A De’Longhi Print Room exhibition
9 March – 8 May 2016

The exhibition in the De’Longhi Print Room at Pallant House Gallery is free to enter and runs from 9 March - 8 May 2016.

A new monograph Face: Shape and Angle by Jessica Sutcliffe, Helen Muspratt’s daughter and published by Manchester University Press will be on sale in the Pallant Bookshop, priced £30.

Image: Helen Muspratt, Paul Nash, 1935 © The Estate of the Artist

A history, and a biography, Clark Worswick's  ArtMachine: A Reinvention of Photography, 1959-1999 is an insiders view of emergent the photography world of the last quadrant of the 20th century.  It has been written by a practicing photographer, who was also the founding photography curator of the oldest museum in America, and who also wrote the first books on Asian classical photography.

In his introduction to this book, the author wrote, “I began taking photographs and tried to learn the history of a neglected, beaten down, battered medium few people took seriously in the art world. I wandered a world barren of respect during decades of struggle for photography.” 

“In 1959, on the planet earth, there was not a single dealer who represented a single photographer's work, because photography was not an art.”

This is also a book about love and dangerous travel, and the heroic reinvention of photography in the art world.

To date, few books have appeared on the texts of a working photographer’s life immersed in projects that cross years, then decades.   Fewer books still exist seen from the point of view of a historian/collector, who wrote the first books on the classical photography of India, China, and Japan. 

ArtMachine: A Reinvention of Photography is the story of the long war for photography’s acceptance during the last decades of the 20th century.  It was also a historic moment, and a time never to be repeated, when you could buy fabulous pictures that no one anywhere ... knew anything about.   

Clark Worswick (1940-) was born in Berkeley, California.  Abandoning America when he was eighteen years old, for years he travelled between India and Europe. Staying in Maharajas’ palaces, or in indigent pilgrims’ shelters he took photographs, and collected Indian antiquities.  In the first wave of young westerners to pass though the Iranian and Afghan deserts, his first book of dangerous travel, The Orchid House: Art Smuggling and Appointments in India and Afghanistan, recounts seldom described travels in far Asia.

The second book in this series titled ArtMachine: A Reinvention of Photography  deals with photography’s hard fought acceptance, as one of the most dynamic and important adjuncts to the  increasingly internationalized art world.

In the mid-1960’s the book takes up Worswick’s three year photographic survey titled Manufacturing the Future: California, which documented an emergent world- wide culture that during the next half century, would subsume the world.  In the late 1960’s he made the first country wide document of Ethiopia, and lived to tell the tale of making the first photographs of the interior of the Danakil Desert, the most dangerous place on earth. 

Worswick’s exhibitions and books on 19th century photography of India, China, Japan and the Middle East have identified scores of non-European artists working in the medium. During 1959 he began collecting 19th century photographs in Calcutta.  He later became the First Research Fellow in Film and Photography at Harvard University. 

His books have been named "Best of the Year" by:  The NY Times, The London Times, The Washington Post, The Sunday Times, Newsweek and Time Magazine. 

Softcover edition:  Baker & Taylor, Ingram, Amazon in Europe and America.  E-book version:  Amazon, Apple I-POD, Barnes & Nobel.