Blogs

Photography is central to the ways in which the past is recounted, in public institutions such as museums as much as in private settings. Yet the histories of photographs themselves, and how they are implicated in the stories as well as the telling, are often neglected.

In order to develop a richer understanding of historical photographs, this lecture uses the framing idea of the 'invitation'. To conceive of the photograph as an invitation is to pay attention to the agency it enfolds and its performative qualities; the forms in which photographs circulate; the paths along which they travel and the human connections they facilitate. In this lecture, this perspective shapes Professor Newbury's approach to the work of photographic history and the curation of historical photographs.

The approach is developed through a case study of a photographic collection made in South Africa in the early 1950s, exploring its social biography, and in particular the project of returning the collection to Cape Town in a recent exhibition. The ambition was to begin the process of reconnecting the photographs to the city in which they were made, asking what it means for South African audiences to look at the photographs now. Or, to put it another way, renewing and reworking an invitation to think about the South African past in the post-apartheid present.

The invitation of photography: slow looking at 'strange places' and contested pasts

Darren Newbury
Professor of Photographic History

Wednesday 3 December 2014 at 6.30pm

Sallis Benney Theatre
University of Brighton
58-67 Grand Parade
Brighton
BN2 0JY
 
All welcome. Free event but you must register in advance.
Light refreshments will be served after the lecture.

See: http://www.brighton.ac.uk/about-us/news-and-events/news/2014/10-31_the-invitation-of-photography.aspx

An exciting new opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic and ambitious individual to join Candlestar as a member of the Photo London team as its Gallery and Artistic Development Manager.

The inaugural edition of Photo London at Somerset House (21-24 May, 2015) will be both a major international photography fair, featuring many of the world’s leading galleries, and an exciting celebration of the art of photography.  Candlestar is now seeking to supplement the small team responsible for the delivery of the event through the appointment of a Gallery and Artistic Development Manager.

Reporting to the Directors, the successful applicant will be responsible for detailed liaison with the galleries attending the Fair, with the artists and curators taking part in the public programme.

The Gallery Development Manager will also work closely with colleagues responsible for VIP relations and programme and communications.

Candidates will need a thorough understanding of the international photography and art market. Candidates will be  ambitious, enthusiastic,  and diplomatic professionals who have demonstrative track record of project management and delivering to  deadline complex projects on time and on budget.  Minimum 3 years managerial experience gained working in a gallery, auction house or art fair will be particularly important.

Please find the full details of the Job Description and Person Specification by clicking here or visiting the website www.candlestar.co.uk

The closing date for applications will be Friday 5th December and interviews will take place in the week commencing 15th December.

Please send all CVs and a covering letter to Kathryn Hill at Kathryn.hill@candlestar.co.uk

Rock House, on Edinburgh's Calton Hill is being offered for sale by Savills for £1.2 million. Savills comments that It is notable in photographic history as the studio of Hill and Adamson, and a plaque commemorating their partnership is mounted on the front of the house.

In 1843 Rock House was owned by the scientist Robert Adamson, who in the same year formed a partnership with the artist David Octavius Hill to utilise the newly invented Calotype photographic process. Together they are widely credited with having established the use of photography as an art form.

Hill and Adamson were aided by Rock House's elevated position and abundant natural light. Their subjects ranged from churchmen to the literati of Edinburgh, and from architecture to working class scenes, most famously the fishing community of Newhaven.

Major collections of their work are held by, amongst others, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, the Getty Museum and the University of Glasgow.

Rock House continued as a photographic studio for over a century, passing through the hands of several prominent photographers including Archibald Burns and Francis Caird Inglis

To see the property details click here: http://search.savills.com/property-detail/gbedscedt140240

The death has been reported of Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed Al-Thani, aged 48, in London. Although not a name that will now be familiar to many photography collectors, for a period in the late 1990s/2000s Sheikh Saud was the largest buyer of photography - photographs and cameras - in the world, securing a number of important photography collections for himself and for the state of Qatar at auction and from dealers across the UK, Europe and North America.

The blurring of lines between the two and allegations of false accounting ultimately brought and end to his spending and formal role but he later resumed his position as a personal buyer. He had a connoisseur’s eye across wide range of art forms, of which photography was just a part and other interests that included wildlife conservation.  

See: http://news.artnet.com/in-brief/worlds-biggest-art-collector-sheikh-saud-bin-mohammed-al-thani-dies-at-age-48-161867

Much of Sheikh Saud's photography collection eventually became part of the the Qatar Museum Authority's proposed photography museum, later renamed International Media Museum, plans for which were scrapped earlier this year - see: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/qatar-s-international-media-museum-plans-scrapped

UPDATE: Personal note: I was a Christie's photography specialist when Sheikh Saud emerged on to the scene as a collector of photography.On one memorable occasion he purchased an entire camera sale, bar one lot, much to the chagrin of those present in the auction room who delighted in bidding against him, knowing that he would not stop until he had secured the lot. On another occasion he invited me to a meeting at his Portman Square apartment ostensibly to offer me job in Qatar as a curator of his collection. The whole experience was surreal. Dealers were lining up to offer him all sorts of works of art which he would look at, and then dismiss or indicate an interest with a wave of a hand. We shared a short conversation before I was passed to an aide. The promised job failed to materialise.   

In retrospect, Sheikh Saud could have used some experienced advice on the auction process and how to manage dealers, but I sense, that as money was essentially no object, he knew what was happening and that was part of the game for him. And there was no question that he had a very good eye for traditional works of art, for high-end photography, and to recognise when a photography collection was of sufficient importance to be added to his portfolio.

The Qatar Museums Authority collections are testament to his abilities and it is disappointing that the photography collection that he largely built up is, for now, consigned to a secure, climate controlled warehouse in the desert, with plans for a photography museum now scrapped (see link above) as other priorities for the QMA have arisen. MP

Read more about Sheikh Saud here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saud_bin_Muhammed_Al_Thani

The fourth Ryerson Image Centre Symposium highlights the most current research in the history of photography, bringing emerging scholars from universities worldwide to speak about their bodies of inquiry, their methods and their findings. This rising group of young photo-historians will engage in dialogue with renowned scholars, revealing how contemporary historical inquiry sits within—and departs from—established traditions. The hope is that participants, and the audience, may better understand how we came to surpass notions of the “history of photography,” moving beyond even diverse “histories of photography,” to arrive at our present sense that there are many histories of photographs.

BACKGROUND

In the United States during the 1970s, the University of New Mexico, Princeton University and the University of Chicago appointed Beaumont Newhall, Peter Bunnell and Joel Snyder as the first history of photography professors in their art history departments. Since then, numerous such chairs have been created, in photography and visual culture as well as art history departments, and the discipline of photo history has never stopped rethinking and redefining its boundaries, its methods and corpuses.

During the 1980s, the Newhall-ian model of photo history, which had offered coherence to the field and initiated its recognition in the academy and the museum, was shaken by post-modernist historical approaches that addressed the social, political and economic contexts of photographs rather than considering them exclusively as a works of art. The study of photographic history then was swept up in debates within and against French critical theory, which questioned the influence of class structures and power relations and privileged a theoretical methodology at the expense of an historical approach. Discourse regarding the photograph’s indexical status emerged in this context and seemed to be a fruitful means to unify the discipline, but the idea was soon (if not immediately) questioned.

Since the 1990s, the digital revolution has challenged the nature of photography and the notion of its indexicality. Historical research about the use of photographs in the sciences or journalism, for example, has demonstrated that the very indexicality of photography cannot adequately explain, or even summarily describe, the many different roles assumed by the medium or the beliefs in its objectivity and truthfulness. This constant epistemological reflection, accompanied by increased scholarly access to significant and varied photographic collections and archives, has sustained the history of photography as a centre of interest in academic studies. The launch of three new journals dedicated to photography during this period—Études photographiques in 1996; Photographies and Photography and Culture in 2008—provided a complement to such established periodicals as History of Photography (1977) and Fotogeschichte (1981), testifying to this ongoing importance.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

“Photography Historians: A New Generation?” offers emerging scholars (post-doctoral and PhD candidates) the opportunity to present their research in the context of the Ryerson Image Centre’s internationally-recognized symposium, and to engage with renowned scholars in discussion of the present state of the field. We invite emerging scholars to submit papers, which question historical methodologies, present new approaches to important collections, and explore new photographic objects and corpuses. Papers will be given in English. Please send a 300-word abstract and a short biography to Thierry Gervais (gervais@ryerson.ca) by November 30th, 2014.

The symposium will be the last in a planned series of four, designed to foster excellence in research related to the study of photography. The proceedings will be published by the RIC in 2016: the second volume in a series dedicated to scholarly research in the history of photography.

Photography Historians: A New Generation?

Ryerson Image Centre Symposium

March 26-28, 2015, Toronto, Canada

In recent years, the proliferation of online resources has shifted the balance of research away from physical archives towards online searching and browsing. However, keyword searches do not make it easy to browse for interesting ideas and relevant information when one is not sure exactly what one is looking for, even though it is often easy enough to recognise the potential of such information when one sees it.

Yet arguably browsing behaviour is just as important as targeted searching for developing new ideas and making discoveries, particularly when beginning a new project and before precise questions have been formulated. SERAPH aims to develop a “similarity engine”, a research tool that embodies the serendipitous nature of the physical browsing environment, analogous to browsing library shelves, to support research into photographic history. Users will be able to frame search queries, view results of similarity searches in an interactive 3D network of data nodes, zoom in and out of results, annotate, save and share their results with others. 

The project team invite expressions of interest from researchers, students, scholars, dealers and anyone else engaged with photographic history to join a panel of experts for this project.  Expert panel members will help the project team to understand what a similarity engine needs to do in order to be most useful.  They will help to specify and test the user interface and evaluate the performance of the similarity engine and associated tools.

The total work entailed is a maximum of 10 hours, for which a small honorarium of £200 plus expenses will be available if the funding proposal is successful.

For further details please contact Professor Stephen Brown sbrown@dmu.ac.uk

The Royal Photographic Society is holding two historical process workshops led by Michael Schaaf. The first on 14 February 2015 will allow participants to make ambrotypes. On the second, on 21 February, participants will making wet-collodion negatives and prints. Both take place in Bristol's St Pauls Darkroom. Early booking is advised. 

Read more and book here: 

http://www.rps.org/events/2015/february/14/ambrotypes-workshop

http://www.rps.org/events/2015/february/21/wet-collodion-negatives-and-prints-workshop

Image: Michael Schaaf

Photographic collections or 'archives' from Africa and its diasporas are increasingly en vogue among researchers and curators internationally. What is less often discussed are the sensitive issues involved in repackaging such image objects for display in new contexts and for broader audiences in terms of historical time,  geographical place, or cultural location. For instance, copyright is usually understood to reside with the commissioner of a studio portrait but this has not usually been respected with regard to African collections that often fetishize their authors and individual collectors, with negatives used to reprint original images. Private family photographs are regularly repackaged to represent or condemn national culture.

There are are also rights over personal images, beyond legal definition, which are more moral, spiritual, or cultural in dimension.

In some cases, older images have been subject to local iconoclasm because they are not perceived to fit local definitions of propriety today. And yet, there are good historical reasons for wanting to display these images today, because, as in the case of studio photography, they show the world a kind of kind of positive self imaging as an antidote to afropessimism. This panel will discuss ways to work with this material in new ways, with both empathy for the subjects depicted and sensitivity to contemporary views on images.

CFP: Panel— Photographs, Ethics and Africa on Display

DEADLINE: Friday, 9 JANUARY 2015

Where: European Conference on African Studies, Paris, France

When: 8-10 July 2015

Convened by: John Peffer (Ramapo College) and Kris Juncker (University of Warwick)

Title: Photographs, Ethics and Africa on Display

Please submit your abstract through:

http://www.ecas2015.fr

You will need to provide:

- Your name, first name, email and institutional affiliation;

- The title of your presentation (in English); An abstract of your presentation in English, French or Portuguese (maximum 1500 characters).

If you have questions, please contact: juncker@gmail.com

We are delighted to announce that the 'Rethinking Early Photography' conference now has a fourth keynote speaker: Professor Larry Schaaf, Director of the William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue Raisonné, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.

Please see the conference website (http://www.rethinkingphotography.com) for details, including the Call for Papers (deadline 12th Jan 2015) and registration information.

Owen Clayton, Jim Cheshire, Hannah Field, and Adam O'Meara.

Organisers, 'Rethinking Early Photography', University of Lincoln, UK.

I am investigating the unidentified photographer of the accompanying rare stereoview of Selina Gray (with two children), the Arlington House slave with whom Mrs. Robert E. Lee entrusted the keys and care of the Custis-Lee Mansion before evacuating Arlington Plantation in May 1861. The photo was purchased recently by Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, from an ebay seller in the UK. Given the photographer of other Civil War-era stereoviews of Washington City sold by the ebay seller from the same lot of vintage photos were by G.D. Wakely, George D. Wakely may well be the unidentified photographer. However, little is known about Wakely other than he was originally British and largely spent his career as a pioneer photographer in the US, including in Washington, DC, during 1865-1870. I presume the recently sold stereoviews were previously owned by a UK collector. But, a UK relative possibly received the images before or after Wakely's death (Wakely had no known natural descendants, only step-children from his US marriage to British actress, Matilda Brown). I am also interested in uncovering leads to any surviving photo notes or inventory Wakely might have left to archives in either the UK or US.

The March 2011 earthquake triggered a tsunami that ravaged coastal areas, destroying buildings and sweeping more than 19,000 people out to sea. One hard-hit community was Rikuzentakata, a city in IwatePrefecture: 80 percent of homes and more than 1,500 people were lost. The city’s museums, too, were not spared: The Rikuzentakata City Museum, which held an important collection on the history, folklore and natural history of the region, was completely destroyed. Much of its collection was swept away and its entire staff was killed.

The Rikuzentakata Disaster Document Digitalization (‘RD3’) Project was established to rescue what could be salvaged of the town’s historical photographic collections. Over a period of 31 months, 80 volunteers dried, cleaned and digitalised over 65,000 highly damaged photographs that had been soaked in sea water full of mud, sand and unknown pollutants.

Disasters can happen anywhere, anytime. Keishi Mitsui, who led the project, will share lessons learned so others can plan for future disasters. Of particular interest is the project’s use of volunteers and a cloud-based system for data management and archiving, as well as the solutions found for salvaging extremely damaged photographic materials.

18 November 2014
Event time: 6:00 – 7:00pm

Drinks reception: 7:00pm – 8:00pm

13/14 Cornwall Terrace (Outer Circle), London NW1 4QP

Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation

See: http://www.dajf.org.uk/event/surviving-tsunami-salvaging-and-digitalising-historical-photographs

I have two photographs image size each 2.5" X 3.5" printed on a heavy semi gloss paper but irregularly cut.

They are in the style I think of Cecil Beaton and C1930s?

I am reasonably sure I have seen the girl with the basket of fruit published, perhaps in BJP?

The photos were acquired with a collection of  Dr William Delano Walker who I have mentioned in a previous posting.

Can anybody help me identify the photographer? There is no information on the reverse of the prints.

I'm restoring and archiving something like 2500 very old, (mostly pre 1920's) photos, and would like to try to re-focus quite a number of them. Most were taken by family members and friends probably using Kodak cameras, and inevitably many show evidence of camera shake and focussing problems. I wonder if any members have user experience of a PS plug in called "Focus Magic"? I use Elements 11 for most of my work. Any advice for this software, or indeed any other, would be very useful.

The release of Mr Turner, Mike Leigh's film about J M W Turner includes a meeting between Turner and the photographer J J E Mayall who takes Turner's daguerreotype portrait. The film scenario notes: Turner visits the London studio of J.J.E. Mayall, a young photographer and maker of daguerreotypes. Turner is fascinated by the camera and the technology, but expresses concern at the implication of this new art.

In Chelsea, he shows Mrs Booth his daguerreotype portrait, and informs her, to her horror, that he has arranged for the two of them to be photographed together in a few days. Although she flatly refuses to go, we soon find her there, side by side with Turner. She is terrified. As Mayall takes their picture, he talks of having photographed the Niagara Falls. Turner reflects ruefully that there will  soon come a time when photography will replace painting.

In the film John J E Mayall is portrayed by Leo Bill who was instructed by modern daguerreotypist David Burder FRPS. 

This unique book contains over 200 side-by-side stereoscopic views dating from the 1850s to today. These photographs, by Tairraz, Savioz, Couttet, Bisson, Braun, England and others, transport the viewer into the Alps during the golden age of alpinism. Famous fellow travellers such as de Saussure, Dumas, Ruskin, Whymper, etc., provide a commentary as we cross crevasses and climb Mont Blanc with Victorian alpinists, visit the main tourist sites and participate in everyday 19th century life at the end of the "little ice age". All in glorious 3D.

Several modern views taken by the author can be contrasted with views taken 150 years ago from the same vantage point, to highlight significant changes and the impact of global warming.

A fold-out stereoviewer is included with the book, allowing readers to immerse themselves in these astonishing Victorian 3D images.

Born in Scotland, at home in Chamonix, Peter Blair spends his free time enjoying the mountains on foot and on ski. A PhD graduate in chemical physics, he has always been fascinated by the science and magic of photography. He has amassed one of the largest collections of stereoviews of the Alps and loves to share this passion.

Chamonix Mont-Blanc in 3D

A journey through the stereoscope from the 1850s to today

Chamonix Mont Blanc en 3D, is available in either French or English and costs 29 euros (plus postage and packaging). 128 pages, 29x21cm, hardcover, full colour, Editions Belvedere, ISBN:  9782884193542

At present the English version is only available from peter3dblair@gmail.com

In 1862, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) was sent on a four-month educational tour of the Middle East, accompanied by the British photographer Francis Bedford (1815-94). This exhibition documents his journey through the work of Bedford, the first photographer to travel on a royal tour. It explores the cultural and political significance Victorian Britain attached to the region, which was then as complex and contested as it remains today. 

The history of photography, perhaps more so than any other art, is a history of technology that is best revealed in the very vehicle that makes it possible – the camera.

Through a selection of fifty landmark cameras, Michael Pritchard tells the story of this ground-breaking piece of equipment that changed the way we saw the world around us. Beginning with Louis Daguerre's daguerreotype of 1839, other entries include the Brownie (1900), the Kodak Instamatic 100 (1963), the Polaroid SX-70 (1972), right up to the Canon EOS 5D Mark III (2012) and the Nokia Lumia camera phone (2013). 

Illustrations show not only the cameras themselves but also the advertising material that accompanied them and some of the well-known images they were used to take. Pritchard uses each camera as a point of entry for talking about the people who created and used them and the kind of photos they produced, from Weegee and his Speed Graphic to Cartier-Bresson and the Leica's role in the invention of photojournalism. In the hands of individual photographers, he reveals, cameras came to represent unique styles of depiction. 

Together, the stories of the fifty cameras gathered here present an approachable and informative take on a medium that continues to fire the imagination, whether we're perfecting the selfie using the modern camera-phone or longing for the days of Fotomat.

The book is available for £20 (or £18 via the Bloomsbury website). Click the link to learn more http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-history-of-photography-in-50-cameras-9781472575388/

Table Of Contents

Introduction
1. Talbot 'Mousetrap' Camera (1835)
2. Daguerreotype Camera (1839)
3. Ottewill Collapsible Camera (1853)
4. Sutton Panoramic Camera (1859)
5. Enjalbert Photo-Revolver de Poche (1882)
6. Rouch Eureka Detective/Hand Camera (1888)
7. The Kodak Camera (1888)
8. Stirn Vest Camera (1888)
9. Scovill Book Camera (1892)
10. Goerz Anschutz Camera (1894)
11. Thornton-Pickard Royal Ruby Field Camera (1895)
12. Brownie Camera (1900)
13. Sanderson Hand Camera (1904)
14. Soho Reflex Camera (1905)
15. Ticka Camera (1906)
16. Vest Pocket Kodak (1912)
17. Thornton-Pickard Hythe Camera/Gun (1917)
18. Voigtlander Prominent Camera (1932)
19. George Washington Kodak Camera (1932)
20. Zeiss Ikon Contax I Camera (1932)
21. Canon Hansa Camera (1935)
22. Leica I Camera (1935)
23. Coronet Midget (1935)
24. Kine Exakta Camera (1936)
25. Minox Camera (1937)
26. Compass Camera (1937)
27. Kodak Super Six-20 Camera (1938)
28. Eastman Kodak Co, Matchbox Camera (1944)
29. Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta 533/16 (1948)
30. Polaroid Model 95 Camera (1948)
31. Hasseblad Camera (1948)
32. Speed Graphic Camera (1950)
33. Viewmaster Personal Stereo Camera (1952)
34. Leica M3 Camera (1954)
35. Nikon F Camera (1959)
36. Rolleiflex 2.8F Camera (1962)
37. Topcon RE Super Camera (1963)
38. Kodak Instamatic 100 (1963)
39. Pentax Spotmatic Camera (1964)
40. Olympus OM1 Camera (1972)
41. Kodak 110 Instamatic (1972)
42. Polaroid SX-70 Camera (1972)
43. Canon A1 Camera (1978)
44. Sharp J-SH04 Camera/Phone (1980)
45. Sony Mavica (1981)
46. Fuji QuickSnap Camera (1986)
47. Canon RC701 (1986)
48. Kodak / Nikon DCS100 (1991)
49. Apple Quicktake Camera (1994)
50. Camera-phone (2013)
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Credits

- See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-history-of-photography-in-50-cameras-9781472575388/#sthash.DR44nFHV.dpuf

The Royal Asiatic Society, London, hosted a book launch for Christopher Penn's The Nicholas Brothers & A. T. W. Penn: photographers of South India 1855–1885. 

The Nicholas Brothers & A. T. W. Penn: photographers of South India 1855–1885 is published by Quaritch. It is available at a special price of £40 until 1 December 2014. Contact: Alice Ford-Smith: a.ford-smith@quaritch.com Read more about the content here: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/publication-the-nicholas-brothers-a-t-w-penn

This ground-breaking book by Kathryn Morgan examines the 1877-78 publication Street Life in London,by journalist Adolphe Smith and photographer John Thomson, which aimed to reveal, through the innovative use of photography and essays, the conditions of a life of poverty in London.

Now regarded as a pioneering photo-text and a foundational work of socially conscious photography – “one of the most significant and far-reaching photobooks in the medium’s history” (The Photobook: A History) – Street Life in London did not achieve commercial success in its own time. However, in Street Life in London we see the start, but not the conclusion, of a conversation between text and image in the service of education, reportage and social justice. This book is the first-ever in-depth analysis of the genesis, development and context of Smith and Thomson’s innovative publication. 

More information: http://bit.ly/museumsetc005

The author, Dr Emily Kathryn Morgan, is a Senior Lecturer in Art History at Iowa State University. 

Full details of this richly illustrated, 556-page, full-colour publication, sample pages and free worldwide shipping are available here: www.museumsetc.com/products/street-life-in-london-context-and-commentary

This 556-page full-colour book, with 75 illustrations, includes the following chapters:

• Foreword
• Introduction
• Revisiting and Re-examining Street Life In London
• John Thomson: Life and Writings
• Adolphe Smith: Life and Writings
• We Are Not The First On The Field
• Making Street Life in London
• True Types of the London Poor
• Street Life in London as Photo-Text
• Conclusion
• Bibliography

“As sustained and ambitious as the primary source itself… This engaging, astute account makes [Street Life in London] available to numerous other fields of study: urban history, sociology, media studies, and more.”

Britt Salvesen, Curator, Wallis Annenberg Department of Photography, Los Angeles County Museum of Art