Blogs

The Bradford Telegraph and Argus reports that the future of the National Media Museum is once again under threat - only eight months after government ministers declared it had been 'saved'. According to the newspaper the museum faces a potentially devastating £900,000 budget shortfall, an inquiry by MPs has been told, after fresh Government funding cuts.

Now the renewed threat to the museum has triggered an appeal for help to the Treasury from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which is alarmed by the second crisis.

The T&A has also been told independently that the museum is seriously concerned about a 'big chunk of money' to be found, although closure is not being discussed.

Read the T&A's full report here and the T&S's editorial demanding that government minister Ed Vaizey government backs up its support from last summer with real leadership.

The intersection of photography and war encompasses a broad and complex field. Yet conceptually, “war photography” is often restricted to the activities of photojournalists producing aesthetically compelling images used to humanitarian ends. Scholars have primarily focused on issues of veracity, iconicity, memory, affect and ethics. Insightful though this work is, we lack crucial information and critical reflection on fundamental questions regarding how commercial, tactical and personal factors have shaped the diverse terrain of images arising from all contexts of armed conflict.

The aim of this conference is to examine war photography in this expanded sense - that is, as the result of a nexus of pragmatic and strategic transactions and interactions concerning business, militarism and consumption.

We seek papers that address the ways in which issues of supply and demand have shaped the field of war photography, and how this field has articulated with other forms of industrialised and commercial activity. We invite scholars in a range of disciplines to reflect upon the relevance to war photography of commerce, industry, the military and marketing, as well as the role of workers, publishers, politicians, strategists, purchasers and consumers. Together, we endeavour to develop alternative methodological frameworks for approaching images of armed conflict, and to shift and expand thinking on the concept of war photography.

A range of historical periods, geographical regions and modes of conflict is# encouraged. Participants are invited to propose 20-minute papers on topics related to the theme The Business of War Photography, including but not limited to the following:
 The photographic companies, entrepreneurs and workers serving markets created as a result of war
 The requirements of military agencies and their involvement in photographic innovation through funding the development of military imaging technology
 The role of the state in commissioning, shaping and circulating photographic images, and their relationship with foreign and domestic policy and military strategy
 The marketing of photographic products and services to servicemen/women and civilians during wartime
 The production and consumption of photographic merchandise (e.g. souvenirs, postcards)
 The publication and dissemination of war images in the media, and the role of consumers, editors and advertisers in shaping content
 The market for art photography deploying military imaging techniques or which critiques the role of photography in modern armed conflict 

Submission details
We invite proposals of 300 words with a brief biographical note or 1-page CV by 1 March 2014. Applicants will be notified by Friday 14 March. Drafts of papers are due for circulation with co-panellists and chairs by Friday 27 June 2014.

It is envisaged that a selection of papers from the conference will be developed for publication as a special issue of a peer-reviewed journal. The conference organisers are currently discussing this possibility with the Editorial Board of the Journal of War & Culture Studies. Although this will not preclude selection to present at the conference, please state if your proposal has been previously published in any form.

The Business of War Photography
Producing and Consuming Images of Conflict
Durham University and Durham Light Infantry Museum and Art Gallery, UK
31 July to 1 August 2014

Organisers and partners
The Business of War Photography is co-convened by Dr. Tom Allbeson and Pippa Oldfield, Head of Programme at Impressions Gallery and Doctoral Fellow at Durham University. The conference is presented in association with the Centre for Arts and Visual Culture at Durham University, in partnership with Durham Light Infantry Museum and Art Gallery and Impressions Gallery, Bradford.
www.dur.ac.uk/cvac
www.durham.gov.uk/dli
www.impressions-gallery.com

Location
The conference will be held at Durham University, with opening papers and an evening reception at Durham Light Infantry Museum and Art Gallery, with the opportunity to view the photographic exhibition The Home Front by Melanie Friend, an Impressions Gallery Touring Exhibition curated by Pippa Oldfield.
www.melaniefriend.com

Information for delegates and speakers
Details of delegate fees, venues, and accommodation will be announced by 28 February 2014. Please note that we are unfortunately unable to meet participants’ and speakers’ costs. A limited number of delegate places will be offered to postgraduate attendees at concessionary rates.

Contact
Please submit proposals and enquiries to bwp.2014@durham.ac.uk.

Many years ago (1981), as director of Yr Oriel Ffotograffeg in Cardiff, I was organizing a survey exhibition of contemporary Yugoslavian photography (never presented due to blinkered Xenophobia) and found myself at a small symposium in a Slovene town called Kranj at which there was considerable excitement around informing me and others that glass plate photography had been invented there in 1841 or '42 by a priest named Janez Puhar (who may also have invented a photographic process on metal plates a couple years earlier). It reminded me of attending similar gatherings in other western and eastern European countries in which I had been curating exhibitions (for a program in Cardiff called "Continental Enquiries") at which other significant historical revelations were being excitedly announced. I was pretty excited myself, and loved the enthusiasm and devotion displayed and the idea that the history of the medium (a history I had read and studied, but which often had been written either by Americans or from that perspective) was being born and reborn before my eyes in country after country. As my focus was contemporary European photography, I did not adequately follow many of these historical developments, the revelations of which I'd been privy. Can some of the BPH folks tell me what is the current status of verification and acceptance of the Puhar discoveries.

I've recently been busy preparing a souvenir book of my WordPress blog: Muy Blog : it's now available from Amazon.There’s more to Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) than a strange name and the fact that he shot dead his wife’s lover.

Best known for his sequence photographs of humans and animals in motion, the ‘galloping horse photographer’ has left a legacy of scientific and artistic work that continues to influence visual media today. A spinoff from the website The Compleat Muybridge, is Muy Blog on Wordpress, keeping Muybridge enthusiasts up to date with what’s happening in the wide world of Muybridge and his images. This souvenir selection is from the first four years of news, research and comment. Read about the modern Profilograph bronze sculpture technique that morphs a galloping horse into a four-dimensional artwork, illustrating time as well as space. Follow the 1895 commotion about the hugely expensive folio Animal Locomotion: “not one in twenty thousand would understand it...” Enjoy the evocative lyrics of “Good Evening, Major” – almost the last words that Flora Muybridge’s lover would ever hear – from the engaging video by the band Accordions. Find out what connects Ronald Reagan, Muybridge, and Death Valley. Enjoy the zoöpraxographer’s influence on the cartoonists of the late 19th century. Follow the author as he goes “In search of Helios”. Was Eadweard Muybridge really ‘The Father of the Motion Picture’? Read about the exhibitions, the controversy, and The Smartest Kid on Earth. Catch up with Muy Blog in this handy printed form.

The next London Photograph Fair takes place this Sunday March 9th. We've moved the opening time to 11am, so please bear this in mind if you are coming. We're sorry - but we will not let anyone in early! Dealer access is from 9am and not 8am.

We've got a good level of bookings, and with no fair since November we're hoping to see an interesting selection of fresh stock, along with a number of first-time exhibitors.

For more details please see our website www.photofair.co.uk.

Entry is still £3 or you can email us for a voucher for free entry after 2pm on info@photofair.co.uk

See more: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/sir-ranulph-fiennes-steps-in-to-help-save-captain-scotts-polar-negatives-for-the-nation

Image: Pony camp, Camp 15. Ponies (left to right) Snippetts, Nobby, Michael and Jimmy Pigg, Great Ice Barrier, 19 November 1911; "Ponies tethered on the ice beside a man-made ice wall. Sledges in background." / Scott Polar Research Institute. 

Photobook Bristol is a a weekend of events, talks and the opportunity to buy photobooks. It will kick off with a talk by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, Not in Parr & Badger, and end with a panel discussion on the future of the photobook. In between there will be sessions on documentary photobooks, the Iberian photobook, self-publishing, and many individual talks. 

Find out more here: http://www.photobookbristol.com/

The Kraszna-Krausz Foundation has revealed the shortlist for the 2014 Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards for photography and moving image books. BPH's two favourite titles from each short-list are in bold. 

The KKF Book Awards are the UK’s leading prizes for books published in the field of photography and the moving image. The shortlisted books, which range from stunningly executed personal photography projects to academic books tackling previously unexplored topics, will now compete for a share of the £10,000 prize. The winners will be announced on 30 April at the Sony World Photography Awards gala ceremony held in London.

Along with 14 highly commended titles across the two categories, the shortlisted books will be displayed at Somerset House, London from 1-18 May as part of the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition.

Best Photography Book Award 

The shortlist, chosen by curator and critic Kate Bush (chair), FT Weekend Magazine Photo Editor Emma Bowkett and landscape photographer/ Head of Department, Fine Art Photography, Glasgow School of Art Thomas Joshua Cooper, is:

• History of Photography in China: Chinese Photographers 1844-1879 by Terry Bennett (Bernard Quaritch Ltd)
• The Enclave, Photographs by Richard Mosse, by Anna O'Sullivan and Jason Stearns (Aperture)
• Sergio Larrain: Vagabond Photographer by Agnès Sire and Gonzalo Leiva Quijada (Thames & Hudson)

The judges also recognised and highly commended the following titles:

• Afghan Box Camera by Lukas Birk and Sean Foley (Dewi Lewis Publishing)
• Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris by Sarah Kennel (University of Chicago Press)
• Davide Monteleone: SPASIBO by Galia Ackermann and Masha Gessen (Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg)
• Henk Wildschut: Food by Henk Wildschut (Post Editions)
• Philip-Lorca diCorcia: Hustlers by Philip-Lorca diCorcia (SteidlDangin)
• The Canaries by Thilde Jensen (LENA Publications)
• Twentieth-Century Color Photographs: Identification and Care by Sylvia Penichon (Getty Publications/Thames & Hudson)

Chair Kate Bush commented: “This award is unique in honouring every dimension of a photography book: its cultural originality and its intellectual contribution - as well as its artistic and design value. Our long and short lists reflect a year of vibrant international photography publishing. Thrilling monographs by rising young stars sit alongside works of scrupulous scholarship. Fresh approaches to classic bodies of photography - rediscovered for new generations – take their place beside vernacular imagery found in unexpected places. Art photography, photojournalism, documentary: the wide repertoire of current photographic culture is reflected in our shortlist this year, and each book on the list has surprised and impressed the judges in different ways.”

Best Moving Image Book Award

The jury - Dave Calhoun (chair), Global Film Editor for the Time Out Group, along with Sean Cubitt, Professor of Film and Television, Goldsmiths and Robert Rider, Head of Cinema at the Barbican – selected a shortlist comprising:

• Charles Urban: Pioneering the Non-Fiction Film in Britain and America, 1897 - 1925 by Luke McKernan (University of Exeter Press)
• Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939 by Thomas Doherty (Columbia University Press)
• Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation by Tom Sito (MIT Press)

The jury also recognised and highly commended the following titles:

• Cinematic Appeals: The Experience of New Movie Technologies by Ariel Rogers (Columbia University Press)
• Hollywood in the New Millennium by Tino Bailo (British Film Institute/Palgrave Macmillan Higher Education)
• Italian Silent Cinema: A Reader edited by Giorgio Bertellini (John Libbey Publishing Ltd., 2013)
• Seeing is Believing: The Politics of the Visual by Rod Stoneman (Black Dog Publishing)
• The Documentary Film Book by Brian Winston (British Film Institute/Palgrave Macmillan Higher Education)
• The Making of Return of the Jedi: The Definitive Story Behind the Film by J.W. Rinzler (Aurum Press Ltd)
• The World is Ever Changing by Nicolas Roeg (Faber & Faber)

On behalf of the judges, Chair Dave Calhoun commented: "The jury was impressed by the variety of submissions for the prize. The eligible books straddled a wide range of approaches to popular and academic writing and represented the pleasing breadth of current publishing on cinema, including memoirs, studies of individual films and filmmakers, explorations of national cinemas and insights into particular aspects of the filmmaking craft. Each of the three shortlisted books was superbly written and researched and offered new perspectives on cinema from very different angles.”

This in from PPHP reader Rebecca Warren:

'My father used to work for Carleton Artists in Portman Square in 1959. They used to photograph many different adverts for publications such as women's weekly .....details here on the PPHP - thanks !

Residents of the streets of East London are captured with startling clarity by the enigmatic C A Mathew. The purpose of the photographs remains unknown, but on the morning of Saturday 20th April, 1912, our photographer walked the short distance from Liverpool Street Station into the heart of Spitalfields, taking his camera with him.

In contrast to the more formal, posed photographs of the time viewers may be more familiar with, these photographs engage vividly with a modern audience, who see the people, the streets and the everyday details, just as C A Mathew himself would have seen them.

Mathew lived in Brightlingsea in Essex, having only begun taking photographs a year before these images were made, he passed away 4 short years later in 1916 leaving this series of images that in the words of the Gentle Author of Spitalfields Life are ‘the most vivid evocation we have of Spitalfields at this time.’

The photographs were found a few years ago packed into a cardboard box in the archives of the Bishopsgate Institute where they had evidently been for at least 60 years, but there are no records of how they came to be there.

Details of the exhibition can be found here, and is open by appointment from Monday to Friday, and all day Saturday and Sunday, from 6 March -25 April.

The restoration of the United Kingdom’s first cinema - located in the heart of London’s West End at the University of Westminster in Regent Street – has been given the green light by Westminster City Council, as the campaign to raise funds for the landmark project moves into its next phase.

The Regent Street Cinema is celebrated as the ‘Birthplace of British Cinema’ as it was used by pioneering filmmakers, the Lumière brothers, to perform their first ever moving picture show in the UK on the 21 February, 1896.

The project will see the preservation of the key architectural features of the Cinema from its 1920s heyday, combining the restored fabric with up-to-date technology, bringing it into the 21st century. Once completed, the iconic venue will house a 200-seat auditorium which will be open to the public and become a landmark destination for British film and a lively hub for University of Westminster students and external visitors including the local community and school children who will come to learn about the heritage and evolution of film and cinema. The restored Cinema’s programming will be distinctive and highly informed, combining cutting edge and experimental work with a stimulating mix of the best of current UK, independent  British and World cinema, documentary films, retrospectives and classic repertory titles.

The design scheme for the restoration has been created by Tim Ronalds Architects, a practice that has experience of working with landmark theatre spaces, such as the Hackney Empire redevelopment and plans for Wilton’s Music Hall. Building work will commence in April 2014 and the opening of the Cinema is expected in April 2015.

A major campaign to raise money for the restoration project was publicly launched in March 2012 and the University is seeking additional supporters to be involved in this nationally important project.  To date, the University of Westminster has secured two thirds of the £6 million needed to complete the restoration and reopen the Cinema.  Generous major donors have so far included the Heritage Lottery Fund, Quintin Hogg Trust, Garfield Weston Foundation and Odeon. As part of the wider campaign the University has also secured donations to name over a quarter of the seats in the new Cinema and is aiming to have all 200 named by its supporters well ahead of the Cinema opening.  The University previously received a £1 million donation from the MBI Al Jaber Foundation which was used to bring the Edwardian style Grand Entrance Hall at the Grade II listed campus back to life.

The Cinema project is being backed by some of the biggest names in the British film industry who sit on its advisory board.  Tim Bevan, Co-Chair of Working Title Films (Rush, Les Misérables, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy), Asif Kapadia, film director and alumnus of University of Westminster (Senna, The Warrior, Far North), Paul Trijbits, Producer (Saving Mr. Banks, Jane Eyre, Tamara Drewe), and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey (The Avengers, Anna Karenina, We Need to Talk About Kevin).

Professor Rikki Morgan-Tamosunas, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Westminster, said: “The Cinema holds a unique place in the history of filmmaking and cinema, and it is wonderful to see that 175 years since the founding of our institution, a new and exciting phase in its history will begin.  When it re-opens, the Cinema will offer an outstanding venue in which to nurture future talent as well as provide a place where our students, alumni, industry professionals, and our community can come together and enjoy film and our shared Cinema heritage.”

Asif Kapadia, Film Director and University of Westminster alumnus says “I was proud to study Film, Video and Photographic Arts close to the location of the new Cinema at the Riding House St campus in the mid 90's, at the time we didn't have a dedicated cinema to screen our films. Over the years so many fantastic, iconic cinemas in the UK have closed down or been redeveloped, so this is a marvelous opportunity to restore a venue that played a vital role in the birth of cinema in the UK, and highlights the University’s history of innovation in education and learning. Bringing the Cinema back to life will benefit both current and future students and will provide a platform for independent cinema, short films, documentaries and emerging British talent in the heart of the West-End”

Sandi Toksvig OBE, a supporter of the Regent Street Cinema, says “This is the birthplace of Cinema, where it all started. How fantastic for young people to be able to showcase their work, here, alongside great professionals. This Cinema is a place where we can celebrate not just the past but the future. This is a significant building and it’s wonderful that so many who are passionate about Cinema, the history of film or who have a connection with the heritage and future of the University want to be a part of it.”

The University of Westminster is a leading global centre for excellence in the arts and film production.  The restoration of the Regent Street Cinema reinforces the University’s international reputation for academic and practical teaching which boasts a number of Oscar and BAFTA winners among its alumni. The Act of Killing, Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer - a Reader at the Media, Arts and Design faculty of the University of Westminster - and produced by the University of Westminster's Professor Joram ten Brink, won an award at this year’s BAFTA ceremony for best documentary. University alumnus Yousif Al-Khalifa was also recognised with a BAFTA for co-directing the best British Short Animation film ‘Sleeping with the Fishes’.

Film students from the University will also have the opportunity to showcase their work in the heart of London’s vibrant West-End, which is something that no other University can offer.  The University currently offers three courses which cover contemporary media practice and film and television production and a post-graduate MA in Film and Television. 

For more information on the project please visit: www.birthplaceofcinema.com

The Birthplace of British Cinema - Lumière Brothers
The venue was chosen by the Lumière brothers because of the institution’s reputation as a leader in scientific experimentation and entertainment. The Grade II listed building is situated at 309 Regent Street and dates back to 1838.  It was later used by the Polytechnic for a variety of film and theatrical performances and in the lead up to the First World War it was used with Government backing to show “Our Army and Our Navy” films. 

More recently it has been used by the University of Westminster as a lecture theatre for students and an exhibition venue for public events.

Key University of Westminster alumni:

• Michael Winterbottom (The Look of Love, Jude, 9 Songs, The Killer Inside Me)
• Asif Kapadia (Senna, The Warrior, Far North)
• Seamus McGarvey (Atonement, We Need To Talk About Kevin, The Avengers)
• Lucia Zucchetti (The Rat Catcher, Merchant Of Venice, The Queen)
• Tony Grisoni (Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, Red Riding)
• Neal Purvis (Skyfall (Bond 2012), Johnny English Reborn, Let Him Have It)

- See more at: http://www.rps.org/news/2014/february/regent-street-cinema#sthash.WXFypBrH.dpuf

Explore amazing architecture and design via the RIBA’s world-class collections and an on-site photo shoot at exciting locations around London. Click this link for more information.

Point & Shoot Saturday photography workshops

Shoot on location in these Point & Shoot workshops inspired by The Brits Who Built the Modern World and the RIBA’s world-class collections. All Point & Shoot workshops are led by professional artists and include on-location photography sessions. Suitable for intermediate level photographers and above. Participants must bring their own equipment. Digital SLR camera recommended.

1 March, 1-5pm: Feats of engineering

Discover how architectural photographers celebrate British feats of engineering before exploring the iconic post-war architecture of Bishopsgate through the photographic lens.

5 April, 1-5pm: Gallons of glass

Learn how architectural photographers from the nineteenth century to today have captured this most modern of materials before exploring the architecture around More London through the photographic lens.

3 May, 1-5pm: Geometry & height

See how a generation of British architects drew the camera lens upward before exploring the geometric shapes and towers surrounding Tower 42 through the photographic lens.

7 June, 1-5pm: Asymmetrical aliens

Understand how architectural photographers have captured the asymmetrical shapes and the clash of the old and the new in British architectural design before exploring the architecture around One New Change through the photographic lens.

17th May 1 -5pm: Run, Jump, Shoot: the Brits   
Run, Jump, Shoot returns to its roots for Brits season for this unquie workshop exploring architecture through photography and the urban sport parkour. In this full-day workshop participants will shoot on location with professional parkour athletes.

Alex. Keighley A Pioneer of the Pictorial Movement in Photography is a new book by Ray Vintner (ISBN 978-0-9927402-0-7, 186-pages, Linkhall Publications, 2013). The book is available from The Grove Bookshop, Ilkley, West Yorkshire, (e: info@grovebookshop.com or telephone 01943 609335) at a cost of £14 plus postage. 

A PDF showing the contents page and foreword is here. There is no separate list of illustrations although the book is well illustrated in b/w and colour. 

Sotheby's is to return to holding photograph auctions in London from May 2014. It moved photograph sales from London, where they had first started in 1971, to Paris in 2011 after a short hiatus. The last London sale had been held in Spring 2010. At the time Sotheby's claimed the move reflected market trends and the change made New York and Paris Sotheby's main centres for photographs.

Christie's also established a department in Paris but maintained auctions in London as well as New York.  Sotheby's have held bi-annual sales in Paris in November and May in a department headed by Simone Klein, who joined the company in 2007 and oversaw the final sale of the celebrated Jammes collection in Paris the following year.

The newly formed London department will hold its first photographs auction in London on 7 May and will also hold a charity auction to support the acquisition of the Talbot for the Bodleian Library. 

The Bodleian Library, Oxford, last night held a reception to thank supporters and donors who have helped it secure the Personal Archive of William Henry Fox Talbot. The event was held on the 214th birthday of Henry Talbot who was born on 11 February 1800.  

The original public appeal also brought to light an collection of 42 photogenic drawings by Talbot which are now also in the library. Despite poor weather and flooding amongst the guests were Sir John and Lady Venables-Llewelyn, Hans P Kraus, Noel Chanan, along with individuals donors and library staff. Richard Ovenden, Interim Bodley's Librarian, and the driving force behind the acquisition was unable to attend through illness but was toasted at dinner.  

The library has a small amount to find before an August deadline and will be holding a fundraising auction in conjunction with Sotheby's at the beginning of May. It has plans to digitise much of the archive and it will be made available to researchers and the public. Already part of it has been used to create new photographic arts work. Watch this space for more information.  

Images: a small display of part the Talbot Archive at the Bodleian Library: © Michael Pritchard 

Archives and Cultural Industries is a conference taking place from 11-15 October 2014 in Girona. One of the themes of the conference is: 1839-2014.175th Anniversary of Photography. Management, processing and dissemination of photographic and audiovisual heritage in the 21st century.

For more information visit the website: http://www.girona.cat/web/ica2014/eng/index.php 

and  http://www.girona.cat/web/ica2014/eng/comunicacions.php

The deadline for paper proposals is 28 February.

The Art Newspaper reports on a story that BPH carried last year. It notes that the world’s oldest photographic agency Fratelli Alinari, founded in Florence in 1852, is in danger of closing. On 22 November 2013, the Italian website www.patrimoniosos.it, whose remit is to safeguard the country’s cultural heritage, launched an appeal to help save it.

The appeal, signed by photographers, artists and academics—among them Gianni Berengo Gardin, Giovanna Calvenzi, Ester Coen, Mario Cresci, Mimmo Jodice, Bruno Toscano, and Roberta Valtorta—expresses concern that “the crisis threatening the management of Fratelli Alinari could lead to the dispersal of part of the collection, and to its transfer to individuals and organisations [in Italy] and abroad”. 

These claims were largely denied by Claudio De Polo Saibanti, Alinari’s director.

Read the report here

The London based photography curatorial collective Hemera (www.hemera-collective.co.uk) has ambitious plans for 2014 and as such we are recruiting for a new member to join the collective. We are a group of four photography historians with a specific interest in historical photography and archives. We curated two exhibitions last year, one on the Valentine's postcard factory, and another exhibition on Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore. Please get in touch with us at curators@hemera-collective.co.uk if interested.

thank you,

Ashley

The first monograph on Cyanotype by Dr Mike Ware (cover shown right) was published by the Science Museum of London in 1999, but has long been out of print, and only accessible as a digitized part-version online at Google Books. The book was devoted to the study of photographic printing in Prussian blue, engaging with its history, aesthetics, practice, conservation and chemistry. Now, in response to requests, Mike Ware has substantially restructured the text in a revised and extended edition that he has made freely available as a download from the World Wide Web as a 5.3 MB pdf:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/47727259/Cyanomicon.pdf

For the time being, it will remain largely unillustrated. With its 700+ references to the literature and the WWW, Mike hopes that it may serve as a useful resource for historians, curators and conservators of photographs, and for students of iron-based analogue imaging (siderotype). For others - photographic artists exploring cyanotype printmaking as an expressive medium - it includes full practical instruction in the modern process.

In the 19th century the East represented the realm of exoticism, fantasy and mystery. Literature and painting in particular used the lands beyond Europe as canvases for fertile explorations of the unknown and unlimited boundaries for imagination. By the latter half of the century, however, several pioneer photographers travelled to the Middle East and North Africa, bringing back to Europe and North America images that captured the idea of the exotic.

Whether in search of Nile temples, the Holy Land or Berber costumes; whether amateurs or pilgrims; whether part of scientific missions or commercial ventures, these photographers all sailed to harbours such as Algiers and journeyed through central cities like Cairo or Damascus. At a time when western political and military involvement in the near east was at a high, the photographs taken helped to convey an idea of chaos and disorder; of insalubrity and a lack of self-governance in the region.

This exhibition at the Canadian Centre for Architecture’s Octagonal Gallery runs from 30th January 30 to 25 May 25, and further details can be found here.