Blogs

Rob Ball has alerted BPH to a project he has been undertaking since January documenting Dreamland, Margate, with the ferrotype or tintype process. Dreamland was one of the country's oldest amusement parks; at one time, the 16-acre site held a zoo and miniature railway, a cinema, cafes, restaurants, bars, shops and a 2,000-capacity ballroom, not forgetting that in later years it was home to Europe's largest big wheel.

You can follow progress of Rob Ball's work on the Dreamland site. For those interested, the South East Archive of Seaside Photography is well worth a look. Rob Ball is the deputy director.

The project was featured on the BBC website here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-27210062

A blog posting from The National Archives, Kew, discusses E O Hoppé and his naturalisation papers. It also provides a link to a useful guide to photographs at TNA.  In addition to these TNA holds copyright, limited company and design records amongst many, many, others that all have important references to photography, photographers and photographic companies.

In addition, Kew is a great place to conduct research and user friendly with no restrictions on making your own digital camera copies - so much so that copy stands are provided. A marked contrast to some of our other research centres.  

See: http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/travelling-photographer-emil-otto-hoppe/

Bloomsbury has announced the development of a field-defining book series on photography and history which will create a platform for new visual historiographies and methodologies.

Photographs have been formative in political movements, commercial and industrial development, colonial and imperial expansion, geo-politics and international relations, legal practice, the formation of modern national and personal identities and in public narratives of the past. Volumes in this radical and original series will bring photographic practices into the centre of historical analysis and explore their integral role in global histories from the mid-19th century to the current day.

Call for book proposals:

The editors are currently seeking proposals for single-authored volumes of 80,000–90,000 words based on innovative case studies. Titles might cover a wide range of subject matters and photographic practices, but the emphasis must be on the integration and demonstration of empirical, theoretical, methodological and historiographical significance so that the volumes have the widest impact in history more generally.

Studies must demonstrate the ways in which photographs both shape and reflect historical experience and might focus on a range of processes – production, dissemination, remediation, collecting -  of the photographic within history. Exceptional PhD theses will be considered but the proposal must clearly demonstrate how the author intends to develop the work into a book.

The series will be interdisciplinary and welcomes scholars from all disciplines and backgrounds, whether historical, art historical, anthropological, sociological, history of science, archival or curatorial studies.

Series editors:

Professor Elizabeth Edwards, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK; Professor Patricia  Hayes, University of Western Cape, South Africa; Professor Jennifer Tucker, Wesleyan University, USA

Contact:

Please email new proposals to Davida Forbes, Photography Editor, davida.forbes@bloomsbury.com. For more information about Bloomsbury Publishing see www.bloomsbury.com. 

BPH has learnt that Philip L Condax, former Curator of Technology at George Eastman House, died on Monday, 21 April 2014. Phil Condax was born on 24 May 1934, the son of Louis M Condax (1897-1961) and Constance W. Condax. Louis invented a dye-transfer colour process which was commercialised by Eastman Kodak Co in 1945. 

Phil joined the then International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House under Director Beaumont Newhall in 1971, where he curated the Technology Collections starting as 'Assistant Curator, Equipment Archive'. When the Philadelphia-based American Museum of Photography became available after the death of its founder, Louis Walton Sipley, Phil was involved with the then Director and other staff members in securing it for GEH where it filled important gaps. 

Two highlights from his career include the 1980-1981 exhibition Selections from the Spira Collection: An Exhibition at George Eastman House - the first time GEH had held such an exhibition from outside of its own collections; and the 1984 joint IMP/GEH and JCII exhibition The Evolution of the Japanese Camera which showed in Rochester, NY, and Tokyo. He was also in post when the new Mees Gallery - it has since been replaced - was opened in 1992. He attended Photokina regularly where he was able to source material for the GEH collections. 

When Czechoslovakia was firmly behind the Iron Curtain, Phil managed to visit regularly. There were suggestions that during his military service and afterwards he was working for the CIA. He came to know Jan Sudek and bought many important prints for the museum and for his own personal collection.

Condax, along with other senior curators, was made redundant in 1994, in his case over a dispute with the Director, a fact over which he continued to remain bitter. After GEH Phil undertook some museum and photo-history consultancy work, in particular he developed and curated the photographic collection of the Museum of Imagery Technology operated by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. He co-authored The Photographic Flash: A Concise Illustrated History with Pierre Bron (of Bron Elektronik AG) in 1998.

Jonathan Spira commented: 'I am deeply saddened by the death of Phil Condax, a close family friend.  Not only did he help popularize photography's history but he helped lead the George Eastman House during a very tumultuous period.'

I met Condax several times at his Rochester home and despite a difficult relationship with a demanding father he was a great enthusiast for the work that his father had undertaken on colour. He maintained an extensive archive of his father's work. An example showing Louis Condax with an example of the dye transfer process, from Phil's personal archive is shown left.

He had an affection for Britain and he travelled extensively, particularly to South East Asia. 

Dr Michael Pritchard

• Revisions made 6/5/2014. 

The History and Theory of Photography Research Centre at Birkbeck, London, is holding a series of free events, open to all, at 43 Gordon Sq, London WC1H 0PD. You might need to book to attend some of them, as they contribute to Birkbeck Arts Week 2014.

Tuesday 6 May 2014, 18:00-19:30

Peltz Gallery, Ground Floor

Exhibition and panel discussion: ‘Print Dialogues’.

Victoria Ahrens’s work explores the interstices between photography and printmaking in the depiction of the lost landscape. Working initially from rediscovered analogue snapshots of the Parana River in South America, she reworks the imagery through various screens (silkscreens, projections), questioning the fragmentary nature of memory and the possibility of the ruin in her contemporary print installations. On Tuesday Victoria will be talking about her work with Gabriel Koureas and Patrizia Di Bello. The Gallery will be open from 10:10.

Tuesday 20 May 2014, 18:00-19:30

Room G01

Panel discussion, ‘Working with Photographs: Archives’

From domestic attics to national institutions, photographs are part of many archival collections, where they play a variety of roles as precious specimens, assets to be exploited, or miscellaneous ‘stuff’ taking up too much room. In this informal discussion, Graham Head, who as Head of Information Services at the British Museum led their image and photography programmes, Heidi Hudson from the Kennel Club Picture Library, and Stefan Dickers, Head of the Library and Archives at Bishopsgate Institute, will talk about their experience of working with photographs. Reserve your place for 'Working with Photographs' here.

Thursday 22 May 2014, 18:00-19:30, followed by drinks.

Room G01

Sarah Thomas, ‘Curating “Empire” at Tate: Dissonance and British Art’.

Can works of art – including photographs – confront the troubling legacies of Britain's imperial past? In this talk Sarah Thomas discusses some of the challenges encountered during preparations for a major exhibition planned at Tate Britain for 2015. After the talk there will be an opportunity for prospective students to meet the Course Director for MA History of Art with Photography. Reserve your place for Curating 'Empire' here.

Wednesday 11 June 2014, 18:00-19:30

Keynes Library (Room 114)

Sarah Knelman, ‘A democracy of images? Exhibiting photography in a digital culture’.

Thursday 19 June 2014, 18:00-19:30

Keynes Library (Room 114)

Reading Group

This term we are discussing Steve Edwards, 'The Story of the Houyhnhnms: Art Theory and Photography, part 1', The Making of English Photography (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006), pp.119-164. 

3 July - 25 July 2014

Peltz Gallery, Ground Floor, daily 10:10-17:00

Exhibition, ‘Family Ties: Reframing Memory’

Six artists address the representation of family memory through lens-based works. Suze Adams navigates the borders of fact and fiction in an exploratory re-tracing of her maternal ancestors.  Nicky Bird draws on family albums belonging to others to illuminate personal, political memories connected to place. Jacqueline Butler’s poetic approach alludes to sensory memories prompted by public photographic collections and her personal archive. Rosy Martin re-enacts a lost past as she embodies both of her parents in their family home and evokes a sense of haunting using projections. Lizzie Thynne’s experimental documentary reflects on her mother’s life as well as the inter-subjectivity of all biography and choreographs memories of family and relationships from the Women’s Liberation Movement.  Sally Waterman recalls traumatic memories of family conflict through literary adaptation and staged re-photography. This exhibition responds to themes of the conference Picturing the Family: Media, Narrative, Memory.

Friday 11 July 2014, 10:00-17:00

‘Colours of Memory’: an International Conference on the Writing of Geoff Dyer

For further information email: geoffdyerconference2014@gmail.com of follow @gdyerconference on Twitter.

This autumn the V&A will present the definitive retrospective of the work of Horst P. Horst (1906-99), one of the 20th century’s master photographers. In a career that spanned six decades, Horst photographed the exquisite creations of couturiers such as Chanel, Schiaparelli and Vionnet in 1930s Paris, and helped to launch the careers of many models. In New York a decade later, he experimented with early colour techniques and his meticulously composed, artfully lit images leapt from the magazine page.

This is the biggest ever UK retrospective of Horst's photography and will explore a career that lasted 60 years and one which took in fashion, art, reportage, design and high society. The show will include some of his most famous photographs for Vogue.

The exhibition will display more than 250 of Horst’s best known photographs alongside unpublished and rarely exhibited vintage prints, conveying the diversity of his output, from surreal still lifes to portraits of Hollywood stars, nudes and nature studies to documentary pictures of the Middle East. It will examine his creative process through the inclusion of original contact sheets, sketches and archive film footage.

See: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/exhibition-horst-photographer-of-style/about-the-exhibition/

Horst: Photographer of Style
6 September 2014 – 4 January 2015

Image: Salvador Dalí’s costumes for Leonid Massine's ballet Bacchanale, 1939. © Condé Nast/Horst Estate

Newsreel archive British Pathé has uploaded its entire collection of 85,000 historic films, in high resolution, to its YouTube channel. This unprecedented release of vintage news reports and cinemagazines is part of a drive to make the archive more accessible to viewers all over the world.

And here's the one they did celebrating 100 years of photography back in 1939!

Luke McKernan's historical study of Charles Urban has won the best moving image book at the 2014 Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards which were announced last night. The winner of the best photography book was Sergio Larrain: Vagabond Photographer. 

The Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards are a partner of the Sony World Photography Awards and the two books share the awards’ £10,000 prize for the best photography and best moving image books of the year. 

• Best Photography Book Award: Sergio Larrain: Vagabond Photographer by Agnès Sire and Gonzalo Leiva Quijada (Thames and Hudson)

• Best Moving Image Book Award: Charles Urban: Pioneering the Non-Fiction Film in Britain and America, 1897 - 1925 by Luke McKernan (University of Exeter Press)

Based on original research from Charles Urban’s own papers, McKernan's book is the first biography of this influential film maker and innovator. It is also a historical study of the development of the non-fiction film in Britain and America in the early years of cinema, told through the experiences of the leading pioneer of the form. 

The jury commented:

"The jury thought Luke McKernan's 'Charles Urban: Pioneering the Non-Fiction Film in Britain and America, 1897-1925' was a meticulously researched study of a hitherto neglected, significant figure in the early development of British cinema. In an engaging and spirited fashion, McKernan sheds new light on an important individual while using Urban's story to illuminate wider trends and changes in the cinema of the time. He brings a personality and a period alive. The jury warmly congratulates Luke McKernan on winning this year's prize."

Charles Urban was a renowned figure in his time, and he has remained a name in film history chiefly for his development of Kinemacolor, the world’s first successful natural colour moving picture system. He was also a pioneer in the filming of war, science, travel, actuality and news, a fervent advocate of the value of film as an educative force, and a controversial but important innovator of film propaganda in wartime.

The book uses Urban’s story as a means of showing how the non-fiction film developed in the period 1897-1925, and the dilemmas that it faced within a cinema culture in which the entertainment fiction film was dominant. Urban’s solutions – some successful, some less so – illustrate the groundwork that led to the development of documentary film. The book considers the roles of film as informer, educator and generator of propaganda, and the social and aesthetic function of colour in the years when cinema was still working out what it was capable of and how best to reach audiences. 

Luke McKernan is Lead Curator, News and Moving Image at the British Library and also curates a web resource on Charles Urban at: www.charlesurban.com The National Media Museum, Bradford, holds Urban's archive and a display of material from the archive is currently on display. 

A portrait of the infamous Ellen Byrne, who was tried for her husband’s murder in 1842 after his badly decomposed body was found in their shared bed; photographs of 1916 leader Tom Clarke, his wife Kathleen and family; and posters documenting the suffragette movement are just some of the 10,500 newly digitised items released by the National Library of Ireland (NLI)

De Montfort University has published two new online resources: Members of the Royal Photographic Society 1853-1901 which provides the most comprehensive source of information on some 3000 Photographic Society and RPS members to 1901; and Roger Fenton’s Crimean letterbooks which publishes faithful reproductions and transcripts of letters sent originally by Roger Fenton and subsequently copied out by family and friends during his "Photographic Trip to the Crimea" in 1855.

There is additional work taking place on the RPS members to extend the date range and to add further biographical information on those listed. 

The resources are fully searchable and compliment De Montfort University's existing online databases: 

 Photographs Exhibited in Britan 1839–1865

A research database containing individual records for over 20,000 photographic exhibits drawn from forty exhibition catalogues published between 1839 – 1865. Most of the images created by Fenton in the Crimea are listed.

 The Correspondence of William Henry Fox Talbot

The Correspondence of William Henry Fox Talbot is a comprehensive database of all the known letters to and from Talbot (1800-1877), the Wiltshire polymath best known for his invention of photography. It contains over 10,000 letters.

 Roger Fenton’s Crimean letterbooks

Roger Fenton's letters from the Crimea is a collection of all 25 of the known letters written by Roger Fenton during his pioneering wartime photographic expedition to the Crimea.

 Exhibitions of Royal Photographic Society

Exhibitions of the Royal Photographic Society 1870–1915. Catalogue records from the annual exhibitions.

 The journal of Amélina Petit de Billier

The journal of Amélina Petit de Billier was written in French, with a few entries in English or Italian. It has been preserved at Lacock Abbey since she wrote the last volume in 1835 and is now being transcribed and translated for the Fox Talbot Museum with the permission of the owners of the journal, Janet Burnett–Brown and Petronella Burnett–Brown of Lacock Abbey.

It has often been said that an architectural education gives a particular and effective ‘eye’, and sometimes that architects are the best photographers of architecture. Eric de Maré was at the AA from 1928 to 1933, and like many AA graduates developed a career outside architectural practice. While he wrote prolifically- there are some 20 books for which he is credited as author- it is as a photographer that he developed a towering reputation in the 1950s. His photographs for the Architectural Review introduced a new way of seeing buildings and the urban landscape: his archive, held by the AA Photo Library, is one of its principal collections. This talk will consider his contributions to the art of architectural photography and to the contemporary culture of architecture.

Andrew Higgott

Eric de Maré: Photography framing architecture

Date: 13/5/2014 
Time: 18:30:00, Admission Free
Venue: Soft Room, Architectural Association

More here: http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/VIDEO/lecture.php?ID=2569 

Andrew Higgott taught architectural history and theory at the AA from 1989 to 2002, and at the University of East London and elsewhere; earlier he was the AA’s photograph librarian. His publications include Mediating Modernism: architectural cultures in Britain (2007) and Camera Constructs: photography architecture and the modern city (2012). 

Image: Eric de Mare: Stanley Mill, Stroud from Functional Tradition (1958)

Exhibiting your work in a gallery or public context presents its own challenges as it is such a different format of disseminating work, as opposed to the book or presenting a portfolio. As a curator of photography shows Camilla Brown has extensive experience of working with photographers and designing exhibitions and was senior curator at The Photographers Gallery, London. Using examples of exhibitions she has curated, Camilla will discuss the issues faced when displaying work. This should provide an informal context for the group to spend some time thinking about exhibitions.  It would be great to talk about photography exhibitions that have made an impact on you and why, alongside people discussing their ideas about presenting their own work.

Camilla trained as an art historian completing her MA at the Courtauld Institute of Art. She is a curator, writer and lecturer on contemporary art, specialising in photography. For ten years she worked at The Photographers’ Gallery, London and before that was Exhibitions Curator at Tate Liverpool. She now has an academic post at Middlesex University. She regularly writes for artists monographs and contributes to history of photography books, alongside her work as an art critic for Photomonitor.co.uk. Examples of her work appear on her website at www.camillaebrown.co.uk <http://www.camillaebrown.co.uk/> .

If you have any images you would like to share that evening in our 5 X 5 slot, email paul@hillonphotography.co.uk.

EXHIBITING PHOTOGRAPHS

Camilla Brown

Wednesday, April 30^th, 2014

The Box, QUAD, Cathedral Quarter, Derby DE1 3AS Tel. 01332 290606

6.30 – 8.30       £ 3

Founded in 2012 by Valentina Abenavoli and Alex Bocchetto, Akina Books is an independent publishing house of hand-made photobooks based in London. Our guests will share some of their past and present projects, including the recent collaborative publication between FORMAT and Slideluck London Hungry Still, and discuss their working practices and processes in publishing. They will also discuss Akina Factory, a photobook production oriented laboratory; a space to conceive projects, manufacture books, share know-how and ideas. It can be incredibly difficult to figure out how to create and self-publish a photobook from scratch. It is time consuming and skill intensive: Akina’s Factory can help you through this creative and technical process. Following on from this, regular host Paul Hill will lead a Q+A session with Valentina and Alex.

PUBLISHING PHOTOGRAPHY

Tuesday 27th May

Details about Photoforums and booking a place can be found on

http://www.derbyquad.co.uk/regular-event/format-photoforum  

Explore the mysteries of nature and look beyond the physical nature of things during a weekend workshop with award winning photographer Paul Hill MBE, assisted by Maria Falconer FRPS.

Marking the Land alludes to Paul Hill’s photography of the Peak District, capturing the relationship between marks made on the land by man and nature and by the process of photography. 

 



Book your place to join Paul and Maria for a weekend exploring these ideas in the countryside and the city with two field work sessions, where you will have the opportunity to enhance your photographic techniques with hands-on tuition, and group feedback at Site on the photographs you have taken. This workshop is aimed at photographers of mixed ability and offers appropriate support and guidance to suit varied levels of experience.



£180.00 per person, limited spaces available. 
Although the price includes light refreshments and group transport, participants are encouraged to bring their own lunch.

Author of the highly influential book, White Peak Dark Peak, Paul (www.hillonphotography.co.uk) has been teaching photography in higher education for many decades, and was the first professor of photographic practice in a British university. He created the famous Photographers’ Place group workshops in Derbyshire, and has specialised in running photography workshops throughout the world.
A Derbyshire-based photographer, Maria (www.mariafalconer.co.uk) is also a very experienced teacher, whose work Keep Her Unnoticed, received much critical acclaim and resulted in her being awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society.

To book, contact: http://www.sitegallery.org/archives/6994

For more details email Jane Faram (jane@sitegallery.org.uk) or paul@hillonphotography.co.uk

Site Gallery, 1,Brown Street, Sheffield S1 2BS Tel. 0114 2812077

MARKING  THE  LAND

Site Gallery, Sheffield

May 24th & 25th, 2014

A two-day photography workshop with Paul Hill and Maria Falconer



46 photographs, which form part of the 19th century China Magazine, depicting life in the Far East during the 1860s, have sold for more than six times their estimated value when they recently went under the hammer at Dominic WInters.

Dropped off by a couple from Cumbria who happened to be in the area, the auction house originally priced the photos at £2,000 but a huge amount of interest among bidders saw the photos snapped up for £12,000 from an anonymous buyer in London on Thursday, April 10. The photos, which are among the earliest ones to have been pasted into a publication, were taken from the China Magazine which ran for two years between 1868 and 1870.

Further details can be found here.

The National Media Museum, with the financial support of The Royal Photographic Society, has rehoused the three Niépce plates from the RPS Collection in a purpose-built case. The case and plates were shown publicly for the first time since 2010 yesterday to a group from the Society. More information on the case how the plates can be viewed will be made available by the Museum shortly.

The three plates - the earliest and rarest photographic artefacts in the United Kingdom and of international importance - were the subject of a collaborative project between the Museum and the Getty Conservation Institute. This culminated in a conference in 2010 at which new discoveries about the plates and how they were made were unveiled.

The conference proceedings are still available from the RPS:  http://rps.org/shop/publications/niepce-conference-proceedings

The BFI Reuben Library holds a wealth of books, journals, and catalogues relating to early cinema. Two BFI staff in the field – Bryony Dixon (Curator of Silent Film) and Dr Ulrich Ruedel (Conservation Technology Manager) – bring things up to date, and offer a unique insight into the restoration of early colour film in an era of digital imaging. They will also introduce the science of film preservation, and look at the opportunities of programming the restored films.

Tickets £6.50, BFI Southbank, London, May 12, 2014 6:30pm

Click here to book

With thanks to Danny Garside for flagging up this event. 

The National Media Museum is part of the Science Museum Group (SMG) which is devoted to the history and contemporary practice of science, medicine, technology, industry and media. Incorporating the Science Museum, the National Railway Museum, the National Media Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry, we are a unique family of museums offering truly unique career opportunities.

Working alongside the Senior Visitor Insight Executive, the key tasks of the Visitor Insight Assistant include, co-ordinating the fieldwork for the monthly exit surveys at each museum (including liaising with the appropriate research agencies, keeping the relevant museum informed, updating questionnaire and showcards), interrogating databases and writing short summary reports.

A clear head for numbers and an appreciation of quantitative research principles are vital. The ability to read and interpret statistical tables is also important. Familiarity with research database tools such as Snap or SPSS is an advantage.

The deadline for all applications is 13 May.

Shortlisted candidates will be notified 16 May and interviews will be held on 22 and 23 May. The interview will include a short test and the position is to start as soon 

See: https://vacancies.nmsi.ac.uk/VacancyDetails.aspx?FromSearch=True&MenuID=6Dqy3cKIDOg%3D&VacancyID=622

The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam has announced a funding call for two research grants in photographic history, based in the Print Room of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. Funding for this project has been provided by the Manfred and Hanna Heiting Fund: there are two grants per annum, each for six months

Aim: to research subject(s) – photographs (19th, as well as 20th century photography), series, photo books, albums- in the National Photo-collection at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

Requirements for applicants: Talented post-graduates in Art History or the History of Photography.

Outcome: a paper or an article, to be submitted, resulting in a publication in the series Rijksmuseum Studies in Photography.

Starting: We want to start summer 2013  in the premises of the Print Room/Library/ of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. Applicants can work in the Study Room of the Print Room of the Rijksmuseum.

See: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/organisation/vacancies/manfred-&-hanna-heiting-scholarship 

Closing date: 15 May

Objective

The advancement of photo-historical research by prospective curators from the Netherlands or abroad using the original photographs in the National Photo Collection in the Rijksmuseum.

 The Manfred & Hanna Heiting Fund enables the Rijksmuseum to award two scholarships every year. The aim of this postgraduate scholarship is to stimulate photo-historical research of the highest quality. The research must result in an article in the field of classical photography. It should be related to the original objects in the extensive and important collection of the Rijksmuseum, and where possible to objects in other collections. This could be an in-depth study of one photograph or photo book and/or its distribution; on a series of photographs or part of an oeuvre; on the aesthetic or technical aspects of photography; on the wider context of a photo book or album; or on combinations of art-historical research and research on materials and techniques . The international research bursary is for a period of 6 months. The researcher will work independently and will be allocated a place in the reading room of the Rijksprentenkabinet (Print Room) and have access to all the museum’s collections and library.

If you want to know more about the Manfred and Hanna Heiting Fund and its aims, please contact:

Drs. Mattie Boom or Dr. Hans Rooseboom, Curators of Photography, Print Room Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

m.boom@rijksmuseum.nl

h.rooseboom@rijksmuseum.nl  

The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions has reported that the National Media Museum saw 479,000 visitors in 2013, a decline of 5 per cent compared to 2012. London's Science Museum saw an increase of 11 per cent, the National Railway Museum an increase of 30 per cent and Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry a decline of 3.6%. All are part of the Science Museum Group.  

See: http://www.alva.org.uk/details.cfm?p=423