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I am writing to inform members of the imminent appearance in print of a magnum opus related to the History of the Photography, called 'Catchers of the Light', which tells of the 'forgotten lives of the men and women who first photographed the heavens', of which one eminent Professor of Astronomy recently wrote:

"It is rare to find a magnum opus in astronomy that is so detailed, so interesting, and so expert over a wide range that it is hard to carry across the magnificence of this work...I highly recommend this to all with an interest either in the history of astronomy or in the history of photography." Jay M. Pasachoff, Memorial Professor of Astronomy, Williams College; from April 2013 Newsletter of the Historical Astronomy Division, American Astronomical Society.

The book is to be published in two A4 sized hardback volumes, totalling nearly 1700 pages and includes a comprehensive Index - weighing in at about 8 kilos!. For those who prefer a little lighter reading, an eBook edition is also available!

It contains biographies and important information (much of it new) on many of the early pioneers of photography, including well known names such as William Henry Fox Talbot, Louis Daguerre, Nicephore Niepce, Frederick Scott Archer, Richard Leach Maddox, Leon Foucault, Hippolyte Fizeau and George Eastman. Lesser figures like John Adams Whipple, Albert Litch, William Breed Jones, James Wallace Black, Thereza Llewelyn, Mary Field, Thomas Henry Wainwright, Frederick Charles Luther Wratten, Charles Edward Kenneth Mees and many more are also featured.

All of the above pioneers contributed in some way either directly or indirectly in mankind's quest to understand the Universe through the media of Photography, by means of  the various processes and technologies developed during the period from 1839 up until the present day - whether it be Daguerreotype, Calotype, Collodion, Gelatino-Bromide, Plastic film or the CCD chip.

Of particular importance to Photographic Historians, is that in a number of cases, the biographies included on important figures like Archer and Maddox represent the first ever published on them.

In addition to the biographies, the book contains a great deal of historical information on the general development of photography and on the photographic processes and technologies used and their relative importance to each other. On a lighter note, the workings of the modern digital camera is explained with the aid of a mad scientist, a field of Leeks, an Irish Leprechaun,11 million square buckets and an army of pixies, all washed down with lots of rain!

I am sure this book will be of great interest to all libraries and museums, as well as students and researchers into the History of Photography. An electronic review copy is available on request to interested institutions, organizations and magazines.

For further details on the Book, see the links below:

http://www.catchersofthelight.com/shop/
http://www.catchersofthelight.com/shop/item.aspx/b-1-catchers-of-the-light-print-book-edition/95/

The Index can be downloaded from here as a PDF:

http://www.catchersofthelight.com/downloads/index.pdf
Stefan Hughes

Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has said there was 'no question' of closing any of the Science Museum Group's three northern museums, including the National Media Museum. They had been under possible threat following an interview given by Ian Blatchford, head of the SMG, in which he suggested closure of one museum was likely if cuts from the government spending review were as expected.

The SMG, which also runs the Science Museum in London, said it had received 'overwhelming support' and would 'continue to do all we can to ensure that the museums remain open.' It said until confirmation of the funding package was received, it could not be certain 'about the level of structural deficit we face and which options will have to be considered.'

In an emergency Common debate Vaizey said: 'They [the SMG] asserted if there was a certain level of cuts they would have to look at closing one. They are not going to receive that level of cuts so there is no reason why any of these museums should close. Let's not beat about the bush - they won't close.'

Later in the debate, minister Ed Vaizey said it was up to Bradford Council to help breathe new life into the Media Museum, but he again vowed it would not close. He insisted he wanted to secure a vibrant long-term future for the attraction, not just apply a 'sticking plaster'.

He said Council chiefs – themselves facing further huge funding cuts – must find a way to turn around the museum’s fortunes, after a steep decline in visitor numbers. It is very important that the local council comes to the table and makes a very important contribution to the future of the National Media Museum.

Last week it was reported the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Treasury had agreed the department's spending would be cut by 8% for 2015-16. Arts and museums, it was reported, would share less of the burden with a 5% reduction.

The detail of the spending review will be announced next week. 

The full emergency debate can be found here:  NMeM%20Hansard.pdf. 

This exhibition explores the lives and careers of the Charles R. Meade and Henry W. M. Meade brothers who, along with their contemporaries such as Mathew Brady and Southworth and Hawes, are recognized as leading members of the first generation of American studio photographers.

Details can be found here and a BBC report here.

This conference aims to provide a platform for an interdisciplinary debate questioning the meaning of the contemporary rural landscape seen through photography.

Over 40 academics and artists will present papers as part of panels discussing themes such as: the question of habits and conventions of looking at rural space, rural identity, the post-industrial rural and the differentiation between and meaning of rural and urban spaces. 

What does it mean to live in rural space? Does or can photography shape our understanding of the rural? What does the rural realm mean to the urban population? How do we view and evaluate rural depictions within the context of the wider contemporary art world?

The conference schedule and booking information are available at: http://visualising-the-rural.blogspot.co.uk/

If you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Dr Katrin Joost

Lecturer

University of Cumbria

01228 400300 ext. 8211

katrin.joost@cumbria.ac.uk

The local MP for Bradford has been assured by the Culture Minister yesterday that they are clear about the value of the Museum to the local area and to the UK, and any closure would be 'unacceptable'. George Galloway, the Bradford West MP, went further, saying: “The museum will not close. The minister said it was a political non-starter – and that’s a direct quote.”

The news everyone in Bradford was waiting to hear came 11 days after the threat of closure first emerged, because of looming spending cuts. Thanks to everyone who joined in the petition. 

You can read the rest of the news article here.

‘Pictures’ is a word that has become synonymous with photographs, encompassing vernacular uses of photography, as in the library of ‘pictures’ on our mobile phones, as well as in the sense of providing a true ‘picture of events’ in the journalist context. From the 1980s, photography as ‘picture’ acquired a very different meaning, and was associated with large-scale colour photographic prints, pioneered by such artists as Jean-Marc Bustamante. Simultaneously, pictorial values have been proclaimed crucial to asserting photography’s place in the museum as an object confident of its value as art. This panel examines the effect of these changes on the photographic practice, their effect on the curatorial practices and, more broadly, photography as a form of contemporary art.

The panel will be followed by a speaker-led seminar for which a place can be booked separately. The aim of the seminar is to enable participants to further explore and discuss the issues raised by the panel. 

London, 22 June 2013, Tate Modern

See: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/talks-and-lectures/photographspictures

Look forward to celebrating your 100th!

Check out the celebratory events here.

Auctioneers Davey and Davey will be putting up for sale a photo album, dating back to the 1870s, that was recently found in an attic in a home at Parkstone.  Much of the fascination of the album lies in seeing the foundations of modern Bournemouth taking shape. There is a view of Westover Villas near St Peter's Church, not far from where Austin Reed stands today. The area west of the pier, where Hot Rocks stands today, can be seen part-developed.

The auction is on Saturday 22nd June, 10am, at Davey and Davey at 13 St Peter's Road. You can read the rest of the news article here.

Gerry Sutcliffe, Labour MP for Bradford South, and Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley have united to secure a Select Committee inquiry into the Science Museum’s threat to the National Media Museum.

Both Mr Sutcliffe and Mr Davies are members of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee and jointly requested an urgent special inquiry into the Science Museum’s proposal to close one of its three museums in the North of England.

The Committee agreed to their request and it is now likely that the Select Committee will press the Science Museum and the Minister before Parliament’s Summer Recess in July.

Gerry Sutcliffe said: “The National Media Museum is crucial to Bradford and I am delighted that the Select Committee has agreed to our request to hold an inquiry into this issue. I very much hope that we can use this opportunity to block any plans to close the Museum”.

Philip Davies said “Gerry and I made the case that this was a vitally important issue for the Bradford district and for the North of England more widely and it is great our colleagues on the Select Committee have agreed that we can press the Science Museum and the Minister about these proposals and hopefully see them reversed. Gerry and I will continue to work together – along with other local MPs – to protect the best interests of the Bradford district”.

The Chairman of the Select Committee John Whittingdale, Conservative MP for Maldon, said “Both Gerry and Philip were very persuasive about both the importance of the National Media Museum to Bradford and of the need for an inquiry into this to be held as soon as possible, and the Committee therefore agreed with the request to look into this as soon as time allows”.

In a Strange Land:  Perceiving and Interpreting Unfamiliar Environments will take place from June 25–26, 2013 in the Springer Auditorium, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. It is a multidisciplinary international symposium organized by The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and the Shpilman Institute for Photography, Tel Aviv, in conjunction with the exhibition Displaced Visions: Émigré Photographers of the 20th Century. Moderator: Dr. Nissan N. Perez

The Speakers:

• Prof. Marc Augé, France (Chair)

Globalization, Space and Migration

• Prof. Svetlana Boym, Harvard

Nostalgia, Estrangement and Off-Modern Space

• Prof. Boris Groys, NYU

After History: Alexandre Kojève as Photographer

• Prof. Hagi Kenaan, Tel Aviv University

An Unfamiliar Familiarity: Photography and the Everyday  

• Prof. Malcolm Le Grice, UK

The Influence of European Émigré Artists on the Development of Experimental Cinema                                                                                          

• Prof. Michael Levin, Founding Head of the Multidisciplinary Art Department, Shenkar College

Trying to Achieve a Union Between Prussianism and the Life-cycle of the Muezzin

• Mr. Bernard-Henri Lévy, France

Title to be announced

• Dr. Nissan N. Perez, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Strangers in a Strange Land: The Photographic Vision of the Émigrés

• Prof. Shelley Rice, NYU

Local Space/Global Visions

• Mr. Yigal Zalmona, Former Chief curator at Large, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Immigrants or Natives: The Identity Discourse and Early Israeli Art

All lectures will be conducted in English.

25.6.13 between 9:30 – 16:30; 26.6.13 between 09:30 – 17:00

75 NIS per day/120 NIS for both days. Special student price: 40 NIS per day/70 NIS for both days.

Space is limited; please confirm your attendance by phone: 02-6708895/6.

Hundreds of people have attended a rally today to save the National Media Museum in Bradford, the Bradford Telegraph and Argus reports. Speeches were made by Gerry Sutcliffe MP, George Galloway MP and Councillor David Green, Leader of Bradford Council.  See: http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/10472838.Hundreds_gather_at_rally_to_pledge_their_support_for_National_Media_Museum/

Image: Bradford Telegraph & Argus

Royal Collection Trust is a department of the Royal Household and the only one that undertakes its activities without recourse to public funds.  It incorporates a charity regulated by the Charity Commission and the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, The Royal Collection Trust, and its subsidiary trading company, Royal Collection Enterprises Limited. 

Royal Collection Trust is charged with the care and preservation of the Royal Collection and its presentation to the public.  The Royal Collection is one of the largest and most important art collections in the world.  It comprises almost all aspects of the fine and decorative arts and is spread among some thirteen royal residences and former residences across the UK.  At The Queen’s Galleries in London and Edinburgh and in the Drawings Gallery at Windsor Castle aspects of the Collection are displayed in a programme of temporary exhibitions.  Many works from the Collection are on long-term loan to institutions throughout the UK, and short-term loans are regularly made to exhibitions around the world as part of a commitment to broaden public access and to show parts of the Collection in new contexts.  The works of art in the Royal Collection are held by The Queen in trust for her successors and the nation.

Royal Collection Trust is responsible for the management and financial administration of the public opening of Buckingham Palace (including The Queen’s Gallery, the Royal Mews and Clarence House), Windsor Castle (including Frogmore House) and the Palace of Holyroodhouse (including The Queen’s Gallery).  The monies generated from admissions, and from associated commercial activities, are invested in the care and conservation of the Royal Collection and the promotion of access and enjoyment through exhibitions, publications, loans and educational activities.

The photograph collection is responsible for all photographic items in the Royal Collection, including photographic prints, negatives, films and photographic equipment – over 450,000 items in all. It consists of material from the 1840s to the present day, including both official and personal photographs acquired by the royal family, including living members of the Royal Family. The collection also contains photographic material acquired by departments of the Royal Household. The collection is of international significance. The responsibilities of the collection include all matters relating to care, conservation, access and control of sensitive material, exhibitions, cataloguing, maintenance of records and research. The majority of the items are located at Windsor Castle, although there are photographs in all royal residences. It does not cover photographic material located in the Picture Library (although this material may at a later date be transferred to the photograph collection).

Reporting and Working Relationships

Reporting to the Senior Curator of Photographs, the post holder works closely with the Curatorial Teams from the Library and the Print Room as well as the Collections Information Assistants, the cataloguer, and all volunteer and work experience staff.  

Externally, the post holder will have contact with museum and gallery curators, media (press & broadcast), researchers, and members of the public.

Job Purpose

To support the Senior Curator of Photographs in the smooth running of the section, working closely with all Collections Information Assistants, the cataloguer, and all volunteer and work experience staff, being required to assist them on a day-to-day basis and to supervise them in the Senior Curator’s absence.

The post holder is responsible supporting the Senior Curator of Photographs in all matters relating to the care, custodial control, conservation, cataloguing, research and access in relation to photographs located in the occupied and unoccupied royal residences. 

Job Dimensions

The Curator of Photographs has no managerial or budgetary responsibilities.

Principal Accountabilities

• To ensure the proper custodial control, accommodation and conservation of this part of the Royal Collection
• To provide appropriate access to this part of the Collection, through visits, exhibitions, exhibition loans, publications or other means (both broadcast and new media) to this part of the Royal Collection
• To advise on acquisitions and commissions
• To liaise with curatorial staff from the Print Room, the Library and the conservation section and other staff on joint project work (this may include Health and Safety, environmental controls, cataloguing standards, loans, displays for Dine and Sleep and State Visits and other special group visits)
• To work with other sections within the Royal Collection and the Royal Household to ensure that the objectives of the collection and the household are advanced and implemented
• To ensure that environmental controls, custodial controls, storage, and all matters relating to the preservation of the collection are responsibly managed, including planning for the future
• To ensure that records pertaining to the photograph collection are properly maintained, and to contribute to the enhancement of those records (paper and electronic)

Decision Making Responsibilities

 The post holder is expected to resolve most issues within the photograph section and will have day-to-day independence for decision making but will refer complex issues to the Senior Curator of Photographs.

Practical Requirements

Principally based at Windsor Castle, the post holder will be contracted to work 37.5 hours a week, Monday to Friday, 0900-1730. However, due to the nature of the role they will frequently be required to travel and work at other locations and to be flexible regarding working hours.

Person Specification (Skills, Experience & Competencies)

Essential:

• A sound understanding of photographic history and processes from 1839 to the present day
• Previous curatorial experience
• A good understanding of modern conservation practice in relation to photography
• A degree in the history of art or a related subject
• General knowledge of 19th- and 20th-century British and European history and history of art
• An eye for detail and extremely high standards of presentation
• Sound judgement about the appropriateness of loan requests and the ability to handle sensitive issues with care and diplomacy
• Outstanding communication skills and the ability to represent the Royal Collection Trust with credibility and authority both internally and externally
• The ability to prepare text for publication to international academic standards
• Experience of proposing and preparing exhibitions
• Advanced IT skills (including MS Office)
• The ability to work under pressure, particularly due to the public-facing nature of many of the responsibilities

 Desirable:

• A postgraduate degree in a relevant subject
• Experience in proposing and curating exhibitions
• A valid UK/EU driving licence
• A working knowledge of one or more major European language (specifically French, Italian or German)

Closing date: 21 June 2013.

See: http://tinyurl.com/p9mqfjc

We invite you to participate in this practical seminar and workshop during which you will create your own ambrotypes using the wet-collodium process on glass. The seminars are held on ongoing basis as members of the group enrol to participate. Each group consists of up to 3 persons. Individual training is available too. Conventional duration of the seminar – 3 days & 4 nights

ALL INCLUDING – MEAL AND ACCOMMODATIONS

First day:

– Pick up in Simferopol or Sebastopol, transfer to Bakhchisaray, housing and dinner

Second day:

Breakfast at 9:00

10:00-14:00  theory and practice of wet-collodium processing

 - History
 - Chemistry, compounds, solutions preparations
 - Devices and equipment: Large format cameras
 - All steps of ambrotype creation for 13х18 cm and 18х24 cm images.

Lunch at 14:00 - 15:00

15:00 - 17:00 - travel to Khan Palace, tour and photo-session

17:00 - 19:00 – travel to Bakhchisaray’s sphinxes, tour and photo-session

Dinner at 19:00 - 21:30   + coffee, tea, Oriental sweets-testing

Third day:

Breakfast at 9:00

10:00-13:00  theory and practice of wet-collodium processing,
- Composition of developer, fixer, and collodium
- Taking portraits and still life images in abrotype technicque.
Lunch at   13:00 -  14:00

14:00 - 19:00  travel to ancient cave city Chufut-Kale, tour and photo-session

Dinner at 19:00 - 21:30  + wet Russian sauna, coffee, tea with mountain herbs

Fourth day

Breakfast at 8:00

9:00 - 16:00  tour – photo-session - hiking (15 km) to and around cave city Kachi-Kalyon

Lunch -  packed meal.

17:30 – 21:00  Summary of the seminar, Oriental cuisine at Crimean Tatar café  

Fifth day

Breakfast 8:00

Departure…Simferopol or Sebastopol.

__________________________________________________________________________

Total cost  470$ / 380 EUR             

The total includes: transfer 'Simferopol/Sebastopol – Bakhchisaray’, accommodations, meal, wi-fi Internet, tour tickets to local sights, chemicals and other stuff for wet-collodiun processing. Participants get all wet-collodium images they make during sessions.                                                                                                          

The total doesn’t include: insurance, transport cost from participant’s home to Simferopol or Sebastopol, alcohol drinks..

Actual travel routes and tours of the sessions can be changed in accordance with participant’s preferences, health, and weather conditions.  

Place of the seminar: Bakhchsaray city, Crimea region of Ukraine.
You can register for participation by any convenient way:
- e-mail:     rony@i.ua
- Skype:     ambrotype57
- Phone:   +380662043429 (mobile)

Applications are invited for an AHRC-funded PhD working on Media and the First World War. This studentship is one of eight fully-funded awards made by the newly-established Collaborative Doctoral Partnership managed by the Science Museum Group. The project will be supervised by Professors Jo Fox and Jonathan Long (Durham University) and Colin Harding and Michael Terwey (National Media Museum). The studentship, which is funded for three years full-time equivalent, will begin in September 2013. It will cover tuition fees at home/EU rate and provide a maintenance award at RCUK rates (currently £13726 per annum).

The Studentship

This project will explore the ways in which the contemporary British experience of the First World War was shaped by the visual media and material culture. Britons on the home front learned about events of the War through newspaper reporting and photography, through newsreels and film, through art and through gossip, and through material manifestations of the conflict that circulated in British society. Yet despite its highly mediated nature, contemporary Britons’ understanding of the war was radically different from how the conflict would be represented by later historians. This project seeks to re-cast the history of public engagement with the conflict by addressing the following questions:

• What media were dominant in shaping the public’s consciousness of the conduct and progress of the war, and how did these media interact at a grass-roots level?
• How were ‘standard’ media representations of the war projected, and how did they correlate with non-standard representations, such as those found in material culture or in cultural artefacts produced ‘from below’?
• How were these representations experienced and consumed by the public?
• What counter-discourses were in circulation (e.g. gossip and rumour)? How did they circulate? And to what extent and to what purpose were they propagated by the media?
• How does the understanding of the War by Britons on the home front compare with 21st-century public understanding of these events?

The project will draw extensively on the world class collections National Media Museum, home to the National Photography collection. In particular the Royal Photographic Society Collection, the Horace Nicholls collection, the Charles Urban archive and the Daily Herald Archive are relevant to this project.

How to Apply

Applicants should have a good undergraduate degree and a master’s qualification in history, visual culture, or other relevant discipline, and will need to satisfy AHRC academic and residency eligibility criteria (see Annex A of the Student Funding Guide: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/Student-Funding-Guide.pdf).

Applicants should submit a short curriculum vitae and a brief letter outlining qualifications for the studentship in the form of a single Word file no more than three pages in total. The names and contact details of two academic referees should also be supplied. Applications should be sent to June Hedley (june.hedley@dur.ac.uk) no later than 12 June 2013.

Interviews will be held in the National Media Museum, Bradford, on 19^th June

For further information, please contact Colin Harding at the National Media Museum (Colin.Harding@NationalMediaMuseum.org.uk).

Join the petition and include your name on this link here.

As of 0930 on 7 June 12,450 had signed the petition.

17,695 have signed as of 0811 on 8 June 2013

20,702 at 1707 on 9 June 2013

30,233 at 0648 on 12 June 2013

Richly illustrated with over 140 images, The Photograph and The Collection: Creation, Preservation, Presentation provides a comprehensive overview of the innovative - sometimes challenging and controversial - ways in which photographic collections are being created, preserved, analysed and presented today. 

In 21 chapters and over 550 pages, a distinguished range of international contributors - which includes curators, archivists, librarians, academics, researchers and photographers - present a rich variety of perspectives which help illuminate the wide and complex range of issues involved.

The book's scope is extensive, ranging from the creation and preservation of new digital collections, through the conservation of historic collections, to the analysis and understanding of individual collections large and small - from the thousands of images in major public collections, to the individual photographic album containing a dozen images. 

The Photograph and The Collection will be of value to both curators and conservators of art and historical collections of images; and to archivists, librarians and others with a responsibility for, or interest in, photographic collections, both historic and contemporary.

Save over 15% with our Early-Bird, Pre-Publication Rate!

Order The Photograph and The Collection today and you'll automatically save over 15% on either the paperback or hardback editions! Plus you'll be among the first to receive your copy of the book on publication on 17 June.

This special offer is only available from the MuseumsEtc website, where you'll also find full details of the book's content: www.museumsetc.com/products/photo_collection

The announcement of the outcome of the government's spending review on 26 June is likely to bring further cuts to the Science Museum Group which includes Bradford's National Media Museum. A petition has been launched against closure at: http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-national-media-museum-bradford 

The media has flagged all options being on the table from the return of admission charges - despite this being contrary to government policy - to the merger or closure of one of the Group's northern-based museums with the National Media Museum being the most likely candidate. Ian Blatchford, Director of SMG has also flagged closure of one of the Group's museums as an option. The SMG faces a significant deficit from 2014 which is likely to be exacerbated by a further reduction in its grant-in-aid from central government. 

The NMeM is seen as a key player in the regeneration of Bradford's city centre and the city council has been vocal in its support for it. It has proposed that financial responsibility for the museum is moved from the DCMS to the Department for Business. 

The museum has undertaken a significant restructuring including major staff losses over the past year and any further reduction in funding would inevitably further impact on the museum's activities. 

This morning, Ian Blatchford, Director and Chief Executive, Science Museum Group spoke at a press conference organised by the Science Media Centre and Campaign for Science and Engineering at the Wellcome Trust, London, on why the science budget be protected in the forthcoming Spending Review. He said: 

"In the past four years, we have dealt with a 25 per cent real terms cut in funding when the science base, funded by a different Government Department, has had to cope with a 10 per cent cut. We are investigating a range of options but if an additional 10 per cent cut is made when the spending review is announced at the end of this month, there would be little choice other than to close one of our museums, since our structural (year on year) deficit would rise from £2 million to £6 million. Cuts at this level will mean that we will again need to make savings across the whole Group, this includes the Science Museum in London and each of our sister museums in the north. I would rather have three world class museums than four mediocre museums.  I should add that charging is not on the agenda because Government policy precludes it.’

More information: 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/three-national-museums-face-prospect-of-charging-for-entry--and-theyre-all-in-the-north-8644531.html

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/10462689.Bradford___s_National_Media_Museum_boss_to_talk_about_cuts/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/political-science/2013/jun/06/science-museum-group-manchester-london?INTCMP=SRCH

A 19th-century equatorial observatory and laboratory once used by John Dillwyn Llewelyn and his daughter, Thereza, to capture some of the earliest images of the moon will be brought back to life. A £2.9 million restoration project is currently under way at Penllergare Valley Woods with funds from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Parks for People programme. 

Swansea Council has signed a 25-year lease with the Penllergare Trust for this historic building built in 1846, and which houses the telescope. The observatory will be repaired and restored over the next 18 months. It will also be made accessible along with other attractions in the woods like the terrace gardens, the upper lake, the waterfall and an old stone bridge known as the Llewelyn bridge.
You can read the rest of the article here.

Photo: The 19th-century equatorial observatory and laboratory at the Penllergare Valley Woods.

A public appeal was launched last year by the RCB Library in Dublin to help identify the work of a skilled and widely-travelled photographer, whose set of 296 lantern slide was recovered from the deanery in Killaloe, County Clare. The collection captured images of Palestine and north India at least 100 years ago. 

Twelve months on, and the search for the elusive photographer is nearing completion, thanks to a lead from a BBC journalist about a possible link to a Presbyterian minister from Coleraine, County Londonderry, the Reverend Willie Wilson, and subsequent assistance from that man's descendants and an avid local historian in the village of Donaghmore, County Tyrone.

You can read the full updated story online and view images from three additional groups of these lantern slides from the 'Killaloe' collection on this link here.

Not much is known about how the coming of photography changed visual discourse or affected people's lives. Divided into two sections, this selection of 32 essays, each illustrated with archival photographs, looks at the camera in the colonial era and in post-independent India. 
In the nineteenth century, the camera and the studio became necessary prostheses in the new engagement between the colonized and the rulers. Europeans in India-of whom the British were the largest in number-were the initial users of the photographic studio. Early studio images of the sahib-civil servant, lawyer, tea planter, missionary, and so on-are among the first available visuals; soon the memsahib appeared at his side with or without self-conscious offspring. The events of 1857 marked a watershed in photography in India. By this time, as the urban middle classes started patronizing photographic studios, these became instrumental in fracturing notions of space and visibility: where the use of public space was governed by the discriminatory practices of race and gender, the photographic studio became a shared locale. Interestingly, Indian entrepreneurs started investing in studios and some like Lala Deen Dayal became noted photographers. The second section looks at some such moments, and studio photographs initially focused on the new Indian professional-the doctor, lawyer, engineer, and civil servant-and then with wife and children. It moves on to the emergence of the emancipated Indian woman, the horror of Partition, and finally to independent India and the work of Sunil Janah and Homai Vyarawalla. 
Together the 32 essays included in the volume document both: history through photographs and the history of photographs in India.

If this is of interest, you can pick up a copy at Amazon using the link on the right.