A very interesting instrument, called a photographic gun, has been invented by a Frenchman M. Marrez. It is nothing more nor less than a very large revolver, with a stock to put to the shoulder. The barrel is a telescope that is to say it contains the lenses of a camera. There are twelve apertures, which take the place of chambers. The photographer puts a sensitised plate behind these apertures, and, performing an operation analagous to cocking a gun, the weapon is ready for the field. On seeing a flying bird, he takes aim, and pulls the trigger. The chamber revolves once, and in one second he obtains twelve little pictures of the bird in various positions.
Nelson Evening Mail (New Zealand), Volume XVII, Issue 216, 26 September 1882, Page 2.
Papers Past - National Library of New Zealand
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Bearnes are selling an early photograph album (lot 380) in a three-day sale across 29-31 January 2013 dating to the 1850s which includes a rare image of Roger Fenton taken by Eastham of Manchester. The lot is described as: Colonel Edmund Gilling Hallewell’s Photographic Album and is a mixed photographic album of the 1850s and 1860s, elephant folio, lacking front board and some leaves. Lots 381 and 382 are also photograph lots.
The relationship between Hallewell and Fenton is noted in lot 379 http://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/bearnes-hampton-and-littlewood/catalogue-id-2872698/lot-16615481 and a discussion here on the wider content: http://www.bhandl.co.uk/news/2012/12/10/roger-fenton-photographs-col-edmund-gilling-hallewell-auction.aspx
Notable images in lot 380 include:
Colonel Hallewell DCMG, Malta, 1863. Portrait in full dress uniform. Titled in pencil below the image. Albumen print, 19.8 x 15.7cm (illustrated page 89).
Sir George Brown and a portion of the Light Division Staff, a nine-man group portrait in civilian attire. (A soldier since 1806, Brown commanded the Light Division throughout the Crimean War). Albumen print, 24 x 29.5cm. (illustrated opposite).
Bolton Abbey, the ruins of the cloister. An untitled large-scale salt print 26.5 x 37.5cm., from a paper negative (illustrated opposite).
Near Bolton Abbey, Yorks. Titled in pencil below the image. Salt print, 18 x 25.5cm.
The Strid, Bolton. Titled in pencil below the image. Salt print, 20.8 x 29cm.
At Bolton Abbey, a woodland scene. Titled in pencil below the image. Salt print, 24 x 19cm.
Gibraltar General view of town. Titled in pencil below the image. 2-plate panorama 20 x 45.5cm., Albumen prints.
At Bolton Abbey, Yorks. Titled in pencil below the image. Salt print, 26 x 36.5cm (illustrated opposite).
Bolton Abbey, Yorks, ruins of the priory. Titled in pencil below the image. Albumen print, 26.5 x 35.5cm. into rounded corners (illustrated opposite).
Road at the back of the Hall, Bolton. Titled in pencil below the image. Albumen print, 29 x 36 cm., into arched corners (illustrated opposite).
The album also contains over 120 other mainly albumen prints, but including a small number of salt prints (including further images of Bolton Abbey and its environs), varying sizes up to 30 x 24cm. Assorted images by amateur and commercial photographers, including Francis Bedford and James Robertson; subject matter being a variety of topographical, portrait and other subjects, (including Robertson: the Crimean war) and various locations in UK, Malta, Gibraltar and the Mediterranean.
In addition, approximately 200 cartes de visite of British and European royalty, family, topographical, army officers various, Crimean war generals, etc., and a rare image of a white- bearded Roger Fenton c.1865. For a variant of this portrait by John Eastham of Manchester see All the Mighty World, The Photographs of Roger Fenton 1852-1860, Yale University Press, 2004, p.30.
Estimate:
£4,000 - £6,000 This lot sold for £9400.
De Montfort University is seeking applicants for a fixed term maternity cover position, from 6 March 2013 – 5 July 2013 in Photographic History, for teaching on the MA Photographic History and Practice. The candidate will be responsible for teaching on Theory and Photography module and Research Methods in Photographic History as well as providing student support on dissertation writing through May and June.
The MA Photographic History and Practice is an innovative, high-quality masters' programme with an international cohort. The candidate will be responsible to the Acting Programme Leader of the MA, and will contribute to all aspects of the MA, including grading, supervision, teaching, museum visits and programme management. The candidate will receive support from all members of the Photographic History research Centre (PHRC), and will contribute to PHRC activities like seminars and conferences.
The PHRC is a highly interdisciplinary research centre, with excellent links to national and international universities and cultural industry partners. A successful candidate will demonstrate the ability to work collaboratively as well as individually, promoting the field of photographic history.
De Montfort University, rated as one of the top ten creative universities in the UK, has a growing reputation as a world leader in photographic history. It works with a wide network of major museums, archives and libraries internationally. Its excellent research library in photography and photographic history supports both research and teaching and it hosts a growing number of digital resources for photographic history.
For information about the MA Photographic History and Practice, please contact Dr Kelley Wilder, MA Programme Leader: kwilder@dmu.ac.uk.
De Montfort University Faculty Of Art, Design And Humanities,School of Media and Communication
Full time, Temporary, fixed term maternity cover, 6 March 2013 – 5 July 2013
Grade G: Salary Range £35,244 -£44,607
Please quote reference: 7645
Closing Date: 03 February 2013
Interview Date: 15 February 2013
Along with the annually held Dutch workshops, the Fotorestauratie Atelier VOF is now offering Master Classes in Photograph Conservation taught in English. These workshops are meant for collection managers, registrars, conservators and all others interested in learning more about the identification and preservation of photographs. For a description of each workshop, please contact the FRA at fotorestauratie@me.com
We will be happy to advise on accommodations and any other questions concerning your visit to Amsterdam to suit your needs.
Identification of 19th Century Photograph Processes
Date: May 27, 28, 29, 30 & 31
Costs: 725,00 euro incl. Reader and Lunches
Identification of Modern Photograph Processes
Date: June 3, 4 & 5
Costs: 475,00 euro incl. Reader and Lunches
Identification and preservation of Negatives
Date: July 4 & 5
Costs: 375,00 euro incl. Reader and Lunches
Master Classes on Photograph Preservation and Salvage
Preservation of Photograph Collections
Date: July 8, 9, 10, 11 & 12
Costs: 725,00 euro incl. Reader and Lunches
Preservation Issues Surrounding Contemporay Photography
Date: August 19, 20, 21 & 22
Costs: 625,00 euro incl. Reader and Lunches
Conservation Mounting and Framing of Photographs
Date: August 26, 27 & 28
Costs: 475,00 euro incl. Reader and Lunches
Salvage of Water-damaged Photographs
Date: September 9, 10 & 11
Costs: 475,00 euro incl. Reader and Lunches
See: http://www.fotoconservering.nl/text.php?itemId=5133053#item5133053
An exhibition of landscapes of the Liverpool photographer Edward Chambre Hardman is currently showing at the Open Eye Gallery on Liverpool's Waterfront. Curated by Julia Garcia Hernandez the exhibition shows a different photographic side of this Merseyside portrait photographer. The exhibition is open until 17 February and it will tour to The Hardmans’ House, Rodney Street, Liverpool, in Spring 2013
The E. Chambré Hardman archive of photographs and associated ephemera will be available to view in Liverpool’s Central Library from 2013.
For more information see: http://www.openeye.org.uk/archive-exhibition/e-chambre-hardman/
Image: The Copse © National Trust Images/Edward Chambré Hardman Collection
Launched in time for Australia Day today (26 January), one can now view images of Australian towns, buildings, landmarks and people dating back as far as the mid 19th century. The National Archives has released online thousands of early photographs and drawings of Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga and other Pacific Islands.
Archives show many of them were displayed at an 1873 international exposition in London, causing somewhat of a sensation among those with little understanding of life on the other side of the world. But then they were stored away. Staff at the National Archives UK spent the past 18 months digitising and cataloguing them to "show Australians their past".
One hundred and thirty years ago Eadweard Muybridge invented stop-motion photography, anticipating and making possible motion pictures. He was the first to capture time and play it back for an audience, giving birth to visual media and screen entertainments of all kinds. Yet the artist and inventor Muybridge was also a murderer who killed coolly and meticulously, and his trial is one of the early instances of a media sensation. His patron was railroad tycoon (and former California governor) Leland Stanford, whose particular obsession was whether four hooves of a running horse ever left the ground at once. Stanford hired Muybridge and his camera to answer that question. And between them, the murderer and the railroad mogul launched the age of visual media.
Set in California during its frontier decades, The Tycoon and the Inventor interweaves Muybridge's quest to unlock the secrets of motion through photography, an obsessive murder plot, and the peculiar partnership of an eccentric inventor and a driven entrepreneur. A tale from the great American West, this popular history unspools a story of passion, wealth, and sinister ingenuity.
You can read a review from the New York Times here, and purchase the book using the Amazon link on the right.
The Lumière Autochrome. History, Technology and Preservation is a thoroughly illustrated guide to the history and technology of autochromes with a practical guide for storage & preservation. Louis Lumière is perhaps best known for his seminal role in the invention of cinema, but his most important contribution to the history of photography was the autochrome.
Engagingly written and marvelously illustrated with over 300 images book tells the fascinating story of the first industrially produced form of colour photography. Initial chapters present the Lumière family enterprise, set out the challenges posed by early colour photography, and recount the invention, rise, and eventual decline of the autochrome, which for the first four decades of the twentieth century was the most widely used form of commercial colour photography. The book then treats the technology of the autochrome, including the technical challenges of plate fabrication, described in step-by-step detail, and a thorough account of autochrome manufacture. A long final chapter provides in-depth recommendations concerning the preservation of these vulnerable objects, including proper storage and display guidelines. There are also engaging portfolios throughout the book showcasing autochrome photographs from around the world as part of an initiative founded by the French banker Albert Kahn, as well as engrossing testimonials by children of men who worked in the Lumière factories in the early twentieth century. The appendix includes transcriptions and facsimile reproductions from the Lumière notebooks as well as original patent documents.
Bertrand Lavédrine is director of the Centre de recherche sur la conservation des collections (CRCC) in Paris. He is the author of Photographs of the Past: Process and Preservation(Getty Publications, 2009) and A Guide to the Preventive Conservation of Photograph Collections (Getty Publications, 2003). Jean-Paul Gandolfo teaches at the École nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière near Paris.
- Paperback: 380 pages
- Publisher: J. Paul Getty Museum (1 February 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1606061259
- ISBN-13: 978-1606061251
Last week saw 5 years since the Library of Congress became the inaugural member of Flickr Commons. Since then it has grown to 56 institutions and just under 250,000 images. What's more over 28,000 images have had a location set, and over 50,000 have had an estimated date recorded. This has made it possible for me to do some interesting experiments such as a world map, an interactive timeline, and an 'on this day in history' gallery.
Quite a lot has been reported about the anniversary online, so here are a few links:
National Media Museum blog - http://nationalmediamuseumblog.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/flickr-commons-is-five-years-old/
Flickr blog - http://blog.flickr.net/en/2013/01/16/happy-commons-anniversary/
Library of Congress blog - http://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/2013/01/flickr-commons-happy-5th-birthday/
National Library of Ireland blog - http://www.nli.ie/blog/index.php/2013/01/11/celebrating-the-commons-on-flickr/
Gallery of images from The Telegraph - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/picture-galleries/9809222/Flickr-Commons-most-viewed-or-most-favourited-photos-of-the-last-five-years.html
My personal blog - http://www.whatsthatpicture.com/2013/01/five-years-of-flickr-commons-a-personal-review
The Val Williams Archive will become part of the collection at Birmingham Central Library. The material includes objects from the early years of Impressions Gallery, including the first exhibition poster and design work, plus letters from photographers including Martin Parr and Daniel Meadows. The archive also contains full documentation of Val Williams' exhibition projects and books, including The Other Observers, Who's Looking at the Family and How We Are at Tate Britain, plus photo documentary of the first and second Shoreditch Biennales, press responses, correspondence, and lists of participants.
It will also contain a full archive of Val's writing about photography in publications such as Creative Camera, the New Statesman, The Guardian, The Independent and many other publications, and including the series of interviews Val made for the Guardian Women's page in the early 1990s and her lengthy series of obituaries for the Independent.
Preserved by Val over the last 40 years, the archive has now been ordered and partially scanned, and marks the beginning of a new research resource at Birmingham, in collaboration with the University of the Arts London, where Val is Professor of the History and Culture of Photography.
I have recently uncovered in the loft, a box containing about 2500 CDV cards c1860-1870, the majority of which are Art History images from all the major European and British collections of around 1865. These images are organised according to country artist and school of art with printed and embossed dividers for each section. The rest of the cards are portraits including images of celebrities, artists, politicians, nobility, European royalty and American civil war generals. The third type are views of Edinburgh, Glasgow and other parts of Scotland also some of the Isle of White.
Each card is labelled "Collection Sumichrast" and numbered, some are dated, there is also a full hand written catalogue that lives in a sliding drawer at the bottom of the box.
I have discovered that
F C Sumichrast, was an Academic, writer and translator from French to English who was a professor of languages at Edinburgh University in the late 1860s and then moved to work at Harvard University in America.
Frederic Caesar John Martin Sumichrast-Roussey was born in Belgium in 1845. He was of Hungarian origins and held Hungarian citizenship. His parents had moved to Edinburgh by 1858 when his sister was born.
By 1888 he has moved on to America and he is working at Harvard University and has become a Professor at Harvard by 1896
Professor F C Sumichrast went on to be a well respected translator of the works of Theophile Gautier and Victor Hugo but is also known for his own works including “The Making of America”. He was president of “The Victorian Society in Harvard and established his reputation as an academic and writer there. He is listed in “Who was who in American History”.
He stayed at Harvard until 1911 when they move back to England and lived in Ealing from 1912-1932
He died in 1933 aged 88, he had no children.
I believe this collection may have been used by him for academic reference in Edinburgh and came to my family when he moved to America in 1888, by direct purchase or by auction. I have a relative who was a Professor of Mathematics at Edinburgh at this time and can trace the box via his daughter who then put it into storage in 1922. She was my wife's Aunt.
I am not a collector but would like to do something with this collection and would love to know more about its origins and purpose. I know it was unusual to have a large collection of this kind at the time and most CDVs were put into small albums as domestic talking points with mostly personal images.
The purpose made box is also unusual and may be as used in a photographic studio for storing cards!
Who should I contact for academic reasons? The V and A, National Portrait Gallery, Bradford Museum, Scottish National Collection, Harvard...
Where can I get a fair valuation of this collection?
I have scanned in the cards and created a basic website if you are interested in seeing the collection @
F.C.Sumichrast's Collection of Victorian Carte Des Visites:Home
Thank you
Martin Ferrabee
Looks like a contact frame for doing a test strip either in 0.3 log progression i.e. 2,4 8 16 or possibly 0.15 log.
Will be interested in views form other ancient photographers who used these things back in the days when we had darkrooms.
Chemistry of Light is Traeger's response to a large collection of 19th Century photographs, negatives and camera equipment left to her in the 1960's by a great uncle in Tunbridge Wells. The collection includes very early Daguerreotypes and waxed paper negatives, leading up to large glass plates from the 1890’s.
Untouched since the 19th Century, many are severely damaged. Various forms of chemical decay have set in as well as dramatic lifting and tearing of the gelatin emulsions which are peeling from the glass. This damage and destruction became a metaphor for Traeger of the steady but inevitable loss of the materials and rituals of her craft as darkroom photography and chemistry has been superseded by digital technology. Traeger has made new discoveries in these old and disintegrating emulsions, finding new and unexpected relevance in their corrupted materials and fading images. They are a hymn to the layered mystery of time and light in photography, and to the miraculous work of its pioneers. They are living again in the present, born, resurrected as the originals die in the splendour of their almost psychedelic chemical erosions and photography’s early crafts die with them.
Details of this exhibition at Purdy Hicks Gallery on 65 Hopton Street, London SE1 from 25th Jan till 21st Feb can be found here. The Financial Times also has a review here.
Photo: Thomas Batting (left), 'great uncle' Godfrey’s father, standing outside the family’s chemist shop in 1880
The story of two lone geniuses and the extraordinary race to invent photography. At the heart of the non-fiction Capturing the Light, there lies a small scrap of purple-tinged paper, over 170 years old and about the size of a postage stamp. On it you can just make out a tiny, ghostly image – an image so small and perfect that ‘it might be supposed to be the work of some Lilliputian artist’; the world’s first photographic negative.
This captivating book traces the true story of two very different men in the 1830s, both striving to solve one of the world’s oldest problems: how to capture an image, and keep it for ever. On the one hand there is Henry Fox Talbot, a quiet, solitary gentleman-amateur scientist, tinkering away on his estate in the English countryside; on the other, Louis Daguerre: a flamboyant, charismatic French scenery-painter, showman and entrepreneur in search of fame and fortune.
Both men invented methods of photography that would enable ordinary people, for the first time in history, to illustrate their own lives and leave something behind of their passing. Photography would transform art, the documentation of both war and peace, and become so natural and widespread that now, each of us carries a camera everywhere with us, and takes this most magical of processes for granted.
Only one question remains: which man got there first?
The authors are: Roger Watson is a world authority on the early history of photography. He is currently the Curator of the Fox Talbot Museum at Lacock Abbey and an occasional lecturer at De Montfort University in Leicester. Helen Rappaport is a historian with a specialism in the nineteenth century. She is the author of eight published books, including Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of the Romanovs and Magnificent Obsession: Victoria, Albert and the Death that Changed the Monarchy.
Published: 25 April 2013, PanMacmillan, Hardback, £20 (or on Amazon at £11.20 (click right)
Sotheby's auction of Fine Travel and Plate Books, A private collection includes a copy of Francis Frith's Egypt, Sinai, and Jerusalem: a series of twenty photographic views. London, [c.1858]. The copy is estimated at £100,000-150,000. The catalogue will be available online at sothebys.com shortly.
The lot description reads:
57
Frith, Francis. Egypt, Sinai, and Jerusalem: a series of twenty
photographic views... with descriptions by Mrs Poole and Reginald
Stuart Poole. London: James S. Virtue, [c.1858]
Large folio (738 x 530mm.), 20 mounted albumen prints (485 x
390mm., or the reverse), several signed and dated 1858 in the
negative, contemporary dark green half morocco, flat spine, gilt
edges, upper cover lettered in gilt, some scattered spotting, binding
slightly rubbed, some restoration to spine and corners
“The largest book with the biggest, unenlarged prints ever
published.” (Gernsheim). “Few publications in the history of
photography are its equal in either presentation or ambition. The
twenty photographs feature Egyptian subjects, with just a single
view of Jerusalem. Frith’s views of the Pyramids, in particular, are
ground breaking and became the works for which he is now best
known. The photographs are accompanied by texts written by
Sophia Poole and Reginald Stuart Poole (a mother-and-son team),
recognised writers on Egyptian history and customs” (Imagining
Paradise).
References: Gernsheim, Incunabula (London, 1984) 130; Röhricht
p.506; Hilmy I, p.249; Jacobson, K., Odalisques & Arabesques:
Orientalist Photography 1839-1925 (London, 2007, pp.88-89, 232-234);
Parr and Badger, The Photobook (London, 2007, vol.1, p.28); Foster,
Heiting and Stuhlman, Imagining Paradise (NY, 2007, p.63)
£ 100,000-150,000 € 124,000-186,000
RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) Fellows will swarm London this weekend along with members of the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) and close out a 24-hour long photo shoot at the RSA – where the RPS was founded in 1853.
To help celebrate the 160th Anniversary of the Royal Photographic Society, RPS London is organizing a 24-hour photo shoot, “London1853”, in and around iconic London landmarks. It will start at 16:00 on Saturday 19th January at Trafalgar Square and finish at or near the RSA in John Adam Street at 16:00 on Sunday 20th January – the venue, time and date of the founding meeting. Details of this event can be found here.
You can also read the original handwritten notes from the RSA meetings in 1853 that led to the founding of the society on the RSA Flickr Group - and they have got plenty more in the RSA Archive if you are interested (big thanks to their archivist, Eve, for pulling the notes out).
Photo: RSA Council Minutes 19th Jan 1853, p 153 on the founding of the Royal Photographic Society RSA/AD/MA/100/12/02/05 – Minutes of Council Volume 4 June 1852 – June 1853
Hand written sections from Society Council meetings regarding formation of RPS. (see scans)
Journal of the Society of Arts, Vol. 1, no. 7
Author(s): Edward Solly, Henry C. Owen, Robert Hunt, P. Q., F. and J. S.Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of the Society of Arts, Vol. 1, No. 7 (JANUARY 7th, 1853), pp. 73-84
Published by: Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce
An exhibition of photographs from the Royal Photographic Society which illustrate the progression of photography from its inception to the current day, opens at King Edward’s Art and Photography Department TAG Gallery on Tuesday 15th January until Friday 15th February.
The exhibition is a rare opportunity to see some early prints from the Royal Photographic Society’s Collection, ranging from 1845 to 1940, alongside the outstanding work from today’s RPS digital photographers who use their cameras and computers to develop exciting images and art.
Details can be found here.
The Photo Art Fair is a new five-day exhibition of some 2,000 carefully curated, collectable works from up to 200 international photographers. As a brand new show, Photo Art is designed to provide visitors with the unique opportunity to purchase affordable and collectable photographs DIRECT from both undiscovered and also well-known artists.
The inaugural event will be held in an 8,000sqm event space in Bloomsbury Square, London WC1B, 2nd – 6th May 2013 and is a celebration of photographic art throughout the eras of photographic art and across all genres from classic prints to hitherto unseen contemporary photography. Photo Art will extend a totally democratic experience to both existing and prospective collectors of photography in a stimulating, informal and highly original environment. Photographs will range from £500 to £150,000, giving entry level excitement and also high-end investment opportunities.
Visitors to the Fair will have the chance to explore all aspects of the work as a true art form. The photography selection will be truly inspiring and will have the potential to add a real aesthetic difference to homes and work spaces. The Photo Art Fair Trade Exhibition will sit alongside the show of photographic art and feature a select cross-selection of the latest equipment, publishers, courses and retailers providing visitors with a point of purchase opportunity.
The Intelligent Collecting workshops will be comprised of panels of international experts with long-standing track records of identifying photographers, selecting artworks and collecting photographic art that has delivered exceptional results and truly rewarding experiences. The Selection Committee will be made up of leading experts and experienced collectors of art and art photography. Working in conjunction with the Intelligent Collecting©programme, the Selection Committee aims to see that visitors can take part in the experience of art collecting. Attendees can learn how to evaluate and identify potential iconic imagery that may potentially raise in value. Most importantly, the photography will be intriguing, high quality and an experience in viewing.
Details can be found here.
The Financial Times have been running a special series on photography which appeared in the FT and FT Weekend. The last instalment was on an image - The Queen's Target' - by a pioneering Victorian photographer which is both a royal souvenir and a strikingly early piece of abstract art.
As the founder and first secretary of the Photographic Society, established in 1853, Fenton held a pivotal national position. He was instrumental in gaining the interest in photography of Queen Victoria and her technically minded Prince Consort. No doubt his long connection with the Queen was behind the making of this picture. Yet by 1860, when “The Queen’s Target” was taken, Fenton’s career was on the wane. The pioneering campaigner on behalf of photography had been left behind by the popularity of the medium he had done so much to promote.
You can read the rest of the article and others in the series by FT photo critic, Francis Hodgson, here.
A book of vintage photographs of German cities and festivals taken between 1840 and 1890 has just been published in Germany. They give an intriguing glimpse of the clash between tradition and modernity in Germany at the outset of the industrial age.
"From Biedermeier to Gründerzeit: Germany in Early Photographs 1840 - 1890," accompanies a major exhibition of the photographs opened in Munich's city museum in November. The photos were collected by Munich collector Dietmar Siegert over more than four decades.
The book shows landscapes and cityscapes ranging from the North Sea island of Helgoland to the picturesque Lake Königsee in the Bavarian Alps, from the Alsace city of Strasbourg in today's France to the Baltic port of Gdansk in what is now Poland. The images convey the lost beauty of many German cities whose centers were razed by aerial bombing in World War II. They also convey the rich regional diversity of a nation that was made up of many kingdoms, duchies and principalities and didn't unify until 1871. Some pictures, such as that of a carnival procession in Mainz and the back view of the Brandenburg Gate, could have been taken yesterday. Other street scenes have an almost medieval feel to them.
Details can be found here.
