Blogs

Pete James, Head of Photographs at Birmingham Central Library talks to Andrew Lacon and Stuart Whipps about the work they are making for REFERENCE WORKS: the Library of Birmingham Photography Project. The project, Birmingham’s largest photography commission, sees four photographers and four students/graduates from Birmingham City University making creative responses to the existing and new library building. The discussion will outline the scope of the commission; describe the process of making new work and the vital role of the Library’s nationally and internationally significant collections at the heart of the new iconic cultural institution.

The event is the first in a series of Photographers Talks linked to REFERENCE WORKS, the Library of Birmingham Photography Project.

www.reference-works.com

Thursday 1 November 2012

6.00 – 7.30pm

Library Theatre, off Chamberlain Square, Birmingham B3 3HQ

Admission Free

Photography The Whole Story concentrates on the pictures and stories behind them. In a world where billions of snapshots are taken every year, why are some photographers and their works considered so significant?

People have always tried to capture moments as images and over the centuries it was the task of artists to select subjects and set them down, but in 1839 a new medium appeared: photography. Originally messy and time-consuming, the photograph rapidly evolved to become a means of capturing the world 'in the blink of an eye'.

If you love photography and would like to know more, Photography: The Whole Story is a celebration of the most inspiring photographs that have come from this very modern medium. Illustrated, in-depth essays cover every photographic genre, from early portraits and tableaux to the digital montages, split-second sports images and conceptual photographs of today.

The book begins with a succinct overview of photography, placing it in the context of the social and cultural developments that have taken place since its arrival. The book then traces chronologically the rapid evolution of photographic style, period by period and movement by movement.

The ideas and works of key photographers are assessed to reveal what motivated them and what each was striving to achieve. Detailed cultural and individual artist timelines clarify historical context.

Supporting each essay are close analyses of key works that single out the characteristics of each period – such as use of colour and visual metaphor, quirks of composition and technical innovations – enabling us to grasp each work’s full meaning. Here are the tiny but telling details of social portraits; the stark, graphic qualities of urban landscapes; the erotic, or the undertones of nude studies; and the humour, anger or pathos of conceptual works.

• ISBN 9780500290453
• 24.50 x 17.50 cm
• Flexibound PLC (with jacket)
• 576pp
• With over 1000 colour illustrations
• First published 2012
• £19.95

See: http://www.thamesandhudson.com/Photography_The_Whole_Story/9780500290453

Helen Sear challenges the traditional values of photography, pressing it into service of her own artistic vision...For British artist Helen Sear, ‘photographic vision is occluded,’ writes David Chandler in his essay, Seeing in the dark, Inside the View (Ffotogallery, 2012). ‘It is not just a layered process (the revealing of which in her work has in itself led to forms of opacity), but it is also a site of enquiry, a subject, one to be unravelled and examined as part of the work’s conception and making, from idea, from theory, and from intuition into practice.’ With her work evolving from a background of ‘performance, film and installation’ art made in the 1980’s, Sear has come to be acknowledged over the past three decades as one of the most significant contemporary artists working today, who has continually challenged the traditional values of photography and press it into service of her own artistic vision, leading David Drake director of Ffotogallery, to suggest she ‘challenges the dominant view of photography as a documentary medium, questioning its indexical relationship with the world.’ Read more...

Image: Pastoral Monument 11, Fumaria Bastardii, 2012. Archival Pigment Print, 27.5” x 27.5”, Edition of 3 + 2 AP’s. (© Helen Sear/Courtesy Klompching Gallery).

England’s Dreaming: Ewen Spencer documents British youth and its place in contemporary society.  In 2001, British photographer Ewen Spencer began his expansive series, Teenagers, that documented the lives of various youngsters during that difficult and frequently fraught and sensitive period of adolescence. Teenagers would form one of the key chapters in his long-form interest in youth culture that now spans over 15 years, which has drawn wide critical acclaim.

Surprisingly, as a teenager himself, Spencer never owned a camera: ‘I simply didn’t have the inclination to pick one up and make pictures,’ he reveals. But, ‘I wish I had. I looked great. My mates — of course — looked better; lounging around the back of C&A in Newcastle on the scooters of older lads that had gone off around town performing there pea-cocking, in search of new threads to wear at the Mod nighters that I was far to young too attend.' Read more...

Image: 6th Form disco, Rossendale, Lancashire, 2000. (©Ewen Spencer/Courtesy of the photographer).

Hello everyone. I'm doing my PhD at Newcastle university, researching about social networks. Now I am doing a survey to find the main reasons to join a niche social network, being 'British Photographic History' a good example of these networks. 

I'll be delighted if you can dedicate some of your time to compete the survey in www.surveymonkey.com/s/nichenet . 

The participants in the survey will enter in the raffle of an ipod nano as a way to say thanks for your collaboration.

Kind regards

Carlos

Stephen Gill explores the microscopic worlds within worlds in his latest work Coexistence...As a teenager, British photographer Stephen Gill held an ‘obsession’ with ponds, that would see him spend long periods of time inquisitively studying this small world through a microscope. ‘That obsessive immersion into a strange and disorientating world had a profound effect on me personally,’ he writes in his latest work, Coexistence, ‘and certainly left its mark on many of the photographic studies I have subsequently produced...’ Read more

Image: Coexistence.

A new book simply titled Photographers was launched last night in London. Written by BPH's Michael Pritchard's it looks at photographers and their cameras. The photographers featured include well-known names from Picture Post and Life magazines, press photographers and names such as Cartier-Bresson, Bailey, Donovan, Eistenstaedt, Burrows and many others. The Leica, Nikon, Speed Graphic cameras are amongst those shown.

The book is published by Reel Art Press and is available at a pre-publication price of £30. See: http://www.reelartpress.com/catalog/edition/47/photographers

Image: Michael Pritchard, left, with publisher Tony Nourmand. 

London auction house Bonhams has closed its London Photographs Department as part of a wider reorganisation. In future photographs will be handled by the Book department. The department was established in 2009 under the leadership of Jocelyn Phillips and it had held a number of successful sales, establishing Bonhams as an leading place to sell photography in the United Kingdom. Prior to 2009 photography had been sold across multiple departments.

Christie's and Sotheby's have realigned their own departments over recent years to concentrate on specific areas of the market such as fashion and contemporary photography. Sotheby's moved its department from London to Paris.

Prior to joining Bonhams Phillips spent over five years at Sotheby’s, working on single owner sales of the collections of Dr William K Ehrenfeld and Marie-Thérèse & Andre Jammes. At Bonhams she had held a selling exhibition of David Bailey's photographs of the 1960s as well as regular photograph auctions. Phillips is the author of Collect Contemporary Photography, published in 2012 by Thames and Hudson. .

Australian photos sent to c19th world fairs which stayed in European/American collections. I am researching an exhibition on the history of the photograph in Australia 1840s - now, for 2015. Most of the photographs Australia sent to world fairs in the 19th c stayed overseas. We are trying to track these down.

If anyone has 19th century Australian photos in their collection please do get in touch on my work email judy.annear@ag.nsw.gov.au

Best wishes and I hope to hear from you

Judy

It is with great sadness that I inform the community of the death of Seán MacKenna, a photographer and historian whose work with historic processes made a major contribution to the understanding of the field. 

Originally an archaeological conservator at the Museum of London, Seán was regarded as the first person in the UK to actively use the wet-plate collodion process when he first started making ambrotypes and negatives some 15 years ago.

His knowledge and enthusiasm for early photography are reflected in the many years he spent as an American Civil War re-enactor and photographer, learning from contemporary US practitioners, original source material, and always striving for the utmost in authenticity.

Seán was still building his own cameras right up until his passing, and his knowledge of Dallmeyer lenses in particular made him an acknowledged expert within the community. He was known for his generous nature, and for his energy, passion and enthusiasm in passing on the knowledge to those starting out with historical processes. Thoughts are with his family at this time.

The Photographers' Gallery is looking for a new Head of Individual Giving. For more information on the role and how to apply, visit http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/vacancies.

Publishers are invited to submit up to ten of books published in 2012 for the Best Photography Book and the Best Moving Image Book categories of the 2013 Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards. The author/s of the winning book in each category will receive a cash prize of £5,000. The initial submissions deadline is 5^th December 2012.

Books on photography or the moving image (including film, video or television, digital imaging and animation) published between 1 January and 31 December 2012 may be eligible for the 2013 awards. Please refer to the rules and conditions attached for further details. 

To be considered, one copy of each of your submissions must be mailed together with the attached entry form to me here at the World Photography Organization, 9 Manchester Square, W1U 3PL, with a deadline of Wednesday 5^th December 2012.

Kraszna-Krausz Foundation chairman Michael G. Wilson, renowned film producer, photography collector and founder of Wilson Centre for Photography, is delighted to announce that the Book Awards will, for the third year, be presented at the 25^th April 2012 Sony World Photography Awards. 

For further information visit the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation and World Photography Organization websites:

http://www.kraszna-krausz.org.uk

http://www.worldphoto.org

The National Media Museum (NMeM) in Bradford is undertaking a three week consultation as it launches a spending review as part of a wider restructure designed to cut running costs after visitors numbers halved in 10 years (see http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/2680769:BlogPost:55593).The review aims to bring down the running costs while also looking at ways to increase visitor numbers through improved public exhibitions, events and cinema programme. There will be job losses amongst staff, including curatorial and collection support roles, and a number of staff are having to apply for a smaller number of roles. 

Heather Mayfield, deputy director of the Science Museum Group - to which the NMeM belongs - announced a 'back to basics' review to 'reconnect the museum to its audiences'. She added: 'We recognise that this is an extremely difficult time for staff and will ensure that consultation will be conducted with the utmost consideration for any staff member affected.'

In a statement, the museum added: 'Visitor numbers have seen a decline from a peak of almost one million in 2001 to 500,000 in 2011 - although this decline has been stabilised over the past 12 months with the opening of the new Life Online gallery and an improved family offer at holiday periods. 'The review aims to deliver an improved public exhibition, events and cinema programme, which appeals more to audiences locally and nationally, supports its status as a national museum and increases access to its world famous collections of film, photography and television.'

A recent review carried out by the museum’s parent organisation, the Science Museum Group, found that average costs per visitor at the National Media Museum were 30% more than at the Science Museum in London, the National Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester and the National Railway Museum in York.  

The museum has been based in Bradford since opening in 1983 as the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television. Despite reports of an 'axe' hanging over the museum the review may represent an attempt to take it back to a focus on its world-class collections under its new Head Jo Quinton-Tulloch as it addresses the relationship between Bradford and the London-based Media Space. Sadly, it seems that job losses amongst curatorial staff will make it far more difficult to realise the review outcomes which will inevitably require better curatorial support.

Update2: A report in Amateur Photographer today (see: http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/photo-news/539224/media-space-project-at-heart-of-cash-strapped-nmm) quotes a museum spokesperson as saying that Media Space remains at the heart of the museum's strategy to open up the Collections despite the review.

As the full funding for Media Space has not been secured this suggests that some of the savings made in Bradford through cutting staff and services will be used to underwrite Media Space's future costs. 

A member writes...Mr Paul Bucherer-Dietschi harbours a rare collection of historical images of Afghanistan, among them a large collection of images created by the Royal Engineers in the Afghan wars. I was fortunate to do approx. 1 year's voluntary work at the Swiss Afghanistan Institute to assist in transcribing English letters of the Royal Engineer photographers and artists and assessing the photographic material. This collection also includes a wonderful set of albums called the "souvenir d'Afghanistan". The online collection can be found here: http://www.phototheca-afghanica.ch/index.php?id=33&no_cache=1

Jerusalem, October 19, 2012 – The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, has awarded John Jacob with the second Shpilman International Prize for Excellence in Photography. Selected from over 50 proposals from candidates in fifteen countries by a jury of leaders in the field, Jacob will receive $45,000 to support his original theoretical project “Reliquum: That Which Remains,” which will investigate the lingering material presence of the past throughout the history of photography and which he then plans to develop into a publication. Created in partnership with the Israel Museum, the biannual Shpilman Prize aims to catalyze and support international research projects exploring theoretical and practical issues in photography. Jacob was nominated by Dr. Monika Faber, Director of the Photoinstitut Bonartes in Vienna, Austria.

The Shpilman Prize Committee, which selected Jacob as this year’s Shpilman recipient, was comprised of a jury of international experts in the field of photography, including:

• Nissan N. Perez (Chair), Horace and Goldsmith Senior Curator, Noel and Harriette Levine Department of Photography, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
• Prof. Dana Arieli-Horowitz, Dean of the Holon Institute of Technology, Holon, Israel
• Prof. Hanan Laskin, Founder of the Photography Department at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and academic advisor to art schools and cultural institutions in Israel, Tel Aviv, Israel
• Prof. Dr. Bodo von Dewitz, Deputy Director, Curator, Department of Photography, Museum Ludwig, Köln, Germany
• Anne Wilkes Tucker, Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA

The members of the jury also awarded honorable mentions to two runners-ups—British artists Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, and Italian scholar Dr. Katia Mazzucco—whose proposals the jury deemed of special relevance to current artistic and theoretical research.

About the winner

John Jacob (b. 1957) began his career as an artist and freelance curator, working mostly in Eastern Europe and the FSU. In 1992, he was appointed director of exhibitions at Boston University and a year later, executive director of the Photographic Resource Center. From 2001 to 2003, Jacob worked as an adjunct professor of fine arts at the College of the Atlantic, Bar Arbor, Maine. In 2003, he was a founding director of the Inge Morath Foundation in New York City. In 2011, he joined the Magnum Foundation as director of Legacy Programs, developing projects and partnerships related to Magnum's estate members. Jacob works as a consultant to museums, archives, and artists' estates worldwide and has contributed to a number of books and other publications.

John Jacob summarized his prize-winning theoretical research project as an exploration of photography’s performative qualities, using Roland Barthes’s theories of photography as a framework. Jacob will pay particular attention to vernacular images, including spirit photographs, tintype portraits, and found pictures.

David Bruce writing in the Scottish Society for the History of Photography's (SSHoP) newsletter SSHoP Talk reports that the ambition of building a dedicated centre for Scottish photography at the former Royal High School on the Calton Hill in Edinburgh was not likely to be realised and the vehicle to do it, Hill Adamson Ltd, has been wound up.

The project proved to be beyond reach, financially, and a subsequent attempt to create a network of interested galleries and local institutions failed to meet Creative Scotland’s approval. David discusses the project and what it has achieved as well a potential beacon for the future. Despite the failure of the Calton Hill project Scottish photography both old and new is well and truly on the map.  

SSHoP can be found here: http://sshop.org.uk/

Read more of the history of the SNPC here.

The National Gallery has a number of events around its Seduced by Art: Photography Past and Present exhibition which runs from 31 October 2012 - 20 January 2013.

• 27 October there is a colloquium in the exhibition space in the Sainsbury Wing on Level -2. Numbers are very limited and by invitation only.    
• 1 November, Hope Kingsley, co-curator, will give a free lunchtime lecture in the Sainsbury Wing lecture theatre: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/calendar/lunchtime-talk-1-november-2012
• 9 November Chris Riopelle and Hope Kingsley will be 'in conversation' 
• 14 November at the Courtauld is a free research seminar. This is not bookable so arrival early to secure a place. http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/researchforum/events/2012/autumn/nov14_HistPhoto.shtml
• There will also be artist's talks and workshops on other dates 

Full details are available below and further events will be added throughout the exhibition's run.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/seduced-by-art-photography-past-and-present/*/tab/2 

I have attached an article on William England I wrote for the current issue of “Stereo World” magazine. Please have a look at it –  maybe you can help answer some questions.

Article reproduced by kind permission of http://www.stereoworld.org/

Thanks and best regards

Gerlind

Stereo%20World_Wm%20England.pdf

Expanded Photographies is a two-day symposium exploring ideas of photographic technology, notions of 'expanded' practice and rethinking photography within this context. It takes place on 25-26 October at Southampton Solent University. Amongst the speakers is Charlotte Cotton. See: http://www.expandedphotographies.com

Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales and the European Centre for Photographic Research (eCPR), University of Wales, Newport are pleased to announce a series of free lectures reflecting on photography and the Museum. To launch the series, leading Spanish artist Joan Fontcuberta, reflects on his edited anthology ‘Photography - Crisis in History’ of 2002 on 17 October 2012. The book explored the significant challenges of producing histories or archaeologies of photography. For this lecture he will offer a fresh perspective - 10 years on - of these complex relationships in a new age outlined by the internet and digital culture.

With nearly four decades of dedication to photography, Fontcuberta has developed artistic and theoretical work that focuses on conflicts between nature, technology, photography and truth. The lecture series accompanies a major project being undertaken by Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales to work on its rich and diverse historic photographic collections – a project made possible through a major gift from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. 

In partnership with the eCPR, at University of Wales Newport, the lecture series will reflect the exciting work that the Museum is undertaking from 2012 to 2015.

A full programme of forthcoming lectures will be available shortly.

For further partner details visit:
http://www.newport.ac.uk/research/ResearchGroups/ecpr/Pages/eCPR.aspx
http://www.museumwales.ac.uk

Doors to the Reardon Smith Lecture Theatre open from 5.15
The event is FREE but booking is essential as places are limited.
To reserve your place, please email: Historic.Photography@museumwales.ac.uk