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
All Posts (5162)
Sort by
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:
MPs unite in battle to save Media Museum |
Axe threat hangs over Bradford media museum |
UK's northern national science museums under threat |
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.
This book is the first extensive survey of early Chinese photographers in any language. It is profusely illustrated with more than 400 photographs, many of which are published here for the first time, including a fine selection of Foochow landscapes from the studios of Lai Fong, China’s leading photographer during this period, and Tung Hing.
Early chapters introduce the historical milieu from which the earliest Chinese photographers emerged and illuminate the beginnings of photography in China and contemporary Chinese reactions to its introduction. Early Chinese commercial photography – both portrait and landscape – are also discussed with reference to similar genres in a more international context. Individual chapters are devoted to Chinese photographers in Peking, Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai, Foochow, Amoy, Hankow, Tientsin and other ports, Macau and Formosa. These are followed by a series of appendices: writings on photography in China by John Thomson and Isaac Taylor Headland and an invaluable guide to the identification of photographs from the Afong Studio. It concludes with an extensive bibliography, general and regional chronologies, and a biographical index. Combining existing knowledge of the subject with a mass of new research material, this major work also introduces and identifies the work of a number of previously forgotten or overlooked Chinese masters. It includes the work of: Chow Kwa (Su Sanxin), Hing Qua John & Co., Jiu San & E Fong, Kai Sack, Kung Tai, Lai Chong, Lai Fong, Liang Shitai (See Tay), Luo Yuanyou, Man Foc, Pow Kee, Pun Lun, Sang Cheong, Tung Hing, Wo Cheong, Ye Chung and many others.
This book completes a three-volume series on the photographic history of China until the late 19th century and will prompt a re-evaluation and heightened appreciation of these early Chinese photographers. You can pick up a copy on this linkhere.
ISBN: 978-0-9563012-4-6
To be published by Bernard Quaritch Ltd., London, May 2013
Barbara Flueckiger, Professor, University of Zurich writes...I'm very excited to launch my new Timeline of Historical Film Colors today: http://zauberklang.ch/filmcolors/ With many scans from vintage prints, downloads, quotes, filmographies etc.
The new concept allows researchers, archivists, film historians, and film restoration experts to insert texts, images, links, or downloads directly, so that the database will grow steadily. Since its online publication one year ago more than 20.000 visitors from 120 countries have accessed the database. I have received an overwhelming response from all over the world.
Half of the web development was covered by my crowd-funding campaign www.indiegogo.com/colorprocesses. I doubled this amount with my private means. Very recently, the University of Zurich and Swiss National Science Foundation have supported the data management with a significant contribution. I would like to thank all of you for your generous support, and I'm looking forward to receiving your feedback.
And please spread the word...
Barbara Flückiger
Photography is widely associated with truthfulness yet it has also been employed throughout its history as a means of telling stories and evoking the imaginary. This display includes photographs by some of the most influential contemporary artists working in this vein, such as Gregory Crewdson, Duane Michals and Cindy Sherman, alongside examples by 19th-century practitioners including Julia Margaret Cameron, Clementina Lady Hawarden and Oscar Gustav Rejlander.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
See: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/m/making-it-up-photographic-fictions/
Image: Untitled - May 1997, Hannah Starkey, 1997, Museum no. E.491-1998. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London / Hannah Starkey
I wonder if any of you are aware of the existence of Francis Frith inventory lists of photographs in their stock from Indonesia (the Dutch East Indies) from the second half of the19th century? If so, where can they be found please?
There are several Indonesian views that have been attributed to Francis Frith (the photographs are probably by one of his photographers rather than by Frith himself) and I wonder how reliable those attributions are? Also how many photographs of Indonesia did Frith publish? I assume he must have published lists of his inventory??
My particular focus is 19th century photography in Indonesia. My two books are: "BATAVIA in Nineteenth Century Photographs" (2000) and "Greetings from JAKARTA: Postcards of a Capital 1900-1950" (2012).
Thanking you in advance for any information you are able to provide.
Kind regards,
Scott Merrillees
European travellers to the East were fascinated, particularly in the nineteenth century, with the lights, colours, and the different way of living. The newness of the environment they encountered inspired artists, writers and photographers and deeply impacted European art history. The Orient was seen as a far exotic land and from that dream the field of Orientalism came to be. The creations born by this fascination are not only representations of the ‘Orient’ summarised by the expression ‘Orientalism’, but the patterns and subjects also became a source of inspiration for artists in their own creations.
This panel will explore the fascinating journeys of European artists travelling through the lights and images of the Orient creating art that was both a fascination and a representation. This complex attraction, which goes beyond the question of Orientalism, has been the subject of renewed cultural and curatorial approaches over the last 30 years. The Louvre Abu Dhabi collection already reflects this more historically accurate vision and the discussion will introduce us to a different interpretation of the ‘Orient’ including a painting by Paul Klee and nineteenth century photographs from the museum collection. The diversity of the photography collection will be presented from the early technique of daguerreotype and the fascinating testimony of French photographer Girault de Prangey to the fantasy world imagined by British photographer Roger Fenton in his London studio. This will be a starting point for exploring the ways in which Orientalist art is perceived, appropriated and re-contextualised in the Arab world today. The long term impact of these ‘realistic’ images can still be found today in the contemporary Arab world, for example in the public display of the Sharjah Art Museum, the Orientalist Art Collection of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah.
Looking East from West: Orientalist Art and Photography will take place at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, May 29 from 6.45pm. Details can be found here.
* This panel is presented as part of the Louvre Abu Dhabi: Talking Art Series.
In France, around 1860, from the loins of a traditional national fascination with all things diabolical, was born a new sensation – a series of visionary dioramas depicting life in a strange parallel universe called ENFER – Hell – communicated to an eager audience by means of stereoscopic cards, to be viewed in the stereoscopes which had already become popular in the 1850s.
The definitive book - both of illustrations and research is now available for pre-order and is due for release on 10 October 2013. Diableries, Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell from Brian May, Denis Pellerin and Paula Fleming.
John Stauffer is co-editing a book, Picturing Frederick Douglass: The Most Photographed American in the Nineteenth Century. He has discovered that there are more separate poses of Douglass than of Lincoln and of other contemporaries (not counting, for example Twain, who was a generation younger).
In his search through archives there is a black hole in the British Isles. So far he has not found a single photograph of Douglass in British archives. This is strange as Douglass sat for his photograph whenever he could, and was beloved by the British during his stays in 1845-47, 1859-60, and during brief subsequent visits.
He would welcome news of any images made by British studios.
Contact: John Stauffer, Professor of English, History of American Civilization and African and African American Studies, Harvard University. Tel: +1 617-642-7108 (cell) or email: johnwstauffer@gmail.com
and post a comment here.
In a landmark partnership, Impressions Gallery is depositing its archive with the National Media Museum. It will become part of the National Photography Collection, where it will be titled as 'Impressions Gallery Archive' and receive the highest standards of collections management. It is believed to be the first time a publicly funded photography gallery will have its archive cared for and made accessible by a national institution. It joins The Royal Photographic Society Collection and other notable collections housed and managed by the museum.
Impressions Gallery, one of the oldest and most respected venues for contemporary photography in Europe, has accumulated an unrivalled collection of archival materials and photographic work since its inception in 1972. The aim of the partnership with National Media Museum is to make this rich period of British photographic exhibiting history available to curators, scholars, photographers and the wider public.
The National Media Museum is home to 3.5 million items of historical significance including one of the finest photographic collections in the world. With an active programme of collections management, exhibitions, loans to peer institutions and an international reputation, the National Media Museum is the ideal partner to continue and develop the Impressions Gallery’s collection for the future, and make it available to the public.
Impressions Gallery is known for its directional role in the photography world, recognising and supporting photographers in the early stages of their careers such as Martin Parr, whose first show was staged at the gallery in 1972. Impressions has consistently set critical agendas by commissioning and showing work that addresses (sometimes controversial) issues of politics, race, gender and identity. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the gallery was the first in the UK to show photographic work responding to the AIDS crisis, and led the field in showing new work using then-emerging technologies of video and digital media.
Director of Impressions Gallery Anne McNeill said, ‘Impressions Gallery has played an incisive role in expanding people’s perceptions and understanding of photography. To coincide with achieving our milestone 40th anniversary, we are delighted to realise the next steps in the development and long term preservation of our archival materials’.
Jo Quinton-Tulloch, Head of National Media Museum said, ‘Naturally, the Museum is thrilled to be able to secure such an important archive and collection of photography – one which not only records and evidences the considerable contribution of Impressions Gallery over the past 40 years and counting, but which also further enhances the National Photography Collection’
This is the second major collaboration for the two Bradford-based photography venues, following the successful launch of the inaugural photography festival Ways of Looking in 2011. The Chairman of Impressions Gallery Board of Trustees Darryn Hedges said, ‘This exciting project demonstrates Impressions’ ongoing commitment to making Bradford known as the UK destination for photography’.
The museum has not yet commented upon whether opening hours at its Insight facility will be extended to support the likely interest in the Impressions archive or whether it will expand its curatorial staff to support access to the material and facilitate the 'highest standards' of collections management. The museum has lost curatorial staff in recent months and opening hours at Insight have been reduced in recent years limiting access to researchers.
Charlotte Cotton and members of Ph: The Photography Research Network will discuss ideas emerging out of Either/And (www.eitherand.org) , a collaboration between the National Media Museum and Ph.
Either/And has been devised as an online framework in which to debate and share perspectives on photography’s place in contemporary culture. Commissioned essays, interviews, images and films are published on the website on a weekly basis, which serve as the catalyst for online public discussion. Material from the project will form the basis of a printed publication next year.
This Research Seminar has been scheduled to mark the half-way point in the tenure of Ph as Guest Editors of Either/And. It will provide an opportunity for Either/And contributors past, present and future to consider the conditions of photography today.
Charlotte Cotton is a curator and writer. Previously held positions include Creative Director of Media Space, Director of the Wallis Anneberg Department of Photographs, LACMA and Curator of Photographs at the Victorian and Albert Museum. She is the author of The Photograph as Contemporary Art (2004) and founder of Words Without Pictures (2009-9) and EitherAnd.org (2012-3).
Ph: The Photography Research Network was established in 2010 as an inter-disciplinary research forum for early career scholars working in the field of photography. Ph currently consists of more than thirty researchers drawn from twenty UK universities. It was initially funded by the AHRC as part of its Beyond Text scheme. See www.ph-research.co.uk.
Thursday 6 June 2013
18.00, Research Forum South Room, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN
Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution is exhibiting prints of some of the Reverend Francis Lockey’s photographs, taken between 1849 and 1861, at the Central Library, Bath, between the 20-25 May.
Copies of Shadows and Light. Bath in Camera 1849-1861. Early Rare Photographs, compiled by David McLaughlin and Michael Gray will be on sale.
For more on Lockey see: http://www.brlsi.org/node/18262
Image: Weirs south of Argyle Bridge, Bath ca.1853-61.
The announcement today of the acquisition by the Ashmolean Museum of John Everett Millais’s celebrated portrait of John Ruskin at Glenfinlas marks a final chapter in the history of a painting intimately associated with one of Ruskin’s pupils, the photographer Sarah Angelina Acland. Lent and bequeathed by Ruskin to Miss Acland’s father, Henry Wentworth Acland, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, for three decades the portrait hung above Miss Acland’s writing desk in her home opposite the Sheldonian Theatre. The painting also served as a subject for her experiments in orthochromatic photography in the late 1890s, which she pursued in the spirit of the Pre-Raphaelites, whom she knew as a child.
Two important daguerreotypes showing Antoine Claudet and his son F J Claudet are being offered by Special Auction Services on Thursday, 16 May on behalf of a descendent of the family.
Antoine Claudet was an important daguerreotypist and photographic scientist from 1839 until his death in 1867 his portrait, although undated appears to be one of the earliest known. F J Claudet, his son, ran his own photographic studio in London.
For more information see: http://www.specialauctionservices.com/large/me150513/page26.html
The portrait sold for 30,000 GBP (see¨: http://www.specialauctionservices.com/large/me150513/index.html)
A priceless archive of golf photography covering the development of golf from the 19th century onwards, which includes the extensive golf photography archives of the Lawrence Levy collection and the collections of Scottish photographer George Cowie, is to benefit from the support of the Mission Hills Golf Group in China.
Mission Hills is strengthening its ties with St Andrew's by committing a six-figure sum to support the 600th anniversary celebrations of the university (founded in 1413), as well as the development of these special collections.
The full news article can be found here.
A group of 18 photographs of China by Felice Beato taken in 1860 was sold for £218,500 on the 14th May 2013 at Sotheby's London in the sale of Travel, Atlases, Maps and Natural History. The collection included a magnificent 6-part panorama of Beijing, the first ever taken showing the interior of the city. The price is believed to be an auction record for a group of photographs by Beato. Link: Sotheby's catalogue
