The Courtauld is holding a research seminar in history of photography which is open to all. On Wednesday, 27 February – Sarah Kember (Professor of New Technologies of Communication, Goldsmiths, University of London) will talk about Ubiquitous Photography: from Everywhere to ‘Everyware’. 5.30pm, Research Forum South Room. Further information here: http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/researchforum/TheCourtauldInstituteofArtHistoryofPhotographyseminar_SarahKember.shtml
All Posts (5181)
Sort by
BPH carried a report on the Gernheim exhibition currently on view at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen in Mannheim (see: here). The museum has kindly supplied an image showing the installation of Niépce View from the window at Le Gras, c.1826-7.
I am researching a photographer by the name of Sam Weller. He lived in London areas of Catford and Pinner up until late 1960s. He founded The Bromoil Circle of Great Britain,of which I am secretary. Apart from some prints in our archive collection,I know very little about him. Any information re contacts,images etc would be much appreciated.
The final decade of the nineteenth century possesses a power to intrigue and fascinate that seems only to grow with time. More than a mere decade, the 1890s continues to inspire works of both fiction and non-fiction. It is a period known by many names - fin-de-siècle, Decadent Nineties, the Beardsley Years, the Yellow Decade, even the Naughty Nineties - and populated by a coterie of literary and artistic icons whose work captured the spirit of the passing age.
Despite a number of important developments in photography during this time, the subject has tended to be treated in isolation from this surrounding culture. The seven essays in this book on the subject of nude photography were published in The Studio, The Photogram or the Photographic Times between June 1893 and September 1898, and although their focus is on practical photography, the three authors make frequent allusions - veiled or explicit - to the wider world of arts and letters. A scholarly introduction by James Downs clearly shows how these essays formed part of a larger conversation about aesthetics, sexuality and representation in art at the turn of the last century.
The collection of texts includes a reprint of Joseph Gleeson White's long meditation on the photographic nude in The Studio, with the first reproductions of Baron von Gloeden's work published in the UK. There are also photos by the other authors, Robert Hobart Cust and James Rooth, Frederick Rolfe ('Baron Corvo') and others, all of which are reproduced from the original publications.
You may purchase a copy on your local Amazon site or your local bookseller will be able to order a copy from their wholesaler using the ISBN number above. A Carnal Medium can also be ordered direct from the publisher, Callum James Books, using paypal (to email address callum@callumjamesbooks.com) or by sending a cheque, made payable to "S. Martin" to Callum James Books, 31A Chichester Road, Portsmouth, UK - PO2 0AA.
A Carnal Medium: Fin-de-siecle Essays on the Photographic Nude
Edited by James Downs
Published by Callum James Books, Portsmouth. Paperback, 144pp, 48 illustrations.
ISBN: 978-0957450103
Photography is not just a technology for documenting life: like most technologies, it is itself a powerful agent of social change. The presence of the photographer turns us all into performers: almost all aspects of life – from high politics to consumption, from violence to sex – change for and through the gaze of the camera. The habit of being photographed has become so ingrained that we are barely conscious of it, and yet, we constantly play to the camera. And even where it is temporarily absent, our behaviour is no longer naive; we see it through the prism of photographs of similar scenes, which we re-enact, appropriate or try to subvert. What is more, the role of photographer and photographed are no longer separate. From the early decades of the 20th century, the ranks of professional photographers were swollen by a growing army of amateurs, ranging from the dedicated and technically-versed practitioner to the more casual family snapshotter, typically equipped with small, portable and affordable cameras. The mass production of photographic images that resulted not only provides a window onto aspects of the human experience on which written sources provide no or only very mediated evidence. It was itself a social and political practice that transformed and transforms the social worlds we inhabit.
Around 1920, László Moholy-Nagy predicted that “the illiterates of the future will be the people who know nothing of photography, rather than those who are ignorant of the art of writing.” In 1992, W J T Mitchell noted the same deficit, and called for a “pictorial turn” in the humanities and social sciences. Another twenty years later, the study of photography is still often characterized by work in the art-historical tradition focused on the work of key individual photographers. At the same time historians often draw on photographs to illustrate their work, yet rarely explore the transformative impact that the images they reproduce have exercised. Meanwhile, however, a growing body of work is emerging (for instance within ethnography) that illuminates photography as social and political practice, examines diverse types of amateur photography and sheds light on popular engagement with different genres of photography. Our conference seeks to bring together scholars from a range of disciplines to contribute to this emerging debate about photography as something we study not just for its aesthetic properties, but as a social practice, and as an archive of knowledge and power.
To this end, we are now inviting paper proposals for an interdisciplinary conference to be held on 27-29 June 2013 at the University of Nottingham, UK. Papers will be pre-circulated, and presenters will be invited to introduce their main hypotheses, and talk us through 5-10 key images at the event itself, which will be framed by a keynote and a roundtable. Our aim is to explore photographs not just as documents or reflections of a historical reality around them, but as active interventions in that reality. We are interested in papers that address photographers as actors in particular contexts as well as those that focus on interactions between photographers and their subjects, the performance of those who act in front of and for the camera and the relationship of photographers and those photographed in co-producing the resulting images.
We particularly invite submissions that explore the relationship and the changing and blurring of boundaries between professional and amateur photographers, and between private and public/published photography. How did amateur photographers respond to the published images that surrounded them? Did they imitate, modify, subvert, or indeed ignore existing conventions regarding ‘good photography’ or (under particular circumstances/regimes) an officially sanctioned gaze? And to what extent did professional photographers respond to or seek to influence the practices of amateur photography? Papers may also wish to explore how we place the amateur snapshot (or, as some historians have called it, the story of ‘mass participation in photography’) into photographic history. Finally, we would like to invite submissions about the practices concerning the popular viewing, use and circulation of professional and amateur photographs, as well as the paratexts surrounding them, ranging from photo albums and illustrated diaries to captions or articles.
Paper proposals of c. 500 - 750 words should be submitted by email to maiken.umbach@nottingham.ac.uk and Elizabeth.harvey@nottingham.ac.uk by 31 January 2013. Speakers will be invited to submit a paper for pre-circulation of c. 3,500 words plus up to 10 images, to which they will speak at the conference in 15-minute slots, followed by ample discussion time. There will be no conference fee for speakers, and we shall provide lunches and refreshments. Speakers will, however, have to cover their own travel expenses and the cost of subsidised university accommodation. After the conference, selected speakers will be invited to contribute to a special issue we have been commissioned to edit for the journal Central European History.
Call for Papers
“Professional Photography and Amateur Snapshots: Reconstructing Histories of Influence, Dialogue and Subversion”
27-29 June 2013
The Birth of Photography: Highlights of the Helmut Gernsheim Collection, is a special exhibition at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim’s Forum Internationale Photographie (FIP), and showcases two centuries of the history of photography. In homage to the ground-breaking photographer Helmut Gernsheim (1913-1995), the exhibition on the occasion of his 100th birthday reunites both parts of his one-of-a-kind collection of photographs for the first time in half a century. One of the most exceptional highlights of the history of photography will be on display – the “first photograph in the world”, a landscape photograph taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826.
With a total of 250 objects, the exhibition which opened on 9 September 2012 and extended to 24 February 2013 takes an unprecedented look at 19th and 20th century photography and its different stages. Visitors can follow the development of photography from the first daguerreotypes to the Victorian era up through masterpieces by contemporary photographers, which shape our collective visual memory. This exhibition is a collaborative undertaking between the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin, which houses the historical part of the Gernsheim collection.
Thanks to their collaboration, the 'first photograph' will be exclusively on display on European soil again for the first time since 1963: The first outdoor photograph in the world, the heliograph “View from the Window at Le Gras” by the Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826. After being displayed in an exhibition at the Crystal Palace in Sydenham in 1898, the work was thought lost for over five decades. Helmut Gernsheim spent years investigating the picture’s trail until he finally tracked it down in 1952 in a steamer trunk stored in London. This sensational discovery enabled Gernsheim to date the birth of photography thirteen years earlier than 1839, accepted at that time as the year of photography’s invention.
The exhibition will present other significant works from the historical portion of the Gernsheim collection, including some of the earliest daguerreotypes such as Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre’s picture of “Notre-Dame and the Île de la Cité, Paris” made around 1838. Visitors can look forward to a journey through the currents of 19th century photography: from artistically oriented pictorialism to early war reporting up through nascent travel photography.
In addition to pictures from photography’s infancy, the show will present numerous icons of contemporary photography, arranged thematically: Works of nude, architectural, travel, urban, landscape and portrait photography will be on display, as will experimental and journalistic pictures by world-famous photographers. This one-time reunion of works from Gernsheim’s historical and contemporary collections in one comprehensive show will provide visitors to the exhibition fascinating insights into the nearly two hundred year history of photography.
The exhibition “The Birth of Photography: Highlights of the Helmut Gernsheim Collection” is being organized by the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin. A richly illustrated catalog will be published by Kehrer.
See: www.rem-mannheim.de
The exhibition is accompanied by a German/English catalogue by REM curator Dr Claude Sui.
Either/And has been devised as a framework within which to debate and share perspectives, using issues and questions posed by the National Media Museum and its partners as the catalyst for discussion and exchange relating to media. A series of commissioned essays, interviews, images and films will be published on the site to serve as the catalyst for online public discussion.
New content has been added over recent months with more due shortly.
Photo50 is an exhibition of contemporary and historical photography featuring fifty works, curated this year by Nick Hackworth, Director of Paradise Row.
A 'Cyclical Poem' is a partial and elliptical look at the relationship between photography and a cluster of themes: time, memory and repetition. It brings together photographers who have had long and significant careers. The British documentary photographers with works in the exhibition are Ian Beesley, Brian Griffin, Dorothy Bohm, Paul Hill, Sirkka Liisa-Kontinnen, Marketa Luskacova, Chris Steele-Perkins, and Homer Sykes.
Photo50 will be at the London Art Fair from 16th-20th of January 2013. Details can be found on the website at www.londonartfair.co.uk.
In common with newspapers, radio and television at this time of year it seems appropriate to look forward to 2013...The year will see the:
- Thirtieth anniversary of the National Media Museum. The museum opened as the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television in Bradford in 1983, with a remit to explore the art and science of the image and image-making.
- The Royal Photographic Society will commemorate its 160th anniversary, The Society was founded in London as the Photographic Society in 1853 and held its inaugural meeting on 20 January that year.
- 'Kodak' celebrates its 125th anniversary. The word Kodak was registered as a trade mark in 1888 and the world's first [original] Kodak camera was introduced that year.
- Kodak also introduced the Instamatic camera fifty years ago in 1963 based around the new Instamatic cartridge designed to make film-loading fool-proof.
- Leica has an important centenary and 90th anniversary. In 1913 The first Leica prototypes were built by Oskar Barnack at Ernst Leitz Optische Werke, Wetzlar. Ten years later in 1923 a pre-production run of 31 cameras were built.
There are probably others. What else happened in 1838 (175th), 1863 (150th), 1888 (125th), 1913 (100th), 1938 (75th) 1963 (50th), and 1988 (25th), 2003 (10th) or on any of the less obvious dates?
Please add your suggestions below.
With the end of analogue photography, the fate of the negative material is sealed as storage of image information, the place of the visual perception is mediated digital information entered. They will remove the knowledge of the nature of the photosensitive substrate, which had as a primary medium of recording over 150 years associated with the essential photography.
It therefore seems at the time, critically reflect on from a distance with the related phenomenon of the negative and of its interest in photography to question its meaning and benefits. At the cabinet exhibition The Creation of Beauty. Frank Eugene and the technique of art photography (3.12.2012.-24.02.2013) organized in cooperation with the German Museum of History and Archives section of the DGPh a conference that will discuss some key aspects of the negative. The contributions to the conference are focused on the genesis of the medium and its "finish" in the course of history. Use and importance of the negative into art, science and film production are as much for discussion as well as his epistemic potential within the media theory.
This is an Interdisciplinary Conference of the Deutsches Museum in cooperation with the German Society for Photography (DGPh)
Programme
Friday 22, February 2013
13:00 to 14:00
Registration and Coffee
14:00 to 14:30
Welcome by Helmuth Trischler, Head of Research, Deutsches Museum
Cornelia Kemp, Munich
Introduction to the conference
Section 1 PAPER FROM THE FILM
Director: Hans Christian Adam, Göttingen
14:30 to 15:15
Larry J. Schaaf, Baltimore
The black magic of Talbot's sciagraphy - extracting light from the shadows
15:15 to 16:00
Marc Osterman, Rochester
Truth and the Photographic Negative
4:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Coffee break
16:30 to 17:15
Dorothea Peters, Wanzka
The search for the right tone
17:15 to 18:00
Rolf Sachsse, Saarbrücken
The color negative and color palettes
18:00 to 19:00
Tour of the exhibition "The Creation of Beauty.
Frank Eugene and the technique of art photography "
Saturday 23, February 2013
Section 2 MANIPULATION
Conductor: Ulrich Pohlmann, Munich
10:00 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. Dagmar Keultjes (Cologne)
The invisible mask. The corrective negative retouching in portrait photography from 1850 to 1900
10:45 to 11:30 Cornelia Kemp, Munich
The Creation of Beauty. Frank Eugene and the technique of art photography
11:30 to 12:15
Marjen Schmidt, Oberhausen
The techniques of manipulation. The glass plate negatives of Frank Eugene
12:15 to 13:45
Lunchtime
SECTION 3 WAYS TO USE ART, SCIENCE AND FILM
Director: Martin Loiperdinger, Trier
13:45 to 14:30
Floris Neusüss, Kassel
For photogram. A negative without negative?
14:30 to 15:15
Jochen Hennig and Vera conceit, Berlin
Negative and negative imagery. Process and viewing habits and how to overcome in microscopy and X-ray technology
15:15 to 16:00
Martin Koerber, Berlin
The film and the original negative - opportunities and threats
Coffee break
16:30 to 17:15
Siegfried Zielinski, Berlin
Instantaneous archeology (the technical image)
17:15 to 18:00
Final discussion
18:00
Presentation of the Research Award DGPh photographic history
Exhibition Photo + Film, 2nd OG
A binding, free registration is requested by 8 February 2013.
Contact and registration:
Dr. Cornelia Kemp (c.kemp@deutsches-museum.de)
Heidemarie Klotz beer (h.klotzbier@deutsches-museum.de)
Phone 0049 - (0) 89-2179-380
Fax: 0049 - (0) 89-2179-514
Mark Sealy, Director of Autograph: The Association for Black Photographers has been honoured by being awarded a MBE in the UK New Year Honours List 'For services to Photography'.
More information about Autograph-ABH, its exhibitions and important archive of photography can be found here: http://www.autograph-abp.co.uk/
The V&A Photographs Department has just issued its latest newsletter. It gives news of the past year, exhibitions and other activities of the curatorial staff.
Click here to read it and to subscribe: V&A Newsletter
FORMAT13 will bring the busiest and most ambitious programme of exhibitions and events planned yet. To help realise this we are looking to form a first-class team of volunteers to help us setup and deliver the festival.
FORMAT’s success relies on the enthusiasm and hard work of a group of committed volunteers. FORMAT13 offers volunteers the invaluable experience of working with internationally renowned curators, photographers, festival management team and the camaraderie of being part of an international experience. FORMAT will provide training, support and a reference to help your future career. Previous volunteers, who have excelled in their roles by showing passion and dedication, have been employed by QUAD/FORMAT, and many other creative organisations.
We will make every effort to offer a range of experience and match individuals where possible to particular areas of interest. We are interested in volunteers from all backgrounds and areas of the community.
Join our team and help deliver the biggest and best FORMAT yet!
Deadline for applications is the 14th January 2013. Interviews will be held in the week commencing 21st January.
To apply, please download the FORMAT Volunteer Application, Person Specification and Equal Opportunities form below and return to formatvolunteers@derbyquad.co.uk or via post:
FAO Volunteer Coordinator FORMAT Festival/QUAD Market Place Cathedral Quarter Derby DE1 3AS UKMuseums Journal reports that the National Media Museum, Bradford, has made cuts of about £250,000 in the first phase of its review of spending, which is due to complete at the end of January. Direct changes have been made to 35 roles and nine members of staff have taken voluntary redundancy. The roles reorganised so far were from: collections; public programme; communications; design; and learning departments.
There were 183 roles across the museum before the restructure, including 41 casual staff.
Jo Quinton-Tulloch, head of the National Media Museum, said: "We do not anticipate any compulsory redundancies in this phase, and despite the on-going requirement to save money I am confident these changes will enable the National Media Museum to deliver a re-vitalised visitor offer, a more varied programme and focus on the use, research and development of the core collections.”
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.
See: http://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/19122012-national-media-museum-announces-first-phase-of-spending-review and http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/local/localbrad/10115551.__250_000_is_saved_Bradford_s_National_Media_Museum_costs/
Fotomuseum Winterthur is an international museum. It sees itself as a vibrant space for exhibitions, education and collection, dedicated to the presentation and discourse on photography and images related to photography.
Founded in 1993, Fotomuseum Winterthur sees photography as an art form as well as a documentation of reality. It presents perspectives on photography through monographic and theme-oriented exhibitions, symposia, exhibition tours, and lectures, as well as the blog Still Searching – An Online Discourse on Photography and Plat(t)form. In addition, it hosts a comprehensive collection which is publicly accessible on its homepage.
The Directors are responsible for the exhibition, education and event programs as well as the operational management of the museum. The precise areas of responsibility for both Co-Directors will be defined accordingly.
In the position of Co-Director we seek someone of the younger generation. Candidates should be particularly knowledgeable in the history of photography as well as contemporary international photography and art. Candidates should have completed art college or university studies and have proven experience in organization and project management. They should be well versed in current forms of communication and new media, and display an aptitude for creativity and teamwork. Linguistic proficiency in German and English is also required.
For further information, please contact Monika Faber (photoinstitut-at-bonartes.org), and visit www.fotomuseum.ch.
Please send your detailed application by January 8, 2013 to:
Findungskommission Fotomuseum Winterthur
c/o Franz Probst
Bahnhofplatz 18
CH-8400 Winterthur, Switzerland
Award winning, visionary and truly unique, the National Media Museum embraces photography, film, television, radio and the web. As Project Management Support Assistant, you will coordinate and support the Indian Cinema 100 project and programme of events.
This role offers the opportunity to be right at the heart of a new programme for the Museum. You must have office management experience with the skills to coordinate meetings, compile schedules and produce a variety of spreadsheets, documents and reports to a high standard. Efficient and customer-focused, you will ensure that every aspect of the project is run effectively, including payment of suppliers, information flow and event planning. Experience of project and budget management, supported by strong secretarial skills, is an advantage.
Part of the Science Museum Group of museums, the National Media Museum aims to engage, inspire and educate through comprehensive collections, innovative education programmes and a powerful yet sensitive approach to contemporary issues.
Full details can be found here.
De Montfort University's Photographic History Research Centre has announced its Spring term research seminars in cultures of photography. These take place on Tuesdays 4 – 6pm in the Edith Murphy Building at De Montfort University, Leicester.
January 15th
Dr Annabella Pollen (University of Brighton) [EM 5.15]
Here Comes Everybody? Mass-participation photography
February 5th
Dr. Ewa Manikowska (Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw) [EM 1.27]
Turning local into universal. Museums, photography and the discovery of Poland’s cultural patrimony (1918-1939)
March 5th
Dr Jennifer Baird (Birkbeck College University of London) [EM 1.27]
Exposing Archaeology: Time, Beauty, and the Role of Photographs in Archaeological Knowledge
All welcome, no need to book, just turn up. Any queries, please contact the convener: Professor Elizabeth Edwards, Photographic History Research Centre (eedwards@dmu.ac.uk)
In 1862, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) was sent on a four-month educational tour of the Middle East, accompanied by the British photographer Francis Bedford (1815-94). This exhibition documents his journey through the work of Bedford, the first photographer to travel on a royal tour. It explores the cultural and political significance Victorian Britain attached to the region, which was then as complex and contested as it remains today.
The tour took the Prince to Egypt, Palestine and the Holy Land, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Greece. He met rulers, politicians and other notable figures, and travelled in a manner unassociated with royalty – by horse and camping out in tents. On the royal party’s return to England, Francis Bedford’s work was displayed in what was described as ‘the most important photographic exhibition that has hitherto been placed before the public’.
The photographs, which belong to the Royal Collection, will form part of this new exhibition to be held at The Queen’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse, from March 8, 2013. Further details can be found here and you can read some info here too.
I would like to share this opportunity to apply for a fellowship at the Harry Ransom Center as part of its 2013-2014 research fellowship program. Please note that applications must be received by February 1, 2013 in order to be considered for the 2013-2014 academic year
The Harry Ransom Center, an internationally renowned humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, annually awards over 50 fellowships to support research projects in all areas of the humanities, including photography.
The Center’s photography collection includes the first photograph, created in 1826 byJoseph Nicéphore Niépce, the Helmut and Alison Gernsheim collection of nineteenth-century photography, and holdings of such twentieth-century photographers as E. O. Goldbeck, Walker Evans, Fritz Henle, Ruth Robertson, and Arnold Newman, among others. The Ransom Center also houses the Magnum Photos collection as well as the archive of Elliott Erwitt. For more information about the Center’s photography collection, visit http://budurl.com/zhan.
The fellowships range from one to three months, with stipends of $3,000 per month. Also available are $1,200 to $1,700 travel stipends and dissertation fellowships with a $1,500 stipend. Complete applications for the 2013-2014 Research Fellowships in the Humanities must be received by February 1, 2013. More information about the fellowships and complete application instructions are available online at http://budurl.com/86sx.
Best,
Jessica McDonald
Curator of Photography
Harry Ransom Center
In partnership with Plymouth University The Royal Photographic Society is hosting a seminar on 6 February 2013 on photographers' archives and their legacy. This is one of a series of events being held in Manchester, Birmingham and London.
The event will be of particular interest to:
- photographers with any sort of archive;
- students and early career photographers who should think about this from the start;
- curators, librarians and archivists; and
- families of photographers who are thinking about what to do with an archive.
Click here to find out more and to book. The event is free but places are limited.
