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In a basement at Shrewsbury's archives library a huge stack of plain brown boxes lay on shelves in rows 24 high. Between them, they contain 45,000 photos, some dating back to the 19th Century and about many of which almost nothing is known. Some 23,000 images have already been catalogued by volunteers since 2006 but almost the same number again are lacking simple information on the scenes, events and people depicted.

Volunteering for Shropshire's Heritage, a three-year Heritage Lottery-funded project, hopes to recruit a team of volunteers to complete the photo archiving job. About 15 volunteers are currently involved with the project, and more volunteers are required.

All of the photos that are catalogued will also be digitised and uploaded to the Shropshire Archives website. A series of exhibitions is also planned. The full report can be found here, and volunteering details here.

This is an opportunity from d'Overbroeck's College in Oxford, looking for an enthusiastic and able graduate to join a flourishing department. The College is happy to receive applications from newly qualified teachers, though a PGCE is not a requirement for this post. The post is part-time and the successful applicant will be expected to work two full days each week of term.

The vacancy has arisen because the College’s principal photography teacher, Elina Medley, is taking maternity leave. She expects to return to work after the Spring half-term. The successful applicant will teach in the Sixth Form at AS and A2 levels.
They are looking for a teacher who has a strong practical understanding and expertise in Photography combined with the strong teaching skills that include an ability to engage and enthuse students. They expect the appointed teacher to offer teaching in both digital and film work. A broad understanding of contemporary photographic practice and theory and the history of photography is expected. The A Level units are all coursework based and while this gives a teacher a high degree of flexibility in planning the courses, it also requires good organizational skills and the ability to work within a team.
They will expect the appointed teacher to organize and accompany students on location trips and gallery visits. Every year they have students going on to BA Photography courses as well as broader Art Foundation courses and admission for these competitive courses demands a high standard of work being produced.
All teachers are expected to contribute to the College’s extra-curricular programme. Applicants should complete the Form entitled Application for a Teaching Post which can be downloaded from the web-site www.doverbroecks.com/posts . The Application Form and Covering  Letter should be emailed to HR@doverbroecks.com and the signed copy sent to Heather Bates, FTAO Richard Knowles, Administrative Principal, d'Overbroeck's College, The Swan Building, 111 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6JX. The closing date for applications is Monday 16 April 2012.

Full details, including application etc can be found here. Good luck!

Hi All, Im new to this forum. I've recently purchased two framed Negretti Zambra images. I was hoping that one of your experts could enlighten me as to exactly what they are ??

Discovered in the early 1990s and dating back to the mid 1850's, this rare collection of Tom Morris-owned photographs is going on display for the first time. Known as the “golfing version of Tutankhamen’s Tomb”, this rare collection of 24 images - valued at around £350,000 - were discovered gathering dust in a St Andrews home by two collectors. Owned by Old Tom himself, they include personal photos of him and his family along with images of early Open champions like Willie Park, Andrew Strath and perhaps the greatest of them all - 'Young' Tom Morris.

It comes with a great story as reported in the Scotsman. They were discovered 'by chance' in the early 1990s after the original owner phoned a well-known English golf collector about selling a bag full of old hickory clubs. What seemed to be a wasted trip of rusty clubs and of little value, the owner then headed down the garden, pulled open the wooden door which hadn’t been opened for decades and in one corner they found a group of framed photos piled one on top of each other.

The first image was a head and shoulders portrait of Old Tom himself. Asked how she came to own them, she said that they belonged to Old Tom Morris and were passed down to her family after he died in 1908. Some of the photos were still in the black funeral frames they had been placed in after his death.

The rest they say is history, and you can read it here. Details of the exhibition can be found here.

I am not able with an iPad to load an image..
It is a portrait of sir Henry Taylor . He is wearing a beret. It is the same image I see that the v+a owns and also a museum in Sweden. I'm also wondering about having this image conserved. As soon as I can post an image for you both to see..thanks.



I need help in determining the rarity of an image.
Thanks.

As part of my PhD research on cameraless photography in the 19th century I am looking for Ackermann's Photogenic Drawing Box sold in 1839. This box contained all the necessary requisites to make a cameraless picture of flat material (a printing frame, brushes, prepared paper, bottles with liquids, sponge etc) and was no camera, which is often assumed.

So far I could find several announcements in journals of the time and the booklet which came with the box (republished by the RPS), but was unable to locate any real, still surviving box.

Any further hint on this would be most appreciated!

Last week I went to see the exhibition at the Royal Collection that I found deeply moving for a number of reasons. It was the first time that I had seen the two photographers work exhibited side-by-side and it is a testament to both photographers of the quality of the work but of the men themselves. Ponting's work clearly the more creative of the two with its breath taking vistas and sensitive framing left me a with a feeling of awe and tragedy. It is impossible to look at these images without feeling a surge of loss for the mean captured on the paper. The most moving image of all was the photograph taken when they reached the South Pole realizing that they had been beaten to their prize. The look of absolute hopelessness and despondency in their eyes is haunting and profoundly moving.

It is on for another three weeks so you need to be quick. The impression of this work will stay with me for a long-time to come.

The victims: Winston Churchill, King Edward VIII & Wallis Simpson, the Queen, Louis Blériot and Welsh miners, to name but a few

The culprit: Fleet Street photographer Jimmy Jarche

Not to be outdone by BBC's Frith, ITV's first instalment of the returning Perspectives documentary strand features actor David Suchet, a keen amateur photographer, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Fleet Street photographer Jimmy Jarche. He sets himself an assignment to meet the standards of modern day Fleet Street photojournalism by emulating and in some cases replicating Jarche’s classic photographs, with the aim of getting his pictures into the Sunday Times magazine. 
David’s journey takes him around the country, from a South Wales coal mine to 10 Downing Street, and from archives to art galleries. It provides an insight into Britain then and now through the images he uncovers and attempts to capture, shows how skilled photographers have to be in order to get the shot, and the challenges facing them.  Woven into the narrative is David’s story of the relationship with his grandfather, and his own passion for the unique power of photography.

After uncovering the depth, range and quality of Jarche’s archive, David also attempts to discover what the experts’ view is of his grandfather’s work and invites their appraisal of its importance and where he sits among the pantheon of acclaimed 20th century photographers. David also visits the archives of the imperial war museum with his brother John Suchet, to examine photographs from Jimmy’s time in North Africa and Burma during the Second World War. He then tries to get a sense of the challenges that face a war photographer, seeing just how difficult it is to take accurate pictures in the middle of a gun battle during training with the British Army.

'Perspectives – David Suchet: People I Have Shot' will be aired next Sunday 25th March 2012 at 10:15pm on ITV. You can read the official press release here, and a news article here. A related BPH post on Suchet can be found here too.

Photo: Jimmy's 1911 image of Winston Churchill, then Home Secretary, in a top hat (seen on left), during the armed Siege of Sidney Street in the East End.

If you can't get enough of Frith, then you're in luck. Especially if you happen to live in West Sussex too!

This is because West Sussex libraries in Chichester, Bognor Regis, Littlehampton and Crawley are the first of ten in the county to showcase photographs taken by renowned photographer Francis Frith over the next three months, until 31st March. All together nearly a total of 200 photographs, dating back from the 1890s to 1930s will be on display to coincide with the BBC 2 series. 

They will then be on show at Worthing and Horsham from Monday, April 2, to Saturday, April 21, and Shoreham from Monday, April 2, to Friday, April 13.  The libraries will also be selling A3 reproductions of the photograph - you've seen the series, you've read the book, now buy the prints!

All the photographs featured in the displays are available to view at the West Sussex Past Pictures website.

Photo: Copyright Francis Frith Collection.

Don't get too excited, guys, but this is the girl you've all been waiting for ......

Published recently, this book tells the remarkable story of the Kodak Girl, one of the most durable and successful marketing campaigns in advertising history. Created by George Eastman, inventor of the inexpensive hand-held camera, the Kodak Girl traces the intersection of American culture with photography as it evolved from a studio-bound practice to a snapshot obsession for the masses.

Martha Cooper’s extensive collection of Kodak Girl material ranges from advertising, by Kodak and other camera manufacturers, to photographs from all periods, engravings, trading cards, matchbooks as well as commemorative stamps and Valentine’s Days cards. This rich collection considers the relationship of the Kodak Girl to the birth of the snapshot during the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries, and is accompanied by two essays on the seminal role of women – on both sides of the camera – in photography's early history.

Available from Amazon using the link on the right and more info here: http://www.steidlville.com/books/1241-Kodak-Girl-From-the-Martha-Cooper-Collection.html

More than a thousand photography negatives and three hundred prints taken by Cardiff photographer Keith S. Robertson during the late 1970s and early 1980s, were found whilst Warwick Hall in Gabalfa, Cardiff was renovated in late 2010. Discovered by Cardiff-based freelance photographer, Jon Pountney, it forms the basis of an exhibition depicting Cardiff’s history.

Although only 30 years old, the scenes of the city’s areas of Splott, Butetown and Adamsdown in Keith’s photographs seem a world away from the Cardiff that we know today. Mr Pountney used 35mm film throughout the project, and has also built a custom darkroom to print all of the photographs for the exhibition to stay true to the original work.

Details of this new exhibition, titled Cardiff Before Cardiff, can be found here, and you can view some of them here.

It's a contemporary question, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that historical knowledge (as it so often does) will provide the key...

I am looking for any advice on tips and tricks for overcoming the problems of photographing in May in North West Greenland using digital, polaroid and pinhole?

Has anyone advice from their knowledge of historical photographic expeditions into the sub zero areas of the globe that would be useful?

Any and all help appreciated!

Mort Marsh

The first programme in the short series Britain's First Photo Album airs tonight on BBC2. Full information can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00nh3h3 

Here's the latest Newsletter, which covers this controversion subject: http://www.iphotocentral.com/news/issue_view.php/199/189 .  Too much bad information has been circulating about this auction.  The newsletter has a lot of other important stories as well, which are noted below:

The Barbican will be celebrating its 30th birthday this Thursday. Amongst one of the biggest celebrations planned for this year will be a photography exhibition in the autumn focusing on the 1960s and 1970s, and will include renowned photographers from across the globe, all working during two of the most memorable decades of the 20th Century.

Featuring a pantheon of leading figures of modern photography including David Goldblatt, Boris Mikhailov and Bruce Davidson, this exhibition tells a history of photography, through the photography of history. Details will be provided in BPH once published.

No, not on me. Dead - yes, Icon - definitely not.

Instead it's an interesting talk on Kodak's demise and why it was unable to escape its past and adapt to the new, digital world. Details of this talk at Cambridge University can be found here.

Photo: © 2011 Steve Taite.

Robert Elwall, Assistant director of the RIBA’s British Architectural Library, and the founder and curator of the RIBA Library Photographs Collection and RIBApix collapsed and died suddenly after a short illness. Robert had been continuing to work on various projects at RIBA.

Robert was a great writer of books and papers on photography and architecture in its broadest sense. A number of his articles are collected here: http://www.culture24.org.uk/am69854  He will be sorely missed. 

The Death of Poor Joe, which dates back to March 1901, was discovered by British Film Institute (BFI) curator Bryony Dixon, in February 2012. It is the oldest surviving film featuring a Charles Dickens character, discovered in the year of the 200th anniversary of the author's birth.

George Albert Smith was one of the most important figures in Victorian cinema. Smith saw and appreciated the Lumière programme in Leicester Square in March 1896. A group of film producers, which included Alfred Darling and James Williamson and known as the Hove Pioneers, established themselves in Brighton and Hove from 1897 onwards.

Smith was instrumental in the development of continuity editing. He knew and corresponded with Georges Méliès at this time. Méliès featured in the recent multiple Oscar winning film, Hugo.

Hove Museum has a permanent display on Smith, as well as Williamson.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17298021

Minnie Weisz's first London collodion wet-plate photography workshops were taught by France Scully Osterman and Mark Osterman in 2009/2010. Following in the footsteps of Frederick Scott Archer, the inventor of the collodion process in 1851, our 2012 weekend workshops are led by Jo Gane and John Brewer, experts in the field of 19th Century Photographic processes in the UK.

Learn to make unique images direct onto glass, aluminium and acrylic. Create portrait and still life images in the studio. Join our Collodion circle in King’s Cross.

There are just two places left for each weekend : 17th/18th - 24th/25th - 31st/1st April  - with each taking 6 people. The studio is offering a 10% discount for students. Weekend workshops are £320 for 2 days tuition, hands-on approach, making at least 7 plates each per workshop weekend.

HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESSES - MARCH 2012. 

MINNIE WEISZ STUDIO,  123 PANCRAS ROAD KING’S CROSS NW1 1UN

Click here to learn more:  Historic%20Photographic%20Processes_workshop_preview2.pdf.