Blogs

This Thursday sees the closing party for the 2012 London Festival of Photography. As part of the event there will be a fundraising auction of prints from some very well known names. The money raised will be used to support the 2013 festival. Details of the event can be found here: http://www.lfph.org/diary/best-of-the-festival-fundraising-auction and the auction catalogue is available here: http://www.lfph.org/downloads/Auction_list_2012.pdf

Photo: Ed Burtynsky from his oil series and included in the auction. 

Hands On Pictures has recently updated its list of 2012 workshops. Of particular interest is the 21 and 22 September workshop on the development of photography from Niepce's first ideas to the daguerreotype process. This will be a practical demonstration workshop leading on to a hands-on workshop. It will be given by David Burder who is one of the world's leading daguerreotypists.

See: www.hands-on-pictures.com. The workshops are summarised below:

WORKSHOPS 2012

Workshops at Hands-On Pictures in Richmond & Photofusion in Brixton

Perhaps the widest Choice of Alternative Photography Workshops in the world...

Bromoil 28 & 29 June & 27 and 28 October,  Terry King

Salt, Albumen and Van Dyke (brown prints) on 20,21 & 22 July, Terry King

Platinum Printing using film negatives on 7 & 8 July, Terry King

Cyanotype and Cyanotype Rex 12 & 13 July and 16 & 17 October and Terry King

Platinum at Photofusion, one day, 22 July, Terry King

Gum Bichromate (multicolour) 25 & 26 July & 1 & 2 August, 26 & 27 September Terry King

Gum at Photofusion, one-day, 29 July .

Platinum using digital negatives 4 & 5 August  Peter Moseley and Terry king

Pinhole 14,15 & 16 August  Derek Reay

Photoscreen 21 & 22 August, Brian Whitehead

Carbon 3,4 & 5 September Peter Moseley

Retouching analogue prints 11 & 12 September,  Kevin O’Neill,

3D Photography  18 August  David Burder

Niepce to Daguerre 21 & 22 September, David Burder

Polymer Gravure 30/31 August and 14 & 15 September, Peter Moseley

Mezzotint 18 & 19 September, Brian Whitehead

Multicolour gum 26 & 27 September, Terry King

Copper Plate Gravure 1,2 & 3, October, Peter Moseley

Wedgwood and Asphaltum 9 & 10 October, Terry King

Demonstration materials are included in the cost. Due to the high cost of some materials (e.g. platinum), an extra material fee may be applicable.

Timeline of Historical Film Colors is a database  compiled by Barbara Flueckiger, professor of film studies at the University of Zurich, in partnership with the Institute for the Performing Arts and Film, Zurich University of the Arts. It is based on her research at Harvard University in the framework of her project Film History Re-mastered. It is a work in progress and during the Summer of 2012, Barbara Flueckiger will add detailed pages for individual processes, see a first version for the Handschiegl process. Please report errors or suggestions.

See: http://zauberklang.ch/colorsys.php

This exhibition using the juxtaposition of 140 old and new photographs of the Great Wall shows an authentic portrayal of one of the great wonders of the world. Using images taken by archaeologists, geographers, travellers and enthusiasts over the last 140 years - both Chinese and from the West - it shows the wall and watch towers then and now allowing the viewer to grasp the enormity of this feat of human architecture.

Between 2001 and 2011 volunteers led by Zhang Baotian began to research and collect old photographs of the Great Wall while taking modern images from the old locations. This labour of love, trekking the whole length of the wall on foot and literally feeling the greatness of this magnificent ancient structure, resulted in the material for this unique exhibition.

The Great Wall became of interest for photographers in the 1880’s with the use of the newly invented camera. The new technology attracted a succession of pioneering photographers including George Ernest Morrison from Britain, William Edgar Geil from the USA and Sha Fei from China recording for its history, charm and physical presence for later generations.

With a theme of remembrance of the Great Wall and displayed in three parts;  Tracing Back, Keeping the invaders off and Everlasting Project the exhibition juxtaposed the ‘then and now’ location photographs with a time difference of 100 years reminding us of the vivid history of one of the most impressive and historic human structures.

There is no doubt of the importance of the Great Wall to the soul of the Chinese nation and in bringing the exhibition the London Olympics PPMG not only highlights this magnificent structure but reminds us that we now need to be concerned for its preservation for future generations.

This concern has been taken up by Li Xue, Vice President of PPMG, who has curated this exhibition. It has therefore been the pleasure of the Phoenix Publishing and Media Group to support the establishment and research of the Great Wall Centre in China to spread the knowledge of this magnificent human achievement.

In the UK, PPMG is also proud to acknowledge the support of The Hadrian’s Wall Trust in staging this exhibition and looks forward to collaborating with the Trust to further world interest in both structures and celebrate both their awards of World Heritage Sites.

Central Hall Westminster, London, SW1H 9NH. Until Friday 4^th August 2012   Free Entrance            

Sponsored by Phoenix Publishing & Media Group, CHINA

On 17^th Aug the exhibition moves to Charing Cross Library, London, WC2H 0HF until 17^th Sept

Upon request from several applicants worldwide, the deadline for submissions to the Shpilman International Prize for Excellence in Photography originally set to September 1, has been extended until September 15, 2012.

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem and the Shpilman Institute for Photography announce the opening of the 2012 edition of the Shpilman International Prize for Excellence in Photography and welcome nominations and submissions.

Awarded every second year, the Shpilman International Prize for Excellence in Photography aims to catalyze groundbreaking work in the field by providing scholars and photographers with financial support in the amount of $ 45,000.- in order to pursue original work and ideas in the medium. A first of its kind, the prize is awarded exclusively for the creation of new research rather than the recognition of previously completed projects. It is presented to an artist and/or scholar who aims to expand the boundaries of the medium and contribute to the understanding of photography.
As detailed in the regulations prospective candidates may include artists and scholars in photography with a rich and well established record of past achievements who intend to create new work or undertake new research in the field, ideally combining the theory and practice of photography.

Please visit our website http://www.imj.org.il/shpilmanprize for further information and make it known to anyone who might be interested. The new deadline for submissions now is September 15, 2012.

Faking It is divided into seven sections, each focusing on a different set of motivations for manipulating the camera image. “Picture Perfect” explores 19th-century photographers’ efforts to compensate for the new medium’s technical limitations—specifically, its inability to depict the world the way it looks to the naked eye. To augment photography’s monochrome palette, pigments were applied to portraits to make them more vivid and lifelike. Landscape photographers faced a different obstacle: the uneven sensitivity of early emulsions often resulted in blotchy, overexposed skies. To overcome this, many photographers, such as Gustave Le Gray and Carleton E. Watkins, created spectacular landscapes by printing two negatives on a single sheet of paper—one exposed for the land, the other for the sky. This section also explores the challenges involved in the creation of large group portraits, which were often cobbled together from dozens of photographs of individuals. 

For early art photographers, the ultimate creativity lay not in the act of taking a photograph but in the subsequent transformation of the camera image into a hand-crafted picture. “Artifice in the Name of Art” begins in the 1850s with elaborate combination prints of narrative and allegorical subjects by Oscar Gustave Rejlander and Henry Peach Robinson. It continues with the revival of Pictorialism at the dawn of the twentieth century in the work of artist-photographers such as Edward Steichen, Anne W. Brigman, and F. Holland Day. 

“Politics and Persuasion” presents photographs that were manipulated for explicitly political or ideological ends. It begins with Ernest Eugene Appert’s faked photographs of the 1871 Paris Commune massacres, and continues with images used to foster patriotism, advance racial ideologies, and support or protest totalitarian regimes. Sequences of photographs published in Stalin-era Soviet Russia from which purged Party officials were erased demonstrate the chilling ease with which the historical record could be falsified. Also featured are composite portraits of criminals by Francis Galton and original paste-ups of John Heartfield’s anti-Nazi photomontages of the 1930s. 

“Novelties and Amusements” brings together a broad variety of amateur and commercial photographs intended to astonish, amuse, and entertain. Here, we find popular images of figures holding their own severed heads or appearing doubled or tripled. Also included in this light-hearted section are ghostly images by the spirit photographer William Mumler, “tall-tale” postcards produced in Midwestern farming communities in the 1910s, trick photographs by amateurs, and Weegee’s experimental distortions of the 1940s. 

“Pictures in Print” reveals the ways in which newspapers, magazines, and advertisers have altered, improved, and sometimes fabricated images in their entirety to depict events that never occurred—such as the docking of a zeppelin on the tip of the Empire State Building. Highlights include Erwin Blumenfeld’s famous “Doe Eye”Vogue cover from 1950 and Richard Avedon’s multiple portrait of Audrey Hepburn photograph from 1967. “Mind’s Eye” features works from the 1920s through 1940s by such artists as Herbert Bayer, Maurice Tabard, Dora Maar, Clarence John Laughlin, and Grete Stern, who have used photography to evoke subjective states of mind, conjuring dreamlike scenarios and surreal imaginary worlds. 

The final section, “Protoshop,” presents photographs from the second half of the 20th century by Yves Klein, John Baldessari, Duane Michals, Jerry Uelsmann, and other artists who have adapted earlier techniques of image manipulation—such as spirit photography or news photo retouching—to create works that self-consciously and often humorously question photography’s presumed objectivity.

Details of the exhibition can be foundhere.

There is an interesting show I intend to visit at The Wapping Project Bankside that opened this week. See http://thewappingprojectbankside.com. It features the work of the late, great Lillian Bassman who sadly died in February this year as well as other key photographers represented by the gallery.

Image: Anne Saint-Marie, Chanel Advertising Campaign, New York, 1958. Gelatin Silver Print, 30 x 40". Edition of 25

The Science Museum Group Annual Report and Accounts 2011−2012 has been published. Of particular interest to BPH readers will be the sections dealing with the National Media Museum. Some of the highlight facts are: 

• Another significant collaboration within the Group during the year has been the ongoing development of Media Space. This gallery, based in the Science Museum and showcasing both National Media Museum (NMeM) and Science Museum collections, will provide a space for the exhibition of visual media, surrounded by cultural spaces for exploring, discussing, testing and exhibiting creative technologies. Coordination of the Media Space programme between London and Bradford will need to be carefully managed in order to get maximum benefit for both Museums.

• The NMeM welcomed 488,000 visitors 3% down against 2010–11 and 24% lower than the five-year average. The Museum saw a slight increase in general visitors over the year compared to 2010–11 and the overall reduction was mainly caused by a big drop in people coming to watch full-length IMAX films.
  We also enhanced access to our collections and knowledge through the launch of a new website for our online magazine, Archive.

• Virgin Media partnership: This year we were excited to receive confirmation of a major new partnership between the NMeM and Virgin Media, for Media Space.

• At the NMeM the volunteer programme continues to grow. We now have 66 volunteers who contributed 4100 hours of their time. Roles included the provision of a valuable research service for visitors through the Library project, facilitating the weekly senior screening film discussions and assisting with our programmed events and film festivals

The full report and detail can be found here: http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc1213/hc03/0382/0382.pdf

The National Media Museum is seeking internal applicants for the postion of Senior Marketing Executive. The post holder will make a significant contribution to the realisation of our ambition of becoming the best Museum Group in the world. They will work with the Communications Manager to develop strategy which has innovation and visitor insight right at its heart. They will devise and deliver integrated comms campaigns that have a strong digital bias which when combined with traditional activity will exceed targets whilst enhancing the reputation of the Museum. For the majority of campaigns they will provide the Marketing component but for smaller campaigns they’d fulfil all elements of the Comms Mix. They will take specific responsibility for the Museum’s digital comms strategy.

KEY DELIVERABLES /ACCOUNTABILITIES

1.      Work with the Marketing Exec to develop and execute the Museum’s marketing strategy. The strategy should have a heavy digital element and be: based on visitor insight, innovative, creative and fully integrated with the whole comms mix.

2.      Work independently and with colleagues to develop effective and integrated campaigns which have a strong digital bias that drive physical and online visitation. Taking the lead as Campaign Manager when appropriate.

3.      Line-manages the Marketing Executive and takes responsibility for the delivery of their business and personal development objectives with particular attention to the ‘One Film’ revenue targets.

4.      Take a lead role in working with the PR, web and research teams to ensure plans are integrated and on-message.

5.      To carry out routine administrative tasks required of the post

6.      Proactively develop excellent relationships with Museum staff and build an informed knowledge of the Museum, its intellectual territory and the sector.

7.      To deputise for the Communications Manager as and when necessary

8.      Make regular contributions to the Museum’s social media platforms.

9.      Act as Brand Guardian ensuring that all communications, activity, processes and the physical appearance within and around the Museum is on brand.

10.  Manages campaign budgets and timing schedules ensuring that all activity is delivered on time, on budget and compliant with NMSI Finance guidelines.

11.  To ensure you have the product necessary to pique both the interest of visitors and the media you will use your influencing skills to shape a cultural programme that is worthy of a ‘National Museum’, on brand and in line with our audience priorities.

12.  Take care of your personal health and safety and that of others and report any health and safety concerns. Ensure proactive compliance with NMSI H&S Policies, including risk assessments and implementing safe systems of work.

WORKING RELATIONSHIPS & CONTACTS

Internal

• They will report into the Comms Manager of the NationalMediaMuseum
• Collaborate with colleagues across the Museum to develop high profile comms campaigns and promotional initiatives and ensure relevant sign-off. This will particularly involve colleagues in the Cultural Programme, Film, Exhibitions teams, Design, Learning, Curators, Web, Development but also colleagues from right across the organisation.
• Work closely and share experiences with other Comms Team colleagues from across the Group e.g. those in sister Museums, the Visitor Insight Team and the Digital Marketing Manager.

External

• Partners e.g. Welcome to Yorkshire, Yorkshire Attractions Group, Bradford Council, BBC Big Screen and Sponsors
• Agencies – Media buying, Creative, Digital

Line management and budget responsibility

Directly line manages: 1 person, the Marketing Exec.

Budget holder of: will vary from campaign to campaign, unlikely to exceed £100k per campaign.

CANDIDATE PROFILE

Experience

• Solid grounding in a marketing role with experience of digital, ideally within the arts, heritage or leisure sectors.
• Experience of working closely with a Media Relations team with some direct Press experience.
• Experience of mentoring or line managing staff
• Practical experience of formulating and delivering integrated communications campaigns and managing budgets.
• Project management experience with a track record for effectively delivering multiple projects at one time in a busy environment.
• Track record of achieving significant results through digital channels.
• Experience of working within a complex, matrix layered and multi stakeholder organisation.
• Proven experience of influencing the cultural offer through visitor insight, brand and audience priorities.

Skills knowledge and relevant qualifications

• Confident and articulate with strong analytical and strategic skills
• Educated to degree level or with a relevant Comms qualification or demonstrated experience.
• Knowledge of a wide range of marketing techniques and concepts with specific emphasis on digital skills, and the ability to apply these selectively to comms plans and campaigns
• Proven ability to manage relationships across a large organisation and with third party partners/suppliers.
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to plan and prioritise complex and competing workloads under budget, resource and time pressures.
• A proven ability of managing budgets/financial management processes
• Up to speed with the latest thinking in communications, paying particular attention to the latest trends and innovations in digital media.

Behaviours

• Exceptional team player with the confidence and integrity to earn internal team confidence quickly.
• Single minded, results driven with a track record of relentless delivery.
• Creative with the ability to think laterally.
• Highly motivated, solutions focused, identifies and deals with obstacles to success, not deterred by setbacks.
• Takes pride in delivering work of high standard.
• Prioritises objectives and plans work, flexible and uses initiative.
• Flexibility to work occasional unsocial hours.

Scope for impact

The main aim of the post holder is to raise the profile of the Museum through the development and implementation of high profile and creative comms campaigns that generate visits to the Museum, its festivals and to the Cinema offer. In some cases they’ll deliver the campaign in its entirety e.g. the whole mix. However, for larger campaigns they’ll focus on the Marketing component only. They’ll be specifically responsible for the Museum’s digital comms strategy. This activity will enable us to meet our targets whilst enhancing the reputation of the Museum and the strength of the brand.

• Visitor numbers – Delivery of budgeted visitor numbers will lead to us achieving commercial targets and more positive relationships with sponsors, partners and the DCMS.
• Brand – Delivery of a consistently strong brand underpins the successful delivery of our business plans.
• Onsite sales – Delivery of budgeted onsite revenue will contribute to the successful trading of NMSI Enterprises which in turn makes more cash available to NMSI.

Please note:

• This job description is not exhaustive and amendments and additions may be required in line with future changes in policy, regulation or organisational requirements, it will be reviewed on a regular basis.
• This role is subject to a Disclosure Scotland basic criminal record check 
  
  Closing date is 26th July 2012
  
  INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY

Details: http://tinyurl.com/cs8twjy

This project is a collaboration between scholars at the University of Bristol, University of Lincoln, the Institut d'Asie Orientale and TGE-Adonis this project aims to locate, archive, and disseminate photographs from the substantial holdings of images of modern China held mostly in private hands overseas. These are often of even greater historic interest than might ordinarily be the case, as the destruction of materials inside China in war and revolution in the twentieth century, and especially during the 1966-69 Cultural Revolution, means that there is a relative dearth today of accessible photographic records in China itself. 

Turmoil in China, and emigration from the country, also led to the development of a large Chinese diaspora. Moreover, thousands of foreigners lived and worked in China between the 1840s and the 1950s, and many thousands more visited for longer or shorter periods. Chinese emigrants, foreign expatriates and visitors alike took, bought or otherwise acquired photographs. Many of these are in libraries and collections in the West, and in addition our research in modern Chinese history has led us to many interesting private collections. Images from private and public collections are available here.

The project held an exhibition and published a companoion book, Picturing China 1870-1950: Photographs from British Collections (Chinese Maritime Customs Project Occasional Papers No.1, 2007, ISSN: 1755-6643)

Visit the website here: http://hpc.vcea.net/

The BBC website carries news of a rising interest in China's photographic heritage. The article begins:  China's photographic record begins only in the 1970s because nearly all earlier pictures were destroyed. The ones that survived are mostly outside China, and a major effort is now under way to bring them together online, says Mary Ward-Lowery.

Twelve years ago a student from Peking University knocked on Robert Bickers' door.

He'd come, he said, to study Keats, but he knew Professor Bickers was a historian, a specialist in Sino-British relations at Bristol University.

The student had been given a travel grant to come to the UK, with specific instructions to find historical photographs of Peking University. "Because we don't have any," his Chinese professors told him.

Old photograph fever is currently sweeping China. A new and intense appetite for images of the country's past has resulted in a publishing phenomenon - sales of books of historical photographs have rocketed.

Such photographs are exceptionally rare in China. The turbulent history of the 20th Century meant that many archives were destroyed by war, invasion and revolution. Mao Zedong's government regarded the past as a "black" time, to be erased in favour of the New China. The Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s finished the job.

The full artcile can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18784990

Sotheby's is to offer an autograph letter from William Henry Fox Talbot, signed, in French to Antonion Bertolini, referring  to  the  latter's  Flora  Italica  and  discussing  some  specimens  he  has  collected. The letter will be sold on 10 July 2012 in London and is estimated at £4000-6000. The full catalogue entry can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/bny4b39

UPDATED: The lot sold for £11,250 including buyers premium.

The catalogue description and text is reported here:

TALBOT,  HENRY  FOX.  

AUTOGRAPH  LETTER  SIGNED,  IN  FRENCH,  TO  ANTONIO  BERTOLINI 

referring  to  the  latter's  Flora  Italica  and  discussing  some  specimens  he  has  collected,  2  pages,  4to,  Nice,  12  November  1833,  integral  address  leaf

[with:]  two  autograph  letters  signed  and  one  autograph  letter,  to  Robert  Hunt,  on  a  publication  in  the  Athenaeum  and  a  dispute  with  Dr  Woods  on  photographic  techniques,  6  pages,  8vo,  Lacock  Abbey,  23  December  1851  to  29  January  1852,  one  letter  incomplete  lacking  second  leaf;  [and:]  autograph  appointment  note  making  an  appointment  with  Dr  Buckland,  1  page,  8vo,  Angel  Hotel,  29  July;  and  with  one  later  letter

[also  with:]  Cros,  Charles.  Solution  Générale  du  Probléme  de  la  Photographie  des  Couleurs.  Paris:  Gauthier-Villars,  1869;  Essai  de  Théorie  Daguerrienne  et  Résultats  Pratiques.  Paris:  J.-B.  Gros,  1844;  A  Description  of  the  Instruments  employed  in  the  Gallery  of  Natural [also  with:]  Cros,  Charles.  Solution  Générale  du  Probléme  de  la  Photographie  des  Couleurs.  Paris:  Gauthier-Villars,  1869;  Essai  de  Théorie  Daguerrienne  et  Résultats  Pratiques.  Paris:  J.-B.  Gros,  1844;  A  Description  of  the  Instruments  employed  in  the  Gallery  of  Natural  Magic.  London:  G.H.  Davidson,  1839,  an  exhibition  catalogue  citing  the  "Ingenuity  of  M.  Daguerre  and  Mr.  H.  Fox  Talbot"  and  with  a  sonnet  in  praise  of  Fox  Talbot

LITERATURE
The Correspondence of Henry Fox Talbot (http://foxtalbot.dmu.ac.uk/project/project.html) includes a summary of the
letter to Bertolini and transcriptions of early drafts of the letters to Hunt, from Talbot's Letter Book.

‘What a blessed invention photography is!’ Queen Victoria, 20 March 1859.

Host to the late Stuart and early Hanoverian courts, as well as the childhood home of Queen Victoria, Kensington Palace will celebrate 2012 with an exhibition on Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee of 1897, as well as holding a series of adult learning workshops which includes Early Victorian Photography and Street Photography 1897 and 2012.

Of course, the one to be sold out first is the 18th Century Wine Tasting! Details can all be found in the Events section of BPH.

The  Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums have recently published on-line what is thought to be the last surviving album of Victorian criminal photographs from the Newcastle area, ranging from ragamuffin children to the elderly and infirm, of all ages.

These sepia images, to help with the identification of criminal classes and to support theories about criminal physiology, were taken at the Newcastle City Gaol and House of Correction Collection between December 1871 and December 1873. The youngest of the criminals was 11 year old, Ellen Woodman, who was caught stealing iron and given 7 days hard labour.

You can view them on their flickr account here, or there is a book published a few years ago entitled Victorian Villains, by Barry Redfern, which gives further information on the individuals who were convicted. If interested, you can purchase the book using the Amazon link on the right. 

London's excellent and little known Cinema Museum is holding a special evening event on 12 July celebrating the Hollywood movie still. Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe… It is through the eye of the stills camera that we experience and recall some of the cinema’s most memorable events and faces.

Joel W. Finler traces the origin of stills photography during the silent era and the early development of the star system, through to the rise of the giant studios in the 1930s and their eventual decline, focusing on the photographers, the stars they photographed, and key films and filmmakers. The evening will include rare and unusual stills from Finler’s own collection, not only portraits and scene stills but also production shots, behind-the-scenes photos, poster art, calendar art, photo collages and trick shots, together with images showing the stars’ private lives and special events in Hollywood. In addition there will be some fascinating insights into unfinished projects and changed film endings.

This event coincides with the publication of a lavishly illustrated new edition of Joel’s book Hollywood Movie Stills: Art and Technique in the Golden Age of the Studios, published by Titan Books; signed copies will be available.

• ”A delightful book filled with little-known facts about the evolution of movie stills and enough rare photos to keep one smiling” (American Cinematographer)
• “More than just another selection of gorgeous films stills, this offers a comprehensive survey of the studio photographer’s craft” (Premiere)
• “Unlike most photo books, Hollywood Movie Stills actually has a text worth reading, filled as it is with acute observations” (New York Magazine)

Thu 12 Jul 2012 @ 19:30 · See: http://www.cinemamuseum.org.uk/topics/events/

Doors open at 18.30 for a 19.30 start, and the event is expected to end at 22.30. Refreshments will be available.

Ikon, one of the UK’s leading international contemporary art galleries seeks to appoint a  dynamic and creative individual to the post of Curator. They will work with the Director to initiate and deliver an ambitious exhibition programme at the gallery and off-site. The successful candidate will have at least five years’ experience of working with contemporary visual art from around the world, have considerable experience of writing and publishing, and will be concerned at once with audience development and with the promotion of visual artists locally, nationally and internationally.
This post is offered on a full-time permanent basis.

Deadline for applications: Monday 30 July - noon
Interviews: Monday 3 September 2012

Curator  £30,345 - £33,054

Full details, including application, can be found here.

The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is a major center for the study, interpretation, presentation, and collecting of photography, with over 27,000 photographs in the collection offering a comprehensive international history of the medium from its origins in the 1840s to the present. The Museum is committed to continuing its legacy and history of achievement through the appointment of the next Peter C. Bunnell Curator of Photography to hold the position endowed in Bunnell's honor in 2011. The position will be filled at the rank of professional specialist or associate professional specialist.

The Museum seeks an experienced person with impeccable credentials who has the ability to formulate and advance a vision for a university museum with an historic commitment to photography as a core component of its program. Reporting to the Associate Director for Collections and Exhibitions, and in close coordination with the Director, the Curator will be responsible for:
- formulating a collecting strategy in this area and securing significant new acquisitions for the collections through both gifts and purchases, drawing on considerable purchase resources;
- regularly developing wide-ranging installations from the collections for the collections galleries, both in photography-specific gallery settings and commingled with works from other media, including the development of rich didactic materials in collaboration with the Museum's Education Department;
- organizing a range of special exhibitions ranging from ambitious international touring projects to smaller, more focused exhibitions, including project management and budget oversight for these projects;
- undertaking major object-based research and publications projects, related both to the exhibition program and to the collections;
- developing important public education programs including lectures, artist's residencies, colloquia, and symposia, in partnership with the Museum's Education Department;
- fostering collaborative relationships with other museums, with colleagues in Princeton's Department of Art & Archaeology, and with academic colleagues across the Princeton University campus;
- facilitating faculty, student, and other scholarly access to and research from the Museum's photographic holdings;
- supporting the University's teaching needs in the history of photography and occasionally teaching or co-teaching courses subject to approval by the Dean of the Faculty; and
- overseeing the care and coordinating the conservation of the Museum's photographic holdings in concert with the Museum's collections and registration staff.

Further details can be found here.

Just released information discloses that the Matthew R. Isenburg Collection of early photography has sold to the Archive of Modern Conflict (AMC) for a record $15 million, and has now been moved to its new home in Toronto, Canada where a new museum facility is being designed for its future display.  This is the most significant, and historically important, sale of photographic material of the last 50 years; a deal that was conceived and brokered by vintage photography dealer, Greg French, of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.

In the quiet town of Hadlyme, Connecticut, the largest single private purchase of vintage photographs, and early photographic equipment and ephemera, was consummated with the simple shake of the hand this past April.  No paperwork, no written agreement, no lawyers present - just a handshake between like-minded people who understood the importance of keeping a historical collection together, and not splitting it up. They met for the first time at two o'clock in the afternoon, and by 2 a.m. the next morning "they had a deal," Isenburg said. "There was an instant trust between all of us."  Weeks later, papers were officially signed to legalize the deal, but it was the handshake that sealed the deal for Isenburg, and what he put his trust in.

$15 million is the largest amount ever paid for a single 19th century private photographic collection, and far surpasses the combined total of $8 million paid in 1994 and 2007 for two separate photographic collections assembled by the late, Jack Naylor, of Chestnut Hill, MA.  Even the $250,000.00 paid in 1963 by the Harry Ransom Center in Texas for Helmut Gernsheim's historically important photography collection (it contained the world's first photograph), would only translate into less than $2 million in today's dollars, although the collection is undoubtedly worth much more in today’s market.

Isenburg's collection is significant to the history of photography because it contains so many early and important daguerreotypes (the first practical photographic process), created by the earliest and best photographers in America - when photography was in its infancy in the 1840s and 1850s.  Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, 1787-1851, the inventor of the daguerreotype, announced his new process to the world on August 19, 1839 in France.

The collection also contains the largest number of early American daguerreian cameras (more than two dozen) ever assembled by anyone.  The George Eastman House in Rochester, NY has only eight American daguerreian cameras in their collection.

To characterize Isenburg's collection in a few words, it's the best of the best; an unparalleled assemblage of over 20,000 individual items, focused mainly on the early years, that together chronicle photography's humble beginnings - through not only important images and cameras, but through all the various accoutrements of the trade - also including advertisements, diaries, books, journals and all manner of photographic ephemera imaginable. Isenburg has often said, "I paid premium prices for best of breed, best in class.”

The 85-year-old Isenburg has owned numerous Ford auto dealerships in the past, whose success afforded him the opportunity to collect.  He isn't just a collector though; he's a photo historian who's always been more interested in piecing together the story behind an object or image, than he is about just owning something.  He's a photographic compendium who's spent the last fifty years seeking out history through photography.

In the third floor museum (now empty) in his home, a priceless daguerreotype would be displayed next to a tattered receipt and a handwritten letter or diary because they relate to one another and tell a compelling story.  He owned the posing chair from America's premier daguerreotypists, Southworth and Hawes of Boston, in addition to the largest collection of Southworth and Hawes full-plate daguerreotypes (over 40) in private hands.  Along with the chair, many other Southworth and Hawes items - from family photos and letters, to paintings, bills of sale, a partnership agreement, advertisements and ephemera, help to reveal the story of what it was like to be a photographer in the 1850s.

Highlights of Isenburg's vast collection include one of the earliest surviving daguerreotypes (there are only two others known) showing the US Capitol in 1846, by daguerreotypist John Plumbe Jr., along with the two earliest daguerreotypes depicting New York City.  He also owned the earliest extant, and complete, example of an American daguerreotype camera outfit - built by William H. Butler in 1841, and containing its original sensitizing and developing equipment, all housed together in a single wooden box.  His collection of California Gold Rush daguerreotypes, with related letters and ephemera, is unparalleled, and his photographic library was probably the most comprehensive in private hands.  Another unique item was Isenburg's one-of-a-kind c. 1855 exquisitely hand-carved-and-painted American eagle with a greater than eight-foot wing span which is sitting atop the carving's framed centerpiece - a full-plate outdoor daguerreotype depicting a Massachusetts military company in full dress uniforms.  The daguerreotype is surrounded by additional military-themed-carvings depicting an American flag, sword, cannon, cannon balls and a drum.

The packing and shipping of the collection took a crew of anywhere from five to nine people - five full weeks to complete over the past two months (all paid for by AMC), and a cherry picker had to be rented in order to remove the over eight-foot-wide carved American eagle and other objects from the third floor museum.

The task of unpacking, cataloging and photographing every item has begun in Toronto, and is being carried out by AMC's newly-appointed curators of the collection, Jill Offenbeck and Amanda Shear, both of Toronto. The AMC’s chief photography buyer in North America, Neil MacDonald, also from Toronto, was instrumental in convincing AMC that the Isenburg Collection was essential to their vision.  Toronto native and Daguerreian Society President Mike Robinson has been recently appointed as AMC's Director of Education and Research Programs and will oversee the organization and cataloging of the collection.

With offices in both London, England and Toronto, AMC's collection of well over three million images contains primarily vernacular photographs that tell mankind's forgotten stories through the personal photographic albums and images created and preserved by the common man; an un-bandaged reality, rarely seen, and too often discarded by ensuing generations.  Images of 20th century conflict, war, political unrest, social revolution, cultural traditions, etc. were AMC's primary focus when they began collecting in the 1990s, but that soon expanded to include 19th century images as well as manuscripts and objects.  The addition of the Isenburg Collection, adds a formidable dimension to AMC's holdings, much as the Gernsheim Collection added early photo-history to the Harry Ransom Center in Texas.

A PhD thesis examining the growth of British photographic manufacturing and retailing between 1839 and 1914 has won the Association of Business Historian's 2012 Coleman Prize for the best PhD in business history. Named in honour of the British Business Historian Donald Coleman, the prize is awarded annually to recognise excellence in new research in the field and is open internationally.

Michael Pritchard's PhD thesis was undertaken at De Montfort University between 2007 and 2010 under the supervision of Professor Roger Taylor. A revised version of the thesis will be appearing in book form. 

The Museum für Fotografie is exhibiting a collection of around 280 portraits taken in India and Sri Lanka during the second half of the 19th century, at the height of Britain’s imperial might.  The collection, which belongs to the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, was thought to have been lost during the Second World War and only came back to Berlin after Germany’s reunification in 1992. 
Works include images by famous photographers such as Samuel Bourne and John Burke, as well as lesser-known artists. Details of the exhibition can be found here.

Photo: Shepherd & Robertson, Goldsmith, 1862-63