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In recognition of St. Patrick's Day, Ancestry.com,  the world's largest online family history resource, today launched The Irish Collection -- the definitive 19^th century collection of Irish historical records. The collection provides nearly 100 years of insight into life in  Ireland in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Because few records exist from this time period, the collection is immensely valuable to people researching their Irish heritage and anyone seeking a more comprehensive view of Ireland before and after the Great Potato Famine, during which time many millions fled Ireland in search of a better life.

The Irish Collection, 1824-1910 includes The Lawrence Collection, 1870-1910 which is a collection of 20,000 photographs showcases the length and breadth of Ireland -- Howth Head in the East to Achill Head in the West and from Malin Head in the North to Skibbereen in the South -- through the eyes of William Lawrence's photography studio in Dublin.

The entire collection is indexed so they can be searched by subject, location, and county. The Lawrence Collection, one of the most significant early photographic collections documenting Ireland, consists of some 40,000 glass-plate negatives taken between 1870 and 1910. Chief photographer Robert French traveled to every county in Ireland taking pictures, and many of the photos were reproduced on postcards and in albums during the late 19th and early 20th century. The collection is named for William Lawrence, who opened a photography studio in Dublin in 1865 and hired French as one of his photographers. The plates are now housed in the National Library of Ireland.

Full details can be found here.

The National Media Museum in Bradford has announced a £30,000 commission for the creation of two new-media artworks to be included in a major exhibition as part of Yorkshire’s regional cultural programme for London 2012.

In the Blink of an Eye, which opens in March 2012, will explore themes surrounding the capture and synthesis of movement. It offers artists the opportunity to engage with and respond to images and artefacts from the Collections of the National Media Museum, including the work of Dr. Harold E. Edgerton, Roger Fenton, Tim Macmillan, Étienne-Jules Marey and Eadweard Muybridge.

Up to £15,000 is available for each selected proposal, of which £5,000 allocated as a fixed artist fee, and up to £10,000 available for development and production costs. Collaborative proposals and artworks created by individuals or groups of artists are welcome. Applicants are required to be UK residents and cannot be in undergraduate study. Artists from the fields of photography, film, digital or computer based art are invited to get in touch by the deadline of May 16. Application forms and submission guidelines can be downloaded here, and you can read the rest of the news article here.

Following on from the posting discussion the so-called Dodgson daguerreotype, I would like to discuss a present day problem which exists with internet sales of images. How often have we seen Daguerreotypes mislabeled as Ambrotypes (yet never in my experience the other way around)? This is sometimes the innocent mistake by a general seller who would not easily distinguish between the two, but have heard the name Daguerreotype used on similar items. This kind of seller will be most happy to alter the description when it is pointed out to them. As someone who watches a lot of images on Ebay, I will sometimes contact the seller and help with the description on mislabeled items. Unfortunately, as in the case of the Dodgson Daguerreotype, the seller sometimes appears not to really care about the veracity of the claims, as long as a good sale can be made. I have noticed that this kind of seller often will not include the well meant advice in the "Any Questions" box at the bottom of the item for sale page, thus keeping any prospective buyers unaware of the concerns. I wonder if this is an area that Ebay needs to look at, making all questions sent in about an item, visible to others?

Most sellers I have had dealings with have been fine, but on occasion I have come across dealers who have gone out of their way to make descriptions of the image for sale, shall we say, interesting! I remember one dealer who trades as Camera$ who often appeared to describe images in such a way. When I emailed them to advise that the Dag on offer was not likely to be a member of the British Royal Family, I was given short shrift!

It has happened again this week. Probably stirred on by the Dodgson posting, I contacted a dealer trading as iambwt, on ebay. They are currently listing a Dag of a young woman under the title of "Pretty GOLD MINERS WIFE Gold Nugget Jewellery Empty Vase" Item number: 140525548485. (Please check it out )

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140525548485&rvr_id=219785514456&mfe=sidebar

Well from the title I think that three words can be shown to be correct. Yes, though subjective, the young lady is pretty, and the vase is indeed empty! Apart from that I have my concerns. It appears to be a standard unattributed Dag with the ladies jewellery picked out in gold. As you all will know, this is not uncommon. As for the broach being a "Gold Nugget",  in my opinion is wishful thinking, and as for the relationship of this young lady with a gold miner, there is no evidence at all. Indeed looking at her fingers there is no sign of a wedding ring, which would normally be picked out. The starting price for this Dag is $299, which is far more than a Dag of this type would normally fetch. The seller, it would appear, is trying to attach the "Gold miner" connection in order to achieve a better price.

I alerted the seller to this, but surprise surprise, they were not interested, they did not alter the listing or show my question at the bottom of the page, for others to judge. My question to the photo community is, should we bother to try to put these misrepresentations right, and where does the legality lie? Should Ebay be more proactive in these maters? I'm usually in two minds whether to contact the seller over a major mislabeling, but I do hate to see people misled, intentionally or not.

BPH can reveal the strategic priorities and medium term plans for the National Media Museum (NMeM), Bradford. These are set within the context of a 15 per cent government grant-in-aid reduction for the period 2011–12 to 2014–15. This is alongside a capital allocation that has reduced by over 50% from the previous spending review period. Bradford and the expectation that external private funding will be much harder to secure. The impact of the closure of the UK Film Council is still to be gauged in relation to the NMeM.

As a result the National Museum of Science and Industry (NMSI), the parent body of the NMeM and the other constituent museums, has a programme of change aimed at reducing costs, increasing efficiency and increasing income which will inevitably impact on the NMeM and its activities.  Across NMSI Staff costs are due to be reduced by 10 per cent. On a positive note the development of the NMeM gallery, Media Space – formerly known as the London presence – in London, completing the Internet Gallery, and agreeing a plan for the longer-term development of the NMeM are all seen as NMSI priorities.

Action plan

The museum has redefined its objective which is now: to be the best museum in the world for inspiring people to learn about, engage with and create media

·         Collections care and management

The NMeM, as part of NMSI, has already started work on realising a number of objectives. It is in the process of relocating objects held in its Black Dyke Mills store, just outside of Bradford, to the NMSI’s high density store at Wroughton.  One of its 2011-12 deliverables it to ‘realise improvements in environmental standards at the NMeM main site, including the extension of conservation facilities’.  A conservator was recently appointed.

NMSI is also developing an archives management system aimed at presenting material in the collections online. Alongside this effort the NMeM is tasked with progressing ‘targeted strategic acquisitions at the NMeM and their links to programme revenue generation including photographic and film archives, gaming and animation, driven by brand essence and values’

·         Audience targets and context.

In 2010–11 the National Media Museum is on target to reach between 500,000 and 550,000 visitors – well below the historical average. Visitor numbers have declined for a second year after a previous period of significant growth. Although some factors influencing the numbers have been beyond the Museum’s control, the decline has brought into sharp relief the need to make urgent improvements to the visitor welcome and day-to-day programme delivery, to accelerate the refreshing of galleries and to convey a clear, confident and high-impact message about the Museum to the outside world.

In 2011–12 the visitor target is 575,000. It is believed that a brand awareness campaign, developments to the Museum’s on-going programme (including more live interpretation, the development of an evening offer for adults and a stronger exhibition programme) and the opening of the new city centre park can help deliver this target.

In line with physical visitors, online visitor numbers were also down in 2010–11. The 2011–12 online visitor target seeks to improve on 2010–11, with 772,000 online visitors, although this will remain below the 2009–10 high of 846,000. The launch of the Internet Gallery, coupled with regular content updates to the website and a more focused social media campaign, should mean this target is achievable.

2011–12 deliverables

·         Gallery developments

o   Complete and open the Internet Gallery

o   Carry out a series of short-term gallery improvements including the Magic Factory, Profiles, Kodak and Animation galleries and relocation of the Games Lounge

·         Exhibitions, programmes and displays

o   Deliver an enhanced temporary exhibitions programme and  associated web content including: The Lives of Great Photographers; David Spero: Churches; Donovan Wylie: Bradford Fellow; Daniel Meadows: Fieldwork

o   Cultural Olympiad exhibitions: In the Blink of an Eye: Studies in Time and Motion; Crossing Boundaries: Bodies in Motion

o   Design and deliver more daily live interpretation including live shows

o   Design and deliver themed programming with contemporary relevance six times a year, covering the main school holiday periods

o   Design and deliver a new evening adult programme

o   Deliver the new film strategy to achieve a higher profile for the cinema operation and financial breakeven

o   Continue to develop the touring exhibition programme

·         Learning

o   Support the creation and delivery of exhibitions, programmes and displays, especially through audience research and advocacy

o   Deliver training for volunteers, casuals and explainers to deliver learning programmes

o   Promote and disseminate the Anim8ed web resource to museums and schools throughout the UK

o   Deliver the Internet Gallery youth engagement programme

o   Increase visits from booked groups and associated income, including enhanced school programme packages generating revenue

o   Deliver collections-based programmes for booked HE photography groups along with an HE photography online resource on landscape

o   Deliver regular non-school group leader and teacher preview events

o   Deliver 60,500 booked educational visitors

o   Deliver 93,500 adult and child visitors participating in onsite and off-site organised activities

·         Digital

o   Develop a digital strategy

o   Support and promote the non-digital exhibitions, film and learning programme, repurposing content online where cost-effective, using experimental solutions where appropriate

o   Develop media ‘debate and share’ web presence

o   Continue curatorial and digitisation input of content into a newly redeveloped website

2012–13 to 2014–15 planning and deliverables

·         Media Space in partnership with the Science Museum (due to open in 2012)

·         Fully costed ten-year development plan for the galleries and other spaces, exploring additional affordable space through a joint redevelopment with the adjacent Bradford Central Library to include larger purpose-built and more efficient temporary exhibition and collections care and management spaces, improved group learning spaces, media training facilities and multipurpose spaces as well as improved catering and retail spaces

·         Explore whether any joint development with the library might also form part of a wider development with other organisations to help the regeneration of central Bradford

·         Deliver live programmes that inspire our audiences to learn about, engage with and create media to 130,000 visitors by 2015.

De Montfort University, Leicester, is offering a  PhD research studentship within the Photographic History Research Centre (PHRC), an international leading multi-disciplinary research institute, to suitably qualified UK or EU students.

The researcher will investigate an aspect of his or her own choosing that will address ‘The Nature of Kodak Research’. The researcher will have access to our partner institutions with substantial Kodak holdings: the British Library, the University of Rochester, the Victorian Museum, Melbourne, the National Media Museum, Bradford, and the George Eastman House, Rochester.

This research opportunity is funded by DMU in 2011/12 to build on our excellent achievements in the RAE 2008 and looking forward to REF 2014. It will develop the University’s research capacity into new and evolving areas of study, enhancing DMU’s national and international research partnerships.

The Nature of Kodak Research
Kodak, the company trading variously as Eastman Dry Plate Company, Eastman Kodak, Eastman Chemical Co, Kodak AG, Kodak Pathé and Kodak Ltd, is one of the icons of globalised industry.

‘Kodak’ became an uncommon eponym – a verb as well as a noun – and its research reached the heart of the global industries of defense, medicine, paper manufacture, chemistry and leisure. The four areas of Kodak marketing, business practice, research and manufacturing that united this global company provide unique insight into twentieth century history, through the lens of a photographic company.

In 2009, the Kodak Ltd archive entered the British Library, while the research journals were given to De Montfort University. These complement holdings at the University of Rochester, NY; The Media Museum, Bradford; the Victoria Museum, Melbourne, the George Eastman House, Rochester and Ryerson University, Toronto. A networking bid is already underway from the PHRC to unite these institutions in a formal Network.

The Photographic History Research Centre seeks a PhD candidate to research a specific aspect of The Nature of Kodak Research. The Kodak Research Laboratory was founded in 1912, with the installation of the Director Dr Kenneth Mees.

Subsequent research laboratories in other territories also took up directed and blue-sky research within their own organisations. Research at Kodak was many things: Emulsion research for scientific projects; chemical industry research; medical applications of photography; defense industry research on infra-red film; and colour research, among other things. The candidate may choose one of these specific areas, or an area reflecting his or her own specialist knowledge. The successful candidate will demonstrate an interest in the history of photography and the history of science.

Utilising the full spectrum of the networked archives, the successful candidate will participate in Network activities, and will have unprecedented access to the international spectrum of Kodak research. He or she will also have access to advice from all named partners in the Network, as well as the DMU supervisory team.

The Photographic History Research Centre has a strong track record in both the history of science and research of photographic industries. Among our active members working in this area are: Dr Michael Pritchard (British Industry), Dr Kelley Wilder (science and photography) and David Prakel (PhD candidate working on Kodak).

The PHRC seeks an energetic and team oriented person to join this growing scholarly community.
Applications are invited from UK or EU students with a good first degree (First, 2:1 or equivalent) in a relevant subject. Doctoral scholarships are available for up to three years full-time study starting October 2011 and provide a bursary of £13,770pa in addition to University tuition fees.

Applicants should contact the Faculty Research Office to receive an application pack, which requires a full CV with two supporting. Applications close Monday, 11 April 2011.

Contact:  Helen Harrison e: hharrison@dmu.ac.uk. Tel: +44 (0)116 257 7520 quoting ref: DMU studentships 2011

For a more detailed description of the studentship project please contact Dr Kelley Wilder on +44 (0)116 207 8865 or email kwilder@dmu.ac.uk  

Click here for more information: http://www.dmu.ac.uk/research/aad/scholarships-and-bursaries/phd-studentship-the-nature-of-kodak-research.jsp

A small group on Flickr has been formed dedicated to the calotype and its variant processes. It is intended both for modern day calotypists as well as for those with an interest in the calotype as an historic process.

Click here to visit and sign up: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1384661@N22/

Photographic collections are found in libraries, archives and museums all over the world. Their sensitivity to environmental conditions, and the speed with which images can deteriorate present special challenges. This one day training session is led by Susie Clark, accredited photographic conservator. It is aimed at those with responsibility for the care of photographic collections regardless of institutional context.

The day provides an introduction to understanding and identifying photographic processes and their vulnerability, information on common conservation problems and solutions, and the preservation measures that can be taken to prolong the life and accessibility of photographic collections. Contact with real examples of different photographic processes is an important feature of this training session which is therefore limited to only 16 places. At the end of the day participants will be able to:

•identify historic photographic processes
•explain how damage is caused
•implement appropriate preservation measures
•commission conservation work.
Feedback from previous participants
•I learned how to store photographic material, how to identify different photographic processes and techniques to preserve photographic stock.
•Very worthwhile due to practical nature of the training day. I am able to leave here today confident that we can improve and upgrade basic preservation solutions, particularly storage, based on information learned about photographic processes and supports.
•I will review our approach to preserving photographic collections, upgrade storage media, and survey collections to identify preservation priorities.

Programme
9.45 Registration
10.00 Welcome and introduction
10.15 History and identification of photographic processes
11.30 Break
11.45 Conservation problems and solutions

12.45 Lunch
13.45 Conservation problems and solutions
14.45 Break
15.00 Preservation measures
16.15 End (and further opportunity to look at examples)

Details: http://www.bl.uk/blpac/photographic.html

Preservation Advisory Centre Training Day

Friday 20 May 2011

British Library Centre for Conservation
96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB

I am pleased to announce that I have been asked by the City of Ballarat in Australia to do an exhibition on my great grandfather Henry Sutton 1856-1912 who was an Australian inventor.

Featured in the exhibition will be information about Henry's halftone photographic process called Electro-Phototypy and will include some published photographs of Henry's which were of Hale End in England. Henry also used these photograph's in the promotion of his business he started in London in 1891 called "Sutton's Process Syndicate Limited"

A lot of information about his process and company in England has yet to be recorded or known about by Australians so if anyone in Australia is interested to see the exhibition it will be held on the 7th and 8th of May 2011 for Ballarat's Heritage Weekend see the link attached.

James Hyman Photography is delighted to mark our presence at AIPAD Art Fair for the first time with a specially curated presentation of British social photography which also precisely coincides with the 20th Anniversary of the Museum of Modern Art Exhibition British Photography from the Thatcher Years. The 1991 MOMA exhibition, curated by Susan Kismaric, drew attention to a new wave of British photographers who were not only engaged with the transformation of British society during the Thatcher years, but also in many cases placed colour photography at the centre of their practice.

In order to build on this earlier New York exhibition, James Hyman Photography's AIPAD exhibition From Talbot to Fox broadens the range of photographers shown in order to provide a wider historical and geographical context.

Starting with the earliest photographers the exhibition explores the importance of class and identifies themes such as work and leisure, the urban and the rural, wealth and poverty, home and away, and war and peace to explore not only Britain's changing society but also the development of different photographic approaches to this environment.

The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication on the subject.

The exhibition includes the following photographers amongst others:

William Henry Fox Talbot
David Octavius Hill & Robert Adamson
Roger Fenton
Horatio Ross
Julia Margaret Cameron
Thomas Annan
Bill Brandt
Bert Hardy
Roger Mayne
Cecil Beaton
Caroline Coon
Paul Reas
Jem Southam
Ken Grant
Karen Knorr
Anna Fox

16.03.2011 • 20.03.2011

James Hyman at AIPAD 2011: Booth 414
From Talbot to Fox. 150 Years of British Social Photography

There is a back story to this item. The daguerreotype had been taken into Tennants, a large regional auction house in the north of England, for valuation and authentication. The auction house, properly recognising the daguerreotype’s potential wider interest and possible high value, did some research and made contact with one of the UK’s leading Carroll experts who consulted a second. Both pronounced the subject of the daguerreotype as someone other than Carroll. They made four key points: firstly, Claudet’s Adelaide Gallery was only operating between 1841 and 1847, secondly, by 1858 the daguerreotype process in Britain had been largely superseded by the wet collodion process in commercial photographic studios such as Claudets, and, thirdly, Carroll was a diligent and noted diarist and made no mention of a visit to Claudet’s studio, and finally, the gentlemen shown in the daguerreotype was not Dodgson which was immediately apparent to the experts - as a simple comparison with other known portraits (including a well-known 1857 portrait - see right, below) of Dodgson would reveal. The auction house rightly decided that they were not able to offer the daguerreotype at auction and it was returned to the owner.

It resurfaced on eBay on 3 March 2011 offered by virtually-cameras. As has now been confirmed to me by someone with direct knowledge of the daguerreotype and the authentication (not the expert) the eBay seller was the same person who took it to the auction house for authentication. But Peter described the daguerreotype only as he saw it, albeit misspelling Dodgson as Dodson, Claudet as Claude and Adelaide as Adelade, and quoting the typewritten label in full. He was careful to say only that the daguerreotype was ‘labelled’ and he made no reference to Lewis Carroll. Peter made no mention of the fact that the daguerreotype had been examined by an expert who had discounted any possibility that it showed Dodgson. On 5 May Peter corrected the Claudet misspelling and added some biographical details about Claudet, presumably found on the internet.

As one might imagine an image of Carroll would attract considerable interest and the description contained plenty in it to allow it to be picked up by buyers’ search terms. Almost as soon as the lot was listed ‘Matthew’ asked Peter if he could buy it straight away for £300. Peter, quite properly declined. Ending an auction early to sell it would breach eBay’s terms of business. But Peter was also expressed surprised by the reaction the lot was attracting and said he wanted to let the auction run its course. A couple of further questions followed which he answered including confirmation of the size: ‘the frame size is 7.5 x 8.5 cm. The visible image is 6 x 5.5 cm’.

I was tipped off about the lot by a friend on 12 March. Looking at the description and image something didn’t ring true and I did some checking. I compared the image with others properly identified as Dodgson and I checked material I had on Claudet which confirmed his business addresses. I also knew that by 1857 it was more likely that the image should be a collodion positive or ambrotype.  I emailed Peter via eBay asking one question: ‘what did he know about the provenance of the image?’ pointing out that the label might allow people to make a link to Carroll which could be unfortunate. Peter responded promptly not really answering my question: ‘I'm sure you will realise after giving some serious thought that it's certainly not possible that I could know how the typed label was placed with the photograph,when the typed label clearly appears to be as old as the photograph! Perhaps you are unaware that a Daguerreotype is a negative image unlike the positive images with which you are making comparison.’

In the meantime I did some research on typewriter history and I concluded that the label was post-1870 and probably c1890-1910. I responded to Peter saying that the provenance would have been useful as ‘I was hoping that the image might have come from a source that would have supported the identification of the subject’. I pointed out that the typewritten label was almost certainly post 1870. Peter again replied promptly: ‘The image was purchased some time ago along with another of a girl, an ambrotype, after being sold at auction in Darlington County Durham’. He also asserted that typewriters dated back to the ‘late 1700s’ and that daguerreotypes ‘show a positive image when tilted against the light however the sitters image is reversed onto backing silvered material during exposure making it a true negative image and only by changing the angle of lighting does the Daguerreotype give the impression of being a positive’. Peter decided not to publish my questions and his responses alongside the description (eBay automates this if it is wanted) – unlike those of his other questioners. I decided to leave it at that.

As I stated at the beginning the daguerreotype sold for £3300.

I think there are a couple of lessons here. For the seller, some simple research should have thrown up some concerns about the image's subject. Peter has been on eBay since 2008. Looking at his past sales he appears to mainly sell modern photographic equipment on eBay, for which he has received good feedback, so the daguerreotype was clearly out of his main area of expertise. Some simple checking would have flagged up that the image was unlikely to be Carroll. He was clearly surprised at the interest the lot was generating and this might have acted as a warning. Since originally writing the piece I have been advised by someone who had discussed the matter with Peter was Peter had been the person who took the daguerreotype to the auction house. As such he clearly had a duty to flag the opinion that the experts had raised in his eBay description.  

Buyers also have a responsibility – caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). Peter carefully made no link to Dodgson and simply described the daguerreotype as he saw it - allowing buyers to draw their own conclusions. It might be possible that two buyers liked a possible Claudet daguerreotype and were prepared to pay well over the normal price for such an image. That is unlikely. What is more likely is that bidders thought that they were about to get a bargain which they could resell at a profit; or they bid having jumped to their own conclusion that the subject was Carroll and failed to carry out any further research. It would not have been difficult to do and for the eventual buyer it might have prevented an expensive mistake.

A cautionary tale, indeed.

Dr Michael Pritchard

Have you ever wondered about loss of information in archives caused by material decay? Or about what makes an archival photograph fit-for-purpose? I am Ann Fenech, a PhD student at the UCL Centre for Sustainable Heritage looking at degradation of colour photographs. I will be exploring these questions as part of my PhD. 

One of the questions the research project ‘Lifetime of Colour Photographs in Mixed Archival Collections’ aims to tackle is the way material degradation is linked to information content in photographic images. In particular, the point where photographs are no longer ‘fit for purpose’ is of interest. To understand this better this question will be explored with various groups of stakeholders - curators and custodians to photographic collectors, scientists and the general public - in order to capture a variety of opinions.

The aim of the 1-hr workshops is to define the point at which changes in information content is no longer considered to be acceptable for photographs in archives. The workshops will start with a brief introduction to the project and the exercise. The assessment exercise will consist of a classification exercise of photographs at different stages of degradation. This will be followed by a brief discussion on any issues arising from the exercise. Following the workshops and data analysis, a report on the results of the workshop will be circulated to all participants.

Read more about the project: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sustainableheritage/Fenech.html

To voice your opinion and explore the issues we invite you to attend a 1-hour long workshop as part of the research project ‘Lifetime of Colour Photographs in Mixed Archival Collections’. Kindly visit the workshop webpage for more information or register your interest.

Workshops are planned for the following days at the Heritage Science Laboratory (Gordon House), 29 Gordon Street, WC1H 0PP, London. 

Monday 4th April 2011 at 4pm

Monday 11th April 2011 at 4pm

Friday 15th April 2011 at 4pm

Thursday 5th May 2011 at 4pm

Tuesday 10th May 2011 at 5pm

Friday 13th May 2011 at 1pm

Friday 13th May 2011 at 4pm

If none of these dates are appropriate, please contact me as further workshops are planned for the future.

I look forward to meeting you at the workshops,

Ann Fenech – PhD Student

E-mail: a.fenech@ucl.ac.uk

Phone No: 02076791973

Supervisors: Matija Strlič (UCL-CSH) and Nancy Bell (TNA)

UK AHRC/EPSRC Science and Heritage Programme project CDA 08/ 412

Long-tailed-crowd-sourced-socially-enterprising-game-playing-platform-sensitive-open-sourced-world. Charlotte Cotton is the creative director of the Media Space - a partnership between the Science Museum and the National Media Museum that will open in London in 2012.

Charlotte Cotton began her curatorial practice in the early 1990s, at the start of a growing wave of institutional interest in photography as contemporary art. Concomitant to this cultural ascendance of photography, was the increasing programmatic role photography played in the 1990s and 2000s to create popular visitor-number draws to cultural institutions. In this research seminar, Cotton talks about curating photography and photographic issues in the profoundly transformed landscape of today where the literal majority of images and photography's social meanings get created without the support or necessary validation of cultural institutions and considers how museums and galleries could reframe their engagements with photography.

The History of Photography research seminar series aims to be a discursive platform for the discussion and dissemination of current research on photography. From art as photography and early photographic technology to ethnographic photographs and contemporary photography as art, the seminar welcomes contributions from researchers across the board, whether independent or affiliated with museums, galleries, archives, libraries or higher education, and endeavours to provide scholars with a challenging opportunity to present work in progress and test out new ideas.

Wednesday, 23 March 2011
5.30pm, Courtauld Institute, Somerset House, Research Forum South Room

Contacts:
Alexandra Moschovi (alexandra.moschovi@courtauld.ac.uk )
Julian Stallabrass (julian.stallabrass@courtauld.ac.uk ), or
Benedict Burbridge (benedict.burbridge@courtauld.ac.uk )

An appeal has been launched after a donation of near 90-year-old negatives depicting the construction of one of  RAF Henlow airbase. A base spokesman said: “We would dearly like to reunite these rare photographic examples and bring the whole collection together. We are appealing to you to search your attics or your garden sheds to see whether you can help us to reconstitute the collection and help us to properly celebrate the illustrious heritage of RAF Henlow.”

The donated pictures help bring to life the building of the base and date back to WW1, however a specific year is unknown. David Lloyd George’s government decided to construct repair depots, soley for the then Royal Flying Corps, and Henlow was selected as a site in 1917. Much of the station was under construction when the Royal Flying Corps became the Royal Air Force the following year.

In the original list of RAF stations in April 1918, Henlow counts among only seven other stations that remain open as British bases today. Parish councillor and local history enthusiast Michele Joy urges residents to be on the look out for the remaining negatives, as they help shine a light on the base’s early days. She said: “It’s definitely worthwhile to say that glass negatives or something that could easily be thrown away because they’re not familiar to people these days. If you’re doing a house clearance then don’t get rid of anything that’s of definite interest to people and could be important to Henlow’s history.”

If you can help locate the missing negatives, or know someone who can, contact Denise O’Hara by post, at Building 105, RAF Henlow, Beds, SG16 6DN or by email, on shsa-ast@henlow.raf.mod.uk

See the fulls tory here: http://www.thecomet.net/news/donation_of_ww1_era_negatives_sparks_raf_appeal_1_828022

The Sixth Annual Annan Lecture will take place on Thursday 24 March 2011 at 6pm in the Jeffrey Room, Mitchell Library, Glasgow. John Hume, Chairman of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland, will talk about Unknown Scottish Photographers - the role of the works photographer. 

The events has been organised by the Scottish Society for the History of Photography  / www.sshop.org.uk

Ida Kar died alone of thrombosis and penniless in a Bayswater bedsit in 1974, surrounded by boxes of negatives worth £50,000. Her funeral was a quiet affair, in stark contrast to the publicity attracted by an exhibition of her work fourteen years earlier.

Russian-born and of Armenian parentage, Kar arrived in Britain in 1945 with her second husband, Victor Musgrave, an art dealer. He founded Gallery One and the couple became a celebrated part of London’s post-war bohemia.

During the 1950s photographic exhibitions were uncommon and photography in Britain was at its lowest ebb and entrenched in the Victorian/Edwardian genre. In challenging British photography’s conventions - along with the notion that only sculpture and painting could be considered art - Kar drew upon the avante-garde circles she inhabited while applying the training she received in Paris.

Kar produced large scale confrontational portrait works of key modernist artists and writers of the era, using a Rolliflex purchased in 1957. Compositionally challenging and in black and white, they juxtaposed artistic portraiture and reportage subject matter in non-conventional settings. These re-examined their relationship to their environment, intensifying the relationship between photographer and subject.

Although little has been written about Kar’s work as an art form, her canon is of major interest to academics of postwar English photographic art. Ever the individualist, she photographed leading icons of the 1950s and ‘60s as well as taking to the streets to photograph shopkeepers in the Royal Arcade (London) Metropolitan Music Hall, solemn characters of the demi-mode, and capture life in the Cuban capital, Havana.

Ida Kar, the development of large format editorial magazine photography such as Picture Post and the creation of new galleries as Photographers’ Gallery served to re-examine what a ‘good’ photograph could be. They also helped to expand the boundaries of portraiture and reportage, with Kar’s work in London, Cairo and Havana widely attributed to having broken down barriers to the acceptance of photography as a fine art.

Kar's landmark exhibtion at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1960 marked a turning point in post-war photographic art as she was the first photographer to have a photographic exhibition at a London gallery. The result of a retrospective show of her work was to break the mould of photographic conventions and to spark a debate on whether photography could be considered art.

This exhibition presents nearly 100 works produced by Ida Kar. The Curator, Clare Freestone, sees particular interest in the letters from sitters. Correspondence from as Ivon Hitchens, for example, tell of a longstanding friendship – and a subject unafraid to pepper his correspondence with professional advice. Also noteworthy are may of Kar’s shoots in Petworth, some showing Ida with Mollie and Ivon eating relaxed on cushions and their son John, whom she subsequently spoke to and re-iterated the warmth and friendship of Kar towards the family.

Despite other successful photographers following the same theme as Douglas Glass for the Sunday Times, her vision was unique in the way she interacted with her sitters. Clare Freestone says, “She had a very sharp and instinctive
vision. Her connections (Victor Musgrave her husband, her early years spent in bustling Cairo and Paris of the surrealists) placed her amongst artists rather than fellow photographers.”

Material selected for the exhibition is from the NPG archive which features over 800 of Kar’s vintage prints, 10, 000 negatives, a sitters’ book and a portfolio book made in 1954 of her trip to the artists’ studios of Paris. This was purchased in 1999 in a sale through Christie’s on behalf of Monika Kinley, Victor Musgrave’s widow.

Featuring unseen archive material, the reappraisal provides a valuable record of the international art world as documented by Kar over three decades against a backdrop of wider plastic arts and literary subjects including Doris Lessing, T S Eliot, Man Ray, Jean Paul Satre, Eugene Ionesco and Colin MacInnes to name but a few.

Highlights of the exhibition of nearly 100 works include: An iconographic portrait of artist Yves Klein, shown at his first and highly controversial London exhibition in 1957 in front of one of his famous monochrome works, in the distinctive blue-colour he was to patent as his own. A portrait of the ‘art strike’ artist and political activist Gustav Metzger, taken at an exhibition entitled Festival of Misfits - another discovery in an exhibition which partly chronicles 1950s and 1960s Bohemian London society.  A photograph of Royston Ellis, a poet and friend of John Lennon who inspired the song Paperback Writer and introduced Lennon to ‘Polythene Pam,’ a subject of the Beatles song.  One of Kar’s earliest works, a portrait of the actress and director Sylvia Syms (1953) and a portrait of Dame Maggie Smith on the set of The Rehearsal (1961).  Images of conceptualist artists such as Gustav Metzger and John Latham.  Photographs of life in Cuba and Moscow.  A pack of Metzger negs how from a mislabelled packet of negatives we chanced upon, showing key images of Ida Karr and the first public demonstration of auto- destructive art.

Her later work includes the leading artists of the St Ives modern art movement (Tatler, 26 July 1961), featuring Patrick Heron, Peter Lanyon, Barbara Hepworth and Terry Frost; documentary portraits of Soho bohemia; artists associated
with her husband’s Gallery One; and Kar’s contact sheet of her portrait of Fidel Castro, taken in 1964.

A story which did not make the catalogue is that of KarSEC, the collective that Kar formed in 1968. An interview with one member Les Smithers is available in Face to Face, in which he tells of Kar’s continued desire to work professionally and to re-invent herself.

However, within a decade of her fame she was forgotten. Critics claimed that, although Ida Kar expanded photographic vocabulary, she never took photographs of the same clarity or lucidity of her 1950s heyday. She was, according to her
former assistant and PR guru, John Kasmin, a "conventional bohemian". However Kar failed to achieve the success she craved, lacking an understanding of the politics of the art world and who departed it with overwhelming debts.

Ida Kar: Bohemian Photographer, 1908-74

The National Portrait Gallery (London)

10 March until 19 June 2011

Copyright: Pippa Jane Wielgos

DISCLAIMER: Pippa Jane PR is a non-profit making platform producing non-commissioned independent freelance arts journalism does not represent theThe National Portrait Gallery.

Telephone: + 44 (0) 20 7487 3486. Mobile: + 44 (0) 7957 319 056

E-mail: pippa.wielgos@tiscali.co.uk

As reported in an earlier BPH blog, HistoryPin enables users share their archive photos by loading them up to a specific location on Google Maps or image on Google's modern Street View.  The site has ambitions to become the world’s largest user-generated archive of historic images and stories.

This year, not-for-profit company We Are What We Do and Reading Museum, will launch an ambitious project to tell the history of Reading through the contributions of thousands of its residents. Historypin.com, developed by We Are What We Do and Google, will provide the home for this communal history as it grows, and a special exhibition at Reading Museum will give the project a high-profile climax. Through the work, we aim to leave a legacy that can be enjoyed and added to for many generations to come.

We are looking for someone to sit at the heart of this project, working with local partners, community groups, schools, volunteers, media and people from across the town to inspire and enable broad, meaningful participation.

This Project Officer will have a keen interest in history and local historical content, as well as a passion for mass participation in the collection and sharing of history. They will be outgoing, confident and sensitive to the needs of a wide range of groups and individuals across Reading, while working well on their own and with teams at Reading Museum and We Are What We Do.

This is an exciting role for someone with a heritage, archive, museum and/or community background. The position will start in May 2011 and run for 6 months.

Please see www.historypin.com/reading for more information.

The City of Vancouver has just completed digitising a collection of 399 panoramic cityscapes from the early to mid 1900s by photographer W.J. Moore. Moore worked as a commercial photographer from 1911 to 1953. He specialized in panoramic photography of Vancouver, and covered a wide variety of subjects including street scenes, events, buildings, construction, recreational activities, harbours and docks.

Most of Moore's work were taken with a No. 8 Cirkut Outfit camera, which produced negatives 8 inches high and up to 8 feet long. It’s a demanding format, but Moore had the skill and experience necessary to produce excellent photographs.

To view this online photo archive project which has been uploaded to the Vancouver Archives website, click here.

Photo:  Stock parade at the Vancouver Exhibition at Hastings Park, 1915. Item # PAN N80. The Vancouver Exhibition was later renamed the Pacific National Exhibition. Click through the image above to see what it looked like before mini-donuts, the roller coaster, and the Prize Home.

Murray Dowding was a prolific photographer capturing hundreds of historic images of Chipping Sodbury during the early part of the 20th century. Now a new exhibition on the life and times of one of the area’s best known photographer has gone on display in Yate.

"Dowding bequeathed an immense collection of images from the earlier part of the 20th century, without which our local history would be far poorer," said Mr Hardill, community heritage officer at Yate Heritage Centre where the exhibit is being staged. 

"We will also be displaying cameras and photographic equipment from the time and provide information on the issues relating to photography over the years."

The exhibition was officially opened by local historian Jim Elsworth during a preview on Monday, and details can be found here.

Photo: View from the Moda Hotel Chipping Sodbury.

The work of the Queen of yachting photography, Eileen Ramsay, has been saved for posterity. The sailing archive, which records the explosion in dinghy and small boat sailing in Britain after the War, from early 1950s to 1970s, is filled with vintage dinghies and peaceful river sailing scenes. The archive also contains iconic pictures of offshore racing in the Solent, and historic pictures of sailing pioneers from the first Observer Single-Handed Transatlantic Races (OSTAR) and the solo voyages of Francis Chichester, Alec Rose and Eric Tabarly.

Eileen, now aged 95, has kept her photo archive intact and called in PPL Photo Agency to digitise the pictures and manage the Library. Barry Pickthall, at PPL, says: 'It was very important to save Eileen Ramsay's archive. As well as photographing dinghies and yachts for more than two decades, she was a specialist portrait photographer, and her early pictures of Francis Chichester, Eric Tabarly, Alec Rose and those OSTAR pioneers have great significance when recording Britain's sailing history.'

An exhibition of Eileen's pictures will be on display at the RYA/Volvo Dinghy Show in the West Corridor at Alexander Palace, London on the 5th and 6th March.

You can read the full news article and view some of her iconic work here.

Photo:  'Eileen Ramsay. Copyright Reserved.'

The name of this new magazine was chosen in honour of St Andrew's historic resident, Sir David Brewster, the inventor of the stereoscope. It is a student produced magazine that celebrates student photography in St Andrews while raising awareness about the photographs of the University's special collections, and its longstanding tradition with photography.

Working with the support of the University's Art History Department and Library Special Collections, the magazine is produced annually with an accompanying exhibition. Each issue explores a particular theme and features articles as well as photographs.  Like the instrument which provides its viewer with a dual-perspective, this new student magazine aims to provide views to both the past and the present.

Details of the news article can be found here, and good luck with its publication!