Blogs

A National Trust scheme called Moments and Memories is giving the abbey a new lease of life, bringing contemporary displays while also telling tales of years gone by.

The story of Lacock Abbey is told through the words of Matilda Talbot, the last owner of the abbey, who donated it to the National Trust in 1944. Her book, My Life And Lacock Abbey, not only captures her own memories and experiences here, but creates an impression of how her ancestors might have lived during their residencies.

Fox Talbot is heavily represented in this National Trust project. There are also many interactive elements for visitors, including jigsaws, games and Victorian animation with Zoetropes and a piano.

The full news report can be found here.

Photo: Abbey visitor experience officer Rachel Holtom with the zoetrope used by the Talbots. Copyright Wiltshire Times.

‘Ways of Looking’, a new festival of photography in Bradford opens on 1st October 2011. Exploring the theme EVIDENCE, the festival includes premières of newly commissioned works by internationally renowned Magnum photographer Donovan Wylie, and Turner Prize winning artists Douglas Gordon and Jeremy Deller.

Inspired by the theme EVIDENCE, the festival will address, overturn, and playfully interact with photography’s assumed status as ‘evidence’ in a range of arenas including history, politics, science, law, and conflict. In contrast to other photography festivals, ‘Ways of Looking’ does not advocate a lead curator, but instead offers multiple curatorial approaches ranging from museum institutions to grass-roots collectives. Many of the works have been specially commissioned for the festival and will be shown for the first time in Bradford.

Highlights include Douglas Gordon’s large-scale window installation taking inspiration from the former glories of Bradford’s iconic Gaumont cinema, and Jeremy Deller’s personal take on Bradford’s civic photography collection. Photography’s relationship to surveillance is explored by Donovan Wylie, who travelled to Afghanistan to document military watchtowers, whilst Simon Ford and Colin Lloyd have drawn on CCTV technology and scientific imaging techniques to examine the validity of optical evidence. Red Saunders’ epic photographic tableaux vivants recreate momentous but overlooked events from Britain’s struggle for democracy, whilst Alan Dunn investigates the archive of West Yorkshire Police to re-examine crime photographs from the 1950s.

Based entirely in Bradford’s compact city centre, with its wealth of dramatic nineteenth century architecture, the whole festival can be easily accessed by visitors. As well as museum and gallery venues, photography will be on display in public spaces and on billboards, whilst a specially commissioned interactive digital game will transport participants on an intriguing journey through the spaces and histories of ‘hidden’ Bradford. 

An accompanying events programme will offer talks by photographers, portfolio reviews, and film screenings. Unmissible events include a series of debates ‘Photography on Trial’ at City Hall’s spectacular Victorian Court Room, and a major conference ‘Media and Conflict Interchange’ at the National Media Museum.

Anne McNeill, Director of Impressions Gallery and co-founder, said ‘Ways of Looking is a boutique festival – small but considered. We believe it has the potential to grow to become a key biennial on the international circuit of photography festivals’.

Nicola Stephenson, Director of The Culture Company and co-founder, said ‘a bit like Berlin, Bradford is edgy, post-industrial, and home to some fantastic art spaces. Its cosmopolitan and diverse population make it a great destination for festival goers’.

Colin Philpott, Director of National Media Museum, said ‘Ways of Looking draws on Bradford’s amazing wealth of photographic activity and world-class collections. It epitomises Bradford’s renaissance as a cultural centre, and perfectly complements its new status as the world’s first UNESCO City of Film’.

‘Ways of Looking’ is organised by Impressions Gallery, National Media Museum, and The Culture Company, with partners Bradford Grid, Bradford Museums and Galleries, Fabric, Gallery II University of Bradford, and Leeds Metropolitan University Gallery and Studio Theatre. The festival is funded by Arts Council England through the National Lottery Fund and supported by Bradford Metropolitan District Council.

Jeremy Deller at Bradford 1 Gallery
2 September – 27 November 2011

Turner Prize Winner Jeremy Deller has created a new exhibition especially for Ways of Looking, drawing on the extensive photographic archives in the collections of Bradford Museums.

Bradford 1 Gallery, Centenary Square, Bradford BD1 1SD
Tues to Fri 11am to 6pm, Thurs late to 8pm, Saturday 12pm to 5pm, Sundays throughout October
12pm to 5pm FREE
Tel. 01274 437800
Web www.bradfordmuseums.org 

Hidden by Red Saunders at Impressions Gallery
28 September to 10 December 2011

Saunders’ epic photographic tableaux vivants (‘living pictures’) recreate momentous but overlooked events in the struggle for equality and democracy in Britain. The show
includes the world premiere of three new Yorkshire-based works, set at the time of the Civil War and the Swing Riots, specially commissioned by Impressions Gallery and The Culture Company.

Impressions Gallery, Centenary Square, Bradford BD1 1SD
Tues to Fri 11am to 6pm, Thurs late to 8pm, Saturday 12pm to 5pm, Sundays
throughout October 12pm to 5pm FREE
Tel. 01274 473843
Web www.impressions-gallery.com 


Outposts: Donovan Wylie Bradford Fellowship 2010/11 at National Media Museum
30 September – 19 February 2012

In this world premiere, Magnum photographer Wylie continues to interrogate the
architecture of conflict through a systematic survey of military outposts in Afghanistan’s Kandahar Province. Specially commissioned by the National Media Museum, Bradford College and the University of Bradford, the exhibition also features the acclaimed bodies of work Maze, British Watchtowers, Police Stations, and Green Zone.

National Media Museum, Bradford, BD1 1NQ
Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 6pm FREE
Tel. 0844 856 3797
Web www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk


The Tracker Chronicles by Simon Ford and Colin Lloyd at Gallery II, University of Bradford
1 to 28 October 2011

Combining surveillance technology with data collection, digital print and re-imagined objects, The Tracker Chronicles plays with an array of information gathering devices, exploring their possible meanings and applications. Live camera feeds and data streams are overlapped and interfered with, movement is mapped across a public atrium space occupied by a CCTV tower and a time travelling chandelier. The Tracker Chronicles explores the complex connections between looking, listening and reading, in different times and spaces. 

Gallery II, Chesham Building and Richmond Atrium, Richmond Building, University of Bradford BD7 1DP
Mon to Fri 11am to 5pm; Saturday and Sunday 12pm to 3pm FREE
Tel. 01274 233365
Web www.brad.ac.uk/gallery 


Daniel Meadows: Early Photographic Works 1972-1987 curated by Val Williams at National Media Museum
1 October 2011 – 19 February 2012

This major retrospective includes Meadow’s major projects, as well as recently discovered work from his archives. Meadows was one of a group of photographers who spearheaded the independent photography movement in the early 1970s. Working in a collaborative way via interviews with his subjects, his complex, passionate and sometimes deeply autobiographical work forms an astonishing record of urban society in Britain. The project has been funded and supported by a partnership between the National Media Museum, Ffotogallery, Cardiff, Birmingham Central Libraries, Photography and the Archive Research Centre, University of the Arts London,
and Photoworks UK.

National Media Museum, Bradford, BD1 1NQ
Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 6pm FREE
Tel. 0844 856 3797
Web www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk 


Case Open at Pop Up
30 September to 30 October 2011

Responding to the theme EVIDENCE, the winners of this national open call have been selected by director of Impressions Gallery and Chair of Ways of Looking Anne McNeill, National Media Museum curator Greg Hobbs, curator of South Square Gallery David Knowles, and Programme Manager of Pop Up Ann Rutherford.

Pop Up, Centenary Square, Bradford BD1 1SD
Tuesday to Saturday 10 am to 6 pm FREE
Tel. 07780 917320
Web www.creativebradford.co.uk


Makeshift Monuments by Diane Bielik at The Old Hungarian Club
Friday 30th September to Sunday 30th October

An exhibition of photographs made during the run up to the closure of the Hungarian club in Bradford which shut its doors in the summer of 2010 due to diminishing membership. Diane Bielik’s father, Attila, is Hungarian and was an active member of the club for many years. The news of its closure was the impetus to begin photographing the club as there was a desire to ‘capture’ this place before it was gone. The photographs will be incorporated onto the walls and the viewers will need to move through the rooms of the disused social club to see the exhibition. 

An Impressions Gallery off-site project
The Old Hungarian Club, 4 Walmer Villas, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD8 7ET
Friday to Sunday 1-6pm FREE
www.dianebielik.co.uk 



• ART IN PUBLIC SPACES

‘Scene for a small crime’ by Alan Dunn at Bradford Interchange Station
14 October to 30 October

Alan Dunn’s ‘Scene for a small crime’ is a new billboard artwork produced in collaboration with the poet Roger Cliffe-Thompson, photographer Leila Romaya and West Yorkshire Police. Inspired by a 1950’s crime scene photograph found in the Police Archive in Wakefield, Dunn has orchestrated a crime scene photograph riddled with clues, odd timings and mirrored patterns. 

Platform 3, Bradford Interchange, Bridge Street, Bradford BD1 1TU
Open during station opening hours
FREE (rail ticket may be required for station access)
Phone 0113 812 3130
Web http://www.alandunn67.co.uk



Self portrait of you and me (blue skies) by Douglas Gordon at Impressions Gallery
Douglas Gordon: 30 September to 30 October

Self portrait of you and me (blue skies) is a new public realm artwork produced by Douglas Gordon for the large windows of Impressions Gallery. Directly facing the former Gaumont Cinema, the fragile face of late 1960’s icon Syd Barrett is blown up, hangdog expression and collar upturned against the elements, his image then tragically and delicately pushed by the artist to the point of combustion.

Impressions Gallery, Centenary Square, Bradford BD1 1SD
Open during gallery opening hours
FREE 
Phone 0113 812 3130
Web http://lostbutfound.co.uk/



1963 by Shanaz Gulzar at Bradford Interchange Station
30 September to 13 October

1963 is a new billboard created by the artist Shanaz Gulzar in collaboration with the Bradford & District Youth Offending Team and Nacro. Inspired by a mythical 1960’s pop moment in Bradford involving the Beatles, the Stones, Bo Diddley and Cilla Black, the young people create two new cinematic posters for an imaginary venue.


Platform 3, Bradford Interchange, Bridge Street, Bradford BD1 1TU
Open during station opening hours
FREE (rail ticket may be required for station access)
Phone 0113 812 3130
Web http://www.alandunn67.co.uk


RE:BRADFORD by Bradford Grid, outdoor exhibition in Bradford City Centre

Photography collective Bradford Grid have created new work in response to images sourced from local residents’ family albums and personal recollections of Bradford between 1950 and 2000. Investigating the photograph as a source of both information and inspiration, they explore how photographs act as historical ‘evidence’ through which the present can be viewed.

City centre, various outdoor locations
Open 24 hours FREE
Web www.bradfordgrid.co.uk


Evidence by Invisible Flock and Impressions Gallery, locations throughout Bradford city centre
1 October to 31 October 2011
Created especially for Ways of Looking this participatory game invites players on a series of journeys, transporting them on an interactive trail across Bradford and through time. Throughout the festival four different journeys can be undertaken, all offering glimpses of magic, intrigue and hidden histories; uncovering secret worlds and revealing the city in a whole new light. Armed with phones, cameras and a sense of adventure, players will be asked to help capture the city’s heart.

Online and during venues opening times.
Tel. 01274 473843
Web www.impressions-gallery.com

See: http://www.waysoflooking.org/

This is a rare opportunity to impact on a truly unique institution. As Deputy Director/Head of Public Programmes, you will provide a key leadership role for the National Media Museum and specific project direction for our pioneering Internet Gallery.
The National Media Museum is home to Britain’s media heritage, containing three and a half million objects of national and international significance. Our ambitions include a world first – in Spring 2012 we will be opening a gallery about the history and impact of the internet, and we also plan to open an exhibitions and events space in Central London.
The Museum’s Head of Public Programmes, who also acts as Deputy to the Director, is taking maternity leave. The key priority of the covering role will be to drive the delivery of the Museum’s recently revised strategy and action plan designed to boost audiences, increase further levels of audience satisfaction and engagement and to boost the Museum’s profile and reputation. You will also play a key role in directing the internet gallery project.
Substantial experience of delivering cultural programmes to create world-class visitor experiences is essential for this role. Ideally, you will already have a successful track record in a relevant area, such as: temporary and touring exhibitions; cinema and film festivals; events programmes; media, web or broadcast. Energetic, persuasive and collaborative, you will quickly establish yourself as a catalyst for creative thinking.
Award winning, visionary and truly unique, The National Media Museum embraces photography, film, television, radio, gaming and the web. Part of the NMSI family of museums, it aims to engage, inspire and educate through comprehensive collections, innovative education programmes and a powerful yet sensitive approach to contemporary issues.

Salary: £47,000 - £55,000 pa

Full-time, Maternity cover, 12 months commencing October 2011.

Closing date: Tuesday 30th August 2011. It is expected interviews will be held on Monday 12th September.
For a full job description or to contact Colin Philpott, Museum Director for an informal discussion about this role, please email recruitment@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk

Good luck!

The Ancestry.co.uk website has published 4,400 parole records with 500 photographs of some of the prisoners sentenced in the mid-19th century. All the records are from The National Archives of the UK. 

The database includes images of the records themselves, which make up a file on the convict. Their contents varies but can include next of kin, religion, literacy, physical description, a medical history, marital status, number of children, age, occupation, crime, sentence, dates and places of confinement, reports on behavior while in prison, letters or notes from the convict, and (from 1871 forward) a photograph.

Photo: A prison photograph of Mary Richards, who was jailed for five years in 1880 at the age 59 for stealing 130 oysters. Photograph: Ancestry.co.uk/PA

The highlight to officially end London Street Photography 2011 will be an evening of entertainment, food, vodka cocktails and an opportunity to purchase exhibition prints and celebrate the festival with other partners, contributors, and artists. All proceeds will go towards ensuring that the festival will be here in 2012.

A PDF of the catalogue is available here: Auction_catalogue_small.pdf.

A flyer for the event is here: LSPF_11_auction_flyer.jpg

Details of the items on auction, including the programme for the evening, can be found here.  So please put that date in your diary!

Photo: The German Gymnasium(London NW1) where the auction will be held.

This conference examines the politics, poetics and ethics of the photographic visibility of the colonial past in museums in multicultural societies and the construction of postcolonial identities. It will explore the use of photographs in public narratives of difficult histories and examine different sets of problems and approaches across a number of European countries. It raises questions not only about the patterns of engagement, nostalgia, suppression, disavowal and unspeakability which cluster around representations of the colonial past, but questions about the role of photographs in the public space. What is the work expected of photographs? Is the apparent immediacy of the past in photographs too direct and uncontrollable to be accommodated in the carefully managed spaces of state multiculturalism?  What is the role of the artist’s intervention, digital environments, and community projects?  Are there ’safe spaces’ where the colonial might be addressed? Ultimately what kinds of narratives are museums constructing and for whom? How can the complexities of colonial relations be represented in museums and do photographs help or hinder?

The conference is part of the European-funded PhotoCLEC project, an international collaboration of scholars from the UK, The Netherlands and Norway. (see: http://www.heranet.info/photoclec/index). The conference will include the launch of the project’s web resource.

Keynote Speakers:

Professor Benoît De L’Estoile (CNRS)

Dr Wayne Modest (Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam)

Other Confirmed Speakers include:

Professor Susan Legêne (VU University, Amsterdam), Professor Sigrid Lien (University of Bergen), Professor Elizabeth Edwards (DMU), Miranda Pennell (Filmmaker, Goldsmiths College, University of London), Dr Chiara de Cesari (University of Cambridge), Dr  Sabine Cornelis (RCAM) and Dr Johan Lagae (Univeristy of Ghent).

Date: 12 and 13 January 2012

Venue:  Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

A collaboration between De Montfort University and Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Fee: £35  Optional symposium dinner: £38

Places are limited. Please contact Mandy Stuart (astuart@dmu.ac.uk) to reserve your place.

http://www.dmu.ac.uk/research/aad/photographic-history-research-centre/  

The Curator (Digital Programmes) will be responsible for a developmental programme including researching, commissioning and curating digital content for the ground floor digital display, the Gallery’s website and identifying other potential platforms. This will include researching and advising on the technical specifications for the delivery of all aspects of the digital programme and the generation of and support for collaborative research projects. The post includes research collaboration with The Centre for Media and Culture Research, Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences, London South Bank University.

The post holder will initially undertake a research phase to help develop a Digital Strategy for the Gallery and work with partners on a significant AHRB application, aiming to recruit a supporting PhD research position. Through the Digital Strategy and the establishment of digital content management platforms, the post holder will engage and develop new and existing audiences for the Gallery and offer creative ways of working with photographers/artists. The post will sit within the Programming team, line-managed by the Head of Exhibitions but will also work closely with Communications and all other Gallery departments (Technical, Development etc).

The Role

The Curator (Digital Programmes) will be responsible for a developmental programme including researching, commissioning and curating digital content for the ground floor digital display, the Gallery’s website and identifying other potential platforms. This will include researching and advising on the technical specifications for the delivery of all aspects of the digital programme and the generation of and support for collaborative research projects. The post includes research collaboration with The Centre for Media and Culture Research, Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences, London South Bank University.

The post holder will initially undertake a research phase to help develop a Digital Strategy for the Gallery and work with partners on a significant AHRB application, aiming to recruit a supporting PhD research position. Through the Digital Strategy and the establishment of digital content management platforms, the post holder will engage and develop new and existing audiences for the Gallery and offer creative ways of working with photographers/artists. The post will sit within the Programming team, line-managed by the Head of Exhibitions but will also work closely with Communications and all other Gallery departments (Technical, Development etc).

Core Duties and Responsibilities
•Develop an effective and sustainable digital strategy for The Photographers’ Gallery;
•Curate and commission digital content as part of the Gallery’s public programme in collaboration with relevant gallery teams (including exhibitions and talks/events);
•Research and advise the Gallery on the technical specifications for the ground floor digital display;
•Work with relevant external bodies and the in-house development team to help identify and secure project funding and sponsorship;
•Advise and assist on the delivery of the gallery’s on-line and digital archive;
•Work on a significant AHRC grant application aiming to support a complementary PhD research post related to the Gallery’s digital programmes;
•Develop key national and international partnerships to ensure the Gallery is seen at the heart of digital content debates;
•Present papers and attend conferences and symposia at universities and cultural organisations, as well as contribute articles to relevant publications.

Required skills/experience
•Strong project management skills with previous experience of curating / commissioning image-based web/digital projects;
•Knowledge and understanding of cultural debates and theoretical developments surrounding photography, digital technologies and new media;
•Solid understanding of social media networks and participatory digital arts projects;
•Knowledge and understanding of relevant funding sources and application procedures for digital media;
•A technical knowledge of equipment necessary for supporting digital photographic practice;
•Clear understanding of content management and Digital Asset Management systems;
•Good knowledge of copyright issues with regard to digital images in different contexts.

Desired experience
•Knowledge and experience of evaluating arts projects related to audience development or education/learning;
•Experience of working on digital archives and resources;
•Published work in the area of digital exhibitions or projects.

See: http://www.photonet.org.uk/index.php?pid=561&show=page

The Photographers’ Gallery strives to be an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. Charity no 262548

All eyes will be on George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film this fall as it presents the largest exhibition in its history -- The Unseen Eye: Photographs from the W.M. Hunt Collection. More than 500 photographs by the masters of the medium will be on view. It is dedicating all of its primary gallery space to this exhibition.

Earlier this year The New Yorker referred to the collector as “the legendary W.M. Hunt." He is a renowned curator and dealer who has been collecting photographs for 40 years. Eastman House will present the first major U.S. exhibition of the collection, of which APERTURE is simultaneously publishing a book titled The Unseen Eye: Photographs from the Unconscious, to be released in October.

The collector’s first purchase was an Imogen Cunningham photograph, in which the subject’s eyes are veiled and unseen by the camera.  The featured works range from daguerreotype to digital by photographers such as Berenice Abbot, Richard Avedon, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Annie Leibovitz, Robert Mapplethorpe, Irving Penn, Many Ray, Edward Steichen, Edward Weston, and Joel-Peter Witkin, as well 19^th-century work from Nadar, Alinari, and Roger Fenton. The whole range of photographic processes  as well different formats is featured via the 500 photographs, selected from the 1,500 images in the collection.

Details of the exhibition can be found here, and the official press release here.

Photo:  Carrie Levy. Untitled, from Domestic Stages, 2004

From: Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7782, 27 June 1904, Page 7 - National Library of New Zealand: Miss Dorothy Catherine Draper, who died the other day, aged 95, was said to be the first person who ever sat for a photograph. She posed for her brother, Dr. John W. Draper, who had discovered a process by which a daguerreotype could be made in a few minutes. The photograph was made in 1839, when Miss Draper was known in New York society as "Dolly" Draper, and the picture, with the statement that the subject had to pose "only about six minutes," created a sensation in artistic circles. The original picture became the possession of Lord Herschell, whose heirs still retain it.

A new exhibition celebrates the life and contributions of Freelan Oscar Stanley. This exhibit is a collaboration between the Stanley Museum and the Estes Park Museum and highlights objects from the collections of each institution such as Stanley dry-plates.

This photograph developing process invented and patented by F. O. and his twin brother Francis Edgar revolutionized the art of photography. They sold the company to Eastman Kodak in 1905, as their interest had turned to steam-powered automobiles.

Details of the exhibition can be found here.

Photo:  Twin brothers F. O. and F. E. Stanley invented a dry-plate photographic process later sold to Eastman Kodak.

At a recent book-signing, held at Dimbola, of his book on 1850s stereographs entitled 'A Village Lost and Found' co-written with Elena Vidal, May took time to celebrate his birthday which fell on the same day. The birthday bash was held in the Seminar Room where a special 3D exhibition of stereoscopic photography based around the book is currently being held, details of which can be found here.

A full report of this impressive exhibition can be found here.

Photo: Copyright of Isle of Wight Digital Imaging Group 2011.

The second half of the nineteenth century witnessed an international occurrence of art movements aiming at a return to skilled craftsmanship and individual handiwork, usually summarized under the Arts and Crafts Movement. These movements can be described as “an unfocused reaction against industrialization” (Crawford). Installing small workshops and reviving old techniques, they often associated their ideals with medieval times.
Around 1880, photography joined this aesthetic movement with the rise of pictorialism, equally promoting elaborate techniques and opposing simplified photographic possibilities and mechanical mass production. Manipulation of the negative as well as the positive was one of the main, albeit contested topics in international pictorial circles throughout their existence. Photographers aimed at ever more complex forms of picture making that demanded most skillful users, thereby removing themselves from the growing crowd of practicing photographers (Keller). Although this fact today is widely known within the history of photography, its roots in a broader orientation towards ideals associated with medieval arts and crafts still need to be examined. Furthermore, references to iconographic models of medieval art are a recurring phenomenon of pictorial photography that has yet to be explored.
This session aims to close this gap in research by clarifying in what way pictorialists used prevailing ideals and iconographic models of medieval times to warrant their strategies of establishing photography as an art. When, how and to what purpose were references and allusions to medieval models and styles employed? Which picture of medieval times did pictorialists create in order to be able to use it to their ends?
Papers might address issues of organization, iconography, gender, artistic and photographic networks and practices, national and international circles and exhibitions, and paradigms of handcraft. We invite papers from scholars and postgraduate students casting an analyzing look at the complex relationship between pictorial photography and its incorporation of references to medieval models and ideals.
Please send your inquiries and abstracts of no more than 300 words to caroline.fuchs@univie.ac.at. The deadline for abstract submission is September 15, 2011. For further information about the conference including travel grants visit the following website: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/ 

CFP: Medieval Views: The Role of the Medieval in Pictorial Photography 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies, May 10-13, 2012, Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo)

Jack Tait has kindly supplied two files which provide important information on British postwar photographic education and some of the people involved:

1. A small file version of the CV instances chapter originally written for Jack's PhD but omitted due to lack of space in the final thesis. It covers his involvement with photographic education with particular reference to creative activity. CV%20Creative%20instances.pdf

2. A list of names with dates where possible of all the people he met who were connected with Photographic Education.Photo%20Education%20staff.pdf

Jack is keen to make these available for researchers and interested parties as he says:

"It might then give some researchers a starting point for their investigations. I propose to keep adding to this as when new material emerges. It might be seen in conjunction with Mike Hallett's reviews which he produced for the BJP which were very extensive. I have tried to make it as accurate as possible and apologies to anyone whose name I have missed out.

The order of names is arbitrary and does not indicate the extent of the individual's contribution. Some contributions are large and significant and others less so but whose part is still important and might fill in gaps in people's research. It is of course up to others to rank order this list and to assign values to the contributions."

BPH is happy to host these files. If researchers make use of the material please credit Jack Tait and BPH. 

Bushey Museum and Art Gallery, located near Watford, opens a temporary exhibition Amateur Photography in Bushey on 4 August. The display in the museum's entrance area displays cameras from the museum collection ranging from an 1870s George Hare quarter-plate tailboard camera up to modern digital cameras by way of an original Kodak, various Brownies, a Leica, AGI, Instamatic and many others. The cameras were owned or used by Bushey residents and the display has been arranged by museum volunteers Michael Pritchard and Patrick Forsyth.

Over forty cameras are on display (part only showing in course of arrangement, right) including the only camera actually made in Bushey - the J. Langham Thompson Thompson Land oscilloscope camera dating from the 1950s-1960s. The exhibition runs until early December 2011.

The museum is located close to the M1 and M25 and there is parking available close by.  Details of the museum's location and openings times can be found here: http://www.busheymuseum.org

This recent exhibition held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography presented photographs dating from 1853 to 1900 belonging to institutions with exhibition facilities in Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa, and offered photo historians an opportunity to vew some of the earliest photographs produced in that country.

As the exhibition has just ended, I thought it might be useful to those BPH members with an interest in this area to include some useful background information from the Museum:

In preparation for this exhibition questionnaires were sent to 2,184 institutions, including art galleries, museums, libraries and educational authorities in Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa.  Of these, we received 696 responses and were able to discover 71 institutions that held original or duplicate photographs.These were then researched on site and the best gathered together here for this exhibition.
It is only because they have been carefully preserved  over the years in their hometowns that these early pictures could be brought together to make up this exhibition today, in the twenty-first century. The size and the designs on the back of these photographs possess a fascinating originality, reflecting the fact that they have come down to us through a long history.  We hope that in addition to their visual attraction, you will also enjoy the variety that exists in the photographic media.

Section2：Mastery
Following the ratification of the Japan-U.S.A. Treaty of Peace and Amity, Japan signed treaties establishing diplomatic relations with many other Western nations.  With the opening of the Port of Yokohama on July 1, 1859, foreign commerce was no longer limited to Nagasaki and foreign settlements sprang up in Kobe, Hakodate, etc., areas of land were made accessible to foreigners and a gateway to the rest of the world was officially opened.  Numerous photographers took advantage of this to visit Japan and the early Japanese photographers studied their art from them. 
The first Japanese photographer to establish his own studio was UKAI Gyokusen.  He learned the necessary skills from a British photographer and it has been ascertained that he had opened a studio in the Yagenbori area of Edo by at least August, 1861.  SHIMOOKA Renjo also studied photography under a foreigner in Yokohama, and like UKAI Gyokusen it is thought that he initially catered for Japanese customers, selling his work through a bookshop, but later he shifted his target to foreign tourists visiting Japan.
Unlike Edo or Yokohama, Nagasaki had a long history as the only port open to international trade and was traditionally a commercial city. UENO Hikoma was born in Nagasaki so he had been able to gather a great deal of information on the subject of photography and the instruction he received from foreign photographers after the opening of the port can be said to have been merely the final stage of his education.  With the support of the Tsu domain, he succeeded in acquiring a set of photographic equipment and his experiences are recorded in his ‘Seimikyoku hikkei’ (Chemistry Laboratory Handbook). Later, he opened a studio in Nagasaki and was visited by many people not only from Kyushu, but also all over Shikoku and the Kinki area, who were sent by their domains to study photography, creating a unique network of photographers.  Another photographer from Nagasaki, UCHIDA Kuichi had mastered photographic techniques before being introduced to UENO, but in order to avoid direct competition, he traveled to Kobe and Osaka before setting up a studio in the Asakusa area of Edo.  In addition to official work, producing a portrait of the Emperor and accompanying the Emperor on a tour around the provinces, he also photographed actors and famous places, distributing these and contributing greatly to the spread of photography. 
Photography was mastered by the first generation of photographers in the mid-nineteenth century as both an exercise in the latest pure science and also as a commercial enterprise.  Their success inspired the next generation of photographers and served as the driving force to spread of the art.

Section 3：Diffusion
In Japanese photographic history, it can be said that the bulk of demand during the mid-nineteenth century was for portraits. After the Meiji Restoration (1868) photography became generally accepted throughout society as‘an easy way of creating individual portraits'. In response to public and private demand, the field later expanded to include the production of records of public works projects and replaced the role of woodblock prints in providing visual images of kabuki actors or famous places. 
After the pioneers there came the second-generation photographers, people like INOUE Shunzo, who learned his art during the feudal period and began producing works at the photographic studio belonging to Lord Yamauchi, Daimyo of Tosa Domain in 1869, before going on to become independent. There were also official institutions, such as the Tokyo Printing Bureau (now the National Printing Bureau) that was established in 1878 and contained a studio where large numbers of people had their portraits taken, including many members of the general public.
Unlike the first generation photographers who learned their art through contact with foreigners, the second generation had Japanese teachers and studied from literature written in Japanese. In Nagasaki in addition to students such as SETSU Shinjiro, TAKESHITA Keiji, KIYOKAWA Takeyasu, etc., UENO Hikoma’s sons, Yoichiro and Hidejiro also established themselves as photographers. These photographers in turn, passed their knowledge on to the next generation. In this way, many apprentices appeared, eager to learn photography, and as they also established themselves as photographers, numbers swelled, making the field increasingly competitive. 
From the early to mid Meiji period (late 19th century), Japanese photography expanded its target from the personal to public issues. It was not a period when everybody was able to take their own photographs, but neither was photography used to create artistic expressions.  However, it was during this period that people achieved a general understanding of what photography meant.

Text from the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography 2011.

A new exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography not only reveals the tricks used in the first decades of photography to keep young clients still, but also explains the rapid advances in photographic technology during the 19th and early 20th centuries by focusing on that trickiest of subjects: the child.

Take, for example, a family portrait (No. 8) taken between 1840 and 1865. It's unusual to see such a young child in an early photograph like this because the daguerreotype method required an exposure time of several minutes. An adult could make use of neck and back supports to remain immobile, but the only way to keep a child still long enough was to put an adult in the picture to hold the child still. If you look closely, you can see that the mother and father are holding the baby's arms and legs down.

Similar techniques were used in Japan as well. In a photograph of a Japanese woman and a baby (No. 24) taken by Felice Beato, an experienced photographer who came to Japan in 1863, the baby is secured to the woman's back with a cloth. Even so, the image is blurred because the child moved his head. For a composed photograph of the interior of a Japanese home, intended for sale to foreign tourists (No. 25), Beato used a doll rather than risk a real child who might move and spoil the shot.

In addition to works by Lewis Carroll, Julia Margaret Cameron and Henri Cartier-Bresson, the exhibition includes photographs by Harold Eugene Edgerton, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology perhaps best known for capturing the corona made by a drop of milk at the moment it splashed. He used the same strobe equipment to catch his daughter Mary Lou mid-air as she was jumping rope (No. 27). There are similar juxtapositions of works by celebrated Japanese photographers including Suizan Kurokawa, Shomei Tomatsu and Daido Moriyama.

Details of the exhibition can be found here, and a full report here.

Photo: Childhood blooms: Children sell flowers in a photograph by Renjyo Shimooka (c. 1862-78). COURTESY OF THE TOKYO METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY

In October 2010 the National Media Museum hosted the 'Niépce in England' Conference where they could announce and share with the photographic, conservation and scientific communities the ground breaking findings which had been discovered during the collaborative research partnership between the National Media Museum (NMeM) and the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI).

The aim of the project is to record the ‘signature’ of every photographic process and the variants throughout the history of photography. Within the National Photography Collection at the NMeM are three early examples of photography by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce and there is no better place to start on a project than at the beginning.

This new research places Niépce in his rightful place within the history of photography as it revealed new exciting evidence about the examples of photography which Niépce had brought to England to show the Royal Society of London in 1827. Photo historians had always assumed, incorrectly, that the examples Niépce brought were examples of his Heliographic process. However, scientific analysis revealed that the NMeM has examples of three different photographic processes by Niépce.

Speaker: Philippa Wright, National Media Museum

Details of the talk can be found here.

Booking for this lunchtime lecture will open later this summer - meanwhile please mark your diaries and keep an eye on the website!

If only Mrs Robinson knew - she would have bid for this 1930's photograph of a nude Joe DiMaggio in the showers at Yankee Stadium. It recently sold at auction for US$17,233 to John Rogers, owner of the Rogers Photo Archive in North Little Rock.

The Rogers Photo Archive is the largest privately owned collection of photographic images with well over 33 million images that include all photographic formats such as original vintage studio and cabinet photographs, wire and news service photos, glass plate negatives, and high quality digitals.

Details of the lot can be found here, and the Archive here.

..... A nation turns its lonely eyes to you (woo, woo, woo)

and so the song goes ...

Photo: Joe DiMaggio shown in all his glory basking in the showers of Yankee Stadium. Obviously aware of being photographed in such a state, he is seen smiling for the camera, Boudoir Photograph.