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The Daguerreian Society's 23rd annual meeting will be held in St. Petersburg, FL, Oct. 27-30.  Attendees from around the world will attend lectures, daguerreotype viewings, an auction and a trade fair that is open to the general public.  The events will be held in the Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront (333 First Street South, the symposium headquarters) and the city's Museum of Fine Arts at 255 Beach Dr. N.E.  The symposium registration costs $129 for members and $149 for non-members.

The Symposium will open on Thursday, Oct. 27.  Rebecca Sexton Larson, a Tampa-based studio artist working with historic photographic processes, will speak on "Dry Plate Tintypes: History and Process," starting at 10 am. in the Bayview Room, Museum of Fine Arts.  She will discuss both the wet- and dry-plate photographic processes.  Her work is featured in the book "Pinhole Photography: Rediscovering a Historic Technique," and in private and museum collections.

Also on Thursday, Daguerreian Society member Ken Nelson will speak about the daguerreotype process at a meeting of the museum's Stuart Society.  A practicing daguerreotypist and historian for 35 years, he has taught the art of making daguerreotypes in Hawaii and New York.  That separate talk begins at 10 am.

Another behind-the-scenes event will have members going on a local private tour of collectors Dr. & Mrs. Robert Drapkin's home.  The additional cost of this special tour is $25 per person and is available to the first 25 people who sign up for it.  The van will leave from the front of the hotel at 1 pm and the tour will end at 4 pm.

A gala reception officially launches the symposium at 7-9 pm on Thursday in the Marly Room of the Museum of Fine Arts.  Attendees will tour the museum's exhibition, "Sitter and Subject in Nineteenth-Century Photography," admiring some of the 14,000 images in the museum collection.

The Trade Fair will be held on Friday, Oct. 28, at the Hilton-St. Petersburg Bayfront, with thousands of antique photographs of all descriptions offered for sale.  Dealers from the U.S. and Canada will offer the world's largest display of daguerreotypes for sale in one location.  Other photography work and ephemera will also be offered.  The general public will be admitted starting 11 am.  The trade fair will run until 5 pm.  Cost for symposium registrants is free, and $8 for the general public.  A reduced student entrance fee of $5 is available upon presentation of a student ID.  Dealer tables are still available at $100.  Contact the society.

Contemporary daguerreotypes will be on display in the hotel's hospitality suite beginning at 9 pm.  Christopher Mahoney, vice president of photography at the Sotheby's auction house in New York City, will participate in the informal discussion about newly-produced daguerreotypes, one of his passions.  Modern daguerreians will showcase their art and discuss their techniques.

The Symposium lectures continue on Saturday, Oct. 29 in the Marly Room of the Museum of Fine Arts on topics ranging from daguerreotypes of the California gold rush to the first form of photography predating even daguerreotypes.

The morning sessions run from 9:30 am-1 pm.

Gary Ewer, a collector and expert from Denver, will speak on "A Complete Picture of California: The Three Hundred Daguerreotypes by Robert H. Vance." Vance, an American daguerreotypist, arrived in San Francisco in 1850, during the height of the gold rush.  Having already spent a few years in Valparaiso, Chile, making portrait daguerreotypes, Vance undertook a project to document the cities, towns and landscapes of the new El Dorado.  At the time, photography was only 11 years old.  Vance's monumental effort was unprecedented in America.

Walter Johnson, collector of antique photography, will speak on "November 1968," the conference that started his interest in collecting photographica.  His presentation details events that helped launch efforts to collect and preserve photographic history.

The topic of Dusan Stulik, senior scientist at the Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, is "Niépce and Daguerre, Daguerre and Niépce: The First Scientific Investigation of all Niépce's Images from UK and US Collections."  Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, a French aristocrat, was the world's first photographer, producing images from nature in the 1820s; however, the crude images on pewter plates required hours of exposure.  He and Daguerre entered into a partnership that resulted in Daguerre's inventing the daguerreotype, which was the first practical form of photography.  Stulik will report on the first scientific investigation of all the Heliographic and Heliogravure plates created by Niépce in France that he brought with him to England in 1827.

The afternoon sessions run from 2:30-4:30 pm.

"Brady's Calhoun: The Recovery of an American Masterpiece" will be covered by Christopher Mahoney, vice president of photography at the Sotheby's.  The subject is a daguerreotype of Southern politician John C. Calhoun, taken by Mathew Brady.  A dramatic portrait that was the basis for Calhoun's image in Brady's publication "Gallery of Illustrious Americans," the daguerreotype inspired a monumental painting now owned by the U.S. Senate.  The daguerreotype was lost for over a century, and then rediscovered.  It was sold at auction for $338,500.  Mahoney will tell the fascinating story.

A lively roundtable discussion will also be held, titled "The Daguerreotype Image: Who Owns It? Who Controls It?"  Ownership and reproduction rights will be examined from the standpoint of the collector, the author, the publisher and the photographic artists.  Who owns the rights to use a photograph?  What are the copyright restrictions and challenges for photographic researchers?  What are the dos and don'ts involving licensing?  What are the legal versus practical issues on controlling the digital reproduction of images?  Leonard Walle, longtime collector and a past president of The Daguerreian Society, is moderator for the panel, which includes: Wm. B. Becker, collector, photo historian, author, television producer and director of the American Museum of Photography; Carl Mautz, owner of Carl Mautz Publishing, an author, photo historian and collector with degrees in history and law; Rob McElroy, a full-time daguerreian artist and photo historian who earlier spent 25 years as a commercial, editorial, and advertising photographer; and Jeremy Rowe, EdD, author, photo historian, collector, and  recently retired as Associate Director of the School of Computing and Informatics at Arizona State University, who has written a white paper on "Copyrights and Other Rights in Photographic Images" and a book chapter "Legal Issues Using Photographs for Research."

Following the talks, the day's activities conclude with a cocktail party and silent auction, a buffet banquet and a live benefit auction.  Craig James, Esq. will be the auctioneer for the evening.

For more details and how to register, go to http://www.daguerre.org/ ; or call 1-412-221-0306.

• Work with Curator, Manager of Works on Paper and Photography Collections, Conservation, and Registrar departments to implement guidelines for TMS to bring level of cataloguing photographs up to highest standards

• Continue to review policies and procedures for cataloguing the photography collection to be included in the MFAH-TMS Style Manual; and update photography collection records in TMS to consistently reflect guidelines

• Work with conservation to assure processes are researched and correctly entered in TMS

• Gather primary data through questionnaires, research and examining objects to ensure the photography collection is adequately and carefully documented

• Consult registrar and curatorial files regarding invoices and correspondence from artists for essential information detailing the materials and techniques used in the creation of photographic works and their history; when necessary, cataloguer may contact photographers or photographers´ estates for further clarification

• Review and research photographs that have been received for potential acquisition

• Review and approve records for newly accessioned photographs catalogued by Registrar staff

• Coordinate reproduction photographs of the permanent collection

• Manage the photography collection book project: coordinate and prepare for photo review sessions with Curator, Assistant Curator, and authors; record notes at all project related meetings; data entry and maintenance of project database; coordinate and manage requests for Photographic and Imaging Services department and Conservation department; research caption information for each object included in final draft

• Manage all incoming records (digital and paper), and maintain collection filing system

• As needed, cataloguer will work with photography curator to accomplish other functions within the department

• Supervise or work with interns and volunteers

• Coordinate incoming shipment requests with lender and Assistant Registrar, Incoming Loans

Photography Collection Assistant (reports to Manager, Works on Paper and Photography Collections and Study Center):

• Oversee Study Storage Room 3: Coordinate with Manager of Works on Paper and Photography Collections the movement of select photography collection materials from SSR7, SSR 8, and SSR 9 to SSR 3, complete inventory and reorganize storage, record location changes in TMS (The Museum System), and assist Conservation and Manager, Works on Paper and Photography Collections and Study Center with the development of proper storage conditions for all works stored in this area

• Pulling from SSR3 and re-shelving collection materials used for exhibition, loans, material to be photographed, examined by conservation, etc., also works with the preparations staff for the internal movement of collection material from SSR3

• Work with Curatorial staff and Registrar staff to complete active TR´s (temporary receipts) in the photography collection 

• Respond to inquires regarding objects in the collection

Further details, including applications etc, for the job (Code: 12-059CUR) can be found here.

The Executive Director, ICP’s Chief Executive Officer, reports to the Board of Trustees and must be an inspiring, bold, and collaborative leader with a passion for photography and digital media. The Director oversees all professional staff and programs, and provides strategic leadership, management expertise, and financial oversight for ICP. In carrying out these responsibilities, the Director is supported by and manages directly the Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Collections/Chief Curator; Deputy Director for Programs/Director of Education; Deputy Director for Finance and Administration; and Deputy Director for External Affairs. 
The Director will work in partnership with this senior management team and the Board to develop a strategic approach to achieving ICP’s goals. Along with the Board and senior staff, the Director will serve as the organization’s key fundraiser, and secure the resources needed to support both ongoing operations and new initiatives—in particular, charting a course to a new, permanent home for the institution. The Director will also serve as ICP’s primary advocate in the international cultural network, as well as in the arts community of New York City. He or she will raise ICP’s profile by articulating its vision more strongly, evolving and integrating academic and exhibition programming, and building partnerships with other relevant global institutions. 

Candidate Profile 
The Director of ICP will evince decisive leadership, intellectual curiosity, and a dedication to learning, along with a passion for the arts and, in particular, photography. He or she will have significant and proven strategic leadership and management experience in a multi-faceted for-profit or nonprofit organization with multiple internal and external constituencies. He or she will be digitally conversant, with considerable savvy operating in this realm. 
This person will have demonstrated success developing a compelling strategy for an organization, building the financial and ideological support for its implementation, and skillfully balancing and aligning the needs of multiple interests. He or she will have earned a reputation for effectiveness in partnering with a Board or a senior management team, and will be able to guide and lead through others. He or she will be able to engage the commitment of others to deliver on strategic initiatives, and will have demonstrated experience as a successful resource-builder for a significant venture. 
The successful candidate will be a vibrant leader and manager, with the ability to motivate, inspire, and unite staff around a shared vision. He or she will have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, able to cultivate relationships with, and build bridges across, diverse constituencies. In particular, he or she must have experience managing significant institutional transition, and will be energized by advancing the institution’s stature and recognition. In order to support ICP’s evolution and safeguard the institution’s health, this person must bring a developed understanding of organizational dynamics and processes. 
Ideally, the Director will exhibit a thorough knowledge of and passion for photography and the history of the medium, as well as demonstrate an understanding of the future of the industry and the impact of digitization on the medium. In addition, this person will have a record of well-respected intellectual achievement in his or her field, with demonstrable success conceptualizing, designing, and implementing attractive constituent experiences. 
While a Bachelor’s degree is required, a graduate-level degree is preferred. While the successful candidate is likely to have studied art history or arts management, ICP is open to any area of education which, when combined with relevant work experience, has prepared the candidate for this important leadership role. 

To apply please send a cover letter and resume to directoricp@russellreynolds.com

Deadline for applications: 7 Nov 11

Good luck!

Now entering its 21st year, UK’s longest running photography festival will be returning next month with 40 exhibitions featuring more than 75 artists from across the globe. One of the highlights for this year will be an exhibition at Hereford Museum and Art Gallery, co-curated by Simon Bainbridge, editor of the British Journal of Photography. The exhibition Time and Motion Studies features documentary work from six leading artists – Donald Weber, George Georgio, Manuel Vasquez, Robbie Cooper, Tim Hetherington and Vanessa Winship. They demonstrate the process between seeing a potential photo and making the conscious decision to take it. The exhibition will open with a panel discussion and Q&A with the artists.

Well, apart from being pioneering Victorian photographers, they both seem to be on a lucky streak! After the report of Llewelyn's £2 million grant here, there is now news of the Heritage Lottery Fund awarding £40,000 to the community interest company, The Share Initiative (TSI), which is backing the display of Winterbourn's work.

Only around half of Winterbourn's 8,000 glass plates have been scanned to-date. The project, VIEW+, will chart the work of these images taken by him of Leominster and its surrounding villages. Schools, community groups and history societies could also benefit, while workshops will include help on how to interpret the images.

It is hoped the three-year project, leading up to the 100th anniversary of the First World War being declared, will give all ages the chance to learn what life in the county was like in previous generations.

The full news article can be found here.

Photo: Thomas Henry Winterbourn’s photograph of the construction of Dinmore tunnel.

I am an art historian, currently completing an article on an illustrated book - Jim Dine's photographic illustrations for Apollinaire's 'Le Poète assassiné', published in 1968. In one of the photographs included in the book, there is what I thought initially might be an acrylic paint tube - it is rather crumpled and it is hard to read the label properly. However some conservation experts agree that it is not any paint that they recognise and have suggested that it may in fact be a photographic product, perhaps a tube of retouching paint or something. It apparently seems larger than standard tubes of retouching paint, but just in case this is a photographic product, I wondered if there might be a member of this community who might be able to help me identify it! I include the photo here, and would be grateful for any light anyone can shed on it:

Jim Dine illustration

I have been involved in two projects recently which might be interesting to some of the members of this community. Over the past few years I have been compiling a bibliography, with excerpts and annotations, of articles about photography published in America and in England from 1839 to 1869; describing its practitioners and practices, and displaying the impacts of those activities and events upon the general culture of that time. I have reviewed more than 800 magazines and newspapers published in the United States and in Great Britain from January 1839 through December 1869 and indexed more than 300 of these titles which contained articles in which photography was featured, discussed or mentioned in some illuminating manner, or which acknowledged the use of the medium in the creation of at least some of their illustrations.

Although not completely finished I hope to complete this project within a year. For reasons too arcane to explain at this time this work is contained in a Microsoft Word file that is very close to 9000 pages in length when set in single-spaced 10 pt Arial typeface. I have not settled on the most effective way to publish the work. – as a self-published on-demand set of 3 or 4 volumes, or in a database on a cd disk, or as a subscription service electronic file, or with a traditional publisher, or in some manner I don’t even know about. Anyone in the community who is willing to offer advice or suggestions about the most useful formats for their purposes would be gratefully received.

The second project consists of my wife and I setting up an ETSY “store” named “vintagephotosjohnson” to sell off the collection of photographs we have gathered during the past forty years. That long ago many of these photographs were not considered to have any value and were often in danger of immediate destruction when we obtained them, on more than one occasion, one day ahead of the dumpster. Beyond the motive of preservation, as teachers of photographic history, one of our aims was to find examples that trace the history of photography from 1845 to the 1990s rather than specifically collect “rare and valuable” artwork. For us, it has always been “all about the image” and interesting images have always taken precedence over other factors that professional “collectors” display when considering their choices. Nevertheless we are posting literally hundreds of British photographs by Bedford, Frith, Valentine, Wilson and many others at the “vintagephotosjohnson” store site (As well as the works of other photographers.) To me, at least, many of these images seem “fresher” than others by similar photographers being offered by other dealers on-line, and we are trying to offer the items at prices that are reasonable for both the buyer and for us; so some good stuff is going pretty cheaply by today's standards. I am also attempting to set up a corresponding “blog” which would feature “exhibitions” from these images, excerpts from the bibliography, and discussions about photography in general. I am posting new stuff every week, so please feel free to look in on the site. I would appreciate any amplifications or comments or corrections that anyone might bring to these posted images.

BIOGRAPHICAL

STATEMENT

William Johnson began teaching the history of photography at Harvard University in 1970
while working as a professional librarian there; and since then has taught and
worked at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston College, the
Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, the International Museum of
Photography at George Eastman House, the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester,
NY, and elsewhere.

He wrote W. Eugene Smith: Master of the Photographic Essay (Aperture); eight of the sixteen chapters in Photography from 1839 to today George Eastman House, Rochester, NY (Taschen); The Pictures Are A Necessity:
Robert Frank in Rochester, NY November 1988 (Rochester Consortium, George Eastman House), and the self-published Horses, Sea Lions, and Other Creatures: Robert Frank, Dave Heath, Robert Heinecken and John Wood, with Susan E. Cohen.

He has organized more than thirty exhibitions and is the author or contributor to more than fifteen exhibition checklists or catalogs, including a half-dozen or so on W. Eugene Smith, as well as ... one thing just sort of led to another ...The Photography of Todd Walker; Lucien Aigner's Paris; More Than Meets the Eye: Landscape Photography 1850 – 1910 and John Wood: On the Edge of Clear Meaning.

He has also

published extensive bibliographies on the photographers Lucien Aigner, Eugene
Atget, Carl Chiarenza, Walker Evans, Robert Heinecken, William H. Rau, W.
Eugene Smith, Southworth & Hawes, Edward Weston, Whipple & Black, John
Wood, and on the 1930s journal Photo Notes. He compiled and edited the annual International Photography Index (G. K.
Hall & Co.) from 1977 to 1980 and also published Nineteenth-Century Photography: An Annotated Bibliography, 1839-1879.
(G. K. Hall & Co.) Currently he is extending the range of
Nineteenth-Century Photography: An Annotated Bibliography, 1839-1879 by
compiling a large annotated bibliography of articles that indexes, annotates
and excerpts articles from more than 800 periodical and newspaper titles
published in America and Great Britain between 1835 and 1869.

A rare presentation album containing 42 sepia toned salt and albumen prints of Persia in 1860 by pioneering photographer Luigi Pesce fetched an impressive £39,000 (or £44,850 including premium) - more than double the estimate - at a Norfolk auction house last week. It drew bidders from afar, including France and the United States, before the hammer came down to a London dealer.

The images showed buildings such as mosques and palaces along with desert scenes, in a book inscribed to Sir Henry Rawlinson who was in Persia training the Shah’s troops. According to the Keys Aylsham sale room, only two similar books have ever come up for sale in the past - one given to William I of Prussia and the other to an Italian Count. Hence it was easy to see why bidding was tense with seven phone bidders and two in the room for this rare Middle Eastern album.

The Lot details can be found here.

Photo: LUIGI PESCE (1818-1891): ALBUM PHOTOGRAPHICO DELLA PERSIA, 1860.

The Arab Image Foundation's (AIF) photographic collection spans over a century (1880 to 1990) and includes 400,000 original images from across the Middle East, which range from amateur family portraits to professional studio shots. It's core collection (80 percent of their images) consists of photographs taken in Lebanon from 1920 through the 1960s, where photography was thriving in a cosmopolitan country. 

The Foundation recently opened its research center to the public. The center was created to encourage the study of Middle Eastern photography and contemporary practices. Its library holds approximately 1200 books about photography and photographic history, as well as documents related to preservation.
An ongoing AIF project is the Middle East Photograph Preservation Initiative (MEPPI), a program promoting the preservation of photographic heritage in the Arab world. The foundation selected 15 applicants from eight Arab countries to participate in the first series of workshops in Beirut this November. Three international experts are coming to Beirut to teach photographic preservation techniques. The goal is to create a large network of photographic collections in the Arab world. Next year, MEPPI will convene in Doha, then in Cairo in 2013. MEPPI will create a photographic directory, enabling everyone interested in preserving cultural heritage to unite.

If this is of interest, the AIF website can be found here.

Photo: General view of Beirut and Lebanon 1870-1885 by Felix Bonfils. (Copyright: AIF)

The ‘long 19^th century’, identified in the West with the age of the rise of nation states, is also the century of the ‘invention’ and diffusion of photography, as well as the birth of modern archival science. Photography was soon placed at the service of the iconic needs of nation states. The photographic collections and archives, both public and private, founded between the second half of the 19^th and the beginning of the 20^th century, thus had the function of restoring and creating the fragmented image of the nation, on the one hand, and helping to construct the image of a nation, on the other. Yet the problem of the representation of the national identity is clearly not limited to this period. Following the Second World War, the subsequent disintegration of the world colonial system, and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the national question was once again placed at the centre of attention but now in a planetary dimension. The debate of the contemporary world is thus torn between globalization and forms of national, or even sub-national, particularism. It is also having to face the question of the proliferation of images in a globalized world, in the age of digital media and internet, with its simplification of production (or over-production) of images and access to them. Despite these changing historical conditions, however, photographs have continued, and will continue, to be gathered in collections and archives, with the aim of giving visual substance to the image world of the national identity, and contributing to its formation.

The conference is aimed at studying the relation between photography or photographic archives and the idea of nation, yet without focusing on single symbolic icons and considering instead the wider archival and sedimental dimension.

The conference forms part of a series of international meetings dedicated to photographic archives and the interaction between photography and the academic and scientific disciplines, with a particular focus on the history of art. After London (June 2009), Florence (October 2009) and New York (March 2011), the fourth meeting in the series will once again be held in Florence (October 27-29, 2011).

PHOTO ARCHIVES IV: THE PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE AND THE IDEA OF NATION

Programme

THURSDAY, 27 OCTOBER 2011

14.30: Alessandro Nova (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz): Welcoming remarks

14.45: Costanza Caraffa (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz), Tiziana Serena (Università degli Studi di Firenze): Introduction

15.00, Opening Keynote: Elizabeth Edwards (DeMontfort University, Leicester): The Invisibility of History: Photography, the Colonial, and the Refiguring of Nation

16.00: coffee break

16.30: Tiziana Serena (Università degli Studi di Firenze): Cultural Heritage, Nation, Italian State: Politics of the Photographic Archive between Centre and Periphery

17.15: Bernhard Jussen (Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt): Towards an Iconology of Medieval Studies: Approaches to the Pictorial Formation of Historical Knowledge in Modern Scholarship

19.00, Evening Keynote: Joan M. Schwartz (Queen's University, Kingston): Images and Imaginings: Photographs, Archives, and the Idea of Nation

FRIDAY, 28 OCTOBER 2011

9.30: Roberto Mancini (Università Iuav di Venezia): La fabbrica degli albanesi. Lo studio fotografico Marubi e la definizione della identità nazionale del ‘paese delle aquile’ tra età moderna e contemporanea

10.15: Ewa Manikowska (Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw): Turning local into universal. Museums, Photography and the Discovery of Poland’s Cultural Patrimony (1918-1939)

11.00: coffee break

11.30: Justin Carville (Dublin / Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Dun Laoghaire): Performing Ethnography/Projecting History: Photography, Archives, and Irish Cultural Nationalism

12.15: Josko Belamaric (Institut za povijest umjetnosti – Institute of Art History, Split, Croatia): Il ruolo della fotografia nel Kulturkampf attorno al 1900 in Dalmazia

lunch break

15.00: John Mraz (Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Mexico / Princeton University): Archives & Icons: Constructing a Postrevolutionary Identity in Mexico

15.45: Julia Adeney Thomas (University of Notre Dame, Indiana): A War without Pictures: Japan's Official Photography Magazines as National Archive

16.30: coffee break

17.00: Pietro Clemente (Università degli Studi di Firenze): Resistenza, memoria e fotografia nei processi identitari dell’Italia postbellica

17.45: Rolf Sachsse (Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar): Microfilm Services and Their Application to Scholarly Study, Scientific Research, Education and Re-Education in the Post-War Period: a Draft Proposal by Lucia Moholy to the UNESCO Preparatory Commission, 1945, and its Prehistory in Modern Art

18.30: Patricia Hayes (University of Western Cape, South Africa): The 'struggle archive' and the Loss of the Subject: Portraits of Namibian Contract Workers by John Liebenberg, 1986

SATURDAY, 29 OCTOBER 2011

10.00: Martha A. Sandweiss (Princeton University): Majestic Landscapes and Disappearing Indians: Photography and the Invention of an American West

10.45: Martina Baleva (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin): Von der fotografischen Inflation zur nationalen Revolution. Konstruktionen bulgarischer Nationalrevolutionäre im fotografischen Bild

11.30: coffee break

12.00: Lucie Ryzova (University of Oxford / Cairo): Mourning the Archive in Egypt: Vintage Photographs in the Age of Neoliberalism and Digital Reproduction

12.45: Round Table / Final Discussion

Organization: Costanza Caraffa (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, caraffa@khi.fi.it)  and Tiziana Serena (Università degli Studi di Firenze, tiziana.serena@unifi.it)

Location: Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, Max-Planck-Institut, Photothek, Via dei Servi 51, 50122 Florence

Contact: Maja Häderli (haederli@khi.fi.it)

BPH exclusively revealed that London's V&A Museum was to open a new photography gallery in October (see: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/exclusive-vampa-to-open-new). The opening is scheduled for 25 October 2011.

A permanent new gallery to show highlights from the V&A’s internationally renowned collection of photographs will open this autumn, considerably extending the space dedicated to photographs at the Museum. The gallery will launch with a display of works by key figures of photographic history including Victorian portraits by Julia Margaret Cameron and significant works by Henri Cartier-Bresson,Man Ray, Alfred Stieglitz, Diane Arbus and Irving Penn.The gallery will chronicle the history of photography from its invention in 1839 up to the 1960s,after which developments in scale, concept and technology mark a shift in approach andappearance. The display will be re-curated every 18 months.

Temporary displays, primarily showcasing contemporary photography, will be shown in the V&A’s existing photographs gallery.A broad range of works will be displayed in the new gallery, including the oldest photographin the V&A collection, a daguerreotype from 1839 of Parliament Street from Trafalgar Square in London.

Other highlights will be an early botanical photograph created without a camera by Anna Atkins (1854); a dramatic seascape by Gustave Le Gray praised at the time for its technical and artistic accomplishment (1856); and a commanding portrait by Robert Howlett of Isambard Kingdom Brunel standing in front of the chains of The Great Eastern ship (1857). Laterworks on display will include Curtis Moffat’s camera-less photograph of a dragonfly (about 1925) influenced by Man Ray’s pioneering style and an astonishing scientific photograph by Harold Edgerton of the coronet formed by a single milk drop falling into liquid (1957).

There will also be two ‘In Focus’ sections, each featuring a photographer represented in depth in the V&A collection. The first will be dedicated to British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, who used long exposures and soft focus to create some of the most powerful portraitsof the 19th century. The second will present Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the most influentialphotographers of the 20th century, who used a small hand-held camera to capture the extraordinary in the everyday.

In 1856, the V&A became the first museum to collect photographs and in 1858, was the first to exhibit them. The V&A is home to the UK’s national collection of the art of photography, one of the largest and most important in the world. The gallery, formerly a study space, is being designed by the V&A’s design department as part of the V&A’s FuturePlan to transform the Museum through new galleries and redisplays of itscollections. Architectural details will be restored, including ten magnificent semi-circular paintings, commissioned in the 1860s as part of the original decorative scheme, to illustrate the principles of art education and show the highest achievements from the history of art. 

Image: Julia Margaret Cameron, Circe, 1865.

The news doesn't look good for Eastman Kodak. From the Wall Street Journal: Kodak Hires Restructuring Lawyers. Eastman Kodak Co. has hired law firm Jones Day for restructuring advice as it faces growing concerns from investors over its turnaround prospects, people familiar with the matter said.

The move to hire restructuring lawyers signals Kodak is intensifying efforts to ensure it has the financial wherewithal to complete a difficult strategic and financial revamp. Shares in the 131-year-old company have lost around a third of their value this week following Kodak's disclosure that it pulled $160 million from a credit line.

That drawdown heightened concerns about the company's cash flow and triggered downgrades of its credit rating.

Kodak shares plunged Friday afternoon, down 60% in recent trading to 68 cents...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204138204576603053167627950.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories

Business Week carries some more detailed analysis: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-01/kodak-said-to-weigh-bankruptcy-to-clear-path-for-patent-sale.html 

These pictures of children from the 1950s and ‘60s, are a mere fraction of John Chillingworth’s work, but remain as fresh today as they were when picture magazines were at their zenith. In the 1950s John was a member of the ‘star’ team of photographic journalists whose images told stories for the seminal British picture magazine, Picture Post.  During the celebration of 150 years of photography, at the National Museum of Photography,Film and TV (now the National Media Museum), he was described as a ‘maker of photographic history’.

His earlier images, held by the London-based Getty Images-Hulton Archive, are still reproduced in publications around the world.  All are available to dedicated collectors of classic photography, both in the UK and abroad. “Like so many great British photographers,” says Matthew Butson, vice-president of London-based Getty Images/Hulton Archive, “the work of John Chillingworth deserves wider recognition today.”

Far from being a mere ‘journeyman’, John followed the path trodden by the great miniature camera pioneers and as he did so, helped bring a fresh dimension to the craft of ‘story-telling’ photography. It has been said that his way of seeing pictures influenced the visual development of subsequent generations of photographers.  ‘Memory Lane’ it may be for some and surprising to others, but each one of this selection of his images from around the world still has its own story to tell. 

The Innocence of Childhood Photographs by John Chillingworth Hon FRPS - 3rd October - 28th October 2011

Free Entry: Monday–Friday. 9.30–16.30

The Royal Photographic Society, Fenton House, 122 Wells Road, Bath BA2 3AH For further information please contact Lesley Goode.  01225 325720 lesley@rps.org.

Image: John Chillingworth, Whitechapel girl, London, 1953, Getty Images-Hulton Archive.

John's own website is at: www.johnchillingworth.co.uk

After the appointment of a new Director-General a few weeks ago, the Royal Photographic Society has today announced its new President. 

Roy Robertson, its first Scottish president since the Earl of Crawford in 1897, resides in Newport-on-Tay and will be replacing Rosemary Wilman at the helm of this 158-year-old institution. He will hold the position until 2013. Robertson's photographic interests include documentary, contemporary and landscape photography.

The full news article can be found here.

Photo: Copyright Robert Gates

Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the War is a compilation of 100 photographs of the American Civil War (1861-1865), made by Alexander Gardner and other photographers (Timothy O’Sullivan, John Reekie, David Knox, D.B. Woodbury etc.) in his employ. This two-volume book contained 50 hand-mounted original prints. 

I came across a blog featuring a fascinating image of London with St Paul's in the background taken in 1844 by Joseph Cundall (1818-1895) (aka Stephen Percy). He was both a Victorian children’s book publisher as well as an early pioneer of photography. Ever eager to 'network', Cundall would provide employment for many of the best artists of the day by using them as illustrators.

Together with Robert Hunt, he started the Calotype Club in 1847. His passion for photography grew when he moved to 168 New Bond Street where he founded The Photographic Institution. He was also a founder member of the Royal Photographic Society of London.

According to the blog, "One day in 1844, twenty-six year old Joseph Cundall walked from his printing shop on Old Bond Street down to the Thames River carrying the box camera he recently designed and built, along with bottles of’ silver nitrate and gallic acid. Once settled on the Blackfriars Bridge, under a black cloth, he painted the chemistry onto some writing paper that had already been treated with silver nitrate and potassium iodide and then, inserted it into the camera. Focusing on St. Paul’s Cathedral in the distance, Cundall opened the lens and made a single exposure.

This calotype (paper negative) was used later to make several positive prints, one of which was given to his friend, optician Richard Willats, who pasted it into an album. That album and what might be the earliest photograph taken by Joseph Cundall is now at Princeton University."

If you're interested in all things London during the Victorian days, there is a database of approximately 9,000 biographical entries on photographic companies and the people who worked within the photographic industry in London during the 19th century, produced in collaboration with English Heritage's National Monuments Record, on this link here.

Photo: London in 1844 (J Cundall).

A small display featuring portraits of children by Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79), one of the most influential figures in early photography, opens at the Victoria and Albert Museum's Museum of Childhood, London on 15 October 2011. It closes on 13 February 2012

The images explore Cameron’s vision of childhood, in which children are sacred and the embodiment of innocence. She strove to establish photography as an art form, using soft focus and compositions inspired by Renaissance paintings, and incorporating the irregularities of early photographic processes in her pictures. In doing so, her portraits succeed in conveying the emotional and spiritual aura of the sitter. 

After the Museum of Children showing the exhibition will move to Cameron's former home, Dimbola, on the Isle of Wight which is dedicated to her life and is home to a gallery. 

Image: Florence [Fisher], Julia Margaret Cameron, 1872, from the V+A Collection.

For more information see: http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/whats_on/exhibitions_and_displays/julia_margaret_cameron/index.html

The V+A has a small display running - curated by Marta Weiss - that explores photographs that make reference to themselves, other media and texts. It aims to demonstrate how such Postmodernist approaches to photography have persisted for over 30 years. Spanning the mid-1970s to the present day, it shows work by some of the most influential artists associated with Postmodernism, such as Cindy Sherman and Richard Prince, alongside more recent work by Anne Hardy, David Shrigley, Clare Strand and others.

The showing is show at the V+A in London until 27 November 2011 in Gallery 38A and admission is free.

See the links here for more information:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/signs-of-a-struggle-photography-in-the-wake-of-postmodernism/ 

and reviews:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/signs-of-a-struggle-vampa-london-2341103.html

http://www.timeout.com/london/art/event/235523/signs-of-a-struggle-photography-in-the-wake-of-postmodernism

http://i-donline.com/2011/08/say-cheese-in-a-postmodern-way/

Image:  Clare Strand, from the series Signs of a Struggle, 2002. Gelatin silver print.

The International Street Photography Award is looking for exceptional international photographers that display a unique style and depth of work in the genre of street photography. The genre crosses over into portraiture, documentary and art photography (see the 2011 finalists for inspiration and a guide to what defines street photography). The 2011 winners can be seen here: http://www.londonstreetphotographyfestival.org/gallery/international-street-photography-award

So what is street photography?: http://www.londonstreetphotographyfestival.org/what-is-street-photography  The London Street Photography Festival defines Street Photography as:“Candid photography which captures, explores or questions contemporary society and the relationships between individuals and their surroundings.”

Prizes and categories 

The international winner will receive £2,000 cash PLUS a solo exhibition in London PLUS an all-expenses paid trip to the exhibition launch and awards ceremony in London in June 2012 - total value £10,000. Selected finalists will be exhibited in the same gallery and one image from each entrant will be showcased in a digital display. The first 500 applicants will be automatically entered into a draw to win some fabulous prizes including: a signed print from one of the 2011 exhibitions, an Olympus PEN camera, £100 Blurb voucher, a Crumpler Muffin Top camera bag, photo-books by Magnum and Thames & Hudson. Categories include an overall winner, a runner up, and 10 finalists.

Entry fee

£30.00

• Participants from certain countries receive a 50% discount on the entrance fee.
• You can submit between 5 and 8 images within the fee.

• One image from ALL PHOTOGRAPHERS will be displayed on a large screen during the Awards exhibition and profiled (optional) on the LSPF website.



• ALL PHOTOGRAPHERS who enter will receive a £28.95 voucher to print their own book with Blurb, which expires on 31 March 2012.

• FEEDBACK: For an additional £15, LSPF can provide written feedback by an Award judge on your submissions. Choose the "Written Feedback" drop down when you submit your images to the Awards.

Register online

http://www.londonstreetphotographyfestival.org/competitions/international-award-2012/international-award-2012-info

Application deadline

05 January 2012