Award winning, visionary and truly unique, the National Media Museum embraces photography, film, television, radio and the web. Part of the NMSI family of museums, we aim to engage, inspire and educate through comprehensive collections, innovative education programmes and a powerful yet sensitive approach to contemporary issues.

Audience Researcher – Internet Gallery Project
Bradford
£17,500 - £18,500

It’s vital to the continued success of the organisation that our exhibitions, websites, programmes and products are appealing to as wide an audience as possible; and that our continued development is always done in an audience centred and customer focused way. This is why this role is vital, ensuring that through thorough research techniques, audience feedback and comprehensive reporting, we understand the direction we need to go, what we do right and possibly wrong. Reporting to the Senior Audience Researcher based at the Science Museum, we need a team player with proven research skills in data collection, analysis, interpretation, report creation and presentation. An appreciation of new media would be an advantage as would experience gained within an audience-focused and/or learning environment. The pace is fast. You need to be able to work independently, display excellent communication skills and have a passion for your subject. Overall, this is an exciting role for a talented research professional who wants to make a deep and lasting contribution to a very popular national ‘iconic’ visitor experience.

The Yorkshire Post reports that there is increasing speculation that the the National Media Museum may have to start charging admission. It reports that: The organisation which runs York's National Railway Museum and Bradford's National Media Museum is also "planning for a range of scenarios" and has refused to rule out changes to opening times as it waits to find out how badly the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) budget is cut in the Comprehensive Spending Review.

Institutions categorised as national museums – which includes the National Coal Mining Museum, National Railway Museum, National Media Museum and the Royal Armouries in Yorkshire – offer free admission, and Ministers have been keen to insist that will continue.

They receive grants directly from Government but DCMS officials have written to them enquiring about the possible impact of funding cuts of 25 to 30 per cent.

The department itself is threatened with cuts of up to 40 per cent.

Read the full story here.

The private personas, including an archive of public photos, of the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw who died 60 years ago in November, has been put online.

Dr. George Layne of Philadelphia is working on a book about the earliest cameras of George Eastman, the Stringset Kodaks. So far, he has over four hundred examples in his database, including the 47 in the collection of the National Media Museum in Bradford. He is looking for more. If you have one of these cameras, and you haven't already participated in this project, please contact Dr. Layne at GEORGELAYNE@AOL.COM.

The cameras of interest include the Original Kodak, the #1, #2, #3 and # 4 Kodaks, the #3 and #4 Kodak Juniors, the A, B and C Ordinary Kodaks and the A, B and C Daylight Kodak cameras.

Thank you.

Dr. George Layne - Philadelphia

Photography and Literature assess the complete history of photography, and Brunet begins by examining how the invention of photography was shaped by written culture, both scientific and literary. As well, Brunet looks at the creation of the photo-book, the frequent personal discovery of photography by writers, and how photography and literature eventually began to trade tools and merge formats to create a new photo-textual genre. Highly illustrated,Photography and Literature reflects a photographer’s point of view, giving new attention to such works as the groundbreaking exploration of photography in The Pencil of Nature by William Henry Fox Talbot and Sophie Calle’s projects with Jean Baudrillard and Paul Auster.

Essential for anyone interested in the intersection of the verbal and the visual,Photography and Literature provides a fascinating wealth of autobiography, manifesto, and fiction as well as a variety of images from the first daguerreotypes to the digital age.

Available through Amazon by clicking on the link on the right hand side to search for it.

Rochester, NY– The world’s only continuous symposium on the history of photography PhotoHistory XV, will take place at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York on October 21-23, 2011. This date represents a new two-year interval between proceedings as requested by attendees, according to officials of The Photographic Historical Society who organize the event.

PhotoHistory XV will contain a full day of presentations on the history of photographic practice, aesthetics, collecting, technology and sociology followed by a next day of browsing at a photographic trade show which attracts dealers from North America and internationally. A call for papers will go out soon. Still and motion photography subjects are considered. For information contact: Martin L. Scott, General Chairman of PhotoHistory XV at: tphs@rochester.rr.com.

The most recent PhotoHistory XIV was held in October 2009 and was the last on the traditional three-year interval, which first began in 1970. The changed two –year frequency for the symposium was suggested and voted on by attendees at the 2009 event that drew more than 200 visitors from the Americas, Great Britain, Europe, Australia and Japan.

The symposium’s venue, George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, combines the world’s leading collections of photography and film with the stately landmark Colonial Revival mansion that was George Eastman’s home from 1905 to 1932. The Museum is a National Historic Landmark. George Eastman, the founder of Eastman Kodak Company, is heralded as the father of modern photography and the inventor of motion picture film.

The formal call for papers abstracts of which are required by 31 December 2010 can be found be found by clicking here: Photohistorypapers.doc.

The Photographic Historical Society of Rochester, NY, is the first organized society devoted to photographic history and the preservation of photo antiques. Founded in 1966, it has a membership of about 120 individuals. For more information see the Society’s web site at http://www.tphs.org

Give up?

Well, it was one of seven books donated by a gentleman at the Teignmouth branch of Oxfam, one day shortly before Christmas last year.

The book in question described the quest of two Victorian scientists in finding their long-lost brother in Fiji back in 1881. Entitled "A Trip To The Highlands of Viti Levu", this unique photo book consisted of 44 portraits ofFijians, and was written and self-published by Gerard Ansdell in 1882. According to the report "Ansdell and his brother, scientists and members of the Royal Society of London, had set out in 1881 in search of a lost brother, who they believed was working on a coffee plantation in Fiji. He was tracked down in Viti Levu, and Ansdell and his brother documented everything from their trip to create what was a vivid anthropological record of life on the South Pacific islands."

Valued by Oxfam's own team of specialist valuers at £2,000 to £3,000, this historical book stunned the charity and Bonhams, when it went for £37,000 in April this year - enough to buy 1,500 goats, feed 5,300 families or provide safe water for 41,000 people!

Luke Batterham, a books specialist for Bonhams, said they were surprised by the "huge amount" the book made. But a multiple bidding war, including one bidder who was believed to have tracked the rare book since the only one came up in auction in Australia in 1977, helped propel it to an Oxfam record. "It falls into that category of if you don't buy it now you're unlikely to see another copy," said Batterham. "It was in exceptional condition. It's very rare in its own right and there were some very tenacious people with an anthropological interest in Fiji."

The rest of the story can be found here. Guess I'd better make my way to the nearest Oxfam now ....

Photo: A photograph from A Trip To The Highlands of Viti Levu, which was discovered in an Oxfam bookshop and has raised more than £37,000 at auction for the charity (Oxfam/Press Association).

For all you Muybridge fans out there, there seems to be no shortage of events dedicated to this innovative and influential early pioneer of moving photography who hailed from Kingston-upon-Thames.

Writing elsewhere Marcel Safier describes a project which he and Stefan Hughes have joined forces on. The intention is to produce a biography of the neglected but important figure in photograpic history, inventor of the successful collodion photographic process Frederick Scott Archer.

Marcel states: "We became acquainted through our mutual friend, Archer enthusiast and contemporary wet plate practitioner Sean McKenna. Already fresh and interesting material has come to light and it is our intention to chronicle as much of Archer's life as possible and to examine his significance to photography and look in detail at his family and circle of friends."

Stefan has created a website to support the project: http://www.frederickscottarcher.com/

Marcel also appeals for more information: "Some of you may have valuable information you wish to share such as an image, correspondence, a newspaper or journal article or details on one of his friends and collaborators(such as Peter Wickens Fry, Warren De La Rue etc.) I know speaking to one friend on this list that he had actually contemplated writing a book himself on Archer. We certainly want to know if someone else is contemplating that task. There is a forum on our site but we welcome direct email contact. I shall be in touch directly over coming months with those people I know personally on the list that might be able to assist is. Anyone who has suggestions for grant funding or publication of our book is also welcome to make contact."