Blogs

The Photographers' Gallery, London, is to close this Autumn 2010 as construction starts on the transformation of the Gallery's building on Ramillies Street, London. The conversion by architects O'Donnell+ Tuomey will create:

• Three floors of galleries
• A floor dedicated to learning for all
• An improved Bookshop and Print Sales space
• A brand new street level Café/Bar
• An accessible building with a new lift

Although the building will be closed, the Gallery will continue to present projects, talks and events in Central London, as well as working with schools and young people. The Bookshop and Print Sales teams will continue to operate over this year.

For news and regular updates join our email newsletter, the Gallery can be followed on Facebook.To find out how you can support this ambitious project contact the Development Team on campaign@photonet.org.uk, +44 (0)20 7087 9340.

Click here for more: http://www.photonet.org.uk/index.php?pid=411

The photo-historian Larry Schaaf writes in the The Magazine Antiques about the institutional collection and preservation of photographs within the context of the British Library and it's activities. The first paragraph is reproduced below. Click here for to see the full text (for free): http://www.themagazineantiques.com/articles/libraries-and-the-preservation-of-early-photography/

When photography was first announced to the public in 1839, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1781–1851) took the limelight. Daguerre’s process produced a singular photograph on a silvered sheet of copper, breathtaking in its detail and seductive in its beauty. But in the larger mainstream of communication, it was a dead end. Talbot’s productions on paper seemed coarse and cumbersome by comparison. Yet paper has traditionally been the basis of many reproductive arts and is especially the province of books, allowing Talbot’s approach into existing pathways. The Library of the British Museum (as it was then) was not the logical repository of works of art, a function served by the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert). Some photographs came in through the British Museum’s prints and drawings collection, others as part of donations of private libraries, but the truly stupendous numbers of photographs were collected contemporaneously as illustrations in books and portfolios. Since photomechanical processes were not perfected for most of the nineteenth century, many of these illustrations were original photographic prints. In many ways, we are fortunate that collections such as that of the British Library exist. They are fundamentally different from museum curated photographic collections though each has its strengths. Without this “accidental” collecting, many splendid images would either have been considered insignificant, or would not have fit the aesthetic of the moment and would have been lost to us.

http://www.themagazineantiques.com/articles/libraries-and-the-preservation-of-early-photography/

The British Library's most visited temporary exhibition during 2009-10 was Points of View which attracted 108,989 visitors and surpassed, by far, the Henry VIII exhibtion. Points of View: Capturing the 19th Century in Photographs was the British Library’s first major photographic exhibition and examined the development and influence of photography from its invention in 1839 up to the growth of a popular amateur market in the early 20th century. It showed rarely displayed items from the collection and explored how photography had assumed a critical role as the primary means of visual expression. The show was curated by John Falconer.

On a winter’s day in 1889, Tsimshian Chief Arthur Wellington Clah went to a photography studio in Victoria to have his portrait taken. “Rebekah ask if I going likeness house,” Chief Clah wrote in his diary, “So I go, to give myself likeness. Rebekah stand longside me.”

In Images from the Likeness House, Dan Savard explores the relationship between First Peoples in British Columbia, Alaska and Washington, and the photographers who made images of them from the late 1850s to the 1920s. He features the images, as they have survived, without digital enhancements, from the earliest glass-plate photographs made by “photographic artists” to snapshots taken by amateurs on nitrate film.

Photography was a laborious procedure in its early days, undertaken only by “photographic artists” who had the knowledge and resources to make images. These professionals often travelled far away from their “likeness houses” to make visual records of this region, transporting their heavy glass plates and equipment by boat and wagon.

In Images from the Likeness House, Dan Savard gives examples of the styles of photographs and methods of producing them in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He shows the great technological advancements that took place in this period, from the early negatives produced on
wet-glass plates to the invention of nitrate film. More importantly, he shows how some of these images, produced by outsiders who knew little about the cultures they recorded, do not portray the interests of the people in them, but those of the photographer.

Savard shares his passion for historical photographs as he discusses the value in each, how or why the photographer produced it, or what the image means to researchers today. This is not only an important book about photography, but also a visual statement about perception (and misperception), cultural change and survival. Images from the Likeness House will appeal to ethnographers, photographers, photo historians, history buffs and anyone interested in the history of photography of BC, Alaska and Washington.

Dan Savard is senior collections manager of the Anthropology Audio Visual Collection at the RBCM. He has authored several academic papers and given many illustrated presentations on topics related to
photography and First Peoples. This is his first book.

Bill Turnage, managing director of the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, said: "It's an unfortunate fraud. It's very distressing."

Even though, it might sound like an episode of Dallas, I'm still off to the car boot sale .....

Photo: Rick Norsigian holds up a photograph made from a glass negative shot by the late photographer Ansel Adams (Copyright: AP)

According to the Encylopedia of 19th century Photography, "As John Mercer discovered in the 1850s, the cyanotype process is also particularly well suited for printing photographs onto cotton textiles
..."

If you are keen to learn more about this local hero, check out the exhibition here. Also, a box containing Mercer's experiment on chromatic photography can be found in the National Archives (Ref: UDCL/8?19 n.d.)

Photos: Probably on cambric, with the colours perfectly preserved. He also took photographs of friends, such as Frederick Steiner another calico printer. (Courtesy of the Lancashire Record Office)

BBC R4's Front Row radio programme will be discussing Birmingham's Ikon Gallery Harold Edgerton show as part of a wider debate about ground-breaking photography. The show begins at 7.15pm and will be available on the BBC's Listen Again feature for a week afterwards. Click here to listen: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/

A huge slice of Scottish photographic history has been uploaded onto the internet in a bid to share the nation’s history with the world. Over 2,000 previously archived pictures were posted onto Flickr by the National Library of Scotland. The formerly hidden treasures include the World War One photographs and an image of the chilling order for the massacre of Glencoe.

Library bosses decided to post the pictures online using Flickr’s Commons licence, meaning anybody can use them for non-commercial purposes. A further batch of 1,000 photographs will be added by the NLS before the end of the year.

Gill Hamilton, the NLS systems librarian, said: “This is a fantastic resource for the general public.

“There are no known copyright restrictions on Flickr’s The Commons photos, so everyone has access to use these images for non-commercial purposes.

“Flickr Commons is a great way for the National Library of Scotland to share its photographic collections with the world and we’re looking forward to adding to our Flickr Photostream throughout the coming year.”

Pictures of Scotland’s cities dating back to 1840 were posted on the site by the National Galleries of Scotland earlier this year.

Click here to see the Library's photo sets online: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nlscotland/

The National Media Museum/Getty Conservation Institute conference being held in October has published a short video explaining the purpose of the conference (click below to play). The video features Dusan Stulik talking about Niepce and the importance of his work within the conference context.

For more information about the conference click here: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/niepce-in-england-conference

Can you demonstrate solid experience and achievements in raising funds from trusts, foundations and public bodies? Would you like to apply this within one of the world’s most prestigious museums? Our ability to meet our funding targets is critical to the delivery of world-class projects, exhibitions and visitor attractions. For this reason, we’re looking for a Senior Development Executive at The National Media Museum. With your experience in raising funds in the cultural sector, we will look to you to develop and manage a portfolio of key prospects and donors.

You will identify and research funding opportunities, then devise and implement cultivation strategies. Engaged and enthused by Museum plans and future projects, you will be able to communicate with clarity and accuracy;, passion and insight, building strong relationships internally and externally and a network of repeat-income sources. Experience in preparing fundraising applications, demonstrating fundraising success and bringing a strategic, professional approach to senior-level relationships is essential.

The Science Museum, The National Railway Museum and The National Media Museum form the unique NMSI family of museums. We aim to be the most admired museum in the world by engaging and inspiring diverse audiences, while at the same time rewarding and developing the people who contribute to our success.

For a full job description please email recruitment@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk or visit http://www.nrm.org.uk/AboutUs/Jobs.aspx

Interested? Please send your CV and covering letter by clicking the Apply button clearly stating which role you wish to apply for.

Closing date: 1st August 2010

We welcome applications from all sections of the community in which we work. We particularly welcome applications from disabled people and we guarantee interviews to suitably qualified disabled applicants.

Better late than never ! Deadline is this Friday 23rd July 2010.

Project Scanning Technician
Salary Grade 3 £17,111 - £19,743
Full time fixed term appointment until 31 August 2011

The Pitt Rivers Museum is seeking a Project Scanning Technician to work with the Museum’s Photographic Collection scanning photographs from the Wilfred Thesiger Collection as part of a project funded by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage.

The post holder will carry out the digitisation of photographic collections relating to the United Arab Emirates The ideal candidate will be a team player who has a proven experience of working with archival photographs or an interest in photography, experience of using Adobe Photoshop, image editing software and previous digitisation experience, have good organisation and record keeping skills and shows an attention to detail.

A completed application form (also available in MS Word format) with a CV and covering letter, should be sent to the Museum Administrator, Pitt Rivers Museum, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PP.