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The Singapore Philatelic Museum will be exhibiting some 100 rare picture postcards capturing the history and heritageof Singapore from early next month. They were taken by G.R. Lambert, a famous German photographer who arrived in Singapore in 1867.
He produced the first picture postcard of Singapore, in addition to taking 3,000 photographs of landscapes and people of Singapore in the 19th century. He was extensively patronised by the British colonial authorities to record political occasions and official visits.
He was not only renowned in Singapore, but also in the region. He was appointed as the official photographer to the King of Siam, and also the Sultan of Johore in British Malaya. And by the end of the 19th century, his photographic company, G.R. Lambert and Co, was the largest and most successful photographic studio in Asia.
During the "Golden Age of Picture Postcards" from 1906 to 1913, there was a postcard craze which saw the company having a turnover of about quarter of a million postcards a year. The exhibition was made possible through the donation of the picture postcards by avid philatelist Koh Seow Chuan.
So, if you are heading to the Far East for a holiday and/or to sample some culinary delights, details of the exhibition can be found here.
Photo: A photograph of Cavanagh Bridge in 19th centurySingapore.
"Photography Not Art" - these three words written by Peter Henry Emerson (1856-1936), one of the principle exponents of photography as an art form in its own right, say a lot about the complexity of a debate which started with the birth of photography and went on for several years. The phrase, replaced in 1899 the expression "Photography, a Pictorial Art" to close his treatise on naturalist photography, proved above all that the absolute diktat of painting had not spared even the most innovative minds.
Published in 1889 byan Anglo-American doctor who had changed career, Naturalistic Photography for Students of the Art was, however, very quickly compared to "dropping a bombshell at a tea party". This was the start of a crusade against the academism of artistic photography. The manifesto was in fact offering an antidote to the artificiality of the composite prints of Henry Peach Robinson (1830-1901), the master of clever manipulation of negatives. Emerson also intended it as a response to the criticisms he had endured since his conspicuous entrance into photography.
Twenty-three yearsafter the only monographic exhibition in France devoted to this polemist photographer, the Musée d'Orsay invites you to (re) discover his first and last collections, two key moments in a career that lasted barely ten years.
Details of the exhibition can be found here.
Photo: Peter Henry Emerson (1856-1936); Poling the Marsh Hay; 1886.
Platinum printfrom a silver gelatin bromide glass negative H. 23,2; W. 29,1 cm
Paris, musée d'Orsay
The Fellowwill be undertaking in-depth research on SFMOMA’s extensive permanent collection of photography. During the Fellow’s residency, he or she will conduct scholarly research on individual artists and objects, write texts for publication on the Museum’s website, verify and correct existing cataloguing information, and perform data entry. He or she will also be expected to contribute to the department’s day-to-day activities, as assigned.
The fellowship requires a 17.5 hour/week commitment and includes a stipend of $7,875. The successful applicant will have a master’s degree (or higher) in art history with an emphasis on the history of photography and a demonstrated commitment to a museum career. He or she will possess excellent writing, research, and communication skills, as well as reading ability in at least one foreign language.
Further details, including application forms, can be found here.
Details including application forms can be found here, with a deadline of 1st February 2011. Good luck !
Entitled "The Gernsheim Collection", the book includes more than 125 full-page plates from the collection with extensive annotations in which the Ransom Center's senior research curator Roy Flukinger describes each image's place in the evolution of photography and within the collection. The catalogue also traces the Gernsheims' passion for collecting and their career as pioneering historians of photography, showing how their efforts significantly contributed to the acceptance of photography as a fine art and as a field worthy of intellectual study.
The book also includes a foreword by George Eastman House Curator of Photographs Alison Nordström and an afterword by former Victoria and Albert Museum Curator Mark Haworth-Booth.
A must-have for the libraries of all photo historians. A full press release can be found here.
A Freedom of Information request by JIm Bretell to the National Museum of Science and Industry has thrown light on the NMeM's plans for its London presence - although the NMSI declined to make available the 'substantial' documentation that the project has generated. In a token gesture it has published a partially redacted section of the NMSI Trustee minutes of 8 February 2008 these show:
- the aim of the London presence is to raise the national and international profile of the NMeM and to draw people to Bradford
- the space would be occupied by charging exhibitions with free entry to a media cafe. It would also act as a learning space
- the space could also be used to show photographic images from the National Railway Museum collection
- The funding plan would commence when at least 50 per cent was committed
The running cost and break-even number of visitors was dedacted.
The extract can be viewed here: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/38445/response/99877/attach/3/donotreply%20nmsi.ac.uk%2020100713%20164649.pdf
and details of the original request and MNSI covering letter here: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/national_media_museum_possible_l#incoming-99877
The National Portrait Gallery's Camille Silvy exhibition opens this week on 15 July. For any BPH readers in London the NPG bookshop is already selling curator Mark Haworth-Booth's book and catalogue of the show along with other relevant books, poster, cards and souvenirs. As one would expect the book is a fascinating read with well-reproduced illustrations and excellent value at £20 (hardback only). The exhibition space itself remains hidden behind locked doors...
Details of the exhibition and associated lectures and events can be found here: http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/2010/camille-silvy1.php Most of the events are free but are likely to be popular and you are advised to turn up early to ensure a place.
Made at Lacock Abbey by William Henry Fox Talbot in August 1835, the world’s first photographic negative changed the world. A new exhibition, Celebrating the Negative launching on 3 July at the Fox Talbot Museum will display images by John Loengard, a highly acclaimed American photographer, who travelled the world during the 1990s visiting archives and photographers’ studios to see the original negatives of images that have changed photography and the world.
The images show the original negatives in the hands of the archivist or photographer which brings their scale into play and points up the fact that the negatives are objects as well as images.
The negative is not just another picture – it is THE picture. There is an intimate connection between the negative and the subject. Looking at a negative you are looking at an artefact of a time and place. The sun that shone on Abraham Lincoln on that day in 1863 was captured by that negative. All of the positive prints from that negative were made later, probably on a different day and by different sunlight and almost certainly not in the presence of Lincoln. Loengard says of Fox Talbot’s discovery: "It is a quirk of nature that silver and chlorine combine in the dark but separate when struck by light, leaving behind tiny, black, round particles of silver.
The 1st Negative
Talbot asked Lacock’s village carpenter to make up a few small wooden boxes to which he could insert his microscope lenses. These cameras, dubbed ‘Mousetraps’ by Talbot’s wife Constance, due to their size and shape, were the cameras through which he was finally able to capture an image.
On a sunny day in August, 1835 he aimed a mousetrap camera at the latticed window in the South Gallery of Lacock Abbey and in a few minutes he had made the world’s first photographic negative.
Three of the original ‘Mousetrap Cameras’ have been loaned to the museum by the National Media Museum. It is their first visit to their original home of Lacock Abbey in more than 75 years.
There will also be examples of the most important negative processes on display and an explanation of how they were made and how each was a technological advance in the history of photography. Roger Watson, curator of the Fox Talbot Museum says: "This is a really important and exciting celebration for us at Lacock. The negative is the primary image. It is the sensitive surface that faced the subject and first recorded the light. All positive prints are secondary images derived from the negative and are therefore one step removed from the original scene. The negative was the eye witness and the positive print the story related after the fact."
In August a recreation of the first photographic negative using Talbot’s original formula and methodology in a new mousetrap camera made by Mark Ellis, a carpenter who currently lives in Lacock will be re-enacted. Present at this re-enactment will be Talbot’s great-great granddaughter Janet Burnett Brown."
Participants at a (fully subscribed) workshop in August entitled ‘The Dawn of Photography’ will recreate all of Talbot’s earliest photographic experiments including working with modern replicas of the mousetrap camera. They will be working in and around Lacock Abbey and there will be staff members to answer questions about what they are doing.
Lacock Abbey
3 July-12 December 2010
From Saturday 10 July to Saturday 9 October, Guildford Borough Council's Heritage Service is celebrating
the lifetime and legacy of Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson), with an exhibition and events programme dedicated to the 19th century author.
From photography exhibitions and informative talks, to craft workshops and countryside walks, there is something on offer for everyone. Some of the retailers in Guildford are also getting involved in the Lewis Carroll celebrations... keep your eyes peeled for something 'curious' in many of the shop windows.
Check out BPH's Events section for further information or the official site here.
Full time fixed term appointment until 31st August 2011
The Pitt Rivers Museum is seeking a Project Cataloguing Assistant towork with the Museum’s Photographic Collection as part of a project funded by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage. The post holder will work as part of a team to enhance and extend the Museum’s catalogue of photographs relating to the United Arab Emirates.
Required Skills:
The ideal candidate will be a team player who has a proven experience of working with Museum collections and handling complex and delicate objects. They will be computer literate have good keyboard skills and ideally have used catalogue databases in a museum environment using FilemakerPro. They will have excellent organisational skills and a knowledge or interest in the Arabian peninsular.
ApplicationInstructions:
A completed application form with a CV, should be sent to the Museum Administrator, Pitt Rivers Museum, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PP. Application form and further particulars can be downloaded from the Museum’s web site www.prm.ox.ac.uk.
Closing date for applications: 5pm Friday 23rd July 2010, interviewswill be held soon after that date.
Ikon presents Seeing the Unseen, a revisit of the gallery’s 1976 exhibition of high-speed photographs by the pioneering American scientist and photographer Dr Harold E. Edgerton (1906-1990). Forming part of Ikon’s retrospective of the 1970s It Could Happen To You, this presentation takes place in Birmingham’s Pallasades Shopping Centre, in a shop unit just a few doors away from Ikon’s home during that decade.
The 1976 exhibition formed Edgerton’s first solo presentation in Europe, and was conceived as a collaborative effort between Geoffrey Holt and John R. Myers, then both lecturers in fine art and photography at Stourbridge College of Art. Their aim was to draw attention to the breadth of work created by of ‘one of the masters of the optical unconscious’ which had, until that point, been largely neglected by the art world.
Edgerton’s invention in the 1930s of a high-speed photographic process based on rapid, stroboscopic instances of light or ‘flash’ was a catalytic event in the history of photography, science and art. Using this method, his images revealed in great detail aspects of reality hitherto invisible to the naked eye. As Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Edgerton made great strides in reconnaissance photography during the Second World War and later became the first to photograph test explosions of atomic weaponry. It is, however, the hands-on experimentation of ‘real world’ phenomena for which he is best remembered.
Edgerton’s remarkable multiple-flash pictures of tennis players, golfers and divers such as Swirls and Eddies of a Tennis Stroke (1939) break down intricate movements into singular moments. Other images appear to stop time: Milk-Drop Coronet (1957) illustrates the perfect crown formed by a drop of milk hitting a hard surface, whilst Cutting the Card Quickly (1964) shows a .30 calibre bullet, travelling 2800 feet per second, slicing a king of diamonds into two pieces. The startling Bullet and Apple (1964) portrays the explosion of an apple pierced by the bullet, moments before its total disintegration.
Edgerton’s film Seeing the Unseen (1939) is shown alongside his photographs plus an archive of correspondence, technical papers and printed materials relating to the 1976 exhibition.
This exhibition is organised in collaboration with Birmingham Central Library.
21 July – 5 September 2010
Unit 39-40, The Pallasades Shopping Centre, Birmingham
Events
Stopping Time in Stourbridge
Sunday 8 August, 2pm – FREE
The Pallasades Shopping Centre
Pete James, Head of Photography, Central Library Birmingham talks about the Pallasades exhibition and the photo-historical context through which Ikon’s 1976 Harold E. Edgerton exhibition came about. Refreshments are provided. Places are free but should be reserved by calling Ikon on 0121 248 0708.
Aspects of Edgerton
Sunday 22 August, 2pm - FREE
The Pallasades Shopping Centre
An event with Jonathan Shaw, photographer and Associate Head of Media & Communication, Coventry University and artist Trevor Appleson. The speakers discuss the influence of Edwaerd Muybridge and Harold Edgerton’s photography on their recent work. Refreshments are provided. Places are free but should be reserved by calling Ikon on 0121 248 0708.
Dr Parekh's aim fromthe start was to assemble a collection that spans the history of photography through the machinery that makes it possible. Hence, this logical approach includes such exotica as a 19-century head clamp and a portable dark tent (by the London firm of Murray and Heath from the late 1850s) with collodion processing equipment used by the early pioneers of photography.
The collection also features stereoscopic cameras, magic lanterns, a working Mutoscope, optical toys,as well as the 'first instant camera' - The Dubroni from 1864, and Kodak's Super Six-20 of 1938, the first to feature automatic exposure control.
Under the hammer will also be a series of spy cameras, including some remarkable examples from the late 19th century (eg Photo-Binocle dating from th
The full auction catalogue can be found here.
Photos: Collodion dark tent processing apparatus, Murray & Heath, London, 1850s;
Dubroni outfit, Paris - launched in 1864 and is considered the first'instant' camera, although strictly speaking the camera offered processing inside the camera immediately after the plate was exposed.
Photoworks, the UK’s leading agency for photography is seeking to appoint a new Director following the appointment of David Chandler as Professor of Photography at the University of Plymouth.
The new Director will provide artistic vision, leadership and ambition for the organisation, building on its outstanding achievements of the last decade and taking it forward into a new and exciting period of further development. This post demands exceptional leadership qualities and we are seeking a respected professional in the field of photography with a minimum of five years experience at a senior level in an arts or related organization. As well as proven management skills, you will have a thorough and authoritative knowledge of contemporary photographic practice and be able to demonstrate notable achievements in organisational development and growth. You will be a strong team player, with the ability to motivate and inspire colleagues, and the confidence to advocate and operate for Photoworks regionally, nationally and internationally across a broad network of artists, individuals, trusts and organisations.
Photoworks Director
application deadlne 20 July 2010
Director
c. £40K
Central Brighton Office
Email photoworksapplications@gmx.com for an application pack.
Deadline for applications: Tuesday 20 July 2010
Interviews: Tuesday 14 September 2010
Photoworks is committed to equal opportunities
No sex, violence or action of any sort, I'm afraid.
It's based on a true story of one of Sweden's first female photographer, Maria Larsson, a working class woman in the early 1900s. She experiences an artistic awakening after being introduced to photography by winning a camera in a lottery. She is hooked on the power of the pictures. She begins to take portraits of the townspeople and the harsh world around her, and her newfound talent suddenly infuses her with confidence and awakens an inner passion.
According to a review "The ace in the hole, however, is the film's look at early photography and, in its final half, early moviemaking. The director smartly places us in the position of people for whom the photograph is a wonderful mystery, something to be treasured and, in the case of our heroine, understood. Everlasting Moments is a paean to photography, and finally to the plight of the artist. When Maria bewails the fact that her love of photography has taken over her life and become even more important than motherhood, many of us will understand her. When you love your art, even the important stuff is reduced to a distant second."
I have not seen it myself, but apparently have won a few awards, as well as nominated/short-listed for Best Foreign Film at both the Golden Globe and Academy Awards- so can't be all that bad.
You will find details of a short course at the V&A exploring the work of classic photographers including William Henry FoxTalbot, Julia Margaret Cameron, Alfred Steiglitz, Bill Brandt, Man Ray, Ansel Adams and Cartier-Bresson, as well as contemporary photography from the 1970s onwards by Bechers, William Eggleston, Cindy Sherman, Thomas Struth and Gregory Crewdson at the BPH 'Events' section here.
The daguerreotype landed stateside from France in 1839. Like the National Archives here, it is possible to search the 1852 U.S. Pension Office report for some thousand original Americans who sat straight-backed for their photographs.
And that's just what photo curator and internationally renown expert on photo identification, Maureen Taylor, did.
The Last Muster is a remarkable work of documentary history and a collection of the most provocative, best preserved, and rare 19th-century photographic images of the Revolutionary War generation. Not only that, the book should also be of interest to photo historians as Ms Taylor comprehensively explains in her introduction, how this project came about, collection of the images, the research involved in dating andidentifying each image, investigating the story, as well as, genealogy of each subject.
You can read more about Ms Taylor and her book here.
Happy Independence Day to all those bloggers across the pond !
Photo: GeorgeWashington Parke Custis (1781-1857), the adopted son of the nation's first president and grandson of Martha Washington, lived in their shadow. For decades, he wrote newspaper accounts of the daily life of the first family. In this portrait made between 1844 and 1849, in his white waistcoat, confident and relaxed, he shows the posture of a gentleman.
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, and produced by theuniversities of Sheffield and Hertfordshire, London Lives, a five-year project, involved digitising eight London archives or up to 240,000 manuscripts and printed pages. It features a rich variety of documents previously all but inaccessible to the public.
The site allows both amateur and professional historians to searchthe archives for individuals recorded in workhouses, criminal registers, coroners' reports, court orders and papers governing the dispensation of poor relief.
Users of the free site will be able to read scans of the original documents and typed text versions. The idea to map the lives of ordinary Londoners was conceived following the success of a project that digitised the Old Bailey's records. There was a proliferation of documents in urban Britain in the 18th century as civil society flourished and the relationship between the individual and the state was transformed. It is this paper trail that historians will be able to trace in pursuit of an individual's life story.
Museum: Curator, back room, dark corner, faded shoebox.
Inside shoebox: paper-wrapped, gold-framed daguerreotype depicting Paris's Pont Neuf spanning the River Seine.
Back of frame: Handwritten with the date '1839' - the dawn of photography.
Phillip Prodger, the first full-time photography curator at the PeabodyEssex Museum, knew right away he was onto something special. Now, with the help of a Harvard conservator, he’s working to find out whether the print could have been taken by Louis Daguerre himself. If so, the 4-by-6 1/2-inch image could be worth upwards of $3 million. The picture itself is not signed. On the back of the frame, a label names the shop of Vincent Chevalier, the Paris optician who made Daguerre’s camera lenses. It’s unclear who took the photograph.
In fact, no more than 20 daguerreotypes are known to exist from that year. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has nothing dating to 1839. Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts has a daguerreotype from 1840.
“It’s quite early, and it’s an outdoor scene in Paris, reportedly in good condition, by someone who is quite well known,’’ said Laura Paterson, a specialist in the photographs department at Christie’s auction house. “All of these things add enormous value. It sounds as if they have a rare find on their hands. It’s of immense historical importance.’’
So how did such a valuable art object end up in a shoebox? To begin with, the museum dates to 1799, meaning an immense amount of jumbled materials came into its possession well before modern collection policies and records were in place. A man named John Burley bought the daguerreotype in 1842 in Paris and later gave it to the museum.
To follow the detective trail with Inspector Clouseau, read the full report here.
Call For Papers.
(De)constructing the Archive in a Digital Age.
September 10th 2010, School of the Arts Loughborough University, UK.
Organised by Iris www.irisphoto.org.
Paper Submission Deadline; Friday 30th July 2010
One-day debate on the possibilities of the archive.
This event aims to provide an environment for sharing information whilst stimulating debates about the role of the
archive within art, culture and design.
Possible topics of enquiry may include but are not limited to;
· The discussion about how the archive should respond to the digital age continues. How does the physical archive change and adapt in the face of new
technologies?
· When is the archive not an archive? What is the difference between the archive and the collection?
· How should we respond to the growing number of images available to us in the digital archive, as increasingly we are exposed to photographs for which
there are no original viewing contexts available? What is the value of these
decontextualised and dematerialised documents to the researcher as historical
evidence?
·How is the institutional archive to respond to questions about the democratization of the archive, not only through the process of digitisation
and online access but also the growing use of more interactive forms of viewing/sharing
with web 2.0?
Paper presentations, abstracts of 200-300 words may be submitted for a 30-minute paper presentation.
Panel submissions abstracts for a 90-minute colloquium, which is to consist of 5 participants (1 chair and 4 presenters; each presenter taking no more than 15 minutes) may be
submitted. Abstract length should be 250-350 words.
Poster presentations, 200 word abstracts for a themed poster to be shown at the conference will be accepted.
Artworks, submissions for artworks related to the topics will be considered, please send a 200 word abstract. Include details of medium, size and installation requirements on a separate
sheet.
Please send abstracts (clearly marked as to which category you are interested in) and a brief C.V. to;
OR
Mort Marsh, IRIS.
Loughborough University
School of the Arts
Edward Barnsley Building
Epinal way
LE11 3TU.
Iris is an internationally focused research resource dedicated to promoting the work of women artists using photographic-based media.
