For those fortunate enough to be in Glasgow before 15th January there is a chance for a rare treat - an opportunity to see the photographs of Margaret Watkins. Born in Canada in the late 19th century Watkins was successful both commercially and artistically as well as being highly regarded by her fellow photographers in New York during the Stieglitz/Steichen era. As the images on view show she was not only a fine portraitist but had a fine eye for still life compositions, many of which pre-date the more acclaimed work of Paul Strand and Edward Weston. Though she did not appear to have printed much of her later work Robert Burns has made an excellent job of printing up a number of her 1930s/40s Glasgow photos.
Her personal story, too long to retell here, much of which comes to us via Joe Mulholland, her neighbour and confidante in Glasgow is the stuff of legend.
As Michelin would say in their famous Green Guides "Worth The Journey"!!
Donald Stewart.
WatkinsPosterMk2161.psdRead more…
I want to share with all network members this important initiative from the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut (apologies for cross-posting):"The Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut wishes to generate a greater understanding of the inescapable value of photographs and analogue archives for the future of studies in historic, human and social sciences. Only integration between the analogue format and the digital format can guarantee the correct conservation of the photographic heritage for future studies and at the same time the implementation of digital instruments. Representatives of both the photographic collections and academic research are therefore called on to support and respect the following recommendations."Everyone who has not yet read and signed this declaration is encouraged to do so by visiting:http://www.khi.fi.it/en/photothek/initiativen/index.htmlRead more…
My husband photographer Jack Tait & I are involved in research concerning the highly acclaimed teachers at Guildford School of Photography in the 1950s. I shall give all details if anyone out there is interested in helping with a project that gives long overdue honour to this pair who were so important in the history of photography teaching in the UK.
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This is an international two day conference on early photographers and their studio practices in Asia, and cross-cultural exchanges in the Asia-Pacific region. It aims to explore the photographic portrait in the first hundred years of the medium in Asia. It intends to promote inter-regional comparative analyses between scholars working in diverse cultural and national contexts. The symposium will not only analyse photographic representations of Asian peoples for the global market, but also consider the domestic adoptions and adaptations of the visual technology for local forms of self-representation and cultural practice. It will also consider the studio photograph as collaboration between photographer and sitter, and the diverse performed identities invoked in photographic sittings.
Possible topics include:
* Early Asian photographers and their studio practices
* The exhibition and reception of photographic portfolios
* Collected portfolios of Asian peoples
* Photographers of the Asian diaspora active in California, Australia and elsewhere.
* Photographic portraiture and identity
* Cross-cultural photographic exchanges within the Asia-Pacific region
* Asian photographic archives and their histories
Presented by the Research School of Humanities, Australian National University and the National Gallery of Australia.
http://www.asia-pacific-photography.com/http://www.asia-pacific-photography.com/gael09/FacingAsia-Call-for-Papers.pdfRead more…
The National Media Museum in Bradford is committed to raising the national profile and enhancing public perceptions of West Yorkshire as a cultural destination and is seeking a Development Manager to support this,
The National Media Museum, part of the NMSI Museums Group, exists to promote an understanding and appreciation of photography, film, television, radio and the web. The Museum is looking for a skilled Development Manager to lead its fundraising function. The successful candidate will be joining a well established development operation and will have the opportunity to take it to the next level of success; securing income for the Museum’s ongoing cultural programme and planned capital developments.
Closing Date: Friday, 27 November 2009.
For further information on this role, please visit www.richmond-associates.com or contact Nina Chu at Richmond Associates: nchu@richmond-associates.com or +44 (0)20 8392 6654.
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Campden & District Historical and Archæological Society has been award an Awards for All grant to bring to life the photographs of Jesse Taylor, the photographer in Chipping Campden from 1896 to 1938. Working in partnership with Gloucestershire Archives, CADHAS is conserving and scanning 1500, mainly half-plate, glass plates depicting of all aspects of life in the town and surrounding villages.
Jesse Taylor was a typical high street photographer taking photographs of everything, from formal family groups, to informal shots of children at play, interiors of houses, exterior shots of well-known Cotswold buildings – and events of all kinds, from football matches to the visit of King Edward Vll in 1905 and Campden’s celebrations for the 1935 Jubilee. Taylor had a shop but seemingly no studio - all the photographs were taken elsewhere. Many of the photos can be matched with accounts in the local paper and with oral history recordings which were started in the 1980s.
An exhibition is planned for 23-24 January 2010 in Chipping Campden Town Hall, where a selection of Taylor's photographs will be displayed alongside the results of the competition to bridge 'life today and life 100 yrs ago'. There will be biographical information about Jesse Taylor's life and family.
See: www.chippingcampdenhistory.org.ukRead more…
A resurgent RPS Historical Group has launched a new brochure outlining the remit of the Group and highlighting its activities and aims, as well as emphasising its close links with the RPS Collection now located at the National Media Museum in Bradford. A pdf version of the brochure can be downloaded by clicking here, and there is more on the Group at: http://www.rps.org/group/historical. The Group publishes The PhotoHistorian and arranges meetings and visits to collections of interest in the UK and Europe.
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This is a request, for original Victorian photography. I am currently searching for original Victorian glass plate negatives, or ordinary original negatives/photographs of community life.For producing art work with. I am particularly interested in images from Somerset where I have lived for 35 years. I am a practicing artist graduating from Plymouth University in 2007 with a BA (hons) in Fine Art. I specialized in photography. I have recently exhibited for Somerset art weeks 2009. You can access my web page there, by submitting the name Janice Sturch-Williams.
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William Henry Fox Talbot is usually remembered as a photographic inventor and influential early voice on photographic aesthetics, but like many of his contemporaries Talbot’s interests covered a wide range of intellectual endeavours. This two-day interdisciplinary workshop will bring together historians of science, art historians, and practitioners of the many scholarly fields to which Talbot contributed. Featuring new research based on Talbot's manuscript collection, recently made available at the British Library, the workshop will present the opportunity to explore Talbot's participation in the wider networks and institutions of Victorian science and scholarship, and to rethink the relation between photography and these other fields.
The workshop is being organised by Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) in Cambridge from Thursday, 24 June to Saturday, 26 June 2010.
Convenors: Mirjam Brusius (History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge and the British Library), Chitra Ramalingam (Mellon/ACLS Fellow, CRASSH, University of Cambridge), Katrina Dean (Curator for the History of Science, British Library).
Further details of the programme will be available in due course, in the meantime for administrative enquiries please contact: mm405@cam.ac.uk.
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London design consultancy Carter Wong has been appointed to design an integrated signage system for the National Media Museum in Bradford, having come through a two-month tender process, put out by museum group NMSI. The NMSI invited the group to tender in August following work it carried out for an orientation map at the Science Museum.
Ten groups applied to the tender and five were shortlisted, according to Carter Wong creative director Phil Carter, who said, ‘A new signage system is needed through the foyer and across seven floors. Clarity and simplicity’ are needed within the space, which also houses three cinemas, an Imax and the museum. The Museum holds unique collections and offers fantastic visitor interaction but currently doesn’t help its audience make the most of their trip. We look forward to the challenge of elevating this space to become one of the UK’s most enjoyable and inspiring museum experiences.”', he added.
The consultancy’s proposal has included a review of the way visitors navigate their way to the museum, both from Bradford railway station and through the institution’s website. Three-dimensional design and lighting are also being reconsidered within the space and Carter expects to work with ‘other specialists’.
Private functions are hosted within the building at night, often making use of the cinema spaces, according to Carter, who says, ‘There’s a dual ambition for the museum to create a day and evening environment, so we’ll need to think about things like softer lighting and how to engage both types of customer.’
The signage is expected to be completed ‘early next year’, said Carter.
See: http://www.designweek.co.uk/carter-wong-works-on-national-media-museum-signage/3006077.articleRead more…
The British Library formally opened it's landmark photography exhibition Points of View last night at a well-attended private view. The exhibiton marks the librarys first ever photographic exhibition. It opens to the public from 9.30am this morning.
At a risk of running out of superlatives Points of View is quite simply the best exhibition that the library has ever put on. It is a large show, but never feels unapproachable. It is well designed and laid out and presents a wealth of the library's treasures. It covers many themes from the photographic history of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and will please the specialist historian as well as be accessible for the non-specialist.Although it includes a great deal of material the exhibition does not feel crowded. In fact, I left wanting to see more. The show includes wonderful material that hasn't been seen in other exhibitions from the library's collections supplemented with early cameras and equipment from the National Media Museum. I suspect from what I know of the library'c collections there are many more future shows like this of equal standard, or perhaps more usefully more shows which take some of the themes and approach them in more depth. There are a few minor niggles: there are a couple of areas that look empty and the Kodak section at the end feels like a last-minute addition but these are very minor points and do not detract from the overall exhibition.
Make the effort to see it. This is simply the best photography exhibition in London at the moment and the best for many years. You will not be disappointed. Accompanying the exhibition itself is a wonderful series of public lectures and events, a book by curators John Falconer and Louise Hyde and plenty of souvenirs in the bookshop.
I cannot praise the exhibition enough. I, for one, will be going back several times to re-view it.
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Further to an earlier posting reporting a series of lectures on early projection and the magic lantern (click here) full details of the programme have been published. The programme can be downloaded by clicking here: Pepper'sGhost_II_.pdfRead more…
At the international launch yesterday, Brian May and Elena Vidal presented their book A Village Lost and Found, which brings together the complete annotated collection of the original 1850s stereoscopic photograph series Scenes in Our Village by T. R. Williams. A full report and review of the book will appear here shortly. The launch was held at Hinton Waldrist, the village where T. R. Williams originally made the series of photographs.
For the young Brian May, a fascination with 3-D picture cards given away in Weetabix packets led to a lifelong passion for ‘stereoscopic’ images. Soon May was taking sequential pictures with his Woolworth’s 2/6d camera and making pairs of sketches that transformed into 3-D scenes when he ‘relaxed [his] eyes and let the images float together’. Later, he scoured antique shops and auctions for stereoscopic photographs and the ‘viewers’ that enabled him to see the images in all their glory. It was in this way that May discovered the work of Thomas Richard Williams (1824-1871), who, in the 1850s, had created a series of 59 stereo cards depicting life in a small English village – Scenes in Our Village.
In A Village Lost and Found, the product of more than 30 years’ research, May and his co-author, photographic historian Elena Vidal, present an exhaustive study of Scenes in Our Village. The village, whose identity was lost for 150 years, was only recently rediscovered by May, in 2003, still in existence in Oxfordshire. The complete series of images is collected here for the first time in living memory, along with extensive related material, including many corresponding photographs of the village as it is today.
The OWL Stereoscope Viewer
Their research is amazingly in-depth, but the book is utterly readable, and the pictures leap into glorious 3-D, when viewed in the new focusing stereoscope viewer, named the OWL, which May has designed and produced, to bring the stereos to life, and also folds neatly into the slip-case of the book.
"A Village Lost and Found is a significant contribution to our understanding of photographic history and the Victorian period. These three dimensional studies of rural village life are so evocative that one can almost smell the new-mown hay, and feel the warmth of the very sun that illuminated these scenes 150 years ago. To quote the 1850s London Stereoscopic Company's maxim, "No home should be without one!" - Roger Taylor, Professor of Photographic History, De Montfort University, Leicester.
The book gives an exceptional insight into everyday village life at the time - with a woman at her spinning wheel, the blacksmith outside his smithy, three men at the grindstone sharpening a tool, the villagers in the fields, bringing in the harvest as well as often taking time to enjoy a good gossip.
In every case the original verse which accom-panied the view is reproduced, enriching the picture by revealing the inner thoughts of the subjects, or transforming it into a comment on Life, Nature, or the Spiritual World. In addition, May and Vidal have researched and annotated all the views, revealing another layer of meaning, by exploring the history of these real characters, this idyllic village and its links with the present day. The result is a powerfully atmospheric and touching set of photographs.
A Village Lost and Found provides an extraordinary insight into English society in the mid-Victorian era, explains historic photographic techniques and explores the life of the enigmatic T. R. Williams, who appears, from time to time, Hitchcock-like, in his own photographs.
"This is a picture book: an annotated book of photographs which tells a unique story – a story that has fascinated me for more than half a lifetime." - Brian May
Biographical information:
Thomas Richard Williams (1824-1871) began his photographic career in the early 1840s as an apprentice to the renowned photographer and inventor, Antoine Claudet, where it is said he excelled in the art of tinting photographic images. Shortly after the Great Exhibition he opened his first photographic studio in Lambeth, London where he specialised in making stereoscopic daguerreotype portraits. He also started to produce stereo still lifes and artistic compositions, and in 1856 he published, with the London Stereoscopic Company, the First Series which included the launching of HMS Marlborough in 1855 - a forerunner of press photography as we know it today. His second series published by the LSC was the Crystal Palace set which included the inauguration of Crystal Palace at Sydenham in 1854.
His third series was Scenes in Our Village, perhaps his most defining work, and completely original in concept. T. R. Williams’s stereo portraits where so popular that his fame reached the ears of the Royal Household, and on 21 November 1856 he was commissioned to photograph Princess Victoria on her 16th birthday. Over the coming years, he took more Royal portraits including one for Princess Victoria’s wedding. At the end of the 1850s, the stereoscopic craze reached huge proportions. Views were produced, printed and published at an almost alarming rate, sometimes at the cost of quality. True to his standards and disenchanted by the turn of events, Williams decided to cease producing stereo cards; he felt they had become vulgarised by imitation. He still continued photographing highly covetable stereoscopic portraits for a select clientele, but also produced the ‘cartes de visite’ and whole-plate vignetted heads and busts, which earned him accolades at photographic exhibitions. Through his work, Williams is now widely recognised as pivotal in the history of stereoscopic photography.
Brian May, CBE, PhD, FRAS, is a founding member of Queen, a world-renowned guitarist, songwriter, producer and performer. Brian had to postpone a career in astronomy when Queen's popularity first exploded, but, after an incendiary 30 years as a rock musician, was able to return to astrophysics in 2006, when he completed his PhD, and co-authored his first book, Bang! The Complete History of the Universe, with Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott. Stereography has been a life-long passion for Brian.
Elena Vidal has worked as a conservator of paintings in Florence, Spain and the UK. She graduated as an MA in Photographic Conservation at the Camberwell School of Arts, and has subsequently specialised in the history of stereoscopic photography. Since meeting Brian May in 1997, Elena has collaborated with him on a long-term study of Thomas Richard Williams, and has published a number of articles.
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Terry King writes...As people are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the ability of digital photography to meet their creative needs, there is a corresponding revival of interest in the craftsmanship and the aesthetic of the hands-on or alternative photography included my Wedgwood to Bromoil course of workshops. Examples of processes included in the workshop can be found on www.hands-on-pictures.com.The course gives everyone hands-on practical experience.
The excitement of the workshops is that the ‘students’ are inquisitive people who want to know the science and history of the processes so that they can use them more effectively.. Apart from London’s professional printers and amateur printers of the highest standing, those attending the ‘Wedgwood to Bromoil’ course usually include people from undergraduate to PhD level.
The programme covers:
• Wedgwood’s process presented to The Royal Institution in 1804
• Niepce’s asphaltum prints (1822-26)
• The cyanotype and chrysotype (gold) and the revised versions the Cyanotype rex and the chrysotype Rex
• Salt printing (1841)
• Albumen
• Carbon
• Platinum printing
• Gravure and photo-etching
• Kallitypes
• Gum bichromate
• Bromoil and bromoil transfer
Hands-on-Pictures will still be running workshops on individual processes on request, see www.Hands-on-pictures.com
My work in alternative processes has been described as ‘awe inspiring’ and of ‘great beauty’ and my teaching as both inspiring and practical
The course will be for one day a week for fifteen weeks. There will be a maximum of six students. If there is a demand we will run a second course on a different day ( this has engendered some friendly rivalry between those on the different days).
The workshops are provisionally planned for Fridays over fifteen weeks starting in January. The weeks will not be consecutive but grouped according to the needs of both the course itself and those of the students..
The workshops will take place at the Hands-On Pictures studio in Richmond, Surrey..
The cost will be £1,000 for the fifteen days.
Demonstration materials are included in the cost students will need to get their own materials and tools should they wish to make their own prints during the workshop. I will be able to supply the more expensive chemicals and metallic salts.
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Birmingham Seen, Art & Photography 1820-2009Gas HallBirmingham Museum and Art Gallery31 October 2009 - 3 January 2010
This exhibition explores the way in which Birmingham's physical and social landscape has been depicted in paintings, drawings and photographs since 1820. I reveals the city in the throes of constant change - a process of creation and destruction that has inspired generations of artits and photographers. It brings together work from Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery's collections, Birmingham Central Library's photography collections. Many of the works brought together for this shown are being exhibited for the first time.
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CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS DISCOURSE ON PHOTOGRAPHY:Photography: Object to IdeaA full day conference to examine the past, present, future and polemics of photographySaturday, 3 October 2009
On Saturday, October 3, a group of 14 prestigious speakers gathered at the Courtauld Institute of Art to bolster and debate the many facets of photography at a conference entitled Photography: Object to Idea. The goal of the conference was to bring attention to the past and future of photography worldwide and in the UK where the presence and public interest in photography has waned by comparison to its neighbours. The event also brought together the major players in the world photography market from London to New York, clearly demonstrating the strength of the photographic community and a persistent, substantial level of interest in photography worldwide.Nearly 150 delegates attended the event which included presentations about a variety of photographers and subjects. Senior Curator of Photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum Martin Barnes spoke about an exceptional book maquette of Josef Sudek’s. Martin Caiger-Smith of the Courtauld brought to light the influence of personal curiosity and the impact on history presented by collections of images from the Vkhutemas workshops. Author and curator Brigitte Lardinois gave an illuminating survey of Eve Arnold’s career, followed by critic Louisa Buck who presented a vivid review of Helen Chadwick’s oeuvre. These discussions were largely inspired by the collection of the Tosca Photography Fund which sponsored the event.Speakers also addressed the issues concerning the future of photography and the market. Collector Michael G. Wilson discussed the various methodologies of collecting and the concerns over the obsolescence of archiving photography—or its now, digital original—and the contemporary photographic practice in an increasingly digital age. These concerns responded directly to Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin’s discussion of their work, which effectively refuted the photograph as document and object. In the contemporary market, these opposing views span debates over the mounting of photographs, the investment value of work which is destined to fade, and the mutability of the photograph in an age when digital formats make the object itself infinitely reproducible and upgradable.
A question and answer session then delved into the future of the photographic practice, conservation, and presence which has become increasingly overshadowed by the contemporary art market. Additional speakers included W.M. Hunt, David Campany, Tom Hunter, Mark Haworth-Booth, Anne Williams, Geoff Dyer, and the founder of the Tosca Photography Fund, Mehmet Dalman.In the evening, after a full-day programme, the delegates and speakers joined one another for a drinks reception, fostering more personal dialogues and relationships over shared interests and concerns for photography. The conference succeeded in exposing the discourses of photography and to bring together the photographic community.Delegate Jean Roberts commented with a laudable review of the event: ‘It was a pleasure to hear such a range of approaches to the discussion of photography all under the same roof. Like everyone who was in the room I love photography, I love taking photographs and looking at photographs but what particularly struck me about last Saturday’s programme from Mehmet Dalman’s opening comments onwards was enthusiasm for the story surrounding photographs, the bigger picture, the one involving the photographer, the viewer and the subject.’Overall, the conference was indeed an auspicious day for photography: opening the door for valuable discussions regarding the impact of photography and an encouraging demonstration of the support behind medium’s presence today.Valérie C. WhitacreAssistant Organiser, Photography: Object to Idea08.10.2009*Images taken from the Tosca Photography Fund
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Photography: Object to IdeaA conference at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London,organised by Zelda Cheatle, curator of the Tosca Fund CollectionSaturday 3 October 2009This is a revised version of a speech by Mark Haworth-BoothMy name is Mark Haworth-Booth ands I am Visiting Professor of Photography at the University of the Arts London. I will soon be chairing the closing Q&A panel on collecting but Zelda has asked me - as a way of letting you know where I’m coming from - to say a few words about my current projects.Among the delegates here today I see some movers and shakers in British photography who have been involved with the medium even longer than I have – for example, Sue Davies, founding director of The Photographers’ Gallery and Colin Ford, founding director of the Department of Photography & Film at the National Portrait Gallery and then of the Media Museum. I wonder if they share my views about certain ways in which photography has changed since we got involved some 40 years ago. To begin with, a conference like this, full of well-informed, articulate and imaginative speakers on photography, would have been an extremely rare event in 1969. Last week I gave a lecture at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. My topic was ‘The Reality Effect: questions of photography and truth’. I first gave it as my inaugural lecture as Visiting Professor of the UAL at the London College of Communication in, I think, 2003. Some delegates here heard it then. It opens with wonderful remarks by the war historian Geoffrey Best that ‘the historian is a citizen too’ and that ‘history is a form of justice’. My lecture is like the cabbage and potato soup that peasants keep going not only from day to day but year to year. I have updated it regularly and given it at the University of the Third Age, local amenity societies and so on. Everyone has a stake in the truthfulness or otherwise of photographs. My lecture confesses to the many times I have been mistaken about photographs, especially by photographers I have worked with closely – Don McCullin, Bill Brandt, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ansel Adams. It then moves back into the past to consider Roger Fenton, Camille Silvy and (because of the most recent allegations made about the Falling Militiaman, 1936) Robert Capa. As time has gone by, the lecture has got darker and darker. It now takes in the black arts of propaganda of the Bush era and the recent attack on civil liberties in the UK – for example, the 2008 law making it illegal to photograph police officers. It also asks if, as photography has become accepted as an art medium - and under pressure from historical analysis, postmodern theory and our familiarity with digital manipulation - the medium has lost some of its reality. It is good, of course, that we are not naive about the reality of photographs, but I believe a desensitization has also occurred. Photographs of fatal car crashes – for example – can be shown and commented on as artistic works. Despite this, as the photographs from Abu Ghraib and the G20 demonstrations this year have shown, photography remains not only a credible but an essential witness with serious political cinsequences. I commend Paul Lowe’s OPEN-i ‘webinar’ series which discusses such issues as authenticity in photojournalism. Much of my lecture now centres on war and I was impressed by the intellectual boldness but also the curatorial care with which Julian Stallabrass presented images of war in his timely Brighton Biennale on the subject. My lecture closes with a new book by the Israeli writer Ariella Azoulay titled The Civil Contract of the Photograph. My lecture can be accessed as a podcast at the website of the Art Gallery of Ontario.I have two lectures lumbering towards publication. ‘Reyner Banham and photography’ will appear soon in The Banham Lectures from Berg. Banham showed that it is not necessary to write ponderously to be taken seriously. His books have the same accessibility and wit as his journalism. We had a fine demonstration of these qualities from Geoff Dyer this morning but I must say that all of the talks have been refreshingly jargon-free. The other lecture in the press concerns Camille Silvy and the art of art reproduction – I gave it first at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and then again in this lecture theatre in June. My main current project is the first retrospective of Camille Silvy. I first encountered Silvy’s name and work at the V&A’s exhibition ‘From Today Painting is Dead’ in 1972. I was not interested in nineteenth century photographs at the time but Silvy’s River Scene, France (1858) changed all that. Five years later I became responsible for it and around 300,000 other photographs as photo-curator at the V&A and in 1992 the Getty published my monograph on the River Scene. My new Silvy exhibition and book, Camille Silvy (1834-1910): Photographer of Modern Life, will mark the centenary of his death. I am working on this with Jeu de Paume, Paris, and the National Portrait Gallery, London – it will be shown at the NPG from July to October 2010. I have been astonished by the richness of material Silvy – so it seems - arranged for me to discover. There are the precious prints in the V&A, which have been there since 1868. Then the 12 volumes of Daybooks of his London studio which were bought by the National Portrait Gallery in 1904. Then the boxes of proof sheets, also at the V&A, provenance unknown. Then the collection of unpublished photographs kept by Silvy’s descendants from generation to generation, including letters, business documents, his scrap-book, the unique catalogue of his studio sale and even a dress that appears in cartes de visite of his wife. I am publishing the sale catalogue in the autumn issue of History of Photography and I am thrilled with the handsome book being prepared by the NPG. Silvy’s descendants speak of their act of preservation as ‘le devoir de mémoire‘ – the duty of memory. My experience with Silvy shows that there are still great treasures to be discovered and studied. This conference has shown the same thing. It is a time of great promise for the new generation of curators, including Simon Baker, recently appointed curator of photography and contemporary art at Tate.Today we have had more than a glimpse into a fascinating, many-sided, collection of great richness. This is the moment to thank Mehmet and Zelda for devising a wonderful day of reflection on, and exploration of, the Tosca Fund collection - and also to applaud the speakers who have entertained and informed us so well. Thank you.
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The Magic Lantern Society & The University of Westminster will present a second series of six evenings of optical magic at the old Polytechnic, fortnightly from Thursday 12 November – Thursday 10 December 2009, and from Thursday 28 January – Thursday 25th February 2010, at The Old Cinema, University of Westminster 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW.
The Programme
Thursday 12 November @ 7pm
Phantasmagoria-mania
‘Professor’ Mervyn Heard
An exploration through the playbills and other ephemera of the bizarre ghost-show entertainment known as the phantasmagoria as witnessed in London and the provinces at the turn of the 18th century.
Mervyn Heard is a magic lantern showman and the author of ‘Phantasmagoria : The Secret Life of the Magic Lantern’. He is also Chairman of the Magic Lantern Society www.heard.supanet.com
Thursday 26 November @ 7pm
Lavater – The Shadow of History
Simon Warner
The noted physiognomist Johann Caspar Lavater (1741-1801) returns for one night only to reclaim his place at the centre of European culture, armed with magic lantern, silhouette apparatus and a curious tale of photographic experimentation in his Zürich cellar.
Simon Warner is a photographer and video artist with interests in the history of photography and visual media. With a NESTA Fellowship he has created a series of impersonations of key figures in European culture and took part in the Arts Council England touring exhibition Alchemy (2006-7). www.simonwarner.co.uk
Thursday 10 December @ 7pm
Grappling with Ghosts: Staging ghost effects in the modern theatre.
Paul Kieve
Hours in dark theatres, expensive quotes from Pilkington’s glass, ill tempered Opera singers in Hamburg and perhaps the world’s first ghost doves. This talk explores the fascinating tale of how the original impractical Dircksian Phantasmagoria of the 1850‘s came into its in the 1860‘s and how, even with huge advancement in stage engineering and lighting, is still spookily difficult to stage.
Paul Kieve is one of the UK’s most prolific designers of theatrical illusions (The Lord Of The Rings, Zorro, The Invisible Man). He is the only magician to appear in and consult on the Harry Potter movies and is the author of the internationally published book Hocus Pocus. His current projects include Zorro at The Folies Bergere in Paris and the forthcoming musical ‘Ghost’. www.stageillusion.com
Christmas Break
Thursday 28th January @ 7pm
Visualising the Marvellous: G. A. Smith and his film 'Santa Claus' (1898)
Dr Frank Gray
G. A. Smith (1864-1959) was one of the great early film pioneers. A stage mesmerist and an associate of the Society for Psychical Research, his six 'spooky' films of 1898 represent his fascination with the 'other side' and his close association with late Victorian paranormal culture.
Dr Frank Gray is the Director of Screen Archive South East at the University of Brighton and a specialist in late Victorian cinema. www.brighton.ac.uk/screenarchive/
Thursday 11 February @ 7pm
Geared to the Stars – Victorian Astronomy through the Magic Lantern
Mark Butterworth
Lectures on astronomy were a common form of popular entertainment in the nineteenth century. With an original Victorian magic lantern projector and delicate, hand painted glass slides from the 1840's, Mark Butterworth recreates one of these illustrated lectures. Using complex and intricate mechanical "rackwork" slides to illustrate astronomical concepts, it gives an introduction to mid-19th century astronomy.
Mark Butterworth researches astronomical history and specialises in understanding how popular astronomy was presented to the general public in the 18th and 19th century. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. www.markbutterworth.co.uk
Thursday 25 February @ 7pm
From Anorthoscope to Zoopraxiscope – an A-Z of Victorian animated cartoons
Stephen Herbert
Moving image 19th-century ‘toys’ – philosophical instruments for the drawing room, intended to promote intellectual discussion and provide amusement for adults as least as much as for children – come to life with this illustrated talk.
Stephen Herbert is a Visiting Research Fellow, Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture, Kingston University London. www.stephenherbert.co.uk
Admission is free, commencing 7pm sharp. As this series of talks is entirely free it is advisable to come early, Tickets will be issued from 6pm. For further online information about the talks visit : www.magiclantern.org.uk
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2 October 2009 – 11 April 2010, The Queen's Gallery, Edinburgh
This exhibition of remarkable Antarctic photography by Herbert George Ponting and Frank Hurley marks the 100th anniversary of Captain Scott’s ill-fated journey to the South Pole. Ponting’s extraordinary images record Scott’s Terra Nova expedition of 1910-13, which led to the tragic death of five of the team on their return from the South Pole. Hurley’s dramatic icescapes were taken during Ernest Shackleton’s Polar expedition on Endurance in 1914-16, which ended with the heroic sea journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia. Presented to King George V and today part of the Royal Photograph Collection, these sets of photographs are among the finest examples of the artists’ works in existence.
Captain Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912) set sail for Antarctica on Terra Nova in 1910, determined to be the first to reach the South Pole. His team included Herbert Ponting (1870-1935), the first official photographer to participate in a polar expedition. Ponting was already a well-known and successful travel photographer when he was introduced to Scott in 1909. As the ship sailed south from New Zealand, Ponting began work immediately, recording the first icebergs encountered in December 1910 and scenes on board. He photographed as much as possible during his time in Antarctica, producing around 2,000 glass plate negatives between December 1910 and March 1912. A selection of his pictures of the expedition crew, wildlife and spectacular landscape is included in the exhibition.
Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922) had travelled with Captain Scott on an earlier voyage to Antarctica, before leading his own unsuccessful attempt to reach the South Pole in 1907-9. In 1914, galvanised by the achievement of the Pole and Scott’s death, he made a bid to cross the southern continent on foot. Among his team was the Australian photographer Frank Hurley (1885-1962), who joined Shackleton’s ship Endurance in Buenos Aires.
Hurley photographed activity on board, even climbing the rigging to obtain the best viewpoints. When the ship, crushed between ice floes, began to disintegrate in October 1915, the photographer spent almost three days on the ice, determined not to miss the final moments of the vessel. His images of Endurance listing into the frozen depths are included in the exhibition, along with photographs of Shackleton’s rescue party as it set sail from Elephant Island.
Also included in the exhibition are the Union flag presented by King George V to Shackleton, which the explorer carried with him throughout his epic journey; Polar medals; and books from the Royal Library, including a unique example of Aurora Australis, the first book to be printed in the Antarctic.
There is a lecture series accompanying the exhibition. Details here: http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/default.asp?action=article&ID=74
The exhibition microsite is here: http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/microsites/HOTGA/Read more…
At the international launch yesterday, Brian May and Elena Vidal presented their book A Village Lost and Found, which brings together the complete annotated collection of the original 1850s stereoscopic photograph series Scenes in Our Village by T. R. Williams. A full report and review of the book will appear here shortly. The launch was held at Hinton Waldrist, the village where T. R. Williams originally made the series of photographs.
For the young Brian May, a fascination with 3-D picture cards given away in Weetabix packets led to a lifelong passion for ‘stereoscopic’ images. Soon May was taking sequential pictures with his Woolworth’s 2/6d camera and making pairs of sketches that transformed into 3-D scenes when he ‘relaxed [his] eyes and let the images float together’. Later, he scoured antique shops and auctions for stereoscopic photographs and the ‘viewers’ that enabled him to see the images in all their glory. It was in this way that May discovered the work of Thomas Richard Williams (1824-1871), who, in the 1850s, had created a series of 59 stereo cards depicting life in a small English village – Scenes in Our Village.
In A Village Lost and Found, the product of more than 30 years’ research, May and his co-author, photographic historian Elena Vidal, present an exhaustive study of Scenes in Our Village. The village, whose identity was lost for 150 years, was only recently rediscovered by May, in 2003, still in existence in Oxfordshire. The complete series of images is collected here for the first time in living memory, along with extensive related material, including many corresponding photographs of the village as it is today.
The OWL Stereoscope Viewer
Their research is amazingly in-depth, but the book is utterly readable, and the pictures leap into glorious 3-D, when viewed in the new focusing stereoscope viewer, named the OWL, which May has designed and produced, to bring the stereos to life, and also folds neatly into the slip-case of the book.
"A Village Lost and Found is a significant contribution to our understanding of photographic history and the Victorian period. These three dimensional studies of rural village life are so evocative that one can almost smell the new-mown hay, and feel the warmth of the very sun that illuminated these scenes 150 years ago. To quote the 1850s London Stereoscopic Company's maxim, "No home should be without one!" - Roger Taylor, Professor of Photographic History, De Montfort University, Leicester.
The book gives an exceptional insight into everyday village life at the time - with a woman at her spinning wheel, the blacksmith outside his smithy, three men at the grindstone sharpening a tool, the villagers in the fields, bringing in the harvest as well as often taking time to enjoy a good gossip.
In every case the original verse which accom-panied the view is reproduced, enriching the picture by revealing the inner thoughts of the subjects, or transforming it into a comment on Life, Nature, or the Spiritual World. In addition, May and Vidal have researched and annotated all the views, revealing another layer of meaning, by exploring the history of these real characters, this idyllic village and its links with the present day. The result is a powerfully atmospheric and touching set of photographs.
A Village Lost and Found provides an extraordinary insight into English society in the mid-Victorian era, explains historic photographic techniques and explores the life of the enigmatic T. R. Williams, who appears, from time to time, Hitchcock-like, in his own photographs.
"This is a picture book: an annotated book of photographs which tells a unique story – a story that has fascinated me for more than half a lifetime." - Brian May
Biographical information:
Thomas Richard Williams (1824-1871) began his photographic career in the early 1840s as an apprentice to the renowned photographer and inventor, Antoine Claudet, where it is said he excelled in the art of tinting photographic images. Shortly after the Great Exhibition he opened his first photographic studio in Lambeth, London where he specialised in making stereoscopic daguerreotype portraits. He also started to produce stereo still lifes and artistic compositions, and in 1856 he published, with the London Stereoscopic Company, the First Series which included the launching of HMS Marlborough in 1855 - a forerunner of press photography as we know it today. His second series published by the LSC was the Crystal Palace set which included the inauguration of Crystal Palace at Sydenham in 1854.
His third series was Scenes in Our Village, perhaps his most defining work, and completely original in concept. T. R. Williams’s stereo portraits where so popular that his fame reached the ears of the Royal Household, and on 21 November 1856 he was commissioned to photograph Princess Victoria on her 16th birthday. Over the coming years, he took more Royal portraits including one for Princess Victoria’s wedding. At the end of the 1850s, the stereoscopic craze reached huge proportions. Views were produced, printed and published at an almost alarming rate, sometimes at the cost of quality. True to his standards and disenchanted by the turn of events, Williams decided to cease producing stereo cards; he felt they had become vulgarised by imitation. He still continued photographing highly covetable stereoscopic portraits for a select clientele, but also produced the ‘cartes de visite’ and whole-plate vignetted heads and busts, which earned him accolades at photographic exhibitions. Through his work, Williams is now widely recognised as pivotal in the history of stereoscopic photography.
Brian May, CBE, PhD, FRAS, is a founding member of Queen, a world-renowned guitarist, songwriter, producer and performer. Brian had to postpone a career in astronomy when Queen's popularity first exploded, but, after an incendiary 30 years as a rock musician, was able to return to astrophysics in 2006, when he completed his PhD, and co-authored his first book, Bang! The Complete History of the Universe, with Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott. Stereography has been a life-long passion for Brian.
Elena Vidal has worked as a conservator of paintings in Florence, Spain and the UK. She graduated as an MA in Photographic Conservation at the Camberwell School of Arts, and has subsequently specialised in the history of stereoscopic photography. Since meeting Brian May in 1997, Elena has collaborated with him on a long-term study of Thomas Richard Williams, and has published a number of articles.
