The publisher, Routledge, is delighted to announce that Volume 10, Issue 1 of Visual Culture in Britain is now available. This is the journal's first issue published by Routledge and to celebrate it is offering free online access to all articles in this issue for the remainder of 2009.
Of particualr interest to readers of BPH is a paper by Venda Louise Pollock titled Dislocated Narratives and Sites of Memory: Amateur Photographic Surveys in Britain 1889–1897. The abstract reads:
Prior to the formation of Sir Benjamin Stone's National Photographic Record Association (NPRA), a number of amateur photographic societies throughout Britain embarked on photographic surveys. The catalyst for these endeavours was 'Illustrated Boston', a set of slides visually describing the New England town sent from the Boston Photographic Society and premiered by the Liverpool Amateur Photographic Association in 1889. These slides were then shown in photographic societies throughout the United Kingdom. Although William Jerome Harrison had published erudite advice on how to carry out such a task, these formative surveys reveal a dislocation between ideal methodology and the realities of amateur surveying. This disjuncture has significant import for the representation of place and, drawing on the theories of Timothy Mitchell and Pierre Nora, this article examines the surveys as reflecting, and contributing to, particular social, aesthetic, political and institutional contexts integral to which was an oculo-centric culture of display founded on the primacy of visual knowledge and therein experience. It argues that the failure to capture the genius loci of place that Elizabeth Edwards has determined in the NPRA emerges from these early processes and their contexts and concludes by considering the impact of digitization on these surveys as images and material artefacts.
Read all the articles for free from this issue here: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=g911231917Read more…
One of the world’s leading photographic history experts from De Montfort University (DMU) has been awarded a prestigious professorship from the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., US. The National Gallery of Art’s Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) has awarded the 2010 Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professorship to Roger Taylor, Professor of Photographic History, and Senior Research Fellow at DMU in Leicester. His role as the Safra Visiting Professor will involve working with the Gallery to build close connections between the research of curatorial staff and that of visiting scholars to CASVA, whilst also undertaking his own independent research.
Professor Taylor has chosen to use the professorship to undertake research into the memorably-named Linnaeus Tripe, a British photographer he came across when researching his Impressed by Light exhibition. He said: “It’s an unexpected privilege to be offered this professorship. I’ll be researching Tripe’s background in the Madras Infantry, and his innovative role as a documentary photographer. His large format pictures were mostly taken in Burmah and India during the 1850s and are wonderful, but there’s never been major exhibition dedicated solely to his work.”
A recent national review of research in the UK by the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) shows that DMU’s photographic history research is classified as ‘world leading and internationally excellent’. Gerard Moran, Dean of Faculty Art and Design, added: “It’s marvellous that Roger’s visiting professorship at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC should come along to cement the truly international reputation of De Montfort University’s work in this way. We’re looking forward to the many mutual benefits that will emerge for all parties from this valuable association with the NGA.”
Professor Taylor will spend four months at CASVA, beginning from 19 January to 19 May 2010, where he will also be conducting a seminar on the Gallery’s collections.
CASVA at the National Gallery of Art, founded in 1979, is a research institute that fosters study of the production, use, and cultural meaning of art, artifacts, architecture, and urbanism, from prehistoric times to the present. The Center encourages a variety of approaches by historians, critics, and theorists of art, as well as by scholars in related disciplines of the humanities and social sciences.
More information about CASVA is available at http://www.nga.gov/resources/casva.shtmRead more…
The National Media Museum in Bradford has launched a blog written by Museum staff. The blog takes a behind the scenes look at happenings within the Museum. Recent postings show the museum's offsite storage facility at Black Dyke Mills, a creative writing group at the museum and the Curator of Cinematography, Michael Harvey, being filmed for a Canadian TV documentary. Click here to view: http://nationalmediamuseum.blogspot.com/Read more…
London's National Portrait Gallery is always a good source of photography exhibitions. Currently on view are small case displays of
• the work of Gilbert Adams (1906–96), Bertram Park (1883–1972) and Yvonne Gregory (1889–1970)
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson, including work by Julia Margaret Cameron
• four platinum prints by Eveleen Myers
as well as plenty of other photographs. The NPG is always worth a visit.
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The National Media Museum in Bradford, UK, is currently undertaking a major digitsation project (details of the job to do this was posted here some months ago). The project aims to scan a large proportion of the photographs housed in the Zoltán Glass archive, will systematically catalogue the work of the artist, whose main creative periods came in the 1930s and 1950s, and to make them accessible in digital format. The Bradford collection numbers around 6,000 images in total; the work is scheduled for completion in April 2010.
Zoltán Glass was one of the great commercial photographers of the 20th century – and automobiles were one his favourite subjects. During the 1920s and 1930s he was commissioned by Daimler-Benz AG to take many photographs of Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Glass, for example, documented the period of the classic Silver Arrows, the cars that dominated international grand prix racing from 1934 onwards. But he also turned his masterful skills to photographing the brand’s production vehicles for publicity material. He could even turn ostensibly uninspiring subjects, such as Mercedes-Benz vehicle production, into aesthetically pleasing images. After the death of Zoltán Glass in 1981, his photographic legacy was acquired by the National Media Museum, which houses one of Europe’s most important photographic collections.
At the instigation of Daimler AG, his work is now being catalogued and digitised. The project also involves feeding the original photograph captions into the database and reproducing the images in their original sequence. The process makes use of state-of-the-art technology, which enables the negatives and their immense wealth of detail to be photographed in high resolution using a calibrated high-end medium-format camera in order to create a neutral copy of the original. The results are first saved as files of approximately 100 megabytes in TIFF format. Finally, special software is used to convert the negative images into positives.
Once the work is complete, the photographs will be available for further historical editorial work and other projects.
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The Photographers' Gallery wishes to appoint a full time Deputy Manager of Print Sales with demonstrable experience of working within a commercial gallery. The Deputy Manager will work with the Print Sales Manager and Print Sales Coordinators to maximize income from the sale of photographic prints. The successful candidate will have a proven ability to generate sales, handle fine art photographic prints, collaborate with artists, curate exhibitions and displays as well as be host to excellent administrative and communication skills, This is a full time position that will include weekend shifts and ideally be starting from September 2009.
The post which is full time will pay a salary in the range £21,000 - £25,000. Closing Date: 7th August 2009.
Closing Date: 7th August 2009.
Details and an application form are here: http://www.photonet.org.uk/index.php?pid=243Read more…
To coincide with the British Library's forthcoming major exhibition: Points of View: Capturing the 19th Century in Photographs, the BL is running two workshops for Year 7-13, FE and HE students. They are available: Monday to Friday from Wednesday 4 November 2009 until Friday 5 March 2010 and run 90 minutes. Group size: minimum 10, maximum 30.
Time Frame: for history students
Participants will evaluate whether and to what extent photographs can be trusted as historical sources. Do photographs always reflect the reality of the times or can an image lie? Using a range of photographic sources in the exhibition, students will reflect critically upon the historical evidence contained within them, which reflect developments in attitudes, beliefs and ideas as well as social, economic and technological changes in 19th century Britain.
Perspectives: for art students
This workshop will explore the role of the photographer in 19th century Britain, as they documented life in Britain and abroad. It will begin by looking at the development of the medium of photography before examining the photographers themselves, the motivations behind their work and the choices they made in the creation of their images.
Teacher Events
There will be two free evening conferences for teachers on 2 November and 3 November 2009, both of which will include a private view of Points of View. To register your interest, please email learning@bl.uk. Further details will be available from early September.
There is a minimum group size of ten. Details can be found here: http://www.bl.uk/learning/tarea/secondaryfehe/photography/povworkshops.htmlRead more…
Photography has always held an important place in Scotland ever since its announcement in 1839. The relative freedom with which photographers in Scotland could practice Talbot’s calotype process was instrumental in establishing a nucleus of amateur and professional photographers who quickly became masters of their art. Throughout the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries Scottish photographers have continued to engage with the medium producing engaging art and documentary work.
This book, written by two of the collection curators, sets out to provide an overview of the Scottish National Photography Collection (SNPC) which is held at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. The collection features not just Scottish photographers from the 1840s to the present day, but also the work of others. Bill Brandt, Annie Liebovitz, Edward Steichen and Diane Arbus, for example, are all represented within the collection. Set up in 1984 to collect, research and exhibit Scottish and international photography the SNPC now houses some 38,000 photographs. It has also produced some forty books or exhibition catalogues and held over eighty exhibitions, more than fulfilling its original aims. It continues to have a dynamic acquisitions policy, adding new historic material through donation and purchase, within carefully thought-through criteria. Equally important, it is continues to commission new work to ensure that it remains engaged with current practitioners and to add their work to the collection.
This book highlights over 200 photographs from the collections of the SNPC and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. It starts with a daguerreotype of Dr Andew MacLagan from 1843, moves through the calotypes of Hill and Adamson, and concludes with an image from David Williams from 2000. Several more recent works are also included. Geographically the photographers and subject range from Scotland, to the United States, Europe and Asia. An introduction by Sara Stevenson, who has been the driving force behind the collection, provides a wider perspective on it and its aims.
The book is not a catalogue of the SNPC. Instead, it offers a careful selection of photographs from the collection. These can be seen individually, or collectively as a way of looking at the wider history of photography. It does this extremely well with good reproductions of the photographs. Each image is accompanied by a physical description and text outlining an historical and contemporary context. Overall the book reinforces the important role that Scotland has played and continues to play within photography. It also shows the care and thought that has gone into forming what has, undoubtedly, become one of the world’s great photograph collections.
This book, which is excellent value, is highly recommended.
A Companion Guide to Photography in the National Galleries of Scotland
Sara Stevenson and Duncan Forbes
Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 2009
ISBN: 978 1 906270 20 9
£9.99, 224pp, paperback, 220 illustrations
Reviewed by Michael Pritchard
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A spokesperson from the National Media Museum issued a short statement about the museum's London presence following the announcement of the appointment of Charlotte Cotton as Creative Director. Cotton starts in her role in October 2009: "We're unable to disclose information about the venue until we have approval from the government.'Disclosing the venue at this stage could jeopardise the project. We hope to be in a position to open in 2011/12, subject to fundraising and government approval."
Recent speculation has suggested that the presence will be at London's Science Museum and that plans for the space are advanced. See: http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=849485Read more…
The National Media Museum, Bradford, have now issued a formal press release regarding Charlotte Cotton who is joining the museum in October 2009.
National Media Museum Appoints
Creative Director for London Galleries
The National Media Museum in Bradford has appointed Charlotte Cotton to its new role of Creative Director for its future London Galleries. Charlotte will be charged with delivering an exciting vision for the content of the Museum’s special exhibitions programme for its London presence, building on the strong reputation of exhibitions already staged at the Museum’s Bradford base. She will be driving an advocacy programme and helping with fundraising for the project, for which the Museum is currently awaiting government approval on its preferred venue in the Capital.
Charlotte is currently Head of the Wallis Annenberg Department of Photography at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the largest art museum in the Western United States. Before joining LACMA, Charlotte was a Curator of Photography at the V&A for 12 years and then Head of Programming at The Photographers’ Gallery in London. Charlotte will start working for the National Media Museum in October 2009.
Colin Philpott, Director of the National Media Museum, said: “We are delighted that Charlotte has chosen to further her career with the National Media Museum, working to build our brand in the short, medium and long-term through our programme of special exhibitions and to help us achieve our long-held ambition to establish a presence in London. Our home will remain in Bradford but having a presence in London will enable us to bring our exhibitions programme and items from our Collection to a wider audience.”
Charlotte Cotton said: “The opportunity to play a leading role in the programming for the UK’s most important collections relating to photography, film and television and the conception of its London presence is absolutely thrilling for me. I am really looking forward to realising the most timely, pleasurable, and culturally nourishing experiences of both the collections and contemporary creative talents within the media realm.”
Whilst at LACMA, Charlotte has built the Wallis Annenberg Department of Photography’s programme, visibility and relevance in the Californian photographic community as well as nationally in the States. The world class historical photography collection of Leonard and Marjorie Vernon was acquired during Charlotte’s tenure, a group of more than 3,500 prints forming one of the finest histories of photography and collections of masterworks from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Charlotte has led on creating a world class and locally relevant events programme at LACMA including debates, conversations, screenings, performances, commissions and publications.
During her career Charlotte has worked on an extensive body of exhibitions and publications. During her time at the V&A Charlotte developed a number of exhibitions and publications including Imperfect Beauty: The Making of Contemporary Fashion Photographs (2000), Stepping In and Out: Contemporary documentary photography (2001), and Guy Bourdin (2003). Charlotte has taught at universities and art colleges including as visiting professor at Yale University (2005/6) and visiting critic at SVA, New York; Art Institute, Chicago; Cranbrook College, Detroit; UCLA, Los Angeles; Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City.
Charlotte has written a number of books including The Photograph as Contemporary Art (2004), an extended and updated version of which will be re-published in September 2009. As well as numerous articles and essays. Charlotte was the founder of the discussion forum www.wordswithoutpictures.org, a summary of which has recently been published in print-on-demand form.
Last year the National Media Museum in Bradford attracted over 700,000 visitors with exhibitions including securing the only UK venue for Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Scrapbook, Photographs 1932-4, working with Hedy van Erp and Iris Sikking of the ICON Foundation on the exhibition Baby, Picturing the Ideal Human 1840s – Now and the Museum generated show; Live by the Lens. Die by the Lens: Film Stars and Photographers.
The Museum is home to the National Photography, Photographic Technology, Television and Cinematography Collections. The National Photography Collection contains key images by numerous influential historic and contemporary practitioners such as; Anna Atkins, Sir John Herschel, Martin Parr and Eve Arnold, and includes the earliest known surviving negative, which is part of the William Henry Fox Talbot Collection. The Museum also holds The Royal Photographic Society Collection, the Kodak Museum and the Daily Herald Archive.
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Charlotte Cotton is to join the National Media Museum in Bradford as Creative Director. Rumours had been swilling around the photographic community for five or six weeks and I am now able to confirm this news. Cotton had recently left her job at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art where she had been curator and head of the photographs department. The NMeM had yet to officially confirm this news which was first reported in the Los Angeles Times this morning.
The newly created role of Creative Director at the National Media Museum was advertised and reported on here in January 2009. It is believed Cotton will report directly to the head of the museum, Colin Philpott, and will become part of the museum's senior management team. The new position has the key goal of creating a showcase gallery in London. This is museum's long-vaunted London presence which 'aims to raise the profile of the Museum with new audiences in the nation's capital and to further enrich the city's cultural life'. Cotton's past relationship with the V&A Museum may stand her in good stead. An exhibtiion space has been identified at the Science Museum but funding has yet to be put into place to convert and run the new galleries. The NMeM's chair of trustees, Michael G. Wilson, producer of the Bond movies, has been driving this project forward in recent months. There is a wider discussion on the London presence here.
Cotton joined the the LACMA in 2007 and while there she oversaw the acquisition of the Leonard and Marjorie Vernon collection of about 3,500 prints, organized an exhibition of Philip-Lorca diCorcia's work and presided over a lively series of performances, conversations and screenings. Previously she had been in New York since 2005 to organizing a cultural program for the Art & Commerce agency and was a visiting professor at Yale University (2005) and visiting critic at SVA, Bard, CCA and Cranbrook (2005-7).
She had been head of programming at the Photographers' Gallery in London (2004-05) and was Curator of Photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum from 1993 to 2004. She has curated many exhibitions of historical and contemporary photography including, Imperfect Beauty: the making of contemporary fashion photographs (2000), Out of Japan (2002), Stepping In and Out: contemporary documentary photography (2003) and Guy Bourdin (2003).
Cotton is the author and editor of publications such as Imperfect Beauty (2000), Then Things Went Quiet (2003), Guy Bourdin (2003) and the well-regardedThe Photograph as Contemporary Art (2004). She was founding editor of wordswithoutpictures.org.
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A selection of images taken from the Benjamin Baker: Bridging the World Exhibition can be seen on line for those who are unable to visit the venue in person. The exhibition will be shown in London later in the year and I will forward relevant details as and when they become available.In addition, in September there will be a symposium on Photography and Engineering organised by the Ordine degli Ingeneri di Padova and Venice University in the Autumn.Details will follow as soon as I know more.The Exhibition at Rook Lane Arts:http://www.rooklanearts.org.uk/baker/index.html exhibition home pagehttp://www.rooklanearts.org.uk/baker/gallery.html images as thumbnails-viewable via greyboxBenjamin Baker's activities took him far and wide. Not only to Egypt but also to the US when Fowler & Baker Ltd took over the work on the Hudson Tunnel and was also responsible for the design of the now defunct Manhattan Elevated Railway - see "Edison Clip" and a second by the Mutascope Company" which shows more complete view of the structure. Courtesy of Youtube's Narragansett55michaelgray@imageresearch.org
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Many months ago I reported here that Brian May and Elena Vidal's book on series of stereographs of the 1850s photographer T. R. Williams Scenes in Our Village was going to be published in October 2009. Well, the project continues on schedule. The book is currently in press and the stereoscope that will accompany it has been designed, prototyped and is being manufactured.
There is more on Brian's own blog here: http://www.brianmay.com/brian/brianssb/brianssb.html (10 July).
For more on TRW visit the London Stereoscopic Company website here: http://www.londonstereo.com/trwilliams/index.html.
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What is claimed to be the world's smallest gallery opens in a former BT telephone box on the green in Settle, North Yorkshire, on 11 July. The gallery will be opened by the Mayor of Settle, Councillor Barbara McLernon.
The decommissioned box was restored in a project led by local volunteers, with help from the local council. 'Contributions are welcomed from members of the public and must be no larger than a postcard,' said the gallery's curator Professor Roger Taylor (pictured) who lives on the green. Taylor was previously a curator at one of the world's largest museums, the former National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford. He said: 'We are very excited to see such a creative use of the phone box and it's great to have a bit of fun as well as involve the wider community in a contemporary art and photography project,' The opening exhibition features postcard-sized work from local artists and schoolchildren, as well as examples by more renowned figures such as Ansel Adams, Paul Hill, Samuel Palmer and Toulouse Lautrec. 'We are very excited to see such a creative use of the phone box and it's great to have a bit of fun as well as involve the wider community in a contemporary art and photography project,' said Taylor who is Professor of Photographic History at De Montfort University.
The Gallery on the Green will exhibit photographs, paintings and drawings, and visitors are asked to make contributions of 'postcard art'. One-man shows and thematic shows are planned for the future.
The gallery website can be found here: http://www.galleryonthegreen.org.uk/index.htmlRead more…
Two new jobs at De Montfort University have been advertised. De Montfort University has a well established reputation for providing web access to primary research sources in the history of photography. You will help to shape and to realise our long term plan to establish us as a centre of excellence, by delivering this ambition in partnership with other organisations that share our zeal for the subject.
Research Fellow in Photographic History (0.2FTE). Part Time. Grade F: £30,594 - £33,432 per annum (pro rata).
With a recently completed PhD (or equivalent), or currently undertaking one, you will contribute to the teaching of the MA in Photographic History and Practice, developing and delivering a module in Photography and Industry. You will undertake personal research related to the subject area.
Senior Research Fellow in Photographic History (0.6 FTE). Part Time. Grade G: £34,435 - 43,622 per annum (pro rata). With a PhD (or equivalent) and teaching experience at Masters level, you will contribute to the teaching of the MA in Photographic History and Practice, including a module related to Photographic Ethnographies. You will pursue personal research and undertake Photographic History bid writing.
The closing date for applications is: 13 July 2009. Application forms and further details are available from: www.jobs-dmu.co.ukRead more…
The Museum of English Rural life at the University of Reading (UK) would lke to invite you to visit the Farmer and Stockbreeder collection online exhibition at http://www.reading.ac.uk/merl/research/countrysideimages/merl-list.aspCategories include: Agricultural Labour and People; Cattle; Children and Young Farmers; Crafts; Crops and Fruit; Harvesting and Picking; Haystacks, Ricks and Thatching; Horses; Land Cultivation; Machinery; Marketing and Packaging; Milking and Dairying; Pigs; Poultry; Rural Buildings and Landscape; Second World War and Agriculture; Sheep;Shows and Competitions; Women in Agriculture; Women's Land Army.In September 2008 the Museum started the Digitisation of Countryside Images Project to digitise and catalogue 13, 000 glass negatives from the Farmers Weekly and Farmer and Stockbreeder photographic collections. Images date from 1920 to 1965 and represent the two most comprehensive collections of documentary photogrpahy relating to British farming and the countryside in the 20th century. The project is funded by JISC as part of the Enriching Digital Resources programme, a strand of the Digitisation programme.The Farmers Weekly collection online exhibition will be available in September 2009.
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This publication will be available from November 2009 to coincide with the British Library's major autumn exhibition highlighting photography within the Library.The book, for the first time, brings together a selection of images from the Library's collections. It examines the history, diversity and influence of photography from its invention and early years up to the growth of a popular amateur market in the early twentieth century. Begining with the work of William Henry Fox Talbot and other influential pioneers, the book includes many of the celebrated names in nineteenth-century photography from across the world including Francis Frith, Felix Teynard, Samuel Bourne and Peter Henry Emerson, as well as numerous lesser-known names who made significant contributions to the medium. Organised by subject matter in a broadly chronological arrangement, it asks: Who was taking the photography and why? Section by section, items are presented within their cultural contexts, exploring some of the major themes of the nineteenth century, from imperial expansion to industrialisation and the emergence of new scientific and social disciplines in an era of rapid social change. The final sections of the book will examine the ways in which the development of simplified cameras and accessible technology responded to the demands of a developing mass market for photography, which continues up to the present day.
Points of View. Capturing the 19th century in photographs
Edited by John Falconer and Louise Hide
British Library, London
Hardback, £29.95 / Paperback £15.95
ISBN 978 0 7123 5081 5 / 978 0 7123 5082 2
176 pages, 100 colour illustrations
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Evelyn George Carey Forth Bridge | Testo di Michael Gray & Angelo MaggiFederico Motta Editore | Milano 2009 | 144pp 260 x 290 mm | Duotone | Hardback | Italian & EnglishQuoting from the text:"The building of the Forth Bridge was marked and controlled through photography; the official photographer: Evelyn George Carey, a young engineer and personal assistant to the designer, Benjamin Baker worked on the project over a period of eight years between 1882 to 1890. His pictures capture, clearly and lyrically, the scale, tensions and inherent dangers of such a project.""In a sense, the scale and importance of Carey’s achievement has yet to be fully appreciated. The body of work created by this young engineer-photographer between 1882 and 1890 as an employee of Fowler & Baker stands as an exemplar for all photographers working within this increasingly complex ever evolving domain. The photographs are pre-eminently sequential, tracing and recording the progress of the bridge’s construction, with an informed and critical eye. According to Patrizio, “Carey’s photographs are the visual expression of a very particular engineering ambition which is fully understood by the photographer.” The later, modernist fascination with such structures may be understood through a study of his series as a whole; the Forth Bridge shows, in Michael Baxandall’s terms, ‘a kind of expressive functionalism’ "University of Venice, Department of Engineering | Ordine degli Ingeneri di Padova | National Archive of Scotland
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