In May 1856, Alder's (left) in Blyth, Northumberland provided a shop window for the Downey brothers first portrait photographs.
New research about royal photographers W. & D. Downey of South Shields, Newcastle and London features in my latest Pressphotoman piece.
Photo: Courtesy of Blyth Library.
Photofusion are delighted to announce the appointment of a new Director to lead the UK based photography organisations at an exciting time in its development Jenni Grainger will be the new Director of Photofusion, starting in January 2024. Joining Photofusion from a background of senior leadership in arts organisations, Jenni brings with her vast experience of leading and programming nationally and internationally significant activity with inclusion, access and creativity at its core.
Jenni says “I am delighted to announce that I will be joining Photofusion, as Director in January 2024, and look forward to driving the strategy and creative ambitions of this long-established photographic institution into 2024 and beyond. Photofusion is an important centre of photographic education and creative vision and I am keen to discover what more we can do to deepen and widen engagement in photography within the local community and far beyond. I also look forward to championing Photofusion as a vibrant and accessible new community space as it moves into its new home on Beehive Place, Brixton. I particularly look forward to continuing Photofusion’s strong relationships, locally and beyond, with stakeholders, artists, partners and its members, to champion the delivery of high-quality exhibitions and socially engaged projects."
Kim Shaw has recently stepped down as Director of Photofusion after 8 years. During that time, she steered the organisation through a period of huge change, achieving Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation status in collaboration with 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, and winning the bid for Photofusion’s new home on Beehive Place. Her vision and determination have been incredible, and we are going to miss her enthusiasm and on-going support of Photofusion members in particular.
For 30 years, Photofusion has championed, supported and celebrated photography and photographers. well known for the darkrooms, gallery space, digital printing facilities, and education programme, Photofusion has also worked collaboratively with young people, emerging photographers and makers as part of its growing community. Photofusion was established in 1990. Among the founding members were a group of female photographers who were concerned about the way women were portrayed in the media. They formed a cooperative to document real women doing real things: doctors, nurses, teachers, mothers. Representation, inclusion and diversity have always been at the heart of Photofusion. Many important images have been made and shown at Photofusion. Supporting some of the UKs most well-known and established photographers at early stages of their careers, Photofusion looks forward to doing more to develop the artform and ensure its accessibility for everyone.
The landmark Africa Fashion exhibition at the V&A highlights opportunities for original research into interconnections between African dress, adornment, colonialism, decolonisation and diaspora. Subjects embodied in African portrait photography located in national museum, private and family archives. The project will analyse; sitter, attire, styling, and setting as a conduit into understanding an archive of pictures social, cultural and political meanings. The scope of this approach is explicit in the oeuvre of photographers Seydou Keita – Bamako and James Barnor – Accra/London.
The project may create, identify an original, or re-evaluate an existing African portrait photography archive; either in Africa or elsewhere. The analysis will seek to understand the collections agency in colonial, decolonising or diaspora contexts. A paradigm shift in the conceptualisation, articulation, interpretation and classification of African portrait photography is expected to elucidate race, discrimination, freedom struggles and gender narratives.
Theoretical and methodological approaches will draw on a combination of subject disciplines which may include African studies; visual research methods from anthropology, photography, fashion and dress; theoretical perspectives from colonial, decolonisation research studies; taxonomy and ontology. Research as creative practice will be intrinsic leading to exhibition and publication expectations.
Falmouth University
Project lead: Dr Simon A Clarke
No start or closing date specified
Details: https://www.falmouth.ac.uk/research/phd-mphil/doctoral-project-briefs/african-portrait-photography-archives#details
Various news outlets reported recently that Brian Edwards, a visiting research fellow with the regional history centre at the University of the West of England had identified the image of a Wiltshire thatcher, as seen on the cover of Led Zeppelin IV.
Edwards said he came across the image in a photograph album during continuing research extending from an exhibition he curated with Wiltshire Museum in 2021. It is understood that the Led Zeppelin lead singer, Robert Plant, discovered a framed, coloured photograph of the original image of the Wiltshire thatcher in an antique shop near guitarist Jimmy Page’s house in Pangbourne, Berkshire.
The original image was discovered in a Victorian photograph album titled: “Reminiscences of a visit to Shaftesbury. Whitsuntide 1892. A present to Auntie from Ernest.” It contained more than 100 architectural views and street scenes together with a few portraits of rural workers from Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset.
Beneath the stooped man’s image, the photographer wrote: “A Wiltshire thatcher.” Further research suggests the thatcher is Lot Long (sometimes Longyear), who was born in Mere in 1823 and died in 1893. At the time the photograph was taken, Long was a widower living in a small cottage in Shaftesbury Road, Mere. A part-signature matching the writing in the album suggests the photographer is Ernest Howard Farmer (1856-1944), the first head of the school of photography at the then newly renamed Regent Street Polytechnic, now part of the University of Westminster.
Farmer’s photograph is now in Wiltshire Museum in Devizes, and an exhibition featuring the image, along with others taken in the west of England during the Victorian era, is scheduled to be held at the museum in spring 2024.
https://www.uwe.ac.uk/news/unidentified-figure-on-cover-of-iconic-album-revealed
The next few weeks see several auctions of photography and cameras:
Four Corners latest exhibition tells the fascinating story of the Half Moon touring shows. In 1976, photographers at East London’s Half Moon Gallery developed an innovative approach to exhibiting. With little money, a leaky roof and a DIY attitude, they arranged their work on card panels and ran them through a laminator, creating unpretentious exhibitions-in-a-box that travelled the country via British Rail.
Bypassing elitist arts institutions, the exhibitions toured to alternative venues from community centres to left-wing bookshops, student unions, churches, a prison and even a laundrette. By 1984, over fifty shows had reached people across the UK, playing a pivotal role in how documentary photography was viewed and used.
Documenting working lives and rural traditions, shedding light on international conflicts and injustices closer to home, the Half Moon touring shows introduced powerful imagery by an emerging generation of socially engaged photographers that still resonates today.
Photography on the Move: The Half Moon Touring Shows 1976 - 1984
24 November 2023 - 27 January 2024
London: Four Corners
https://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/whats-on/photography-on-the-move-the-half-moon-touring-shows-1976-1984
Copy of a glass plate negative. Photographed from an approaching ship. Does anyone know or can suggest where this may be?
- English: https://forms.office.com/e/e1kbXEgC15
- Portuguese: https://forms.office.com/e/19uPtaK6e6
Dear All, Photographic Exhibitiosn in Britain 1839-1865 is back up and running. Thank you for your patience! Happy Researching!
Kelley Wilder. Photographic History Research Centre
Exeter-based auctioneers Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood is offering the lantern slides, lanterns and associated material collected and used by Philip Banham over many years. The auction takes place on 4 December 2023. The sale is particualrly strong in hand-coloured and transfer lantern slides, slipping and mechanical slides, with subjects ranging from comic to social history. Also included are lanterns, printed material, engravings, books and readings.
Online catalogue: https://auctions.bhandl.co.uk/auctions/8741/bearne10139
Manuscripts and Archives at Oxford University is a new tool which searches descriptions of manuscripts and archives held at the Bodleian Libraries and some Oxford colleges. These descriptions are drawn from eleven online catalogues. The manuscript and archive holdings of the Bodleian extend from Greek papyrus fragments from the 5th century BC to 21st century born-digital archives.
The manuscript and archive collections include works of literature, politics, science, medicine, theology, law, music and religious devotion, as well as many forms of documentary material produced by individuals and institutions. The extensive archives held at the Bodleian include manuscripts, documents, audio-visual recordings, photographic material, music and born-digital content from thousands of personal and institutional archives.
A quick check with several photographic-related search terms reveals a wealth of material.
It is hard to overestimate the extent to which the advent of photography in the early nineteenth century changed the course of visual culture in France and abroad. New photographic inventions, such as Louis Daguerre’s ‘diorama’ (a popular Parisian spectacle featuring theatrical painting and lighting effects) introduced novel visual mechanisms to a wide audience. Though denigrated by critics like Charles Baudelaire for its presumed limitation to merely reproduce the visible world, photography was in fact in dialogue with other means of visual expression.Artists such as Eugène Delacroix and Paul Cezanne were indebted to the medium for the development of many of their paintings; Eadweard Muybridge’s photographic studies of bodies in motion allowed artists such as Edgar Degas to reconsider the artist’s capacity to depict movement. While linked to aesthetic and scientific advancement, however, photography was equally a vital tool for French colonial endeavours, reinforcing propagandistic messages,justifying missionary activities, and lending seemingly objective evidence to the pseudoscientific project of eugenics and related endeavours of white supremacy. The tool of photography was put to many uses, unified by its promise of technological progress.
In this session we hear from researchers who are working in diverse aspects of French visual culture and photography. We are pleased to welcome the following speakers:
Details and free registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/transformation-and-trouble-photography-as-a-tool-in-19th-century-france-tickets-726768523217?aff=oddtdtcreator
Stills presents a six week lecture and discussion event in the gallery for students and those keen to develop an understanding of the philosophies and ideas which are most often used to think with, and about, photography.
Have you ever wondered what Post-Modernity really means? And if it has anything at all to do with taking photos?! This course, led by our Research Associate David Grinly, will help you to navigate the terminologies and ideas which sometimes put us off thinking more deeply about photography. Aiming at the big names who stand (sometimes very closely) behind the theories of today, this course will offer approachable “translations” of a selection of critical texts, and provide a space to discuss the questions they raise, now.
Course outline:
1 Nov: Introduction – Photographic Modernity and PostModernity
8 Nov: Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
15 Nov: Roland Barthes – Rhetoric and Mourning
22 Nov: Susan Sontag – In Plato’s Cave
29 Nov: Jean Baudrillard – Photographer in the Matrix
6 Dec: Teju Cole and Lucy Sante – The Spectators Malevolent Neutrality
A ticket - from £18 upwards - provides access to all 6 lectures. If you would like to attend individual events but not the whole series, please email info@stills.org and we can make arrangements for this.
Details and booking: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/photographic-monsters-tickets-743390189067
The curator, academic and writer David Mellor (he added 'Alan' to avoid confusion with the politician of the same name) has died aged 75 years at his home in Machynlleth, Wales. He was awarded the Royal Photographic Society's J Dudley Johnston (2005) and Education (2015) awards.
Mellor studied art at Sussex University from 1967 under Quentin Bell. During this time Asa Briggs, then Vice-Chancellor of the University, received the archive of Mass-Observation from Tom Harrisson. Mellor published and curated exhibitions about the substantial collection of pre-war photographs of working-class life contained in the archive. He stayed at Sussex until his retirement in 2018. In the words of Maurice Howard he was one of the country’s leading scholars in the fields of twentieth century painting, film and photography.' Mellor had an extensive list of publications to his name and curated significant exhibitions on Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, and on Robin Denny, Cecil Beaton and Bill Brandt. He curated major exhibitions at the Barbican and Tate, most memorably Paradise Lost: The New Romantic Imagination in Britain (1987) and The Sixties (1993), at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery.
Mellor was also a director of Brighton's Photoworks and the Brighton Photo Biennial, and Edinburgh's cooperative Photography Workshop from 1996 to 2011.
As Howard notes 'As a teacher, generations of students testify to his unique insights into British culture. David was teaching the inter-relations of media long before the subject became an academic discipline at the University and was sensitive to art and the environment from the beginning of his career'.
With thanks to Paul Hill (seen on the right, in the picture left) who notes: 'So sad to get the news of the the death of photo historian and teacher. David Mellor (left). We worked together quite a few times - up here in Derbyshire at The Photographers Place workshop in the 70s, Salford ‘80, and latterly talking about The Real Britain project at the 2014 Brighton Biennial. Great scholar and lovely guy….'
See:
The latest issue of The Classic has been published to coincide with Paris Photo. As usual it includes a range of features and news, including previews of Paris Photo, a feature on the George Hoyningen-Huene Estate archives, photography of French cinema, an interview with Hans P Kraus and Behind the Scenes - Curating and Designing Exhibitions. It is available to donwload for free or printed copies can be picked up at various venues.
A new photography creative hub is set to open in Edinburgh, just a stone’s throw from Princes Street. 6 William Street will unite renowned charity Studies in Photography and new artist-run gallery and bookshop AGITATE under one roof. The new venture will provide a go-to hotspot for lens-based artists and photo-curious passers-by, offering an expansive programme of events, exhibitions, and workshops.
The new venue will open officially on Saturday 28 October with a launch event for its first show forty one point five - a celebratory melting pot of contributors’ work from 40 years of Studies in Photography and the first 1.5 years of AGITATE. The launch night will also feature exclusive discounts on a variety of photo wares including a limited run of new AGITATE merchandise and an exciting opportunity to snap up back-issues of the journal from as far back as 1987.
Alexander Hamilton, Chair of Studies in Photography said: “The Scottish Society for History of Photography is opening in its 40th Year a new home for Scottish and International Photography in the heart of Edinburgh. The Society, known as Studies in Photography is delighted to be going into partnership with Agitate over 6 William Street - a home for photography. Finally, after a long history of events, journals, and creative conversations, we are opening a new centre for events and exhibitions, and to house our archive. It will also be a place to find copies of our books and our amazing journal, which features the very best in historical and contemporary photography. In partnership with Agitate, we aim to create Scotland’s premier photographic bookshop. I am particularly grateful to all our sponsors and supporters, who through their generous financial support, our making this dream possible. I look forward to welcoming you all to 6 William Street.”
With more and more creatives using cameras (and cameras increasingly being in everybody’s pockets), plus thousands of photography graduates come out of colleges and universities each year, the demand for image-making and image consumption has never been higher. Yet it can be difficult to feel inspired, to play with pictures, and to find a space to think more critically about the images we are taking. AGITATE’s mission since opening in early 2022 is to make it easier for anyone excited about making pictures to share them, find community, and to provide a viable platform for artists to make income from their work.
Christina Webber, Director of AGITATE said: “We are over the moon to be working with Studies in Photography on this exciting new venture and very grateful for the opportunity. Our mission with AGITATE is to make it easier for fans of photography at any level to buy, sell, show, and discover work, and to provide a welcoming platform for everyone to participate in conversations around image-making. You don’t have to be a ‘full time artist’ - if there even is such a thing - simply someone with a curiosity for pictures. We look at hundreds of images every day, and it’s my sincere hope that 6 William Street will provide a bridge between making images and sharing them, starting a wider conversation about our relationship with the images we consume. With Studies in Photography’s 40-year history and expertise, alongside our ambition and incredible community, we’re excited to see this become a catalyst for conversation and discovery.”
The photography industry is ever-changing. 6 William Street will bridge the old and the new, creating space for learning from a diversity of approaches, techniques, perspectives and interpretations. Alongside book launches, pin-ups, artist talks, reading groups and film clubs, a dynamic programme of workshops (both in-person and online) will complement partnership working with local higher education organisations, whilst the gallery will provide a space for exhibition hire, curated shows, and all manner of other events. Whether you’re a darkroom fanatic, a digital die-hard, an alt-process nerd, or love taking photos on your phone… this is definitely somewhere to check out.
More details about the exhibition, events, education and publishing programmes will be announced at the launch. Join the Studies in Photography and AGITATE mailing lists, and follow both organisations on social media to stay in the loop!
6 William Street will open to the public officially on Saturday 28 October from 1800. Over the winter months, the gallery and bookshop will then be open weekly from Tuesday –
Sunday from 12:00 – 18:00 at 6 William Street, Edinburgh, EH3 7NH.
AGITATE is a new hub for photography in Edinburgh (est. 2022) celebrating pictures in all their forms and supporting those who make them. AGITATE is artist-run and driven by community, with a desire to change the landscape of photography in Scotland by making it easier for lens-based artists to show and sell their work. The shop stocks a range of photo wares including books, zines, prints and film; acts as a drop-off point for local enterprise Rocket Film Lab, hosts a regular programme of events, and provides affordable exhibition and event hire for image-makers at all levels. AGITATE is operated by Filtr Collective, a limited company run by Christina Webber and Jaime Molina.
Lower image credit: Laura Prieto
On 2 November 2023, The Family Museum will be speaking in Budapest at the conference ‘Talks on everyday imagery – the analogue and digital realm of the vernacular’. The event has been organised by the newly formed Eidolon Centre for Everyday Photography and will be hosted at Moholy-Nagy University of Design. The Eidolon Centre has been established in the Hungarian capital to research, study and showcase vernacular photography drawn from various sources.
During the conference, international academics, curators and critics (Geoffrey Batchen, Lukas Birk, The Family Museum, Judit Gellér, Nathan Jurgenson, Sándor Kardos, Annebella Pollen, Joachim Schmid, Michal Simunek, Miklós Tamási and Joanna Zylinska) will come together to offer their views and approaches to this niche of our visual culture.
About The Family Museum
Co-founded in 2017 by Nigel Martin Shephard and Rachael Moloney, The Family Museum is an archival project rooted in Nigel’s collection of original British amateur family photographs and photo albums. Dating from the 1860s to the noughties, the archive has been amassed by Nigel over 30 years and currently comprises around 40,000 family photographs and 600 photo albums. Through sharing more than a century and a half of found images depicting everyday life and experiences, the mission of The Family Museum is to explore our understanding of ‘family’ as expressed through vernacular photography, and the opportunities the archive offers for research and discussion around the history and practice of amateur photography.
Image: 'Joyce, Elsie, Mother', 1920s. Photograph by Mary Pacey
The Library of Congress is now accepting applications for the 2024-2025 National Stereoscopic Association Research Fellowship. Please share the announcement with any colleagues or students that might be interested.
H.C. White Co., On the beach, Avalon Bay, Catalina Island, California, U.S.A. 1906. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002699051/
National Stereoscopic Association Research Fellowship
The National Stereoscopic Association Research Fellowship is made possible by a gift from the National Stereoscopic Association (NSA) to support research within the Prints & Photographs Division holdings of stereoscopic photography and the unparalleled photographic history collections at the Library of Congress—including over 15 million photographs, rare publications, manuscript materials, historic newspapers, and extensive subscription database access.
Fellowships will be awarded annually to be used to cover travel to and from Washington, D.C., accommodations, and other research expenses to assist fellows in their ongoing scholarly research and writing projects on stereoscopic photography, or more broadly within the field of photographic history to the extent that research is connected in some manner to the Library's holdings on the format.
Eligibility and Guidelines
Graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, independent scholars, creators, and other researchers with a need for Fellowship support are encouraged to apply. Individuals who are not U.S. residents but who otherwise meet the above qualifications may apply and be considered for a Fellowship, contingent upon visa eligibility.
In the interest of increasing awareness and extending documentation of Library of Congress collections, Fellows are required to make use of the Library's collections, be in residence at the Library during the award period, and share information derived from their research through publication in Stereo World, a public lecture, presentation at the following National Stereoscopic Association Convention, or other event, either during their residency or within six months of completing their research at the Library. Each Fellow must also notify the selection committee if their work results in formal publication and provide hard-copy or online access to the work.
To Apply
Information about applying for the fellowship is available at this link: https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/national_stereoscopic.html
Completed applications are due on March 1st, 2024. The Fellowship must be completed between September 1st, 2024 and August 31st, 2025.
Questions should be addressed to:
Micah Messenheimer
Curator of Photography
Prints and Photographs Division
Library of Congress
Email: stereofellow@loc.gov
Phone: (202) 707-0591
National Galleries of Scotland has announced the appointment of Anne Lyden as its new Director-General. Bringing a wealth of experience, most recently as Interim Co-Director of Collection and Research, Lyden will be the first female Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland in its history. Current Director-General, Sir John Leighton, will step down on 31 December 2023 following a 17-year tenure and Lyden will take up the role on 1 January 2024. BPH reported on Lyden's appointment as Photography Curator back in 2013
The National Galleries of Scotland is home to Scotland’s superb art collection, with three galleries in Edinburgh. At the National, Modern and Portrait galleries visitors can discover treasures from Botticelli to Titian, the very best modern art, famous faces and contemporary portraits of pop culture icons, and the largest collection of Scottish art in the world. As well as conserving and researching the national collection, the National Galleries of Scotland is committed to reaching the widest possible audience through an active programme, including partnerships across Scotland, the UK and abroad, as well as online. As Director-General, Lyden will work with the National Galleries of Scotland Board of Trustees, Leadership Team, colleagues across the organisation, and a great many donors and stakeholders to make art work for everyone.
Born in West Dunbartonshire, Anne Lyden grew up in Clydebank and studied History of Art at the University of Glasgow, and Museum Studies at the University of Leicester. She held various curatorial positions at the J.Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, where she worked for 18 years (1995-2013) latterly in the role of Associate Curator before joining the National Galleries of Scotland. As International Photography Curator (2013-2019) and then Chief Curator, Photography (2019-2022), Lyden curated numerous exhibitions including Coming Clean: Graham Macindoe (2017), A Perfect Chemistry: Photographs by Hill & Adamson (2017), and ARTIST ROOMS—Self Evidence: Photographs by Woodman, Arbus and Mapplethorpe (2019). In 2022, she became Interim Co-Director of Collection and Research where she led a directorate, overseeing the public programme across three sites and building on several research initiatives to widen accessibility and representation within the collection. Author of numerous publications, Lyden has written widely on the subject of photography and art.
The process of recruiting the new Director-General began earlier this year and was led by the Chair of the National Galleries of Scotland Board of Trustees, Benny Higgins, and a committee of Trustees.
Benny Higgins, Chair of National Galleries of Scotland Board of Trustees, said: “I am thrilled that we have appointed Anne Lyden as our new Director-General. Anne brings a strong understanding of the national collection and our talented people, together with extensive international experience.
Over the past few months, we embarked on a rigorous search to find our next Director-General, resulting in us speaking to many people across the UK and internationally. Following a thorough recruitment process, we know we have the right person to lead the National Galleries of Scotland into the future.
Anne’s strong personal values and leadership style, coupled with her knowledge of art, will see us deliver on our strategic commitments and I am looking forward to working with her.”
Anne Lyden, Director-General designate of the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “I am looking forward to this incredible opportunity to lead the National Galleries of Scotland in the next chapter of its impressive history.
It is my great privilege to continue the excellent work led by Sir John and colleagues over the years, most recently the success of the new Scottish galleries at the National. I am eager to continue my work with Trustees, colleagues, community partners, audiences, artists, and supporters in realising our plans for the future including The Art Works, our new collections facility in North Edinburgh. Having worked with the national collection and a wide range of colleagues over the last ten years, I am delighted to continue this experience of making art accessible to everyone.”
Sir John Leighton, outgoing Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “Anne Lyden is a highly talented curator and leader with a strong commitment to inclusion and diversity. She has a compelling vision of the benefits that access to great art can achieve in these volatile times and is the right person to drive forward the National Galleries’ commitment to bringing world-class art to the widest possible audience.”
