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From popular photo-magazines published for British citizens, to wall newspapers and pamphlets addressing Indian audiences, a wealth of dynamic visual propaganda in multiple languages and formats was produced to communicate Allied war aims and progress across the globe. Following the surrender of Japan, the machinery of ‘public information’ directed its work (including the network of photographers and the range of photographic outputs) towards the question of colonialism in the postwar world. 

The enormous resources commanded by this initiative, as well as the wealth of institutional archives and published artefacts left behind, evidence the faith placed in visual communications in this period. The continued postwar commitment to the value of visual propaganda is seen in the public relations work of the United Nations. Yet, its relevance for the era of decolonisation has yet to be researched in depth. 

This project addresses the use of official photography and commercial photojournalism in visual propaganda concerning British India (now Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Myanmar) during the Second World War and up to Partition.  

This project invites candidates to: 

• Assess the centrality of photography to the evolution of public information campaigns about British India and for diverse Indian audiences.  
• Critically analyse the aims and activity of the people and institutions involved in producing visual propaganda, and the photographic material circulated. 
• Examine the interactive roles of the British Army Film and Photographic Unit, the MOI (London) and the Bureau of Public Information (Delhi).  

Aiming to deliver a new cultural history of public information work between war and empire and assessing the relevance of wartime experience to postwar developments for the first time, this project will make a significant contribution to a developing research field addressing visual propaganda and British imperialism (e.g., Chandrika Kaul, James Ryan, Gabrielle Moser).  

Research questions

Drawing on the successful student’s interests, expertise and language skills, the project will bring exciting new interdisciplinary perspectives to the study of pioneering visual propaganda both catalysed by the anti-fascist struggle, but also marked by twentieth-century European colonialism.  

The project will address the following key research questions: 

• Which professional photographers, publications and networks were engaged in the production and circulation of visual propaganda depicting and directed at soldiers and civilians in British India?  
• What was the relationship between official departments such as the Ministry of Information (London) and the Bureau of Public Information (Delhi) in this period? 
• To what extent were Indian photographers being trained, commissioned or employed to record the war effort and the impact of the conflict?
• What photographic publications, pamphlets and artefacts were produced? And what differences can be traced in how the war and the postwar moment were represented in the UK and India?  
• What research methods and historiographical frameworks best facilitate critical examination of the genesis, aims and legacies of visual propaganda across the British Empire? 

Supervisory team

• Helen Mavin, Head of Photographs, IWM hmavin@iwm.org.uk.  
• Dr Gajendra Singh, Exeter University, g.singh@exeter.ac.uk.  
• Dr Tom Allbeson, Cardiff University allbesont@cardiff.ac.uk. 

Full details here: https://www.sww-ahdtp.ac.uk/collaborative-doctoral-award-cda-projects-2024-2025/war-photography-empire/

What is the history of photography’s value a history of? Is it a labour and economic history? An institutional history of museum cataloguing systems and art market pressure? A history of the values promoted by photography as a cultural and social activity? A history of photographic conventions, trends and fashions? Recent publications like issue 8 of Photographica in 2024 and the PHRC conference of 2023 “Photography in its Environment”, showed the increasing volume of work dealing in one way or another with photography and value.  

In this PHRC 2025 conference we look for paper proposals that use the ambiguity of the term “value” as a starting point to reflect on the intertwined political, social, economic, scientific and historical factors that have shaped the value(s) of photography. We encourage the use of diverse methodological perspectives to critically analyse what has made photography valuable to a variety of stakeholders. 

We welcome proposals for 15-minute papers on topics related, but not limited to themes like: 

• Photographic values and ethics 
• The markets of photography  
• Labour and/or economic histories of photography 
• The value of photography as heritage 
• Value systems in photography collections 
• Photography’s influence on social values 

PHRC Annual Conference 2025
Photography, Value, History
June 2025, Hybrid Conference

Call for Papers
Please send paper proposals as a .doc or .pdf of maximum 300 words to phrc@dmu.ac.uk by 10 January 2025, embedding in the document your name, contact details, up to 5 keywords and institutional affiliation (when applicable), and a short biography (80 words). We will be very grateful if you name your file with your surname.

Follow us on X @PHRC_DeMontfort

Conference hashtag #PHRC25

The photographic portrait has been among the most practiced forms of art since the emergence of photography in the mid-19th century. It quickly rose to prominence artistically, socially, and even economically, becoming a sought-after art form among aristocrats and ruling classes in Europe and America. Portrait photography replaced traditional painted portraits, creating official or artistic representations of individuals.

Portrait photography involves various visual elements, ranging from bust portraits showing the upper chest and face to close-ups focusing solely on the face. Some compositions are broader, including the entire body, seated or standing, in ways that reflect the subject's personal, cultural, professional, or symbolic identity. These portraits can be created in studios or outdoor settings.

In 1880, Irish photographer James Lauder, professionally known as James Lafayette, gained fame as a pioneer of indoor portrait photography in Dublin and London, and arguably across Europe. After training in Paris, the birthplace of photography in the 1820s, Lauder founded "Lafayette Studio" in Dublin, adopting a French name to emphasize his artistic lineage. His work gained significant recognition, leading Duchess Sophia Murphy of Devonshire House in London's upscale Piccadilly area to invite him to photograph her historical costume ball in 1897. This type of commission was previously reserved for painters. Lauder's reputation further grew as he photographed prominent British royal figures, including Queen Victoria, earning the titles "Victorian" and "Edwardian" photographer, titles previously exclusive to painters.

The Duchess prescribed specific Eastern and Western costumes for her guests, inspired by characters such as Cleopatra, Zenobia (Queen of Palmyra), Bilqis (Queen of Sheba), Desdemona, Cassio, Sir Galahad, Romeo and Juliet, knights of the Round Table, and mythical Greek and Roman figures. Lauder meticulously transported studio elements, including custom-painted backdrops, lighting equipment, and development materials, to the venue. He paid extraordinary attention to detail, even developing glass negatives on-site to ensure the best results, allowing him to adjust poses and angles as needed.

Lauder’s innovation extended to custom-designed backdrops, tailored to complement the historical costumes of his subjects, setting a precedent for portrait photography studios. His work earned multiple patents for photographic techniques, influencing subsequent generations of photographers. His approach, combining patience, technical precision, and artistic vision, positioned photography as a viable competitor to traditional portrait painting.

"Lafayette Studio" operated in Dublin from 1880, later expanding to Glasgow, Manchester, and London. However, following Lauder's death in 1923, the studio's prominence declined, with its branches closing within a few years. By 1952, the main studio in Dublin was sold, and thousands of original glass negatives, including 200 from the Devonshire House ball, were reportedly lost or destroyed.

Remarkably, in 1986, the glass negatives from the Devonshire House ball were discovered in a dusty cardboard box behind a screen in a storage loft at Pinewood Studios in London. These negatives were among thousands of Lauder’s works depicting historical events, social occasions, and prominent figures, including Queen Victoria. Their rediscovery was a momentous event for historians, academics, and art institutions worldwide, shedding light on Lauder's groundbreaking contributions to early portrait photography.

Lauder’s work, preserved in institutions like the National Portrait Gallery in London, exemplifies the artistry and technical mastery of his era. His portraits provide valuable lessons in understanding light sources, composition, and the interplay between subject and background. Lauder’s innovative use of hand-painted backdrops and single, soft lighting techniques gave his photographs depth and realism, distinguishing them as a pivotal moment in the history of studio photography.

This body of work remains a testament to Lauder’s ingenuity, showcasing the transformation of portrait photography into an art form that rivaled painted portraits, which had dominated for centuries. His legacy as a pioneer of European studio photography endures, celebrated for elevating the genre to unparalleled artistic heights.

His Photos at "Devonshire House" Disappeared for 71 Years Before Their Discovery… Personality and Space in the Portraits of Irish Photographer James Lauder

By Mohammad Hannon / originaly written in Arabic and published in Arabic newspapers.

Palestinian-Jordanian Photographer / Budapest

Translated by ChatGPT

Photographic historian Dr Rose Teanby FRPS, discusses the binding and photographic significance of the Linnean Society's three precious Anna Atkins Cyanotype volumes. The blog post also coincides with the Linnean Society's three Atkins volumes being on display at their home in Burlington House, London.

The exhibition Still Life ranges from carved woodblocks of the early modern period to the new technique of X-Rays in the twentieth century, the exhibition Still Life reveals how different methods of representing nature have furthered our understanding and knowledge of the natural world.

The exhibition showcases manuscripts, rare books, specimens, and rare books from our collections that indicate the many techniques that have been used to depict nature in the last five centuries: woodcuts, engravings, drawings, paintings, nature printing, dried specimens, photographs, X-rays, and finally digital art.

Read the blog post here: https://www.linnean.org/news/2024/12/05/a-secret-treasure-anna-atkinss-photographs-of-british-algae

Still Life
London, Linnean Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly
Tuesdays to Fridays, 10.00–17.00 until Friday 28 February 2025
See exhibition details here: https://www.linnean.org/research-collections/on-display/still-life-depicting-nature-from-woodcuts-to-x-rayshttps://www.linnean.org/research-collections/on-display

Thanks to Rose Teanby for flagging these. 

Images: (top) Part of the display of three volumes of Anna Atkin's cyanotypes. (left, foreground)  one print from Mrs Glaisher's British Ferns c.1855. 

The National Archives (TNA) holds a collection over 400,000 individual forms deposited to the Stationers’ Company between 1842 and 1912 to register ownership and copyright of photographs, paintings and drawings.

The forms include a description of the work being registered, along with the name and place of abode of the copyright owner (or proprietor of copyright) and the name and place of abode of the copyright author (the artist or photographer). The forms were then dated and signed by the owner and in many cases a copy of the work (in the form or a print or sketch) was attached to the form.

The entire photography collection has been catalogued at item level and we have access to the full metadata. This however is only semi-structured and it requires complex data manipulation to be effectively used for digital research, let alone visualisations.

As part of an internal project running from October 2024 to February 2025, we have decided to use this metadata to organise a hybrid digital hackathon to test data cleaning and processing methodologies, to experiment with visualizations and interesting forms of storytelling related to the world of early photography, as well as to find out the benefits and constraints of running a hybrid collaborative hackathon.

By experimenting collaboratively with tools such as AI, network analysis, entity disambiguation, and visualization we want to bring new perspectives to exploring archival collections through metadata.

During the hackathon we will encourage collaboration between teams, each working on different parts of the problem but sharing data, tools and ideas. To read more about the metadata collection and what we plan to do during the events, visit: https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/exploring-early-photography-through-collaborative-digital-experimentation/

The hackathon will take place over two days, on 27-28 January 2025 both onsite and online.

Exploring early photography through collaborative digital experimentation
London, The National Archives and and online
27-28 January 2025
Details: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/collaborative-digital-experimentation-copyright-and-early-photography-tickets-1105454266469

John Thomson is one of the great figures in the history of photography, an extraordinary photographer, traveller, author, translator and teacher. Between 1868 and 1872 he spent four years in China and it is his photography from that period that is the subject of this illustrated talk. He travelled from Macao in the South to the Great Wall of China in the North. Recording the North River, the Min and the Yangtze and the people who lived and worked on them.

Thanks to the work of photographic conservators at the Wellcome Collection it is possible to revisit Thomson’s original negatives and see the China recorded through Thomson’s lens accompanied by his words, taken from his three books on China.

Deborah Ireland is a freelance curator and author specialising in the history of photography with an interest in travel photography. Her previous posts include assistant curator at the Royal Photographic Society and director of photography at AA publishing. She has curated exhibitions and written for the Royal Geographical Society, including Isabella Bird, a photographic journal of travels through China 1894 – 1896. A fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, she has been a judge on Travel Photographer of the year since its inception in 2003. Deborah Ireland is leading a tour in October 2025, following in John Thomson’s footsteps from Guangzhou (Canton) to Beijing (Peking).

John Thomson - through China with a camera
6 January 2025
Bath, and online
Book here: https://www.brlsi.org/whatson/john-thomson-through-china-with-a-camera/

Impressions Gallery, Open Eye Gallery and Side Gallery are looking for a Network Coordinator to work to establish a new pilot network across the North for photographers and organisations that are working with photography.

Specifically, the Photo Connect network aims to support those interested in amplifying or expanding photography provision across the North. It is open to anyone wishing to collaborate – individuals, community groups, organisations and educational institutions – and will provide mechanisms to:

• Share information about photography exhibitions, workshops, and events, across the North.
• Manage Photo Connect communications, e.g. Instagram account.
• Share information from photography courses in the north.
• Share photography related news and opportunities.
• Support bespoke carbon literacy training for photographers.
• Provide at least one Photo Connect networking event in each of the 3 north areas North West, Yorkshire and North East.
• Champion the benefits of collaborating to increase reach and impact.
• Better understand the current photography ecology and demand for increased provision.

We know that photography is under-funded in the north, with just two organisations receiving core support from Arts Council England – Impressions Gallery and Open Eye Gallery – which is at odds with the public’s engagement and interest in photography. The Network Coordinator role is critical to establishing the Photo Connect network and driving forward this ambitious 12 month year-long pilot. The Network Coordinator will provide managerial capacity to identify the photography ecology across the North, connect with potential collaborators, and play a key part in planning and delivering the aims and objectives of Photo Connect.

The deadline for expressing interest is 12pm noon on 31 December 2024.

See: https://www.impressions-gallery.com/opportunity/photo-connect-network-coordinator/

Photo Connect is made possible by Arts Council England project funding

The British Library has published a guest blog titled Revisiting Early Photography: Ethics, Legal Constructs, and the Seligmans’ Legacy. It is written by Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra, Adjunct Professor at UNIMAS, Institute of Borneo Studies, Malaysia, and Associate Academic, History of Art, University of Oxford. It is an abbreviated form of a presentation at workshop held at the National Portrait Gallery, London, The British Empire in the Art Gallery: Practises, Discourses and Publics, 27 September, 2024. 

The use of photography in anthropology has a complex history, particularly when it comes to representing indigenous communities through early ethnographic research. When viewing collections such as the early 20th-century images of Sri Lanka’s Vedda community captured by Charles and Brenda Seligman, it is crucial to evaluate them not just for their historical significance but also through the ethical and legal frameworks that apply today...

Read the blog here: https://blogs.bl.uk/asian-and-african/2024/11/revisiting-early-photography-ethics-legal-constructs-and-the-seligmans-legacy.html

Image: ‘The Vedda country, view from Bendiyagalge rocks’. Photograph from C.G. and B.Z. Seligmann, The Veddas (1911). British Library, T 11173, facing title page.

Debates on forced migration often assume that one is either a refugee or a citizen. To put it more starkly, refugees supposedly want nothing more than to relinquish their refugeeness and become instead, citizen. Accordingly, photographic representations of the journey of transformation and self-reinvention, in emphasizing a trajectory from refugee to citizen, take for granted the power of the nation-state in defining citizenship. However,  migrant justice activists, Indigenous activist-scholars, and theorists whose protest against and refusal of 'border imperialism' are dislodging the concept of citizenship from the exclusive purview of the nation-state. More than a status dispensed by the state, citizenship is enacted.

This presentation considers the visual forms that such an action might take, especially in creating the possibility of 'refugee citizenship,' a concept that critic Donald C. Goellnicht invokes to denote alternative forms of citizenship that challenge nation-state frameworks. Through a focus on diverse forms of portraiture, I consider the ways that photographic practices constitute acts of refugee citizenship. 

Photographic Acts of Refugee Citizenship with Thy Phu
Friday, 6 December 2024, 1:00 PM  2:00 PM (EST); 1800-1900 (UTC)
See: https://www.byforcollective.com/events/thy-phu

Dave Shrimpton is a wet plate collodion photographer who uses vintage cameras to produce his art. He cites the work of Julia Margaret Cameron as his inspiration and says that upon viewing his first Cameron exhibition his “world changed for ever”.

This exhibition is entitled Searching for Alice and uses the image of Alice Liddell, photographed by and friend of Julia Margaret Cameron, as its point of departure. Being drawn into the world of Mrs Cameron through his own Muse, Catarina Correia, Dave’s work seeks to explore the results of the often unpredictable and unique wet collodion process.

He is thrilled to be displaying such a large body of his work in one place with many images not previously seen by a public audience. Dave will further follow in the creative footsteps of Mrs Cameron by photographing the current museum staff. The sitters for many of her iconic photographs were actually servants within the household staff at Dimbola. These priceless wet plates taken by Dave will form a further element to this already exciting and dynamic exhibition.

Dave Shrimpton: Searching for Alice
until 1 January 2025
Dimbola, Freshwater, Isle of Wight
See: https://dimbola.co.uk/event/dave-shrimpton-searching-for-alice/

The National Science and Media Museum will partly reopen to visitors on 8 January 2025 with a public programme and newly renovated foyer space, as well as returning favourites such as interactive gallery Wonderlab and the Kodak photography gallery, alongside Yorkshire’s biggest independent cinema. The new Sound and Vision galleries will open in summer 2025.

Ahead of the full reopening, the museum’s IMAX screen will welcome audiences back from 20 December 2024, with screenings of Mufasa: The Lion King across the festive period. 
The museum temporarily closed in June last year to undergo a once-in-a-generation transformation with huge changes through a £6 million capital project called ‘Sound and Vision’, supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, the museum will have two new permanent galleries, a new passenger lift and improvements to the main entrance.

The museum will celebrate its reopening weekend with a special partnership with Aardman, featuring film screenings, model making workshops and more. The museum’s team of Explainers will also be delivering free family-friendly activities with live science shows and object handling. 

Visitors will be welcomed back into the museum’s brand-new foyer space, which has been updated to provide a more flexible and welcoming space for visitors and local communities to enjoy. The new foyer includes soft seating, a redesigned shop and the popular Media Café, as well as the installation of an additional passenger lift, allowing more visitors to move around the building with ease.

The museum will also open a new temporary exhibition, David Hockney: Pieced Together, on 15 January. The exhibition showcases Hockney’s video installation capturing Woldgate Woods in the Yorkshire countryside through the four seasons, with each screen showing a different perspective of the country lane. The exhibition also explores the artistic and technical parallels of Hockney’s early ‘joiner’ photocollages, two of which are part of the museum’s collection. One of the joiners on display shows the museum in its early days as the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in 1985. 

Commenting the museum’s reopening, Jo Quinton-Tulloch, Director of the National Science and Media Museum said: “We are delighted to be reopening the museum on 8 January and can’t wait to welcome visitors back into the building. With newly transformed spaces, improved accessibility and exciting additions to our public programme, it marks the beginning of an extraordinary journey for both the museum and our community. As the year unfolds, we will unveil more exciting improvements to the museum, culminating in the summer with the launch of our spectacular Sound and Vision galleries. We couldn’t be more thrilled to be reopening the museum with the backdrop of an amazing Bradford 2025 programme, making this a once-in-a-lifetime moment.”

Helen Featherstone, Director, England, North at The National Lottery Heritage Fund added: “It is incredibly exciting that audiences will be welcomed back into the National Science and Media Museum in January as their doors reopen. In 1995, the museum was one of the first transformational projects in Yorkshire that received funding from the Heritage Fund, and after 30 years we have supported the museum again with the new Sound and Vision Galleries. Showcasing key objects and stories from the museums world-class collection, the new galleries are due to open later in the year, ensuring that the museum will be a star attraction of Bradford City of Culture 2025.”

The early 2025 programme will also see the return of the museum’s annual Yorkshire Games Festival, taking place from 10–23 February, including half-term activities for all the family. The festival’s industry-led Game Talks will also take place across 12 and 13 February, featuring a unique programme of talks and workshops from talented videogame developers.

As part of the museum’s regeneration project, vintage arcade Games Lounge has been relocated and transformed into Power Up. Opening in March, Power Up is still the hands-on gaming experience that has grown to be a visitor favourite, but it provides a refreshed offer designed to engage visitors of all ages. It will include a BAFTA Young Game Designers section, where visitors are invited to play previous winners’ titles and learn about the next generation of game design, as well as an opportunity to discover more about the history of the arcade.

As part of the museum’s 2025 public programme, a new interactive and immersive installation by experiential artist collective Marshmallow Laser Feast in partnership with Bradford 2025 will open in April 2025. The installation will take visitors on a multimedia ride through time and space, exploring who we are and what makes us human. With Bradford running through its DNA, the experience has been inspired by Born in Bradford, a major research programme that has been tracking the lives of more than 40,000 people across the district since 2007.

The museum’s new Sound and Vision galleries will open in summer 2025, featuring permanent displays of the museum’s world-class collections of photography, film, television, gaming and sound technologies. The new galleries will take visitors on a journey through the explosion of media technologies, and their impact on our lives. The Sound and Vision Project is a £6m capital investment, and in addition to funding received from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project also has support from the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund, Bradford Council and the Science Museum Group, which the National Science and Media Museum is a part of. 

If any of you are in the NW of England, I'll be offering a limited number of tintype portrait sessions at our Open Studios at Leigh Spinners Mill this Saturday. Or maybe just pop along and say Hello. The kettle is always on. Sesions available via Eventbrite.

See: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tintype-portraits-tickets-1082188959309?aff=ebdssbdestsearch&keep_tld=1

Thanks

Tony

The singer-songwriter Nick Drake, who died 50 years ago today, was immortalised not only by his music.

Photographer Keith Morris (1938-2005) took many of the images inextricably linked with Nick and helped create his public persona.

Keith's work including two of his Nick Drake photographs feature in the National Portrait Gallery collection, London. 

My latest Pressphotoman blogpost is a longform piece about Keith and Nick's successful working relationshop.

Keith Morris (1938-2005)

Photo credit: Keith Morris, Hampstead Heath, London, 1995. Copyright: Author's collection.

Can anyone tell me the specific camera being used here? The date is around 1843. If the man at the back is holding a darkslide (and not just steadying the camera) then it appears to be a very large format.

Joe

The Royal Society is hosting a free research seminar titled Women of science in the circle of Sir John Frederick William Herschel on Friday, 22 November 2024. The seminar is chaired by Professor Kelley Wilder. Speakers are: Emily Winterburn Godmothers to live up to: John Herschel's choices for his daughters, Rose Teanby Enlightened Letters: Sir John Herschel and women in early photography, Carolin Lange On the nature of light and colours: Spectral experiments by Mary Somerville and Sir John Herschel and Louisiane Ferlier on Hidden figures: Ada Lovelace and John Herschel.

Women of science in the circle of Sir John Frederick William Herschel
Friday, 22 November 2024, 1430-1600
Hybrid and will be recorded
Free, but registration required
https://cassyni.com/events/HWpf9q27TCpnBFACEztMVo

Co-Creating Collections for Priority and Future Audiences: Socially Engaged Photography and Small to Medium Sized Public Organisations is a new CDA between the photography department at Birmingham City University and the Open Eye Gallery Liverpool with support from Coventry University.

The CDA is a unique opportunity for a practice-based researcher to work in the context of a live national partnership project supported by an internationally recognized, cross institutional supervisory team within the context of the UK’s leading socially engaged public photography programme. Based at the Open Eye Gallery, with access to two additional national collections housed at museums across Aberdeenshire local authority, Scotland and Armagh local authority, Northern Ireland, this CDA invites candidates to think through the challenges faced by small-to-medium art organisations in how they use and build meaningful and accessible collections through socially engaged processes.

We invite candidates to explore, test and develop new methods and strategies for creatively and critically responding to and expanding upon the indicative enquiry of how artists and curators may reactivate and develop collections for new and emerging communities within the context of a smallmedium sized organisation. Located within an interdisciplinary framework of social practice, photography, and archiving, it is expected that the successful candidate will be driven to develop new knowledge within the methodological and theoretical aspects of socially engaged photography, archival research and more broadly, museology. Applicants should have knowledge or a willingness to develop/acquire skills in these fields as well as autoethnographic approaches to fieldwork and sitewriting ethnographies through a method best suited to the candidate and environments, as well as typical methodological approaches to community-engagement, such as photovoice and photo/image elicitation. Findings and outcomes that could be realised are exhibition planning/delivery, community engagement strategies and/or archival practice.

Co-Creating Collections for Priority and Future Audiences: Socially Engaged Photography and Small to Medium Sized Public Organisations
Expression of interest deadline: 15 November | Applications deadline: 13 January 2024
Details: https://www.midlands4cities.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/Co-Creating-Collections-for-Priority-and-Future-Audiences.pdf

The Library of Congress is now accepting applications for the 2025-2026 National Stereoscopic Association Research Fellowship. Please share the announcement with any colleagues or students that might be interested.

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, 2025. The Fellowship must be completed between September 1st, 2025 and August 31st, 2026.

Questions should be addressed to:

Micah Messenheimer
Curator of Photography
they/them

stereofellow@loc.gov

(202) 707-0591

 Image: Charles Waldack, Out for the Last Time, c. 1866. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2013645419/

This proposal is for a Collaborative Doctoral Partnership PhD which will focus on the records in photographs and film held by Imperial War Museums (IWM) of Black volunteers from the Caribbean in the UK during the Second World War. It will open up new perspectives and information on this largely unexplored collection by looking at how and why these images and footage were commissioned, the subjects chosen, the intended audiences and messages. It will also investigate how they have been used more recently in developing understanding and making memory.

During the Second World War, 10,000 Black men and women from the Caribbean served in the UK - in the armed forces, industry, forestry or the Merchant Navy. The majority of these volunteers responded to British recruitment drives in the Caribbean, while some, particularly early in the war, made their own way to Britain to join the fight. Although the Colour Bar had been officially lifted in 1939, many of them would experience discrimination during the recruitment process or in the course of their service.

The experiences of these people varied across the different areas where they contributed to the war effort. Many Caribbean volunteers served in the Royal Air Force, whereas the Army proved far less receptive to Black men and women serving in its ranks. Those involved in industry and agriculture experienced racial discrimination from employers, trade unions and government officials. Although the Colonial Office was keen to encourage recruitment of Caribbean men and women, it was mostly an exercise in public relations and an attempt to quell any dissent to ensure that those who served in Britain would return home ‘convinced Ambassadors of Empire’.

The PhD project will focus on the visual record – photographs and film – held in IWM’s collection showing Black volunteers from the Caribbean in the UK. That record was commissioned largely (though not exclusively) by government departments, including the Colonial Office, the Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Supply, or by branches of the armed forces. It formed part of a wider propaganda campaign that showed Britain’s empire pulling together in a joint struggle, overlooking differences of race and ethnicity.

Our understanding of this material is, however, very limited. There is clearly much to uncover and more nuanced stories to tell. This CDP PhD will ensure that we can address this issue and bring IWM collections into critical dialogue with other national and international collections (official and unofficial), perspectives and knowledge bases external to IWM. By
way of wider context, the PhD student might also look at the official visual record of volunteers serving in the Caribbean itself, as well as in other parts of the world.

Key research questions to be addressed include:

• How and why were the photographs and film commissioned and circulated?
• What subjects did the photographers and film-makers choose and how were those subjects represented?
• Who were the intended and actual audiences?
• Where do the tensions lie between the official narrative and the actual experience of Black men and women from the Caribbean serving in the UK
• How have histories been obscured or excluded through the colonial context in which they were produced?
• How has this visual record shaped meaning making for families and communities today?
• How have these images and film been used more widely, in museums, and in education (including at IWM)?

In addition to research at IWM, the student will be expected to engage with sources held at such archives as:

• the UK National Archives
• Black Cultural Archives
• University of the West Indies
• Royal Air Force Museum
• National Army Museum
• Royal Museums Greenwich

‘Convinced ambassadors of Empire’?: exploring the visual record of Black Caribbean men and women serving in the UK during the Second World War
IWM co-supervisor: James Taylor, Principal Curator, Public History
Funded by AHRC
Read the full call here

Vivienne Gamble has been appointed director of Edinbrugh's Stills Centre for Photography. She will start in her new role in January 2025. She takes over from Ben Harmer who moved to the National galleries Scotland as senior curator (photography) in the summer.   

Gamble is the co-founder and artistic director of the internationally acclaimed Peckham 24 festival of contemporary photography. Established in 2016, Peckham 24 takes place annually during Photo London Week. With a focus on supporting new talent and experimental artists working with photography, the festival creates a vibrant takeover of a number of warehouse and gallery spaces across Copeland Park in the heart of Peckham’s South London artistic scene.

From 2015-2023 she ran Seen Fifteen Gallery, also in Peckham. Seen Fifteen’s programme was dedicated to contemporary photography, and the most recent curatorial project, The Troubles Generation, considered the legacy and impact of the Northern Irish Troubles on artists who were brought up in the shadow of the conflict. Gamble also currently lectures in photography and exhibition practice as an Associate Lecturer at University of the Arts, London.

She said: "It will be an honour to lead Stills on to a new chapter in its illustrious history as a pioneering venue that has championed photography since 1977.  As Stills approaches its 50th anniversary, I am particularly excited about the opportunity this offers to celebrate everything the organisation has contributed whilst also working on innovative plans for the future role we can play in the photography scene in Scotland, the UK and internationally."

Stills board chair Lewis Blackwell said: "Vivienne stood out in a very strong field of applicants that came forward for the role and will allow us to continue to grow our reputation for being a major centre for photography in Scotland on a local, national and international stage. Her work in co-founding the Peckham24 photography festival, and then leading it to an international reputation over the past eight years, greatly impressed the interview panel. In the curatorial strengths and executional innovation, we see an approach that indicates Vivienne can be an excellent fit for the next stage of Stills' development. We are also keen to have her organisational and entrepreneurial abilities added into our team. To follow Ben Harman in the Director role, after he did so much to advance Stills over the past decade, will not be easy. We exist in very challenging times for the arts and funding. But we are confident that Vivienne can bring great strengths and fresh energy to Stills."

https://stills.org/