Blogs

Alan Marshall’s award-winning photography documents a significant period in the 1960s and mid-1970s when both art and design crossed boundaries to explore and portray the expanding world of technology. 

This selected collection of photographs, deeply observed through the lens of an artist, sees beauty in extreme settings and offers an insight into the humanity within powerful industrial processes.

Alan Marshall FRPS FIIP. Industrial Beauty
The School of Philosophy
South Bourne House, 78 Carter Knowle Road, Sheffield, S7 2DX
29 May-9 June 2023
Private view and talk: Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th May at 1430.

Image: Tapping Blast Furnaces - FT Industrial Photographer of the Year 1969

BPH has been advised that Insight, the National Science + Media Museum's Collections and Research Centre, which provides physical access to the museum's collections is to close from 5 June 2023 until summer 2024. The museum will still be supporting research access to the collections remotely via virtual research room appointments and its enquiry service. The final in-person appointments which need to be pre-booked are available from 17-19 May 2023. 

The closure is the result of the closure of the museum to facilitate its transofmration through the £6 million Sound and Vision Project.

For more information see: https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/researchers/access-to-our-collection

"It is the first study devoted to analysing how stereoscopic 3D photography became integral to daily newspapers, illustrated weeklies, and magazines." My doctoral thesis, Another Dimension: Stereoscopic Photography and the Press, c.1896-1911, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) is now available via this link.

View here

Illustration Credit: "Underwood & Underwood" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1907. b11652262.

The Photographic Collections Network is holding an online event on the preservation of photographic materials looking at photographic processes and their problems.  This session aims to help participants gain confidence in identifying different types of photographs (predominantly monochrome processes) and recognising internal and external damaging factors which have a detrimental impact on their condition.

 The session is aimed at participants who work with or own collections of photographs. Some participants may have little knowledge of photographs prior to this session but have photographs within their collections. Others may have much deeper experience with photography collections but wish to improve their knowledge and understanding of photographic materials to facilitate long-term preservation.

You will receive a confirmation email when you book, and the event link will be sent to you on the day of the event.

Preservation of Photographic Materials Session: Photographic Processes and their Problems
Tuesday, 16 May 2023, 1-2:45pm BST
Free / donation, online
Register: https://www.photocollections.org.uk/events/preservation-photographic-materials-session-photographic-processes-and-their-problems

The Courtauld has completed a major five-year project to open up its internationally-renowned collection of photographs to the public for free, working with 14,000 volunteers to digitise over one million images from The Conway Library as part of the biggest public inclusion project in The Courtauld’s history. In addition the Courtauld has published its approach to copyright of the material it has digitised. 

Since 2017, almost 2,000 in-person volunteers ranging from ages 18 – 86 have worked closely with The Courtauld to catalogue and photograph every image in The Conway Library collection – the majority of which have never been seen before. Volunteers were recruited from a wide variety of organisations, schools and charities, including The Terrance Higgins Trust, The One Housing Foundation, BeyondAutism, and My Action for Kids. A further 12,000 volunteers participated remotely online.

Located at The Courtauld at Somerset House in London, The Conway Library contains over one million images dating from the inception of photography to the present day: photographs and cuttings of world architecture, sculpture, paintings, and decorative objects, including 160,000 prints by Britain’s leading architectural photographer of the 20th Century Anthony Kersting, documenting his extensive expeditions across the Middle East, rare 19th Century photographs of world architecture, unpublished images revealing bomb damage across Europe following WWII, and T.E. Lawrence’s photographs of Saudi Arabia.

Highlights include: 

•  The archive of 160,000 prints of Anthony Kersting – Britain’s leading architectural photographer, the most prolific and widely travelled of his generation. Best known for his photographs of British architecture, he joined the RAF in 1941 stationed in Cairo in a photographic unit. From there he undertook extensive photographic expeditions throughout the Middle East and across the world throughout the 1940s and 50s.
• The Ministry of Works collection – hundreds of unpublished photographs taken by soldiers, historians, and architects across Europe that reveal cityscapes reduced to rubble by bomb damage during the final days of World War II.
• T.E. Lawrence’s photographs of Saudi Arabia.
• The De Laszlo Collection, an archive of 22,000 glass plates including images of works by major early 20th Century British artists.
• Images of Istanbul from the 1850s by pioneering 19th Century photographer James Robertson.
• Important photographs documenting the history of social housing in Britain, including Highpoint Flats by Tecton Group, London, and the Brutalist Park Hill Flats, Sheffield.

The digitisation project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, has become the largest and most diverse public inclusion project in The Courtauld’s history, introducing new audiences and uncovering new insights into this remarkable collection. The entire collection is now available as high-resolution images, making the library easier to use as a tool for research and education and enabling a wider audience to access it.

See more here: https://courtauld.ac.uk/news-blogs/2023/conway-library-photographic-collection-unveiled/

Read the Courtauld's approach to copyright here: https://photocollections.courtauld.ac.uk/copyright

Image: top: William J R Curtis, Dubarry Court, Brighton, East Sussex; lower: Norfolk Crescent, Bath. 

As part of the run up to the UK's National Gallery's bicentenary celebrations in 2024 it is running a series of blogs and other activities in its 199th year. As part of that it has published a blog titled 100 years of the Photographic Department: Part One which looks at how the department has operated and evolved over the past one hundred years. 

Read it here:  https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/behind-the-scenes/100-years-of-the-photographic-department-part-one

As part of the  AHRC funded research project Communities and Crowds – we are holding an online workshop on the 20 July, which looks at a new approach to volunteer led digitation which leads to volunteer created citizen science platforms. We’ll be sharing what we have done to date – and welcoming input from volunteers, scholars, museum professionals and other cultural heritage institutions that are interested in applying this approach to their own work and/or collections

If you are interested in attending, please email: p.carr@nms.ac.uk by the 30 June 2023. 

Details of the project are here: https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/project/communities-and-crowds/

Further details of the workshop are below:

Hybrid Volunteering: A New Approach to Photographic Collections

Date: Thursday, July 20th

Location: Online

Summary: Volunteering with heritage collections is often separated between in person opportunities to work with GLAM institutions, or as massive online participation activities - such as platforms for crowdsourced research. This hybrid conference will bring together heritage professionals, volunteers, and digital humanities scholars to explore how we can combine in person and online volunteering with GLAM collections to make for a richer and more engaged volunteering opportunity. The workshop will share initial results from the AHRC funded Communities and Crowds research project, which has created a new volunteer-led digitization to participatory research process for photographic collections. It will also invite GLAM professionals, in-person and remote volunteers to help us explore the next steps for expanding this approach to other collections and projects.

Programme

9:30-9:45 - Communities and Crowds: An overview and Introduction (Geoff Belknap, Keeper of Science and Technology, National Museums Scotland)

9:45-10:30 - A New Volunteer led Digitization approach (Alex Fitzpatrick, Research Associate, National Science and Media Museum)

10:30-10:45 - Break

10:45-11:30 - Digital Volunteering and New Talk Infrastructure (Sam Blickhan, Humanities Lead for Zooniverse and Co-Director of the Zooniverse team at Chicago's Adler Planetarium)

11:30-12:00 - Group trial of How did we get here (Volunteer Created Zooniverse Project - National Science and Media Museum)

12:00-:1:30 - Lunch

1:30-2:00 - Exploring Histories of Community in the Archives: Perspectives from Project Volunteers (Sandra Rowe, Maureen Rowe, Lincoln Anderson, Rebecca Smith)

2:00-2:30 - Unlocking the Potential of Virtual Volunteering (Matt Hicks, Head of Volunteering, Science Museum Group)

2:30-3:00 - Building an easy-to-use App and designing efficient data workflows tailored for volunteering collections projects (Lawrence Brooks, Collections and Data Manager, Science Museum Group)

3:00-3:30 - Break

3:30-4:30 - Workshop Open Discussion - Photographic Collections Network Facilitated

Applying this approach to your photographic collection?

What should a Holistic Hybrid Volunteering Toolkit look like/include?

4:30-5:00 - Discussion and Next Steps

Dr Geoff Belknap (he/him)

Keeper of Science and Technology

National Museums Scotland

Ben Dunham writes... The photographer was Thomas Bell, born 1870 in Northumberland. In 1910, he married Ann Mary Lucas, the daughter of landscape painter George Lucas. His brother-in-law was J. Alphege Brewer, who made his fame with very large, color etchings of cathedrals and other historical buildings damaged or threatened during WWI (see my website at www.jalphegebrewer.info (http://www.jalphegebrewer.info)). It is difficult to explain the perspective and level of detail in Brewer's etchings without including the possibility of the use of photographic projections. 

From comparing the etchings to surviving postcards and other views from before the war, it seems as if Brewer might have had his own source of photographic images especially taken for this purpose. I'm wondering if Thomas Bell might have collaborated with Brewer in this project.

Does anyone know more about Bell and his studio, and whether any of his photographs of historical buildings (if any) survive? 

Just published is the annual Burlington Magazine photography special issue timed to coincide with next week's Photo London fair. It is available in printed form (£25) or as a PDF download (£20).

The published papers and articles include The Bayeux Tapestry photographed (Ella Ravilious); ‘Goethe’s house is severely wrecked’: Lee Miller at Buchenwald and Weimar(Katharina Günther), One short trip to New York: Bill Jay and Tony Ray-Jones (Grant Scott), Landscape as grid in Stephen Shore’s American surfaces’ (Tom Cornelius), Soft, feminine and forgotten: Kate Smith’s autochromes (Catlin Langford), Rrose Sélavy as house painter (Francis M. Naumann), an article review of The Photography Centre at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Lisa Stein) and editorial on the digitisation of the Conway and Witt Libraries. 

The Burlington Magazine, May 2023, #1442 – Vol 165 
Details: https://www.burlington.org.uk/current-issue

This study day aims to gather researchers around the subject of the printed image since the 1880s. With particular attention to material bibliography and production techniques, we seek to better understand how illustrations contribute to the formation of meaning and discourses within different contexts from illustrated newspapers to etiquette manuals, from scientific journals to children’s books.

Straddling the disciplines of literary studies, art history, bibliography, and library sciences, the field of illustrated print culture is a privileged inroad to social history. We are inspired by the foundational work of Richard Benson’s The Printed Picture (MoMA, 2008) as well as recent scholarly interest in vernacular media, such as Sarah Mirseyedi and Gerry Beegan’s important contributions on the development of photomechanical reproduction and Thierry Gervais’ edited volume The “Public” Life of Photographs (The MIT Press, 2016). Heeding the call of rare books specialist Roger Gaskell, who has identified the need to develop a “bibliography of images,” we invite contributions in French and English that address any aspect of mass-produced visual materials as well as the diverse industrial or manual processes that enabled their production.

The Image on the Page: A Study Day Around Illustrated Print Culture
Friday 13 October 2023
Concordia University (Montréal, Canada)
Proposals for 20-minute papers (in English or French) can be sent to stephanie.hornstein@concordia.ca before 15 July 2023.

They should include a title followed by an abstract (200 words max.) and a short biography (100 words max.). 

Organizing committee:

• Stéphanie Hornstein, PhD candidate, Department of Art History, Concordia University and Concordia Library’s Researcher-in-Residence 2022-2023.
• Michel Hardy-Vallée, PhD (art history), Visiting scholar, Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art, Concordia University.

Complete CFP and info here:  https://library.concordia.ca/about/news/#guid=https://library.concordia.ca/about/news/%23i28_Apr_2023_11:44:00_EDT

Image: Gabor Szilasi, Photos chez l'imprimeur, 1966. Fonds Ministère de la Culture et des Communications, Office du film du Québec, BAnQ Vieux-Montréal, Montréal. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Marcus Adams' travelling studio camera is to be offered at auction on 4 May. The camera was designed and custom-built for Adams to make half-plate negatives, and is with a  Carl Zeiss Jena, Tessar 25cm f/4.5 lens no. 451181 and a Dallmeyer pneumatic shutter. It was originally from the estate of Adams' widow. The camera is estimated at £400-600. 

Adams was a Fellow of both the Royal Photographic Society and Institute of British Photographers and a specialist in child studies, as well as a photographer of royalty. 

The camera is shown in pictures of Adams' studio now held in the National Portrait Gallery collection: 

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw280916/Photomontage-of-Marcus-Adams-with-his-travelling-camera

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw280914/Marcus-Adams-with-his-travelling-camera-designed-and-built-by-himself

Auction: Happy & Glorious: God Save The King
4 May 2023
Chiswick Auctions, London, lot 54
See: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-54---marcus-adams-1875-1959--travelling-half-plate-camera/?lot=218910&so=0&st=camera&sto=0&au=922&ef=&et=&ic=False&sd=0&pp=48&pn=1&g=1

A series of photographs by Lewis Carroll vastly exceeded their estimates at auction recently. In a timed auction running from 13-23 April 2023 held by Sworders eight single images by Carroll sold for prices from £9,450 to £16,550, against estimates starting from £800-1000. Each showed  Alexandra 'Xie' Kitchin, a favourite Carroll subject. The highest price was achieved by a photograph of Alexandra 'Xie' Kitchin as a Chinaman, taken on 14th July 1873.

See: https://timed.sworder.co.uk/past-auctions/sworde1-10041?term=Carroll

The eight images are shown below: 

Ian Mansfield has published two visuals from V&A planning documents showing the new V&A Photography Centre space which opens to the public on 25 May. The Art Newspaper also carries renderings of the new space.  Separately the Royal Photographic Society's Journal (May-June 2023) carries interviews with key people connected with the new galleries. 

See Mansfield's blog here: https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/va-museum-doubling-the-size-of-its-photography-galleries-59745/

The Art Newspaper piece can be seen here.

The RPS Journal is available to RPS members only 

The National Stereoscopic Association is pleased to announce its fourth annual "Sessions on the History of Stereoscopic Photography" at the 49th 3D-Con in Buffalo, New York. Presentations are welcome on any aspect of stereo-media from the inception of stereoscopic photography to immersive stereo media. We project stereoscopically on the 3D-Con's big screen, and our growing community of international scholars represent diverse research from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. All stereoscopic photography subjects from the historical to the contemporary are invited.

Please send an abstract of 500-600 words and a biography of 250-300 words and contact information by May 15, 2023.
Notification of acceptance by May 29, 2023.  Digital images will be expected by July 5, 2023.

Call for Papers extended deadline

Sessions on the History of Stereoscopic Photography IV
August 4, 2023
The National Stereoscopic Association’s 3D-Con
The Hyatt Regency Buffalo Hotel, Buffalo, New York
July 31-August 7, 2023

https://3d-con.com/history.php

James Hyman Gallery is pleased to present an online exhibition of early works by Nigel Henderson (1917-1985) that depict street parties in East London at the time of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

Photographed near the Henderson's home in Chisenhale Road in Bethnal Green these rare photographs - most of which have never been exhibited before - focus on childhood celebrations and combine casual photographs with amazing group portraits. 

Known for his documentary and experimental photography and imaginative use of collage, Henderson was a founding member of the Independent Group in 1952, with which he regularly exhibited, notably in This Is Tomorrow at the Whitechapel Art Gallery (1956).

Details: https://www.jameshymangallery.com/exhibitions/192-coronation-street-parties-1953-vintage-photographs-by-nigel-henderson/overview/

The Royal Society has made available around 250,000 documents online, covering everything from climate observations, the history of colour, how to conduct electricity, and animals. Of particualar note to BPH readers is correspondence and images sent by William Henry Fox Talbot, Herschel, Claudet and others

A rare Kodak advertising sign based on the design of the artist and illustrator Fred Pegram is being sold today at Chippenham Auctions. It is 23 x 33 inches and is estimated at £1000-1500. 

Details; https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/chippenham-auction-rooms/catalogue-id-srchi10122/lot-465a8d62-6f2a-4d9e-97fe-afe90155ea4c

UPDATE: the lot sold for £600 + BP

The V&A is the world’s leading museum of art, design and performance, housing a collection of over 2.3 million objects that document 5,000 years of human creativity from across six continents. The Museum holds many of UK’s designated National Collections, including sculpture, ceramics, metalwork, textiles and furniture, including extensive collections of prints, drawings, posters, photographs and portrait miniatures. It is also home to the National Art Library, which holds the UK’s most comprehensive public reference library for the fine and decorative arts, as well as special collections on the art of the book ranging from the Middle Ages to the present day.  The Archive of Art and Design holds extensive archives of over 1,000 individuals, associations and companies involved in the art and design process. The two photography galleries display a broad range of contemporary and historic photographs with a further four galleries and library, housing the Royal Photographic Society collection, currently being developed.

As Conservator (Photographs) you will provide excellence in the conservation of photographic collections (including prints, negatives, glass plates negatives and digital photographs). The postholder will have suitable experience in the treatment of photographic material both historical and contemporary and the ability to undertake technical examination and scientific analysis. An excellent knowledge and understanding of the properties of materials used in their construction and conservation is essential. The postholder is expected to be familiar with mounting and re-housing techniques and willing to train in the use of digital cutting systems.

The postholder, through a combination of examination, assessment, documentation, interventive and preventive measures, will support the delivery of the museum’s Public Programme, strategic objectives, and the Conservation and Care of Collections workplan. The postholder will work closely with the Conservation Operations team, the Preventive Conservation team, the Conservation Science Team, and other stakeholders such as Technical Services, Curators and external borrowers.

The postholder will also have a proven ability to work independently, project manage and organise tasks to work in an effective and efficient way and to produce a high standard of work within tight deadlines.

Fixed term contract until 31 March 2024

Details here

Paul Sng's film Tish, an intimate portrait of British documentary photographer Tish Murtha, will open the 30th edition of Sheffield DocFest on 14 June 2023.

In Tish, Paul Sng celebrates the vision and profound humanism of this gifted artist. As the film questions the value placed on art and artists from working class roots, we follow Tish's daughter Ella, as she fights to preserve her mother's legacy. No less striking than the work of its subject, Tish is a powerful tribute to a vital artist, activist and social chronicler, and a rallying call to all whose engagement with art questions who gets seen and heard, who doesn't, and why. This is a story of contemporary Britain, of the fight for culture, as well as the life of a mother and activist. 

Directed by Paul Sng and produced by Jen Corcoran through Teesside-based Freya Films in association with Hopscotch Films and Sng's Velvet Joy Productions, with cinematography by Hollie Galloway. The voice of Tish is played by Maxine Peake. The film was made with the support of the BFI Doc Society Fund (thanks to National Lottery funding) and Screen Scotland, in association with the BBC.

Paul Sng, Director of Tish, says: “We’re completely delighted that Tish has been chosen to open Sheffield DocFest, a huge honour in a fitting city to launch a film about a photographer whose images show the fun, mischief and ingenuity of working class communities. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Tish Murtha used her camera to interrogate the detrimental impact of Thatcherism and deindustrialisation. More than forty years later, her images retain an urgency and empathy that speak to the concerns faced by people struggling to pay for food and energy bills in the present day. While this film celebrates the calibre of Tish’s work, it also asks questions about the value placed on working class artists and the communities that nurture them. These are important questions, now more than ever.” 

Annabel Grundy, Sheffield DocFest Managing Director, says: “We are delighted to open the festival with Tish, as we celebrate 30 years of Sheffield DocFest. Tish shines a light on a working class artist whose work was tragically overlooked while she was alive, and whose story was rooted in the North. We are thrilled to welcome back director Paul Sng to DocFest, who presented the film at early-development stage in our marketplace in 2021 and producer Jen Corcoran who came through our own 'Future Producers' school seven years ago.”

Details; https://sheffdocfest.com/news/announcing-2023-opening-night-film-guest-honour-and-one-our-headline-talks

Royal photographer James Edward Ellam (1857-1920) was a press photo pioneer. My latest blogpost traces his journey to Fleet Street https://wordpress.com/post/pressphotoman.com/797

Photo credit: "Second Engine and Tender" by JE Ellam. Northallerton, Yorkshire, October 1894.