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I have long been fascinated by this concept ever since I first saw an engraving in the Illustrated London News, 10 November1855, of the van that Roger Fenton took to the Crimea, with Marcus Sparling in the driver’s seat. It seemed so implausibly compact given the multitude of tasks it was said to perform ‘fitted up for living, cooking, sleeping, and darkroom work’.

Copies of the actual photo exist in various national collections and can now be found e.g. on Wikimedia, as used here.

I’ve never really studied other itinerant photographers who used them until now, however, I am currently researching Oliver Sarony and Samuel Oglesby.

The van Sarony rolled into Wisbech with in 1854 was in stark contrast to Fenton’s, being described as  a “monster carriage (measuring 32 feet in length and weighing seven tons,) with its elegant suite of rooms beautifully fitted up and admirable [sic] adapted for photographic purposes.” Another report that year talks of his van literally cracking the flagstones in the market place in Cambridge.

Consequently I would be grateful if other members could point me in the direction of any accessible background reading on such travelling vans in England, or on Oliver Sarony himself.

I have read that Sarony had links with other photographers and artists, e.g. Heathcote’s ‘Faithful Likeness’ mentions John Baume and the colourist Alfred Lancaster. However, I’ve not read of any links between Sarony and Oglesby, but there seem to be some from 1856 when they were both in Norwich.

Oglesby having moved on Bury St. Edmonds, possibly aiming to capitalise on Sarony’s reputation, said that he used the same artists as Sarony, and offered for sale at least one of Sarony’s photographs, of a General Windham. Subsequently whilst in Boston in 1857, by then Oglesby, like Sarony, had changed over to collodion paper prints, for a time he offered them at half price to people who had previously had daguerreotypes taken by Sarony and wished to exchange them. Sarony settled in Scarborough in 1857, whilst Oglesby continued his travels. They both also used the same design on their CDV mounts in the 1860s (which may, or may not, be significant, as that was not uncommon).

The output of itinerant photographers usually ranks them at the lower end of the quality spectrum, however, the photographs of this pair are anything but, if the quality of their surviving cartes de visites is anything to go by. Whilst ‘local news’ pieces in contemporary newspapers were generally effusive, especially for advertisers, the favourable reviews of the fidelity of their photographs seem more fulsome than most.

Oglesby is an interesting character, in 1833 he and his brother Henry were sentenced, age 10 and 12 respectively, to 7 years transportation for theft of items valued at 8s. 6d. Due to a backlog of prisoners awaiting transportation, they spent 2 years on the prison hulk Euryalus, moored off Chatham. There they remained until they boarded the convict ship John Barry on 31 August 1835. It set sail on 7^th September, with 320 convicts on board, bound for New South Wales arriving in Australia on 17^th January 1836. Apart from discovering that both brothers received their Certificate of Freedom on the same day, 28^th June 1841, to date I have found nothing else about them for the period 1836 – 1849.

Samuel re-emerges in the summer of 1849 as a daguerreotype photographer in Adelaide. I have tracked various references to him 1849 – Aug.1852 on Trove. He subsequently returned to the UK (before or after Beard’s patent had expired?); Heathcote has him in Peterborough in June 1854. After some itinerant years touring the country, his van rolled into Preston in the autumn of 1861, where he settled before moving to Llandudno 5 years later; he died there in 1879.

I’m hoping that there might be some antipodean members who could advise me as to how I might fill in some of the gaps in the timeline.

A series of events organised by the History and Theory of Photography Research Centre together with the Centre for British Photography and Four Corners, coinciding with the exhibition  Jo Spence: Fairy Tales and Photography at the Centre for British Photography, an exhibition of materials from the Hyman Collection and the Jo Spence Memorial Library Archive at Birkbeck, curated by Patrizia Di Bello and James Hyman, with help from Eliza Neil and Marta Duarte. 

Workshop 

11 March 2023, 3-5 pm, at the Centre for British Photography, 49 Jermyn St, St. James's, London SW1Y 6LX 

Synthetic Documents: Jo Spence’s ‘self’ portraiture, from The Faces Group to the Polysnappers 

With Alexandra Symons-Sutcliffe. Please note that registration and a fee will be required to book a place on this as spaces are limited. These are not for profit but to manage space. Book here.  

The photographer Jo Spence (1934–1992) is closely associated with the radical London left of the 1970s and 1980s and particularly feminist politics. The phrase ‘the personal is political’, often deployed to summarise some of the aims of the Women’s Liberation Movement, invokes the idea of self-representation as a primary political goal, but what does ‘the personal’ mean in a context of collective political organisation and art production? This workshop invites participants to take a long view of Spence’s self-portraiture, beginning with her early collaboration with Terry Dennett, as well as her work with female-only photography collectives, including the Faces Group and The Polysnappers. Through the handling and discussion of documents from the Jo Spence Memorial Library Archive, and a presentation on the history of Spence’s collaborations by curator and writer Alexandra Symons-Sutcliffe, the workshop aims to unpack the role of the personal in collective political identity both in the 1970s and 1980s, and today within our changed political and media landscape. Attendees are invited to bring images they classify as self-portraiture, of themselves or others, to use in the group discussion which includes our own relationships with photography and ideas about political representation as well as the lessons we can learn from Spence.  

Alexandra Symons-Sutcliffe is a curator and writer, usually based in London, where she is a Ph.D. candidate at Birkbeck University writing a dissertation on Jo Spence and Terry Dennett. Currently, she is in residency at AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions in Paris where she is working on a project focused on the connections between British and German radical left-wing culture of the 1970s.  

FORTHCOMING: 

Reading Group 

14 March 2023, 7-8:30pm at Four Corners, 121 Roman Rd, London E2 0QN. 

Art Form and Funding: The 9–5 and the 5—9 

Free and open to all but RSVP required due to limited capacity, please respond to this email to confirm attendance and receive PDFs of the texts.  

Please join for a reading group and discussion on the history of art form and art funding in the UK and specifically London. Focused on the shared history of Four Corners and the Jo Spence Memorial Library Archive, we will discuss archival material and our own experiences of living and making work today. We will be reading in advance ‘Ten Years of the Photography Workshop’ by Jo Spence and Terry Dennett from Photographic Practices: Towards a Different Image (1986) ed Phillip Bezencenet and Stevie Corrigan and ‘The Rising Moon’ an article on Four Corners from Amateur Photographer (1978).  

In Discussion 

30 March, 6:30 to 8pm, at the Centre for British Photography, 49 Jermyn St, St. James's, London SW1Y 6LX 

‘Jo Spence: Fairy Tales and Photography’ 

Marina Warner in conversation with Patrizia Di Bello, reflecting on the themes of fairy tales and transformation in Jo Spence’s work, and its resonances in contemporary culture. Info and Booking. 

Roundtable discussion 

13 April, 6:30 to 8pm 

‘Jo Spence: The Archive Which is Not One’ 

A roundtable discussion with Charlene Heath, James Hyman and Patrizia Di Bello, discussing multiplicity, dispersal and repetitions of the ‘dispersed’ Jo Spence Memorial Archive. How do archives construct the past for the present and the future? Info and Booking.  

Image: Detail from Jo Spence Faces Group (Lyn), 1975-1977. Workbook with gelatine silver prints and masks. Ryerson Image Centre, Jo Spence Memorial Archive 

How can photographs help us to understand the history of warfare? This afternoon of talks covers the origins of war photography and its early practices, exploring how the invention of the photographic camera in the nineteenth century forged new ways of seeing conflict and its human costs.

How did the photographic image begin to shape perceptions of war? What can photographic albums reveal about the experience of conflict? And what ethical issues are raised by the practice of taking photographs of violence for public consumption?

With a range of speakers, these talks consider the value of photographic archives for shedding light on global histories of warfare, seeking to expand popular conceptions of what a ‘war photograph’ looks like, as well as how we should think (and feel) about these images.

‘The Origins of War Photography’ coincides with the Photo Oxford Festival 2023, 'The Hidden Power of the Archive' (14 April-6 May), giving you the opportunity to visit other events and activities in Oxford.

The Origins of War Photography
Sat 29 Apr 2023, from 1300-1730
£55
University of Oxford, Rewley House, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford, OX1 2JA
Details and book: https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/the-origins-of-war-photography?code=O22P199ARJ#fees_container

Can anyone please help me interpret the content of the photographs shown eg nature of the sitters, social context and significant elements of dress etc.

This two-day event initiates a critical conversation about the largely overlooked space of the darkroom, and outlines new ways to research, theorise, and interpret the roles that it has played in our modern world. In the Photographic Darkroom will seek to do so by shifting the focus from the visual product (e.g., negatives and prints) to the setting itself within which these objects were produced, positing that the material, socio-cultural, and corporeal dimensions of the darkroom had an influence on how people conceptualised and, consequently, understood photography. This will enable us to rethink the role of photography in the development of modern visual culture, and its wider historical relations, from fresh viewpoints.

Further information – including the full programme of speakers and abstracts – is available on the conference website.

Conference: In the Photographic Darkroom (08-09 June 2023)

This is a hybrid event: Please join us online or on site at the University of Westminster, London (UK).

All tickets are free but registration is required:

Click here to reserve tickets for on site attendance.

Click here to reserve tickets to attend online.

For any queries please contact Dr Sara Dominici at s.dominici1@westminster.ac.uk

Join De Montfort University's online time-flexible distance learning programme to learn about photography’s relationship with politics, science, technology, and cultural heritage while enhancing your research skills and employability in the culture sector.

Contact Professor Gil Pasternak e: gpasternak@dmu.ac.uk or WhatsApp: +44 (0)7970 655800.

Ever thought about studying the History of Photography at St Andrews? Check out the MLitt History of Photography at https://st-andrews.ac.uk/subjects/art-history/history-photography-mlitt/…

Join a virtual visiting day on March 15 to learn more.

See:  https://st-andrews.ac.uk/study/meet-us/online/pg-online/pg/…

The Warburg Institute’s Photographic Collection is seeking a fixed-term Collection Research Assistant​​​​​​​ to work on its archive of photographs of ‘The Image of the Black in Western Art’, a project initiated by the Menil Foundation in Houston, Texas.

Two different versions of the Menil archive exist; one is at the Hutchins Center in Harvard University, the other at the Warburg. Harvard’s version was originally in Houston, the Warburg’s version in Paris, France. A digital, Microsoft Excel catalogue exists of Harvard’s photographic holdings. You will be responsible for expanding this and creating a joint catalogue of both the Harvard and the Warburg Menil archives. You will be working alongside the Curator of the Photographic Collection, Dr Paul Taylor, who has begun work on the catalogue. You will also be asked to write a descriptive survey of the note cards and negatives which came to the Warburg with the Menil material. The language used throughout the Warburg’s version of the archive is French, of which you must have a reading knowledge. You will be expected to work according to a weekly production schedule.

We’re seeking a junior researcher with an interest in Black history and a good knowledge of the iconography of Western art. You will have strong skills in visual comparison and a meticulous attention to detail.

See details here: https://www.jobs.london.ac.uk/job/jobdetail?jobid=2382&source=JobtrainIndeed

The National Science and Media Museum (NSMM) will celebrate its fortieth birthday on 16 June, It has put out a call to visitors to describe their favourite objects and memories of the museum, on Twitter. 

See: https://twitter.com/MediaMuseum/status/1629866378919542784

National Science and Media Museum Research Associate Alex Fitzpatrick has published a blog revealing more about a project using citizen science to work collaboratively with volunteers on the Daily Herald Archive. In 2021, the museum launched Communities & Crowds, a research project that explores the use of ‘citizen science’ methods to develop more collaborative approaches to working with volunteers from local communities. As part of this project, a small team of local volunteers have been selecting and digitising images related to African Caribbean history from the Daily Herald Photographic Archive.

Read the full blog here: https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/communities-crowds-project-update/

An earlier blog launching the project is here: https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/opening-up-the-daily-herald-archive-to-citizen-led-research/

In conjunction with the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) Film Festival held biennially at Watershed in Bristol, the RAI runs an academic conference focussing on this year’s theme of: ‘Visual anthropology and speculative futures’ 

As part of this conference the convenors are running a roundtable, hosted at the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol on Tuesday 7th March at 14.15 - 16.15 followed by an informal in-person networking event hosted by Myriad Film & Research from 16.45 for visual practitioners and academics from all disciplines to meet and build connections. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to alex@myriadfilm.com

This roundtable develops the argument that visual anthropologists, using photography and film, have the skills and methodologies to support academics across disciplines to better communicate their research. We will showcase the toolkit of diverse collaborative approaches that can help facilitate the co-creation of imagined futures, in tangible ways, in the present. 

The roundtable will include short presentations and discussion of the following projects followed by a roundtable discussion:

1. How producing a documentary film with an environmental historian helps communicate past practices in water-level management that might have renewed relevance in tackling the impact of ongoing climate change (Greg Bankoff & Alexander Parkyn-Smith)

2. How processes of mutual making can illuminate the ways that digital photography and smartphone SIM cards connect people and foster belonging for those who have experienced displacement www.thesimproject.com (Liz Hingley)

3. How using photography can help communicate the personal narratives of women entrepreneurs in Central Asia (Shumaila Yousafzai & Alexander Parkyn-Smith)

4. How autoethnographic filmmaking grapples with the "messiness" of being black women in academic spaces (Danyelle Greene & Abimbola Ayun)

Collaborative visualisation: the potential for visual anthropologists to support academics from other disciplines, to communicate and further their research using creative methodologies.
Bristol, 7 March 2023, 1415-1615
Register by email: lex@myriadfilm.com

In their collaborative project Almost Nothing But Blue Ground artist duo Tom Pope and Matthew Benington launch a live investigation into the work and life of Anna Atkins, an English botanical artist, and the first person to publish a book of photographic images.

The work specifically focuses on the book, Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns, which Atkins created collaboratively with Anne Dixon.

While researching the botanic publication, Pope and Benington came across the discovery that Atkin’s husband and father-in-law jointly owned at least eight plantations and thousands of slaves in Jamaica. Atkins, directly and indirectly, benefited from the slave trade and colonial wealth, refocussing her work and the publication.

In addition to the life and work of Atkins, Almost Nothing But Blue Ground investigates the Victorian fern craze, land ownership, capitalism, and the colonial landscape with its links to early botany and the plundering of foreign lands.

Almost Nothing But Blue Ground, and events
until Saturday 18 March 2023
East Gallery
Norwich University of the Arts
Francis House
3-7 Redwell Street
Norwich, NR2 4SN
See: https://www.nua.ac.uk/events/all/almost-nothing-but-blue-ground/

An engaging introduction to the work and the world of pioneering photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, Arresting Beauty presents more than 120 images from the V&A and RPS collections held at the museum, the largest holding of Cameron’s photographs in the world. Exploring her unique artistry, this book reaffirms her position as one of the most innovative and influential photographers of all time

Julia Margaret Cameron – Arresting Beauty (Victoria and Albert Museum)
Lisa Springer, Marta Weiss
Thames and Hudson
£25.00
https://thamesandhudson.com/julia-margaret-cameron-arresting-beauty-9780500480861

John B Turner has published a series of papers under the general heading Notes on the collection of photographers’ collections for posterity, with five published and a further five due in 2023. 

John notes: 'I have written about the state of collecting photographs as art and social history in New Zealand at various times over the past 50 years from the point of view of a photographer, teacher, collector, curator, and photo historian and am particularly concerned about what is not happening to ensure the collection and preservation of the photographs of my fellow post-World War II generation who have so much of their life’s work invested in large collections of analogue negatives and prints.

This investigation, based on my own and other photographers’ experiences of trying to place their collections in suitable archives indicates, as suspected, that there is a widespread crisis unfolding, and that is the consensus of the librarians, archivists, and curators who we asked to share their thoughts on key issues for this perhaps long overdue survey.

Already there have been at least two attempts by leading curators, picture librarians and photographers to discuss issues around the collection and increasing non-collection of analogue photographs linked to the rapid acceptance of the digitisation of public records and new issues about how to save “born digital” photographs.'

The papers can be viewed here: 

Part 1:   https://www.photoforum-nz.org/blog/new-zealands-photo-treasures-heading-for-the-tip

Part 2:   https://www.photoforum-nz.org/blog/new-zealands-photo-treasures-heading-for-the-tip-part2

Part 3:   https://www.photoforum-nz.org/blog/new-zealands-photo-treasures-heading-for-the-tip-part3

Part 4:   https://www.photoforum-nz.org/blog/new-zealands-photo-treasures-heading-for-the-tip-part-4

Part 5:   https://www.photoforum-nz.org/blog/part-5-auckland-art-gallery-alexander-turnbull-library

Upcoming parts early 2023:

Part 6:   Auckland War Memorial Museum & Auckland Libraries

Part 7:   Internal Affairs & Heritage Departments

Part 8:   Canterbury Museum & Christchurch Art Gallery

Part 9:   Collection case studies: Tom Hutchins, Paul Gilbert, Max Oettli & Barry Myers

Part 10:   Curating, Barry Clothier Simple Image show & Clothier/Turner 1965 Artides show

John's introductory paper can be see in the Word file here

Image: G Leslie Adkin: Untitled, Horowhenua, c 1924. John B Turner Collection

This international conference showcases the latest research on Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904), whose multi-faceted work continues to have significance across moving-image cultures, photography, digital animation and the visual arts globally. Centring on the transatlantic movements of Muybridge, his work and ideas, and the diverse Muybridge collections in the US and the UK, the conference brings together leading scholars, curators, filmmakers and artists to share knowledge about the overall significance of Muybridge holdings in both countries and to reflect on the future of Muybridge studies.

Held in Kingston-upon-Thames – the birthplace of Muybridge in 1830 and where he returned for the last decade of his life until his death in 1904 – the conference marks the recent relocation of Kingston Museum’s Muybridge Collection to a purpose-built archive at the university’s award-winning building Town House.

The conference is organised by Kingston University’s Visual and Material Culture Research Centre in partnership with Kingston Museum and Stanley Picker Gallery, and is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Registration for the conference is free to book via Eventbrite.

See the full programme here: https://www.stanleypickergallery.org/events/main-events/moving-muybridge-transatlantic-dialogues/

For those unable to attend in person, the conference will be available to watch online and a link provided closer to the date.

A writer is seeking images of a photographic studio called Sounds Stills, 37 Moreton Street, London SW1. It was the studio where the late music photographer Michael Putland worked before he moved in 1969 to a new studio space. Can anyone help with an image of the exterior?

Please make contact via Michael Pritchard on behalf of the writer. 

An urban explorer has documented a rare survival, a former photographic studio in Preston. The studio opened in 1879 and was named the Grand Imperial Studio, occupied by J. Monk, photographic artist. The building was still in use as a studio into the early 1960s and appears to have been unused since then. 

David - known as Scrappy NW - first visited in 2019 and recently made a return visit. The premises are part of a series of rundown buildings on Church Street in Preston. In his words 'The main points of interest are on the top floor of the building which housed the dark rooms, portrait studio and changing areas. There is not too much left inside but just enough to show that the building was used as photographic studios long ago. Reels of film were lay on the floors covered in dust, the dark room had photographic materials left inside and the studio lights were still in situ in the portrait room. Additionally, several bottles were left behind; vitreous stone bottles made by J. BOURNE & SON. Denby & Codnor Park Potteries, In the portrait studio.'

See: https://www.aworldinruins.co.uk/grand-imperial-photography-studios- and follow up visit https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/grand-imperial-studio-of-j-monk-preston-june-19.122239/#post-1267939

Image left: The premises today / Google street view. 

The 12 February is Darwin Day and The Complete Photographs of Darwin has been added to the The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. This provides a detailed catalogue of all known photographs of Darwin – a dozen newly discovered – and c.300 printed variants produced up to the early 20th century. It is online and illustrated with 400 images.

The catalogue is an updated version of the photograph section of the iconography of Darwin by John van Wyhe in Darwin: A Companion (2021).

The Complete Photographs of Darwin: http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/vanWyhe_Complete_Photographs_of_Darwin.html

Image; A F J Claudet, 1842.