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The latest issue of Scientia Canadensis deals with photography, science, technology and practice with a series of papers covering these themes. Each is available to freely download. The papers comprise:
Photography: Science, Technology and Practice / Joan M. Schwartz
“Coils of Sunshine”: Charles Smeaton’s Magnesium-Wire Photography in the Catacombs of Rome, 1866-1867 / John Osborne
At the Cutting Edge of Halftone Printing: William Augustus Leggo and George Edward Desbarats / Kate Addleman-Frankel
“Perfect Dry Plates for Canada”: Gelatine Dry-Plate Manufacturing in Canada in the Late Nineteenth Century / Shannon Perry
Photography in the Arctic Archipelago during the First International Polar Year, 1882–1883 / Marthe Tolnes Fjellestad
Early Canadian Aerial Photography: The St Croix River and the International Boundary, 1921 / Dirk Werle
Seeing, Saving, and Remembering Barnardo’s Children: Technologies of Access and Preservation in Historical Research / Nina Lager Vestberg
Conceptualizing ‘Science’ in the Photography Collections at the National Science and Media Museum / Geoffrey Belknap
Photography: Science, Technology, and Practice in Nineteenth-Century Canada / Joan M. Schwartz
Scientia Canadensis
Volume 44, numéro 1, 2022 Photography: Science, Technology and Practice
Available via this link: https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/scientia/2022-v44-n1-scientia07177/
Photographs and archives are participants in and products of discursive practices: photographs configure the meaning of place, and archives shape the meaning of photographs. How can we use the notion of place better to understand photographic archives as both defined by and empowered by intersecting discursive practices? In this paper, I consider photographs of place, as place, in place, and out of place in archives as a way to investigate photographs as primary sources from a perspective informed by geographical concerns, archival theory, and institutional practice.
Joan Schwartz is Professor Emerita in the History of Photography & Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture at Queen’s University, Ontario and currently Visiting Leverhulme Professor in the Centre for GeoHumanities at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her career has combined the roles of historical geographer, archival theorist, and photographic historian. As co-editor of Picturing Place (with James R. Ryan) and of Archives, Records, and Power (with the late Terry Cook), her work focusses on photography and the geographical imagination and on archives as spaces of power. She is currently completing a four-year project, "Picturing Canada: photographic images and geographical imaginings in British North America, 1839-1889," funded by SSHRC.
Photographs of place, as place, in place, and out of place in archives
Hybrid | Online-via Zoom & IHR Wolfson Room NB01, Basement, IHR, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
2 May 2023, 5:30PM - 7:00PM
Free, book here: https://www.history.ac.uk/events/photographs-place-place-place-and-out-place-archives
Photographer Ans Westra had a long and rich relationship with the Alexander Turnbull Library, depositing her significant collection of documentary photographs over many years. Following her death on 26 February 2023 Turnbull staff members Mark Strange (Senior Conservator Photographs) and Paul Diamond (Curator Māori) reflected on her legacy. You can read their blog on the National Library of New Zealand website and browse Ans' digitised work.
Many other tributes were paid to Ans' by the photographic community and the arts and culture sector, including this blog by Athol McCredie (Curator of Photography at Te Papa Museum of New Zealand). {Suite} Gallery are the agents for Ans' work, and their site includes more biographical information, examples of her extensive photographic legacy and a link to the recording of her funeral.
An exciting role at the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, is available. The Turnbull collection is among the most pre-eminent photographic archives in Aotearoa New Zealand. It contains around 1,600,000 items from the 1840s to the present,
The Curator Photographic Archive manages the Photographic Archive, taking responsibility for developing the photographic collection through donation and purchase, strategically developing and maintaining collection plans, engaging and negotiating with donors, providing research services, undertaking outreach activities, developing proposals for digitisation and exhibition programmes.
For more information about the collections see https://natlib.govt.nz/collections/a-z/photographic-archive
For details of the position see https://fa-eqqg-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateE...
Applications close: 17 April 2023.
This is the reverse of a Kodak factory print from no later than 1889. I am trying to decipher the codes used and would appreciate any suggestions - however determined - as to their possible meaning. This image was produced in the US. They may be annotations familiar to collectors or photo specialists.
A 1927 copy of Photographic Facts and Formulas by EJ Wall, FRPS has yielded an unexpected link to the celebrated photography firm of Ramsey & Muspratt. Signed on the flyleaf 'P.A.L. Brunney,' and once owned by the Department of Geography at Cambridge University
Can you help trace its journey to my local 2nd hand bookshop in Berwick upon Tweed? http://pressphotoman.com
The National Portrait Gallery has acquired its most significant colour archive by a woman photographer to date. In 2021, the Gallery purchased the tri-colour separation negatives of Yevonde (1893-1975), making an important commitment to study and celebrate her pioneering work of the 1930s.
Read the full blog here: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/reframing-narratives-women-in-portraiture/yevonde-colour-archive
Image: NPG x220001 Olga Burnett as Persephone, 1935
In 1969 and 1970 a revolution took place in the pages of Architectural Review. An ambitious survey of architecture and town planning in late 1960s Britain, called Manplan, used photographic work by leading photojournalists and street photographers to powerfully articulate the theme of each issue.
Although photography had been integral to Architectural Review since the 1930s, the images that defined Manplan were like nothing that had been seen in the magazine before. The dramatic black and white images, shot on a 35mm camera with a spirit of photo-reportage, created a strong visual statement to support the text of each edition, with themes such as 'Religion', 'Health and welfare', 'Frustration' and 'Education'.
Unusually for the time, people were shown front and centre in the built environment – shifting the focus away from the architecture itself to the way people lived and used the social spaces being studied.
Over eight issues of Architectural Review, the overall message of Manplan was powerful, uncompromising and highly critical of contemporary living conditions. Many of the themes highlighted by the series are still relevant today.
The exhibition A Brief Revolution features works by photographers Ian Berry, Patrick Ward, Tim Street-Porter and Tony Ray-Jones, and the words and designs of Manplan editor Tim Rock and designers Michael Reid and Peter Baistow.
The exhibition is realised in collaboration with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and curated by Valeria Carullo, curator, The Robert Elwall Photographs Collection, RIBA British Architectural Library. An expanded version of the exhibition will open at the Royal Institute of British Architects in September 2023, featuring c.80 of the original photographs commissioned by the Architectural Review in 1969-70.
The photographs are part of the archive of the Architectural Press, former publishers of the Architectural Review, acquired by the RIBA in 2004.
A Brief Revolution: photography, architecture and social space in the Manplan project
The Photographers' Gallery, London
until 11 June 2023
https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/brief-revolution-photography-architecture-and-social-space-manplan-project
an expanded version of the exhibition opens at RIBA in September 2023.
The latest number of The Classic, the magazine about fine classic photography, is now available in printed form from selected outlets and for free download. It includes features on the Leitz auction house photography specialist; Michael Hoppen Gallery; Conservator Nicholas Burnett's personal collection of photographic processes, Toronto's Image Centre; and more.
Download here: https://theclassicphotomag.com/the-classic-09/
Lissa Mitchell has advised of the passing of Bill Main who was an important writer, researcher and collector of New Zealand photography.
Her full appreciation is here: https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2023/03/28/william-bill-main-photographer-collector-photo-historian-gallerist-1934-2023/
The British Library is looking to recruit a full-time Cataloguer of Photographs. This exciting new opportunity is part of the Library’s Hidden Collections initiative to increase access to the 19th and 20th century British and global photographic collections. Working with one of the world’s major collections of historic photographs, this is a rare and exciting opportunity to help make these specialist collections discoverable for research, innovation, and enjoyment, for wider dissemination and re-use. The post holder will work on important photographic collections including works by Nevil Story-Maskelyne (1823-1911) and his wife Thereza Dillwyn Llewelyn (1834-1926), photographic negatives by travel writer Robert Byron (1905-1941), as well as the photographic collections of Michael Katakis (b. 1952).
Tasks will include sorting, appraising and describing materials to professional national and international cataloguing standards, as well as assessing conservation needs, identifying potential data protection issues and finding long-term preservation solutions for storage of the material. The role will involve working with the BL's important photographic collections, with the opportunity to contribute to the outreach programme through blog posts, social media and other activities.
We are looking for someone who has experience in cataloguing 19th century photographs and the ability to identify early printing processes. To be successful in this role you have experience of handling historic photographic collections, be technically proficient, have the ability to make sound and timely cataloguing decisions as well as be able to work independently and in a team environment.
As one of the world’s great libraries, our duty is to preserve the nation’s intellectual memory for the future and make it available to all for research, inspiration and enjoyment. At present we have well over 170 million items, in most known languages, with three million new items added every year. We have manuscripts, maps, newspapers, magazines, prints and drawings, music scores, and patents. We make our collections and programmes available to all. We operate the world’s largest document delivery service providing millions of items a year to customers all over the world. What matters to us is that we preserve the national memory and enable knowledge to be created both now and in the future by anyone, anywhere.
In return we offer a competitive salary and a number of excellent benefits. Our pension scheme is one of the most valuable benefits we offer, as our staff can become members of the Alpha Pension Scheme where the Library contributes a minimum of 26.6% (this may be higher dependent on grade. Another significant benefit the Library provides is the provision of a flexible working hours scheme which could allow you to work your hours flexibly over the week and to take up to 5 days flexi leave in a 3 month period. This is on top of 25 days holiday from entry and public and privilege holidays.
Full Time, Fixed Term for 18 months
For further information and to apply, please visit www.bl.uk/careers quoting vacancy ref: 04502 or Vacancy Details (zellis.com).
Closing date: 12 April 2023
Interview date: 25/26 April 2023
We are unable to provide sponsorship under the UK Skilled Worker visa for this role, as it does not meet the eligibility criteria required for this immigration route.
Curator David F. Martin will discuss the work and international achievements of Issei photographers active in Seattle, Washington, in the early 20th century.
He will focus primarily on Soichi Sunami (1885-1971) whose artistic career began in Seattle and continued after he relocated to New York where he became the chief photographer for the Museum of Modern Art. Sunami’s main interest was dance photography and his subjects included Martha Graham, Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn and other iconic dancers of the period.
The Seattle Camera Club was founded in 1924 and held their first exhibition the following year. They became internationally recognized for their artistic or “Pictorialist” work as a group as well as individually. The key members of SCC were Hiromu Kira (1898–1991), Dr. Kyo Koike (1878–1947), Frank Asakichi Kunishige (1878–1960), and Yukio Morinaga (1888–1968). They exhibited in most of the prestigious international salons of the period, winning awards and having their work reproduced in important photographic publications and catalogues. The SCC became so well known that individual members ranked among the most exhibited photographers in North America.
With the exception of Sunami who was living on the east coast during WWII, the Seattle Issei photographers were interned at the Minidoka relocation centre (concentration camp) which collectively ended their artistic careers.
Pictorialist Photography: Soichi Sunami and his Issei Contemporaries
Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
13/14 Cornwall Terrace, Outer Circle (entrance facing Regent's Park), London NW1 4QP
Wednesday 26 April 2023
6:00pm – 7:00pm, with drinks reception: 7:00pm – 8:00pm
Details and booking: https://dajf.org.uk/event/pictorialist-photography-soichi-sunami-and-his-issei-contemporaries-david-martin
Image: Martha Graham in Lamentation, 1930, Gelatin silver print; Soichi Sunami (1885-1971); Courtesy of the Sunami Family
A friend from Sunderland has given me an album of thirty cartes de visite assembled in 1888. The eleven photographers whose work is represented were located in small towns throughout County Durham. The majority were in Sunderland, probably because this was the county's largest town and a major sea port. One picture stands out from the rest in that the pose is more natural, with the subject seemingly unaware of being photographed, in contrast to the hard stares of most of the others in the album. This picture was taken by Madame Brunner, presumably Clementina Brunner nee Grant, 1833 - 1887. On the back she describes herself as a "Pupil of Mayall Photographer to the Queen" . Her address, 32 Fawcett Street, places her in the centre of the town's most important commercial street. She was clearly not only a pioneering lady photographer but also one who had a very distinct style and a confident approach to the business aspect of her work.
I hope someone here might be able to help. I’m seeking information about the Photographic Information Council, which seems to have existed as a photographic industry promotional body in Britain between the late 1950s and the early 1970s. The Photographic Information Council produced leaflets, organised competitions (including the Junior Photographer of the Year prize) and wrote articles for local and national newspapers promoting photography and giving advice to novices.
They seem to have been based at two London addresses: Wardrobe House, Wardrobe Place, London EC4 and 140 Park Lane, London W1Y 4EL. Contributing writers / representatives include George Hughes, Howard S. Cotton, Robin Bowles, Harry Challoner, Michael Geraghty and Kenneth G. Pope.
Was anyone here a member or know anyone who was? Does anyone have any of their leaflets? I’m particularly interested their promotion of photography for school children. Were you a Junior Photographer competition winner or entrant? Please get in touch if so!
With thanks,
Annebella Pollen, Professor of Visual and Material Culture, University of Brighton. E: a.pollen@brighton.ac.uk
Image: the new PIC trophy introduced in 1971 for its Young Photographer of the Year competition, boys' open class
Recent challenges such as the climate crisis have pushed the field to consider how photography shapes and is shaped by the environment. From the mining of natural resources to the effects of mass digital storage, the environmental impact of photography is at the forefront of discussions in photography research, education and practice. In this conference, speakers will reconsider the history of photography using the environment, broadly understood, as a departing point. What kind of histories can be written about photography in its environment? Would it be useful to understand photography as an environment? Papers will not only examine photography from the point of view of current environmental concerns, but also, how photographic practices, images and archives have developed in relation to natural, industrial and other environments. By centering the environment as an analytical category, we hope to discuss the ways in which natural, colonial, personal, digital and other types of environments have shaped photography as well as how photographic histories can help to understand environmental histories.
Conference: Photography in its environment
Leicester: Photographic History Research Centre
12-13 June 2023
Hybrid (in person and online)
Registration is now open here: https://photographichistory.wordpress.com/annual-conference-2023-2/
Image: Mark Kasumovic, Skipsea #2, inkjet print, 50 x 60 in, 2020
I have a collection of portfolios with photographs by J.F. Langhans. Each portfolio containsa a group of photographs mounted, with both type and hand written notes, embossed with National Art Library, mostly ecclesiastical garments. I received confirmation from V&A Museum that they were once part of their collection. They still have a portfolio of the Iron Work as part of Industrial Arts. A curator from V&A suggested I reach out to this group and tap into the great knowledge coming from the group. I have also spoken to the langhans.cz organization, but they had little information on these.
Any information about J.F. Langhans or the other industrial art works that were covered in the commissioned work of King Edward VII, would be greatly appreciated.
The J. Paul Getty Museum seeks an Assistant Curator of Photographs to become a vital member of a team working with one of the foremost collections of photographs in the United States. The Assistant Curator will play an instrumental role in supporting the collection and its many audiences through acquisitions, exhibitions, original research, and innovative interpretation. The Department of Photographs is committed to developing programming that is engaging and meaningful to diverse audiences. The successful candidate will bring creative ideas and fresh perspectives to developing and interpreting the collection, key attributes for our ongoing work to increase diversity, equity, inclusion, and access, both through our internal work and our public-facing programs. Under moderate supervision, the Assistant Curator will help develop the collection particularly in the area of European nineteenth-century photography, with an emphasis on the early history of the medium in France and England, maintaining and managing it in collaboration with colleagues and under the direction of the Senior Curator.
The Assistant Curator will contribute to the ongoing work of cataloguing the collection for the museum website, including doing research, updating information, and writing descriptions of individual objects. The ideal candidate will be a highly motivated person with exceptional organizational skills and experience managing projects in an iterative, fast-paced environment. A natural consensus-builder, the candidate understands how to collaborate successfully in a team with other curators in the department, as well as with colleagues across the campus, including Conservation, Design, Exhibitions, Education, Interpretive Content, Communications, Imaging Services, Preparators, and Registrars.
New find! Richard Beard Patentee 9th plate Daguerreotype circa 1841 of a young man , the first British portrait photographer, signed by John Goddard on back of plate, with a Thomas Wharton pinch beck designed case with his Royal coat of arms.
The first major exhibition as part of the National Portrait Gallery’s reopening on 22 June will showcase the ground-breaking work of 20th century British photographer, Yevonde. Supported by the CHANEL Culture Fund, the exhibition will include new prints and discoveries, revealed by the latest research on Yevonde’s colour negative archive, acquired by the Gallery in 2021.
Over 25 newly discovered photographs by Yevonde, a pioneer of colour photography in the 1930s, will go on show for the first time when the National Portrait Gallery reopens to visitors, in the largest exhibition of the artist’s work. With over 150 works displayed, Yevonde: Life and Colour (22 June – 15 October 2023), supported by the CHANEL Culture Fund, will survey the portraits, commercial commissioned work and still lives that the artist produced throughout her sixty year career. Showcasing photographs of some of the most famous faces of the time – from George Bernard Shaw to Vivien Leigh, and John Gielgud to Princess Alexandra – the exhibition positions Yevonde as a trailblazer in the history of British portrait photography.
Reflecting the growing independence of women after the First World War, this exhibition will focus on the freedom photography afforded Yevonde, who became an innovator in new techniques, experimenting with solarisation and the Vivex colour process. The exhibition is the first to open as part of the National Portrait Gallery’s 2023 programme, following the largest redevelopment in its history.
Yevonde Middleton, known as Madame Yevonde or simply Yevonde (1893-1975), was a successful London-based photographer whose work focused on portraits and still life throughout much of the twentieth century. She was introduced to photography as a career through her involvement with the suffragette cause. As an innovator committed to colour photography when it was not considered a serious medium, Yevonde’s oeuvre is significant in the history of British photography.
In 2021, Yevonde’s tri-colour separation negative archive was acquired by the Gallery through funding from The Portrait Fund. Following extensive research, cataloguing and digitisation, funded by CHANEL Culture Fund, stunning new discoveries have been uncovered. Revealed for the first time in this new exhibition, they showcase the range of sitters and subjects that Yevonde photographed in colour – from glamorous debutantes and the royal family to leading writers, artists and film stars.
The vibrant colour portrait of one of the most photographed women in the 1930s, socialite Margaret Sweeny (1938), will be shown for the first time. Later, in 1963, as Duchess of Argyll, Margaret gained notoriety through a high-profile divorce. The scandal was recently dramatised in the 2021 award-winning BBC series A Very British Scandal, with Margaret portrayed by Claire Foy. The exhibition will also feature a new colour print of the portrait of Surrealist patron and poet, Edward James, 1933, used on the cover of his 1938 volume of poetry The Bones of My Hand. Yevonde’s still life often integrated elements of Surrealist iconography and she referenced the work of Man Ray in her own portraits.
The exhibition will explore Yevonde’s life and career through self-portraiture and autobiography, contextualising her work within the productive days of creative modernist photography. To this end, a previously unseen self-portrait in vivid Vivex tricolour from 1937 has been uncovered and will be displayed as part of the exhibition. The self-portrait sees Yevonde looking directly into the lens and at the viewer, positioned alongside her weighty one-shot camera and using Art Now – Herbert Read’s survey of modern art from 1933 – as a prop, clearly depicting herself as an artist with a camera.
Establishing her studio before the outbreak of the First World War, Yevonde’s work quickly became published in leading society and fashion magazines such as the Tatler and the Sketch, depicting new freedoms in fashion and leisure as well as capturing the growing independence of women. Her commercial work also appeared as advertisements constructed through humorous still life or by using models in tableaux. Yevonde’s audience included the readers of the growing field of women’s magazines including Woman and Beauty and Eve’s Journal.
An exciting new discovery revealed during the final stages of producing the exhibition publication, is the portrait of Dorothy Gisborne (Pratt) as Psyche (1935). Yevonde’s portrayal of the Greek goddess of the soul, with customary butterfly wings, is a previously unknown element of the Goddess series.
“Yevonde’s originality demonstrated through these photographs traverses almost a century and provides a vision so fresh and relatable. It is enthralling that there are further revelations to be transformed into colour after almost a century or, for some, for the very first time.” Clare Freestone, Photographs Curator, National Portrait Gallery
The National Portrait Gallery is pleased to offer a new £5 ticket for its Summer 2023 season of exhibitions, available to all visitors aged 30 and under. Supported by the Principal Partner of the new National Portrait Gallery – Bank of America – reduced £5 tickets for Yevonde: Life and Colour will be available to all visitors aged 30 and under, seven days a week.
Yevonde: Life and Colour will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, featuring over 160 beautifully illustrated photographic works from the pioneering photographer. The book, which includes an introductory essay by exhibition curator Clare Freestone, will explore how Yevonde’s bold creations brought a burst of colour to photography in Britain. It is available to pre-order now.
Image: Margaret Sweeny (Whigham, later Duchess of Argyll) 1 by Yevonde (1938), purchased with support from the Portrait Fund, 2021
