Blogs

A rare - probably unique - British travelling photography studio, previously used by the photographers John and  Walter Pouncy of Dorchester from the 1860s is to be offered at auction on 4 and 5 August 2022. It is estimated at £8,000-12,000.

The studio was made for the Pouncy firm and travelled the county. Pulled by horses it offered a studio with glass roof, small waiting area, entry and exit doors and steps, and darkroom. It still retains original fittings for holding background rolls.

The studio is believed to be the only British example in existence. After it was sold by the Pouncy firm it was remained in use by a succession of photographers and was located in Swanage for many years. The current owner, also a photographer, purchased the studio and hoped to find a permanent home for it, while allowing it to travel and retaining its original and to continue to function as a studio. It is complete but needs some restoration and conservation work.  The studio is well documented with the original plans surviving.

John Pouncy is best known for his work uniting lithography with photography met which culminated in his publication in Dorsetshire Photographically Illustrated (1857) – the first English publication ever to feature photo lithographic illustrations.

Michael Pritchard writes: "I had the privilege of seeing the studio in the summer of 2021 and meeting its current owner. It is a remarkable survival. Entering felt like stepping back 130 years. Although the current owner's hope of restoring and retaining it as a travelling studio were not able to be realised, it has been lovingly looked after. It deserves a new home where it can be preserved and shown, ideally in Dorset, and be used as a studio, telling its remarkable story and that of the Pouncy business and nineteenth century photography."  

The auction is being held at Charterhouse, The Long Street Salerooms, Sherborne Dorset although the studio remains onsite at Wareham from where it will need to be collected. Pending the oublication of the catalogue museums and prospective buyers should contact Charterhouse Auctions at The Long Street Salerooms, Sherborne. T:  01935 812277 or e:  info@charterhouse-auction.com 

More information on the Pouncy studio can be seen here: https://www.opcdorset.org/fordingtondorset/Files2/JohnPouncy1818-1894.html

See: https://charterhouse-antiques.com/as-pretty-as-a-picture and a short film here: https://youtu.be/qX8nHuxHmts

The lot can be seen here: https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/charterhouse-auctions/catalogue-id-cav10357/lot-71d1acab-5e68-4010-87f2-aee0011a89e4

Main photographs: © Michael Pritchard, 2021.  Historic photograph courtesy of Charterhouse Auctions

The Kraszna-Krausz Foundation has announced the shortlists and winners for the 2022 Kraszna-Krausz Photography and Moving Image Book Awards. Both the winning and shortlisted titles have been chosen as exemplary demonstrations of originality and excellence in the fields of moving image and photography book publishing. The titles from these books explore a range of themes and address wide-ranging issues such as gender, race, radical politics, and diverse
perspectives on the history and production of filmmaking. Each prize category winner is awarded £5,000.

What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women, 1843-1999 sheds light on photobooks created by women from diverse backgrounds, and addresses the glaring gaps and omissions in current photobook history—in particular, the lack of access, support and funding for non-Western women and women of colour. The book is beautifully illustrated with photographs of classic bound books, portfolios, personal albums, unpublished books, zines and scrapbooks,
ranging from well-known publications to the more obscure.

Speaking about the winner of the Photography Book Award, judge Renée Mussai said: “Rigorously researched, generously illustrated, and ingeniously designed, this is an extraordinary publication which not only fills an essential gap and missing chapter in photographic scholarship, but importantly foregrounds the creative pursuits of a diverse
constituency of women, whose significant contributions to global photobook historiography still too often remains invisible.”

Published by The Whitney, The Films of Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné 1963-1965 focuses on Warhol’s film works from the years 1963-65 during a time where the renowned artist produced hundreds of film and video works - short and long, silent and sound, scripted and improvised. The book features over 100 individual works which are catalogued in detail and
combined with enlightening essays that cover Warhol’s influences, his experimentation with film, source material, working methods and technical innovations, as well as his engagement with the people he filmed and how they came to life on the screen.

Details: https://kraszna-krausz.org.uk/

Physicist Gabriel Lippmann's (1845–1921) photographic process is one of the oldest methods for producing colour photographs. So why do the achievements of this 1908 Nobel laureate remain mostly unknown outside niche circles? Using the centenary of Lippmann’s death as an opportunity to reflect upon his scientific, photographic, and cultural legacy, this book is the first to explore his interferential colour photography. Initially disclosed in 1891, the emergence of this medium is considered here through three shaping forces: science, media, and museums.

A group of international scholars reassess Lippmann’s reception in the history of science, where he is most recognised, by going well beyond his endeavours in France and delving into the complexity of his colour photography as a challenge to various historiographies. Moreover, they analyse colour photographs as optical media, thus pluralising Lippmann photography's ties to art, cultural and imperial history, as well as media archaeology. The contributors also focus on the interferential plate as a material object in need of both preservation and exhibition, one that continues to fascinate contemporary analogue photographers. This volume allows readers to get to know Lippmann, grasp the interdisciplinary complexity of his colourful work, and ultimately expand his place in the history of photography.

Gabriel Lippmann's Colour Photography
Hanin Hannouch, Curator for Analog and Digital Media at the Weltmuseum Wien
University of Amsterdam Press, 2022
£109 / €117
Details: https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463728553/gabriel-lippmann-s-colour-photography#toc

Doyle Wham, the UK's first and only contemporary African photography gallery, is presenting Tommie Ominde’s first ever solo exhibition. The exhibition runs until 13 August and offers a comprehensive look into the artist’s unique photographic world.

Ominde was born and has lived ever since in the coastal town of Kilifi in Kenya, a small settlement north of Mombasa. He has witnessed gradual and fascinating changes in Kilifi, seeing how the slow but steady influx of tourism has begun to transform his hometown in subtle ways. As a photographer primarily interested in the relationship between people and their surrounding landscape, the last ten years have been a fruitful decade of exploration, observation and documentation for Ominde.

Through the artworks in this exhibition, titled Postcards from Kilifi, we are presented with a unique insight into daily life in Kilifi and, in particular, the myriad ways in which people interact with its coastline. From baptisms to beach-combers, from acrobats to tree-climbers, from fisherman tracing the shore in their dhows to sunset-gazers and goat-herders, the sea is at the core of Ominde’s practice and he is uniquely positioned to capture his fellow participants’ vital relationships with it.

Accessibility is key for Ominde. Therefore, alongside the monumentally-sized photographs presented, there is a wide range of limited-edition artworks exhibited and available for purchase for £200, framed.

ABOUT TOMMIE OMINDE
Tommie Ominde (b. 1996) is a Kenyan photographer who aims to document and demonstrate the beauty of his coastal hometown, Kilifi. Ominde is inspired by exploration and the manner in which we occupy space, in particular our relationship with the natural and built environment. He describes Kilifi, a small town north of Mombasa, as his local canvas. His protagonists are nature herself and figures captured in motion and contemplation, engaged in regular activities that are rendered suddenly and strikingly unfamiliar by the exposure and elongation of these interim, transitory moments.

https://www.doylewham.com/

ABOUT DOYLE WHAM
Doyle Wham is the UK's first and only contemporary African photography gallery. The gallery was founded in October 2020 with an itinerant programme of physical and digital exhibitions, as well as participations in art fairs such as Photo London and Abuja Art Week. As of March 2022, Doyle Wham has launched its first permanent location in Shoreditch, London.

The gallery exhibits both emerging and established artists from Africa and across the African diaspora, with a focus on supporting early-career artists. Doyle Wham celebrates photography in all its forms, from traditional analogue photography to film. Highlighting innovative and experimental expression is at the core of the gallery's ethos. Its 2022 programme will explore this further by expanding into mixed media exhibitions that show the versatility and influence of photography, from commissioning sculptural responses to photographic works, to physical presentations of NFT art.

Getty Images, a preeminent global visual content creator and marketplace, today launched the Black History & Culture Collection (BHCC), an initiative created to provide free non-commercial access to historical and cultural images of the African/Black Diaspora in the US and UK from the 19th century to present day. The collection aims to grant access to rarely seen images for educators, academics, researchers, and content creators, enabling them to tell untold stories around Black culture.

The collection is available for projects focused on education around the histories and cultures of the African/Black Diaspora, dating back to the 1800s. Content created from the collection by partners must not produce revenue and/or be included in any revenue driving advertising or marketing.

The Black History & Culture Collection was carefully curated from content owned by Getty Images, in partnership with internationally recognized researchers, historians and educators, including Dr. Deborah Willis of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Jina DuVernay of Clark Atlanta University, Dr. Tukufu Zuberi of the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Mark Sealy MBE and Renée Mussai of Autograph.

“Getty Images is committed to making this historical content accessible to ensure a more authentic representation of world history and drive more meaningful dialogue.” said Cassandra Illidge, Vice President of Partnerships at Getty Images. “This collection was curated in partnership with a roster of prestigious historians and educators with the goal of providing unfettered access to historical and contemporary imagery which will help content creators who have been seeking an inclusive visualization of history.”

“Getty Images visual archive can provide a unique look into the past and bring untold stories to the present,” commented Ken Mainardis, SVP of Content at Getty Images. “With the launch of the Black History & Culture Collection, we are proud to be able to unearth and open-up access to content previously unavailable or hard to find, facilitating the better telling and understanding of Black history through our visual content.”

Getty Images has partnered with many organizations and educational institutions, including Ohio State University, Black Archives, Radiate Festival, Black History Walks, and others who have already used the collection as part of educational curriculum, exhibitions, and dialogues surrounding vital events from the past, from well-known to previously unseen or untold. To help launch the collection, Getty Images worked with several influential Black voices, including Alexander Amosu, Wunmi Bello, Joshua Buatsi, Tiffani McReynolds, and others to share their own perspectives on pieces of history uncovered within the collection itself.

“To be involved with the Black History & Culture Collection and work so closely with reframing access to these images made a tremendous impact on me personally and professionally,” said Dr. Deborah Willis, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, one of the experts to help curate the collection. “It offered me ways in which to guide my students’ research projects and to show how the Black History & Culture Collection is an active/useful archive that can be used by artists, scholars, families, politicians, and students to recontextualize the past and give new meaning to images that have been largely unknown or underused.”

The Black History & Culture Collection is part of a wider program of activity Getty Images has made toward anti‑racism, inclusion, and dismantling discrimination. In 2021, the company established the Getty Images Photo Archive Grants for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), supporting the digitization of archival photos from Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Learn more about the collection, launch partners, curators, and content at: https://www.gettyimages.com/corporate-responsibility/bhcc

Image: A scientist photographed in London in 1948. Photograph: Keystone Features/Getty Images

To coincide with the Edinburgh Art Festival, Stills is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Ishiuchi Miyako – an influential post-war Japanese photographer. It will be the largest exhibition of Miyako’s work in the UK to date and the first time her work has been exhibited in Scotland. The show which runs from 28 July to 8 October 2022 will consist of a selection of work from some of her most celebrated series including, Mother’s, the series with which she represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 2005; work documenting the belongings of victims of the atomic bomb which are kept at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum; and photographs from the series Frida, made at The Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City where Miyako photographed Kahlo’s garments such as corsets, cosmetics and shoes.

Ishiuchi Miyako (born 1947) began her photographic career shooting familiar streets and buildings in her hometown, Yokosuka, which had been transformed during the post-war period into a large American naval base. For over ten years, Miyako documented this alien presence, capturing traces of the US Occupation that lingered decades after the war had ended, and charging her work with a subjectivity which blended personal and political awareness.

‘Mother’s#38‘, courtesy Ishiuchi Miyako / The Third Gallery Aya

More recently, Miyako’s work has continued to record material traces of the passage of time, turning her lens away from locations towards the bodies and personal belongings of people. Her series Mother’s (2000-05), in which she documented her mother’s possessions as a means of coming to terms with their relationship and her mother’s death, was selected to represent Japan at the 2005 Venice Biennale. This led to a publisher inviting Miyako to capture the everyday objects which had belonged to victims of the atomic bomb and are held in the collection of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The Frida Kahlo Museum later commissioned Miyako to photograph Kahlo’s objects at the Blue House in Mexico City (Frida, 2012)

Miyako’s work has been exhibited and collected by numerous prestigious collections and institutions around the world. Exhibitions of her work have been held at J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (2015) and the Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan (2017). She was the recipient of the 2014 Hasselblad Award.

Details: https://stills.org/exhibitions/ishiuchi-miyako/

Event: Ishiuchi Miyako in Conversation with Ben Harman

To mark the occasion of Ishiuchi Miyako’s exhibition, join Stills at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh on 2 August 2022 for Ishiuchi Miyako in Conversation with Ben Harman, a rare opportunity to hear Ishiuchi Miyako talk about her work. This will be an illustrated conversation. Ishiuchi Miyako will be assisted with interpretation by filmmaker, Linda Hoaglund. Book your tickets here.

Ishiuchi Miyako © Maki Ishii

The prestigious £25,000 Charles Wollaston Award has been won by artist Uta Kögelsberger for her video work CULL in the Royal Academy’s 254th Summer Exhibition. Established in 1978 and presented to the ‘most distinguished work’ in the exhibition, it is one of the most significant art prizes awarded in the UK. 

CULL follows the gigantic task of the clear-up process after the devastating impact of wildfires. It charts the efforts of the teams responsible for cutting down the dead trees left standing that are now endangering the remaining structures and roads. In a swansong to the unique ecosystem that has been lost each tree is documented as it comes crashing to the ground, seemingly out of nowhere, like dead carcasses, sometimes falling with such force that the earth beneath it shakes. In this orchestrated choreography we humans become visible, only on occasion, dwarfed by the magnitude of the disaster we have created.

Video Still, Cull, Five Channel Video Installation

CULL sits nestled within the wider, ongoing project Fire Complex that Kögelsberger initiated after the Castle Fire destroyed 174000 acres of Sequoia National Forest, California, including an estimated 14% of the world Giant Sequoia population. Fire Complex aims to raise momentum and resources for the regeneration of these forests. The artworks of Fire Complex were originally exhibited on billboards, directly becoming agents in the public realm. This is a project that communicates a universal emergency and sets about making a difference for the future.

It involves a collaborative community-based replanting project that to date has put over 6500 new trees in the ground. This aspect of the Fire Complex was developed in collaboration with USDA Forest Services, Cal Fire, Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, the communities of Sequoia Crest, Alpine Village and Cedar Slope and with the help of volunteers from the Rotary Club, as well as local schools.  The work has been developed with the support of Newcastle University, Alchemy Media (USA), Standard Vision (USA) and Buildhollywood (UK) and has been exhibited in the UK and across Los Angeles.

After 16 years of leadership, Brett Rogers, OBE, HonFRPS, announces today she will be leaving her role as Director of The Photographers’ Gallery – the UK’s foremost centre for photography – at the end of 2022.

Following the success of The Photographers’ Gallery’s 50th anniversary programme in 2021 and the launch of Soho Photography Quarter - the Gallery’s ambitious new free, permanent outdoor exhibition space, which opened last month, Rogers’ planned departure marks the end of an extraordinary period of growth and creative evolution for the internationally acclaimed Gallery - founded in 1971 as the UK’s first public gallery dedicated to photography.

From 2006 - 2022, Rogers’ expansive vision and influential leadership at The Photographers’ Gallery has led to a range of momentous cultural presentations and institutional developments, both in London and abroad, taking place through a period of huge social, technological, and artistic transition for the photographic medium. Brett plans to maintain a connection with the photography world in a reduced capacity following her departure.

She was awarded the Royal Photographic Society's Outstanding Contribution award and an Honorary Fellowship in 2018. 

Brett Rogers’ key achievements have included, but are not limited to:

• The re-location of The Photographers’ Gallery in 2012, taking the Gallery from its first home in Great Newport Street to its current, purpose-built 5-floor space, with a dedicated floor for learning, designed by award winning Irish Architects O’Donnell + Tuomey. It is housed in a former textiles warehouse on Ramillies Street, in the heart of London’s vibrant West End.
• The launch of Soho Photography Quarter, a free and accessible public realm space in the streets surrounding the Gallery. Following 5 years of planning, the new space and bi-yearly programme of large-scale, public realm artworks and activities, including large-scale art friezes, cross-street banners and moving image projections, provides a unique opportunity for the Gallery to extend its programme outside, enabling wider audiences to experience some of the most innovative and dynamic artists working today.
• Staging critically and publicly acclaimed exhibitions such as solo presentations of Saul Leiter, Helen Levitt and Sunil Gupta, to thematic explorations including Made you Look: Dandyism and Black Masculinity, Feast for the Eyes: The Story of Food in Photography, The Feminist Avant Garde of the 1970s and Easter Rising 1916.
• Securing the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize as one of the most prestigious and long-standing prizes in the world of photography. Each year it highlights significant trends within contemporary photography and showcases the works of artists shaping today's international photography scene, having first launched in 1996. Recent winners include Deana Lawson (2022), Cao Fei (2021), Mohamed Bourouissa (2020), Susan Meiselas (2019) and Luke Willis Thompson (2018).
• Championing female photographers like Sally Mann, Taryn Simon, Noemi Goudal, Shirley Baker, Helen Levitt, Alex Prager, Helen Cammock, Rinko Kawauchi, Katy Grannan and Zineb Sedira, in a well-documented role supporting women and families in the photography industry, both through the women featured in TPG’s acclaimed exhibitions programme and as evidenced through her nurturing and supportive organisational environment.
• Appointing the Gallery’s first digital curator, to explore the effects of the digital realm on photography and visual culture, within the context of technological developments. Most recently, the current three-floor exhibition, How to Win at Photography, examines the relationship between photography and gaming culture.
• Establishing a dynamic, multi-form artistic programme, which has harnessed the different Gallery spaces to present diverse viewpoints, approaches and chronologies. Supporting both established and emergent talent - from Edward Burtynsky, Wim Wenders and Evgenia Arbugaeva, to Gregory Crewdson, Vivianne Sassen and Lorenzo Vitturi - Rogers' programme has given a platform to everything from vernacular photography to large scale studio production.
• Examining the local and global nature of photography and its presentation, bringing exhibitions as various as The World in London, a major public art project initiated by Rogers to coincide with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games; to curating a major British survey exhibition of work by 37 photographers - Work Rest and Play: British Photography Since the 1960s - to four Chinese cities in 2015-6; to focussing on the unique communities of the Gallery’s home in Soho, including 2020’s Shot in Soho featuring William Klein, Anders Petersen and Corinne Day.
• Placing education at the heart of the organisation, with a dedicated learning and events space and ensuring platforms and support for young people’s ideas and talent, including the free and low-cost Develop creative careers programme, public tours led by 14-19 year olds (Teen Tours), a new Extended Project Qualification in Photography for A-Level pupils and appointing the Gallery’s first under-25 Trustee in 2018; championing visual literacy through photography, including the ten-year Touchstone single photo display, ‘slow looking’ events and dedicated programmes related to visual literacy; and encouraging discussion and debate on photography’s role in society, through the Gallery’s programme of hundreds of talks, workshops and courses during her tenure.
• Setting up initiatives to identify, support and champion new photography talent, including Fresh Faced & Wild Eyed and more recently, the annual TPG New Talent award, exhibition, and mentoring programme, as well as supporting emerging photographers with first publications, ongoing, free networking events and portfolio review sessions.
• Foregrounding TPG's Print Sales Gallery - a dedicated ‘discovery’ space and the Gallery’s commercial representation arm, which with its own exhibitions, is a leading international barometer for the buying and collecting of photography, the proceeds for which are reinvested into the Gallery’s public programme.

A specially formed committee of trustees, led by TPG Chair of Trustees Matthew Stephenson and senior staff, has begun the considered process of looking for and appointing a new Director, with the aim of having Rogers’ successor in place by December 2022. With a particular responsibility to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, The Photographers’ Gallery has appointed global executive and board recruitment company, Saxton Bampfylde - experts in finding exceptional, diverse leaders for major organisations - to support the recruitment process, which will officially commence on 18 July.

This podcast (started in 2021) now has 30+ (and growing) conversations with photo artists who are predominantly interested in how photography has had and is having, a significant impact on the world we live in. It considers the use of photography in relation to environmental matters. Many participants employ historic processes and/or are investigating more sustainable options in their practice. Others speak about the photographers from the past who have inspired them.

Find out more at: https://anchor.fm/photopocene

The Loewentheil Collection, one of the world's leading collection of Chinese photography, is launching its first virtual exhibition of selections from the world’s largest and finest collection of early photography of China. Seizing Shadows: Rare Photographs by late Qing Dynasty Masters, is a virtual exhibition in English and Chinese, and is its first exhibition devoted to photographs by pioneering Chinese photographers.

The Loewentheil Collection’s virtual exhibition is filled with engaging multimedia content that includes never before digitized or published photographs by master Chinese photographers of the late Qing dynasty. Captivating lifelike animations preserve the aesthetics of the original photographs, and educational videos and descriptive text set these rare 150-year-old photographs in the context of China’s artistic, cultural, and dynastic history. Modern digital editing plays with the visual perspective of these photographs, giving visitors the experience of exploring and discovering the people, cities, and landscapes of 19th-century China.

The exhibition presents early photographs of sites and peoples of late Qing dynasty China as well as images of the ancient Chinese art that influenced these photographers. Visitors can zoom in and out of images created 150 years ago in China with the wet plate collodion process. This early and exacting photographic process, used by the first Chinese photographers, captured images on glass in intricate detail. A video in the exhibition illustrates the process. The selection of photographic masterpieces from the Loewentheil Collection in this virtual exhibition are placed within the history of photography and among China’s long cultural heritage of poetry, music, art, and more.  

The exhibition draws from the Loewentheil Collection, which was assembled over more than three decades of dedicated connoisseurship. The collection comprises about 14,000 photographs spanning the earliest days of paper photography from the 1850s through the 1930s, the majority from before 1900.

The exhibition presents photographs, many never before exhibited or digitized, by major early Chinese photographers and studios including Lai Fong, Liang Shitai, Pun Lun Studio, Tung Hing Studio, A Chan (Ya Zhen) Studio, Pow Kee Photographer Studio, Yu Xunling, and others. The photographs capture the ancient arts, landscapes, monumental architecture, dynamic street life, and diverse people of China.

Visit here:  www.loewentheilcollection.com

This is an exciting time to join the Libraries and Museums team as Curator, Photography. We recently acquired a major photographic archive of Document Scotland photojournalist, Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, and have just launched a showcase of our James Valentine Photographic Collection at the V&A Dundee. In 2021 we opened the new Wardlaw Museum after a major capital project to extend and completely redisplay it, including the creation of a new temporary exhibitions space. We are in the process of redesigning our research and teaching support services and continue to expand our digitisation and online engagement with the collections.

With a degree in a relevant subject area, or equivalent knowledge of photography, photographic processes and collections management, the successful candidate will have a combination of curatorial and project management experience, interpretative skill, and ideally some experience in Higher Education contexts. Working alongside specialist collections and curatorial staff, as well as staff in the Experience and Engagement team, the postholder will join an active and ambitious Libraries and Museums unit at an exciting moment of change and renewal.

Further information and informal enquiries may be directed to Jessica Burdge, email: jab8@st-andrews.ac.uk or Dr Catriona McAra, email: cfmc1@st-andrews.ac.uk

 Details: https://www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/3426/0/355863/889/curator-photography-ad3938sb

Helmut Newton (1920-2004) was one of the most singular and successful photographers of his generation, known for his provocative fusion of fashion, portrait, and erotic subjects. Philippe Garner, a 50-plus years veteran of the art auction world, has admired Newton’s work since he discovered it in the late sixties.

He met Newton in 1975 and enjoyed his friendship until the photographer’s death in 2004. Now Vice-President of the Helmut Newton Foundation, he looks back on Newton’s life and work.

Helmut Newton: Living to make pictures. In conversation with Philippe Garner
Tuesday 12 July, 6.30 pm BST
Online: https://benuri.org/whats-on/

A commemorative blue plaque in honour of photographer and business woman Daisy Edis has been unveiled at her former home at The Green, Gilesgate, Durham. It was unveiled by her grandson George Spence. 

Daisy Edis (1887 (sic) - 1964) built up the photographic and studio business founded by her father John R Edis in Durham and earned national and international recognition. She was also one of the founding members of the re-formed Durham Photographic Society in the late 1940s. She was a member of the Royal Photographic Society from 1933 and gained her Associate the same year and Fellowship in 1935. She remained a member until her death. She was also a Fellow of the Institute of British Photographer. Edis started working in photography aged 15 years. 

The City of Durham Parish Council authorised and organised the ceremony. 'ne of the event organisers, Dr Lucy Szablewska, said that Daisy's plaque was one of a number of initiatives across Co Durham to honour more women with blue plaques. Carl McSorley who runs the replica Edis photo shop and studio at the Beamish Open Air museum attended, formally dressed in bowler hat and vintage suit for the occasion.

Daisy’s father John R Edis founded the highly succesful photographic business in Durham, in the late 19th century. After his death daughter Daisy carried on the business, expanding its range of activities, including work, some of it highly technical, for Durham University. Although Daisy was married as a young woman and became Mrs Spence sadly her husband died after a few years and Daisy continued to use her maiden name of Edis by which she was well known.

According to the RPS's Photographic Journal (June1964) Edis specialised in portraiture and was well-known for her work with the cathedral, university and school in Durham. She was one of the last users of the platinum process and her work was widely shown in Britain Europe, Australia,Japan and the United States. 

With thanks to Lucy Szablewska 

Scotland's Panoptician: Investigating the Image-World of George Washington Wilson is an online exhibition curated by Ashleigh Black, a doctoral student in Film & Visual Culture at the University of Aberdeen. It uses, and takes inspiration from, the University of Aberdeen's collection of around 38,000 glass plate negatives taken by Wilson and his company GWW & Co spanning the length and breadth of the British Empire. The collection was donated by local photographer Archie Strachan in the 1950s.

Take a look here: https://panopticvisions.omeka.net/exhibits/show/scotlandspanoptician/about-george-washington-wilson

During the 1850s and 1860s, the craze for stereo photography was at its height, and this period coincided with the completion of the construction of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, ahead of its opening on 8 December 1864. Work had started on the bridge back in 1831, but was abandoned for 11 years between 1842 and 1853 when funds ran out. Sadly Brunel himself died in 1859 before the bridge could be completed.

The progress of the construction of the bridge, like other Brunel projects such as the SS Great Eastern, was documented in glorious 3-D by a number of different working photographers who were enthusiastic advocates of stereo photography. These cards bring this incredible work to life as no mono photographs ever could and are available at the Clifton Suspension Bridge https://cliftonbridge.org.uk, as well as here, directly from the LSC shop. 

Size: 90 mm x 180 mm
Presented in a plastic wallet with complimentary Steam Punk OWL designed by Brian May. £10.00

See: https://shop.londonstereo.com/clifton-suspension-bridge-early-stereo-views-of-brunels-masterpiece.html

The latest in Grant Scott's podcast series In search of Bill Jay is now available to listen online or through your normal podcast channels. The series extends and adds to Grant's acclaimed film which looks at Jay's life and legacy. 

Listen to the latest part and the earlier podcasts in the series click here: 

Part 4 - https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2022/06/23/in-search-of-bill-jay-episode-4-the-sixties-end-and-the-future-is-bright/
Part 3 - https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2022/05/16/podcast-in-search-of-bill-jay-episode-3-tony-ray-jones-diane-arbus-and-weegee-in-nyc/
Part 2 - https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2022/03/31/podcast-in-search-of-bill-jay-episode-2-a-grammar-school-boy-holland-park-parties-and-tony-ray-jones/
Part 1 - https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2022/03/17/podcast-in-search-of-bill-jay-episode-1-the-search-begins-it-was-a-snap-shot-magazine/

To view the film Do Not Bed: The photographic life of Bill Jay click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd47549knOU

I am organizing a conference entitled "Camera-Centered Histories of Photography," which will feature our own Dr Michael Pritchard as the keynote speaker.  The call for papers is attached. I would be delighted to see abstracts covering British photo history topics. Abstracts are due by 31 July.

Here's the call as a PDF: Camera conference CFP -- full text pasted below

Call for Papers

Camera-Centered Histories of Photography

Held online and at the California Museum of Photography (UCR), Riverside, CA

Friday December 2, 2022

Abstracts due July 31, 2022

What does our understanding of photographic technology tell us about photography? Scholars often frame the study of cameras through a media archaeology lens, such as Peter Buse’s examination of the Polaroid archives to contemplate what it contributes to our understanding of the ubiquitous instant photograph, or Jonathan Crary, whose examination of the “observer” in Victorian viewing evinces questions about modernity. Yet others neglect the role of the camera outright. This is not a disingenuous move; many photographers resent people asking about the device they use, because the question implies that the equipment, not the eye and mind, provided the skill. Photography’s relationship to its technology is equal parts intrinsic and fraught.

This one-day conference interrogates what photo history looks like when we foreground the technology that made the images. We invite scholars and artists to address the place of the camera in photographic histories. Themes may include (but are not limited to):

-The relationship between the camera and image

-The place of digital image-making in relation to technology-centric concerns

-Case studies that foreground the camera with regard to a specific photographer/image-maker

-Social histories that foreground photographic technologies

-Media archaeology approaches to cameras and photographic technology

-Business, legal, or advertising histories about camera manufacturers

-The role of patents in the advancement of photographic technologies

-Design histories relating to cameras

 The conference will be held as a hybrid live event, on-site at the California Museum of Photography (Riverside, California) and livecast via Zoom. Papers can be presented in-person or online.

 The conference will include a keynote address by Dr Michael Pritchard, author of A History of Photography in Fifty Cameras (2014) and a tour of the Larry S. Pierce American field camera collection by collector Larry Pierce.

 Please submit abstracts of approximately 350 words for 20-minute presentations to Leigh Gleason, Director of Collections (California Museum of Photography/UCR ARTS) at leigh.gleason@ucr.edu

Orphan Works are creative works that are subject to copyright for which one or more of the rights holders is either unknown or cannot be found. Understanding how Orphan Works in relation to photographic collections can be a bit of a minefield. To help you navigate we are running a virtual event with Margaret Haig from the government's Intellectual Property Office, on Wednesday 6th July, 1pm via Zoom.

The talk will cover important things you need to know in relation to working with Orphan Work images; how you can use them, how to seek out licenses and more.

To help you make the most of this session we would like you to submit any questions for the event beforehand via this form: https://forms.gle/Zey1eqg8kXm2WriJ6 Please note that Margaret will not be able to answer questions on specific legal disputes, and we cannot guarantee to be able to answer all questions. However, if you do send your questions ahead of the event we can research these to give you the best possible answers.

Booking is free, with the option of a donation to support PCN's work. You will receive a confirmation email when you book, and the event link will be sent to you on the day of the event.

Orphan works and photography collections
Hosted by the Photographic Collections Network with the IPO
Online: 6 July 2022 at 1300 (BST)
Details and booking here: https://www.photocollections.org.uk/events/orphan-works-and-photo-collections

For the first time, an exhibition focuses on the photographs of the earliest local photographers from West and Central Africa. Since the late 19th century, they have been creating enchanting photographs together with their customers in open-air studios. The thought of future viewers was always present; for them, the people in front of the camera staged themselves in the way they wanted posterity to see them. The photographs are thus sharply differentiated from the images of colonial photographers, who served to confirm a backward, exotic other.

Using around one hundred original prints, the exhibition addresses the most important themes in the history of photography in West and Central Africa. The focus is on the peculiarities of this photo culture and the interrelationships with other local art forms.

"The Future is Blinking" is a quote by the Ghanaian photographer Philip Kwame Apagya (*1958) from the film Future Remembrance by Tobias Wendl (1997). Apagya thus refers to what he considers the most important task of photography in Ghana: creating memories for future generations with idealized portraits.

"The Future is Blinking" Early studio photography from West and Central Africa
Museum Rietberg
Gablerstrasse 15
CH-8002 Zurich
Switzerland: until 3 July 2022
Details: https://rietberg.ch/ausstellungen/the_future_is_blinking