The Magic Lantern Society has announced preliminary details of its 11th international convention which will take place in Birmingham from 29 April-1 May 2022. It will take place at its regular venue, the Birmingham and Midland Institute.
See more here: http://www.magiclantern.org.uk/convention2022/
Earlier this year, the School of Scottish Studies Archive and the Centre for Research Collections teamed up with renowned Scottish photographer, Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, to add a landmark collection of photos to the School’s documentary collections. Sutton-Hibbert has worked as a freelance photographer and photojournalist for over 30 years and in 2012 co-founded Document Scotland – a collective of Scottish documentary photographers.
Sutton-Hibbert’s documentary work focusing on Scotland filled a natural gap in the Archive’s extensive photographic holdings, and the team worked with him to identify three series of photographs which would best suit the collection. Selections were made from his North Sea Fishing (1992-1995), the recently demolished Longannet Colliery (2001), and Paddy’s Market (2000) which echoed with coastal working life, Scottish industrial cultures, and urban living which can be found throughout the School’s archive.
Read a full account here: https://libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk/sssa/jeremy-sutton-hibbert/
Image: Tam Gay repairs torn nets aboard the Mairead, North Sea, February 1993 SSSA/JSH1/20
The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art has published a short film about Caroline Douglas’s research project which focuses on a series of calotype salt prints made by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson in Edinburgh in the late nineteenth century. Hill and Adamson’s series of portraits of Newhaven fishwives are one of the world’s earliest examples of photographic portraiture. Through her research and her own photographic practice, Caroline makes an exciting discovery after uncovering a series of outtakes from the calotype portrait of Mrs Elizabeth Johnstone Hall.
This project was supported by an Andrew Wyld Research Support Grant.
See the film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAknd5DDmJw&t=3s
The Guardian newspaper reported that Bonhams New York was to sell an albumen photograph of the Rossetti Family at home (detail, right), dated 1863. The catalogue entry noted ' No similar quality original Lewis Carroll photograph of the Rossetti family has sold on the open market in recent years. Of the three known complete images of this photograph, only this and one other exist in private hands.' The photograph was offered in New York with an estimate of US$ 50,000 - 70,000 (£38,000 - 53,000). It failed to find a buyer.
See The Guardian news story https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/dec/14/extremely-rare-photograph-of-the-rossettis-taken-by-lewis-carroll-up-for-auction
See the lot description: https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/26898/lot/177/
Folklore recording in Poulaphouca, County Wicklow, 1939. This shows the recording of local folklore before the flooding of a large area in 1939 for a reservoir and hydroelectric scheme. Image courtesy of the National Folklore Collection at University College, Dublin. One item of many in a new feature from the Gallery of Photography, Ireland.
The interactive digital timeline brings together for the first time a dazzling array of photos spanning more than 180 years. The goal is to situate the development of photography in Ireland within broader technical, historical and artistic movements.
https://timeline.galleryofphotography.ie
This is part of the project called 'In Our Own Image' which the Gallery of Photography, Ireland has launched to record the history of photography in Ireland since 1839 and its development as regards techniques and practice ever since. The project will include a major exhibition in Dublin Castle, already described on this blog, as well as talks and publications plus this new online feature.
Michael Pakenham Edgeworth who was an early Irish Calotypist. This image from about 1842 or 1843 may be a self portrait. Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland
In the early 20th century, fashion and photography were indelibly wedded through the efforts of a number of photographers, fashion designers, and magazine publishers. Once these cultural power shapers created the form, fashion photography took on a life of its own and became—perhaps always was—art. This art form has since been elevated to heights such that being a fashion photographer can be seen as very important chapter in many well-known photographers’ career: designers rely on them; models request them; magazines use their work: celebrities choose them for shoots; and the power they have to represent others is beyond compare in today’s, 21st century image-driven world.
Following our first Fashion and Photography conference in Palermo in 2018, we are further broadening the interdisciplinary mix and range of potential discussions and activities. Whether dance, theatre, drama theory, directing or performance practice, the different aspects of the performing arts will be explored and developed alongside previous discussions, especially with the new challenges of technology along with the changes in audiences and performers in the 21st century.
Our Fashion and Photography: 2nd Global Inclusive Interdisciplinary event will examine the dynamics of all these (and related) fields. In a world which is experiencing the transforming realities of globalization, with people engaging at all levels and in diverse ways, the intersections and engagements created at the interface of all the modes of representation involved in these areas and activities are paramount. They involve cultural, social, commercial, artistic, financial, and political issues, and from the bottom to the top can determine power relations, careers, sexual norms and deviance, and more.
We live in a period of so-called hyper-consumption which encourages individuals to consume for their own personal pleasure. Fast fashion, trends in sustainable and recyclable fashion, the rise of performance fashion and fashion as performance art denotes a society now defined by movement, fluidity, and flexibility. Performance from ballet to theatre, the catwalk to festivals, is increasingly oriented towards pleasure and satisfaction, a fleeting hedonism which quickly changes focus. The experience is mixed with tensions, conflicts, and even anxiety. The uncertainties and fears of 21st century living are reflected in fashion, performance and all forms of visual representations.
This conference aims to consider ways in which we can re-imagine our practices in relation to others, our history, and the environment with a view to forming a selective innovative interdisciplinary publication to engender further collaboration and discussion, whilst also continuing the evolution of the project.
Unlike other conferences or gatherings, our event proposes to step outside the traditional conference setting and offer opportunities for photographers, designers, practitioners, theorists, independent scholars, academics, performers, writers, and others to intermingle, providing platforms for interdisciplinary interactions that are fruitful and conducive to broadening horizons and sparking future projects, collaborations, and connections.
2nd Global Conference. Fashion and Photography. An Inclusive Interdisciplinary Project
Friday 8th July 2022 - Saturday 9th July 2022
Athens, Greece
See more here: https://www.progressiveconnexions.net/interdisciplinary-projects/global-transformations/fashion-and-photography/conferences/
For my current book project, I am looking for photographs of troops making craft objects to cope, heal or rehabilitate from injury or trauma associated with wars of the 20th and 21st centuries. I am also looking at civilians making craft to cope and to send items to troops in training or abroad. By craft, I mean objects made mainly by hand, using clay, fibers, metals, wood, and paper, and that tend to be valued for their hand-made properties in contrast to machine-made mass produced and distributed consumer goods. With thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Do you have any stereo cards of scenes in or around Newbury (Berkshire, UK)? This is a request for your help with some research I'm doing.
Below is a nice example of a card by the professional Newbury Photographer E T Brooks. It was probably one of a short series of cards produced for sale to tourists. I would imagine it dates from the 1870s. This card shows the surprisingly little changed scene of the canal swing bridge in West Mills. If you view in 3D there are a charming row of very small children arrayed across the bridge.
Do you have any stereo cards of Newbury? If so I would love to hear from you and see the cards. Both Professional and Amateur images are of interest. Thank you!
The nature, form, and impact of the book changed dramatically with the introduction of photography, altering the way books would be made, would appear, and would help transform the communication of ideas in visual form. In parallel to this phenomenon, the ability of the photograph to reach its widest audience would entail an essential partnership with the form of the book. The nomenclature of photography remains tied to the book: we think of the photographic “print” and of “printing” a photograph, even in an era where digital imagery dominates.
Alongside these intertwined histories is the current phenomenon of the “photobook,” with a great resurgence and flowering of studies on photobooks, and of contemporary photography’s increased creative engagement with the format of the book through dealers, fairs, specialized auction sales, and publications, and through a wealth of practice.
This course is designed to explore the history of the photographic book since Anna Atkins’s Photographs of British Algae was first privately circulated in 1843. It will be comprised of six two-hour sessions delivered online, based on the collections of Oxford’s Bodleian Library and delivered by Richard Ovenden.
The five sessions will emphasise the physical form of the photographic book, an element neglected by most of the recent studies of the genre. It aims, therefore, to bring together the twin disciplines of the history of the book and the history of photography. Classes will be structured around the examination of exemplar cases—and will examine these case studies through paying close attention to the materiality of the books: paper, printing techniques, and design, as well as distribution, sales, and prices. Many of the examples will be illuminated through supporting archival evidence.
I-45v. The Photographic Book since 1843
Richard Ovenden
Course Length: 12 hours
Course Week: 5–10 June 2022
Format: online only
Fee: $800
See details here: https://rarebookschool.org/courses/illustration/i45v/
Just finished a Photogravure on Copperplate (Heliogravure) work with three steroscopic photogravures. The work is based on some data found on the epistolar relationship between Charles Wheatstone and William Henry Fox Talbot about stereoscopy and photogravure.
More details in a post of my blog: https://carlesmitja.net/2021/12/07/xix%c2%b7xxi-project/?fbclid=IwAR35evLf-TR_vyNFzyNT4jN2EnCpjD_E-BiWqEJO6ulCnpZ_chCp6xb4po4
The latest addition to my collection is this Howard Grubb aluminium Aplanatic 12x10 lens made in Dublin, probably in the late 1890s. This was probably one of the earliest aluminium lenses made by Grubb. Were there aluminium lenses from other manufacturers before this time? Aluminium was lighter than brass, but was then new as a refined product for manufacturing and very expensive to produce.
The lens has a diaphragm aperture, shown below at f22.
The lens has an aperture scale showing f11.3, 16, 22, 32, 45 and 64. F 11.3 was used in the Royal Photographic Society aperture scale which was introduced between 1895 and 1902. Any information about the date of introduction of the RPS scale might help to date the lens. I have access to a works notebook which provides finish dates for various Grubb lenses made in Dublin, but it ends before this serial number.
This might point to a specialised application which could have been for astronomical, scientific, industrial or military purposes. Meteorological use has also been suggested as the orange would enhance cloud formations. The Grubb works had also produced astronomical instruments for many years before this lens was made and was also getting involved in the manufacture of military optics around this time.
There is no sign of the signature on the edge of the lens which was there in the time of Howard's father, Thomas Grubb. This was mentioned in a previous blog post.
All helpful suggestions would be gratefully received.
Finally, the real mystery. The lens itself is orange coated, just like an orange filter for enhancing contrast.
You may be interested in an article I have just published in Litro on the Hartlepool photographer David Wise - he is a figure who deserves greater recognition.
I first came across the photographs of David Wise in the Independent Magazine (24 March 1990) where they illustrated an article about drinking in Hartlepool pubs. The black and white pictures were raw and honest – brutally so – but they also depicted moments of great tenderness: a man looking at his crying girlfriend unable to comfort her, a drunken kiss, a last desperate hug before kicking out time...
Read the full article here:
David
The history of photography in the 19th century has been constructed according to its creators, techniques and geographical origin, and there are still many possible ways of looking at its significance. Among them is that of the photography of civil engineering, the nature of which is explained within the historical, political, economic, cultural and technological context of the 19th century. The layout through this book forms the map that defines and introduces us to these images, from which to continue exploring meanings in such exciting areas as landscape, the development of technology and the aesthetics of these images that were born in the technical field of engineers but which, in reality, it is their collaboration with photographers that makes them a representation of the real change in nineteenth-century society towards the progress that will affect its ways of moving, relating and living.
This event will focus on photographic archives and histories of empire. Three speakers will present short interventions (10 minutes) on the challenges and opportunities of working with such material today. The speakers will address methodological, ethical, and cultural considerations, offering case sy reflections on the changing research landscape for histories of empire in the archive.
Speakers:
Helen Mavin, Head of Photographs at Imperial War Museum;
Maria Creech, PhD student at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture; AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award Student in partnership with the Imperial War Museum;
Tom Allbeson, Lecturer in Cultural History at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture.
Chair:
Claire Gorrara, Dean for Research and Innovation for Cardiff University’s College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of French Studies at the School of Modern Languages.
Rethinking Histories of Empire: Visual Cultures in/or the Archive
Wednesday, 8 December 2021, 14:00-15:00
Free information and book here: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/events/view/2584682-rethinking-histories-of-empire-visual-cultures-inor-the-archive
An online roundtable event as part of the Global Language-based Area Studies research theme at the School of Modern Languages.
Atelier Éditions has announced announce the release of Nudism in a Cold Climate: The Visual Culture of Naturists in Mid-20th Century Britain by Annebella Pollen, available in the UK/Europe at the end of November, 2021 and the USA/Rest of World early January, 2022.
Annebella Pollen’s richly illustrated study examines the idiosyncratic phenomenon of social nudism, or naturism, in 20th-century Britain, a place known for its lack of sunshine and conservative attitudes to sex. By bringing naturists’ own words and images to light, Nudism in a Cold Climate tells this little-known but fascinating history for the first time.
From the 1930s, thousands of people appeared nude in books and magazines associated with the nudist movement, drawing attention to the cause, attracting public curiosity and inciting moral panics. Naturist nude photography offers a fascinating lens on moral, legal and aesthetic shifts over a century of dramatic social change, including national beliefs about sex and gender, ethnicity and class, pleasure and power.
Nudism in a Cold Climate offers readers a fascinating glimpse behind British veils of propriety and a unique view inside an enduring experimental culture that sought to radically challenge, liberate and ultimately transform conventional attitudes to bodies and their representations.
Details here:
Nudism in a Cold Climate: The Visual Culture of Naturists in mid-20th Century Britain
Annebella Pollen
272 pages including over 100 archival photographs
Printed sustainably in Belgium
ISBN # 978-1-7336220-6-6
See: http://atelier-editions.com/store/nudism-in-a-cold-climate-by-annebella-pollen
Read The Guardian review here: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/dec/03/from-utopian-dreams-to-soho-sleaze-the-naked-history-of-british-nudism
As part of the British Society for the History of Mathematics meeting being held at the University of Warwick on 11 December Deborah Kent will give a paper “Fit for making a decent observation”? Photography and the British eclipse expedition of 1871.
The abstract reads:
Nineteenth-century mathematical innovations revolutionized eclipse prediction to allow ample time for organising viewing expeditions. From the 1850s onwards, developing technologies of photography and spectroscopy offered new tools to train on open questions about the size of the universe and the chemical composition of the corona. After opportunities to observe eclipse totality in India in 1868, in North America in 1869, and in Spain in 1870, hopes ran high for additional insights in 1871. The utility of photography was particularly under scrutiny in anticipation of a much rarer Transit of Venus in 1874. The work of British observing parties in 1871 not only confirmed and extended prior results, but also gained some notoriety for an indigenous Indian astronomer and solidified the significance of photography as a research tool.
Details and registration here: https://www.bshm.ac.uk/events/christmas-meeting
Born in England in 1958 I emigrated to Australia in 1986. I started taking photographs at the age of 17 before formal studies began in Australia at the age of 30. My photography is as much European as it is Australian and my archive contains many photographs of England, France and Europe.
In 2021, I celebrate 30 years of art practice with the creation of a new website (https://marcusbunyan.com), the first to contain all my bodies of work since 1991 (note: more bodies of work still have to be added between 1996-1999).
My first solo exhibition was in a hair dressing salon in High Street, Prahran, Melbourne in 1991, during my second year of a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art Photography) at RMIT University (formerly Phillip Institute out in Bundoora). Titled 'Of Magic, Music and Myth' it featured black and white medium format photographs of the derelict Regent Theatre and the old Victorian Railway's Newport Workshops.
The concerns that I had at the time in my art making have remained with me to this day: that is, an investigation into the boundaries between identity, space and environment. Music and "spirit" have always been an abiding influence – the intrinsic music of the world and the spirit of objects, nature, people and the cosmos ... in a continuing exploration of spaces and places, using found images and digital and film cameras to record glances, meditations and movement through different environments.
30 years after I started I hope I have learnt a lot about image making ... and a lot about myself. I also hope the early bodies of my work are still as valid now as they were when I made them. In the 30 years since I became an artist my concerns have remained constant but as well, my sense of exploration and joy at being creative remains undimmed and an abiding passion.
Now, with ego integrated and the marching of the years I just make art for myself, yes, but the best reason to make art is ... for love and for the cosmos. For I believe any energy that we give out to the great beyond is recognised by spirit. Success is fleeting but making art gives energy to creation. We all return to the great beyond, eventually.
Each photograph in this posting links to a different body of work on my new website. Please click on the photographs to see the work.
Dr Marcus Bunyan
SEE THE FULL POSTING AT https://wp.me/pn2J2-igh
Marcus Bunyan (Australian born England, b. 1958)
An English fair
1993
Gelatin silver print
Marcus Bunyan (Australian born England, b. 1958)
An English fair
1993
Gelatin silver print
Marcus Bunyan (Australian born England, b. 1958)
Manchester Mardi Gras
1993
Silver gelatin print
The annual Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards celebrate excellence in photography and moving image publishing. They recognise individuals who have made an outstanding or original contribution to the literature of, or concerning the art and practice of, photography or the moving image. Two winning titles are selected: one in the field of photography and one in the field of the moving image. The author/s or editor/s of each winning book receive a £5,000 cash prize.
Submissions are welcome from publishers, authors, collectives and individuals self-publishing their work. There is no entry fee.
Further details, terms and conditions, and the entry form for the 2022 Awards can be downloaded here.
A conference based upon the research project “Forms and Formats of Photography’s Institutionalisation” at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities Essen (KWI), will take place on Thursday and Friday, 23/24 June 2022, organised by Anja Schürmann (KWI Essen) and Kathrin Yacavone (University of Cologne). A call for papers has been issued below:
The term ‘institutionalisation’ refers to a process in and through which things, people, actions, and relationships are typified, standardised, and thereby fixed for a longer period; in the process the appearance, reception and interpretation of the physical objects which are part of institutions are shaped and defined. In the context of the current debate surrounding the foundation and possible functions of a Federal German Photography Institute, the conference is dedicated to the historical, political, sociological, aesthetic and photo-historical discourses on the institutionalisation of photography as a medium, a cultural and social practice, as well as an art form, document and technology. The forms and formats, as well as the traditions and practices, of the classification, collection, exhibition, conservation, archiving and sale of photographic images will be examined from various cultural-critical perspectives and taking into account diverse methodological approaches, both theoretical and practical.
The starting point is not primarily individual images, monographic groups of works, modes (portrait, landscape, etc.) or genres (art photography, advertising and scientific photography), but rather the question of how various practices in dealing with photography as an art and medium have (co-)shaped these categories and to what extent they are subject to historical and cultural value shifts and changes that are tied to issues of institutionalisation (without being completely absorbed by them). The temporal and geographical focus of the conference will be Germany since 1945, while comparative perspectives, drawing international comparisons between different (European) countries, are equally welcome.
We invite proposals (in English or German) for 20-minute presentations. Abstracts of approximately 400 words, including a short biography (of max. 100 words) should be submitted by Monday 10 January 2022 by e-mail to fototagung2022@gmail.com. Any queries should also be directed to the conference organizers using this address. Notification of acceptance will be sent out by the end of January 2022.
Four Corners seeks a Curatorial and Archive Coordinator to join our team. This is an exciting opportunity to work on Four Corners' public exhibition and archive programmes. Four Corners is a centre for film and photographic arts, based in East London for over 40 years. Our Gallery and Archive programmes engage audiences with issues emerging from radical histories, and stories from the margins that might not otherwise be told. We recognise that access to the arts is not always equal, and we aim to change that by championing creative expression and new voices through skills, mentoring and production opportunities.
Four Corners is a registered charity. We are a team of twelve part-time staff, and we work closely with volunteers, freelancers and partners in visual arts, film and TV, archives, community and higher education to deliver our programmes.
Background to this post
This post is part-funded through Four Corners' Hidden Histories project, which is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Four Corners Archive comprises the film and photographic heritage of Four Corners, Half Moon Photography Workshop and Camerawork magazine, 1972 to 1987. The collection and online archive offer a rich source of material on working lives, protest, feminism and the lived experience of communities. The project aims to develop Four Corners Archive as an active site for community-engaged practice, research and public programmes that explore radical and untold social histories.
We are seeking applicants with a background and expertise in archives, museums or galleries working within fields of photography, curation, visual arts or related sectors.
The post is offered on an 18-month contract from January 2022 to June 2023 in the first instance.
See more here: https://fourcornersfilm.co.uk/work-with-us
