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The Scottish Council on Archives Preservation Committee has announced its first webinar in its latest series: Focus on Photography. From identifying photographic type and how to care for them to dating images through fashion, these sessions will explore many different aspects of managing photographs in archive collections. Designed for archivists and anyone with photographs in their collection, the webinars will give practical advice from experts, and offer guidance on caring, storing, and cataloguing items.

Each session will take place on Zoom and run for around thirty minutes, featuring a short presentation with plenty of opportunity for your questions. We are delighted to be working with Susie Clark, photographic conservator, for our initial workshops.

Session One: Getting to Grips with Your Photographic Collection

Wednesday 24 February, 12:00-12:30

This session will provide an outline of the ways in which you might divide up photographic collections, whether into positives and negatives, black and white and colour, or by subject matter, format, or materials, and why each may be relevant.

Registration is free, via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/141270769675

other events can be seen here: https://www.scottisharchives.org.uk/events/

Susie Clark ACR ICON is an accredited Photographic Conservator and Consultant with many years of experience. She has worked for a large number of institutions, organizations and private individuals in Britain and abroad. She was the recipient of the Museums and Galleries Commission Jerwood Conservation Award for Research and Innovation for her work on the conservation of wet collodion positives. She was also the conservator for the Collaborative Research Project between the National Science and Media Museum and the Getty Conservation Institute looking at characteristics of different photographic processes. She has taught for many organizations and written for many publications. She is currently Assistant Co-ordinator for the ICOM-CC Photographic Materials Group and a committee member of the York Consortium for Conservation and Craftmanship which provides bursaries. She was previously a committee member of the Film and Sound Group of the Society of Archivists. She was recently an Honorary Teaching Fellow for the Centre for Archive and Information Studies at the University of Dundee.

The Florentine has announced that: the Alinari Archive, with its over five million items from the 1840s to the present day, was purchased by the Region of Tuscany at the end of 2019 and now has a new home. It is now under the management of the new Alinari Foundation (Fondazione Alinari), which has the scope of conserving and promoting the archive. The foundation announced its new home - the historic Villa Fabbricotti or Arcipressi, in Florence - and plans for the future, including a museum, although the location has yet to be determined.

Read the full piece here: https://www.theflorentine.net/2021/02/16/new-alinari-foundation/

After the success of last year’s inaugural 'Sessions on the History of Stereoscopic Photography' held virtually at the 3D-Con (annual conference), the National Stereoscopic Association is again seeking papers on the history of stereography for its second annual “Sessions.”

We seek presentations on any aspect of stereo-media from the inception of stereoscopic photography to contemporary virtual and augmented reality. Topics include but are not limited to: historical and archival discoveries; studies on collecting and the culture of stereography; marketing and incorporation; intersectionality; immersive media, interactivity and performance; stereoscopic perception; 3D cinema and virtual reality; instrumentality and simulation. Papers on topics from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century are invited. The conference will be held in 3D on zoom.

The National Stereoscopic Association’s
Sessions on the History of Stereoscopic Photography
a virtual conference of the 47^th 3D-Con 
August 12, 2021
Deadline for abstracts: May 15, 2021.

Please send an abstract of 500 words, a biography of 250 words, and an information sheet found at:  https://3d-con.com/files/2020NSASessionsCallforPapersSessions.docx

email to: Melody Davis, davism6@sage.edu

Notification of acceptance by May 31, 2021.  Digital images will be expected by July 16, 2021.

A forthcoming publication will tell the story of the photographer and filmmaker Herbert Ponting.  Ponting (1870-1935) was young bank clerk when he bought an early Kodak camera. By the early 1900s, he was living in California, working as a professional photographer, known for stereoview and enlarged images of America, Japan and the Russo-Japanese war. In 1909, back in Britain, Ponting was recruited by Captain Robert Scott as photographer and filmmaker for his second Antarctic expedition.

In 1913, following the deaths of Scott and his South Pole party companions, Ponting’s images of Antarctica were widely published, and he gave innovative ‘cinema-lectures’ on the expedition. When war broke out, Ponting’s offers to serve as a photographer or correspondent were declined, but in 1918 he, Ernest Shackleton and other Antarctic veterans joined a government-backed Arctic expedition.

During the economically depressed 1920s and 1930s, Ponting wrote his Antarctic memoir, re-worked his Antarctic films into silent and ‘talkie’ versions and worked on inventions. Like others, he struggled financially but was sustained by correspondence with George Eastman, a late-life romance with singer Glae Carrodus and knowing that his images of Antarctica had secured his place in photographic and filmmaking history.

Herbert Ponting
Anne Strathie
ISBN: 9780750979016
Published: 19-03-2021

See: https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/herbert-ponting/9780750979016/

Historical photography collections sometimes contain images that can be deeply troubling to contemporary viewers. What should be done with collections that include photographs of colonial violence, enslaved subjects, racist stereotypes, or other difficult imagery?

Join moderator David Odo and photography curators Mark Sealy, Makeda Best, and Ilisa Barbash for a conversation about the challenges and possibilities of curating legacy collections of photographs today.

Presented in partnership with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture.

Speakers:
Mark Sealy, Director of Autograph A.B.P. and Principal Fellow Decolonising Photography at University of the Arts London

Makeda Best, Richard L. Menschel Curator of Photography, Harvard Art Museums

Ilisa Barbash, Curator of Visual Anthropology, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University

David Odo, Director of Academic and Public Programs, Division Head, and Research Curator, Harvard Art Museums

This talk will take place online via Zoom. Free admission, but registration is required.

Friday, 26 February 2021
2:00pm - 3:00pm (EST)  / 1900-2000 (GMT)

To register, please complete this online form.

The International Conference on Stereo & Immersive Media aims to bring together the research fields of photography, sound and cinema, considering their historical and current relationships with expanded and immersive environments. In 2021, due to the Corona virus pandemic, its 4th edition will adopt an online format and will combine traditional plenary sessions and themed parallel tracks, with a S3D Short Film Festival and a Virtual Art Gallery to showcase the most recent and diverse immersive artworks.

Stereoscopic and immersive technologies have been widening the scopes of photography, sound and cinema since the 19th century. Immersion draws both on state of the art technologies and on old and discontinued media that have once stimulated and expanded our perception. While these technologies (from stereo views to cinema, virtual reality or video gaming) have deeply strengthened the human relationship to virtual worlds, they have also made visual documents more engaging, triggering richer and more inspiring interpretations of reality. Today, some of these technologies are also being used and considered vital to reshape our perception of heritage and to allow new readings and museological experiences of historical collections.

The conference will be online 17 and 18 June 2021

cfp by 1 March 2021 See: http://stereoimmersivemedia.ulusofona.pt/submissions/

The collection store is home to hundreds of cameras, projectors and photographic accessories, and hundreds of thousands of images. This collections tells significant stories about local photographers, photographic technology, and the film & camera manufacturing and retail industry in Australia, with a focus on Kodak. Images range from humble family portraits and scenes sent to loved ones, to significant studio collections that document industry, agriculture and exploration.

Fiona and Lorenzo will be opening cabinets, drawers, albums and storage boxes in the photography collection store to show you some of their favourite artefacts. You will see beautiful 19th century brass and wood studio cameras as well as fantastic plastic 20th century cameras; magic lantern projectors and lantern slides; and a selection of images on glass, plastic and paper!

This online show will take place using Zoom Webinar. You will receive a link to join the webinar a few days before the event. This is your chance to ask our experts your burning questions face-to-face (well, via Zoom!).

23 February 2021
online 1800-1900 (Melbourne, AUZ) / 0700-0800 GMT)

AUZ $16 [approx, £6.75] (non-members) AUS $12 (members) 

Register here: https://museumsvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum/whats-on/members-virtual-event-live-from-the-image-collections/

Fiona Kinsey / Senior Curator, Images and Image Making, Museums Victoria

Fiona Kinsey is Senior Curator of the Images and Image Making Collection in the Society & Technology Department at Museums Victoria, where she has worked for the last 22 years. She currently collects, researches and interprets material culture relating to the history of the Australian photographic industry and photographic practice. Fiona is passionate about engaging with communities and for the past fifteen years she has worked on the Kodak Heritage Collection. This year Fiona has brought her attention to documenting the ways that Victorians have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in relation to panic buying and the changing relationships between producers, suppliers and consumers.

Lorenzo Iozzi / Senior Collection Manager, Images Society and Technology, Museums Victoria

Lorenzo Iozzi studied Fine Art (Painting) at RMIT University and has a Postgraduate Certificate in Art Conservation from the University of Melbourne. He continues a practical interest in fine art particularly through still life and landscape painting. He joined Museums Victoria in 2005 where his current role is Senior Collection Manager of Images in the Society and Technology Department. This work has fostered an interest in the way images shape our understanding of the world, in particular, through the photographic image. One of the most rewarding and comprehensive team projects has been to preserve and research the Museum’s magic lantern artefacts and lantern slide images.

A short film by Martin Shakeshaft gives an introduction to one of the oldest working photography businesses in the UK, W. W. Winter of Derby, which is still in business and with origins back to 1855. 

See: https://youtu.be/8GMUjYaI4jw

Hi there, I'm Associate Prof. at University College Dublin in History of Art, where I teach annual classes in the history of photography. I try where I can to incorporate actual photographic objects into my teaching, as it makes a great impression on students, and reminds them of the materiality of the subject!

I'm currently working to build up a 'teaching collection' of original photographic examples for my students to be able to examine as part of their learning. I'm therefore not looking for highly 'collectible' or valuable items, but simply useful examples of different processes, that will be handled by the students (with care). I'm not particular about subject etc, only that the items are in reasonable condition.

I will of course pay for shipping etc. to Ireland! I know that EBay is another option, and I know some of these items are rarer than others, but thought I might check first with this community, in any event

Apologies if this has been posted before. Not British, but I'm sure members will be interested to hear that a trove of photographs of early American suffragists, including prints and glass negatives, has been discovered in a boarded-up attic in upstate New York. The photographer was James Hale, whose photography shop had been next door.

See https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/02/09/a-hidden-suffragists-portrait-studio-discovered-in-a-new-york-attic/

Editor's note: This has been widely reported and a quick Google search will pull up other reports and images.

We are pleased to launch a new opportunity in collaboration with The Ampersand Foundation for a mid-career photographer living in the UK. The Ampersand/Photoworks Fellowship will provide a transformative opportunity for a mid-career artist to complete a new body of work.

Whilst many opportunities exist for emerging and graduate photographers including our own Jerwood/Photoworks Awards, the UK currently has few high-profile open access opportunities for mid-career photographers that support artists to make and exhibit new work. This new opportunity aims to enable and nurture the creation of new work through a combination of support including a £15,000 award, mentoring and curatorial support, a dedicated public programme and digital content with international reach, production budget and touring exhibition.

The artist will be selected through a free open call; submissions are now open and will close at midnight Sunday 28 February 2021. We are looking for projects which are already in the development phase that will benefit from financial resources and curatorial guidance and which can be completed in a 12 month timeframe by April 2022.

The shortlist and final selection of the fellowship awardee will be decided by an expert panel of curators and artists to be announced shortly.

The awardee will make new work over a period of approximately 12 months throughout 2021, ready to be exhibited by Photoworks in 2022. The entire programme, including the resulting exhibition, will be curated and produced by Photoworks in collaboration with a partner touring venue.

Find out more about this opportunity here.

This new opportunity is generously funded by The Ampersand Foundation and supported by our print partner Spectrum Photographic.

How are our experience of illness shaped by visual representations? Connecting visual practice to theory, using photography as a medium of both production and creative inquiry, we invite you to join us in exploring photographic treatments of the body.

This is a participatory course and uses a mixture of self-directed and collaborative photography, visual and archival research, collage, curation, critical inquiry, case-studies, photo dialogues and reading.

Created by practitioner/academics, Liz Orton and Dr Sukey Parnell Johnson for Clod Ensemble, the course begins online on 24th March for 6 weeks.

Further details can be found here: https://performingmedicine.com/events/medicine-and-the-photographic-body/

Cristina Nuñez is presenting a series of experimental online workshops by The Real Photography Company in Bristol, investigating alternative photography processes and techniques. The four one-month workshops will be run in the SPEX platform from April to July. You can enrol on one workshop or two, three or perhaps all of them for a special price.

The Real Photography Company are Justin Quinnell, Ruth Jacobs, Wendy Leocque, Sophie Sherwood. Based in Bristol UK, they are expert teachers in black and white photography and alternative darkroom processes. During the pandemic, with their darkrooms closed, they developed accessible photographic techniques and processes enabling people in lockdown to make images based on the principles of photography, but without the usual camera equipment, darkroom facilities or chemistry. In this series of workshops, the RPC invites you to participate in a creative exploration of the world around you, to make images from plants, everyday kitchen ingredients, the action of the sun on light sensitive materials, the passage of time and the turning of the Earth in space.

The one-month Workshops are:

• April: Pinhole Photography, Solargraphy and Room Obscura Projections
• May: Anthotypes and Chlorophyll Printing
• June: Lumens and Cyanotype Printing
• July: Kitchen Chemigrams

Click here to discover more about the workshops

A new exhibition at the V&A Museum, London, explore its origins, adaptations and reinventions over 157 years of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland from manuscript to a global phenomenon beloved by all ages. Photography from Lewis Carroll to Julia Margaret Cameron features in the exhibition of course and is also the subject of an online essay 'The real Alice in Wonderland'. 

For details of the exhibition which is due to open on 27 March (but check the date as a result of COVID) see: https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/alice-curiouser-and-curiouser

To read the essay see: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-real-alice-in-wonderland

Image: Alice Liddell aged 7, photographed by Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) in 1860. Wikimedia commons.

A new web site conceived by journalist and broadcaster Barry Fox has been launched to bring together more than 100 years of technology industry photography in one place. The aptly-named www.tekkiepix.com features a multitude of historic photos spanning more than a century of technical milestones and product launches – and the fascinating stories behind them.

2021 heralds the fiftieth anniversary of home video recording and the introduction of the consumer video cassette recorder – and this is just one of the industry breakthroughs documented by this unique site. For example, type ‘U-matic’ in the search field to discover when the first video recorder went on sale and to reveal who manufactured it.

No subscriptions or fees are required to use the site, which is a completely free, non-profit treasure trove of pictures and articles covering the history of home gadgetry before the days of Apple, Google, YouTube, Spotify and Netflix. Tekkiepix also includes a comprehensive timeline of consumer technology landmarks starting from 1877.

Founder Barry Fox commented, “Tekkiepix has taken a great deal of time, investment and hard work to prepare and publish. The Covid lockdowns have provided the opportunity for me to sort, digitise and meticulously index many piles of press and publicity photos that I had been storing in my garage and attic.”

So far, many hundreds of rare pictures have been processed and posted, along with the intriguing stories behind each image. As a keen photographer, many of these pictures were captured by Barry personally at numerous product launch events, while others were issued by technology manufacturers over the years. Barry carefully archived the collection rather than disposing of the images. He added, “Tekkiepix is giving these publicity pictures the chance of a second life.”

There is much more material to be added, with boxes of negatives and transparencies still to be scanned, and Barry hopes that through donations from enthusiasts, or perhaps sponsorship by an interested organisation, he can expand Tekkiepix much further: “I have added a Donate button to encourage contributions. Through this support, I’ll be able to build the site and turn it into an even more valuable and educational resource for younger generations to appreciate in the future.”

Many of the companies that originally distributed the pictures to the media for PR purposes have long since closed or been sold, and Barry believes this may be the only lasting record of these historically important photographs.

Over the past six months, Barry has been generously assisted by former technology magazine editor Richard Dean in professionally re-vamping and expanding the original ‘DIY’ site design, with support from photographer and website designer John Kentish.

See: https://tekkiepix.com/

Bonhams' auction of Travel and Exploration on 10 February includes an album of mountaineering photographs by William F Donkin and Vittorio Sella, dating from the 1880s. It is estimated at £6000-8000. Donkin was a member of the Photographic Society from 1881 until his death in a mountaineering accident in 1888 and the Society's honorary secretary. 

The catalogue entry notes: William Frederick Donkin died, aged 43, during a climbing expedition to the Caucasus in 1888. Fêted at the time of his premature death, with a retrospective exhibition of his work held at the instigation of the Alpine Club (of which he was honorary secretary from 1885-1888) and Photographic Society in 1889, Donkin has subsequently been overshadowed by the longer lived Sella. This is undoubtedly due to the lack of details known about his life (no entry on ODNB) and scarcity of his works. The current album includes many views attributed to him.

The album was originally with The Rucksack Society. 

See the full catalogue entry here.

Hundred Heroines which celebrates women in photography is presenting an online symposium to discuss the work of the Heroines showcased in its Anemoia online gallery, It will have some special guests and will include a Q&A.

Chaired by Haley Drolet (Research Assistant, Faculty of History, Oxford University). Hundred Heroines will welcome Amanda Hopkinson, Ralph Harrington, Monika Baker and Jean Bubley to discuss the work of Edith Tudor Hart, Berenice Abbott, Homai Vyarawalla, Fanny Foster, Esther Bubley, Gerti Deutsch and Nancy Sheung. They are all featured in the exhibition. The event promises to give new insight to the life and work of these Heroines.

The full programme will be announced on the Hundred Heroines website shortly.

Bookings can be made here

Click here to join the Hundred Heroines mailing list for updates.

Image: Homai Vyarawalla. Rehana Mogul and Mani Turner at work in sculpture class at the J.J. School of Arts. A live male model can be seen in the background. Bombay, late 1930s. HV Archive/Alkazi Collection of Photography

Recent scholarship surrounding the development, use, and reuse of colour photography has highlighted the need for more research and debate about photographic colour, in terms of histories, technologies and the emotions they have affected. Long told as merely a triumphalist history of technological achievement, colour photography is steeped as well in controversy, in the re-telling of history, in activism, in politics of individuals, communities and countries. Colour photography, while a boon to some, has been developed and deployed at the expense of others. The PHRC seeks contributions especially from scholars who seek to make the voices of such individuals and communities heard.

In this 9th annual conference of the PHRC we invite papers addressing contemporary debates in and around colour photography. We invite short abstracts of 150-200 words on topics that address themes like:

• Historical and contemporary uses of colourisation
• Emotional and affective responses to colour photography
• Industrial histories
• Activist and political uses of colour in photography
• Colour photography in race and identity politics

Due to the nature of online conferencing, PHRC will innovate its format this year, and thus we are seeking very short abstracts of 150-200 words, and up to 5 keywords for a 15-minute presentation.

Please send abstracts for consideration to phrc@dmu.ac.uk by 26 February 2021 - including name, contact details and institutional affiliation (when applicable).

Photography and Its Many Colours. Innovations, Emotions and Activism
14-15 June 2021
ONLINE via Microsoft Teams (De Montfort University, Leicester UK)
Follow on Twitter: @PHRC_DeMontfort
Conference hashtag #PHRC21

Image: Patricia Wilder 

Farleys House & Gallery is presenting Lee Miller: Fashion in Wartime Britain, a major exhibition opening on 21 March 2021. The exhibition will explore the under recognised body of fashion photography made by the renowned surrealist photographer during the Second World War. It will feature over 60 of Miller’s images for British Vogue from 1939 to early 1944, many of which have never been seen before. The exhibition will be accompanied by a major new publication, featuring over 100 recently archived images.  

This important aspect of Lee Miller’s wartime work has previously been overshadowed by her role as a front line correspondent in the final years of the war. New research, undertaken for the exhibition and book, on Miller’s wartime diaries has uncovered the sheer volume of editorial shoots for British Vouge that she worked on for most of the early 1940s. Despite paper rationing, British Vogue was kept in print throughout the war under the influential editorship of Audrey Withers and was seen as an opportunity by the British government to encourage women to join the war effort. Its pages were transformed into a guide for “soldiers without guns”, whilst continuing to advise on fashion and how to make the most of what was available in spite of clothes rationing, which was introduced in 1941. Miller’s fashion output was so prolific that in 1941, Audrey Withers described just how important Miller was to the publication: ‘she has borne the whole weight of our studio production through the most difficult period in Brogue’s [British Vogue’s] history’.

Photographs on display will provide insight into the prevailing fashions of the day, from factory wear to evening gowns and suits by famed designers including Norman Hartnell, Digby Morton, Hardy Amies and Bianca Mosca, one of the few female fashion designers from the period. Despite the difficult wartime conditons, Lee used her surrealist eye and technical skills in the art direction of her photographs and often took models out of the studio to museums, a taxidermy shop and onto the streets. Most notably she photographed broadcaster Elizabeth Cowell, one of the first female television announcers, against a backdrop of bombed out houses in London.

In 1940 during the early days of the war Lee wrote to her parents, describing the immense difficulty of shooting during the Blitz and the team’s perseverance: ‘the studio never missed a day – bombed once and fired twice – working with the neighbouring buildings still smouldering – the horrid smell of wet charred wood – the stink of cordite – the fire hoses still up the stair cases and we had to wade bare foot to get in – little restaurants producing food on a primus stove – carrying water to flush toilets and whoever could, taking the prints and negs home to do at night if they had the sacred combination of gas, electricity and water.’

The exhibition will be accompanied by a lavishly illustrated coffee table book, featuring over 100 photographs, published by Lee Miller Archives, with contributions from Robin Muir, Amber Butchart and introduction by Lee Miller’s granddaughter Ami Bouhassane.  

The exhibition and book have been made possible with support from the DCMS Culture Recovery Fund awarded by the Arts Council England. Farleys House & Gallery and the Lee Miller Archives were saved from imminent closure due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic following a successful crowdfunder in the summer of 2020. The crowdfunder enabled vital conservation work to take place on the house and helped to support future programming. Without the funding and continued encouragement and support of everyone through these difficult times Farleys and the Lee Miller Archives would not be able to continue.

Lee Miller: Fashion in Wartime Britain
Publication date 21 March 2021
Available for pre-order from February through www.leemiller.co.uk and all good bookshops.
ISBN: 9780 9532389 8 9

Gallery opening hours & ticketing information
The exhibition will be on view from Saturday 21 March – July 2021.
Farleys House & Garden is open every Thursday and Sunday, 10am to 4.30pm
Tickets will be available from early March 2021. Pre-booking advised through www.farleyshouseandgallery.co.uk.

Image: Image credit: Lee Miller, Corsetry, Solarised Photographs, Vogue Studio London England 1942 © Lee Miller Archives, England 2020. All rights reserved.

Out of the Archive is a new online talks series exploring how photography archives can both document the past and inspire the present. It is presented by Four Corners and will bring in organisations and artists working with archives to share untold stories, initiate new work and catalyse community projects. It runs on Thursdays throughout February

The next two talks are: 

Revisiting Radical Community Photography | 11 February | 6.30 - 8.00pm 
A closer look at the radical, youth-led photography projects recording South and East London in the 1970s and 1980s by photographer Paul Carter, who will be discussing the influential Blackfriars Photography Project, as well as the more recent SE1 Stories initiative, which is documenting and celebrating the history of community action around Waterloo and North Southwark.

Also joining are Andrew Woodyatt and Tamara Stoll from the Rio Cinema Archive. They will be sharing their discovery, documentation and publication of a vast collection of images produced by the Rio Cinema’s Tape/Slide Newsreel Group, which gave a voice to unemployed young people in Hackney, and now offers a fascinating insight into the era. Register here 

Photographers in the Archives | 18 February | 

Anita Corbin and Ingrid Pollard  will talk about their work reactivating photography archives to create new projects. Further details coming soon. 

See more and details of past talks here: https://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/whats-on/out-of-the-archives