Blogs

Geoff Belknap, Head Curator at the National Science+Media Museum, Bradford, has written an extended blog discussing how photography is being collected within the Science Museum Group.

Photography presents particular challenges because of the ubiquity and extent of the medium, although the museum continues to collect both photographs and photographic technology.  As Belknap notes: "we want to tell compelling stories about how photography affects our lives, but we also need to acknowledge that we can’t tell every story about photography". With a spectrum ranging from the processes and equipment through to the photographic image, "there lays a whole range of meaning for photography based on how we use photography, such as for scientific research; for political reasons; to monitor and record; as commercial objects; as tools for circulating and exchanging information; or as aesthetic creative expression. This middle ground can be called photographic practice".

As such, he notes, "our focus will emphasise the areas of photographic process and practice...this means we are particularly interested in the stories of how material images and technology (whether analogue or digital) were made and used... In other words, we are less interested in what is represented in a photograph, and more interested in its production and use."

Read Geoff's full blog post 'Process, Product and Practice: Our approach to collecting photography' here: https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/blog/collecting-photography/

The Photographers’ Gallery has announced highlights of its 2021 programme, including major exhibitions of Sebastião Salgado and Helen Levitt, the 25th anniversary exhibition of the Deutsche Borse Photography Foundation Prize, a rare exhibition of archival photographs from the Guardian Picture Library and a newly commissioned work by Turner Prize co-winner, Helen Cammock.

2021 also marks the fiftieth anniversary of The Photographers’ Gallery and over the course of the year, the Gallery is staging a special series of exhibitions and events reflecting on its legacy and impact and looking towards the future of photography in a rapidly changing world. Full details of these will be announced in the new year and will include a look back at five decades of the Gallery’s history, while reflecting on the wider photographic landscape.

In Summer 2021, the gallery is delighted to launch the Soho Photography Quarter in partnership with Westminster Council. This major public space development in the West End will transform the area outside TPG, creating a pedestrianised open-air gallery with a rolling programme of specially curated exhibitions and commissions.

https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/

10×10 Photobooks is pleased to announce the launch of a new program of annual photobook research grants to encourage and support scholarship on under-explored topics in photobook history. The first year’s theme expands on 10×10’s forthcoming project What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women, 1843 to 1999 that will launch in Fall 2021 in association with the New York Public Library and will include a touring reading room, publication, and series of public events.

10×10’s photobook research grant application is now open through March of 2021 and accepts submissions related to research and scholarship that seeks to fill gaps and supply missing information in the history of women and photobooks from 1843 to 1999. The concept of the photobook is interpreted in the widest sense possible: classic bound books, portfolios, personal albums, unpublished books, zines, and scrapbooks. Research topics may include, but are not limited to: significant but lesser-known photobooks by women, women book-makers in underrepresented regions, women uncredited for their contributions, women in book publishing and women photobook designers and publishers, etc.   

The Grant:

10×10 Photobooks will award 2 grants per year, in the amount of $1,500 each which will be paid in increments during the course of the project.

Grantees are expected to produce a presentation and a paper within a year of the grant being awarded. Paper needs to be in English. Grantees will be assigned a contact/mentor. 10×10 will also assist where able and desired with in-progress review, identifying information, making introductions, etc. The result of the research will be presented and discussed during an event organized by 10×10 Photobooks (a zoom online event and as possible a physical gathering at a relevant festival/fair/conference).

10×10 will be granted the right to publish the resulting paper online and in print in a 10×10 publication. The writer retains copyright and after your work is presented/published by 10×10, you are free to republish it, or to give others permission to republish it. We ask that if you do so, you credit it as follows: [article name] by [author] was supported by 10×10 Photobooks.

See more: https://10x10photobooks.org/10x10-research-grants/

James William Newland’s (1810–1857) career as a showman daguerreotypist began in the United States but expanded into Central and South America, across the Pacific to New Zealand and colonial Australia and onto India. Newland used the latest developments in photography, theatre and spectacle to create powerful new visual experiences for audiences in each of these volatile colonial societies.

This book assesses his surviving, vivid portraits against other visual ephemera and archival records of his time. Newland’s magic lantern and theatre shows are imaginatively reconstructed from textual sources and analysed, with his short, rich career casting a new light on the complex worlds of the mid-nineteenth century. It provides a revealing case study of someone brokering new experiences with optical technologies for varied audiences at the forefront of the age of modern vision.

This book will be of interest to scholars in art and visual culture, photography, the history of photography and Victorian history.

Thanks to all our colleagues who assisted in the research and publication of this book, out now. Feedback welcome.

Contents

1. The Americas: Competing photographic practices across shifting political borders 
2. The Pacific: Photographing Indigenous royalty amid British and French imperial tensions 
3. Australia: Daguerrean galleries, dissolving views and visual spectacle 
4. India: The heart of empire 
5. Britain and India: Brokering new experiences and spaces for photography and performance 

Author Biographies

Elisa deCourcy is a specialist in early photography and a Research Fellow in the Research School of Humanities and the Arts at the Australian National University.

Martyn Jolly is Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Art and Design at the Australian National University and was Lead Chief Investigator on the Australian Research Council Project 'Heritage in the Limelight: The Magic Lantern in Australia and the World'.

Empire, Early Photography and Spectacle: The Global Career of Showman Daguerreotypist J.W. Newland
Elisa deCourcy and Martyn Jolly
Routledge History of Photography
175 pages, indexed, with 56 illustrations and 8 colour plates, including 22 daguerreotypes in colour and monochrome drawn from public and private collections around the world.

Reviews and Purchase: https://www.routledge.com/Empire-Early-Photography-and-Spectacle-The-Global-Career-of-Showman-Daguerreotypist/deCourcy-Jolly/p/book/9781350130364

eBook: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781003104780

J.W. Newland, woman with nodding head doll, 1849-c.1857, Calcutta, cased, uncoloured, sixth-plate daguerreotype, 8 x 7 cms (approx). Courtesy the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford. 1965.430.

Colin Ford, one of the first curators of photography in Britain and the founding head of the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, will be talking to Gilly Read about his career on 28 January 2021. 

The event is free but registration is required here: https://rps.org/ColinFord 

The Stanley B. Burns M.D. Historic Medical Photography Collection has been acquired by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University. It  includes images of physicians and medical scientists at work, operation rooms, hospital wards, laboratories, nurses and nursing, notable physicians, surgical specialties, and war medicine. There are also thousands of photos of patients and disease states. The collection is notable for its range of forms, including photo albums, framed photographs, publications, cartes de visite (small photos mounted on cardboard), cabinet cards, postcards, and personal collections assembled by noted physicians. Virtually every format is represented, including boxes of lantern slides and 253 unique daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes from the earliest years of photography.

“The Burns Collection is one of the most compelling and comprehensive visual records of medical history ever assembled,” said Melissa Grafe, the John R. Bumstead Librarian for Medical History and head of the Medical Historical Library, the medical library’s special collections repository. “From early depictions of surgery to profoundly personal family images and photo albums, it shows how deeply medicine is interwoven in human lives.”

See more here: https://news.yale.edu/2020/12/02/newly-acquired-trove-historic-photos-captures-evolution-medicine

This display of original photogravures and vintage platinum prints has been organised in conjunction with renowned 19th century photography specialist Robert Hershkowitz.

At a time when so many of us are weighing up the value of urban living in favour of more rural existences, these images resonate with a longing for the English countryside and its traditional ways of life. We are exhibiting original photogravures from Emerson’s most famous series Marsh Leaves (1895), in addition to a selection of platinum prints from his first album Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads (1886).

We would be delighted to welcome you to the gallery to view the work in person, and you can also visit the works in the exhibition, online, via the button below.

P. H. Emerson is now open at Michael Hoppen Gallery and will run until 31 January, 2021.

See:  https://website-michaelhoppenviewingroom.artlogic.net/viewing-room/16-p.h.-emerson/?_cmspreview=1

This exhibition has been a victim of two COVID lockdowns and was originally due to open in June, and then in November. With London in COVID Tier 2 it will now open on 8 December 2020 and run until 9 May 2021...  Unearthed traces the rich history of the medium through depictions of nature, with over 100 works by 41 leading international artists. Unearthed: Photography's Roots will reveal the fascinating technical processes and narratives behind these images, showcasing innovations in photography by key figures including William Henry Fox Talbot and Imogen Cunningham as well as several overlooked photographers including rare works by Japanese artist, Kazumasa Ogawa and the English gardener, Charles Jones. Jones’ striking modernist photographs of plants remained unknown for 20 years after his death, until they were discovered in a trunk at Bermondsey Market in 1981.

Curator Alexander Moore, Creative Producer at Dulwich Picture Gallery said: "Nature is a constant, and there’s a reason that artists through the centuries have always returned to it…the social landscape changes, media influences change, even geography changes. But nature is this enduring force. We can’t help but be inspired because it’s unwavering." 

The exhibition opens with some of the first known Victorian images by Talbot, with his experiments with paper negatives, and will also feature many works by one of the first female photographers Anna Atkins. Focusing on botany and science throughout, themes range from typology and form to experiments with colour and modernism. The show culminates with more recent advancements in photography, from the glamour and eroticism of artists Robert Mapplethorpe and Nobuyoshi Araki, to experimentations with still life compositions by Richard Learoyd.

The Gallery's mausoleum will host a contemporary installation from renowned video artist Ori Gersht, On Reflection reimagines a still life painting by Jan Brueghel the elder, and has never before been on show in the UK.

Unearthed: Photography's Roots
8 December 2020 - 9 May 2021
See more about the exhibition, opening times and booking here: https://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/2020/june/unearthed/

Wedgwood 250 will mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Tom Wedgwood on 14 May 1771. It is arranged jointly by the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) and the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (SHAC), The youngest son of the prominent potter Josiah Wedgwood, Tom was very well known in the intellectual and scientific circles of his day and today is chiefly remembered for developing what was later identified as a very early form of chemical photography, including the use of the camera obscura. Speakers at this meeting will discuss his life, work, friendships and legacy. 

A programme will be issued early in 2021. It is intended that this will be a one day meeting held at RPS House, Bristol on 15 May 2021. Should it appear by mid-April that Covid restrictions will not have eased sufficiently to permit a face-to-face meeting, then it will be held virtually over two half days on 14 and 15 May. In any case provision will be made for live streaming over the internet. 

Further details will be available from Dr Michael Pritchard (michael@rps.org) or Professor Frank James (frank.james@ucl.ac.uk).  

A paid studentship funded by the UK’s Arts & Humanities Research Council, supported by the South West & Wales Doctoral Partnership and co-supervised by the universities of Cardiff and Bristol is available. Titled Traces of Empire in the Built Environment: Exploring the Collective Memory of Colonialism through the Photographic Collections of the Historic England Archive, applications close on 25 January 2021. 

The project will use historic photographs to tease out the multiple ways in which the English built environment has been formed and reformed through its links to empire. This will include an examination of a wide range of areas, including the construction of monuments and statuary, the creation of buildings and spaces, and the work of the tens of thousands of people who travelled from the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia and found work as architects and builders in England’s cities. The photography collections of the Historic England Archive provide a unique and currently underexplored resource for exploring these themes. The Archive’s collection of 9 million images is one of the largest photography collections in the country, and provides a crucial window into the shaping of the built environment

Further details about the studentship can be found here: https://www.sww-ahdtp.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/CDA-1-Photographic-Traces.Further-Details.pdf

Details of the application process are provided here: https://www.sww-ahdtp.ac.uk/prospective-students/apply/collaborative-doctoral-award-projects-2021/

The deadline for applications is Monday 25th January 2021.

The Wolfson Foundation's New Collecting Awards give curators 100 per cent funding to research and buy works that grow their museums’ collections in new directions or deepen existing ones – such as commissioning new photographic portraits of people underrepresented in Scotland’s national collection and the acquisition of works by indigenous artists. Each winning curator receives a budget for acquisitions alongside funding for research, travel, and training, plus the support of a mentor and Art Fund staff and trustees. The programme invests in curatorial talent and allows museums to bring works of art and objects into public view.

Two of the 2020 winners will support new photography projects:

Louise Pearson, Curator (Photography), National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
Louise Pearson will use Scotland’s census data to identify groups which are underrepresented in the national photography collection and address these gaps by acquiring and commissioning photographs that reflect the true breadth of Scotland’s population. These groups are likely to include single parent families, people of a mixed ethnic background, individuals from the Pakistani and Polish communities and residents of the Scottish islands.

Catherine Troiano, Curator, National Photography Collections, National Trust, Lacock
Catherine Troiano will develop a collection of photography since the 1970s, that represents diverse experiences of British heritage and speaks to local, regional and national histories. The project seeks to expand the Trust’s existing national collections of photography, which are richest in material from the 1840s to the mid-twentieth century. Collecting will focus on emerging and established photographers working in Britain, whose work engages with varied perspectives of identity, land and history.

Paul Ramsbottom, Wolfson Foundation chief executive said, “We are delighted to continue our long partnership with Art Fund. The finances of museums and galleries are under pressure, and so it is more important than ever to invest in curators. The items to be collected will be important acquisitions for the already remarkable collections at these five wonderful institutions.”

Jenny Waldman, Art Fund director said: “Supporting curators and their development is core to Art Fund’s charitable programme. Many museums’ collections are currently behind closed doors, but curators are still caring for, researching, and expanding them for the benefit of audiences. During a year in which we all are reflecting more deeply on critical issues including equality and diversity, we are delighted to support projects broadening representation when building collections.”

The New Collecting Awards programme is run by Art Fund and supported by a consortium of funders, including the Wolfson Foundation. For more information, please visit: https://www.artfund.org/supporting-museums/programmes/new-collecting-awards.

The charity is also fundraising to support museums through the urgent crowdfunding appeal Together for Museums aiming to raise £1m to help museums adapt to Covid-19 and evolve in the future.

Preservation of modern photographic works of art in museum collections. The Dutch Foundation for the Conservation of Contemporary Art (SBMK), sixteen museums, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Cultural Heritage Agency of The Netherlands (RCE) will join forces in a large-scale collaborative project titled ‘Project Collection Knowledge 2.0 / Photography’. The goal of this three year project is to sustainably preserve photographic works of art in Dutch collections for the future, and as such, to make them accessible to the general public. Applied research will be used to develop a method whereby collection managers, conservators and others charged with collection care learn to identify and monitor their 20th and 21st Century photographic collection and if necessary, carry out preventative conservation measures.

The project is a continuation of the successful pilot ‘Collection Knowledge 2.0/Pilot Plastics’ (2017-2019) that focused on the identification and conservation of various types of plastic, used in art and design objects. The project ‘Project Collection Knowledge 2.0 / Photography’ will run from October 1st 2020 until October 1st 2023 and is financially supported by the Gieskes-Strijbis Foundation, the Mondrian Fund, UvA, RCE and the Wertheimer Foundation, managed by the Prins Bernhard Culture Foundation. It is impossible to imagine collections of modern and contemporary art without photographic works. Museums are increasingly in need of expertise to preserve both analogue and digital (colour) photographs. Expertise on printing processes, finishing techniques, photographic paper and supports as well as correct terminology is often lacking within Dutch museums. What are the best ways to store and exhibit photographs whilst preserving them for the future? Identification ‘on the job’

In this collaborative project, lead by the SBMK and the UvA, partners will develop, share and implement practical knowledge to improve collection care, visibility and accessibility of photographic art works. Participating museum staff will learn ‘on the job’ about materials and techniques and how to identify photographic works in their own collection. During hands-on training surveying collections, research questions will be formulated and investigated, and in combination with existing national and international knowledge, a digital tool will be developed and tested that will help others world wide gain more insight into their modern photograph collections. As a result each of the 13 participating museum will have a sub-collection of surveyed, identified and well-registered photographic works. Key outcomes of the project will be the afore mentioned digital platform with information on the most common and/or problematic printing processes, finishing techniques, photographic papers and supports of both analogue and digital photography, as well as a physical set of reference material samples of many of the past and current photographic processes that are found in museum collections today.  

Implementing the knowledge gained
During the project, under the guidance of the UvA and the Cultural Heritage Laboratory of RCE, two young professionals will be trained to specialize in the preservation of photography. Research will be carried out by students from the Master Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage at the UvA. Lectures and seminars to disseminate knowledge learned will be organised for the public. The digital platform will be freely available, in both Dutch and English, to anyone interested in the preservation of photographs. The outcomes of this project will be applicable to collections worldwide. The project concludes with a public symposium during which the outcomes and results will be presented.

Partners
The ‘Project Photography’ is coordinated by the SBMK together with the UvA. Thirteen organisations having a modern photography collection are partners; Amsterdam Museum, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Bonnefanten, De Domijnen, Frans Hals Museum| De Hallen, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Huis Marseille, Kröller-Müller Museum, Kunstmuseum Den Haag / Fotomuseum Den Haag, Stichting Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Rabo Artcollection and RCE-Artcollections. Advisory partners are Rijksmuseum, NICAS, National Archives en Nederlands Fotomuseum.

More about the SBMK:https://www.sbmk.nl/en/ ;

More about the MSc in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage: https://www.uva.nl/en/discipline/conservation-and-restoration/conservation-and-restoration.html

In October 2020 the Dutch Foundation for the Preservation of Contemporary Art (SBMK), the University of Amsterdam (UvA), sixteen museums, and the Cultural Heritage Agency of The Netherlands (RCE) joined forces in a three-year collaborative project titled ‘Project Collection Knowledge 2.0 - Photography’.

As a result of the Dutch Photography Project, we are very excited to be able to offer you the one time opportunity to purchase an extensive photographic sample set of modern and contemporary processes, some of which are now obsolete. Examples include: dye transfer, photo-linen, silver dye bleach, dye diffusion, toned silver gelatin developed-out, and also contemporary processes and techniques such as face-mounted, laminated chromogenic prints and dye sublimation on metal (ChromaLuxe®). Please see the following link for the complete list of samples included.

Sample Set & Online Tool
This unique sample set of reference materials serves as a material aid for the identification of modern and contemporary photographs. The set is the physical component of the digital tool for identification of photograph processes, supports and finishing techniques that will be developed during the duration of the Project Collection Knowledge 2.0 - Photography. The digital online tool will include process identification and extensive information about preservation issues surrounding modern and contemporary photographs. The online tool will be made available in English and Dutch and be similar in design to the Plastic Identification Tool that was developed in the  previous SBMK project.

The set can be used for educational and research purposes. Various national and international printing labs and photographers are responsible for the printing of the sample set that encompasses 43 selected papers of photographic processes and techniques to represent the materials found in photography collections. Due to a one-off substantial discount provided by the printing labs and photographer’s participating in the production of the sample set, it can be produced within the project for a special price. This discount reduces the cost by € 844,-. Download complete list of samples.

Costs
Interested parties pay € 1462.00 (excluding shipping and VAT costs). We can only guarantee the complete set with 43 samples for this price if we receive orders by 15 December 2020. Send an email to aanmelden@sbmk.nl

The latest issue of British Art Studies no. 18 has gone online and includes two papers of particular interest to BPH readers, from Sarah Parsons and Steve Edwards. 

Sarah Parsons, 'Women in Fur: Empire, Power, and Play in a Victorian Photography Album'. The craze for carte-de-visite portraits in the early 1860s established photography as an intensely social practice. As cartes were bought, gifted, traded, archived, and displayed, they captured and created social networks. This article asks what we can learn about the social language and networks of early photography by turning instead to amateur photography, specifically women’s amateur efforts.

Steve Edwards, 'Making a Case: Daguerreotypes'. This essay considers physical daguerreotype cases from the 1840s and 1850s alongside scholarly debate on case studies, or “thinking in cases”, and some recent physicalist claims about objects in cultural theory, particularly those associated with “new materialism”. 

British Art Studies is an opens source publication and the full papers can be read and downloaded from https://www.britishartstudies.ac.uk/issues/issue-index/issue-18

The Australian Centre for Photography once hosted Australia’s elite cohort of photographers. It can no longer afford to remain open. ‘ACP was part of the cultural fabric of Sydney and it welcomed everyone in’.

The official statement reads: The Australian Centre for Photography (ACP), Australia’s oldest and arguably most significant photography arts organisation announces it will go into hibernation from December 16 with a plan to restructure its vital contribution to the arts landscape in Australia.

Sydney, Australia: The Board of the Australian Centre for Photography (ACP), Australia’s oldest and arguably most significant photography arts organisation, has today announced it is moving the organisation into a period of hibernation to stem the risk of ongoing financial losses and protect the capital in an investment fund it considers vital to its long-term viability.

ACP Chairman, Michael Blomfield said: “While the decision we have made to move the organisation into a period of hibernation is a painful one, the Board believes that securing our long-term future in any form requires the protection of our capital now. In the face of massively reduced income in the COVID era, and the reality that our organisation will not receive any operational funding from federal or state funding bodies for the next three years as a minimum, it is clear that continuing to operate in our current form is a pathway to extinction.”

 Like most arts organisations – particularly in the current environment – the ACP is loss-making in the absence of public funding. By protecting its investment funds from further losses, the organisation will ensure it is able to find and fund a new form of existence. Extensive consultation will be undertaken with stakeholders with a view to finalising a pathway to a permanent presence by July 2021.

 Director and CEO, Pierre Arpin said: “The history of the ACP always was, and continues to be, of an organisation that put photography as an art form first and foremost. We have been able to achieve this thanks to the dedicated and passionate people involved in the organisation. This is an opportune time to think about what role the ACP can continue to play in supporting the place of photography and image making in our lives.”

 Operating since 1974, Sydney-based organisation, the ACP has been a vital part of the ecosystem of photography, having conducted thousands of training courses ranging from the basics of SLR photography right through to masterclasses and private tuition. Throughout its time it has been known for the quality of its tutors, many of whom have taught with the ACP over decades.

 The ACP has a proud history as an exhibitor and commissioner of Australian photographic artists, including works by Bill Henson, William Yang, Tracey Moffatt and Trent Parke, as well as the incredibly successful 2017 exhibition Under The Sun: Reimagining Max Dupain’s Sunbaker, that saw 15 Australian artists commissioned to create new work to respond to Dupain’s iconic work.

The organisation will cease its current form of operation on 16 December following the Photostart 2020 exhibition.

Photostart 2020 is a vibrant and diverse exhibition of lens-based practice, from architecture to fashion, studio work to street photography. The exhibition will also showcase the works of the ACP student community who completed photographic courses 2020. The opening night will include the announcement of the 7 Wentworth Selborne Award ($2,000) for the best overall photograph.  The exhibition, which also features current work by ACP tutors, runs from 3-16 December at the ACP Project Space Gallery in Darlinghurst.

The ACP is dedicated to supporting photographic artists in Australia and it intends to honour this legacy with the transition to a new way of operating. The restructure will place artists at the centre of its decision making to deliver positive opportunities for the new iteration of the ACP to be announced in 2021.

ACP Chairman, Michael Blomfield, says: “Calling a halt now allows us to protect the capital we have and undertake a period of consultation with stakeholders as to how we use that capital to create a permanent legacy for the organisation.”

Further information in this article 

see the ACP website here:  https://acp.org.au/

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons has digitised much of its collections and made them available to the public. Included are photographs and other material relevant to photographic history, including a series of letters from Francis Galton.

See: https://rcvsvethistory.org/

Image: Frederick Smith, Photographs of Smith's Laboratory at the Army Veterinary School, Aldershot

E. A. Hornel: From Camera to Canvas, a collaboration between the National Trust for Scotland and the City Art Centre, is the first major retrospective of Hornel's art for over 35 years. Featuring photographs and paintings from Broughton House in Kirkcudbright, this exhibition shows how photography was crucial to the development of Hornel's artistic technique. It examines his use of young, female models in Japan, Sri Lanka and Scotland, and demonstrates that he only became the painter he did thanks to the photographs he took and collected.

This extensive collection is housed at Broughton House in Kirkcudbright (Hornel's home 1901–33), which is cared for by the National Trust for Scotland. It includes c.1,700 photographs used by Hornel to create his paintings. He collected these from friends and contacts, purchased them commercially and took or posed them himself, both at home in Scotland and while travelling in Japan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

These photographs were crucial to the development of Hornel's artistic technique. E. A. Hornel: From Camera to Canvas shows that from 1890, the influence of photography can be seen in almost every facet of the artist’s painting. It provided him with access to people, places and networks. It helped him build a visual library from which he could refresh his memory and take inspiration. Hornel not only chose his subject matter based on his photographs, but copied figures, poses and imagery directly from photograph to painting.

The exploration of Hornel's photographic collection in From Camera to Canvas also reveals a more challenging hinterland to his paintings. While his photographs of Scottish girls (accompanied by their mothers and chaperoned by his sister, Elizabeth) are discomfiting to a modern eye, some of those he took of girls and young women in Sri Lanka and Japan appear intimate or intrusive.

E. A. Hornel: From Camera to Canvas
7 November 2020 - 14 March 2021, free entry, pre-booking essential 
See: https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/whats-on/e-hornel-camera-canvas

Photokina, the world's largest and most important fair for the photographic trade and consumers is to end after seventy years. In an email to the trade the organisers state: 'it is an extremely difficult step for us to have to suspend implementation of photokina at the location in Cologne for the time being, in light of the continuing steep decline in the markets for imaging products and the increasingly heterogeneous needs of the different market segments.

After decades of shared history, this deep cut is a painful one indeed. Nonetheless, we must face the situation and the trend in the industry and take a clear, honest decision against continuing this event – a decision to which, unfortunately, we have no alternative'

Photokina was first held in 1950 in Cologne and acted as a biennial showcase for manufacturers, along with a supporting exhibition and cultural programme.  At its height major manufacturers such as Leica and Kodak would occupy a whole hall changes to the industry from the early 2000s saw a contraction in its size. 

The full statement can be read here: https://www.photokina.com/

A short history of Photokina can be found here: https://kwerfeldein.de/2012/09/05/die-geschichte-der-photokina/

 

Five unique Kinora reels - a form of early moving picture - have been digitised by the National Library of Scotland and made available online. The work started in 2009 and the reels show the fishing fleet and industry in the Scottish town of Wick in north-east Scotland from the early 1900s. Although the Kinora is best known for the published reels and viewers that were sold in Britain c1900-1915, it also offered a Kinora camera and service to make up amateur reels from c1908.  The Kinora history extends back to 1896 when it was patented by the Lumière brothers and it went through several iterations before it came to Britain. 

The NLS notes: In 1989 a Kinora Viewer together with a collection of reels was given to The Wick Society for display in the Wick Heritage Museum. The reels contained local scenes and events dating between 1897 - 1910 [sic]. It was originally believed that these reels formed part of The Johnston Collection, also preserved by the National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive, however we now think that they could be the work of a contemporary local photographer John G. Humphrey.

The digitised reels can be seen here: https://movingimage.nls.uk/film/4627?search_term=wick&search_join_type=AND&search_fuzzy=yes

Read more about the history of the Kinora in Barry Anthony's The Kinora motion pictures for the home 1896-1914 (The Projection Box, 1996). 

We are pleased to announce that we have released a limited edition series of artist prints this winter for you to purchase! The print sale runs from today until Wednesday 9 December 2020 at 9pm GMT.

Drawing together a selection of photographers who have been an integral part of our programme in 2020 - Photoworks’ 25th anniversary year - the editions have been commissioned to celebrate this moment and further unpack the anniversary theme of Alternative Narratives.  

The artworks have been chosen by our team especially for this one off print sale and are by a broad range of artists:

• Ibrahim Azab
• Poloumi Basu
• Freddy Griffiths
• Alix Marie
• Silvia Rosi
• Ioanna Sakellaraki
• Guanyu Xu

The editions can be purchased for £120 (with a label signed by the artist) and 50% of the costs will go towards Photoworks, to continue creating opportunities across exhibitions, commissions and residencies for artists, and 50% will go back directly to the edition artist. Photoworks Friends get 20% off the price. The project will be supported by print partner Spectrum.

Take a look at our shop to browse the print sale here.

Image: © Ibrahim Azab, PW)_H3RE N0W)//_SINCE TH3N, 2020