If you missed the launch of 'Photography of Protest and Community' with myself and Wendy Ewald last week you can watch a recording of the event below, courtesy of Street Level Photoworks.
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This awful year has taken another toll: I am mourning the loss of a friend and mentor whom I never actually met face to face. Alan Elliott passed away on Oct. 30, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia, surrounded by family. He was a remarkable 99 years old and still active in the photographic community until the Covid lockdown confined him to the Napier Street Aged Care Home. He had participated in the Analogue Photography Group for the Melbourne Camera Club in 2019 and he missed interacting with family and friends.
Alan was a member of the Order of Australia, a Lifetime Member of the ARPS, a holder of the Fenton Medal from the UK RPS and a retired industrial chemist. But to me, Alan was a knowledgeable mentor and friend as I researched the life, works and family of Walter Bentley Woodbury (1834-1885). Woodbury happens to be my Great Great Grandfather. Alan answered my emails, sent me the transcripts of the “Woodbury Letters and Documents” in the keeping of the RPS which I didn’t know existed, and a copy of “Walter Woodbury: a Victorian Study” which he had written with other members of Victorian Chapter of the ARPS. He answered my questions, directed me to sources, obtained permission for me to quote material, and in January, when he had to leave his home on Dorcas Street and move into the Aged Care Facility, he sent me his research notes on Woodbury.
I dedicated my recently completed book on Woodbury’s life and family, “Not White Enough” which deals as much with the prejudice Woodbury and his family faced as with his inventions to Alan. (Woodbury had married Marie Olmeijer, a Javanese Eurasian woman, who was visibly biracial, and brought her to England when he needed to patent his Woodburytype process.) I wish I could have placed a copy of the book in Alan’s hands, because without him, it wouldn’t exist.
It is rare in life to meet such a kind and generous person as Alan. I will miss him.
Muriel Morris
Chilliwack, BC, Canada
BPH reported the death of Chris Killip recently. Mark Haworth-Booth, the former curator of photographs at the V&A Museum, has a written a blog which corrects that assertion in some of Killip's obituaries that he was not properly recognised and considered during his lifetime.
The V&A, perhaps exceptionally, purchased work by Killip from 1978 and later purchases included all 69 photographs from his first book, Isle of Man: A Book about the Manx, published in 1980. Haworth-Booth was also consulted over his appointment as Professor at Harvard in 1991.
The full blog can be read here: https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/museum-life/chris-killip
A BPH correspondent has been trying to find a reference to a photographer whose glass negatives were found in a friend's loft. The negs are all apparently marked 'H.M. & S.' and appear to date from the late 1890s or early 1900s. Does anyone recognise the initials?
In 2021 The Photographers' Gallery, London, celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. A new online resource looks at the history of the Gallery's print sales from 1971.From the Gallery's outset founder, Sue Davies, recognised that selling photography could help support its programmes at Great Newport Street.
The text is accompanied by audio - interviews with former managers of print sales Helena Srakocic Kovacs (1975-1980), Zelda Cheatle (1981-1989) and Francis Hodgson (1989-1993).
Read and listen to more here: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/printsaleshistory
Cambridge University's Whipple Museum collections are now fully online. Like other museums, only a small proportion of our collection is on display at any one time and, in the current public health situation, physical access to museums has become very challenging. But now you can search and browse through records and images of close to 7,000 objects, as well as records of its trade literature - all from the comfort of your own home.
In addition, the Researcher Portal allows you to download images, book research visits, request permission to publish images, and suggest ways to correct or improve the published records.
For photographic historians the Whipple collection includes some important photographic equipment.
A free new online picture archive from Reach plc, the owners of The Mirror and The Express newspapers, has been launched as the nation goes into lockdown. Despite events being cancelled nationwide the new tool allows people to celebrate and share historical moments like fireworks night, Remembrance Sunday. Memory Lane is backed by broadcaster, author and historian Professor Kate Williams.
The launch of Memory Lane follows a YouGov survey carried out for Memory Lane suggesting that the past is in danger of being lost because 80% of Brits haven’t digitised all their photos.
According to the newly commissioned nostalgia survey for Memory Lane almost a third of the population (31%) are looking at old photographs to get themselves through these times. So Memory Lane is asking the public to preserve, discover, celebrate and share images which matter to them as we enter another challenging time during the pandemic.
However, BPH would highlight the T&Cs of the site and warn potential users to be mindful of this if choosing to upload images:
If you post or upload content to the Site, you grant us a perpetual, royalty free, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and licence to use, reproduce, publish, communicate to the public, translate, create derivative works from and distribute such content into any form, medium or technology now known or hereafter developed. In addition, you waive any and all moral rights in such content.
A new resource describes the history of photography and photographic studios in South Africa. It is accompanied by a gazetteer of studios for the same period. The text and resource has been compiled by Carol Hardijzer.
The latest edition of The Classic - a free magazine about classic photography is now available. In addition, the publishers have also launched The Classic Platform, an online resource with articles from Denis Pellerin and Richard Meara, and more due to go up shortly. Also available is an auction calendar.
See: https://theclassicphotomag.com/the-classic-04/
https://theclassicphotomag.com/the-classic-auction-calendar/
Due to new lockdown restrictions Dominic Winter’s photography auction set for 18th November is rescheduled for Wednesday 16th December with a revised viewing period from Monday 7th December (strictly by pre-booked appointment and subject to any revised COVID-19 restrictions). Meanwhile the catalogue is viewable online in various formats at the auctioneer’s website.
In a bumper sale of over 400 lots it is hard to pick one single special theme but the predominance of China and Japan material is irresistible. When a privately owned collection of 90 photographs of China, Formosa and Japan in the 1860s recently came to light there was understandable excitement. The distinctive hand of John Thomson was familiar and easily recognised and the knee-jerk reaction was that most of the other photographs would be found to be by Felice Beato. However, on closer study something much more intriguing transpired and as the name of Beato faded away so the somewhat surprising name of the lesser-known American photographer Charles Leander Weed took centre stage.
Charles Weed (1824-1903) is most famous for his pioneering mammoth-plate photographs of Yosemite but knowledge of his work from his two periods based in China (1860-61 & 1866-70) is far hazier. Weed photographed in Japan in 1867 during his second period out East and took photographs with both his mammoth-plate and stereoview cameras. Many of the photographs were published in an Oriental Scenery series in both formats by Thomas Houseworth of San Francisco in 1869. However, not only was Weed uncredited but neither series appears to have been successful and, as a result, only handfuls of these Weed photographs are known institutionally and privately today. The collection is offered in 50 lots and represents half of the photography lots with a Far Eastern theme.
A further 70 lots of travel photography features India, Nepal, Cuba, West Indies, South America, etc., a good album with large-format views of Europe by Bisson Freres, Edouard Baldus, Robert Macpherson, et al. (1850s to early 1860s), albums of Greece, Turkey and one of USA in the 1880s (with 135 albumen prints by Carleton Watkins, Isaiah Taber, William H. Jackson et al.), plus an album of remote St Kilda in the 1880s with interesting provenance.
The 19th-century theme continues with photographs by Roger Fenton, Julia Margaret Cameron, Oscar Rejlander, Robert Macpherson, two rare salt prints by Peter Hinckes Bird, and a fine large-format print of Gustave Le Gray’s Brick au Claire de Lune, 1856, which graces the front cover of the catalogue.
Military photography is especially well represented with nearly 100 lots, of which nearly a half are daguerreotypes and ambrotypes of British officers, from the collection of Jack Webb. Star of the section is a three-quarter-plate daguerreotype group portrait taken outdoors at Dum Dum Artillery Station, Calcutta, February 1847.
The 20th century material includes a never-before-seen collection of negatives of the Beatles taken by Lord Christopher Thynne in April 1964 during the filming of the Beatles’ first feature film A Hard Day's Night. Just back from their first American tour, the film was a rushed project to capture the Beatlemania fad before their 'five-minute' fame passed! Largely taken at Marylebone Station and in the Garrison Room and gardens at Les Ambassadeurs, London, the photographs also feature shots with co-star Wilfrid 'Steptoe' Brambell, schoolgirl Pattie Boyd (to become the wife of George Harrison) and inspired director Richard Lester. The collection is split into 11 lots with varied estimates, and the medium format and 35mm negatives come with full copyright.
Fashion makes an appearance with a monumental 3-volume work, Les Actualités de L’Elégance, c.1914-25, while other 20th-century work includes signed photographs by Alberto Korda, Yousuf Karsh, Martin Parr, a special signed print of Christine Keeler by Lewis Morley, and a group of 4 photographs from the Cottingley Fairies series.
The sale is rounded out with lots of cartes de visite, stereoviews, glass negatives and lantern slides, assorted albums and folders, individual prints, cameras and accessories.
Digital catalogues in various formats are now available here. Printed catalogues can be had from the auction offices (£15 post inclusive). Public viewing daily from Monday 7th December, strictly by pre-booked appointment and subject to up-to-date government COVID-19 guidelines.
For further information and enquiries please contact Chris Albury chris@dominicwinter.co.uk / 01285 860006
Dominic Winter Auctioneers, Mallard House, Broadway Lane, South Cerney, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 5UQ
Image: lot 147. Three-quarter-plate daguerreotype of a military and family group outdoors, Calcutta, February 1847.
An early album of salt prints by Rev George Bridges is being offered in an online auction by Sotheby's from 3-17 November 2020. Bridges was a contemporary of Talbot and these show some of the first Calotypes of Greece, Turkey and Italy. It is estimated at £20,000-30,000.
The lot description reads:
BRIDGES, GEORGE WILSON
Album of photographs titled 'Talbotype album Mediterranean', 1846-48
oblong 4to (208 x 275mm.), 24 SALTED PAPER PRINTS (each 150 x 208mm., or the reverse), each mounted by the corners without adhesive through slits in pale blue laid paper (no visible watermarks), recto only, each with contemporary manuscript captions in pencil and/or ink, one of Athens dated 1848, one of Pompeii dated 1847, contemporary black half morocco gilt, green cloth boards, upper cover with black morocco gilt label, flat spine gilt, patterned endpapers in green, purple and gold, preserved in a modern green cloth folding box, cloth boards cockled and dampstained, binding slightly rubbed
AN IMPORTANT ALBUM OF PIONEERING TOPOGRAPHICAL PHOTOGRAPHS WITH SOME OF THE FIRST CALOTYPES OF GREECE, ITALY AND TURKEY, comprising views of Athens (15), Rome, Naples, Pompeii (3), Sicily (Messina, Mount Etna, and Palermo), and Constantinople.
George Wilson Bridges (1788-1863) was the first photographer to use William Henry Fox Talbot's "Talbotype" (calotype) paper photographic process in Greece and Constantinople, and was one of the earliest calotype photographers in Italy. Bridges was an English clergyman who had lived in Jamaica and Canada and on his return to England came to know William Henry Fox Talbot. In December 1845 Bridges was instructed in the art of the calotype photographic process by Nicolaas Henneman (valet and assistant to Talbot), at Talbot's home of Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire. In March 1846 Bridges embarked on what was to be a seven-year tour of the Mediterranean, joining two other calotype pioneers, Calvert Jones and Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot in Malta. He then set out and travelled to Sicily, Italy, Greece, and the Holy Land, and during his travels he also visited Constantinople. Although Bridges produced around 1,700 calotype negatives during this seven year tour his photographs are rare.
PROVENANCE:
Unknown owner, "Malta, Februari, 1849" (ink inscription on verso of preliminary blank, with the original owner's name inked-out); in the 1850s this album was gifted to a friend in whose family this album was preserved until 2012 when acquired by the present owner
Details are here: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2020/travel-atlases-maps-natural-history/bridges-album-of-talbotypes-photographs-of-athens
Join us for an online in-conversation with Prof Geoffrey Batchen and Dr Lena Fritsch, discussing the work of pioneering British photographer and botanist Anna Atkins (1799-1871). Her innovative use of new photographic technologies linked art and science, and exemplified the potential of photography in books.
Geoffrey Batchen is Professor of Art History at the University of Oxford and Dr Lena Fritsch is the Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. The talk is supported by TORCH through the Humanities Cultural Programme.
Details and booking here: https://sites.google.com/view/photooxford2020/whats-on/events
Read more about Anna Atkins here.
Rachel Nordstrom from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, Victor Flores, from Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, Lisbon, Portugal, Denis Pellerin and Rebecca Sharpe, from the London Stereoscopic Archive, have joined forces to organise this free online Zoom event, a celebration of Stereoscopic 3D. They have invited photo historians, artists, collectors and photo dealers to talk about their passion to explore various aspects of stereoscopy.
The Stereoscopy Blog is hosting a webpage dedicated to this event with details of the programme and registration which is free.
See: https://stereoscopy.blog/celebration-of-stereoscopic-3d/
Looking for images / illustrations of 17 historical people 1789 – 1984 - Tried most commercial photo libraries worldwide - any suggestions appreciated Thanks - full list and details on my news site here: https://photoarchivenews.com/news/image-search-for-licensing-17-historical-people-1789-1984/
| Fanny Eaton | 1835-1925 | Model and muse to pre Raphaelite artists, whose paintings challenged the London art scene’s perception of beauty. |
| Alice Kinloch | 1852-1915 | Unified voices of the Black community and founded the African Association. |
| Olive Morris | 1952-1979 | Activist, feminist, Black nationalist and squatters’ rights campaigner. |
| Lilian Bader | 1918-2015 | One of the most influential Black women in WW2. |
| J.S. Celestine Edwards | 1858-1894 | First known Black British editor and founder of the anti-racist magazine, Fraternity. |
| HUBERT ‘BARON’ BAKER | 1925-1996 | Known as “The man who discovered Brixton” due to his role in assisting many Caribbean settlers in the area. |
| Ken ‘Snakehips’ Johnson | 1914-1941 | Kept the British public entertained during WW2 and died while performing on stage during the Blitz. |
| William Brown | 1815 | Became the first woman to serve in the Royal Navy when she disguised herself as a man. Her true identity is unknown. |
| KATHLEEN WRASAMA | 1917-unknown | Race relations pioneer whose organisation helped with education and housing for Black Britons after WW2. |
| George Bridgetower | 1778-1860 | Virtuoso Violinist, who performed alongside Beethoven and was employed by King George IV to play in his orchestra. |
| Val Mccalla | 1943-2002 | A voice for the British African-Caribbean community and founder of The Voice newspaper. |
| Ethel Scott | 1907-1984 | First Black woman to represent Great Britain in international athletics and held a sprint time equal to the British record holder. |
| Frank Arthur Bailey | 1925-2015 | First Black fireman in Britain, who dedicated his life to youth and social work. |
| Lincoln ‘Len’ Dyke | 1926-2006 | Helped establish Britain’s first credit union and pioneered Britain’s Black hair care and beauty industry. |
| Sarah Baartman | 1789-1815 | Victim of commodification in 19th-century Europe due to objectification of her buttocks, leading to future corset designs accentuating the buttocks. |
| Lapido Solanke | 1886-1958 | Challenged the Western perceptions of Nigeria and brought attention to the language of Yoruba and Nigerian culture. |
| Amy Jaques Garvey | 1895-1973 | Journalism and publishing pioneer. Forward thinking political figure, who convinced U.N. representatives to adopt the African Freedom Charter. |
Sophie Gordon, head of photographs at the Royal Collection Trust (RCT), Windsor, has now confirmed publicly that she is accepting voluntary redundancy. She has been at the Collection for 15 years. The RCT is undertaking a significant restructure following a fall in visitor numbers and revenues as a result of COVID-19. The Trust is also making compulsory redundancies. Gordon's former curatorial colleague Helen Trompeteler who left in the summer and has not been replaced.
She wrote: "I decided to take the voluntary redundancy offer, as it is time for me to move on. Lots of reasons, some personal, some professional. My post - Head of Photographs - is still on the org chart in the newly restructured Royal Collection, but it is apparently going to be frozen for a couple of years. Although at this point, frankly, anything could happen". She encourages everyone to support the sector by visiting museums and galleries."
Sophie can be followed on Twitter and Instagram at: @shiveringfluff
Image: Sophie Gordon / social media
Taken by Evans+Hulf between 2016 and 2020 using a giant 15 x 12 inch camera made by J T Chapman of Manchester in the 1880s, the photographs explore the engineering that underpins a heritage steam railway and show the people who keep everything working. The images have an unusual intensity and timeless quality, which is faithfully preserved in the 67 full-page reproductions, printed in four colour B&W to match the tonal characteristics of the originals.
Published by Samson Press, 84pp 215x215mm, price £24.00 + p&p, Steel–Oil–Steam is available through the Evans+Hulf website at evans-hulf.com, where extracts from the book can also be seen, or to order from info@evans-hulf.com.
Considered one of the most important photo historians of the 20th century, Peter E. Palmquist (1936-2003) had a keen interest in the photography of the American West, California, and Humboldt County before 1950, and the history of women in photography worldwide. He published over 60 books and 340 articles and was a strong proponent of the concept of the independent researcher-writer in the field of photohistory. With co-author Thomas Kailbourn, he won the Caroline Bancroft Western History Prize for their book, Pioneer Photographers of the Far West. Professor Martha Sandweiss, Princeton University, wrote, “He (Peter) established new ways of pursuing the history of photography, and with his collections and research notes soon to be accessible at Yale, he will be speaking to and inspiring new generations of students and researchers forever.” Established by Peter’s lifetime companion, Pam Mendelsohn, this fund supports the study of under-researched women photographers internationally, past and present, and under-researched Western American photographers before 1900.
A small panel of outside consultants with professional expertise in the field of photohistory and/or grant reviewing will review the applications in order to determine the awards. Applications will be judged on the quality of the proposal, the ability of the applicant to carry out the project within the proposed budget and timeline, and the significance of the project to the field of photographic history. Each recipient of the award will agree to donate upon completion of the project a copy of the resulting work (i.e., published book, unpublished report, thesis, etc.) to the Humboldt Area Foundation to submit to the Peter Palmquist Archive at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library and a report to Humboldt Area Foundation at the end of the grant period. We ask that award recipients acknowledge the financial assistance provided by the Palmquist Memorial Fund in publications or other work products supported by that fund.
Past recipients and their projects are featured at www.palmquistgrants.com.
RANGE OF AWARDS: $500 - $2,000
ELIGIBILITY
Individuals researching Western American photography before 1900 or women in photography as well as nonprofit institutions conducting research in these fields are eligible to apply.
TO APPLY
Download the application at www.palmquistgrants.com by clicking the “Application” link at the top right of the page or following this link.
Completed applications must be postmarked by: November 23, 2020 by 5:00 pm, and submitted to:
Humboldt Area Foundation • 363 Indianola Road, Bayside, CA 95524
Or via email: grants@hafoundation.org
Award Recipients will be notified by January 15, 2021
For more information contact:
Humboldt Area Foundation at (707) 442-2993
Sara Dronkers
Director of Grantmaking and Nonprofit Resources
Pronouns: she,her,hers
Humboldt Area Foundation
363 Indianola Rd. Bayside, CA 95524
707.442-2993 ext. 307
“Humboldt Area Foundation promotes and encourages generosity,
leadership, and inclusion to strengthen our communities.”
Rebekah Burgess, PhD
NYC Parks
Photo Archivist
Capital Archives Manager
Olmsted Center
T: 718-760-6798
Thrilled to announce my book is out now! During the 1970s, London-based photographers joined together to form collectives which engaged with local and international political protest in cities across the UK. This book is a survey of the radical community photography that these collectives produced.
Photography of Protest and Community
The radical collectives of the 1970s
Noni Stacey
Lund Humphries, 2020
£40.00
Available here: https://www.lundhumphries.com/products/130903
There are always crumbs of information about photographs to be had in strange places, most recently in an article in the Guardian about this book The Biscuit: the History of a Very British Indulgence by Lizzie Collingham (Bodley Head £18.99) is published on 29 October. Moving on from the many chosen facts relating to the British penchant for biscuits is this choice entry.
An Australian biscuit company holds the world’s largest collection of baby photos
In the 1880s, the Australian biscuit manufacturer Arnott’s invented the milk arrowroot biscuit as a product particularly suitable for children’s delicate digestions. They then launched the first advertising campaign to solicit feedback from customers. Proud parents were encouraged to send in photographs of the healthy offspring they had raised on Arnott’s biscuits. Over the next 60 years, the company received tens of thousands of baby photographs. The winning entrants regularly featured in Arnott’s newspaper advertisements. Arnott’s now have one of the world’s largest photographic archives of sugar-fed young Australians.
Here is a blogpost to introduce you to the topic of Arnott's advertising, and to introduce you to one way to spend many hours during winter on the National Library of Australia's wonderful Trove exploring how to find these advertisements amongst the thousands of free available digitised newspapers.
Since these advertisements, Arnott's has swallowed up a range of regional and local biscuit manufacturers before itself being consumed by the US company Campbell's. I'm not sure of the current ownership but for those who like such snippets, the ginger nut biscuit still retains its dunking qualities, and also regional variations in flavour depending on which factory is making it, because the ginger nut is made from the crumbs of broken biscuits.
In this talk I will discuss my work to draw to together the disparate photographic archive of the West India Regiments. Scattered across the Atlantic in public and private collections, photographs of the men who formed the first 'official' British Army regiment made up of men of African descent represent the men in contradictory ways. The men were both racialised as “others” and accepted as a formal part of the apparatus of the British Empire. At a time when “scientific” proof was being gathered to cement ideas about race, the men were certainly identified as black, and were differentiated from the white personnel of the British Army in a number of ways. However, they were not subjected to the same racialisation as the black civilians that they shared their homelands with. In fact, they were often depicted in ways that undermined the very stereotypes so commonly assigned to their peers. I'll discuss how the Regiments' archives can be used to learn about the characteristics of the British Empire between the mid-19th and early 20th century and some of the difficult histories that their archive intersects with.
Monday, 19 October at 1930
Dr Melissa Bennett - National Trust/Greater London Authority (PhD University of Warwick)
Arranged by IWM War and Conflict Network
Registration is free here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mjgOOm2MTyGChA_dyGx0tw?t=1602515684073
