Displaced Visions: Émigré Photographers of the 20th Century was the title of a talk and conversation between Dr Nissan Perez, former Curator of Photography at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and photographic historian and curator Colin Ford CBE.
The talk is available to view:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9swElGoYS4&feature=youtu.be
The Another Eye conference, celebrating the contribution of women refugee photographers who came to Britain after 1933. will be held online after its postponement earlier this year.
Presentations will cover photographers’ work across portraiture, reportage, social documentary and architectural photography, and how the European cultural approaches that they brought with them informed British visual culture. In particular we will consider how their experiences both as outsiders and as women shaped their practice.
Speakers include:
This free event will run over three afternoons from Friday 11 to Sunday 13 September.
Details and registration here: https://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/whats-on/another-eye-online-conference
The Four Corners exhibition Another Eye: Women Refugee Photographers in Britain after 1933, runs until 3 October 2020.
Folks, I need some feedback, and not necessarily some attaboys. It’s called Fifty Prints but at this point is only 23. Maybe 25 is enough? This is in 2nd draft mode, and somewhat formatted. At first I thought of self publishing it, but now thinking maybe finding a publisher, or an agent if I can find one. Any help along that line would be appreciated.
Every print except one of my photographs is before 1924, so is in the public domain in the U.S. The UK is a bit iffy as their copyright law is a bigger mess than ours. Add to the issue of public domain is the educational exemption which, yes I know is often not really that but here I think it is real critique and educational, but more on that if you have information.
The audience here on the British Photo History site is relatively sophisticated, no kidding! So this seems a proper venue for advice.
I plan on running it through Prowriteaid and then Grammarly, then off to a friend who edits books for a living. So skip over missing comas, etc. I’ve opted for a chatty informality. Is it too informal?
Though the comments are about a specific print, a platinum print, the critical scope is much broader and I want to cover areas of discussion that are unique. I built my first darkroom in 1960, so I have had 60 years of serious photography and 40 running Bostick & Sullivan. I am both a FRPS and a HonFRPS, I am hoping those might establish some credibility.
Comments please.
Dick Sullivan HonFRPS
Grasping the complexity of photohistory is dependent upon research, analysis and the creation of visual examples and texts that clarify the issues. Luminous-Lint seeks to delve deep to spot the trends but always using the photographs as the research base.
Since 2005 Luminous-Lint has been working from the images towards the arguments and explanatory texts. By bringing together over 100,000 hand-picked images from over 3,600 public and private collections one can start to see patterns. For the last seven years the major concentration of effort has been on how to construct increasingly meaningful histories of photography. These started out as naive pages on different genres and regions of the world but they are now evolving into well-structured pieces and some have grown into book-sized topics illustrated with thousands of examples.
This illustrated talk will provide an overview to Luminous-Lint, how it all comes together and why. It will be a light-hearted romp but will give you meaningful insights into the history, present situation and future plans for Luminous-Lint.
Many of you subscribe to Luminous-Lint and provide photographs and information to enhance it. This is a rare opportunity to see what is going on at a very personal level.
Luminous-Lint: An introduction - Challenges and Opportunities
Speaker: Alan Griffiths
Sunday 9 August 2020 - 13:30 EDT / 18:30- BST (Make sure you check your own time zone)
A donation of $25 is required for each talk and the proceeds go to improving Luminous-Lint.
Book your place now
Talks will be given using ZOOM and you will be emailed the Meeting Id and password on the day of the presentation.
Some while ago I posted asking if anyone knew where John Spillers negatives went to. Just an update; no one has responded, but maybe some-one, some-where does!
See: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/forum/topics/john-spiller
I have just created a Wikipedia page for photo-crayotypes and chromatypes but the current focus is on Australian uses by photographers like Frederick Frith and Douglas Kilburn. If anyone has more research they can add from the UK that would be great. Happy to help if you are not using Wikipedia regularly.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo-crayotype
The rare photographic images of Florence Nightingale are so famous and familiar – iconic even – that we tend to take them for granted. But what do we actually know about them, about the circumstances in which they were made, distributed and, more importantly maybe, about the photographers who took them? Come and discover the truth behind the iconic pictures of a British legend in a Zoom talk by historian, Denis Pellerin, from Dr. Brian May’s London Stereoscopic Company.
Florence Nightingale apparently loathed having her photograph taken. Why then did she accept to sit for these images? And why did she repeatedly lie about being photographed only once, by command of the Queen?
This is the story of a quest, of a search that took Pellerin and his assistant, Rebecca, to dozens of different places and archives, both on location and online. The talk is being given for the benefit of the Florence Nightingale Museum
The talk is £5.98. To read more and book click here: https://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/they-mystery-of-florences-photos/
My article on Grubb and Parsons and their optical and engineering achievements is here; A variation of this article has appeared in the Photographica magazine of the Photographic Collectors Club of Great Britain (PCCGB).
I have a collection of early Grubb lenses which were made in Dublin in the 1850s and 1860s and I will be publishing further material about the lenses and their impact from time to time. In the meantime I would be happy to hear from any members who have similar items or information relating to Grubb lenses.
I am also interested in hearing from other members who have an interest in or knowledge of Irish Photography from the 19th Century.
My presentation on Choosing and Using Old Leicas for the LHSA - The International Leica Society - will go out at 7.30 pm BST on Wednesday 19th August 2020.
Link here - https://lhsa.org/2020/06/free-webinar-aug-19-choosing-and-using-old-leicas-with-willian-fagan/
The Illustrated Collodion News started off as a bit of fun for a small group of wet plate collodion photographers to raise money at charitable events they attended.
This year we went a little further and produced 100 x twenty page Broadsheet newspapers for the European Collodion Weekend. Sadly cancelled, so we decided to go ahead with the printing and ship out to the attendees that had pre ordered.
I'd like to offer the remainder here as I think some of you might like the content created by contemporary wet plate collodion practitioners and artists.
Contributors:- Alex Timmermans, Joni Sternbach, John Coffer, Christian Klant, Tony Richards, Mark Osterman & France Scully Osterman, Melanie-Jane Frey, Anton Tintype, Jacqueline Roberts, Anabelle Schattens, Juri Tarkpea, Severine Peiffer, Elizabeth Herman, Silvano Magnone, Ivory Flame, Paul Elter & Daniel Fazel,Gregg McNeill.
ALL profits go to the mental health charity MIND.
Contact me here for more info. Only 18 left.
£5 plus postage.
At an estimate of £60-100 a stereoscopic daguerreotype of Fox Talbot by Antoine Claudet could be yours. The lot is being offered by Kings Russell Auctioneers in London's Knightsbridge in an auction as lot 172 on 18 August 2020.
The description is here:
Antoine Claudet (French, 1797-1867), Portrait of William Fox Talbot, stereoscopic daguerreotype, mounted with photographer blindstamp to mount and label to verso No.4695 Mr.Claudet, Photographer to the Queen, 107 Regent Street, London, H.17cm W.12cm, full frame size H.25.5cm W.21.5cm
Estimate £60-100 / http://www.kingsrussell.com/index.php/component/catalogue/lots?auctionid=39&start=160
As most BPH readers will immediately see the lot is NOT a stereoscopic, NOT a daguerreotype and is NOT a portrait of William Henry Fox Talbot, but could be another William Fox Talbot. The auctioneer has been approached for more information about the attribution.
Fortunately, the auctioneer's terms of business state 'Should any Lot be sold other than specifically described in writing in terms of appearance or condition, authenticity or originality, the Buyer has 12 days from the date of sale to apply in writing for a refund of the purchase price'.
As they say caveat emptor
The Black House was a hostel founded in the early 1970s by Herman Edwards, a charismatic Caribbean immigrant, better known to his community as Brother Herman. It aimed to provide accommodation and support for disillusioned black adolescents in Islington, London, many of whom had experienced prejudice, unemployment, and problems with the police.
Almost half a century later the Michael Hoppen Gallery has an exclusive video interview with 83 year old Colin Jones and considers the lasting impact of his iconic series of work. The Gallery also has available vintage works from The Black House series (1973-76).
See more here: https://michaelhoppen.viewingroom.com/viewing-room/10-colin-jones-the-black-house-1973-76/
The 35th Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards have announced the long and shortlisted titles. The books in the running for the 2020 Photography Book Award and Moving Image Book Award address diverse global issues related to race, justice, identity, and the construction of truth, history and memory.
Ranging from illuminating artist monographs and anthologies to in-depth critiques of photography or filmmaking, to photobooks reconstructing hidden stories, and much more, the lists reflect the Foundation’s enduring recognition of rigorous and original books that will likely have a lasting impact on their field.
Professor Elizabeth Edwards, Judge, Photography Book Award comments: “The significant themes that emerged from this year’s submissions clustered around identity, environment and the uses of history and memory. Overall the entries demonstrate the centralityof photography as a major articulation of submerged, contested but vital histories.”
Dr Andrew Moor, Judge, Moving Image Book Award comments: “The longlist contains work that pushes at the boundaries of the cinematic. It is a set of books that aims to reinterpret the past, reflecting how moving images mediate our lives, animate our memories and vitally record our presence.”
In lieu of an Awards Ceremony which usually takes place during Photo London, the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation has teamed up with The Photographers’ Gallery to announce the winners in September. A live stream event hosted by the Gallery will feature conversations about the two winning books. Sir Brian Pomeroy CBE, Chair of the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation said: “In this, our 35th anniversary year, the submissions have maintained an extremely high standard of image-making and authorship, carrying forward our mission to encourage and celebrate outstanding photo-books and books about the moving image. We are very pleased to be partnering with The Photographers’ Gallery in presenting the awards this year.”
Winners will receive prize money of £5,000 each. For both categories, the shortlist selected by the judging panel aims to showcase innovative and coherent bodies of work with a focus on cultural relevance for our current times and in the years to come. The judges also put precedence on each publication’s design, texture, and haptic qualities, aspects that are particularly poignant during this period of digital focus.
The Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards, first established in 1985, are open to all Moving Image and Photography books published in the previous year and available in the UK. Over 200 entries were considered this year.
The shortlisted titles are as follows:
2020 Photography Book Award (Shortlist):
La toya Ruby Frazier (Mousse Publishing & Mudam Luxembourg)
With its commentary on poverty, racial discrimination, post-industrial decline and its human costs, this work leaves a lasting historical legacy and forms a pertinent contemporary commentary about the American condition. The almost magazine-like production values add to this sense of historical ‘first draft’.
Photography, Truth and Reconciliation by Melissa Miles (Routledge)
Photography has been at the centre of the political, social and cultural processes of truth and reconciliation in response to oppressive regimes and dispossessing histories. Taking case studies from Argentina, Australia, Cambodia, Canada, and South Africa, Miles explores the dynamics through which artists have explored these compelling and difficult histories, raising questions of memory, identity and justice.
The Curious Moaning of Kenfig Burrows by Sophy Rickett (GOST Books)
Rickett’s book is a striking collection of 41 photographic works inspired by the life and work of 19th Century Welsh artist and astronomer Thereza Dillwyn Llewelyn. Through photography and text, Rickett charts her journey towards making sense of the sprawling and complex Dillwyn Llewelyn family archive.
2020 Photography Book Award (Longlist):
● The Canary and The Hammer by Lisa Barnard (MACK)
● Women War Photographers: From Lee Miller to Anja Niedringhaus by Anne-Marie Beckmann & Felicity Kom, eds. (Prestel)
● Seeing the Unseen by Harold Edgerton (Steidl co-published with the MIT Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts)
● LaToya Ruby Frazier (Mousse Publishing / Mudam Luxembourg)
● Signs and Wonders: The Photographs of John Beasley Greene by Corey Keller (Prestel)
● The New Black Vanguard: Photography Between Art and Fashion by Antwaun Sargent (Aperture)
● Dr. Paul Wolff & Tritschler: Light and Shadow – Photographs 1920 bis 1950 by Hans-Michael Koetzle (Kehrer Verlag)
● Photography, Truth and Reconciliation by Melissa Miles (Routledge)
● The Curious Moaning of Kenfig Burrows by Sophy Rickett (GOST Books) 22 July 2020
● Where We Find Ourselves: The Photographs of Hugh Mangum, 1897–1922 by Margaret Sartor and Alex Harris, eds. (University of North Carolina Press)
This two-part online research seminar event raises questions about how archives of ‘vernacular’ photographs inform and shape our understanding of both the present and the past. During the presentations, each speaker will examine how archives are re-activated within contemporary photographic practice as potential sites of critical political significance. Whilst the starting point originates with the material culture of the archive itself, the political relationships within the selected photographic materials will be critically evaluated. These discussions aim to expose and debate the continued complexity of gender, sexuality, race, class and politics held within the photographic archive.
Part 1 – The Personal Is Still Political
17th September 2020
Sian Macfarlane, Coventry University (30 mins)
Lizzie Thynne, Professor of Film at Sussex University (30 mins)
Chair: Caroline Molloy, Programme Leader in Fine Art and Photography at UCA Farnham
Part 2 – The Living Memory Project
24th September 2020
Geoff Broadway, Director of the Living Memory Project (30 mins)
Caroline Molloy, Living Memory Bursary Artist in Residence (20 mins)
Harmeet Chagger-Khan, Living Memory Artist in Residence (20 mins)
Chair: Dr Nicky Bird, Reader in Contemporary Photographic Practice, Glasgow School of Art
Family Ties Network:
The Political Geographies of the Archive
Online Research Seminar
17th and 24th September 2020 1800-1930
Registration is free but you will need to book a place to receive the Zoom links for the sessions. The links will be sent out shortly before the scheduled event. Book here
Image Credit: Swimmers at Reedswood Park open air pool, early 20th Century, courtesy of Walsall Archive used in the Women of Walsall Living Memory Project by Caroline Molloy
2020 coincides with the centenary of the first woman matriculating and graduating from the University of Oxford. What better time and place could there be for celebrating women and their diverse roles in international photography?
What themes are women photographers addressing from behind the camera? To what extent have muses become collaborators in the creation of their photographic image? Do selfies show more than self-generated objects of display?
Our festival seeks to draw attention to diverse viewpoints, relationships, and concerns that inform today's photographic culture.
Photo Oxford
16 October-16 November 2020
Visit our website to find out more.
Image: Hands and Feet © Helen Muspratt ca. 1932
Displaced Visions: Émigré Photographers of the 20th Century was a major 2013 Jerusalem exhibition and book that reconsidered the work of nearly 100 key immigrants, focussing in particular on the earliest photographs taken by them as artists in their various new countries, exploring how this work expanded photographic practices of the time and influenced the history of the medium.
On Sunday 2 August from 1700-1830, Nissan Perez, former Curator of Photography at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, will give a talk about the topic of his book, as part of the 'Insiders/Outsiders' Festival. Nissan will reconsider the work and influence of key figures in modernist photography from the point of view of their status as refugees or immigrants, considering how this condition affected their vision and creativity and enhanced the development of the photographic language in general.
The session will be chaired by photographic historian and curator Colin Ford CBE and held in association with London’s Four Corners Gallery.
To see the rest of the programme clock here: https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/free-insiders-outsiders-online-events-programme
or to book directly click here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/displaced-visions-emigre-photographers-of-the-20th-century-tickets-112790816368
It's interesting to see that a photograph is celebrated on a new UK coin.
This week marks the centenary of the birth of Rosalind Franklin, whose Photograph 51 could be seen as one of the most significant of the 20th century, as it was key to working out the structure of DNA.
To celebrate Rosalind's centenary, it is her photograph - Photograph 51 - that appears on the new 50 pence piece in the UK.
https://www.royalmint.com/our-coins/events/rosalind-franklin/
Joanna Sassoon, Western Australia
The Norfolk Chronicle of Saturday 14 November 1857 carried the headline:- A New Discovery in Photography . “The world is indebted to Mr. W. Olley, of London, for the greatest discovery which has yet been made in photography. Mr. Olley calls it the “Patent Micro-Photographic Reflecting Process.” It consists in fixing an impression of any object placed under the microscope glass, which is afterwards transferred to paper.” This article draws the attention of its readers to a new monthly publication that was to be illustrated with photographs “exhibited as large as a crown piece” taken using the patented process.
Mr Olley was William Henry Olley, a Wine Merchant of 2, Brabant Court, Philpot Lane, London. The London Gazette of 25th January 1860 indicates that Olley had patented his process on 6th November 1856.
According to the Museum of Science website http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/collections/imu-search-page/narratives/?irn=29169&index=1 the photographs were printed by two Great Yarmouth photographers (identified by blind stamps on the prints), Henry Harmer, a solicitor who became photographer, and William Thornton Fisher, a master mariner, turned optician who also was a photographer. The subscribers listed in the publication included many citizens of Great Yarmouth including a Mr Olley and Henry R Harmer Esq.
William Henry Olley was born in Middlesex in 1814 the son of Thomas Olley who was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk (not far from Great Yarmouth) in 1777. WH Olley died at 138 Mildmay Road, Stoke Newington on the 13th May 1890.
Does any member of the forum have a copy of Olley’s patent that they would be willing to share a scan of? Also it is assumed that Olley had relatives in Great Yarmouth but does anybody know if Olley had any other connections with Great Yarmouth?
Olley’s publication is available on Google Books.
When you look on the internet at the many hundreds of daguerreotype images taken by W E Kilburn what you see, apart from the famous image of the 1848 Chartist rally, is almost entirely portraits of famous and well to do clients taken at his Regent Street studios. Although the Royal Collection does have images of servants, grooms, gamekeepers. beaters etc taken outside.
So I am puzzled as to why we have three early W E Kilburn cased daguerreotype images at Erddig the National Trust property at Wrexham two of which were taken on site at Erddig and one of which is a studio image taken in London. A fourth image is a copy from an original daguerreotype lost in the copying process so not proven to be by Kilburn.
Two of the daguerreotypes in embossed leather Kilburn cases are of known family members and show them clearly on the parterre and the west front staircase. The image of the young lady on the parterre is of Victoria Yorke (ne Cust) thought to date from the mid 1840’s.
The image of the military man is of John Yorke, who at the time it was taken again in the late 1840’s was an officer in the 1st (Royal) Regiment of Dragoons which is now the Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards).
John Yorke would go on to the rank of general and was at the Crimea where he took part in the Charge of the Heavy Brigade that proceeded by a couple of hours the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade.
The third cased image is very faded but is of three people a young man and woman and an elderly woman in a studio setting. This may have been of Simon Yorke III and his wife Victoria ( the young lady on the parterre) and Simons mother Margaret Holland. Margaret Holland died in 1848 so again if the subjects are correct then this would have been taken in the same period as the other images noted above.
The fourth daguerreotype is probably the most interesting but the house only have a copy made in 1912 of the original daguerreotype which was, it is thought, lost at the time of the copying. This image is of the main house servants taken on the west front staircase and is stated in the house records to have been taken in 1852. As the original daguerreotype has been lost there is no provenance linking it to Kilburn.
So three cased daguerreotypes by the studio of W E Kilburn and one other image that was from an original daguerreotype.
So how do two of them come to be taken by the W E Kilburn studio at Erddig and a third possibly so when the large majority if not all of the subjects taken by Kilburn were of notable subjects and subjects with royal connections in the Kilburn studio settings in Regent Street? How could this top London photographer with a double royal warrant be tempted to go up to a remote country house just outside Wrexham?
The answer may lie with the lady on the parterre. Victoria Mary Louisa Yorke moved in royal circles. She was a god daughter of Queen Victoria and was the daughter of Sir Edward Cust the master of the royal household. Just perhaps the sort of clients to tempt the Kilburn studio to come to Erddig.
I have used the term the studio of W E Kilburn. I am not sure if Kilburn had a number of trusted assistants or if he took all of the images himself. It would appear likely give the output that he had that some assistance was needed. The only clue is an entry in Simon Yorke’s personal household accounts book for 5th November 1852 which states:
To Mr Barrett for daguerreotypes £6 - 12 -00
A copy of the invoice to which the entry relates has not been found. But it may be that Mr Barrett was part of W E Kilburn’s studio team. The payment was for more than one daguerreotype. The servants image was from 1852 but the
parterre and military man image appear earlier. So for now the mystery continues.
Read this text here: W%20E%20KILBURN.pdf
Four Corners has announced the launch of a Heritage Lottery funded project. The 3-year project will see it delve deeper into Four Corners Archive, evolving the collection into an active site for public events, study, socially-engaged practice and collaboration. Here's what is planned:
Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, supported by a curatorial research grant from the Paul Mellon Centre. Project partners are Bishopsgate Insitute, Centre for Arts, Memory & Communities at Coventry University, Feminist Library, Jo Spence Memorial Library at Birkbeck, Mayday Rooms, Swadhinata Trust, Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives.
See: https://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/whats-on/hidden-histories
