Blogs

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

Photographic artist Melanie King, who uses cyanotype and alternative processes in her work has collaborated with Professor Lucie Green to produce Solar Orbiter, a series of ITV screen idents. They will be shown during February 2021.   

Melanie King, who is based  in Kent works with alternative photography processes, with a specific focus on astronomy. Lucie Green, is a professor of physics at UCL.

The piece of art is based on the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter mission which launched in February 2020 and is the latest spacecraft sent to study the sun. The spacecraft has to endure searing heat, but in doing so it has taken images of the sun closer than any other spacecraft. Data gathered by the spacecraft’s suite of telescopes provides views of the sun in ultraviolet light and X-rays, and will help shed light on why the sun produces huge explosions and eruptions in its atmosphere.  

Melanie says: "Myself and Lucie produced a cyanotype using ultraviolet light, a form of light which is produced by the Sun. As Lucie has been working on the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter mission, we were inspired to use shapes found within the Solar Orbiter craft to form the logo. Part of the ident was filmed at Airbus Stevenage."

See: https://www.itv.com/itvcreates/articles/melanie-king-and-prof-lucie-green

and https://www.melaniek.co.uk/itv-solar-orbiter-cyanotype#0

Images: ITV and Melanie King / Twitter / https://twitter.com/MelanieKKing/status/1356191228472274944/photo/3

William Robert Hogg worked as a photographer for Jabez Hughes of Ryde. He was frequently sent to photograph Queen Victoria at Osborne House. Later in life he ran a tobacconist shop and sub post office in the town but still recorded the area on his plate camera. The Isle of Wight Heritage service holds a collection of over 200 glass negatives of Hogg’s work of which 81 can be seen here. The photographs date from the 1910-1920s.

The Isle of Wight Heritage service also holds a collection of photographs by Sandown photographer James Dore 1854-1925.

See: https://www.iow.gov.uk/Residents/Libraries-Cultural-and-Heritage/Heritage-Service/Cowes-Maritime-Museum/The-photographs-of-William-Robert-Hogg-1844-1928

The impact of COVID-19 on DCMS funded museums and galleries in 2020 has been laid bare by new research showing an average 74 per cent decline in visitor numbers for the period January-September 2020 against the previous year.

For those institutions closely involved with photography, the V&A Museum, London, saw a drop from 3,084,702 for the first nine months in 2019 to 796,708 in 2020. The National Science and Media Museum, Bradford, saw a drop from 340,944 to 102,155. 

For the period after September the drop in numbers was closer to 90 per cent as London locked down and other regions were placed in tiers that did not allow museums and galleries to re-open to the public, or severely limited visitor admissions.

With a UK countries in a lockdown that will remain in place until at least 8 March 2021 and most regions then likely to be placed in tiers that would prevent public re-opening the first half of 2021 looks to be set for an equally first six months.

The initial data research was commissioned by https://www.diys.com/. Download an infographic here;  diys-uk-museum-and-gallery-visitor-numbers-infographic.jpg. 

Visitor numbers for the later period and other metrics are available on the DCMS website: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/daily-visitors-to-dcms-sponsored-museums-and-galleries

Fairly recently I acquired a large and interesting album that appears to have been compiled by a British family managing a tea plantation in India, possibly around Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The photographs are a mixture of personal photographs, most likely taken by an enthusiastic amateur,and (presumably purchased) professional photographs by people such as Baker and the Nicholas brothers. The only photographs I can date for sure are from the early 1870s (Madras cyclone images from 1872) but as these are towards the end of the album some of the other images may well be from the 1860s.

This is a very long shot but I'd appreciate input anyone can give as regards:

1. The identity of the family

Here is a large format group shot of the family and their friends taking tea. I believe the compiler of the album is the lady third from left.

If anyone recognises anyone in the photograph or has tips on how to go about identying the subjects I'd be very grateful for your input 

2. The identity of the photographer responsible for this small format posed image.

There are several photographs similar to this in the album. I have found images on the interent that look vaguely similar but they don't seem to be from the same photographer.

There are many other photographs in the album I could ask about but this is a start.

Photo London 2021 has been rescheduled from May to 9–12 September 2021, with a preview day on 8 September. The fair will be held at Somerset House as programmed.

Since the start of the year, the Founders of Photo London have engaged in detailed discussions with expert advisers from various fields, including science and government, regarding the timing of the Fair. Their unanimous view is that it would be best advised to wait a little longer for the global vaccination programmes to take effect, allowing for the easing of lockdowns and travel restrictions and for as strong an economic rebound as possible.

The new early September dates give the best chance to deliver the strongest possible edition of Photo London in a safe environment. The second edition of Photo London Digital will run alongside the Fair providing an opportunity for exhibitors unable to come to London to gain exposure to Photo London’s outstanding network of collectors.

Since the UK locked down in March last year, Photo London has responded to the global crisis by developing online platforms to connect, learn and talk about photography. In the months leading up to the fair in September, it will continue to do so by presenting a year-round programme of events and new initiatives involving experts from across the industry. 

See: https://photolondon.org/

This talk will examine the history of Scottish expatriates in nineteenth-century Japan and their contribution to the photography networks.

When Edward Hornel and George Henry travelled to Japan in 1893, they encountered a community of photographers that supported their own artistic pursuits in the country. Their visit was particularly timely, but Scottish photographers, artists, and merchants had long been involved in the growth and popularity of photography in Japan. This talk will examine the history of Scottish expatriates in nineteenth-century Japan and their contribution to the photography networks and communities in their adopted country.

The Fox Talbot Museum will no longer have a specialist curator for the first time since the museum's opening in 1975 as the National Trust recruits for a more general Property Curator for its Lacock portfolio. This includes the Fox Talbot Museum and Abbey and three other Trust properties close to Lacock. The role replaces Roger Watson who retired as Fox Talbot Museum curator last autumn. 

For Lacock the role description notes: The Property Curator has overall responsibly for curation and conservation care of the Lacock and North Wiltshire Portfolio which also includes Great Chalfield Manor, The Courts Garden and Westwood Manor. The Abbey itself has a team working with the Property Curator, you will be responsible for setting standards / objectives / managing budgets etc. Practically how the Property Curator deploys their team to meet these responsibilities is largely up to you, so you would delegate as you need to and play to strengths of the whole team including yourself. 

The wider role description says: Our remarkable collections are held across hundreds of properties and places in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. They include outstanding internationally important works of art and material culture such as paintings, sculptures, textiles, dress, decorative arts, furniture, books and libraries, as well as highly significant industrial, agricultural photographic, archaeological and archival collections.  We also care for places and landscapes that are carry with complex and fascinating histories.  We now have a number of exciting opportunities for Property Curators at some of our most internationally significant historic properties within England.

Our houses and collections are a fundamental part of our work and these new roles take a critical part in helping to care for, research and interpret these places and their collections.

To support some of our most internationally significant collections we need Property Curators to deliver an innovative approach to these high profile cultural destinations. While the properties are all unique, the role is to deliver a consistent approach of high standards of collections management and care across our most internationally significant historic properties.

See more here: 

General role (plus link to detail for Lacock): https://careers.nationaltrust.org.uk/OA_HTML/a/#/vacancy-detail/97214

Lacock specific role: https://careers.nationaltrust.org.uk/OA_HTML/fndgfm.jsp?mode=download_blob&fid=1929423&accessid=91s-6NHaPCMuuF1ZhoKLng..&gfa=N