Blogs

The following links are to 3 lots of photographs which turned up as part of a 'downsizing' by one of my clients. My client is descended from Thomas Carlyle who is supposed to have annotated the Julia Margaret Cameron photograph with reference to Goethe's Mignon. There are also cartes-de-visite relating to Carlyle, by various Scottish photographers and an early photograph of Carlyle, family and Provost Swan, probably by John Patrick.

All the lots below will be offered for sale by OPUS on 23/7/2020. I am the contact for the sale jane@opus-auctions.com and I will be on the rostrum on the day. Viewing by appointment, During the Covid 19 restrictions we have been operating from the grounds of a private house so the appointment rule is firm.

Hope you enjoy the photographs. 

Links to the catalogue: 

Julia Margaret Cameron, with annotation by Thomas Carlyle -- Sale date: 23/7/2020 at OPUS

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/opusauctions/catalogue-id-opus-a10073/lot-f20f1ada-11c5-4fb4-bc77-abf40121c11c

John Patrick - Kircaldy

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/opusauctions/catalogue-id-opus-a10073/lot-55f5c6be-46d4-429a-a821-abf40121c118

Thomas Carlyle - Carte de Visite and other photography

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/opusauctions/catalogue-id-opus-a10073/lot-65ef80c6-b047-44d3-8fdb-abf40121c117

When the National Library of Scotland and National Galleries of Scotland acquired the MacKinnon Collection, it made a joint commitment to preserve it in alignment with its growing world class photographic collections and provide access for ever-changing audiences. This talk describes our current cataloguing, digitisation and engagement activities, and explores ways in which the MacKinnon Collection compliments existing strengths in the NLS and NGS photographic collections. Join curator Blake Milteer to hear more. 

Thursday, 16 July 2020
From 1700-1730
Free
Book: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/saved-for-the-nation-where-does-the-mackinnon-collection-go-from-here-tickets-110249770030

Back in March BPH published a regularly updated blog of how museums, galleries, research venues and events were approaching lockdown with cancellations, postponements and closures. Finally, after more than twelves weeks, museums, galleries and libraries are allowed to open from 4 July, albeit with constraints because of social distancing, the need to protect staff and visitors, and, of course, financial considerations associated with ticketing, shops and cafes and a reluctance of visitors to use public transport or to visit indoor venues . The fact that some venues are able to open does not mean that they will do so. 

Below is an updated list of events and venues. Please comment with other photography venue openings if they are not listed here. Please check before visiting - many venues are now requiring pre-booking.

Events

• Photo London 2020 will take place at Gray’s Inn Gardens, London, from Wednesday 7 October to Sunday 11 October, with an invitation-only VIP Preview on Tuesday, 6 October. See: https://photolondon.org/visiting/ Will return live, possibly in September or October 2021. 
• Photography Show.  Now a virtual photography and video festival over two days on Sunday, 20 and Monday, 21 September 2020. See: https://www.photographyshow.com/ Will return live in September 2021. 
• FORMAT festival, Derby. Opens on 11 March 2021 as planned.

Most venues are operating pre-booking, reduced opening days and hours and not all parts of their building may be open. Check before making a special visit. 

Venues

• National Portrait Gallery. Closed for refurbishment until Spring 2023. Online exhibitions. https://www.npg.org.uk/
• Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol. Re-opens July 2020. See: https://www.martinparrfoundation.org/visit/  
• V&A Museum, London. Re-opening 6 August 2020. Photography Galleries on 27 August. No news of Print Room or NAL. See: https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/plan-your-visit
• National Science+Media Museum, Bradford Science Museum, London. Both re-open 19 August 2020. See: https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/visit
• Barbican Gallery and Centre, London,  Re-opens 13 July. See: https://www.barbican.org.uk/
• Tate Galleries. All four Tate galleries open on 27 July. See: https://www.tate.org.uk/
• Royal Photographic Society. Online only until January 2021. see: https://rps.org/news/bristol/2020/june/rps-to-remain-online-until-2021/
• The Photographers' Gallery, London. Re-opens on 14 July 2020. See: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/FAQs
• Autograph, London. Re-opening April 2021, but introducing new outreach programmes. https://autograph.org.uk/
• British Library, London. Gradually from 22 July.
• Gallery of Photography, Ireland. Late July.
• Four Corners, London. 9 July. See: https://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/
• Whitechapel Gallery, London, from 14 July. See: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/
• The National Archives, Kew, from 21 July. See: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/coronavirus-update/
• Site Gallery, Sheffield, from 9 September. See: https://www.sitegallery.org/news/plans-to-re-open-site-gallery/

First published 30 June 2020 and updated regularly.

A look at London stations. During the Victorian era, competing railways built several stations in London. Since then, all stations have undergone a major renovation, but many still retain some of their original architectural features, including impressive roof extensions.

London Bridge - Inaugurated in 1836, London Bridge was the first station to be built. Located on the south bank of the Thames via the London Bridge, it was immediately added and rebuilt. The trains served south London, Kent, and Sussex.

Euston - Opened in 1837 and extended soon after by the London and Birmingham Railway and later by the London and North Western Railway. It served Birmingham, in the northwest of England and beyond. Originally designed in the style of classical architecture, the station has undergone a major renovation and little remains of the original station. The name comes from the landowners of the day, the Fitzroy family and their country house, Euston Hall.

Paddington - A Great Western Railways London service terminal was built in 1838 on Bishop's Bridge Road, Paddington. Later, in 1854, traffic increased, saying that the old terminal was inadequate and that the great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed the much larger Paddington station across the road.

Fenchurch Street - The first station to be built in the city in 1841 for the London and Blackwall railways. Built in Minories, it was rebuilt in 1854 at its current location on Fenchurch Street. Served trains to Blackwall, Tilbury and Southend in Essex.

Waterloo - Opened in 1848, with several later additions, creating a jumble of platforms and buildings. Rebuilt later. Named after the nearby Waterloo bridge. Served in southwest London and in the counties.

King's Cross - Opened in 1852 for the Great Northern Railway, which serves the main east coast route to Peterborough, York and beyond. Named after a monument to George IV that was erected nearby.

Victoria - Built in 1860 and named after Queen Victoria, the station was divided into two sections and shared by four train companies serving Kent and Sussex.

Cannon Street - Built in the city in 1866 for the South Eastern Railway, which serves south-east London, Kent and East Sussex. Named after the street where it is located.

Charing Cross - Opened in 1864 at The Strand as a link to extend London Bridge services.

St Pancras (shown above right) - Built in 1866. At the time, it had the largest single span roof in the world. The jewel of Gothic architecture at the Midland Great Hotel was built next door. Named after the area in which it is located. Served trains to Midlands and East Yorkshire.

Liverpool Street - Located east of the city of London and replacing an old station in Shoreditch. Inaugurated in 1875 by the Great Eastern Railway, which served Essex and East Anglia. Named after the street where it is located.

Blackfriars - Originally called St. Paul's, it opened in 1886 to serve passengers from South London to the city. Named after the nearby St. Paul's Cathedral, and the area in which it is located.

Marylebone - Built in 1899 on Marylebone Road. One of the smallest stations in London, served Aylesbury and beyond to Manchester.

A look at London stations.

During the Victorian era, competing railways built several stations in London. Since then, all stations have undergone a major renovation, but many still retain some of their original architectural features, including impressive roof extensions.

London Bridge - Inaugurated in 1836, London Bridge was the first station to be built. Located on the south bank of the Thames via the London Bridge, it was immediately added and rebuilt. The trains served south London, Kent and Sussex.

Euston - Opened in 1837 and extended soon after by the London and Birmingham Railway and later by the London and North Western Railway. It served Birmingham, in the northwest of England and beyond. Originally designed in the style of classical architecture, the station has undergone a major renovation and little remains of the original station. The name comes from the landowners of the day, the Fitzroy family and their country house, Euston Hall.

Paddington (shown left) - A Great Western Railways London service terminal was built in 1838 on Bishop's Bridge Road, Paddington. Later, in 1854, traffic increased, saying that the old terminal was inadequate and that the great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed the much larger Paddington station across the road.

Fenchurch Street - The first station to be built in the city in 1841 for the London and Blackwall railways. Built in Minories, it was rebuilt in 1854 at its current location on Fenchurch Street. Served trains to Blackwall, Tilbury and Southend in Essex.

Waterloo - Opened in 1848, with several later additions, creating a jumble of platforms and buildings. Rebuilt later. Named after the nearby Waterloo bridge. Served in southwest London and in the counties.

King's Cross - Opened in 1852 for the Great Northern Railway, which serves the main east coast route to Peterborough, York and beyond. Named after a monument to George IV that was erected nearby.

Victoria - Built in 1860 and named after Queen Victoria, the station was divided into two sections and shared by four train companies serving Kent and Sussex.

Cannon Street - Built in the city in 1866 for the South Eastern Railway, which serves south-east London, Kent and East Sussex. Named after the street where it is located.

Charing Cross - Opened in 1864 at The Strand as a link to extend London Bridge services.

St Pancras - Built in 1866. At the time, it had the largest single span roof in the world. The jewel of Gothic architecture at the Midland Great Hotel was built next door. Named after the area in which it is located. Served trains to Midlands and East Yorkshire.

Liverpool Street - Located east of the city of London and replacing an old station in Shoreditch. Inaugurated in 1875 by the Great Eastern Railway, which served Essex and East Anglia. Named after the street where it is located.

Blackfriars - Originally called St. Paul's, it opened in 1886 to serve passengers from South London to the city (free essay writers online according to this topic). Named after the nearby St. Paul's Cathedral, and the area in which it is located.

Marylebone - Built in 1899 on Marylebone Road. One of the smallest stations in London, served Aylesbury and beyond to Manchester.

Facing Britain brings together for the first time outside of the UK a particular view of British documentary photography. Long forgotten and only recently rediscovered photographers such as John Myers, Tish Murtha or Peter Mitchell who are shown alongside works by internationally photographers such as Martin Parr. The show offers an insight into the development of documentary photography in the UK, which is interwoven with that in continental Europe and North America, but also independent of them.

The documentary aspect is one of the great strengths of British photography, which is capable of depicting a part of geographical Europe in transition in a multifaceted, surprising and artistically original way. Facing Britain focuses on the period of Britain's membership of the European Union and its forerunner between 1963 until 2020. In view of the current Corona pandemic, the exhibition proves to be a break in the artistic development of an entire nation.

The photographers being exhibited include five women photographers, but missing are a number of significant photographers of colour who brought - and bring - a distinctive perspective to British documentary photography and the way in which they approached their subject matter.

Included are: John Bulmer, Rob Bremner, Thom Corbishley, Robert Darch, Anna Fox, Ken Grant, Judy Greenway, Paul Hill, David Hurn, Markéta Luskačová, Kirsty Mackay, Niall McDiarmid, Daniel Meadows, Peter Mitchel, David Moore, Tish Murtha, John Myers, Jon Nicholson, Martin Parr, Paul Reas, Simon Roberts, Dave Sinclair, Homer Sykes, Jon Tonks and others.

The exhibition describes the decline of the coal industry, the Thatcher era with the Falkland conflict, and the Brexit that divided the country. A special focus is on the 1970s and 1980s, which were influenced by David Hurn, Tish Murtha, Daniel Meadows and Martin Parr, when artistic documentary photography gained an importance worldwide. Martin Parr describes these decades as 'a formative period for British photography, in which the strength of the documentary movement really came alive'.

In Great Britain, photography was not considered an autonomous art form until the 1980s. The first major survey exhibition on British documentary photography in Great Britain did not take place until 2007 under the title How We Are: Photographing Britain at the Tate Britain, London. Subsequently, the British Council's exhibition No Such Thing As Society: Photography in Britain 1967-1987 toured the UK, Poland and Sweden from 2008 to 2010.

This late tribute to the pioneers of British documentary photography also demonstrated the difficulties of photography in Britain. British photography, with a few exceptions, had difficulty in asserting itself on the international market, not least because of its socially critical or political content and socially critical approaches, which are unmistakable in the work of Ken Grant, Tish Murtha, Homer Sykes, Paul Reas or Anna Fox.

Facing Britain presents a portrait of  Britain that is divided, unequal and interspersed with classes, but marked by deep affection, humanity and humour. The photographs speak for themselves, bear witness to artistic concepts and attitudes and convey historical contexts. They call for a view of today's United Kingdom beyond the clichés. Inequality and identity are still the key concepts that dominate the nation and define what makes the exhibition more relevant than ever. Previously virulent themes such as youth unemployment, the decline of the mining industry or protest and demonstration against the policies of Margaret Thatcher are historically illuminated in the exhibition and critically questioned by the participating photographers. Recent works by Kirsty Mackay, Paul Reas, Robert Darch or Niall McDiramid also reflect current issues on topics such as gender justice, consumer society, Brexit or migration.

Museum Goch 
Kastellstraße 9
D-47574 Goch
27 September-to 7 November, 2020
https://museum-goch.de/

Catalogue in preparation

The exhibition Facing Britain at Museum Goch is a cooperation with IKS Photo, Düsseldorf.
Curator:  Ralph Goertz

The National Stereoscopic Association's 46th convention 3D-Con is going virtual in 2020. There is a two-part session on the history of stereoscopic photography taking place between 0730-1130 (Pacific Time) which is 1530-1930 (BST) on Friday, 14 August 2020.

The public is welcome to join for a morning of scholarship from an international group of historians and registration is free at the link here: http://www.3d-con.com/registration.php

The announcement in The Chemist (March, 1851) of Frederick Scott Archer’s wet-collodion process transformed how photography was practiced professionally and by amateur photographers for much of the nineteenth century. Photography’s reach broadened socially, grew artistically and extended geographically.

Move forward to the 2000s and the wet-collodion process is, again, impacting photographic practice. It has been embraced by photographers and students who are using it for creative and artistic reasons. This has been supported by a growing number of practical workshops allowing people to experience and learn about the process.

This online symposium Don’t Press Print. De/Re-constructing the collodion process is organised by the Royal Photographic Society and the University of West of England’s Centre for Fine Print Research.  It will consist of one-day of papers, a part second day of poster presentations.

Papers and posters are sought for online symposium taking place over two days on 1 and 2 October 2020, which addresses, but is not limited to:

Reconstructing

• Historical overview of the development of the collodion process
• Its impact on photography from 1851up to the present
• Photographers and individuals associated with the process

Deconstructing

• Wet-collodion and print making today
• Contemporary practitioners: their experiences and work
• Collodion and digital hybrid models of working

Proposals

Proposals of up to 500 words are required by 10 August and should be emailed to: director@rps.org. In addition, the conference will take submissions for online posters until 1 September. Details and key dates are in this PDF download.

See more: https://rps.org/collodion

Lee Miller is increasingly championed for her Surrealism-inspired photographs. Her images of Paris during the late-1920s and early 1930s when she was the muse and lover of Man Ray, her unique portraits of a desert landscape taken in and around Egypt in the 1930s, and her witty yet poignant and often disturbing images taken during the Second World War and its aftermath, are often discussed. Yet, while popularity in Miller’s complex life and photographic work is rapidly growing, her true worth as a Surrealist artist in her own right remains open to further scholarly exploration.

This new collection of essays, therefore, aims to validate Lee Miller’s position, not simply as a muse, friend, and collaborator with the Surrealists, but as one of the Twentieth Century’s most important and influential female Surrealist artists.

Submission

Abstracts of 500 words maximum and a short biography to be submitted by Friday 10 July 2020.

Please submit by email to: Dr Lynn Hilditch (editor) at hilditl@hope.ac.uk

See: https://cfpleemiller.carrd.co/ 

Arts Council England has released funding to support photography organisations. This includes £30,000 for Photo London and £280,00 for The Photographers' Gallery. BPH has identified the following photography organisations in receipt of emergency support, or offers of support:

Arts Council NPOs and Creative People and Places Organisations offered funding

• Midlands: Derby Quad Ltd. £137,167
• London: Photofusion. £35,000
• London: The Photographers' Gallery. £280,000
• London: The Whitechapel Gallery, £150,000

Organisations (non-NPO)

• London: Four Corners. £35,000
• London: Photo London Limited. £30,000
• Midlands: Grain Projects CIC. £26,000
• Midlands: Nottingham Photographers Hub. £16,800
• Midlands: Photographic Archive Miners CIC. £22,927
• North: Lumen Arts. £14,500
• South East. Positive View Foundation. £16,837
• South West. IC Visual Lab CIC. £22,000
• South West. Real Photography Company. £20,000

See: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/covid19 and https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/covid19/data

Illustrated with many newly discovered photographs, this book which is published in October, tells the story of community photography produced by the radical collectives in the 1970s. It examines their politicised magazines and exhibitions, held anywhere from working men’s clubs to laundrettes.

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.

The photographers derived inspiration from counterculture while finding new ways to produce, publish and exhibit their work. They wanted to do things in their own way, to create their own magazines and exhibition networks, and to take their politicised photographic and textual commentary on the re-imagination of British cities in the post-war period into community centres, laundrettes, Working Men’s Clubs, polytechnics, nurseries – anywhere that would have them. The laminated panel exhibitions were sufficiently robust, when packed into a laundry box, to withstand circulation round the country on British Rail’s Red Star parcel network.

Through archival research, interviews and newly discovered photographic and ephemeral material, this tells the story of the Hackney Flashers Collective, Exit Photography Group, Half Moon Photography Workshop, producers of Camerawork magazine, and the community darkrooms, North Paddington Community Darkroom and Blackfriars Photography Project. It reveals how they created a ‘history from below’, positioning themselves outside of established mainstream media, and aiming to make the invisible visible by bringing the disenfranchised and marginalised into the political debate.

Pre-Order 'Photography of Community and Protest' by Noni Stacey
Hardcover • 208 Pages • Size: 250 × 190 mm
20 colour illustrations and 92 B&W illustrations
ISBN: 9781848224094 • Publication: October 12, 2020

‘Larry Herman’s Clydeside: Photography of Protest and Community’, Studies in Photography Journal, Winter 2018, The Scottish Society for the History of Photography, National Galleries of Scotland. View Publication.

‘Women and Work, 1975’, article on the Hackney Flashers in Aperture magazine as part of a series of articles highlighting forgotten exhibitions, ‘Photography as you don’t know it’ (Winter 2013) - View Publication.

Two lots coming up at auction provide a link back to the photography's earliest days in 1839. Sotheby's auction of Fine Books and Manuscripts including Property from the Eric C. Caren Collection being held on 21 July 2020 in New York has two lots connected to Alfred Swaine Taylor, the pioneer of forensic medicine and an early experimenter in photography. 

Lot 89 consists of a group of letters, from c1830-1870 which includes references to his  photography experiments. Estimate: US $10,000-15,000. 

Lot 90 is a photogenic drawing of a fern dated 2 December 1839. Estimate: US $10,000-15,000.

BPH readers may recall several groups of material from Taylor's former house which was offered by Lacy Scott & Knight in Bury St Edmunds, in 2017 and in one larger group on 5 October 2018, which included letters, books and personal effects covering his many professional and scientific interests including photography. 

See: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/auction-alfred-swaine-taylor-follow-up and http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/auction-report-alfred-swaine-taylor-archive-5-october-2018 

The UK government has announced a £1.57bn package of support for cultural organisations to be delivered through grants and loans, and funding for capital projects. How much is new money, how much will need to be repaid and how much has come from previously announced commitments to the national infrastructure is unclear.  

The package announced includes funding for national cultural institutions in England and investment in cultural and heritage sites to restart construction work paused as a result of the pandemic. The government claims 'this will be a big step forward to help rebuild our cultural infrastructure'.

The package includes:

• £1.15 billion support pot for cultural organisations in England delivered through a mix of grants and loans. This will be made up of £270 million of repayable finance and £880 million grants.
• £100 million of targeted support for the national cultural institutions in England and the English Heritage Trust.
• £120 million capital investment to restart construction on cultural infrastructure and for heritage construction projects in England which was paused due to the coronavirus pandemic.
• The new funding will also mean an extra £188 million for the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland (£33 million), Scotland (£97 million) and Wales (£59 million).

Decisions on awards will be made working alongside expert independent figures from the sector including the Arts Council England and other specialist bodies such as Historic England, National Lottery Heritage Fund and the British Film Institute.

Repayable finance will be issued on generous terms tailored for cultural institutions to ensure they are affordable. Further details will be set out when the scheme opens for applications in the coming weeks.

Although welcomed across the board by leading arts administrators and bodies such as the Royal Opera House, it is unclear whether the funding will actually support smaller organisations not already in receipt of public funding, those outside of London in the same way that London's national bodies look set to benefit, individual artists and freelancers, and venues that have been impacted by social distancing restrictions that are set to be in place for many months. The funding of capital projects may be premature when it is unclear that audiences will return.  

Read the government announcement here:  https://www.gov.uk/government/news/157-billion-investment-to-protect-britains-world-class-cultural-arts-and-heritage-institutions?utm_source=27015a4b-f940-411c-b482-81dceba88625&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate

In 1862, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (who would be crowned Edward VII in 1901 following the death of his mother, Queen Victoria), undertook a tour of the Middle East as part of a structured programme intended to educate the young prince and prepare him for his future role as king. The prince had undertaken previous trips abroad, but on this ambitious itinerary he was accompanied by one of Victorian Britain’s pre-eminent photographers, Francis Bedford (1815 – 1894) and this was the first royal tour to be documented through photography. The exceptionally beautiful images taken by Bedford convey the sense of awe and wonder that these ancient sites still, to this day, possess.

Bedford’s remarkable photographs not only documented the historical landmarks and biblical vistas the prince and his entourage encountered, they also became an important, early record of the Ottoman dominions and the Holy Land. Throughout, Bedford’s task was, as the Photographic News put it, to record scenes that were ‘fraught with historic and sacred associations’.

Each of these carefully framed views was painstakingly composed, and, in our own era of Instagram, online visitors will be able to draw immediate parallels and contrasts. Not least, Bedford’s human subjects were required to remain completely still for several seconds so as not to appear as a blur. And, while Instagrammers require little more than a smartphone, Bedford needed an entire caravan of lenses, tripods, heavy crates of chemicals, glass plates, and a complete portable darkroom to achieve the rich depth and detail of his albumen prints.

Sights of Wonder is the third annual collaboration between the Barber, Royal Collection Trust and the University of Birmingham’s Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies, a partnership which aims to train up a talented cohort of early career curators in a professional setting. As with previous years, a small group of University of Birmingham MA Art History and Curating students takes responsibility for all aspects of an exhibition, from selecting the individual objects from the Royal Collection, establishing key themes, researching and writing interpretation to devising and contributing to the public programme. This year, alongside the usual curatorial dilemmas, the students faced the additional considerable hurdle of Covid-19, and very rapidly had to recast plans for a physical exhibition into virtual form. They rose to the challenge with aplomb, and have produced the Barber’s first show specifically designed for a digital platform, exploring the greater flexibility and deeper levels of engagement which this switch allowed them.

The exhibition can be enjoyed online as if we were accompanying the tour, following the trajectory of the journey, starting with Egypt. Here, we first appreciate the remarkable detail that Bedford’s lens captured in the ancient settings, from desert terrain to the finely carved texture of the stone blocks and pillars of the ruined temples of Karnak, in Thebes. Looking at these images, we may wonder, as the Prince of Wales and his photographer surely did, at the inevitability of the rise and fall of empires.

We then join the entourage in the Holy Land, Lebanon and Syria. Bedford and the royal party would have been acutely aware of both the biblical history and contemporary politics of the region, the latter as turbulent in the 1860s as today. Two years before the royal tour reached Damascus, the escalation of the conflict between Maronites – a Christian group – and Druzes – a religious community associated with Shi’a Islam – saw the destruction of the Christian quarter and the slaughtering of thousands of Christians. Bedford took photographs which showed the aftermath, The Street Called Straight and The Ruins of the Greek Church in the Christian Quarter as well as a portrait of Abd al-Qadir (1808 – 1883), the Algerian religious and military leader who played a key role in helping Christians escape the massacre. The tour then eventually travelled to the more peaceful but no less resonant city of Constantinople (modern day Istanbul), the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and then on to Athens, whose illustrious past would have been deeply familiar to educated Victorians through the works of the great classical writers and philosophers.

Stepping aside from the curators’ primary visual narrative, which draws out the complexities of the Victorian response to the Middle-East through Bedford’s images, our virtual visitors can also explore a range of other options online, from an interactive map of the journey, to detailed video demonstrations of the photographic process used by Bedford. Further resources and activities designed for a variety of age groups and interests are available for virtual visitors to use and share in this discovery section. 

Robert Wenley, the Barber’s Deputy Director, said: ‘Bedford’s photographs were taken just a generation after the birth of the medium and yet they have a technical mastery and aesthetic impact that has rarely been matched.  This is compelling in itself and arguably even easier to appreciate on screen than in a dimly-lit physical gallery, but the curators’ interpretation of these images takes us beyond their seductive surfaces, and opens up fascinating issues around the nature of empire and the resonance of biblical landmarks to a deeply Christian Victorian Britain.  We are enormously grateful to both our student curators and Royal Collection Trust for working so fruitfully and energetically in partnership with us, particularly in such unpredicted and challenging circumstances’ 

Alex Sheen, Art History and Curating MA student, University of Birmingham, added: ‘Curating in a crisis is definitely not something we envisaged at the start of this project, but the rapidly unfolding situation opened up a valuable opportunity to learn how curation can adapt to the changing world. Through creating the digital exhibition, we now have the benefit of offering greater accessibility and therefore reaching a wider audience. Working with the staff at the Barber and Royal Collection Trust, we’ve aimed to curate an innovative and immersive experience, which visitors can enjoy from the comfort and safety of their homes, wherever they may be.'

Alessandro Nasini, Curator of Photographs, Royal Collection Trust, said: ‘Working with the students on this project has been an absolute pleasure and an enriching experience for all parties. The young curators had the challenging task of selecting a relatively small number of items from a large pool of material made available to them, analysing it, interpreting it and presenting it to the public. Some of these steps took place during visits to Windsor Castle, where our Photograph Collection is housed. We had the opportunity to look closely at the material, while exchanging ideas and openly discussing the many options offered by the material itself and our interpretation of it. From my perspective, it felt like such a refreshing and stimulating experience, almost as if I were looking at some of Bedford’s photographs for the first time. During one of the visits, the student curators also had the opportunity to learn about various behind-the-scenes processes and procedures every exhibition goes through, including the essential work from our colleagues in Conservation. I’d like to congratulate the students on their hard work on the exhibition and thank staff at the Barber Institute and at the University of Birmingham for supporting and facilitating this initiative and such a rewarding partnership.’

For more information about Sights of Wonder: Photographs of the Royal Tour visit barber.org.uk. Follow @barberinstitute on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for regular updates, news and opportunities to engage with the Barber.

Images:

Francis Bedford: The Sphinx, the Great Pyramid and two lesser Pyramids, Ghizeh, Egypt;  The Prince of Wales and Group at the Pyramids, Giza, Egypt.  Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2020

Frans Koopman writes...'we like to inform you that last  Friday mr Aad Schoorl, alderman of Heemskerk, has unveiled an information board concerning Nicolaas Henneman. The board has been placed along the path where he was born, since 2018 called after him: Nicolaas Hennemanpad'

Heemskerk is a small, historic town north-west of Amsterdam. Henneman was born in Heemskerk in 1813, became a valet to Talbot, then his assistant, and ran Talbot's Reading printing establishment. When this closed he became a photographer for a short period in partnership Thomas Malone. He died in London in 1898.  

With thanks to Professor Larry Schaaf and Frans Koopman, Genootschap ’t Hofland
 

It is little wonder the life of Hemi Pomara has attracted the attention of writers and film makers. Kidnapped in the early 1840s, passed from person to person, displayed in London and ultimately abandoned, it is a story of indigenous survival and resilience for our times.

Hemi has already been the basis for the character James Pōneke in New Zealand author Tina Makereti’s 2018 novel The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke. And last week, celebrated New Zealand director Taika Waititi announced his production company Piki Films is adapting the book for the big screen – one of three forthcoming projects about colonisation with “indigenous voices at the centre”.

Until now, though, we have only been able to see Hemi’s young face in an embellished watercolour portrait made by the impresario artist George French Angas, or in a stiff woodcut reproduced in the Illustrated London News.

Drawing on the research for our forthcoming book, Empire, Early Photography and Spectacle: the global career of showman daguerreotypist J.W. Newland (Routledge, November 2020), we can now add the discovery of a previously unknown photograph of Hemi Pomara posing in London in 1846.

This remarkable daguerreotype shows a wistful young man, far from home, wearing the traditional korowai (cloak) of his chiefly rank. It was almost certainly made by Antoine Claudet, one of the most important figures in the history of early photography.

All the evidence now suggests the image is not only the oldest surviving photograph of Hemi, but also most probably the oldest surviving photographic portrait of any Māori person. Until now, a portrait of Caroline and Sarah Barrett taken around 1853 was thought to be the oldest such image.

For decades this unique image has sat unattributed in the National Library of Australia. It is now time to connect it with the other portraits of Hemi, his biography and the wider conversation about indigenous lives during the imperial age.

https://images.theconversation.com/files/344435/original/file-20200629-96659-13rvux8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344435/original/file-20200629-96659-13rvux8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344435/original/file-20200629-96659-13rvux8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344435/original/file-20200629-96659-13rvux8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344435/original/file-20200629-96659-13rvux8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" />
‘Hemi Pomare’, 1846, cased, colour applied, quarter-plate daguerreotype, likely the oldest surviving photographic image of a Māori. National Library of Australia

A boy abroad

Hemi Pomara led an extraordinary life. Born around 1830, he was the grandson of the chief Pomara from the remote Chatham Islands off the east coast of New Zealand. After his family was murdered during his childhood by an invading Māori group, Hemi was seized by a British trader who brought him to Sydney in the early 1840s and placed him in an English boarding school.

The British itinerant artist, George French Angas had travelled through New Zealand for three months in 1844, completing sketches and watercolours and plundering cultural artefacts. His next stop was Sydney where he encountered Hemi and took “guardianship” of him while giving illustrated lectures across New South Wales and South Australia.

Angas painted Hemi for the expanded version of this lecture series, Illustrations of the Natives and Scenery of Australia and New Zealand together with 300 portraits from life of the principal Chiefs, with their Families.

In this full-length depiction, the young man appears doe-eyed and cheerful. Hemi’s juvenile form is almost entirely shrouded in a white, elaborately trimmed korowai befitting his chiefly ancestry.

The collar of a white shirt, the cuffs of white pants and neat black shoes peak out from the otherwise enveloping garment. Hemi is portrayed as an idealised colonial subject, civilised yet innocent, regal yet complacent.

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Angas travelled back to London in early 1846, taking with him his collection of artworks, plundered artefacts – and Hemi Pomara.

Hemi appeared at the British and Foreign Institution, followed by a private audience with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. From April 1846, he was put on display in his chiefly attire as a living tableau in front of Angas’s watercolours and alongside ethnographic material at the Egyptian Hall, London.

The Egyptian Hall “exhibition” was applauded by the London Spectator as the “most interesting” of the season, and Hemi’s portrait was engraved for the Illustrated London News. Here the slightly older-looking Hemi appears with darkly shaded skin and stands stiffly with a ceremonial staff, a large ornamental tiki around his neck and an upright, feathered headdress.

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An idealised colonial subject: George French Angas, ‘Hemi, grandson of Pomara, Chief of the Chatham Islands’, 1844-1846, watercolour. Alexander Turnbull Library

A photographic pioneer

Hemi was also presented at a Royal Society meeting which, as The Times recorded on April 6, was attended by scores of people including Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, and the pioneering London-based French daguerreotypist Antoine Claudet.

It was around this time Claudet probably made the quarter-plate daguerreotype, expertly tinted with colour, of Hemi Pomara in costume.

The daguerreotype was purchased in the 1960s by the pioneering Australian photo historian and advocate for the National Library of Australia’s photography collections, Eric Keast Burke. Although digitised, it has only been partially catalogued and has evaded attribution until now.

Unusually for photographic portraits of this period, Hemi is shown standing full-length, allowing him to model all the features of his korowai. He poses amidst the accoutrements of a metropolitan portrait studio. However, the horizontal line running across the middle of the portrait suggests the daguerreotype was taken against a panelled wall rather than a studio backdrop, possibly at the Royal Society meeting.

Hemi has grown since Angas’s watercolour but the trim at the hem of the korowai is recognisable as the same garment worn in the earlier painting. Its speckled underside also reveals it as the one in the Illustrated London News engraving.

Hemi wears a kuru pounamu (greenstone ear pendant) of considerable value and again indicative of his chiefly status. He holds a patu onewa (short-handled weapon) close to his body and a feathered headdress fans out from underneath his hair.

We closely examined the delicate image, the polished silver plate on which it was photographically formed, and the leatherette case in which it was placed. The daguerreotype has been expertly colour-tinted to accentuate the embroidered edge of the korowai, in the same deep crimson shade it was coloured in Angas’s watercolour.

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The remainder of the korowai is subtly coloured with a tan tint. Hemi’s face and hands have a modest amount of skin tone colour applied. Very few practitioners outside Claudet’s studio would have tinted daguerreotypes to this level of realism during photography’s first decade.

Hallmarks stamped into the back of the plate show it was manufactured in England in the mid-1840s. The type of case and mat indicates it was unlikely to have been made by any other photographer in London at the time.

https://images.theconversation.com/files/344670/original/file-20200629-155322-my59r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344670/original/file-20200629-155322-my59r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344670/original/file-20200629-155322-my59r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344670/original/file-20200629-155322-my59r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344670/original/file-20200629-155322-my59r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" />
‘New Zealand Youth at Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly’, wood engraving, The Illustrated London News, 18 April 1846.

Survival and resilience

After his brief period as a London “celebrity” Hemi went to sea on the Caleb Angas. He was shipwrecked at Barbados, and on his return aboard the Eliza assaulted by the first mate, who was tried when the ship returned to London. Hemi was transferred into the “care” of Lieutenant Governor Edward John Eyre who chaperoned him back to New Zealand by early December 1846.

Hemi’s story is harder to trace through the historical record after his return to Auckland in early 1847. It’s possible he returned to London as an older married man with his wife and child, and sat for a later carte de visite portrait. But the fact remains, by the age of eighteen he had already been the subject of a suite of colonial portraits made across media and continents.

With the recent urgent debates about how we remember our colonial past, and moves to reclaim indigenous histories, stories such as Hemi Pomara’s are enormously important. They make it clear that even at the height of colonial fetishisation, survival and cultural expression were possible and are still powerfully decipherable today.

For biographers, lives such as Hemi’s can only be excavated by deep and wide-ranging archival research. But much of Hemi’s story still evades official colonial records. As Taika Waititi’s film project suggests, the next layer of interpretation must be driven by indigenous voices.

Elisa deCourcy, Australian National University and Martyn Jolly, Australian National University

The authors would like to acknowledge the late Roger Blackley (Victoria University, Wellington), Chanel Clarke (Curator of the Maori collections, Auckland War Memorial Museum), Nat Williams (former Treasures Curator, National Library of Australia), Dr Philip Jones (Senior Curator, South Australian Museum) and Professor Geoffrey Batchen (Professorial chair of History of Art, University of Oxford) for their invaluable help with their research.

Elisa deCourcy, Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow 2020-2023, Research School of Humanities and the Arts, Australian National University, Australian National University and Martyn Jolly, Honorary Associate Professor, School of Art and Design, Research School of Humanities and the Arts, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Mr Weber's group of photographers posed with their cameras at Bidston. Sitting on the wall (from left to right): W Murray, Thomas Moore, Mr Twigge, E Whalley; middle row: Mr Pendlebury (standing), Mr Wharmby, Mr Bolton, Mr Wilson; front row: J H T Ellerbeck, Mr King, H J Palmer, Mr Kirkby. John Henry Townsend Ellerbeck, 1870s.

Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1425-ALB265-022

In the 1960's I had left college and worked part time as an assistant to Adolf Morath photographing industrial subjects. Mainly running around and changing the flash bulbs in the multi fash heads he had specially designed for him. He sometimes used the Bowens heads but prefered the ones he had designed himself.

I remeber him taking portaits with these lighte and being amazed that he could aim the lights so accuratley. (with no modelling lights).

For his industrial work he set up two 5"x4" cameras side by side but with different focal length of lenses. He opened the shutter of one camera and then the other camera shutter was fired triggering the flash, so he got two images for one set of flashbulbs PF 60's and PF100's were very expensive. I would then have to remove the dead bulbs ready for the next shot. Sometimes if we were photographing a very long view in a factory I would have to set up the lighting stands and because they were over a long distance one set would have to be triggered separately. There was a testing facilly on the firing box to make sure that the circuit was OK. I remember being terrified that I would accidently fire the bulbs before the shot was to be taken. Miraculously I never did.

I did not go abroad with Morath unless you count an asignment for the Irish Government where we toured round Ireland in his VW 6 volt van photgraphing industries that the government wanted to promote to encourage others to set up in Ireland ending by photographing the directors of the Bank of Ireland in Dublin. I have a photograph of this.

I also went Motherwell to the Ravenscraig steel works and other associated works around Gasgow and factories in Lancashire.

Gilly Read FRPS

This new publication asks and seeks to answer a number of questions. How is a historical photo collection established, and how does it then grow? What principles and ideas guide the people responsible for such a collection? What do we mean when we say that photographs carry more than their content that they represent, but are material objects at the same time? What can we learn from a close-up view from of a photo-archive?

Can photographs be separated from the space, the time and the social environment in which they were created? Or can we claim that a photographs’ history is, at the same time, the history of its use? What sources do we use in our work? What do historians do, and what more could they do, with photographs?

In this amply illustrated, bilingual volume, the historian-museologists of the Hungarian National Museum use specific examples to seek answers to these and other questions.

Material Photograph
Editor: Éva Fisli; Contributors: Etelka Baji, Katalin Bognár, Éva Fisli, Katalin Jalsovszky, Marianna Kiscsatári, Beatrix Lengyel, Ilona Balog Stemler, Emőke Tomsics
232 pages
Hungarian National Museum, Budapest, 2020
ISBN 978-615-5978-13-5

Available as a free download

See more here: https://mnm.hu/en/publication-issue/material-photograph?fbclid=IwAR15z8qo2lVsYpJEiyPB2JvpyeQtAQhjWraW37BhwnEOYYxI6nFUxyY-WbQ