Blogs

William Van Sommer (1859–1941) was a little-known amateur photographer who left behind a unique collection of images of his local Surrey landscape and favourite gardens in colour.

He took his pictures in an era when gardens were known for their waves of colour – for the contrasting shades of their rock gardens and the vibrant hues of their herbaceous borders. Yet the Edwardian garden was seldom captured in colour photography at the time.

Van Sommer’s beautiful ‘autochrome’ pictures provide a rare glimpse of the colours of these gardens of the past. Read on to discover some of the earliest colour images of the great outdoors including the first known colour photographs of RHS Wisley.

Read more about him and see his autochromes here: https://www.rhs.org.uk/digital-collections/william-van-sommer

If anyone has more information about Van Sommer and his photography feel free to contact Sarah McDonald, Heritage Collections Manager at the RHS. 

The exhibition has been created by RHS Lindley Library. Based at the Royal Horticultural Society’s headquarters at Vincent Square in London, the Lindley Library holds a world-class collection of horticultural books, journals and botanical art.

The University of West of England's Centre for Fine Print Research in Bristol is running a series of photographic process workshops aimed at, amongst others, artists, designers, craftspeople, communicators, photographers, teachers and managers. CPD courses offer the opportunity for professional updating, learning new skills and techniques, and for intellectual stimulus. 

They will run in the summer of 2021 and cover early photographic printing processes, photogravure, platinum/palladium and preparing digital negatives, and are led by Dr Peter Moseley

Find out more and book here: https://rps.org/CFPR

Image: Dr Peter Moseley

An auction house has asked for identification of a photograph which will be offered at auction on 13 April 2021. There are two photographs in the lot. The photograph which has an unidentified photographer is a portrait of Julia Prinsep Stephen, née Jackson.

The other print shows Mary Louisa Fisher and Julia Prinsep Stephen (both née Jackson), and is attributed to James Mudd or Joseph Cundall. 

Any attributions - ideally with sources - would be welcome. 

This blog, published in 2020 looks at - and identifies - many of the photographers represented in this important art library. Much loved and perused by staff, students, and the general public in the know, the Conway Library is a collection of 9764 red boxes containing brown manila folders. The photographs glued on the brown manila mounts are black and white original prints showing places of architectural notice, often in painstaking detail. The variety, detail and beauty of the photographs, as well as the value of this research resource are well documented in this blog.

The list of photographers tells a completely new story about the library. No longer simply the story of the initial collectors, this is now also the story of the hundreds of people – students, staff or independent supporters – who donated the images.

Read the blog, see the list of photographers represented, and share your own knowledge: http://blog.courtauld.ac.uk/digitalmedia/2020/06/30/who-made-the-conway-library/

The inaugural exhibition in the Chau Chak Wing Museum’s photography gallery examines the first photographic studios in New South Wales, Australia and the characters who ran them. The way we visualise much of the 19th century is framed by the work of commercial photographic studios. The new technology of photography, invented in 1839, led to the rise of these new businesses which found commercial opportunities in sales of photographs, especially portraits. The Business of Photography turns the lens onto the commercial studio, exploring the stories behind particular New South Wales photographers. Original photographs drawn from the Macleay Collection of historic photography are featured.

A supporting online/in-person event is: 

Art UK is holding a conference as the culmination of nearly four years' work to digitise thousands of sculptures across the UK, held in collections and seen in public spaces.

There will be talks from Art UK staff on sculpture digitisation, our learning and engagement programme and new sculpture discoveries through Art Detective. We will share best practice on photography of sculpture, running community engagement events and delivering innovative activities for schools, plus lectures on the historical photography of sculpture.

Talks from curators, art historians and learning professionals will consider public sculpture, innovative learning programmes, diversity and colonialism, and new discoveries in sculpture and sculptor research. These include presentations from our project partners VocalEyes, CultureStreet, the Royal Society of Sculptors and the Royal Photographic Society.

The conference's keynote session will see artist Jeremy Deller in conversation with renowned Classicist and Art UK Patron Mary Beard, as they discuss their views on public art in the UK. The discussion will touch on how they feel about the debate around contentious statues and their removal, and their thoughts on the role of art and sculpture in our public spaces.

Rediscovering our sculpture
11 and 12 March 2021
Free registration

See more: https://artuk.org/about/sculpture-conference

Prospect magazine has a feature by Emma Hartley which poses the question why were women photographers overlooked in the recent Netflix film The Dig. The photography of Mercie Lack and Barbara Wagstaff who documented the excavation at Sutton Hoo was removed and their roles replaced by a male photographer.  Separately  the role of Wagstaff has been largely overlooked in favour of Lack and it was only recently that her birth and death dates were known. 

Read more here: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/arts-and-books/why-does-netflixs-the-dig-exclude-the-women-who-photographed-sutton-hoo

Image: The long boat discovered at Sutton Hoo as photographed by Barbara Wagstaff. Credit: The British Museum

Bonhams auction of Fine Books and Manuscripts on 31 March 2021 includes a copy of Reports of the Juries (1851-52) which is illustrated with 154 calotypes. The set of four volumes in an edition of approximately 130.   It is estimated at £15,000-20,000. 

See more here: https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/26772/lot/8/

The British Film Institute is seeking a Curatorial Specialist to join the BFI’s Curatorial department on a fixed term basis until March 2022 to work on the Heritage 2022 project; digitising 100,000 video works from the collections of the BFI and partner archives in order to preserve the collections for future generations.

Key Responsibilities 

• Work with curators and curatorial archivists to process video material to support delivery of the BFI’s Heritage 22 programme, identifying and inspecting materials in order to advise on conservation need. Ensure that materials are accurately described and documented on the BFI’s documentation system.
• Bring an understanding of the history of film, television and the moving image to support curatorial archivists in recommending preservation and conservation workflows for video and other archive materials as part of the Heritage 22 programme. In consultation with curators, assign and amend preservation status applied to holdings and update the Collections Information Database (CID).
• Use the Collections Information Database (CID) tool to accurately catalogue archive materials to internationally agreed standards and undertake materials research for programming, conservation or preservation. Use spreadsheets and information databases to bulk import or export metadata describing the collections.
• Research the BFI National Archive using the Collections Information Database (CID) to identify best materials for potential curatorial programmes.

See more and apply here: https://bfijobsandopportunities.bfi.org.uk/

A call for papers has been made by Museu del Cinema, The Department of History & History of Art at the University of Girona and the Ministry Project “Virtual worlds in early cinema: devices, aesthetics and audiences”. The organisers are seeking papers that respond to: 

Topic A: Virtual worlds in early cinema: devices, aesthetics and audiences
- Media archaeology. The archaeological study of the devices previous or contemporary to the cinematograph might be helpful to introduce the History of cinema inside a much broader process, focused on the evolution of visual devices, screens and projection/audition systems.
- The viewer experience in the face of the visual spectacles. In order to comprehend the devices’ impact. It is fundamental to know which was the audience experience in front of the images.
- Virtual experiences on early films. Another research path might draw from the period existing films, in order to check how new sensorial ways are glimpsed in them. The idea of considering early cinema films as spaces to the visual attraction can lead us to consider the realist simulation effects that they gather.
- Immersive spectacles and virtualization. The study of leisure spaces from them past reflects the existence of hybrid spectacle systems, between cinema, theatre, magic lantern which proposed specific forms of exhibition and enhanced theatre viewer immersion in possible worlds.
- Bridges between the past and the development of virtual technology in the present. It is possible to establish a thinking that carries out a revision of the past through a double logic based on the analysis of the re-use by the new technologies of pre-existing techniques and other based on the aesthetic reflection around virtuality modes in the present and its connection with other aesthetic achievements that were developed in a moment of transformation and reuse of the means of communication.
Topic B: pre-cinema and early cinema
- Presentation of works in progress on pre-cinema or cinema until 1915.

Deadline for papers: 5 May 2021
Conference 20 and 21 October 2021. 

See more here: https://www.girona.cat/shared/admin/docs/c/a/call_for_papers.eng.pdf

St Andrews University is offering a MLitt in History of Photography. The course provides a range of innovative modules that cover areas from the origins of photography to contemporary practices and debates, including modernist art photography, documentary approaches, photographic collections, and technological advances up to the digital era. 

The MLitt in History of Photography is a taught postgraduate programme run by the School of Art History. The MLitt offers a unique opportunity to study the history of photography as a specialised field of research. Highlights include:

• This innovative degree is inspired by the important role played by St Andrews in the early history of the most influential visual medium of the modern era.
• Students are introduced to the theoretical and methodological challenges and debates that photography’s multiple functions and contexts have provoked since its invention.
• Classes make full use of the outstanding photographic collections of Special Collections, University Library and associated photographic archives.
• Small class sizes prioritise discussion with peers and interaction with the tutor.
• Students may apply to take part in exchange programmes at our partner institutions.

Course starts 6 September 2021. Applications by 11 August 2021 at the latest. 

Read more here: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/subjects/art-history/history-photography-mlitt/#d.en.93814

My talk on early Royal Navy photographs compiled by Lieutenant Arthur Onslow is up on YouTube. https://youtu.be/-g28qDQGwrk 

Mostly taken between 1858 and 1863 the talk is mainly focussed on the actions of HMS Herald while it was engaged in one of the longest surveying missions ever undertaken by the Admiralty. Among the many rare images are those of Menang Noongar men & women taken by Onslow and naval artist and photographer James Glen Wilson on their visit to King George Sound, Western Australia in February 1858. There are also early images of Quandamooka people from Moreton Island, Queensland taken when HMS Herald visited around November 1858.

Other photos covered in this talk are: HMS Iris, Tanna, Vanuatu, 1858; the beacon erected on Mellish Cay by H.M.S Herald using the remains of French Man-O-War Duroc; Table Bay, Cape Town South Africa, 1861; HMS Phaeton, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1862; Street Scene, Matamoros, Mexico, ca. 1862; HMS Phaeton, Nelson Dock, English Harbour, Antiqua, West Indies, 1863 and Tudor Street, Bridgetown, Barbados, West Indies, ca. 1863. 

These photographs are all contained in an important album of early Australian and Pacific photographs which includes images by a veritable ‘who’s who’ of amateur photographers working in Sydney at the end of the 1850s. These include John Smith, Robert Hunt, Matthew Fortesque Moresby, Edward Wolstenholme Ward as well as the work of professionals like William Hetzer. 

The richness of the content in this scrapbook allows for any number of possible discussions but this talk focuses on the naval photographs which form a strong narrative thread that flows through the album. Importantly, as the photos were originally credited to James Macarthur, the talk also adds to the argument that Arthur Onslow was central to the compiling of these photographs and perhaps by extension the many other images in the album.

Our team is collecting information on photograph preservation projects throughout the world to assist us as we write a monograph titled, Significance, Use, and Conservation of Photograph and Image Collections, to be published in the Routledge Series in Conservation and Museology. In these survey questions, we are broadly defining photograph preservation projects to include photograph conservation and rehousing, emergency response, education and outreach, research, and digital image collection initiatives. We are particularly interested in learning about projects that promote conservation advocacy and community engagement.

Your privacy is important to us. Your data is protected and will not be shared beyond this research group. We would greatly appreciate it if you could complete the survey before March 10. It should take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. Your input will be a tremendous help in raising awareness of photographic heritage worldwide.

Link to survey: https://utexas.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_82GgIHMVqNpfF5Q

Thank you for your time and expertise!

Debra Hess Norris, University of Delaware
Heather Brown, Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
Shannon Brogdon-Grantham, Smithsonian's Museum Conservation Institute
Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa, Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
Marta Garcia Celma, M+ Museum, Hong Kong
Amber Kehoe, Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
Lee Price, Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, Philadelphia
Ioannis Vasallos, The National Archives, UK

For questions related to the survey and/or the publication, please contact copicbook@gmail.com.

A 30 min talk about the photographers on Mawson's Australian Antarctic Expedition 1911-1914 is now on YouTube. Frank Hurley is probably the best-known photographer from the expedition but this talk introduces works by the other photographers on the expedition and looks at the large negative collections held by the State Library of NSW.

View full video on YouTube

The Horner Collection is a group of over 1000 photographs which were taken by the Horner photography studio in Settle for three generations from 1864 to 1960. Their photographs capture the changing faces and places of Settle and the surrounding areas for nearly a hundred years.

The Museum of North Craven Life is crowdfunding to secure the collection, digitise and preserve it in Settle where the studio was located. The collection includes many original glass plate negatives which will need careful conservation and storage.

The museum has secured a £1500 grant from the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and needs to match this and pay for transport and associated costs. So far it has raised £3145 of £4000.

See more and lend your support here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/horner-collection

In December 1920, in the aftermath of the first world war photographs appeared in a London magazine which apparently proved the existence of fairies. Embraced by believers, dissected by sceptics, and sprinkled with celebrity by Arthur Conan Doyle, the Cottingley Fairy Photographs fascinated everyone.

One hundred years later, Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, has collaborated with young people living in Edinburgh to reflect on image-making and image-faking. Their work is shown here, alongside artists and photographers who engage with the legacy of the Cottingley Fairies.

See: https://stills.org/exhibitions/photographing-fairies/

The Scottish Council on Archives Preservation Committee has announced its first webinar in its latest series: Focus on Photography. From identifying photographic type and how to care for them to dating images through fashion, these sessions will explore many different aspects of managing photographs in archive collections. Designed for archivists and anyone with photographs in their collection, the webinars will give practical advice from experts, and offer guidance on caring, storing, and cataloguing items.

Each session will take place on Zoom and run for around thirty minutes, featuring a short presentation with plenty of opportunity for your questions. We are delighted to be working with Susie Clark, photographic conservator, for our initial workshops.

Session One: Getting to Grips with Your Photographic Collection

Wednesday 24 February, 12:00-12:30

This session will provide an outline of the ways in which you might divide up photographic collections, whether into positives and negatives, black and white and colour, or by subject matter, format, or materials, and why each may be relevant.

Registration is free, via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/141270769675

other events can be seen here: https://www.scottisharchives.org.uk/events/

Susie Clark ACR ICON is an accredited Photographic Conservator and Consultant with many years of experience. She has worked for a large number of institutions, organizations and private individuals in Britain and abroad. She was the recipient of the Museums and Galleries Commission Jerwood Conservation Award for Research and Innovation for her work on the conservation of wet collodion positives. She was also the conservator for the Collaborative Research Project between the National Science and Media Museum and the Getty Conservation Institute looking at characteristics of different photographic processes. She has taught for many organizations and written for many publications. She is currently Assistant Co-ordinator for the ICOM-CC Photographic Materials Group and a committee member of the York Consortium for Conservation and Craftmanship which provides bursaries. She was previously a committee member of the Film and Sound Group of the Society of Archivists. She was recently an Honorary Teaching Fellow for the Centre for Archive and Information Studies at the University of Dundee.

The Florentine has announced that: the Alinari Archive, with its over five million items from the 1840s to the present day, was purchased by the Region of Tuscany at the end of 2019 and now has a new home. It is now under the management of the new Alinari Foundation (Fondazione Alinari), which has the scope of conserving and promoting the archive. The foundation announced its new home - the historic Villa Fabbricotti or Arcipressi, in Florence - and plans for the future, including a museum, although the location has yet to be determined.

Read the full piece here: https://www.theflorentine.net/2021/02/16/new-alinari-foundation/

After the success of last year’s inaugural 'Sessions on the History of Stereoscopic Photography' held virtually at the 3D-Con (annual conference), the National Stereoscopic Association is again seeking papers on the history of stereography for its second annual “Sessions.”

We seek presentations on any aspect of stereo-media from the inception of stereoscopic photography to contemporary virtual and augmented reality. Topics include but are not limited to: historical and archival discoveries; studies on collecting and the culture of stereography; marketing and incorporation; intersectionality; immersive media, interactivity and performance; stereoscopic perception; 3D cinema and virtual reality; instrumentality and simulation. Papers on topics from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century are invited. The conference will be held in 3D on zoom.

The National Stereoscopic Association’s
Sessions on the History of Stereoscopic Photography
a virtual conference of the 47^th 3D-Con 
August 12, 2021
Deadline for abstracts: May 15, 2021.

Please send an abstract of 500 words, a biography of 250 words, and an information sheet found at:  https://3d-con.com/files/2020NSASessionsCallforPapersSessions.docx

email to: Melody Davis, davism6@sage.edu

Notification of acceptance by May 31, 2021.  Digital images will be expected by July 16, 2021.

A forthcoming publication will tell the story of the photographer and filmmaker Herbert Ponting.  Ponting (1870-1935) was young bank clerk when he bought an early Kodak camera. By the early 1900s, he was living in California, working as a professional photographer, known for stereoview and enlarged images of America, Japan and the Russo-Japanese war. In 1909, back in Britain, Ponting was recruited by Captain Robert Scott as photographer and filmmaker for his second Antarctic expedition.

In 1913, following the deaths of Scott and his South Pole party companions, Ponting’s images of Antarctica were widely published, and he gave innovative ‘cinema-lectures’ on the expedition. When war broke out, Ponting’s offers to serve as a photographer or correspondent were declined, but in 1918 he, Ernest Shackleton and other Antarctic veterans joined a government-backed Arctic expedition.

During the economically depressed 1920s and 1930s, Ponting wrote his Antarctic memoir, re-worked his Antarctic films into silent and ‘talkie’ versions and worked on inventions. Like others, he struggled financially but was sustained by correspondence with George Eastman, a late-life romance with singer Glae Carrodus and knowing that his images of Antarctica had secured his place in photographic and filmmaking history.

Herbert Ponting
Anne Strathie
ISBN: 9780750979016
Published: 19-03-2021

See: https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/herbert-ponting/9780750979016/