Blogs

On 3 November 2018 New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building Celeste Auditorium, hosts the first international symposium dedicated to the pioneering photography of Anna Atkins (1799-1871). Scholars in the fields of photography, conservation, natural history, and rare books will discuss her photographic legacy.

The symposium is open to the public, details here: https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2018/11/03/anna-atkins-symposium.

The exhibition Blue Prints: the Pioneering Photographs of Anna Atkins opened on Friday 19th October at New York Public Library Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, featuring her ground breaking ten year project Photographs of British Algae, Cyanotype Impressions. 

More details here https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/blue-prints-pioneering-photographs-anna-atkins.

Lauren Ashley-Irvine, Conservator of Photographs and Paper, at the Victoria and Albert Museum has published a blog describing how one of the fascicles from Talbot's Pencil of Nature (1844) was conserved and prepared for exhibition in the museum's new photography galleries. The publication is part of the Royal Photographic Society Collection now held at the V&A. 

Read the full blog here

As the 100th anniversary of the Armistice is looming I am asking for help to contact any living relatives of former Daily Mirror photographers who served in WW1 or worked for the paper in the UK during the conflict. 

I am particular interested in Bernard, Thomas and Horace Grant  who had all covered conflicts around the world before the outbreak of the Great War.

Other photographers of interest are David McLellan, Ivor Castle, Ernest Brooks and William Rider Rider official photographer with the Canadians. William after the war joined the Mirror and became our chief picture editor during WWII 

These men served the Paper and their Country by recording the horrors of war only armed with their camera's. I would like to encourage the paper to recognise the service these men gave by telling their stories in their words.

Belgian soldiers resting after being pushed back by the advancing German Army. August 1914 - Bernard Grant 

The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, held in London from May to Ocbober of 1851, was the genesis of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Published to accompany the opening of the V&A Photography Centre, this book makes extensive use of the V&A collections and archival material related to the 1851 Great Exhibition.

Photography and the 1851 Great Exhibition is the first comprehensive study of the seminal gathering of photographs and photographic equipment that marked the global launch of the form. It examines the role and impact of photography at the 1851 Great Exhibition and beyond, drawing together two decades of research to create a broader understanding of the step-change in image making and distribution represented by that event. With a Foreword by Tristram Hunt and an essay on photoscience by Nicholas Burnett.

While the Great Exhibition has received a variety of examinations, its role in exhibiting and furthering the cause and exploitation of photography and its impact on illustration, printing, publishing, and the arts has been largely underappreciated. More broadly, 1851 saw a massive change in information management: in the creation and dissemination of visually based graphic information characterized by images of the building, its contents and their display that collectively constituted the Great Exhibition. Photography played a critical role in this quantum leap.

The scale and scope of photography of the Great Exhibition is made evident through reproductions of images produced by a wide range of amateur and professional photographers who documented the Great Exhibition, some of which are the only known images of now lost works of art. Also shown and examined are prints produced by traditional reprographics and lithographs and the photographic originals from which they were derived.

The result of more than twenty years of research, this study is based on a number of contemporary sources including official publications, the archive of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, the correspondence of William Henry Fox Talbot, letters, newspapers, books, and articles in serial and periodical publications, as well as the Reports by the Juries, from which all 154 photographic images are reproduced in these pages.

Anthony Hamber is an expert on 19th century photography and the illustrated book, the contribution of photography to other forms of illustration, and the application of photography to art publishing. His first monograph, A Higher Branch of the Art; Photographing the Fine Arts in England 1839-1880 (Gordon & Breach, 1996) is a fundamental source of information in its field.

Available in the UK and Ireland from the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Price: £65
Order online: https://www.vam.ac.uk/shop/photography-and-the-great-exhibition-155372.html

Boots Archive are delighted to announce the second phase release of the online catalogue of the Walgreens Boots Alliance archive collections. This digital resource, which launched in 2017 has been supported by the Wellcome Trust, through their Research Resources programme. The archive includes phootgraphy and material relating to Boots' involvement with amateur photography.

The catalogue currently comprises around two fifths of the total archive holdings (c5,000 boxes) with over 27,000 entries and 4,500 digitised images.  Subsequent additions to the catalogue will be made on an annual basis over the next three years until the entire collection is incorporated.  The majority of the entries on the site relate to the Boots UK collection, and the material charts the development of the business into large scale manufacturing, product development, research and healthcare and beauty retailing. Information relating to product development, which includes employee training, formulations, packaging and merchandising records, is a particularly strong element within the collection. The holdings also include a large number of store and factory photographs and building plans.

In addition to the material relating to the history of Boots UK, other significant holdings also include the business records of Walgreens; Dollond and Aitchison; Optrex Ltd; Timothy Whites and Taylors Ltd; Unichem and E Moss Ltd.

The archive catalogue can be accessed here: http://archives.walgreensbootsalliance.com/ 

In this lecture Deborah Ireland explores how the Royal Geographic Society's first instructor in photography, John Thompson, applied images to the science of geography, to guide and influence a new generation of travellers. Thomson had a career as a photographer in China and elsewhere in Asia and took the photographs for Street Life in London.

Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), 1 Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AR15 October 2018
at 6.30pm. Ondaatje Theatre doors open at 5.30pm

See more here.

The first day open to the public was a busy one for the V&A Museum's new Photography Centre as the pictures here show. Phase one of the Photography Centre more than doubles the space dedicated to photography at the V&A, spanning four new galleries. It opens with the major display Collecting Photography: From Daguerreotype to Digital, beginning in the newly named The Bern and Ronny Schwartz Gallery (formerly Gallery 100). The show explores photography as a way of ‘collecting the world’, from the medium’s invention in the 19th century to the present day.

Drawn from the V&A and Royal Photographic Society collections of over 800,000 photographs, the display showcases some of the most exciting contemporary photography being created today. It also shows seminal prints by pioneers William Henry Fox Talbot, Julia Margaret Cameron and Roger Fenton, alongside negatives, camera equipment, photographic publications and original documents to tell a broader story about the history of international photography. In The Modern Media Gallery (formerly Gallery 99), a frequently changing selection of new acquisitions, a ‘Light Wall’ for displaying screen-based photography, and a ‘Dark Tent’ projection area complete the space.

To mark the opening, the V&A has commissioned two internationally-renowned artists to produce major new works. German photographer Thomas Ruff, known for taking a critical and conceptual approach to photography, has created a monumental series inspired by Linnaeus Tripe’s 1850s paper negatives of India and Burma, held in the V&A’s collection. Digitally reinterpreting photographs made over 160 years ago, Ruff gives Tripe’s important and haunting images a new context, emphasising their hidden details and resurrecting them with spectacular new life. Alongside Thomas Ruff’s new series, American artist Penelope Umbrico has created 171 Clouds from the V&A Online Collection, 1630 - 1885, 2018, the first work to feature on the Light Wall. Umbrico works mostly with images she finds on the internet, presenting them in ways that reveal the fluidity of digital photography. For this video, she sifted through the V&A paintings collection online and extracted details of clouds. The work explores the transition from fleeting clouds to material paint, and then from digital code to physical screen.

Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A, said: “I’m delighted to open the V&A’s new Photography Centre. The transfer of the historic Royal Photographic Society collection provided the catalyst for this dramatic reimagining of photography at the museum. Our collection – established by the V&A’s visionary first director Henry Cole - now seamlessly spans the entire history of photography, telling the story of the medium from the daguerreotype to the digital. Our new Photography Centre provides a world-class facility to re-establish photography as one of our defining collections. In an era when everyone’s iPhone makes them a photographer, the V&A’s Photography Centre explores and explains the medium in a compelling new way.”

Martin Barnes, Senior Curator of Photographs at the V&A, said: “The new Photography Centre brings to life some of the V&A’s most beautiful original picture galleries and provides a permanent home for one of the finest and most inspiring collections of photography in the world. The spaces and facilities allow visitors to access, explore and enjoy photography in its many forms. The Photography Centre encompasses more than a new gallery space. Beyond its walls lies an associated programme of research, digitisation, learning activities, publications, exhibitions, access to items in stores, and collaborations with other UK and international partners. Photography is one of our most powerful forms of global communication, and I’m thrilled that we can contextualise the past and present of this powerful medium in new and exciting ways.”

Visitors enter the new Photography Centre through a spectacular installation of over 150 cameras spanning 160 years. Nearby, an interactive camera handling station offers visitors an understanding of how photographers view the world through their equipment. Inside the gallery, focused sections look at a series of collections and collectors. This includes an important group of William Henry Fox Talbot’s cameras and prints; 1850s fine art photographs collected by Chauncey Hare Townshend, friend of Charles Dickens; Pictorialist photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn’s collection of photographs by his predecessors and contemporaries; and a selection of some of the most significant photojournalism of the 20th century collected by Magnum Photos’ UK agents, John and Judith Hillelson. A stereoscope viewer gives an immersive 3-D experience of Crystal Palace alongside some of the first photographs ever taken of Japan.

Over 600 objects made across Europe, the US, Africa, the Middle East and Asia have been brought together for Collecting Photography: From Daguerreotype to Digital. The display features images by early colour photography pioneers, Agnes Warburg, Helen Messinger Murdoch and Nickolas Muray, and recent acquisitions by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Cornelia Parker, Linda McCartney, Marco Breuer, Pierre Cordier and Mark Cohen. A ground-breaking botanical cyanotype by Anna Atkins, images by the world’s first female museum photographer, Isabel Agnes Cowper, and motion studies by Eadweard Muybridge, join photographs by some of the world’s most influential modern and contemporary photographers, including Eugène Atget, Man Ray, Bill Brandt, Walker Evans, Edward Steichen, Cindy Sherman and Martin Parr.

The Photography Centre also features the Dark Tent, a flexible multimedia projection and lecture space inspired by 19th-century photographers’ travelling darkrooms. Here, specially commissioned films revealing early photographic processes, including the daguerreotype, calotype and wet collodion process, are screened, along with a slideshow of rarely-seen magic lantern slides revealing the first attempts to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1921 and 1922, among other photographic projections.

The opening of the V&A Photography Centre kick-starts a month-long Photography Spotlight across the V&A. Highlights include talks by leading photographers Mary McCartney, Rankin and Chris Levine; the premiere of the collaborative performance piece Last Evenings by artist Garry Fabian Miller and musician and composer Oliver Coates; a screening of Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s Love Cecil; and special performances, events, courses, workshops and a photography-themed Friday Late on 26 October.

Admission is free. 

See more here, including details of special events and a symposium: https://www.vam.ac.uk/season/2018/photography-spotlight#highlights

Image below: © Will Pryce.jpg / above: © Michael Pritchard

Make exquisite rich brown images using this 19th century print technique.  Lead by photographic artist Catriona Gray who specialises in alternative processes, this short, three-hour workshop, will show you all you need to make gorgeous and unique Van Dyke Brown prints.

You will learn how to coat your own photographic paper, and expose it to light using the photogram technique of placing objects directly onto the paper. There will also be the opportunity to make a photographic print from a digital negative (if you want to do this, please email your image in plenty of time before the workshop).

We encourage you to bring your own objects, leaves, flowers etc. along to the workshop, to make the images truly personal.

All materials included in the fee.

Darkroom London
Unit 10 Burmarsh Workshops
71 Marsden Street
London, NW5 3JA

See more and book for either workshop here. 

An image of Alice and the Fairies taken in 1917 by Elsie Wright, and one of the hoax photographs known as the Cottingley Fairies sold for £15,000 (plus 20% buyer's premium) at Dominic Winter auctions on 4 October. 

First in the series of five Cottingley Fairies photographs, a hoax that deceived a number of eminent figures, most notably Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story of the Cottingley Fairies began as a practical joke in Cottingley, near Bradford, West Yorkshire in 1917 and the fairies were actually drawings by Elsie, secured in the ground with hat pins. It was a secret the girls decided to keep until the 1980s to protect the public reputations of those who believed in the 'truth' of the images. Alice was probably the name given to Frances by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) in an attempt to conceal the girls' identities when he published the photographs.

A second image Iris and the Gnome sold for £5400 (plus 20% buyer's premium).

See more here: https://www.dominicwinter.co.uk/sale/-photo18b/lot-922

Colleagues and friends who will have seen David Haynes notification drawing attention to the new addition of historical photographic images to the Cambridge digital Library, might be unaware of the threat hanging over the Cavendish and Monde Laboratories where scientific research and experiments took place over a period of nearly 100 years by James Clark-Maxwell, JJ Thomson, Rutherford and others. The breadth and significance of the research undertaken on this site is without parallel in the history of science and what took place there is fundamental to our life today and for all advances in industry worldwide.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2015/sep/01/britains-most-important-historic-laboratory-is-under-threat

The sixth 'Photography on Screen' work by Street Level Photoworks for Regional Screen Scotland.

Yesterday saw the dispersal of the Alfred Swaine Taylor family collection and archive at Lacy Scott & Knight auction house in Bury St Edmunds. BPH reported on the auction back in June and an earlier disposal which highlighted the importance of the material and acted as the catalyst for this final sale.

The auction was split in to three parts: science and medicine; photography, and personal effects. Swaine's importance as a medical man, in medical jurisprudence and, particularly, as a pioneer of forensic science garnered much pre-sale publicity, but he was equally important as an early practitioner of photography applying his scientific expertise to the nascent medium which he remained interested in until the 1870s. Representatives from the Science Museum, Royal College of Physicians and Royal Institution were in the saleroom and there was active participation online and on commission. 

The photography material was lots 2124-2174 and consisted of three copies of his On the Art of Photogenic Drawing (1840), correspondence with Michael Faraday and others about this publication, family carte-de-visite albums and other portraits, and a small selection of photographic manufacturers' trade catalogues. Some of the highlights, with hammer prices, include: 

• On the Art of Photogenic Drawing (1840), copy with author's notes £3,600; two other copies £3,400 and £2,600. 
• Letter from Michael Faraday to Taylor complimenting him on his photographic art - £1,900
• Family carte-de-visite album - £700
• Manuscript notes on photography - £620
• Two collodion negatives showing a skull and a skeleton - £620
• British Journal Photographic Almanac 1862 - £620
• J H Dallmeyer 1863 catalogue and others - £420
• Mansell's Catalogue of Frith's Photo Pictures (1869) and others - £600

all prices are plus 20% buyer's premium and VAT. 

The complete online catalogue and sale results can be seen here. 

The book is a 'Now and Then' book which explores the 3D stereo archive of keen Scottish amateur photographer Andrew Milne who travelled Scotland with his Stereo Victo camera between 1902 and 1905.  Although an amateur, Andrew's image stand up well against many of the commercial images of Scotland made by more famous names.

There is a launch talk with 3D images on the 13 October at the Brye Theatre St Andrews as a part of the photography festival.  I will look forward to welcoming everyone who can attend.  FREE tickets for the talk are available to book online here: https://byretheatre.com/events/stereo-photography-festival-on-a-hill-road/ 

As it proved rather hard to encourage publishers to take on a book that includes a pair of stereo glasses, the book has been self-published and the first edition is limited to just 250 copies.

On a Hill Road can now be purchased in a number of ways including for UK customers from my website  www.onahillroad.com It can be purchased directly from me at events and will I hope be available through bookshops as a special order..

Many thanks to everyone who has supported the project which has taken over 10 years to complete.

Are you as passionate about photography, film and the moving image as you are about books? The Kraszna-Krausz Foundation which was created by Andor Kraszna-Krausz, the founder of Focal Press in 1995, is looking for an Administrator

Duties

• Administer the Foundation itself, organising and administering up to 5 Trustee meetings and away days per annum and keeping content for the website and other communications channels up-to-date
• Project manage and administer the annual Book Awards and Book Awards ceremony, liaising with publishers, photographers, writers and artists, venues, partners and press, as well as with the advice of the Trustees inviting specialist judges in the chosen fields
• Potentially, and subject to agreement by the Trustees, develop additional culturally-engaging activities in the fields of photography, film and the moving image

Please see further details regarding the Job Description and duties below.

The Person

The ideal candidate will be an accomplished arts administrator with a minimum of 3 years’ professional experience and ideally with experience of the administration of an arts-based prize. It is desirable that you also have knowledge and / or experience of the medium of photography or the moving image although an enthusiastic commitment to develop specialism in these field will be welcomed by applicants with other relevant experience.

We actively encourage applications from the groups listed below who are currently under-represented within our sector. These are people from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups, people who identify as LGBTQ, as well as deaf, partially sighted and Disabled people.

Time commitment and fee

This work usually requires the equivalent of about 50 days per annum, spread unevenly thought the year. The ability to work flexibly is a requirement. Because of the phasing of the awards, the time input is currently heavily focussed on the period November to May each year. Remuneration is paid on a day-by-day basis at £200 per day.

Application

Please send an email via the button below addressed to The Board of Trustees, Kraszna-Krausz Foundation.

Please include your CV with a concise covering letter of no more than one page outlining your interest, experience and suitability for the position by Monday 15 October 2018 at 11.59pm.

See more here.

This symposium adds to the growing body of feminist scholarship that is deconstructing the male-dominated history of commercial and industrial artistic production. The programme will bring together current interdisciplinary perspectives on women’s experiences of work and the gendered dynamics of commerce in the creative industries in Britain between 1750 and 1950.

We invite critical and creative papers as well as those that present case-studies or deliver in more collaborative formats.

Contributions may focus on, but are not limited to, women at work or women’s involvement in the development of technologies i.e printmaking, photography, film and computing, women’s work in textiles (including dressmaking and millinery), design, architecture, advertising, bookmaking and publishing, the performing arts, music, TV and radio.

We are particularly interested in papers that consider the following topics:

• Spaces of women’s work: the workshop, the studio, the office, the factory, and work carried out from home (i.e. sweated trades) 
• Overlaps in women’s professional and domestic roles
• Collaboration, networks and unions of women workers and professionals
• Women’s management of finances and the economic factors of their work
• Women’s experiences of discrimination in the workplace in this period
• Anonymity or invisibility of women’s work and theft of their intellectual property
• Demands of emotional labour in the creative industries
• Distinctions and slippages between professional and amateur ‘work’
• Historiographies of women’s work in the creative industries
• Portrayals of professional women in literature and the visual arts
• How the campaign for suffrage intersected with, or affected, women’s work in the creative industries.

We invite abstracts of 250 words for 20-minute papers. Please submit abstracts and a short biographical note to Erika Lederman, Hannah Lyons and George Mind at womenworkcommerce@gmail.com by 6pm on Friday 30 November 2018.

‘Women, Work and Commerce in the Creative Industries, Britain 1750 – 1950’ is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and organised by Collaborative Doctoral Partnership students Erika Lederman (De Montfort University/V&A) Hannah Lyons (Birkbeck, University of London/ V&A) and George Mind (University of Westminster/National Portrait Gallery).

UPDATE: Conference registration is now available here. 

Women, Work and Commerce in the Creative Industries, Britain 1750 - 1950

Saturday 9 February 2019, 9.30am – 5.30pm

Fyvie Hall, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London

Keynote Speakers: Dr Kyriaki Hadjiafxendi and Dr Patricia Zakreski

Call for papers

At the National Science and Media Museum, striving to develop our digital collections as a leader in the interpretation and impact of sound and light technologies on human life, we are currently in the midst of a 5-million pound 'Masterplan' project which will ignite a new sense of curiosity for our diverse audiences, seeing new gallery spaces and our exhibition range transformed.

In order to lead the ongoing delivery of our broad range of exhibitions and events, we are looking for a creative, innovative and strategic leader to join us at the Musuem, in Bradford, in a newly created role of Head of Exhibitions and Interpretation, on a permanent basis.

In this role, you will lead a dedicated and driven team of colleagues across exhibitions, content development and interpretation, ensuring our collections and knowledge are shared through story-led, innovative, visitor-focussed design. 

As part of the Museum Senior Management Team, you will interpret information, support the design of narrative and deliver unique gallery content throughout the museum and beyond, collaborating with colleagues to bring our curatorial voice to life and ensure authenticity of the stories we tell.  

Joining us, you will have excellent leadership skills and experience of managing and developing a team, budgets and creating genuine opportunities through creative collaboration. You will bring unparalleled experience of using interpretive methodology and audience focussed data to deliver creative projects for museum exhibitions, galleries or interactive public spaces. You will also be a strong communicator and skilled influencer, able to work positively and proactively with internal and external stakeholders.

You will be offered excellent benefits, including 27 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays, flexibility with work (including the ability to work from home and agile start/finish times), a contributory pension scheme, BUPA medical and dental care, an interest free loan offer and numerous staff discounts whilst developing your career in a world class museum group.

Click here to view the Vacancy Information Pack which provides you with details of the role and supporting statement questions.

See more here.

On display from 28th Sept till 25th Oct at The Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall will be 23 examples of SD Jouhar’s Fine Art Photography, all taken between approx. 1940 and 1960.

SD Jouhar was a strong advocate of Photography as a “Fine Art”, and there was considerable resistance to this idea amongst the “establishment” at the RPS during the 1950’s.  In 1961, SD Jouhar  and other like-minded photographers founded the Photographic Fine Art Association . Their definition of Fine Art was......

“Creating images that evoke emotion by a photographic process in which one's mind and imagination are freely but competently exercised. From a technical point of view, therefore, personally controlled, disciplined interpretation and technical execution, showing fine perception and skill in the making shall be necessary requirements of such work in colour or monochrome.”

The Photographic Fine Art Association held an exhibition at The Royal Festival Hall in November 1961. In his opening speech at the exhibition SD Jouhar said : 

“People must be conditioned to recognizing photography as Fine Art. That is what I am trying to establish"

"Nowhere, to my knowledge, has there ever been an exhibition showing photography as a Fine Art in this country"

You can judge for yourself whether the images on display fit your idea of “Fine Art Photography” if you get an opportunity to visit the exhibition.

In conjunction with the St Andrews Photographic Festival and to celebrate 170 years since Brewster developed his stereoscope, Peter Blair will launch his new book "Scotland in 3D - a Victorian Virtual Reality Tour" ISBN 9781527225527 at the Byre Theatre in St Andrews on Thurs 4th October at 7pm.

Peter will introduce us to stereoscopy and take us on a tour of Scotland using antique 3D images from his collection. 3D glasses will be provided.

The event is free but places are limited so booking is essential:

https://byretheatre.com/events/stereo-photography-festival-scotland-in-3d/

This autumn, the remarkable photographs of suffragette Norah Smyth will be returning to the East End after one hundred years. East End Suffragettes: the photographs of Norah Smyth opens at Four Corners Gallery on 2nd November.  Smyth's photographs, never exhibited in the UK, reveal the little-known story of the radical, ‘breakaway’ East London suffragettes. 

Smyth was a central member of Sylvia Pankhurst’s East London Federation of Suffragettes, which broke from the main suffragette movement and fought for working women’s rights throughout the First World War.  Faced by the increasing war poverty in East London, they set up cost price restaurants, babies’ milk clinics, nurseries and a cooperative toy factory, run largely by and for local women.  Alongside the vote they called for profound social changes: equal pay, a living wage and better housing. 

A talented artist and organiser, Smyth used her photographic skills to provide images for the East London Federation of Suffragette’s newspaper, The Woman’s Dreadnought, promotional flyers, postcards and catalogues, focusing in particular on local women and children living in poverty. These images provide an intimate record of Sylvia Pankhurst and the ELFS’ activities during 1914-18, an extraordinary moment in women’s social history.  

East End Suffragettes: the photographs of Norah Smyth will include over 100 original photographs, generously loaned by the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, alongside other unseen archival material.  A programme of accompanying talks and walks will explore the history and local area where Sylvia Pankhurst and Norah Smyth lived and worked. The exhibition and talks are all free of charge.

The exhibition is part of The Women's Hall project, celebrating the little-known history of the East London Federation of Suffragettes 1914-18, and the centenary of British women first winning the right to vote. 

East End Suffragettes: the photographs of Norah Smyth
2 November - 9 February 2019

See more here: http://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/East-End-Suffragettes

Image: Cost price restaurant at The Women's Hall. Photograph: Norah Smyth

Photography has always been a powerful tool of communication and has developed into an instrument of our everyday experience: Through photographs we are able to communicate quickly and easily with each other. As a medium of social interaction, photographic images are used as a handy alternative to language, supplementing or even replacing it. They transport us to sites and individuals, connecting the distant and the temporally remote. This far-reaching development is increasingly driven by the digitization of our everyday culture. Photography is both part of this process, and its most visible expression.

Photo-historical research can contribute important observations to this diagnosis of our own time. From the moment photographic images became a matter of public interest, they served as objects of circulation and social connection. Already by the middle of the 19th century photography had opened global routes of image-based economies, providing and distributing our interpretations of visible worlds. As commodities or gifts, they are traded and exchanged, distributed and collected. The proliferation of photographically based information and the trading of photographic objects constitute important aspects of social interaction in the early stages of globalization.

These observations are our point of departure for the course titled “Circulating Photographs: Materials, Practices, Institutions”. Our aim is to develop a focused, multi-disciplinary analysis of the photographic image as an object of circulation, especially over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries (up to 1950). In the context of photo-historical research it is common practice to ask about processes of production or reception. In contrast, by putting circulation modalities at the center of our interest, we would like to accentuate the importance of such interactions for the production of photographic meaning. Acts of transmission constitute an important framework for the semantics of photographic imagery. Thus, we are interested in the realm of photographs as a foundation and tool for social interaction and in the practices that lead to our current understanding of image exchange. The vernacular image and its everyday practices are as important as highly professional appropriations within the domain of the arts and sciences. We are particularly interested in strategies of networking that have been enabled, shaped, modified or rejected by photography.

Looking for historical conditions that enabled photographs to circulate requires a closer investigation of premises related to such interactions:

1. The material foundations of photography, i.e., its historically shifting concreteness in terms of production processes and technologies.
2. The ensemble of practices, i.e., the methods and channels that have been developed, cultivated and refined for the circulation of photographs.
3. The diversity of institutions that have been created or adapted to this purpose.

Examining the variety of connections between these aspects will provide a new understanding of photo-historical developments that lean on the idea of exchange within the domain of visual media. We are especially interested in practices and strategies that have been developed in photography’s pre-digital era and we ask whether, and how, they can be regarded as a foundation for current media practices of transmission and exchange. Such an interest stimulates a variety of questions:

–   What types of circulation can and should we distinguish?

–   How does the materiality of photographic images affect and shape their circulation? And how does the circulation of photographs have an impact on their materiality?

–   What differences are there in professional and private practices among the networks of circulation?

–   What kinds of channels have been developed and used for the circulation of photographs?

–   In what ways do modes of circulation differ – modes such as sending, exchanging, transferring, sharing, dissemination, dispersion, etc.? How do we perceive and evaluate these historical practices today, and vice versa, how does our current practice shed light on the meaning of past exchanges of photographs?

–   How can we conceptualize the difference between circulating photographs as original prints on the one hand, and circulating reproductions of them on the other?

–   How does the photographic picture become a social entity in the process of its circulation?

–   How is meaning produced and altered through processes of circulation?

–   How can we describe the ongoing media change of photography from the point of view of circulation?

–   What conclusions can be drawn by examining specific time periods regarding the processes of circulation?

–   What kind of media practices of transmission from previous periods of media history are still in use today?

The course is aimed at advanced M.A. students, Ph.D. candidates and recent post-docs in art history and related disciplines with a strong photo-historical component. The course will be held in English. During the course, all participants will present their current research project, which should exhibit a close connection to the course subject matter. The course is supplemented by visits to photographic archives in Rome.

The Bibliotheca Hertziana will offer lodging and reimburse half of the incurred travelling expenses. In addition, participants will receive a daily allowance.

Please send the following application materials as a single PDF-document to Fototeca@biblhertz.it (subject “Studienkurs”) by October 22 2018:

–   Abstract of proposed subject/case study

–   Brief CV

–   Brief summary of your master’s thesis, dissertation or postdoctoral project

–   Names and contact details of two references

For further information please contact: Fototeca@biblhertz.it

The course is organized and led by Tatjana Bartsch (Bibl. Hertziana, Rome), Maria Antonella Pelizzari (Hunter College, CUNY, New York), Johannes Röll (Bibl. Hertziana) and Steffen Siegel (Folkwang Universität der Künste, Essen).

See more here: http://www.biblhertz.it/en/news/call-for-papers/

Circulating Photographs: Materials, Practices, Institutions

A photo-historical course organized by the Bibliotheca Hertziana (Max Planck Institute for Art History), Rome, and the Folkwang Universität der Künste, Essen

Rome, Bibliotheca Hertziana, March 18–22, 2019

Deadline: October 22, 2018