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To mark the fiftieth anniversary of humanity’s first footsteps on another world, Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG) will host a major exhibition exploring our evolving relationship with the Moon across times and cultures. The Moon (19 July 2019 – 5 January 2020) will present a scientific and cultural history of our nearest celestial neighbour, exploring its role as a mirror for humanity’s dreams, obsessions and endeavours.

This conference considers cross cultural relationships with the Moon and invites various responses to our cosmic companion.  In keeping with RMG’s interest in interrogating the collision of science, history and art, The Art and Science of the Moon will explore how the Moon’s motions and phases have influenced human activities, beliefs and behaviours; how sustained scrutiny and mapping of the lunar surface have enabled us to understand more about ourselves and our place in the universe; how attempts, imaginary and real, to reach this other world have fostered creativity and technological progress; and how in the 21st century we are reflecting on the past and rethinking our relationship with the Moon for the future.

Grant Scott and Tim Pellatt the team behind the documentary Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay are making the film available to view for FREE from 7.00pm BST Sunday 21 April 2019.

Subscribe at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCej50am1kZr0VSAN20TQLAg … to receive a reminder! 

Find out more about the film here. http://www.donotbendfilm.com/

You will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the Historic Photographs collection, raising understanding, awareness and use of the collection, providing physical and intellectual access, producing online and other content, and contributing to the development of the new Museum of London at West Smithfield. In particular, you will contribute to the delivery of the Collections Information Upgrade Project.

You will have experience of curatorial work with a photography, art or visual culture collection within a museum or art gallery, and the use of collections documentation systems. You will be educated to degree level, or equivalent, in history of photography, history of art, fine art or a related subject.

Further details can be found at https://jobs.museumoflondon.org.uk/vacancy/1104/ArtsJobs/detail and applications can be made by completing our online application form.  The closing date for applications is Monday 6 May 2019. Interviews will be held on Thursday 16 May 2019.

The Museum of London is committed to equal opportunities and diversity.  We particularly welcome applications from disabled and BAME candidates, who are currently under-represented in our organisation.

'Views of an Antique Land: Imaging Egypt and Palestine In the First World War' is a Heritage Lottery Funded project which has collected more than 2000 images of Egypt and Palestine taken during the First World War. The project is hosted at the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University and directed by Dr. Steve Mills and Paul T. Nicholson.

Donors have generously allowed us to digitise their private archives of photographs and to make them publicly available at: https://ww1imagesegypt.mukurtu.net/ where the images are searchable and, where possible, have been identified.  We are always happy to receive additional information on the collection, be that historical or photographic and we can most easily be contacted via nicholsonpt@cardiff.ac.uk or via our Twitter @ww1imagesegypt or Facebook accounts, just search on Images of Egypt.

The History of Art Department of Birkbeck, University of London and the National Portrait Gallery, London, invite applications for a fully-funded doctoral studentship under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Scheme. The project will examine the politics of photographic portraiture in Britain during the 1970s and 80s, when, informed by activism and critical theory, photographers challenged preconceptions of gender, class, and race, seeking new ways to portray marginalised people.

The PhD will be supervised jointly by Professor Patrizia Di Bello, lecturer on the history of photography at Birkbeck and co-director of the History and Theory of Photography Research Centre, and Dr Sabina Jaskot-Gill, Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery.

FACT FILE

• Qualification type: PhD
• Location: London
• Funding for: UK students / EU students
• Length: up to four years full time/seven years part time
• Funding amount: subject to AHRC eligibility criteria, the funding covers tuition fees and an annual stipend towards living expenses for three years, with the option to apply for an additional six months of funding from the Student Development Fund. The 2019/20 annual stipend is likely to be £17,009 with London weighting, with an additional CDP stipend of £550 a year. Additional support of up to £1000 a year is available for three years from the National Portrait Gallery to contribute to research-related expenses. 
• Hours: full or part-time
• Closing date: Friday 10 May 2019, 12 noon
• Interview date: Wednesday 22 May 2019
• Enquiries: for informal enquiries, please contact Patrizia Di Bello at Birkbeck, University of London (p.dibello@bbk.ac.uk) or Sabina Jaskot-Gill, Curator, Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery (sjaskotgill@npg.org.uk)

THE PROJECT

In the 1970s and 1980s, emerging grassroots photography organisations engaged in a cultural and political struggle over the politics of representation. Informed by, and in turn contributing to, debates around issues of personal and collective identity, photographers experimented with collaborative ways of making, understanding and disseminating portraits as sites of social action. One such collective was the Half Moon Photography Workshop, established in 1972 by a cooperative of photographers as a gallery, workshop and education project; members included Ed Barber, Shirley Read, Peter Kennard and the photographer, writer, and self-defined ‘cultural sniper’, Jo Spence. While the work produced during this period is attracting critical and curatorial interest, less scholarly attention has been paid to this moment in British photography, and on how it opened areas of debate that continue to influence photographic culture and portrait making today.  

With access to the extensive primary sources and visual resources of the National Portrait Gallery and Birkbeck, University of London’s Jo Spence Memorial Library Archive, the studentship offers an opportunity to examine the portrait projects initiated by these grassroots movements, shifting attention away from ideas of the single artist and art object towards collaborative ways of making and understanding portraits as sites of social and political action, and the important critical debates that animated this activism in the late 1970s and 1980s. 

The student will be encouraged to pursue their own original enquiries and to decide the scope of their chosen research, situating the project within research questions that include:

• how identity is constructed, undermined or challenged in this period through the practice of photographic portraiture and its changing iconography
• how the work from this period questioned and explored the relationship between photography, biography and identity
• how photography of the period makes visible marginalised communities and identities
• the relevance of this work to audiences today
• the engagement between photography and cultural theory
• new approaches to picturing the self and the community
• collaborative working practices in British photography
• approaches to producing, exhibiting and disseminating photographic portraiture
• mapping the network of community photographers in 1970s and 80s Britain
• the economic and sociological factors that affected the development of photography projects in this period

PROJECT RESOURCES

The studentship is intended to support the work of the National Portrait Gallery and offers unique access to the Gallery’s expertise and collections, including portraits by Jo Spence, Peter Kennard, Tish Murtha, Neil Kenlock, Helen Chadwick and Liz Rideal, supplemented by letters and correspondence, period magazines and journals held in the Gallery's Archive and Library. The student will also have privileged access to uncatalogued materials in the Jo Spence Memorial Library Archive, which as well as materials relevant to the life and work of Jo Spence and her collaborator Terry Dennett, includes holdings of Camera Work magazine, and a variety of other publications and ephemera - posters, leaflets, postcards and pamphlets. 

The student will be offered practical work-based training in collections and curatorial practice, suitable for a potential career in the cultural sector. There will also be opportunities to develop cataloguing experience and to propose curated displays at Birkbeck's exhibition space, the Peltz Gallery, which could be used to test ideas for experimental modes of display and innovative forms of audience engagement and interaction. Alongside training provided by Birkbeck, University of London, sector-specific training will be offered through the consortium of museums, galleries and heritage organisations affiliated with the AHRC CDP scheme. 

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Birkbeck and the National Portrait Gallery value the diversity of their staff and students, and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.

Essential skills/attributes:

• you will hold at least an upper second class BA in History of Art, Photography, Museum Studies, or some clearly related discipline
• you will hold either an MA in History of Art, Photography, Museum Studies or a clearly related discipline, or have equivalent professional experience that might include working in museums, galleries or archives  
• candidates should also demonstrate evidence of appropriate English language proficiency normally defined as 6.5 in IELTS. For entry requirements please visit http://www.bbk.ac.uk/student-services/admissions/entry-requirements

Desirable skills/attributes:

• advanced knowledge of twentieth-century British photographic history or British portraiture

The preferred start date is 1 October 2019

HOW TO APPLY

• There are two steps:
  • You need to apply for this studentship by downloading and completing the application form. You will need to send your completed application form and references to Anthony Shepherd, no later than 10 May 2019.

Please note the successful applicant will be required to complete an application for a place of study on the MPhil/PhD History of Art programme at Birkbeck, University of London.

Image: Courtesy of Dominic Mifsud, photograph of Cultural Sniping: Photographic Collaborations in the Jo Spence Memorial Library Archive, an exhibition at the Peltz Gallery, London, 9 March – 28 April 2018

Photographic 2019 will soon be here, as usual it will take place at the regular venue The Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Hall, 80 Vincent Square, London SW1P 2PB on the 19 May 2019. Public entry is from 10am-4.00pm and admission is £8 on the door from 10am to 12 noon and £5 noon to the close. This year there will be up to 135 stalls selling user and collectable cameras, consumables, lenses, literature and images. It is not a trade show for new equipment. If you fancy a table to clear that build up of photographic equipment phone 01684 594526 . Early buyers tickets can be obtained from the same phone number.

 Any late updates and more information can be found at https://www.facebook.com/photographicafair ; 

Thanks

 Nigel

Special Auction Services is offering an auction of Fine Photographica on 30 April which comprises over 600 lots, including 67 lots from the John Hannavy Collection of photography.

On 26 April Flints is offering Fine Photographica in its auction.

The SAS online auction catalogue can be found here: http://www.sas-auctions.com/catalogues/2018/cm300419/index.html

The Flints auction catalogue can be found here: https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/flintsauction/catalogue-id-flints10015

Image: lot 143 from the SAS auction.

Edinburgh's Stills Gallery which has operated since 1977 is under threat from a trebling of its rent from £16,000 to £47,000 over five years. The Gallery occupies premises in the city centre and it is a centre for photography offering exhibitions and production facilities as well as a range of engagement opportunities for anyone to discover, enjoy and understand photography. Stills may be forced to relocate but its central location is crucial to its successes.

It said: "Our city centre location is crucial to making our work as accessible as possible – people travel from all over Scotland and further afield to access what we do, whether that's our exhibitions programme (which is always free), public-access photography production facilities, creative learning work or artist-led photography courses. Our work is unique and vital to Scotland’s cultural ecology. Stills makes a vital contribution to what makes Edinburgh and Scotland such a great place to live, work and visit." 

Stills has launched a petition against the rent rise which supporters are encouraged to sign: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/oppose-the-city-of-edinburgh-council-s-proposed-rent-increase-for-stills

See more here: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17568106.photographic-gallerys-fears-over-future-after-city-councils-dramatic-rise-in-rent/?fbclid=IwAR05YLcXr4_oiaa_dOhpQIxMMfb_rRt8fQj010cA_OBEQ7OQeT-6kQ56mNw

and the Stills Gallery website: http://www.stills.org/

Following an extensive digitisation project commissioned by NATO, over 2000 titles of official footage are now available for licensing via IWM Film. This project is part of an exclusive global licensing distribution partnership between IWM and NATO, marking the 70th anniversary of the creation of NATO, the world’s strongest political-military alliance, on 4 April 2019.

The NATO film collection comprises approximately 350 hours of film material taken in the late 1940s through to the 1990s, including documentaries, newsreel, and record footage in both colour and black and white film. Providing a unique insight into the Cold War era, early films depict the rush to create economic, political and military stability in post-war Europe, whilst later films encourage international unity and concepts of shared peace and security.

Hidden gems include colour footage of a divided Berlin in the 1960s and Humphrey Jennings’ final film. Other highlights from the over 2000 titles include the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949, intervention in the Bosnian war (1992-1995), as well as a documentary film about how the alliance works. 

View NATO films currently available on the IWM Film site. The sub-sections include:

Marshall Plan Films (1949-1954)
SHAPE Film Library (1944-1964)
NATO Documentaries (1952-1990)
NATO Log Collection (1965-1994)

David Walsh, Digitisation Preservation Consultant at IWM says: "The digitisation of this important collection was the result of a four-year effort by a dedicated team to sift, sort and catalogue the nearly 17,000 reels of film originally deposited with IWM by NATO. The work has not only resulted in the creation of high-quality 2K digital access files of the films, but also facilitated the storage of original film masters in suitable archival conditions for their long-term preservation."  Ineke Deserno, Head of Archives at NATO says: “It is very timely this film collection is available at the moment of NATO’s 70th Anniversary, with so much reflection now taking place on the long history since the beginning of that transatlantic bond. The materials digitized by IWM represent some of the key moments in time, with some very rare footage, for telling the story of the Alliance to the world. NATO is grateful for the invaluable expertise from IWM to help the Alliance preserve this important collection and make it available for a new generation of storytellers to share NATO’s history.”

See more here.

‘Business’ can have many meanings. In the most straightforward sense, it refers to the photographic marketplace, its industry and the commercial relations established among different agents. Some of these actors, such as studios and companies of the like of Kodak and Ilford, are specifically photographic and have featured prominently in histories of photography. But the photographic business also depends on other social, cultural and economic agents like chemical supply companies, image brokers, content providers, commissioning editors, advertising campaign managers and digitization officers, among others.

Especially since the beginning of the 21st century, historians have begun to pay attention to the broader implications of what one might call ‘the business of photography’. In this sense, it is not only about commerce and trade, but also about visual and material economies, where photography and the many worlds and people it affects directly or indirectly negotiate, define or transform social, cultural, political, scientific, and other ideological environments as well as values.

In this 7th annual conference of the PHRC, we intend to stretch the notion of ‘the business of photography’. While not neglecting the transformative role of photographic companies and that of photographers as businessmen and women, we wish to diversify our understanding of ‘business’ to include the circulation of and the impact exerted by photographic images, objects and raw materials.

The conference will feature seven panels – Influencing Taste; Business-Education / Education-Business; Bureaucratic Record Economies; New Markets; Distribution; Business Administration; Causes and Costs – and the selected papers will think outside of the box while addressing themes such as:

• Photographic recycling
• The life of photographic raw materials
• Gender and photographic businesses
• The marketization of individual and collective identities
• Photographic image banks
• Photography in political and financial economies
• Photography in the heritage industry

Registration costs:

DMU students and Staff/ Conference Speakers, one or both days £35

Standard Day, Monday £50

Standard Day, Tuesday £50

Standard, Monday and Tuesday £90

Non-DMU Student or Unwaged, Monday £40

Non-DMU Student or Unwaged, Tuesday £40

Non-DMU Student or Unwaged, Monday and Tuesday £50

Conference Dinner £35

Registration now open until 3 June 2019, Click here

For any queries please email: phrc@dmu.ac.uk

The Paul Mellon Centre for British Art has announced a series of grants and awards which include photography. Of particular interest are: 

• Steve Edwards British daguerreotypes - Antoine Claudet
• Sarah James, for the project The Militant & The Mainstream: Remaking British Photographic Culture - a mid-career Fellowship
• Impressions Gallery of Photography to support the Feed Your Mind lecture series
• Association for Art History to support the Photography & Printed Matter Summer Symposium 
• Shijia Yu Amusing, Interesting and Curious: A Study of English Paper Peepshows, 1825-1851 

See the full list here: https://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/fellowships-and-grants/awarded/spring-2019/page/1

The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) has published numbers for 2018. The National Science+Media Musuem, Bradford, has seen numbers fall by 6.8 per cent to 459,808. The V&A Museum saw numbers grow 5 per cent to 3.7 million. 

The NS+MM numbers for 2017 were boosted by the presence of the Tim Peake's space capsule and new gallery launches and a year-on-year decline was anticipated.

Full details for all the UK's leading museums and galleries and historical numbers back to 2004 are available here: http://www.alva.org.uk/details.cfm?p=423

The Peter E. Palmquist Memorial Fund for Historical Photographic Research provides financial support to independent researchers who are studying either Western American photographers before 1900 or women photographers past and present. The Humboldt Area Foundation in Bayside, California, administers this fund, which solicits applications for grants once a year in the fall and awards the grants the following January. A small panel of outside consultants with professional expertise in the field of photohistory and/or grant reviewing determines each year’s awards.

The list of past recipients with their projects has been updated with details from: Stella Jungmann, Josephine Givodan, and a second project by Pippa Oldfield (No Man’s Land: Women’s Photography and the First World War.)  In addition, other recipients have contributed updates to their projects.

Read them here:http://www.palmquistgrants.com/index.html

With thanks to Pam Roberts for the information. 

Coinciding with an exhibition of the same name Anthony Hamber will be talking on the origins of photography in Salisbury 1839-1918 at the Salisbury Museum on Thursday, 2 May at 1830. 

Tickets available online at £8 (members) and £10 (non-members). 

Thursday, 2 May at 1830
The Salisbury Museum, The King’s House, 65 The Close, Salisbury SP1 2EN
t: 01722 332151
www.salisburymuseum.org.uk

Image: Harnham Mill by William Russell Sedgfield c. 1858.
Collection of Anthony Hamber

Art History News reports that the European Parliament has voted in favour of a new Copyright Directive. It seeks to create common law on copyright matters across the EU. Many aspects of it are controversial. But one element is extremely important for art historians; Article 14. It prevents new copyright being claimed in reproductions of artworks which are themselves out of copyright (also referred to as being in the public domain.) This new ruling effectively heralds the end of image reproduction fees, because copyright is the glue which holds the whole image fees system in place. The new directive therefore represents an important victory for art historians.Photographs of historic artworks taken with the intention of faithfully reproducing them will not be covered by copyright across the EU. Member states have two years to implement the directive into domestic law.

Read the full report here: https://www.arthistorynews.com/articles/5362_The_end_of_museum_image_fees

The Somerset Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury is presenting a celebration of photography in Somerset, from the early nineteenth century to the present day. It will feature experts in historic Somerset photography. The day will conclude with a talk from artist Matilda Temperley, who will discuss her subjects and how she approaches her practice. An exhibition of new images by the award-winning photographer is on now at Somerset Rural Life Museum.

See more here.

An AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership between University of Brighton and the Science Museum Group. This studentship is offered under the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme. The partner institutions are the University of Brighton and National Science and Media Museum. This studentship is fully funded for three years (or part-time equivalent) at standard AHRC rates. The project is due to begin October 2019.

Applications are welcome for a generous four year, fully-funded PhD fellowship, based in the School of Art History and Cultural Policy at University College Dublin, on the theme of Poverty, Welfare, and Visual Culture in the Long 19th Century. The award includes a stipend of €15,000 per annum, full fee waiver (EU or non-EU), a travel allowance, archival research and publication allowance, and funding for a laptop.

Candidates are encouraged to submit a proposal on a subject of their choosing, within the broad area of poverty, visual culture, mass media, and the emergence of the modern welfare state from the 19th-early 20th century. It is anticipated the PhD project will be situated within some of the following themes:

• The rapid and coterminous development of the illustrated press, photography, stereoscopy, magic lanterns, optical devices, and early cinema as new forms of visualisation and encounter
• Discourses concerning representations of the ‘real’, the conditions of modern life, and physical/optical perception; debates on the nature of photography and new media and their relationship to verisimilitude and truth; etc.
• Moral, political, and economic philosophies which informed the transition from 19th c. poor laws and methods of public relief to the establishment of 20th c. modern welfare states and the non-governmental sector

Research proposals may also choose to address one or more of the following (or similar):

• homelessness (urban and rural)
• hunger (both severe and episodic)
• migration and diaspora
• benevolence (eg the rise of of modern non-governmental philanthropic organisations and activism)
• welfare institutions (eg the development of state-controlled instruments of relief)
• representations of empire

Irish, European, or comparative projects are especially encouraged, but any colonial or global topic is welcome. Demonstrable experience working with visual media is required.

The successful candidate will have a strong academic background in art history, visual culture, and/or history, and will work under the supervision of Associate Professor Emily Mark-FitzGerald. Dr Mark-FitzGerald is the primary expert on the visual culture of the Irish Famine from the 19th century-present; a former Director of the Irish Museums Association (2009-18); and current co-PI of the funded research series Media, Encounter, Witness: Troubling Pasts at the Humanities Institute at University College Dublin. UCD’s School of Art History and Cultural Policy is the largest art history department in Ireland, and the successful candidate will join a thriving research community closely connected with a range of national and international museums and cultural institutions.

In order to apply, please submit a cover letter, CV, writing sample, two letters of reference, and a proposal (1000-1500 words plus indicative bibliography) via email to Dr Emily Mark-FitzGerald (emily.mark@ucd.ie) by 30th April 2019. Applications will be reviewed by a committee at School level, and applicants will be informed by the end of May, at which time the successful applicant may formally apply for admission to UCD. Preliminary enquiries by email are welcome.

This PhD is funded under UCD's new ADVANCE PhD scheme; more info here: https://www.ucd.ie/artshumanities/newsandevents/fivenewphdscholarships

Image:

Vandeleur evictions: Mathias Magrath's house, Moyasta, Co.Clare after destruction by the Battering Ram (1880s). William Lawrence studio, photographic negative on glass. National Library of Ireland

Dominic Winter auctions are to offer six lots, including a camera, from Christine Lynch, the daughter of Frances Griffiths, the younger of the two cousins who first perpetrated the hoax back in 1917. The material is expected to realise over £50,000.  The consignment includes photographs of the fairies, a Cameo camera. 

It can be seen here: https://www.dominicwinter.co.uk/Auction/Search?st=cottingley&sto=0&au=671&w=False&pn=1

Two other cameras are in the collection of the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford. 

The auction includes other vintage and collectable photographs, stereoscopy and photographic equipment. The catalogue can be seen here: https://www.dominicwinter.co.uk/Auction/Search?au=671