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A unique visual archive of 19th century Victorian Britain, including illustrations and photographs of events ranging from the Great Exhibition of 1851 to the Boer war, will be available online for the first time from today. The Illustrated London News archive holds 250,000 pages and as many as three quarters of a million illustrations, from as far back as 1842.

With its debut in 1842, The Illustrated London News became the world’s first fully illustrated weekly newspaper, marking a revolution in journalism and news reporting. The publication presented a vivid picture of British and world events – including news of war, disaster, ceremonies, the arts and science – with coverage in the first issue ranging from the Great Fire of Hamburg to Queen Victoria’s fancy dress ball at Buckingham Palace.

Mr Albury added: "The current owner believes his father had them at least fifty years ago and possibly they have been languishing in a damp-stained folder in the attic since Victorian times. When I told him the results he sounded close to tears with emotion saying how much difference this was going to make to him and his family."

The full report of the auction which was held last Thursday (17th June 2010) can be found here, and the sale catalogue, with full description of the photos and hammer prices, is located here.

Give up?

Well, it was one of seven books donated by a gentleman at the Teignmouth branch of Oxfam, one day shortly before Christmas last year.

The book in question described the quest of two Victorian scientists in finding their long-lost brother in Fiji back in 1881. Entitled "A Trip To The Highlands of Viti Levu", this unique photo book consisted of 44 portraits ofFijians, and was written and self-published by Gerard Ansdell in 1882. According to the report "Ansdell and his brother, scientists and members of the Royal Society of London, had set out in 1881 in search of a lost brother, who they believed was working on a coffee plantation in Fiji. He was tracked down in Viti Levu, and Ansdell and his brother documented everything from their trip to create what was a vivid anthropological record of life on the South Pacific islands."

Valued by Oxfam's own team of specialist valuers at £2,000 to £3,000, this historical book stunned the charity and Bonhams, when it went for £37,000 in April this year - enough to buy 1,500 goats, feed 5,300 families or provide safe water for 41,000 people!

Luke Batterham, a books specialist for Bonhams, said they were surprised by the "huge amount" the book made. But a multiple bidding war, including one bidder who was believed to have tracked the rare book since the only one came up in auction in Australia in 1977, helped propel it to an Oxfam record. "It falls into that category of if you don't buy it now you're unlikely to see another copy," said Batterham. "It was in exceptional condition. It's very rare in its own right and there were some very tenacious people with an anthropological interest in Fiji."

The rest of the story can be found here. Guess I'd better make my way to the nearest Oxfam now ....

Photo: A photograph from A Trip To The Highlands of Viti Levu, which was discovered in an Oxfam bookshop and has raised more than £37,000 at auction for the charity (Oxfam/Press Association).

The bookseller Quaritch and auction house Christie's have both published photographic book catalogues which include material of British interest. At Quaritch contact Lindsey Stewart (e: l.stewart@quaritch.com) and to view the Christie's e-catalogue click here.

"There were two criteria for photos to be selected, it had to be a good photo with historical significance and it had to be appropriate in telling the story of Shanghai," Liu said. He added that many of the old photos needed to be restored, a task that involved great skill and patience. All of the photographs also had to be verified to ensure their authenticity and accuracy.

The Department of Art History and Theory at the University of Essex in collaboration with the Tate invites applications for a fully-funded AHRC PhD studentship to commence October 2010. The topic for the doctoral research project is 'Photography as Art since the Sixties'.

The research topic concerns photography's recent history, notably, its transformation from anti-aesthetic, post-conceptual document to large scale pictorial art. It investigates what distinguishes photography as a mode of depiction and an artistic medium, particularly in light of recent artists' use of digital technologies.

The research has immediate practical implications as it will inform interpretation of the Tate's existing collection and shape future acquisitions. The research will be supervised by Prof Margaret Iversen at Essex and Dr. Simon Baker, Curator of Photography, Tate.

The award pays tuition fees and a maintenance grant each year for a maximum of three years of full-time doctoral study (subject to evidence of satisfactory progress) and is available to UK/EU students first registering to undertake a research degree in September 2010.

Further information about the Research Project: 'Photography as Art since the Sixties' can be found on the departmental web pages at http://www.essex.ac.uk/arthistory/.

For information about the Tate, please visit: http://www.tate.org.uk/

Preliminary inquiries may be addressed to Professor Margaret Iversen at the University of Essex: miversen@essex.ac.uk.

Please contact Myra Offord, the Graduate Administrator for application forms.

E mofford@essex.ac.uk

T 01206 872953

Closing date: 14 June 2010

Interview date: week beginning 24 June 2010

A Freedom of Information request to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport has confirmed that the National Media Museum still sees the Science Museum as the base for its London Presence. The DCMS also confirmed:

• That it had held no meetings the National Media Museum over its plans for a London Presence between 1 September 2009 and 3 June 2010
• The Project is expected to cost less than £5 million and therefore does not require any approval from the DCMS
• The NMSI, the NMeM's parent body, will have full responsibility for funding the Project.

The NMSI, in common with all national museums receiving direct grant-aid from DCMS, is expected to a reduction in its grant as the government starts to rein in public spending. The NMSI will make a decision regarding the Project in the context of a reduced grant and it is this that will ultimately determine whether the Project progresses or not.

Ikon presents Seeing the Unseen, a revisit of the gallery’s 1976 exhibition of high-speed photographs by the pioneering American scientist and photographer Dr Harold E. Edgerton (1906-1990). Forming part of Ikon’s retrospective of the 1970s It Could Happen To You, this presentation takes place in Birmingham’s Pallasades Shopping Centre, in a shop unit just a few doors away from Ikon’s home during that decade.

The 1976 exhibition formed Edgerton’s first solo presentation in Europe, and was conceived as a collaborative effort between Geoffrey Holt and John R. Myers, then both lecturers in fine art and photography at Stourbridge College of Art. Their aim was to draw attention to the breadth of work created by of ‘one of the masters of the optical unconscious’ which had, until that point, been largely neglected by the art world.

Edgerton’s invention in the 1930s of a high-speed photographic process based on rapid, stroboscopic instances of light or ‘flash’ was a catalytic event in the history of photography, science and art. Using this method, his images revealed in great detail aspects of reality hitherto invisible to the naked eye. As Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Edgerton made great strides in reconnaissance photography during the Second World War and later became the first to photograph test explosions of atomic weaponry. It is, however, the hands-on experimentation of ‘real world’ phenomena for which he is best remembered.

Edgerton’s remarkable multiple-flash pictures of tennis players, golfers and divers such as Swirls and Eddies of a Tennis Stroke (1939) break down intricate movements into singular moments. Other images appear to stop time: Milk-Drop Coronet (1957) illustrates the perfect crown formed by a drop of milk hitting a hard surface, whilst Cutting the Card Quickly (1964) shows a .30 calibre bullet, travelling 2800 feet per second, slicing a king of diamonds into two pieces. The startling Bullet and Apple (1964) portrays the explosion of an apple pierced by the bullet, moments before its total disintegration.

Edgerton’s film Seeing the Unseen (1939) is shown alongside his photographs plus an archive of correspondence, technical papers and printed materials relating to the 1976 exhibition.

This exhibition is organised in collaboration with Birmingham Central Library.

21 July – 5 September 2010

Unit 39-40, The Pallasades Shopping Centre, Birmingham

Events

Stopping Time in Stourbridge

Sunday 8 August, 2pm – FREE

The Pallasades Shopping Centre

Pete James, Head of Photography, Central Library Birmingham talks about the Pallasades exhibition and the photo-historical context through which Ikon’s 1976 Harold E. Edgerton exhibition came about. Refreshments are provided. Places are free but should be reserved by calling Ikon on 0121 248 0708.

Aspects of Edgerton

Sunday 22 August, 2pm - FREE

The Pallasades Shopping Centre

An event with Jonathan Shaw, photographer and Associate Head of Media & Communication, Coventry University and artist Trevor Appleson. The speakers discuss the influence of Edwaerd Muybridge and Harold Edgerton’s photography on their recent work. Refreshments are provided. Places are free but should be reserved by calling Ikon on 0121 248 0708.

From now until the 27th September at the Bristol Central Library, there is an exhibition of 19^th

century photographic prints of Bristol and the surrounding area, some of which are on loan from the Bristol Records Office and City Archive. The prints were produced using some of the very techniques and processes now being taught on workshops at the St. Paul’s Learning and Family Centre Darkrooms.

A recent grant of £14,525 from the Heritage Lottery Fund helped to revive and preserve some Photographic processes, dating back to the very origins of photography. The award to St Paul’s Learning and Family Centre Darkrooms in Bristol was to enable teachers, tutors and arts facilitators to learn the processes first created by Sir William Henry Fox-Talbot and Sir John Herschel, the Astronomer Royal, in the 1830s and 1840s. In addition, Justin Quinnell, the world-renowned practitioner of pinhole photography, presented workshops in the making and use of pinhole cameras. With this grant St Paul’s Darkrooms, the biggest and most extensively equipped public-access darkrooms in the South West, presented a series of workshops in albumen, gum-bichromate, cyanotype and salt-printing.

Alongside these photographs will be examples of work produced by attendees of these Heritage Lottery funded workshops.

Further details can be found in the BPH Events section.

11.06.2010 – 09.01.2011

Tuesday to Sunday:
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Every first Thursday of the month 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Closed on Monday

Photo: Milton M Miller, c 1864