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RPS Historical Group brochure

Posted by Michael Pritchard on November 9, 2009 at 15:00

A resurgent RPS Historical Group has launched a new brochure outlining the remit of the Group and highlighting its activities and aims, as well as emphasising its close links with the RPS Collection now located at the National Media Museum in Bradford. A pdf version of the brochure can be downloaded by clicking here, and there is more on the Group at: http://www.rps.org/group/historical. The Group publishes The PhotoHistorian and arranges meetings and visits to collections of interest in the UK and Europe.

ANTIQUARIAN PHOTOGRAPHER ~ 19TH CENTURY PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESSES THROUGH WORDS AND PICTURES

Posted by Antiquarianphotographer on January 8, 2009 at 13:00

http://antiquarianphotographer.blogspot.com/ IS MY WEB PAGE. HOPE YOU WILL VISIT.

Darwin's Camera: Art and Photography in the Theory of Evolution

Posted by Michael Wong on January 25, 2010 at 9:48

Darwin's Camera (Phillip Prodger; ISBN-10: 0195150317) tells the extraordinary story of how Charles Darwin changed the way pictures are seen and made.In his illustrated masterpiece, Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1871), Darwin introduced the idea of using photographs to illustrate a scientific theory--his was the first photographically illustrated science book ever published. Using photographs to depict fleeting expressions of emotion--laughter, crying, anger, and so on--as they flit across a person's face, he managed to produce dramatic images at a time when photography was famously slow and awkward. The book describes how Darwin struggled to get the pictures he needed, scouring the galleries, bookshops, and photographic studios of London, looking for pictures to satisfy his demand for expressive imagery. He finally settled on one the giants of photographic history, the eccentric art photographer Oscar Rejlander, to make his pictures. It was a peculiar choice. Darwin was known for his meticulous science, while Rejlander was notorious for altering and manipulating photographs. Their remarkable collaboration is one of the astonishing revelations in Darwin's Camera .Darwin never studied art formally, but he was always interested in art and often drew on art knowledge as his work unfolded. He mingled with the artists on the voyage of HMS Beagle , he visited art museums to examine figures and animals in paintings, associated with artists, and read art history books. He befriended the celebrated animal painters Joseph Wolf and Briton Riviere, and accepted the Pre-Raphaelite sculptor Thomas Woolner as a trusted guide. He corresponded with legendary photographers Lewis Carroll, Julia Margaret Cameron, and G.-B. Duchenne de Boulogne, as well as many lesser lights. Darwin's Camera provides the first examination ever of these relationships and their effect on Darwin's work, and how Darwin, in turn, shaped the history of art.Features:* Unique approach to Darwin's work that examines one of the first photographically illustrated science books* Reveals previously unknown information about Darwin's interest in photography and art* Describes the rise of photographic objectivity--how photography became accepted as proof in scientific debate* Features reproductions of many photographs owned by Darwin and never before seen by the public

Roger Taylor awarded Washington DC professorship

Posted by Michael Pritchard on August 4, 2009 at 20:30

One of the world’s leading photographic history experts from De Montfort University (DMU) has been awarded a prestigious professorship from the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., US. The National Gallery of Art’s Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) has awarded the 2010 Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professorship to Roger Taylor, Professor of Photographic History, and Senior Research Fellow at DMU in Leicester. His role as the Safra Visiting Professor will involve working with the Gallery to build close connections between the research of curatorial staff and that of visiting scholars to CASVA, whilst also undertaking his own independent research. Professor Taylor has chosen to use the professorship to undertake research into the memorably-named Linnaeus Tripe, a British photographer he came across when researching his Impressed by Light exhibition. He said: “It’s an unexpected privilege to be offered this professorship. I’ll be researching Tripe’s background in the Madras Infantry, and his innovative role as a documentary photographer. His large format pictures were mostly taken in Burmah and India during the 1850s and are wonderful, but there’s never been major exhibition dedicated solely to his work.” A recent national review of research in the UK by the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) shows that DMU’s photographic history research is classified as ‘world leading and internationally excellent’. Gerard Moran, Dean of Faculty Art and Design, added: “It’s marvellous that Roger’s visiting professorship at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC should come along to cement the truly international reputation of De Montfort University’s work in this way. We’re looking forward to the many mutual benefits that will emerge for all parties from this valuable association with the NGA.” Professor Taylor will spend four months at CASVA, beginning from 19 January to 19 May 2010, where he will also be conducting a seminar on the Gallery’s collections. CASVA at the National Gallery of Art, founded in 1979, is a research institute that fosters study of the production, use, and cultural meaning of art, artifacts, architecture, and urbanism, from prehistoric times to the present. The Center encourages a variety of approaches by historians, critics, and theorists of art, as well as by scholars in related disciplines of the humanities and social sciences. More information about CASVA is available at http://www.nga.gov/resources/casva.shtm

Captain Sweet (1825-1886)

Posted by Karen Magee on October 1, 2009 at 10:53

I am keen to hear from anyone who has encountered the South Australian photographer Captain Sweet, or any of his UK work. He is the subject of my PhD research and little is known about his early days in England, or what happened to the photographs and albums of views that were sent back to England from Australia (to World Fairs or to freinds and families of migrants).Cheers,Karencaptainsweet.com.au

NMeM praises Flickr Collaboration

Posted by Michael Pritchard on March 2, 2009 at 20:00

The National Media Museum has praised its collaboration with Flickr, the online photograph sharing website...Joanna Drag reported in the British Journal of Photography. The full article is available by clicking here. Part of the article is reproduced below: --- Initially started by the US Library of Congress and Flickr in January 2008, the project aims to give the public easier access to thousands of archived photographs while helping the library to categorise them through Flickr’s photo tagging system, in effect harnessing the power of social networks. The initiative was expanded to other institutions such as the National Media Museum in Bradford, who joined The Commons in August 2008. ‘Internally, we felt that the National Media Museum, with its web remit, needed to be in the vanguard of museums on the “social web”, and The Commons fulfilled this aim perfectly,’ says senior online marketing executive for the museum, Peer Lawther. ‘We didn’t want it to be a purely commercial or promotional opportunity but rather an opportunity for us to utilise the vast curatorial knowledge we hold and to use The Commons to show some of the breadth of our holdings.’ Since joining the project, the three initial groups of images made available online by the museum has received over 400,000 views. The groups consist of Peter Henry Emerson’s ‘Pictures from a life in Fields and Fen’ (1887), a selection of Kodak No.1 circular photos (c.1890) and a set of ‘Spirit’ photographs taken by William Hope (c.1920). ‘The Commons has confounded our expectations,’ says Lawther. ‘We’ve been featured on hundreds of blogs, “friended” thousands of fellow photographers and chatted with countless fans about our work. In showing discrete selections from our collection we’ve received a huge amount of goodwill from the community.’ To find photographs or to get more information visit flickr.com/commons

George Shadbolt honoured

Posted by Michael Pritchard on March 4, 2010 at 16:30

The life and work of a pioneering the nineteenth-century photographer and journal editor was commemorated at the end of February with a blue heritage plaque. George Shadbolt (1819-1901) is thought to be one of the first people to take a photograph through a microscope and recorded some of the earliest pictures of the Crouch End area, around his old home Cecile House, in
Crouch Hill. His home has since been turned into Kestrel House School which provides education for young people with autism.

Rosemary Wilman, of the Royal Photographic Society, and Keith Fawkes, of the Hornsey Historical Society, unveiled a blue plaque at the building and paid tribute to his contribution to the art. Mr Fawkes told the Haringey Independent: “He was a pioneer – a very important person to publicise locally. All these local people are very important. Crouch End was an interesting area then and these people become more important as the years go by. He was one of the pioneers of photography in Victorian times and he was extremely innovative.”

Around 150 years before digital photography revolutionised the process of taking pictures, Shadbolt pioneered early techniques, including methods of enlarging images. He was an early exponent of combination printing, the practice of combining two separate negatives to create a single image.

During an influential career he spent seven years editing what would later become the British Journal of Photography and was an early member of the Photographic Society of London.

The plaque is one of eight installed in honour of influential local figures as part a community scheme led by John Hajdu, of the Muswell Hill and Fortis Green
Association.

The Education of the Eye

Posted by Michael Pritchard on January 6, 2009 at 9:00

The education of the eye. History of the Royal Polytechnic Institution 1838-1881. Brenda Weeden Cambridge: Granta Editions, 2008. The Polytechnic Institution in London plays an important part in the early history of photography being the place where Richard Beard established his daguerreotype portrait studio in 1841. This was Europe's first commercial photographic studio. The Institution was one of a number of commercial enterprises presenting science to popular audiences and is now known as the University of Westminster, still occupying its original premises in Regent Street, London. This new book, which is one of a series telling the history of the Polytechnic and includes a chapter 'Photography at the Polytechnic'. It's involvement started with lectures and demonstrations soon after photography was announced and by October J. T. Cooper was delivering popular lectures in October 1839. William Henry Fox Talbot made early use of the Polytechnic's resources and licensed it to demonstrate his process. Europe's first photographic studio was built on the roof of the Polytechnic and opened on 23 March 1841 and was operated by Cooper and another chemist, John Goddard. The first Polytechnic photography school opened in Spring 1853. Many will recall learning photography at 'the Regent Street Poly' in the 1950s and 1960s. Although a general history the book it covers well the Polytechnic's involvement with popular science, photography and other optical media such as the magic lantern. It is written in a lively style and is well illustrated.

NMeM launches blog

Posted by Michael Pritchard on August 1, 2009 at 7:30

The National Media Museum in Bradford has launched a blog written by Museum staff. The blog takes a behind the scenes look at happenings within the Museum. Recent postings show the museum's offsite storage facility at Black Dyke Mills, a creative writing group at the museum and the Curator of Cinematography, Michael Harvey, being filmed for a Canadian TV documentary. Click here to view: http://nationalmediamuseum.blogspot.com/

Lectures on early British photography at the Royal Society

Posted by Michael Pritchard on September 22, 2009 at 23:40

The Royal Society is holding two lectures that will be of interest to blog readers: 'Photographing ancient Mesopotamia: Talbot, Fenton and the British Museum' Friday 23 October, 1-2pm Mirjam Brusius Around 1850 A.H. Layard excavated several ancient Mesopotamian sites, the artefacts of which were brought to the British Museum. Here the trustees discussed the use of photography in the field and in the museum. W. H. Fox Talbot, inventor of the Calotype photographic process and a fellow of the Royal Society, became a strong supporter of the application of photography in archaeology. However, the trustees were not immediately convinced. This talk will explore early debates about the use of photography for research purposes. Mirjam Brusius is writing her doctoral thesis on William Henry Fox Talbot at the University of Cambridge. She is a researcher on the British Library project 'Science and the Antique in the Work of William Henry Fox Talbot', and is currently a visiting fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. The lecture is free, but space is limited, to reserve a space, use the Society's online booking form or telephone +44 (0)20 7451 2606. The Nine Lives of William Crookes Wednesday 18 November, 6.30pm Chemist, photographer, editor, public health campaigner, business man, electrician, gold miner, glassworker and occultist: how did Sir William Crookes combine these, and other, "lives" to forge a scientific identity and become President of the Royal Society in 1913? William Brock is Emeritus Professor of the History of Science, having taught history of science and also directed the interdisciplinary Victorian Studies Centre at the University of Leicester. His most recent book is William Crookes (1832-1919) and the Commercialization of Science (2009). To book a space for this event please email library@royalsociety.org or telephone 020 7451 2606. The Society's current photography exhibition, From Fossils to Photography, continues. The exhibition is open during Library working hours (10am - 5pm, Monday to Friday) until November 2009. Entry is free but by appointment only - if you would like to visit please email: library@royalsociety.org or telephoning 020 7451 2606. For more information visit: http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=7242

Bradford's NMeM increases visitor numbers

Posted by Michael Pritchard on February 27, 2009 at 14:00

The National Media Museum in Bradford has shown an increase of 4 per cent in visitors. The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions survey showed 745,857 people visited the museum in 2008 compared with 2007. The museum, which has had free admission since it first opened in 1983, has seen a gradual increase in visitor numbers over recent years as new galleries have been opened and existing ones refurbished, reversing a previous decline.

RPS/SSHOP Glasgow conference

Posted by Michael Pritchard on April 15, 2009 at 8:02

The programme for this event which takes place 1-3 May 2009 has been announced and is available on the event listing: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/events/photographic-treasures-of

NMeM outline pros and cons of flickr publishing

Posted by Michael Pritchard on May 23, 2009 at 14:26

In a blog entry reporting on a conference dealing with the cultural sector’s use of social media, broadcasting and the web Tristan Roddis reports on a presentation by Peter Lawther, the Senior Online Marketing Executive at the National Media Museum in Bradford's. Roddis notes... Lawther outlined the opportunities and pitfalls of publishing photographs on the Flickr Commons. In brief, the upsides were a huge increase in reach and engagement (they even got a contribution of a new set of historical photographs after a member of the public recognised the style as being the same as some old prints he found in his attic), as well as marketing potential due to the fact that their collections were covered by both the press and bloggers. The only real downside identified was that it can impact on revenue from picture library purchases, although several delegates pointed out that similar experiments have not shown a decrease in revenue as a consequence. Read the full blog entry at http://blog.cogapp.com/2009/05/22/museums-social-media-broadcast-and-the-web/

NMeM Collections Access Assistant - job

Posted by Michael Pritchard on April 14, 2009 at 16:30

The National Media Museum in Bradford is advertising for a Collections Access Assistant to work on the Zoltan Glass Collection at a salary of £13,343pa. The job description reads: Award winning, visionary and truly unique, The National Media Museum embraces photography, film, television, radio and new media, including the web. Part of the NMSI family of museums, it aims to engage, inspire and educate through comprehensive collections, innovative education programmes and a powerful yet sensitive approach to contemporary issues. Insight is the Collections and Research Centre of the National Media Museum. Joining the Collections team, you will research, identify and repatriate archived material to facilitate and encourage public access. Specifically, your work will focus on the Zoltan Glass project. Glass was a Hungarian photographer who specialised in documenting the pre-war German car industry and also undertook glamour and advertising photography. The Museum holds over 12,000 of his images of his, part of which are currently being catalogued, digitised and sequenced. Desired Qualifications: Demonstrable experience in collections care/management and access gained within a museum/heritage environment is essential. Keen to learn, you will be able to understand and engage with the Zoltan Glass project, as well as embracing the broader access and outreach philosophy of the Museum. An up-to-date knowledge of cataloguing and documentation best practice is also important - ideally supported by a natural, ongoing interest in photography and other media. HOW TO APPLY: For Job Description, call 01274 203386. The deadline for applications is 23 April 2009. Please email your CV and covering letter, explaining clearly how you meet all of our stated requirements, to recruitment@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk . Please quote ref CA/RS09 Alternatively, you can send your CV and covering letter to: Rosie Smith HR Advisor, ref. CA/RS09 Human Resources Department National Media Museum Bradford BD1 1NQ

Exhibition: Where Three Dreams Cross from 21 January 2010

Posted by Michael Pritchard on September 22, 2009 at 23:25

A landmark exhibition of photography from 1840 to the present day from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh is an unprecedented survey of South Asian photographers and their presentation of culture and modernity. Historic early photographs from the important Drik Collection in Bangladesh and the Alkazi Collection in Delhi are given a rare platform on the world stage, while images from private, familial records will be seen for the very first time. The exhibition includes over 300 works by more than 50 artists. Whitechapel Gallery, London Jan 21 - Apr 11, 2010

NPG Exhibitions

Posted by Michael Pritchard on July 31, 2009 at 19:32

London's National Portrait Gallery is always a good source of photography exhibitions. Currently on view are small case displays of • the work of Gilbert Adams (1906–96), Bertram Park (1883–1972) and Yvonne Gregory (1889–1970) • Alfred, Lord Tennyson, including work by Julia Margaret Cameron • four platinum prints by Eveleen Myers as well as plenty of other photographs. The NPG is always worth a visit.

John Thomson photographs on exhibition

Posted by Michael Pritchard on April 13, 2009 at 6:30

The Beijing World Art Museum is hosting an exhibition of photographs of China taken by John Thomson from the archives of the Wellcome Institute in London... reports the Daily Telegraph newspaper. It will be shown in Liverpool early in 2010. Taken between 1870 and 1871 by the Scottish photographer John Thomson, the images reveal with often startling intimacy a cast of characters from orphans and street gamblers, to beautiful peasant girls and their high-born ladies. Hailed as a pioneer of photojournalism, Thomson spent two years travelling more than 5,000 miles in pursuit of the images that historians say are unique in their empathy towards their subjects As well as shooting traditional, stiff-backed portraits of Manchu noblemen, Thomson plied the streets in search of scenes that would bring the exotic world of China to life for a curious public back in England. "These pictures are fascinating because they reveal a world that most artists of that period ignored," said Betty Yao, who has organised the exhibition that opens in Beijing next week. "Most material from this late Qing era is stuffy, formal and posed, but Thomson's work is full of life." What is doubly remarkable, added Mrs Yao, was that Thomson captured such intimate moments while using cumbersome equipment and glass-plate negatives that needed to be coated with emulsion before exposure. "He was the original photojournalist, and he used incredible persistence and hard work to get precisely the pictures he wanted. He never gave up," she said. Among the images that testify to that persistence is a rare picture of a woman's bare, bound foot. Thomson later admitted, in perhaps an early example of "chequebook journalism", that he had paid the woman "handsomely" to expose her withered foot. In other pictures, Thomson captured the sorry inmates of a "foundling" hospital where orphaned children were offered for free to "respectable people", and a public street slide-show where the public could see images from exotic and faraway places often to gasps of amazement. When he returned to London, Thomson used his pictures to illustrate talks and lectures of his own, which earned him the moniker "China" Thomson. An early herald of globalisation, Thomson recognised that the days of China's isolation from the world were passing, observing that "through the agency of steam and telegraphy, [China] is being brought day by day into closer relationship with ourselves". Shortly before he died in 1921, Thomson offered to sell his glass negatives to Henry Wellcome, the pharmacist-philanthropist and keen collector, and it is from the archives of the Wellcome Library in London that the images have been taken, many to be exhibited in public for the first time. The full report can be found here.

Kraszna-Krausz Awards renamed And/or Awards 2009

Posted by Michael Pritchard on January 6, 2009 at 7:30

The winners of the 2009 And/or Book Awards, the UK’s leading prizes for books published in the fields of photography and the moving image, are to be announced on Thursday 23 April 2009. The awards ceremony will take place at the BFI Southbank, London, and is supported by the British Film Institute and Sight & Sound magazine. Established in 1985, the And/or Book Awards seek to celebrate excellence in photography and moving image publishing. Two separate prizes are given for photography books and for moving image (including film, television and new media) books published between 1 January and 31 December 2008. Winners will be selected from two shortlists to be revealed in March 2009. Between them they will share a total prize fund of up to £10,000. All books submitted will also join the Kraszna-Krausz collection of photography and moving image books held in the National Media Museum in Bradford. The judging panels, chaired by Martin Parr (Photography) and Mike Dibb (Moving Images), are looking for works which make a significant contribution to photographic and/or moving image scholarship, history, research, criticism, science and conservation. A necessary condition is that they use photographs as more than a means of illustration. Previously known as the Kraszna-Krausz Awards, from this year the two prizes are to be known by the Christian name of their founder, the prolific Hungarian publisher and dedicated founder of Focal Press, Andor Kraszna-Krausz. A new logo has been hand-drawn by David Hockney (see below). More details can be found at the K-K website. http://www.kraszna-krausz.org.uk/

NMeM digitises Zoltán Glass archive

Posted by Michael Pritchard on July 31, 2009 at 18:30

The National Media Museum in Bradford, UK, is currently undertaking a major digitsation project (details of the job to do this was posted here some months ago). The project aims to scan a large proportion of the photographs housed in the Zoltán Glass archive, will systematically catalogue the work of the artist, whose main creative periods came in the 1930s and 1950s, and to make them accessible in digital format. The Bradford collection numbers around 6,000 images in total; the work is scheduled for completion in April 2010. Zoltán Glass was one of the great commercial photographers of the 20th century – and automobiles were one his favourite subjects. During the 1920s and 1930s he was commissioned by Daimler-Benz AG to take many photographs of Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Glass, for example, documented the period of the classic Silver Arrows, the cars that dominated international grand prix racing from 1934 onwards. But he also turned his masterful skills to photographing the brand’s production vehicles for publicity material. He could even turn ostensibly uninspiring subjects, such as Mercedes-Benz vehicle production, into aesthetically pleasing images. After the death of Zoltán Glass in 1981, his photographic legacy was acquired by the National Media Museum, which houses one of Europe’s most important photographic collections. At the instigation of Daimler AG, his work is now being catalogued and digitised. The project also involves feeding the original photograph captions into the database and reproducing the images in their original sequence. The process makes use of state-of-the-art technology, which enables the negatives and their immense wealth of detail to be photographed in high resolution using a calibrated high-end medium-format camera in order to create a neutral copy of the original. The results are first saved as files of approximately 100 megabytes in TIFF format. Finally, special software is used to convert the negative images into positives. Once the work is complete, the photographs will be available for further historical editorial work and other projects.

NMeM job: Exhibition Organiser

Posted by Michael Pritchard on May 19, 2009 at 8:03

The National Media Museum, Bradford, is looking for an Exhibition Organiser. As an Exhibition Organiser you will manage the development of exhibitions, co-ordinate project teams and other stakeholders to ensure exhibitions are delivered on time, budget and to the highest standard. You will be involved in all aspects of exhibition preparation and delivery, you will co-ordinate all exhibition administration, co-ordinate the development of interpretation strategies and plan and oversee installations. The salary is £21,900pa. With experience of working in a similar role in a museum or gallery, you will already have an understanding of exhibition administration and delivery procedures, as well as a sound knowledge of developing interpretation strategies and exhibition display techniques. You should also have experience of managing projects and co-ordinating the work of internal and external stakeholders. If you can combine these attributes with excellent communication, organisational and IT skills, you’ll help us deliver a superb programme to our visitors. The National Media Museum is an interdisciplinary organisation recognised for the strength of its world-class collections, acclaimed temporary exhibitions, international film festivals and its unique permanent galleries. The Museum’s annual programme of temporary exhibitions and displays draws from its comprehensive and internationally acclaimed collections and also regularly commissions contemporary practitioners to make new work for public display. Contract Type: 2 Year Fixed Term (35 hours per week) Closing Date: 31st May 2009 Interviews: 8/9th June 2009 To apply, please write with full CV and covering letter to: The HR Department, National Media Museum, Bradford BD1 1NQ or email: recruitment@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk

Note: this page contains paid content.

Note: this page contains paid content.

Note: this page contains paid content.