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Hello All, I am having an exhibit of stereographs taken in Tenerife following in the footsteps of Charles Piazzi Smyth and his wife, Jessie.

This project is close to my heart because I have a few family connections in 1856 Puerto de la Cruz. It is up at the University of Alabama in Huntsville until 7 of March. Many of you are not near Alabama but I hope theres a chance for this to travel one day.

I am currently planning another trip this summer and continue to work on a timeline of the expedition.

Thanks to all who have helped along the way. Here's the exhibition text: 

A Photographer’s Experiment:
Rephotographing Charles Piazzi Smyth in Tenerife

On June 24, 1856, Charles Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal of Scotland, set sail on the ship Titania. He traveled to the Canary Islands with a crew of sixteen men and equipment to view the skies above the clouds. Piazzi, as he was called, wanted to investigate what Newton had described as atmospheric interference. This trip would help prove that the skies were clearer at higher altitudes. It would be one of his biggest gifts to astronomy and why we now see observatories on high mountain tops.

 “Twenty-seven horses and mules, and as many men” helped with the ascent to Guajara (8,903 ft above sea level), the first of the two sites. The winds were so fierce that local guides and helpers from the Port of Orotava built stone walls to help protect their tents. Today, most of the barrier walls have been reconstructed, some keep a similar footprint to the originals.

The second site was called Alta Vista (10,702 above sea level). The winds and the blowing dust did not make Guajara the ideal location so they decided to camp on the slopes of the peak, Teide. This time lava flows on either side helped protect them from the elements. The local men again built walls, but this time the structure was covered with tarps except for a small courtyard that housed the Pattinson telescope. The views of the skies were a success.

Charles Piazzi Smyth was not only an astronomer, he was also a photographer. He chose to document his expedition with a stereo camera specially constructed for his trip. His stereographs from the island of Tenerife were published in Teneriffe, An Astronomer’s Experiment: or, Specialties of a Residence Above the Clouds, London, L. Reeve,1858. This was the first book to use stereoscopic photographs as illustrations. Revisiting this expedition and its photographs attempts to shed light on this story and my family’s history on Tenerife.

José A. Betancourt

January 2024

The National Portrait Gallery’s new publication, Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In draws parallels between both photographers with new fresh research, rare vintage prints, and previously unseen archival materials alongside some of their best-known photographs.The book accompanies the exhibition of the same name opening at the National Portrait Gallery, London (21st March – 16th June).

Living and working over a century apart, Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879) and Francesca Woodman (1958–1981) experienced very different ways of making and understanding photographs. Yet the two share more similarities than expected. This publication presents the artists’ exploration of portraiture as a ‘dream space’, but also includes exciting new research and contributions on both artists, as well as number of works that are being published for the first time.

Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In makes new connections between their work, which pushed the boundaries of the photographic medium, and highlights their experimentation with ideas of symbolism, transformation and storytelling.

“Both Woodman and Cameron worked for a relatively short and concentrated period; neither was active for more than a decade and a half. Not either enjoyed significant critical or popular success in their lifetimes. Yet both left an influential body of work that has shaped the history of photography and has posthumously received widespread attention and reassessment.”  Magdalene Keaney

The book includes ten thematic sections interspersed with the works of both artists, but the publication begins with three feature essays, which consider Cameron and Woodman simultaneously. One of which is written by curator of the exhibition Magdalene Keaney and is an extended in-depth piece that is a major new contribution to the field, offering new ways to think about the work of both photographers and about the relationships between 19th and 20th century photography and portraiture.

Also writing for the exhibition publication is leading and highly-respected photo historian and writer specialising in women photographers Helen Ennis who was awarded the Royal Photographic Society J Dudley Johnston medal in 2021.

Portraits to Dream In includes works by Julia Margaret Cameron from the collections of major international museums including the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Metropolitan Museum, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Science Museum Group; the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and the National Portrait Gallery’s own collection. Prints made by Francesca Woodman in her lifetime, nearly 20 of which have not been previously published or exhibited, as well as presenting a number of letters, sketches and contact sheets from the Woodman archive which have been provided primarily by the Woodman Family Foundation in New York, who have collaborated closely on the creation of the publication.

The National Portrait Gallery is delighted to be able to bring this exhibition and accompanying book to new audiences and devoted followers of both Woodman and Cameron, to offer an inspiring and fresh take on their inimitable work.

Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In published on the 21 March alongside the opening of the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition, and is available to pre-order from the Gallery’s online shop: https://npgshop.org.uk/collections/books/products/francesca-woodman-julia-margaret-cameron-portraits-to-dream-in-hardcover

Heard today the sad news that old friend, photographer and camera maker, John Nesbitt has died suddenly. He made his superb wooden cameras in Mid Wales and ran large format workshops with Pete Davis before moving to France in the 1990s. His wife,. Michelle was French, so the relocation to Vendee was probably inevitable. He conducted one of our last workshops at The Photographers Place before leaving Wales. Some may remember his wonderful landscape work from 'Image & Exploration' exhibition at The Photographers Gallery in 1985.

The Guardian published an obituary here: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/feb/15/john-nesbitt-obituary

Left: the Nesbitt camera from 1989. 

The Photographers' Gallery, London, has announced that its new digital archive is live. The digital archive is a free online resource to dig into the rich and varied past of The Photographers’ Gallery and to support future learning about photography, and includes exhibiton poster, documents and photographs. 

See: https://archive.thephotographersgallery.org.uk/ or email: tpg.archive@tpg.org.uk

The Darwin Online project has launched a major addition which may interest BPH readers: The Complete Library of Charles Darwin. It includes various photography references. The catalogue is a reconstruction of Darwin’s library as it was in his lifetime, hence not just recording extant books in institutional collections today (1,480 is the usual number, it turns out that many books have been overlooked). Combining these important works with hundreds of other titles derived from a huge array of sources- especially the work of many scholars, librarians and archivists and by including family catalogues to rare books sales from 1889 to the present and by including all print sources Darwin owned (not just bound ones) such as journals, pamphlets and clippings- we arrive at a collection of 7,400 titles across 13,000 volumes/items. Hundreds of these were not known to scholars before.

After combining and collating many sources and identifying thousands of incomplete references, we have also assembled 9,500 links to electronic copies of the works. Of these, 5,035 are items within Darwin Online (850 are fully transcribed) and 4,500 are links to freely accessible internet copies.

Thus the Darwin Library is now integrated with his entire corpus of published works, his manuscripts and private papers, the Beagle library, and the database with complete bibliographical records of his publications in 56 languages and union catalogue of his manuscripts across 80 institutions and collections.

An introduction to the reconstructed Darwin Library and link to the complete catalogue is here: http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/vanWyhe_The_Complete_Library_of_Charles_Darwin.html

20/20 brings together work by British photographers Chris Killip (1946-2020) and Graham Smith (1947) for a reconceived telling of their seminal show, Another Country, originally exhibited at the Serpentine Gallery, London, in 1985. Through snapshots and ephemera, the show also recognises their lifelong friendship with one another.

Killip and Smith first met in 1975 through Amber, a film and photography collective in Newcastle upon Tyne. They both photographed in North East England during a period when heavy industry was still thriving, followed by an unforeseen and devastating collapse. The photographers documented the individuals and communities whose lives depended on these industries, people who were facing a politically forced change to the landscape and their ways of life that had been settled for generations.

The idea for 20/20 was conceived by Augusta Edwards in 2019 and at that time Killip and Smith each selected 20 images taken between 1975 and 1987 for the exhibition. In the same powerful way as Another Country, the work by Killip and Smith is shown anonymously together on the walls in 20/20.

20/20 was first shown at Augusta Edwards Fine Art, London, in 2022.

20/20: CHRIS KILLIP / GRAHAM SMITH
11 April - 30 June 2024
Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol
See: https://www.martinparrfoundation.org/events/20-20-chris-killip-graham-smith/

Image: left / Another Country exhibition poster, Serpentine Gallery, 1985; right / Graham (left) and Chris (right), Wallsend, North Tyneside, 1976 © Markéta Luskačová

Nick Warr and Simon Dell – the curators of a fascinating exhibition Norwich Works: The Industrial Photography of Walter and Rita Nurnberg currently on at Norwich Castle Museum until 14 April - will talk about the too little known German-born émigré photographers Walter and Rita Nurnberg.

Walter (1907-1991) and Rita (1914-2001) Nurnberg established a commercial photographic studio in London in 1934 after relocating from Germany. Walter, a former pupil and tutor at the prestigious Reimann School of Art and Design in Berlin, made a name for himself in product photography. After the Second World War, the Nurnbergs concentrated their collective skills in documenting and celebrating the workers of Britain.

Over the subsequent decade, the Nurnbergs made photographs for many of the nation’s most significant companies and their distinctive style of black and white images transformed the image of post-war British industry. While the work they produced for three Norwich manufacturing institutions - Boulton and Paul, Mackintosh-Caley and Edwards and Holmes – form the centrepiece of the current exhibition, the speakers will set this work in the broader context of Walter and Rita Nurnberg's lives and careers.
 
Dr.Nick Warr is Lecturer in Art History and Curation in the School of Art, Media and American Studies at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. He is also Curator of Photographic Collections, Course Director of Art History and World Art Studies, and Academic Director of the East Anglian Fim Archive.

Dr.Simon Dell is an art historian who taught at the University of East Anglia for over twenty years. His key research interests include photography, with special reference to France, Germany, the Soviet Union and the United States, and the relationship of the visual and the political in interwar Europe.

Book here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/insiders-outsiders/from-berlin-to-london-the-industrial-photography-of-walter-rita-nurnberg/e-vqmqxp

Image: Walter and Rita Nurnberg, Check weighing and closing cartons, Mackintosh-Caley, Chapelfield Works, Norwich, 1958 (detail)

Insiders/Outsiders is an ongoing celebration of the indelible and pervasive contribution of refugees from Nazi-dominated Europe to British culture.

Would anyone recognize the gentleman shown in this portrait by the Bristol photographer Thomas Protheroe? A cabinet card dated after 1881.

The Guardian newspaper reports that an archive of more than 10,000 photographs capturing everyday life in England’s north-west has been saved for the future, and is now being made available to the public. From 1885 to the 1970s thousands of photographs were taken by the Barrow-in-Furness-based father and son Edward and Raymond Sankey, who captured a wide range of subjects, including working-class women, childhood, royal visits, sport, working horses, motor vehicles, shop fronts, shipping and tourism in the Lake District. Their original glass plate negatives, postcards, albums and documentation have now been rescued, digitised and catalogued.

The archive is housed by Cumbria Archives and has been made possible with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Signal Film & Media. 

BPH reported on the launch of the Archive website in September 2023. See: https://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/archive-sankey-family-photography-collection

See The Guiardian report here: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2024/feb/09/archive-photos-capture-life-in-england-north-west

Visit the Sankey Photography Archive.

The Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, as part of The PhotoMatrix Project has arranged a series of four hybrid talks as part of the Collegium Historiae Artium lecture series between February and May 2024 looking at aspects of photomechanical reproduction. They are: 

14 February 2024
Meghan Forbes (independent scholar, New York)
Devětsil and the Aura of Mechanical Reproducibility

28 February 2024
Camilla Balbi (IAH CAS, Prague)
A Forgotten Media Interest: Erwin Panofsky and Photography

24 April 2024
Anthony Hamber (independent photographic historian, London)
The 1840s: Transformations in Reprographics

15 May 2024
Kim Timby (École du Louvre, Paris)
Bringing Home the Museum: The Colour Turn in Art Reproduction in the Mid-Twentieth Century

The talks will take place at the Institute of Art History of the CAS, Prague, Husova 4, general meeting room (117), 1st floor at 1630 and online.

For details and abstracts, visit https://photomatrix.cz/outputs#events

For the Zoom link, please contact by email: masterova@udu.cas.cz

About PhotoMatrix Project
Going back to the advent of photomechanical reproductions of art in periodicals at the beginning of the 20th century, PhotoMatrix examines the far-reaching consequences of this media revolution on the distribution and popularization of art among both experts and the general public. The project focuses on art and art historical journals published in Czechoslovakia, Germany, France, and Russia from 1900 to 1950. The reproductions featured in these journals will be examined quantitatively, through the methods of digital art history, and qualitatively, based on archival sources (publishers, photo agencies, photographers, printers). What new narratives of art emerge if we look into this period through the lens of reproductions printed in period journals? What new insights does this historical inquiry open into the use of remote access to art in the digital age?

The Bible in Photography addresses the untold story of biblical subjects in photography, from work by William Henry Fox Talbot and Julia Margaret Cameron in the nineteenth century to David Mach and Bettina Rheims in the twenty-first. Landscapes, character portraits, stories and visionary imagery from the Bible are found to pervade photographic practices and ideas, across the worlds of advertising and tourist information, the book and the gallery, in theorists such as Roland Barthes and John Berger, and in artistic reflection.  

The book first explores the critical space for thinking about religion and the Bible in photographs. It draws methodologies from biblical traditions of hermeneutics and also from visual culture criticism, asking how this most modern of visual media brings a language of belief into the frame.

The second part of the book is concerned with the cultural histories of photography, and introduces four themes for grouping biblical subjects: the index for landscape photographs such as Frith’s images of the Holy Land; the icon for portraits of Jesus and Mary such as by Gabriel Harrison and Lewis Hine; the tableau for instructional images, including those by Oscar Rejlander  and Graystone Bird; and the vision for spirit photography and apocalyptic imagery, such as by Frederick Hudson and John Heartfield.

Throughout, the book is also illustrated with living photographers, drawing the ideas and ideologies of the past into the present day. What is revealed is a charged spirituality in photography. Far from telling a secular story, this is a history of the medium which exposes the religious, and particularly Christian understandings, which were and are held by many of its practitioners over nearly two centuries.

About the author:

Dr Sheona Beaumont is a writer and artist working with photography. Her books explore the religious heritage of Christianity in the arts and visual culture, from photobooks to scholarly monographs. She is a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London, and has held artist/writer residencies across the UK, most recently as the Bishop Otter Scholar in Chichester, West Sussex. www.shospace.co.uk

The Bible in Photography. Index, Icon, Tableau, Vision
Sheona Beaumont
Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024
Hardback, 272 pages
£99, eBook £79.20
Details: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/bible-in-photography-9780567706539/

This Manplan panel talk brings together different perspectives, examining the interconnected worlds of photography, graphic design, architecture, and publishing as seen through the pages of the Manplan series.

Experts explore how these disciplines intertwine, shaping perspectives on architectural journalism, visual storytelling, and graphic communication. They discuss the transformative power of Manplan, its bold objectives, and how the imagery and themes resonate today and influence practice within the different fields. 

Perspectives on Manplan panel discussion
6 March 2024, 1830-2000
London: RIBA, 66 Portland Place
Details and booking: https://www.architecture.com/whats-on/perspectives-on-manplan-riba-panel-discussion

My collection of Grubb Patent Aplanatic Lenses made in Dublin between the 1850s and the 1870s all have micro-engraving with a number at the very edge of the glass lens element to match the engraved or stamped number on the brass barrel of the lens. The purpose behind this is to indicate authenticity and avoid fakes.The writing (for that is what it is) is barely visible to the naked eye and even more difficult to photograph.

Below is a poor photo of the micro engraving on the lens element of Grubb Patent Aplanatic No 582 which reads 'Grubb Patent No 582'. No 582 is the lens in the front middle of the group photo of my Grubb lens which is also below. 

What I am wondering is whether other 19th Century lens manufacturers 'signed' their lenses in this fashion. I have read that Darlot lenses have some kind of signature, but all I have is a Darlot copy sold by Morley, which has no obvious sign of a signature. This seems to me more than just a copyright issue and it is just like a signature on a photograph or a painting to say 'this is my work'. I cannot avoid getting the image of a craftsman, in a dark workshop in the 1860s, writing or scratching this on a freshly made lens, using a magnifying glass to see. Comments are welcome.

Well after a long gestation period the new exhibition I've been curating at the State Library of New South Wales has opened. Arranged chronologically Shot covers the years 1845 to 2022 and is a major retrospective of photography in Australia. With over 400 photographs by 200 photographers there should be content that is of interest for this group particularly in the early years with some rare photocrayotypes, Australia's oldest extant photo (a daguerreotype by Goodman), and rare Paget plates from Shackleton's expedition by Frank Hurley. Given the desktop version went online this week I felt it was a good time to share with you all. It includes examples of photographic formats from the inception of photography to the present and will be up until November 2024. 

Below is an excerpt from the introduction panel ...
This is the first exhibition to comprehensively review the breadth of the photographic archive held at the State Library of NSW — one of the largest, most diverse and significant in Australia. The two million photographs held by the Library represent tens of thousands of stories collectively forming a unique pictorial history of the past 175 years in Australia. The exhibition explores some of these threads — from the earliest surviving photograph in Australia to examples of nearly every format used since the inception of photography in 1839.

The exhibition includes works by some of Australia’s most acclaimed photographers and shines a light on works and formats often considered to be on the periphery of photographic practice. Arranged chronologically, we have aimed to include at least one photograph to represent each year between 1845 and 2022. The images include the work of over 200 press, amateur and street photographers; printers and commercial studios. This exhibition captures only a thin slice of the collection, but these 400 works convey some of the rich rewards to be gained by examining the archive as a whole. We hope this approach allows space to contemplate the myriad stories they represent.
https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/shot

Geoff Barker, 2024

I was saddened to hear the news that Brian Griffin has passed. I have very little to say about Brian that he didn’t say better himself. Therefore to mark his passing I recommend that you watch him in our film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay, listen to his contribution to the A Photographic Life podcast (below) in which he explained what photography meant to him and look at his images. They all say everything that needs to be said.

Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd47549knOU&t=12s

Audio: https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2024/01/30/audio-rip-brian-griffin-1948-2024-i-dont-even-like-photography-very-much/

Imperial War Museums (IWM) London opened a new suite of galleries late last year dedicated to the representation of modern conflict and the experiences of artists, filmmakers and photographers. Although IWM say that the galleries ‘explore the complex tension between creativity and destruction’ I would argue that the still single image does more to show the impact and effect of war on combatants, civilians, and places, than many of the tanks, aircraft and other artefacts on display elsewhere in the museum. These galleries show that very effectively. 

In an age where the immediacy of conflict is readily available on screens these galleries make the point – intended or not – that the still image retains a power to shock, inform and explore, and most importantly to remain in one’s memory in a unique way, that television and the moving image struggle to match. Photography does this in a particular way of course, but paintings and drawings, too, have that same power. The artist – and I include photographers in that term - through their presence, situation, and decision on what to show the viewer bring a unique perspective.

The five galleries of some 500 works, plus two screening areas, are arranged thematically. An introduction is following by practice and process, power of the image, mind and body, perspectives and frontiers. The artworks come from IWM's own extensive holdings and photography, artwork and film are all integrated in the gallery spaces. Of course, photography shows itself better than art in some areas. The camera as a tool is there and has more impact than the artist’s paintbox. But the impact of John Singer Sargent’s monumental painting Gassed (left), back after undergoing significant conservation, shows how artwork too can engage and absorb the viewer. Film is shown on screens in the galleries and in two viewing spaces ands felt less impactful and effective than the still image, although footage of the Normandy beach landings and concentration camps hold their own against single artworks. 

The work of photographers and photojournalists are represented from the first world war up to the present. Christina Broom, Olive Edis, Cecil Beaton, Bill Brandt, Don McCullin and Tim Hetherington are just a few whose photography look at war and civilian life during conflict.  Framed photographs on the wall remove many of the photographs from their originally intended method of presentation, changing their meaning, and treating them as artworks, although their power remains intact. Elsewhere, lantern slides, albums (amateur and for official presentation) and publications such as Picture Post, newspapers, books and posters show how photography was intended to be consumed by the public.

An end quote on the wall from first world war photographer and cinematographer Frank Hurley from 1917 faces the visitor on arrival and exit: ‘None but those who have endeavoured can realise the insurmountable difficulties of portraying a modern battle by the camera… I have tried and tried but the results are hopeless’. Hurley was being unfair on himself. Photography showed the war to an innocent public, and new uses of the medium such as aerial photography, used extensively from WW1, literally brought a new high-level perspective to places of conflict. But it was the photographers focusing in on details that had more to convey to the viewer about conflict, reminding us that conflict is human and its impact is on humanity.

The new galleries are a triumph of curatorial selection and design, and do much to remind us of the power and impact of the still image. Highly recommended. 

https://www.iwm.org.uk/events/blavatnik-art-film-and-photography-galleries

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/war-photographers-iwm-photography-collection  

Dr Michael Pritchard

IWM London
Lambeth Road, London, SE1 6HZ
1000-1800 daily, except 24 to 26 December
https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-london

The German Photo Book Prize bronze medal has been awarded to Neue Wahrheit? Kleine Wunder! / New Truth? Small Miracles! which was published to accompany an exhibition that toured three venues across Germany.

The book looks at the development of photography from its origins up to the 1870s before phootgraphy became a mass amateur and popular pursuit. What makes this book (and the exhibitions) all the more remarkable is that it is based on the collection of Hans Gummersbach who has built a thoughtful collection with a particualr focus on the daguerreotype. The book consists of a series of essays and is very well-illustrated from Gummersbach's phenomenal collection. 

As Grant Romer notes in a review of the book: 'This publication, the collection it is based on, and the history of it’s formation will become a landmark, embodying past understanding of what was Photography.'

Neue Wahrheit? Kleine Wunder! / New Truth? Small Miracles!
Sammlung/Collection Hans Gummersbach
Edited by Kunstmuseum Ahlen / Museum Georg Schäfer Schweinfurt
Text in German and English
Wienand, 2021,
Hardcover, 224 pages, €27
ISBN: 978-3868326314
Available here: https://www.amazon.de/Wahrheit-Kleine-Wunder-fr%C3%BChen-Fotografie/dp/3868326316

This Spring, Imperial War Museums (IWM) opens its first exhibition of work by celebrated photojournalist, filmmaker and humanitarian, Tim Hetherington, following IWM’s acquisition of his full archive from the Tim Hetherington Trust in 2017. 

Opening at IWM London on the 13th anniversary of Hetherington’s death while covering the Libyan Civil War in 2011, Storyteller: Photography by Tim Hetherington (20 April 2024 – 29 September 2024) showcases photography, films and personal objects from across Hetherington’s career. Key works on display include his projects in Liberia (2003 - 2007), Afghanistan (2007 - 2008), and his final, unfinished project in Libya (2011). With newly displayed objects and photographs, including the camera and diary he used in the days leading up to his death, this exhibition for the first time, brings together aspects of Hetherington’s personal experiences and perspective, alongside his most engaging projects. 

Featuring over 65 of his most striking photographs, Storyteller: Photography by Tim Hetherington shines a light on Hetherington’s unconventional approach to conflict photography. In contrast to photojournalists who spend just weeks in warzones before moving on to new assignments, Hetherington, who was awarded four World Press Photo awards and was nominated for an Academy Award for his and Sebastian Junger’s feature-length documentary, Restrepo, took an unusually long-term approach to projects, which saw him return to the same places over several months or years. The resulting work has a profoundly human focus, developed through deep connections with the people with whom he spent time. Hetherington also broke with convention in his use of vintage film cameras through the early 2000s, at a time of major advancements in digital photography. Slowing the photographic process down gave more freedom to interact with people, while challenging him to take more carefully considered photographs.  ​

Visitors can witness Hetherington's first experince of an active frontline, with his project documenting the Second Liberian Civil War, and the subsequent steps towards peace and democracy. Alongside this, the exhibition features his time in Afghanistan, where he lived for long periods with a platoon of US soldiers. Here he chose to depict an alternative angle to contemporary news reporting, by focusing on the young soldiers he lived and spent significant time with, covering every nuance of their behaviour during periods of extreme tension, fear, vulnerability, exhuastion and boredom.

In 1999, Hetherington began work on his first large scale project, Healing Sport, exploring the consequences of conflict in countries including Liberia, Sierra Leone and Angola. Over a decade later, in April 2011, he was mortally wounded whilst working on a new project in Libya. Both projects, at either end of his career, sought to close the distance between his audience and the human stories of the conflict his work explored. Storyteller: Photography by Tim Hetherington invites visitors to look at these projects in dialogue and to consider how his Libyan project might have developed, had it not been tragically cut short.

Other defining and award-winning works by and about Hetherington, shown in dedicated screening rooms, include Sleeping Soldiers, Liberian Graffiti, Healing Sport, and his self-reflective film, Diary. 

By showcasing this diverse selection of projects, Storyteller: Photography by Tim Hetherington invites visitors to reflect on his legacy and ask themselves; ‘What is the role and responsibility of the photojournalist is when documenting conflict?’.

Greg Brockett, curator of Storyteller: Photography by Tim Hetherington, said: “In the process of curating this exhibition, and the years I have spent cataloguing and researching Tim Hetherington’s archive, I have discovered just how driven Hetherington was to explore his own fascination with the world through the lens of conflict. I’ve uncovered a depth of personal insight to Hetherington's character and his thoughtful approach to his work. At IWM, we are delighted to be sharing this poignant insight to the person behind the lens as we invite visitors to explore a more thoughtful and visually captivating insight into conflict than we find in much of the news we watch, read or browse."

Speaking for the Tim Hetherington Trust, Judith Hetherington (Tim’s mother and founding Trustee) said: “Storyteller: Photography by Tim Hetherington fulfils the Trust's core ambition that Tim’s visionary work should continue to inspire new generations of artists and journalists dedicated to bringing truth to the world.  We are particularly excited that Tim's rich legacy has been amplified and given new relevance by the deep knowledge and historical perspective of the team at IWM. The result is an inspiring opportunity for old friends and tomorrow’s emerging talent to catch a spark from recent history and to carry it forward in their telling of the urgent stories of our time.”

Storyteller: Photography by Tim Hetherington will be accompanied by a brand-new photography publication of Hetherington’s work. Tim Hetherington: IWM Photography Collection by exhibition curator Greg Brockett will feature 50 of Hetherington’s photographs, offering a new perspective of his work and revealing insights into the man behind the lens.

The Tim Hetherington and Conflict Imagery Research Network, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, helped to inform the content development of this exhibition. 

Storyteller: Photography by Tim Hetherington will open at IWM London on 20 April 2024.

Images (l to r):

© IWM (DC 64010) A Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy combatant in Liberia, taken in June 2003 by Tim Hetherington
© IWM (DC 66144) A sleeping soldier from United States Army's 2nd Platoon, Battle Company, 2nd Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade in Eastern Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, taken by Tim Hetherington
© IWM (DC 64035) A Liberian woman carries cassava leaves to the central market in Tubmanburg, Liberia, taken in May 2003 by Tim Hetherington

Between 1860 and 1868, elite members of Victorian society regularly arrived to be photographed at the studio of Camille Silvy at 38 Porchester Terrace in Bayswater, London. Silvy’s twelve photographic daybooks, now owned by the National Portrait Gallery, form a record of this activity with almost 12,000 portraits contained within their pages.

Among Silvy’s aristocratic sitters were seven early women photographers, temporarily repositioned to become the subjects rather than the creators of photographs. These first generation photographic pioneers adopted new technology and a variety of chemical processes as an alternative expression of creativity to that offered by traditional art forms, such as oil or watercolour art. Instead of brush on canvas, landscapes or portraits could now be captured onto light sensitive paper by the action of the sun.

Rose Teanby shares her knowledge of early women photographers through a new blog on the National Portrait Gallery's website. 

Read Rose Teanby's blog here: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/reframing-narratives-women-in-portraiture/female-focus-page/through-camille-silvys-lens

Image: Jane Frederica Harriot Mary (née Grimston), Countess of Caledon by Camille Silvy, 1860, NPG Ax50283 / National Portrait Gallery, London

The world is full of 35mm format cameras, both film and digital, with interchangeable lenses, but few people know that this practice commenced in Britain in the late 1920s before Leitz started its own range of interchangeable lens cameras with the I Model C, which was introduced in 1930. This involved conversions to the hitherto single lens Leica I Model A, introduced in 1925, to allow the fitting of some British made lenses, such as those made by Ross and Dallmeyer, both of whom had been optical giants in the British market since the mid 19th Century. German made Meyer lenses were also fitted to Leicas in London by A.O. Roth who was an importer for the brand. Some of the innovations created in Briatin fed into the later models introduced by Leica and others and, in one case, the feature still exists on all interchangeable lens cameras to this day.

My Video on YouTube was made for the Photographic Collectors Club of Great Britain  (PCCGB) and also gives the 'before' and 'after' sitaution as regards changing lenses without the use of a lens board.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOqNGCAIOsU&t=71s

Some photos (courtesy of Wetzlar Camera Auctions) from my video featuring a Dallmeyer Dallon Tele- Anastigmatic 4 inch lens on a Leica I Model A from 1929 are below. This conversion was done by Sinclair who had a shop at  9 &10 Charing Cross which became 3 Whitehall around 1930. The shop did not move, but the address changed