Blogs

I have a question about this albumen print by Julia Margaret Cameron from her illustrations of Tennyson's Idyll of the King. Many years ago, I was offered my pick of several illustrations from the Idylls, I chose this image, "And Enid Sang", as I felt that it was a beautiful stand-alone image, it was in the best shape, and I thought that it was a great example of Cameron's depiction of women.

My question is this:

In many online searches for the Idylls, The "And Enid Sang" image is either omitted, or in rather in terribly faded shape. Is this some sort of orphan image? Is this not included in all copies of Cameron's Idylls?

The copies in the Musee D'Orsay and the Getty are very badly faded, although the Metropolitan Museum has a fine copy.

Does any member have insight on this particular Cameron photo?

Many Thanks in advance,

David

Alexander S. Wolcott and John Johnson constructed the first mirror camera which was patented in America in 1840 (patent number 1582). It used a large concave mirror rather than a lens to produce a bright image which was then processed using the daguerreotype process.  William Johnson (John Johnson’s father) came to England to market the camera and found that Richard Beard was the sole licensee for the daguerreotype process in England. Beard patented the Wolcott and Johnson camera in England (patent number 8546 of 1840) and opened the first Daguerreotype studio in London 1840.  The photos below showing an original example in the Saco Museum in Maine, USA... Read nore about the project here: Mirror%20Camera%20%282%29.doc

Four Corners is offering a paid 12-month internship as part of its new National Lottery Heritage Fund project, The People’s Gallery. This is an exciting opportunity to work on Four Corners' Archive collection whilst gaining skills in archiving and collections management, and experience in delivering community and exhibition projects. 

Details:  https://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/work-with-us

The First Fully Researched Biography of Frederick Scott Archer. I first began researching the life and work of Frederick Scott Archer in 2005, whilst writing my ‘magnum opus’ on the history of astronomical photography, ‘Catchers of the Light’- a work which took 7 years to complete.

I began writing this book based on my knowledge and experience as both a professional astronomer and as a trained genealogist. It soon became clear that much of what had been previously written on the life and work of the photographic pioneers featured in my book, was either missing, badly researched or blatantly wrong. Of the many men and women included in ‘Catchers’, the one pioneer whose life and work was the subject of the greatest misrepresentation and falsehoods was Frederick Scott Archer.

What had little that had been written of him was either badly researched or wrong, even on a basic level of when and where he was born, and his family background.

His Wikipedia entry states: “Frederick Scott Archer (1813 – 1 May 1857) was an English photographer and sculptor who is best known for having invented the photographic collodion process… Scott Archer was the second son of a butcher in Bishops Stortford in Hertfordshire who went to London to take an apprenticeship as a goldsmith and silversmith with Mr. Massey of 116 Leadenhall Street...’

Almost all the above is either incorrect or incomplete. It is also commonly believed that he was orphaned as a child – also untrue!

FSA was born on the 30th August 1814 at Bull Plain, Hertford not in Bishops Stortford. He was the fifth son of the seven children born to Thomas Archer, a butcher and former Mayor of Hertford. FSA’s mother died in 1817, but his father was very much alive when he remarried in 1830! This is just the beginning of the misrepresentation of FSA’s life and work.

I had originally intended that my biography should be published to coincide with the actual bicentennial of his birth in 2014; but delayed it because I felt it was incomplete and required much more research. Instead, I self-published a short eBook on his life and work. Now, a decade later I returned to the task, and finally completed the task.

Like FSA, I have decided to release a draft of my biography freely to the photographic community; with the aim of improving upon through your comments, criticisms and any additional information you can provide.

Whilst researching my biography several extremely interesting facts were uncovered. It became clear that most of FSA’s photographs were based on the same subjects and locations of the early drawings and watercolours of the great English landscape artist, J M W Turner. In addition, FSA even exhibited his photographs in the same street and possibly the same building in which he had been born, some forty years earlier – a coincidence?

If you are interested in reading my biography, it can be downloaded as a zip file from:

https://catchersofthelight.com/downloads/Collodion Chemist.zip

Also included is an Excel spreadsheet which details those individuals, companies and institutions that contributed to his Testimonial Fund, which was setup following his his death in 1857.

So, any comments etc., can be forwarded to me at this email address: biography@frederickscottarcher.com

Thank you.

Kind Regards,

Dr. Stefan Hughes
Photographic Historian

Rob Ball has alerted BPH to a project he has been undertaking since January documenting Dreamland, Margate, with the ferrotype or tintype process. Dreamland was one of the country's oldest amusement parks; at one time, the 16-acre site held a zoo and miniature railway, a cinema, cafes, restaurants, bars, shops and a 2,000-capacity ballroom, not forgetting that in later years it was home to Europe's largest big wheel.

You can follow progress of Rob Ball's work on the Dreamland site. For those interested, the South East Archive of Seaside Photography is well worth a look. Rob Ball is the deputy director.

The project was featured on the BBC website here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-27210062

The British Library is seeking a cataloguer to work on an archive of modern architectural drawings, photographs and maps related to Hampi Vijayanagara, a UNESCO World Heritage site in south India.

This archive, known as the Vijayanagara Research Project, was formed by Dr John Fritz and Dr George Michell from 1986 to 2006 and features the work of a number of architectural historians who systematically documented the topography and archaeology of the site. These important archaeological records provide a chronological continuation of the Library's historical collections related to the site and acts as an important resource for researchers working on cultural heritage. The collections were donated to the British Library in 2016.

The post-holder will be required to arrange, catalogue, edit metadata as well as research and identify archaeological and architectural sites in South Asia in order to make the collection accessible to users.

See full details: https://www.vercida.com/uk/jobs/cataloguer-of-visual-arts-british-library-st-pancras

The National Media Museum is one of the leading museums in the north of England, receiving over 500,000 visitors a year and we want you to contribute to our ongoing success.

We are looking for extrovert, engaging and entertaining communicators to fill these stimulating roles. With your excellent presentation and performance skills and your keen interest in media, you will help bring the galleries to life for our diverse range of visitors. As part of the Explainer team in the Learning Department you will present live shows and use your creative skills to develop and deliver art, craft and media based activities for families and groups. It will be up to you to ensure visitors including families, school groups and teachers have an enjoyable, safe and educational visit.

If you have a passion for media, for communication, and for engaging children and adults of all ages, we’d love to hear from you.

This post is 4 days per week including one weekend day.

Part time - 28.8 hours per week
£10,674.40 per annum (£13,343 FTE) plus weekend allowance
Fixed term until January 2013

Closing date for applications: 5 February 2011

For a full job description please email
recruitment@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk

Interested? Please send your CV and covering letter to recruitment@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk

This Bonhams auction in London on 4th Dec includes an exceptionally rare set of two volumes of photographic albums of Java in the Dutch East Indies by the pioneering Victorian photographers, Walter Woodbury and James Page. Containing some 60 topographical views and portraits, mostly around Batavia, they are estimated to sell for between £10,000-15,000.

Another lot on offer is an album of 180 views and portraits taken in Ethiopia by Captain Tristram Charles Sawyer Speedy(1836-1910). It also includes some self-portraits of Captain Speedy himself and us estimated to sell for £600-800.

You can check the rest of the lots here.

A Leica digital camera custom-made by Jonathan (Jony) Ive the British-born Vice President of Design at Apple Inc and Marc Newson for the (RED) Auction 2013. The camera was an edition of 01/01 and sold for a record price of USD 1,805,000 - a world auction record price for a digital camera. A prototype UR Leica made US$2.8 million in 2012.

The sale shows the importance of a designer's name,the association with the world's most valuable brand, Apple; and the longevity of Leica as a collectible. 

See: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2013/null-n09014/lot.14.html

Hello, I am researching this photo of Rossetti by Carroll. Sorry for my bad quality pics. I believe it's an albumen print, on very thin paper, 5-3/8 x 4 inches. I know the original was taken in 1863, however, the back has a faint pencil inscription: 1873 Life photo. There is an identical print with the oval framing in Morton N. Cohen's Reflections in a Looking Glass- from the Ransom Center.

Would anyone know if Carroll's photos were reprinted in the 1870s? Or could this be a more recent print?

Any information would be appreciated.

Best, David

The Scottish Society for the History of Photography is presenting Zelda Cheatle as its 2017 Annan lecturer. Zelda has had a close association with Scotland and Scottish photography for many years and will talk about her experience of photography here from the early 1980s onwards, at a time when she ran the Print Room of The Photographers’ Gallery. She will go on to talk about her experiences as a gallerist in the 1990s, and how universities, art colleges, institutions and galleries in Scotland contributed to the excellence and diversity of photographic practice up to the present day.

She will then go on to talk about various experiences of collecting photography, collections, and how to enjoy all aspects of collecting.

Zelda Cheatle is renowned for her pioneering work in establishing photography as art, as a curator, lecturer, editor and publisher (Zelda Cheatle Press).

She has worked in photography since graduating and opened her own gallery, Zelda Cheatle Gallery, in London in 1989. For 16 years, the gallery exhibited work by established and eminent photographers of the early 20th-century and supporting emerging photographers.  The gallery helped build collections and Zelda continues to work with museums and public collections nationally and internationally.

She is on the board of the Koestler Trust and their Arts Committee, helped create the John Kobal Foundation (now Taylor Wessing at National Portrait Gallery), established The Photography Fund which collected over 6000 prints, and is a nominator for Deutsche Borse and Prix Pictet competitions, in 2016 chaired the judges for Sony World Photography Awards, also curating the show for Somerset House.

Zelda now works internationally, most recently in China, Dubai, UAE, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Also working with Autograph Archive in London, making acquisitions of vintage works from black photographers working in the UK during the 70s and 80’s.

She is currently working with Photo London leading a course ‘On Collecting Photography’ March – May 2017.

Tickets cost £5 and the event takes place at Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow. See more here: http://sshop.org.uk/project/annan-lecture-2017-zelda-cheatle/

Robert Leggat who researched and maintained one of the first useful photographic history resources on the internet died on 20 January 2011. His A History of Photography from its beginnings till the 1920s (http://www.rleggat.com/photohistory/index.html) was designed for school and college students and started in 1995. It is still available today and was being maintained by Leggat until shortly before his death. Put many historical photographic terms or personalities into a search engine and the chances are that Leggat’s website will be somewhere near the top of the results list.

Since its launch the site has had nearly 10 million visitors and the online guestbook from the early years (the guestbook was later discontinued as Leggat was unable to keep up with responding to questions and queries) was full of praise and thanks from students who had made use of it.

Leggat was involved in photographic education throughout his career and took an active role in the Royal Photographic Society as its Honorary Education Officer amongst other positions. A fuller obituary has been prepared but if anyone has any recollections or further knowledge of Robert's career and life please contact Michael Pritchard (email: michael@mpritchard.com)

Yes, this is a self-serving message but possibly of some interest to members of this site. We have long been distracted by various projects, particularly on a book about John Ruskin’s daguerreotypes, but have just added more than 160 new photographs to our web site. We hope there will be images to provoke study and possibly delight even for those among you who are unlikely to purchase. Furthermore, the site has useful information for collectors and researchers of 19^th century photography: links to other web sites; advice to collectors; a bibliography; a suggested system for describing the condition of photographic prints and a glossary of printing processes.

Ken Jacobson

www.jacobsonphoto.com

This recent exhibition held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography presented photographs dating from 1853 to 1900 belonging to institutions with exhibition facilities in Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa, and offered photo historians an opportunity to vew some of the earliest photographs produced in that country.

As the exhibition has just ended, I thought it might be useful to those BPH members with an interest in this area to include some useful background information from the Museum:

In preparation for this exhibition questionnaires were sent to 2,184 institutions, including art galleries, museums, libraries and educational authorities in Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa.  Of these, we received 696 responses and were able to discover 71 institutions that held original or duplicate photographs.These were then researched on site and the best gathered together here for this exhibition.
It is only because they have been carefully preserved  over the years in their hometowns that these early pictures could be brought together to make up this exhibition today, in the twenty-first century. The size and the designs on the back of these photographs possess a fascinating originality, reflecting the fact that they have come down to us through a long history.  We hope that in addition to their visual attraction, you will also enjoy the variety that exists in the photographic media.

Section2：Mastery
Following the ratification of the Japan-U.S.A. Treaty of Peace and Amity, Japan signed treaties establishing diplomatic relations with many other Western nations.  With the opening of the Port of Yokohama on July 1, 1859, foreign commerce was no longer limited to Nagasaki and foreign settlements sprang up in Kobe, Hakodate, etc., areas of land were made accessible to foreigners and a gateway to the rest of the world was officially opened.  Numerous photographers took advantage of this to visit Japan and the early Japanese photographers studied their art from them. 
The first Japanese photographer to establish his own studio was UKAI Gyokusen.  He learned the necessary skills from a British photographer and it has been ascertained that he had opened a studio in the Yagenbori area of Edo by at least August, 1861.  SHIMOOKA Renjo also studied photography under a foreigner in Yokohama, and like UKAI Gyokusen it is thought that he initially catered for Japanese customers, selling his work through a bookshop, but later he shifted his target to foreign tourists visiting Japan.
Unlike Edo or Yokohama, Nagasaki had a long history as the only port open to international trade and was traditionally a commercial city. UENO Hikoma was born in Nagasaki so he had been able to gather a great deal of information on the subject of photography and the instruction he received from foreign photographers after the opening of the port can be said to have been merely the final stage of his education.  With the support of the Tsu domain, he succeeded in acquiring a set of photographic equipment and his experiences are recorded in his ‘Seimikyoku hikkei’ (Chemistry Laboratory Handbook). Later, he opened a studio in Nagasaki and was visited by many people not only from Kyushu, but also all over Shikoku and the Kinki area, who were sent by their domains to study photography, creating a unique network of photographers.  Another photographer from Nagasaki, UCHIDA Kuichi had mastered photographic techniques before being introduced to UENO, but in order to avoid direct competition, he traveled to Kobe and Osaka before setting up a studio in the Asakusa area of Edo.  In addition to official work, producing a portrait of the Emperor and accompanying the Emperor on a tour around the provinces, he also photographed actors and famous places, distributing these and contributing greatly to the spread of photography. 
Photography was mastered by the first generation of photographers in the mid-nineteenth century as both an exercise in the latest pure science and also as a commercial enterprise.  Their success inspired the next generation of photographers and served as the driving force to spread of the art.

Section 3：Diffusion
In Japanese photographic history, it can be said that the bulk of demand during the mid-nineteenth century was for portraits. After the Meiji Restoration (1868) photography became generally accepted throughout society as‘an easy way of creating individual portraits'. In response to public and private demand, the field later expanded to include the production of records of public works projects and replaced the role of woodblock prints in providing visual images of kabuki actors or famous places. 
After the pioneers there came the second-generation photographers, people like INOUE Shunzo, who learned his art during the feudal period and began producing works at the photographic studio belonging to Lord Yamauchi, Daimyo of Tosa Domain in 1869, before going on to become independent. There were also official institutions, such as the Tokyo Printing Bureau (now the National Printing Bureau) that was established in 1878 and contained a studio where large numbers of people had their portraits taken, including many members of the general public.
Unlike the first generation photographers who learned their art through contact with foreigners, the second generation had Japanese teachers and studied from literature written in Japanese. In Nagasaki in addition to students such as SETSU Shinjiro, TAKESHITA Keiji, KIYOKAWA Takeyasu, etc., UENO Hikoma’s sons, Yoichiro and Hidejiro also established themselves as photographers. These photographers in turn, passed their knowledge on to the next generation. In this way, many apprentices appeared, eager to learn photography, and as they also established themselves as photographers, numbers swelled, making the field increasingly competitive. 
From the early to mid Meiji period (late 19th century), Japanese photography expanded its target from the personal to public issues. It was not a period when everybody was able to take their own photographs, but neither was photography used to create artistic expressions.  However, it was during this period that people achieved a general understanding of what photography meant.

Text from the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography 2011.

A new photography fair offering vintage through to contemporary photography and photobooks is to take place on 16 May 2026. The Other Photography Fair will be held at the Hilton London Olympia Hotel which is a five-minute walk from the Photo London's new venue, a five-minute walk from Olympia railway station and a short journey from High Street Kensington tube and Chiswick Auctions Fine Photographs Gallery.

Exhibitor tables are 6 x 2.5ft and will cost £200 each. There is a 10% discount if you book more than one table. Discounted hotel accomodation is also expected to be available. The new fair comes during Photo London which runs from 14-17 May in its new venue at Olympia, and the day before Photographica on 17 May which mainly offers vintage and collectible cameras and takes place at the Royal National Hotel in Bloomsbury. 

Organised by Austin Farahar, the Other Photography Fair is being sponsored and marketed by Chiswick Auctions Fine Photographs Department. Prospective exhibitors are invited to signal their interest in participating by filling out an online form here. If you have any questions about the event, logistical or otherwise, Austin Farahar would be delighted to answer any questions. His direct line is (+44) 07843 348748. 

On April 24-25, 2015, scholars, artists, students, and members of the Waterville community will come together at Colby College to interrogate the relationship between photography and migration. This conference is one of many events taking place at Colby that address the college-wide humanities theme in 2014-2015, “Migrations,” hosted by the Center for the Arts and Humanities. It will include formal presentations and roundtable discussions, film screenings, as well as displays of historical photographs and artworks.

Throughout its history, the photographic medium has played an important role in the movement of people, objects, identities, and ideas across time and space, especially in the human crossing of geographical and cultural borders. Scholars have shown how cameras documented, enabled, or controlled such forced and voluntary movement, while photographers attempted to put a face on immigration around the world, making visible its associations with transition, displacement, hardship, and opportunity. The goal of the conference is to consolidate and expand upon the critical questions asked about photography and migration. What does it mean, for instance, to represent photographically the experiences of immigration, exile, diaspora, and passing? How might we reimagine concepts essential to migration, such as (im)mobility and dissemination, in specifically photographic terms? How do photographs themselves, moreover, migrate across local, regional, national, and global contexts?

Confirmed keynote speakers include: Anthony Lee (Mount Holyoke College), who will discuss the art photography of F. Holland Day in relation to period discourse on immigration; anthropologist Jason De León (University of Michigan) and photographer Michael Wells, who have collaborated on the Undocumented Migration Project on the US-Mexico border; and Thomas Allen Harris, a New York-based writer and documentarian who co-founded the Digital Diaspora Family Reunion project and directed the critically acclaimed film Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (2013).

To stimulate lively and productive exchanges during the conference, we are soliciting proposals for 10-minute presentations from scholars, curators, image-makers, and others that highlight major questions about photography and migration. Following each presentation will be a short response by a discussant from Colby College and 20 minutes of conversation with the audience. We are looking for proposals that address directly the theme of the conference; foreground their own critical and creative interventions; and engage deeply with a set of images, or even a single image.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Photography and Migration

April 24-25, 2015

Colby College, Waterville, ME

Please submit the following materials to Tanya Sheehan, Associate Professor, Department of Art, Colby College, tsheehan@colby.edu by December 15, 2014:

• Cover letter; please include your contact information and explain your interest in the conference theme
• Abstract; no more than 200 words, including a working title for your presentation
• Professional bio; no more than 100 words
• Curriculum vitae

Decisions on proposals will be made by January 15, 2015. Details about the conference will be posted to http://web.colby.edu/photomigration.

This conference is sponsored by the Colby College Center for the Arts and Humanities, Colby College Museum of Art, and Colby Libraries Special Collections. For more information about the college’s annual humanities theme, please go to http://www.colby.edu/centerartshumanities. 

Landscapes of Sri Lanka - Early Photography in Ceylon. From the mid-19th century on, Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka, was an exotic destination that many a world traveller yearned to visit.

Starting in the 1860s, a number of photographic studios established themselves on the island, producing artistically ambitious photographs for an illustrious clientele. Among the most famous photographers from this era were William Louis Henry Skeen, Charles Thomas Scowen, as well as the Hamburg-born photographer Alfred William Amandus Plate, whose studio in the late 19th century expanded into a large-scale commercial enterprise that tried to satisfy the public's hunger for postcard images. The images produced by these photographers played a crucial role in spreading, to the far corners of the British Empire and beyond, the myth of Ceylon as an Arcadia-like tropical island.

Now, to coincide with the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Sri Lanka and Germany, the Museum für Asiatische Kunst is showing an exquisite selection of extremely rare landscape photographs from and of Ceylon. The vintage prints presented in the exhibition not only depict Arcadian landscapes, wildly romantic waterfalls, and exotic beaches but also the encroachment of civilization in the natural landscape, be it through extensive plantations or through settlement, whereby we witness the magnitude of the changes that were wrought to the 'island of dreams' even in the 19th century.

A richly illustrated, bilingual catalogue (English/German) has been released to accompany to the exhibition:
Raffael Dedo Gadebusch (ed.): Landscapes of Sri Lanka - Early Photography in Ceylon / Frühe Fotografie in Ceylon, Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-88609-745-6.

Curator: Raffael Dedo Gadebusch
Assistant curator: Karoline Höppner

The National Museum of Science and Industry - the parent body of the National Media Museum - is to be retained by government 'on grounds of performing a technical function which should remain independent from Government'. Its role was being reconsidered as part of the government review of all quangos. The level of the funding cuts is due to be announced next week.

The Cabinet Office notice is here.

BPH is saddened to report that Michael Schaaf, the photographer and teacher of collodion and other historic process, was found in his camper van in Lacock on 16 July. He had not been in contact with his family for several days and was discovered by a National Trust employee. Schaaf had conducted a five day intensive workshop at Lacock from 6-10 July.

Schaaf, 52, conducted regular process workshops at Lacock and elsewhere for the Fox Talbot Museum, the Royal Photographic Society and others. He was held in high regard for his own photography and for the quality of his teaching. He was a member and contributor to BPH. 

BPH offers its condolences to his wife and family. An inquest is to be held at a later date.

Michael's website remains active at: http://mics-foto.de/

See: http://www.yourvalleynews.co.uk/frontpage-news/tourist-found-hanged-in-beauty-spot/