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Sean Sexton and his photographs of Ireland

Posted by Michael Pritchard on December 24, 2023 at 20:26

Sean Sexton is the subject of an interview by Orla Fitzpatrick on RTE's website and a television documentary. The interview focuses on Sean's collection of photographs of Ireland, arguably the most important of such material anywhere in the world. The collection of over 20,000 images spans the history of photography covering post-famine Ireland right through to the turbulent revolutionary years. The collection will be the subject of a forthcoming RTE documentary.

As Orla notes: 'Sexton's collection includes all formats, genres and processes, from early salt-paper negatives and once-off daguerreotypes through to snapshots and spy cameras. Portraits, landscapes and even nudes are in the collection.' He began forming the collection from 1973, later funded, in part, by his purchase in Bermondsey market of a trove of photographs by Charles Jones.

The collection has been featured in two books and is still awaiting a permanent home in Ireland where it rightly belongs.

Framing Irish History - The Sean Sexton Collection will be screened on RTÉ 1 on December 28th at 6.30pm and on RTÉ Player

Read the article here: https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2023/1217/1422502-sean-sexton-photos-collection-ireland-history/

EXCLUSIVE: Rejlander album of 70 prints to be offered at auction

Posted by Michael Pritchard on August 23, 2014 at 9:30

Morphets of Harrogate is offering at an album of seventy albumen prints by Oscar Gustav Rejlander from the former estate of Surgeon Commander Herbert Ackland Browning RN on 11 September. The album is estimated at a modest £7000-10,000 and the complete album is to be re-created as a page turner pdf book on the Morphets website shortly, see: www.morphets.co.uk.

Details of the album are below:

REJLANDER (OSCAR), AN ALBUM OF SEVENTY ALBUMEN PRINTS, CIRCA 1865-66

A rare and interesting folio of seventy portrait and figurative photographs by this pioneer, the albumen prints mounted on gilt-edged card leaves in a single volume with gilt and tooled black morocco bindings, the sitters including Rejlander himself, Mary Rejlander (nee Bull), Sir Henry Taylor, Hallam Tennyson (son of Lord Alfred Tennyson), John and Minnie Constable, the youngest of Lord Hawarden's children, possibly including Elphinstone 'Eppy' Maud and other unidentified subjects, album 30cm x 25cm, prints varying in size from 12cm oval up to 21cm x 15cm, some with titles or annotations in pencil.

Provenance: This album was part of the estate of Surgeon Commander Herbert Ackland Browning RN and thence by descent to the vendor. Commander Browning served throughout the First World War, never married and died at the family home in Dawlish in 1955. Herbert's father, Captain George Browning RN, was a naval hydrographer and married Elizabeth (nee) Kendal, daughter of Dr Marsters Kendal of Kings Lynne, honorary surgeon to the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, at Sandringham. It is possible that the album belonged to him and was thus lent to the Prince of Wales and others as annotations indicate.

Footnote: Oscar Gustav Rejlander (1813-1875), known as the Father of Art Photography, was born in Sweden and studied art in Rome, settling in England in the 1840s. He lived in Lincoln and later Wolverhampton, working as an artist and portrait miniaturist. He took an active interest in photography, seeing its potential for assisting artists and in 1853 attended lessons in the London studio of Nicholas Henneman. This inspired him to develop his own techniques experimenting with portraiture although it is his pioneering work in photo-montage, combining several negatives to form one image, that brought him to wider renown. His best known work The Two Ways of Life comprised thirty-two negatives and took six weeks to produce. Following its exhibition in Manchester in 1857 a copy was ordered by Queen Victoria for Prince Albert. Rejlander became a member of the Royal Photographic Society, regularly lecturing and publishing on the subject and in 1862 he moved to London where he built a photographic studio designed to make the best use of natural light for his subjects. During his work he came into contact with Julia Margaret Cameron, Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll), Lady Clementina (Maud) Hawarden and Charles Darwin. In the early 1870s he worked with Darwin on illustrations for his treatise on The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.

Although Rejlander sold volumes of his photography through book shops and art dealers it is unknown if the album in this lot was obtained thus by Captain Browning. One pencil annotation suggests it may have been bought directly from the photographer as it reads 'Rejlander had refused to sell this copy (the only one obtained from the negative taken) at any price: but the offer of £2.2.0 for the Swedish poor was too much for his nerves and I obtained it DEO GRATIAS'.

A further annotation inside the front cover reads 'This album has the honour of being submitted in 1866 to HRH The Prince of Wales by Colonel Teesdale (3 weeks), in 1870 at the request of Cardinal Antorelli to HH Pope Pius IXth by Monsignor Pacca (1 week), into 1871 to Her Majesty by Lady Elgin (several weeks)'.

Some of the prints herein are well known examples also held in the collections of the Royal Photographic Society, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

For more information contact: Fran Hazlewood on 01423 530030 or email enquiries@morphets.co.uk.

Images: courtesy Morphets of Harrogate

Obituary: Chris Killip (1946-2020)

Posted by Michael Pritchard on October 14, 2020 at 6:30

BPH heard late yesterday afternoon that the British documentary photographer Chris Killip had died at his home in the United States. Killip was born in the Isle of Man, and started his career by assisting Adrian Flowers in London. From 1969 he began concentrating on his own photography. In 1977 he became a founder, exhibition curator, and advisor at the Side Gallery Newcastle, and worked as its first director. His work was championed and purchased by the V&A Museum, London.

He documented many aspects of 1980s Britain and is best known for In Flagrante (1988). His work has been widely exhibited and collected and his body of work The Station is currently on view at the Martin Parr Foundation.

From 1991-2017 he was Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University, in Massachusetts.

Killip received the Henri Cartier-Bresson Award for In Flagrante.

and:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/oct/16/chris-killip-recognition-for-a-great-photographer

Images © Michael Pritchard. Above: Killip at the launch symposium for the Martin Parr Foundation in 2017. Read more here. Left: The Station at Martin Parr Foundation, on view until 20 December 2020.

Qatar's International Media Museum - 'plans scrapped'

Posted by Michael Pritchard on June 4, 2014 at 20:30

Doha News reports that plans for the proposed Qatar-based International Media Museum in Doha have been scrapped amidst staff and budget reductions. Several senior staff working on the Media collections have recently left. The newspaper reports that: 'QMA employees have also alleged that teams working on plans for three proposed museums – the Pearl, Media and Children’s museums – have been significantly reduced, and plans for individual museums scrapped.

'However, a QMA spokesperson told Doha News today that while the organization had considered establishing permanent homes for the Pearl and Media collections, these plans were never formalized. The collections remain, however, and their respective teams are still working on them, she said, adding that there had been “no change” to plans for the Children’s Museum.' Reference to the photography and related collections have been removed from the QMA, now Qatar Museums, website which has recently been updated.

The Qatar state has acquired significant holdings of photography, originally through the collecting of Sheikh Saud Al-Thani, and subsequently taken over by the state. Al Thani collected photography, cameras and printed materials - from the late 1990s. The QMA collections include significant holdings of daguerreotypes and the S F Spira Collection amongst many others. According to the QMA: 'The IMM possesses one of the most outstanding and valuable photographic collections in the region and one that ranks with major collections through the world. The photographs are of exceptional quality and span from the 19th century to present. The collection includes photographs from early daguerreotypes through albums and photography - illustrated books to contemporary colour photographs and photographic advertising poster. Also IMM possesses a collection of films and photographic and film technology as well as a significant rare book collection.' Recently buying of photography by the QMA had largely stopped.

Details of the QMA Photography collections can be found here: http://www.qma.org.qa/online/index.php/en/collections/photography

Plans for a photography museum, later re-named International Media Museum, were first drawn up by 2002 and were well advanced with designs (shown above, left) prepared by the renowned architect Santiago Calatrava. Construction never started.

In February 2013 World Architecture News revealed plans (image below, right) from Fernando Romero Enterprise’s (FR-EE) latest building concept: PH Museum in the Middle East. The location of the building was widely believed to be Doha. WAN noted: 'The main bulk of the 3,800sq m museum takes the form of a large canopy, shading visitors from harsh sunlight beneath a circular overhang. Romero has taken his cue from ‘the mechanics of a camera’, falling in line with the functionality of the space as a museum of photography and photographic equipment.

FR-EE explains: “Inspired by the mechanics of a camera, the organization of the museum reflects the complexity of a camera lens. The interior is organized radially from the center of the building and a spiraling ramp connects these spaces to emphasize spatial continuity.'

The proposed opening had been postponed several times since, most recently with a date of 2017 being suggested. This now appears to be unlikely as QM reviews its cultural strategy, assesses its budgets, appoints a new CEO after the departure of Edward Dolman, and adopts a policy of Qatarisation for employees. Sadly, the photography museum appears to have become a casualty of those changes.

See: http://dohanews.co/qatar-museums-authority-announces-re-branding-amid-job-loss-uncertainty/ and

http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/main/search/search?q=Qatar

Early photography in Ceylon / Sri Lanka

Posted by Peter van de Kamp on November 24, 2013 at 13:30

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

Olive Edis collection of autochromes at auction

Posted by Michael Pritchard on February 24, 2009 at 21:30

A remarkable collection of autochromes, photographs and diascopes by Mary Olive Edis Balsworth (1876-1955), whose self-portrait is shown right, is being offered at auction on 5 March 2009. All of the items have been at Edis's studio and house in Sheringham since her death under the ownership of Cyril Nunn and, until now, rarely seen. The autochomes include a number of rare Canadian scenes. Nunn died last year and recently Olive's collection of Sheringham and Norfolk photographs and autochromes was acquired by Cromer Museum where they are due to be put on public display later this year. Many of these images were reproduced in Face to Face – Sheringham, Norfolk: The Remarkable Story of Photographers Olive Edis & Cyril Nunn, by Alan Childs, Cyril Nunn and Ashley Sampson (Halsgrove, 2005). A few of the Canadian images are reproduced in black and white and some were reproduced in colour in the e-newsletter for The Photographic Historical Society of Canada (March 2006). The same auction features material from the estate of Robert 'Bob' Lassam, the former curator of the Fox Talbot Museum at Lacock. The material from Lassam's estate includes photographs from the Kodak exhibitions he helped arrange as well as cameras. The catalogue is available on line at http://www.dominic-winter.co.uk/. The sale takes place at 5 March at 11am. Edis was born in 1876, her father was Dr. Arthur Wellesley Edis, professor of gynaecology at UCH and her mother was Mary Edis (neé Murray, the sister of John Murray.) They lived at 22 Wimpole Street, London, where Arthur had a medical practice. Olive had twin sisters, four years younger than her, Katherine and Emmeline. Olive's great uncle was Dr. John Murray (1809-1898), a surgeon with the Bengal Medical Service. He photographed Mughal architecture in India, making some 600 images, often 18 x 14 inches (salted paper prints from paper & collodion negs.), many of which are now in the BL collection. He retired to Sheringham in 1871. His descendents sold their collection at Sotheby's in 1999. Olive photographed John Murray's daughter Caroline (said to have been her first photograph) in 1900. In 1893, when Olive was 17, her father died and in 1905, Olive & Katherine, as partners, opened a studio at 39 Church Street, Sheringham. Olive used only natural light when making photographs. Her printing, first done by her sister Katherine and later by Lilian Page, included platinotype, sepia platinotype or autochrome. In 1910, Olive's photographs were regularly appearing in the Illustrated London News and in 1912 she started making autochrome images. She became an RPS member in 1913 and in that year won a medal for her autochrome portraits in the RPS exhibition. In 1914 she was elected FRPS and designed an autochrome viewer, known as a diascope, which she patented (GB17132).

Although her income came from her work as a studio portraitist in March 1919 she was commissioned by the National (later Imperial) War Museum to photograph the work of British women in France & Flanders and, at the same time, made deeply moving images of the desolation of war. In 1920 she was asked to undertake a commission to make advertising photographs for the Canadian Pacific Railway and did the work during July to November. The plates were exhibited at the 1921 Toronto Fair, and at the Canadian Pacific Offices in London in 1922, but apart from a few 'seconds' offered here there is no trace of the main body of work. These are probably the earliest known colour images of Western Canada. In 1928, when she was 52, Olive married Edwin Galsworthy a solicitor and director of Barclays bank. This family connection opened doors into society and she photographed many people of national importance. Olive and Edwin had a residence in 32 Ladbroke Square, London and in Sheringham they moved to a new house in South Street. Olive extended her business to include the printing and sale of real photographic postcards. In 1951 Olive exhibited photographs of fisherman at Sheringham. She died in 1955.

Emeritus Professor Roger Taylor to be honoured

Posted by Michael Pritchard on November 26, 2013 at 20:00

Achievers will be among those honoured at the University of Derby's annual Awards Ceremonies taking place on 15-17 January 2014. The University will honour people who've risen to the heights of their profession and will join more than 4,000 students graduating in degree, postgraduate and other higher education courses. Amongst those to be recognised is Emeritus Professor Roger Taylor, the UK's most respected photographic historian.

Roger Taylor becomes an Honorary Doctor of Fine Art - Author of numerous books, exhibitions, and web databases, Roger is known internationally as a historian of mid-19th century British photography. For almost 60 years photography has been the centre of his working life; as a practitioner, teacher, curator and academic. His career began as apprentice to a leading Manchester commercial and industrial photographer, changing direction after a full-time course (1965-7) at Derby College of Art (later to become part of the University of Derby). After 18 years' teaching at Sheffield Polytechnic, Roger was appointed the National Museum of Photography's Senior Curator of Photography. From 1995 he entered his career's most productive phase, as an independent curator creating exhibitions for leading American museums.

See: http://www.derby.ac.uk/news/lights-camera-and-action-experts-to-be-university-honoraries

Brian May’s Brief History of 3D

Posted by Michael Pritchard on June 29, 2011 at 18:58

In a new 3D documentary commissioned for Sky 3D, Brian May’s Brief History of 3D takes the viewer on a fascinating journey from the gentle 3D of the Victorian era to the extreme out-of-the-screen 3D of the 1980s. The documentary will be screened on Sky 3D on 7 July 2011.

3D has endured a long bumpy journey. From William Friese Greene simply walking along a Hyde Park pathway in an 1893 3D short to Johnny Depp’s swashbuckling antics in Pirates of the Caribbean IV in 2011, 3D has come and gone several times. Some pundits are arguing that the current 3D era is already coming to an end, pointing to slowing 3D ticket sales; others are saying that there is no going back now and that, for the first time, technology and economics finally make 3D a viable form of mainstream entertainment.

Over the last 100 years, the 3D industry has been scattered with various attempts to lure audiences back into the movie theatres. It is this story that Brian May, ex-guitarist of rock band Queen, explores in the Sky 3D’s latest documentary commission, Brian May’s Brief History of 3D, scheduled for broadcast July 7th.

Not only is Brian May a qualified astro physicist, he is also a passionate advocate of stereoscopic 3D, particularly Victorian 3D of which he has accumulated a substantial collection of Victorian 3D memorabilia over the past forty years. Brian May’s lifelong 3D interest has materialised into a book, A Village Lost and Found, published in 2009. The book includes a proprietary 3D viewer known as the OWL, which brings the book’s 2D images into 3D life and was actually designed by Brian May himself.

Produced by Bigger Pictures in conjunction with Widescreen Productions ,who also produced Britain from the Sky 3D series, (which is currently being broadcast every Thursday on Sky 3D) Brian May’s 3D documentary is a genuinely fascinating look into stereo 3D right from the very early days of Victorian stereoscopic filming to the digital 3D of today. Clips include the insane film “Coming At Ya!” a 1980’s western film that, as you can probably guess from the title, used 3D as its main selling point with nearly every sequence featuring action jumping out of the screen. This is so rarely seen in today’s 3D movies and television shows. Yes, it is gimmicky, but still really fun now and again.

For more click here: http://www.3dfocus.co.uk/3dtv/brian-mays-brief-history-of-3d-review-sky-3d/4196

Raymond Moore

Posted by Mark Haworth-Booth on September 13, 2010 at 8:12

The late Raymond Moore (1920-87) created a special kind of landscape photograph. Much admired in his time, Moore's work has been hard to find in exhibitions in recent years. Tate Britain recently opened a display of British landscape photographs. Three Raymond Moores are included, of which two are recent gifts to Tate. The display is located in the last room on the right in the Clore on the ground floor.

A.H. Downes 'Models from Warri' transparencies

Posted by Marta Weiss on October 5, 2020 at 11:00

The V&A holds a set of stunning 20x16-inch transparencies by Arthur H. Downes of models wearing African fashions. The transparencies seem to have been made in Manchester in the 1960s and one them is labelled 'Model from Warri No. 5'. Warri is a city in Nigeria and also the name of a Nigerian modelling agency.

They are part of the Royal Photographic Society Collection and Downes was president of the RPS 1986-1988. He specialised in colour and began self-processing colour transparencies in the 1950s, including large-scale display transparencies such as these.

My colleagues and I are eager to uncover anything we can about these photographs: Why were they made? Were they ever displayed or published? Who were the models? Where did the fashions come from? Any information will be gratefully received!

Paul Nadar: 19th Century Photo Reportage

Posted by Michael Wong on September 23, 2010 at 11:00

Paul Nadar (1856-1939) was the son of the celebrated nineteenth-century French photographer Felix

Gaspard Tournachon, aka Nadar. Between the two of them, they achieved a number of 'firsts' in the history of photography including aerial photography, artificial lighting, patented a projection system for animating still pictures and what is believed to be the world's first photo-interview (their subject was a 101-year old chemist and color theorist, Michel-Eugène Chevreul). Paul Nadar was even a Kodak’s representative in France in 1893.

In 1890, he undertook a long trip which brought him to a WorldExhibition in Tashkent, the theme of this exhibition - From Turkey to Turkistan, 1890. Paul Nadar's "photo reportage" is one of the first in the history of photography.

He leftParis for Istanbul on a train and crossed the Black Sea. Having reached Batumi, he crosses the Caucasus through Tbilisi and Baku and arrives in Turkistan - present-day Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. He travels the region in two months and takes around 1,200 photos of crowds of people in the bazaars and markets of Asia, the great sandy spaces of deserts, mosques, mausoleums and all the majestic vestiges of the exotic Eastern influences.

Details of this exhibition can be found here, but must warn you that it is held all the way in Uzbekistan!

PhD Studentship: The Photo Book in Ireland

Posted by Michael Pritchard on February 27, 2012 at 12:41

Applications are invited for a three year full time PhD, working within the Irish Photobook research project in the School of Art and Design. The project focus is the representation of Ireland through photographic publishing. The project team; Paul Seawright, Donovan Wylie and Martin Parr will supervise the research. The Irish PhotoBook project develops Parr and Badger's internationally acclaimed work on the history of the Photobook, using their methodology to evaluate the development of Irish Photography. Seawright and Wylie are key figures in Irish photography and have long standing research interests in both the representation of Ireland and the photographic book. Plans are in place for a major exhibition and publication in partnership with the Photo Ireland Photography Festival and the Gallery of Photography, Dublin and the creation of a special book collection at Ulster. The successful candidate will play a key role in the project and we welcome research proposals that develop a body of research within this framework.

Project Title /Subtitle

The Photo Book in Ireland

Supervisor 1 Professor Paul Seawright

School of Art and Design, Faculty of Art Design and the Built Environment.

Research Institute Art and Design.

Supervisor 2 Donovan Wylie

School of Art and Design, Faculty of Art Design and the Built Environment.

Research Institute Art and Design.

Adviser

Professor Martin Parr

PRIORITY RESEARCH DEGREE TOPICS

The Research Institute Art and Design and the Faculty of Art and Design and the Built Environment Research Graduate School advertises priority topics on which applications for research degrees are particularly invited. Applications may be for full time or part time study.

The recruitment process often co-coincides with recruitment to research degree studentships managed by the University. These are normally full time.
Applications are also welcomed from students who are self funding or who are applying for other external studentships, grants, bursaries and awards.

While priority topics are advertised, applications on topics proposed by the applicant are also considered where there is supervisory capacity and relevant resources. Applicants are advised to discuss this with the head of the Faculty of Art Design and Built Environment Research Graduate School.

Undertaking a research degree is significant commitment. Applicants may contact the potential supervisor of the priority topic for clarification during the development of their application. There is no requirement to do so and applicants who do not do so are not penalised.

APPLICATION

Applications are normally submitted online.

https://srssb.ulster.ac.uk/PROD/bwskalog.P_DispChoices <https://srssb.ulster.ac.uk/PROD/bwskalog.P_DispChoices>

Information for prospective research degree students, including application forms, can also be found on the university Web pages
http://research.ulster.ac.uk/info/status/prospective.html <http://research.ulster.ac.uk/info/status/prospective.html>

Professor Neil Hewitt heads the Research Graduate School (RGS) of the Faculty of Art Design and Built Environment.
http://www.adbe.ulster.ac.uk/schools/graduate_school/ <http://www.adbe.ulster.ac.uk/schools/graduate_school/>;

The Research Institute Art and Design (RIAD) Director is Professor Karen Fleming. There are 3 research centres within RIAD - the Centre for Applied Art Research, the Design and Architecture Research Centre and the Centre for Fine art Research. Research students are members of RIAD.
http://www.riad.ulster.ac.uk/index.php <http://www.riad.ulster.ac.uk/index.php>

Obituary: Bill Jay (1940-2009)

Posted by Michael Pritchard on May 14, 2009 at 11:00

An influential figure in the study of photographic history during the late 1960s and 1970s Bill Jay died on 10 May 2009. Jay originally worked in Britain before moving to the United States in the mid-1970s. He was a regular writer on photographic history and was responsible for bringing to a wider audience a number of important early photographers including Sir Benjamin Stone, Frances Frith and Paul Martin. Born in Maidenhead in 1940 Jay received a grammar school education and spent two years at the Berkshire College of Art. He joined a consumer photographic magazine and worked for a number of others before becoming the first Editor/Director of Creative Camera and Album magazines. The latter achieved an international reputation as one of the best photographic magazines then available. During this time, he earned a living as a picture editor of a large circulation news/feature magazine and as the European manager of an international picture agency. Jay was the first Director of Photography at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and gave over 400 lectures to art schools, camera clubs, universities and wrote hundreds of articles for his own and other photographic journals as part of a one-man crusade to, in his own words, 'instill some life into the British photographic community'. In his own view his crusade met with a limited response and in 1972 he left Britain to study photography at the University of New Mexico with Beaumont Newhall and Van Deren Coke. He was awarded a MA in 1974 and a MFA in 1976 - his dissertation topic was on the nineteenth century British photographic Francis Bedford. In 1974 he founded the program of photographic studies at Arizona State University, where he taught history and criticism classes for twenty-five years becoming Professor of Art History. For four years he was a Board member of the Society for Photographic Education. Bill Jay published over 400 articles and was the author of more than twenty books on the history and criticsm of photography and he also contributed essays to monographs by well-known photographers, such as Jerry Uelsmann, Bill Brandt, Michael Kenna, and Bruce Barnbaum. His own photographs were widely published and exhibited, including a one-person show at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. His previous monograph, Photographers Photographed, included a selection of the thousands of portraits he has taken of prominent individuals if the medium of photography, a database of which is located at the Center of Creative Photography, which also houses his research archives. After retiring from Arizona State University in the late-1990s Jay moved from Mesa, Arizona to Mission Beach near San Diego and very recently to his adopted hometown of Samara on the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. His legacy is his extensive writings and his archive which is housed at the Center for Creative Photography and consists of 177 linear feet of 'papers, writings, research files, teaching materials, audiovisual and photographic materials, books, periodicals, and computerized database of photographer and educator Bill Jay.' Some of the information for this obituary appeared on Bill Jays own website. Additional recent biographical information can be found here. Some of his publications include: Views on Nudes. Focal Press Ltd., London, 1972. A history of the nude as a subject for photographers, from 1840-1970. Second edition: 1980. Customs and Faces: Sir Benjamin Stone 1818-1914. Academy, Editions, London; St. Martin's Press, New York, 1972. Victorian Cameraman: Francis Frith's Views of Rural England 1850-1898. David and Charles, Devon, England, 1973. Victorian Candid Camera: Paul Martin 1864-1944. David and Charles, Devon, England, 1973. Essays and Photographs: Robert Demachy 1859-1936. Academy Editions, London: St. Martin's Press, New York, 1974. Models, Messages, Manipulations. Unique, handmade book of words and pictures. Acquired by Art Museum, University of New Mexico for permanent collection, 1976. Negative/ Positive: A Philosophy of Photography. Klendall/Hunt Publishing Company, Second edition: 1982. Reprinted 1989 for Montana State University. Light Verse on Victorian Photography. Limner Press, Arizona, 1981. Anthology of poetry from the 19th century press. Limited Edition: 500 copies, numbered and signed. Route 60 (with James Hajicek). Limited edition, hand-printed, leather bound livre-de-luxe, containing tipped-in original photographs. Friends of Photography at ASU, 1981, through private donation. Series of essays in British Journal of Photography, later collated into Cyanide and Spirits. 1980s. Photographers Photographed. A selection of my personal portraits in monograph form. Peregrine Smith, Utah, 1983. Bernard Shaw: On Photography (with Margaret Moore). The first comprehensive collection of critical essays and images by Shaw. Peregrine Smith, Utah, 1989. Occam's Razor: an Outside-In View of Contemporary Photography. Anthology of essays on 20th century issues. Nazraeli Press, Munich, Germany, 1992. The Photographers: Volume 1. Portfolio of photographic portraits and written profiles. Images printed in collotype by James Hajicek. Limited edition, numbered and signed. Nazraeli Press, Munich, Germany, 1992. U.S. Photo Guide (with Aimee Linhoff). Resource index to over 2,000 institutions, workshops, museums, galleries, periodicals, individuals etc. in academic/fine-art photography. Nazraeli Press, Munich, Germany,1993. Some Rollicking Bull: Light Verse, and worse, on Victorian photography. Anthology of ballads, sonnets, odes and songs as well as humorous, strange and odd items from the pages of 19 century photographic periodicals. Nazraeli Press, Munich, Germany,1994. On Being a Photographer: A Practical Guide [with David Hurn - Magnum Photos]. LensWork Publishing, 1997. And subsequent editions. On Looking at Photographs: A Practical Guide [with David Hurn - Magnum Photos]. LensWork Publishing, 2000. Cyanide and Spirits: an Inside-Out View of Early Photography. Anthology of essays on 19th century issues. Nazraeli Press, Munich, Germany, 1991. 61 Pimlico: the Secret Journal of Henry Hayler. Nazraeli Press, Munich, Germany, 1998. Movie option rights acquired by Coppos Films, Los Angeles. Sun in the Blood of the Cat. An anthology of essays on 19th and 20th century photography. Nazraeli Press, 2001. Bill Brandt -One Picture Book No. 9. Limited edition, Nazraeli Press, 2002. Men Like Me. Portraits of homeless men in a small California seaside town. Nazraeli Press, 2005. Snapshots. Photographs of amateur photographers with their cameras at picture places in Britain, Europe, USA and other sites. Bill Jay's Album, Volume1. A collection of portraits of photographers, with extended commentaries, reminiscences...

Proposed changes at the National Trust may adversely impact Britain's photographic heritage - UPDATED

Posted by Michael Pritchard on August 22, 2020 at 10:30

Britain's photographic heritage is likely to be adversely impacted if proposals in a leaked National Trust discussion document come to pass. Written by the Trust's visitor experience director Tony Berry, it sets out a ten-year vision that will directly impact historic properties, curatorial and conservation posts and put collections in to storage. The Times newspaper (21 August 2020, p.5) reported on the paper and art historian Bendor Grosvenor, who also had sight of the document, flagged it on his Twitter account @arthistorynews

National Trust Director-General Hilary McGrady responded to the claims (https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/blogs/directors-blog/our-vision-for-places-and-experiences) as partial, but as Grosvenor noted she failed to deny a number of the claims, including that the Trust will 'dial down' its status as a 'major national cultural institution', make specialist curatorial staff redundant and take objects off display.

The Trust has been significantly impacted by COVID-19 not least a loss of £200 million in income caused by the closure of many of its 550 houses, parks and gardens and has already announced significant redundancies affecting some 13 per cent of its workforce, putting 1,200 employees at risk. The Trust has £1.3 billion in financial reserves, although much of these are designated and cannot be used for general purposes.

So, what does this mean for photography? The short answer at the moment is that it is unclear. The Trust has significant collections of historic and important photography - at least 50,000 images, although more is yet to be documented, across its historic properties. This includes material that is significant in its own right, along with photographs collected and made by individuals associated with its many properties.

The following are areas that the wider photographic community should be aware of, and be prepared to support, should the need arise:

The Trust appointed its first National Photography Curator in July 2019, providing oversight of photography across the Trust's properties. As a specialist curator this new role, which was a two-year appointment, appears to be under threat.
Roger Watson, curator of the Fox Talbot Museum is a specialist curator and, again, this role may also be under threat.
The Trust employs specialist photographic conservators. Photographic materials are fragile and susceptible to environmental deterioration, more so than many other objects, and it is important that light sensitive materials continue to properly assessed, conserved and stored. The National Photography Curator's role was - and remains - key in surveying the Trust's collections and identifying important material and that which needs urgent conservation. It also has a key part in opening up the Hardman House collections (see below).
The possible closure of Trust properties (see below) and the move of photographs and photographic equipment into storage will limit access to material that is of national importance, beyond the Trust's own interests.
Although photography is in many of the Trust's properties two are particularly important:
- The Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock, was opened in 1975 to show and interpret objects relating to William Henry Fox Talbot, his life and the development of photography, and to exhibit photography. In recent years the museum has broadened its remit to contextualise Talbot within a broader history of photography and the acquisition of the Fenton Collection in 2016 has allowed it to show a history from the 1830s to the 1990s.
- Adjacent is the Grade 1 listed Lacock Abbey, Talbot's home, where many of his experiments were undertaken and the location of many of his early photographs. It is the birthplace of negative-positive photography. The house and the surrounding village of Lacock were given to the National Trust in 1944.
- E. Chambré Hardman House, Liverpool. Opened by Burrelll and Hardman in 1923 the company remained in business until c1965/6. The building and negatives were acquired by a charitable trust and later transferred to the National Trust.
- in addition, many of the National Trust's other properties contain significant smaller groups of photographs.

UPDATES >>

This piece by Grosvenor is worth reading and does not bode well for Lacock Abbey https://www.arthistorynews.com/articles/5685_Inside_the_National_Trusts_Beeching_Plan In the absence of anything from the National Trust one fears the worst.

Note: none of the individuals mentioned above have spoken to BPH in connection with this blog piece.

Death of Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed Al-Thani, aged 48 (UPDATED)

Posted by Michael Pritchard on November 10, 2014 at 21:00

The death has been reported of Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed Al-Thani, aged 48, in London. Although not a name that will now be familiar to many photography collectors, for a period in the late 1990s/2000s Sheikh Saud was the largest buyer of photography - photographs and cameras - in the world, securing a number of important photography collections for himself and for the state of Qatar at auction and from dealers across the UK, Europe and North America.

The blurring of lines between the two and allegations of false accounting ultimately brought and end to his spending and formal role but he later resumed his position as a personal buyer. He had a connoisseur’s eye across wide range of art forms, of which photography was just a part and other interests that included wildlife conservation.

See: http://news.artnet.com/in-brief/worlds-biggest-art-collector-sheikh-saud-bin-mohammed-al-thani-dies-at-age-48-161867

Much of Sheikh Saud's photography collection eventually became part of the the Qatar Museum Authority's proposed photography museum, later renamed International Media Museum, plans for which were scrapped earlier this year - see: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/qatar-s-international-media-museum-plans-scrapped

UPDATE: Personal note: I was a Christie's photography specialist when Sheikh Saud emerged on to the scene as a collector of photography.On one memorable occasion he purchased an entire camera sale, bar one lot, much to the chagrin of those present in the auction room who delighted in bidding against him, knowing that he would not stop until he had secured the lot. On another occasion he invited me to a meeting at his Portman Square apartment ostensibly to offer me job in Qatar as a curator of his collection. The whole experience was surreal. Dealers were lining up to offer him all sorts of works of art which he would look at, and then dismiss or indicate an interest with a wave of a hand. We shared a short conversation before I was passed to an aide. The promised job failed to materialise.

In retrospect, Sheikh Saud could have used some experienced advice on the auction process and how to manage dealers, but I sense, that as money was essentially no object, he knew what was happening and that was part of the game for him. And there was no question that he had a very good eye for traditional works of art, for high-end photography, and to recognise when a photography collection was of sufficient importance to be added to his portfolio.

The Qatar Museums Authority collections are testament to his abilities and it is disappointing that the photography collection that he largely built up is, for now, consigned to a secure, climate controlled warehouse in the desert, with plans for a photography museum now scrapped (see link above) as other priorities for the QMA have arisen. MP

Read more about Sheikh Saud here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saud_bin_Muhammed_Al_Thani

Auction: Talbot photographs sell for $1.6 million (UPDATED)

Posted by Michael Pritchard on April 21, 2021 at 19:30

William Henry Fox Talbot’s gift of his photography and photo-illustrated books to his sister Horatia Gaisford has sold at Sotheby's New York for $1.6 million ($1.96m with charges). The lot was described here and has been estimated at $300,000-500,000. Efforts by British institutions to secure this important group of early photography with such wonderful provenance came to nought. Sotheby's have yet not released any information about the buyer.

UPDATE: Antiques and the Arts Online has reported than Hans P Kraus was the buyer of the lot.

Obituary: Philip L Condax (1934-2014)

Posted by Michael Pritchard on May 3, 2014 at 21:30

BPH has learnt that Philip L Condax, former Curator of Technology at George Eastman House, died on Monday, 21 April 2014. Phil Condax was born on 24 May 1934, the son of Louis M Condax (1897-1961) and Constance W. Condax. Louis invented a dye-transfer colour process which was commercialised by Eastman Kodak Co in 1945.

Phil joined the then International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House under Director Beaumont Newhall in 1971, where he curated the Technology Collections starting as 'Assistant Curator, Equipment Archive'. When the Philadelphia-based American Museum of Photography became available after the death of its founder, Louis Walton Sipley, Phil was involved with the then Director and other staff members in securing it for GEH where it filled important gaps.

Two highlights from his career include the 1980-1981 exhibition Selections from the Spira Collection: An Exhibition at George Eastman House - the first time GEH had held such an exhibition from outside of its own collections; and the 1984 joint IMP/GEH and JCII exhibition The Evolution of the Japanese Camera which showed in Rochester, NY, and Tokyo. He was also in post when the new Mees Gallery - it has since been replaced - was opened in 1992. He attended Photokina regularly where he was able to source material for the GEH collections.

When Czechoslovakia was firmly behind the Iron Curtain, Phil managed to visit regularly. There were suggestions that during his military service and afterwards he was working for the CIA. He came to know Jan Sudek and bought many important prints for the museum and for his own personal collection.

Condax, along with other senior curators, was made redundant in 1994, in his case over a dispute with the Director, a fact over which he continued to remain bitter. After GEH Phil undertook some museum and photo-history consultancy work, in particular he developed and curated the photographic collection of the Museum of Imagery Technology operated by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. He co-authored The Photographic Flash: A Concise Illustrated History with Pierre Bron (of Bron Elektronik AG) in 1998.

Jonathan Spira commented: 'I am deeply saddened by the death of Phil Condax, a close family friend. Not only did he help popularize photography's history but he helped lead the George Eastman House during a very tumultuous period.'

I met Condax several times at his Rochester home and despite a difficult relationship with a demanding father he was a great enthusiast for the work that his father had undertaken on colour. He maintained an extensive archive of his father's work. An example showing Louis Condax with an example of the dye transfer process, from Phil's personal archive is shown left.

He had an affection for Britain and he travelled extensively, particularly to South East Asia.

Dr Michael Pritchard

Revisions made 6/5/2014.

EXCLUSIVE: Tate Britain appoints Kate Bush to a new curatorial role

Posted by Michael Pritchard on September 19, 2017 at 14:30

Kate Bush has been appointed by Tate Britain to the new post of Adjunct Curator of Photography, starting in October 2017. Kate is a curator and critic specialising in contemporary art and photography. She was most recently Head of Photography at the Science Museum Group – including the Science Museum in London and National Media Museum in Bradford which she joined in 2014 – and was previously Head of Art Galleries at the Barbican Centre in London.

She will work with Ann Gallagher (Tate’s Director of Collections for British Art), Alex Farquharson (Director of Tate Britain) and Simon Baker (Tate’s Senior Curator of Photography and International Art) alongside Tate Britain’s wider curatorial team, researching and building the collection of British photography and curating exhibitions and displays at Tate Britain.

Image: Science Museum Group / Jennie Hills, 2014

The voyage of the 'Oriental' and the daguerreotype in Portugal, Spain and Brazil, 1839-1840

Posted by Nuno Borges de Araújo on October 17, 2014 at 21:00

Ramires, Alexandre (2014) The Voyage of the Daguerreotype. On the Daguerreotypes and Physionotypes of the Oriental Hydrographe, Coimbra: author's edition. This text provides documental support for the first daguerreotype experience in Portugal, in October 1939, and the probable daguerreotype practice in islands of Madeira and Canarias latter in the same month. It also provides further documental evidence of the daguerreotype practice in Brasil.

For copies of the book we will provide the author's contact.

Research: Information on the photographer Adolf Morath (born 1905)

Posted by Laura Hindelang on August 31, 2017 at 9:30

I am looking for information on the German born industrial photographer Adolf (sometimes Adolph) Morath who worked extensively for British Petroleum and the Kuwaiti Oil Company in the mid-20th century, photographing oil workers, their daily life and the company facilities in Kuwait and other places. Despite his huge portfolio, there seems to be hardly any information on Morath. I would be very thankful for any information, material or recommendation where to look.

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Note: this page contains paid content.