Blogs

The third symposium in memory of Mark Girouard looks at women’s contributions to architectural history in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Of particular note to BPH are a number of papers looking at the contributions of women photographers to architecture. These include: 

• Ursula Clark: Architectural Photographer and Historian, Dr. David Barber, Independent Scholar
• Photography and the Sack of Bath: The work of Lesley Green-Armytage, Tanya Southcott, University of Brighton
• ‘I paint, write, take photographs and travel’ – Gender and Landscape History in 20th century Britain, Professor Luca Csepely-Knorr, University of Liverpool

Untold Tales: Women Pioneers in British and Irish Architectural History
Friday 13 November and Saturday 14 November 2026
Soicety of Architectural Historians of Great Britain
Courtauld Institute
See: https://www.sahgb.org.uk/whatson/untold-tales

This year's Heritage Open Days runs from 11-20 September across England. There is much of photographic interest from an opportunity to visit the W W Winters studio in Derby and a behind-the-scenes visit to the Pitt Rivers Photograph collection, to talks, exhibitions and walks looking at the past and present through historic photographs. 

The W W Winters tours run over several days and the Pitt Rivers tour is on the 12 September.

See the full range of photography events across the United Kingdom here.

In late 2025, a discovery was made at the Alpine Club, London. Hidden away in the basement archive at 55 Charlotte Road, amidst ice axes, tents and geological samples, was a huge collection of glass negatives from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Taken by some of the most famous names in British mountaineering, these photographs offered a tantalising glimpse into the early days of climbing in the Alps and put flesh on the bones of the men who made it possible.

Working with photographic printing and publishing experts Salto Ulbeek, the Alpine Club has chosen some of the best of these images to be reproduced as large-scale platinum-palladium prints. This printing process has transformed that tantalising glimpse into a true window onto the past. One through which you can almost hear the wind whipping at tweed jackets and feel the freshness of the Alpine air.

The exhibited photographs are by William Abney, Frank Smythe, Sydney Spencer and George Finch, and include depictions of some of the first guides ever to work in the Alps, as well as spectacular views of iconic peaks such as the Dent du Géant and the Matterhorn.

For interested parties, details of how to purchase limited edition platinum-palladium prints of the exhibited photographs will be available at the exhibition. From 1 October, the exhibition will also include folios for each of the featured photographers containing a selection of prints and an accompanying essay.

Historic Tudor house, Coughton Court in Warwickshire, has launched a brand new exhibition  exploring the Throckmorton family’s story through photography over the last three centuries. The Throckmorton Family: Through the Lens brings together a fascinating collection of photographs charting the lives of the family through the generations, from Sir William Throckmorton (1838-1919) and Henry Langford-Brooke (1843-1907) through to the present day. 

The exhibition offers a rare and personal glimpse into the family behind Coughton Court, capturing early formal portraits to more candid images of later generations. The photographs trace the family’s story through the lens providing an intimate record of the many generations who have called the historic estate home.

Magnus Birch Throckmorton, who manages Coughton Court alongside his wife Imogen, said: “Photography gives us a wonderfully personal way of looking back through the generations and it’s fascinating to see how much has changed over the years. We hope visitors enjoy discovering a little more about the people behind Coughton Court and seeing how our family’s story has unfolded through the lens over the years.”

Entry to the exhibition is included with all house and garden tickets.  Coughton Court is open all year round from Wednesday to Sunday, 9am-4.30pm. Tickets are £15.50 for adults (16+), £6.50 for children (under 5s are free), and £14 for concessions (60+) and students. Parking and entry to the Stableyard cafe, shop and play area is free of charge.

For more information about Coughton Court, visit www.coughtoncourt.co.uk.  

The Vernon MacAndrew photographic archive held at Dartmouth Museum has received £36,246 from the National Archives' Archives Revealed fund. The MacAndrew archive was noted on BPH earlier this year. 

In 2025, the museum was donated the Vernon MacAndrew Photographic Archive featuring around 5,000 images from 1900–1940, more than half in early colour. MacAndrew’s photographs record Dartmouth, the River Dart and the emergence of dinghy racing in the harbour, his sailing career and successful international yacht racing, and his shell collecting expeditions to the Red Sea and Philippines. They also present insights into his family and their home in Dartmouth. Archives Revealed funding will enable this nationally significant collection to be catalogued and made searchable by the public.

Jonathan Turner, Vice Chair, Dartmouth Museum, says: “we knew we had been given a beautiful photographic archive, but as we have explored it, its extraordinary breadth has connected us to collections and organisations around the world.  We would love to hear from others in Dartmouth, Devon and beyond who can help us explore MacAndrew’s extraordinary life and photographs.”

Archives Revealed has awarded three new Consortium Grants and a remarkable 17 Cataloguing Grants to archives across the UK, many of which include photographs. This amounts to £1,234,260.97 – the most awarded in a single round for both programmes. There are now funded Consortium projects in Northern Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland.

See: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-revealed/cataloguing-grant/current-and-past-projects/2025-2026/

Marie Kastner, later Mrs Marie MacAndrew, in the garden of the Museum of Fine Arts, Valencia, Spain. Taken by Vernon MacAndrew using Autochrome slide before 1907-1912. Image courtesy Dartmouth Museum. 

Land & Sea brings together an exceptional group of photographers whose work explores our relationship with landscape, coastline and the natural world. Spanning photography’s earliest experiments to contemporary camera-less practices, the exhibition presents historic and modern works that share a fascination with light, material and place.

Photography remains one of the most rewarding fields in which to build a collection. Alongside editioned prints, this exhibition includes unique works created through processes such as the cyanotype, where each piece is an irreproducible object in its own right. Whether editioned or unique, every work has been selected for its artistic significance, craftsmanship and enduring quality.

Space to Breathe and Studies in Photography are committed to championing photography in all its forms and to encouraging new generations of collectors. We hope this catalogue offers not only a guide to the exhibition, but an invitation to discover remarkable artists and to acquire works that will continue to reward close looking for years to come.

Land & Sea. A Celebration of Photography from its Inception to Contemporary Interpretations
until 6 September 2026
Bowhouse, Fife, KY10 2DB
Open Wednesdays to Sundays 10am - 5pm
See: https://www.spacetobreatheexpo.com/

The Paul Mellon Centre (PMC) is pleased to announce a collaboration with the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montréal (CCA), with the 2027 iteration of the institution’s Photography Research Fellowship Programme. The CCA holds significant holdings of ninteenth century British photography

The 2027 programme foregrounds the CCA and the PMC’s shared research commitments to the critical legacies of practices of imperial exposure. Applicants are encouraged to approach the CCA’s photography collection across the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries as a space of experimentation and exploration. This offers the fellow an opportunity to treat the collection as a corpus of materials that articulate forms of exposure generated by imperialism as a photographic and physical enterprise.

The 2027 Photography Research Fellowship Programme offers the fellow the opportunity to engage in a multiday workshop, co-organised by the CCA and the PMC, that will host a small group of international researchers working on topics between imperialism and visual culture. The workshop will take place at the CCA during the fellow’s residency period and incorporate a public research roundtable.

In addition, the 2027 CCA-PMC Fellow will have the opportunity to deliver a public talk on their research at a later stage at the Paul Mellon Centre in London. They will also be encouraged to benefit from the research networks of the PMC, and will be welcome to submit an article or propose a feature resulting from their fellowship to British Art Studies, the open access journal co-published by the PMC and the Yale Center for British Art. More broadly, the fellow will be in dialogue with and have access to support from staff at both the CCA and PMC.

Read more and apply here

As audiovisual formats and digital storage technologies continue to evolve, cultural heritage institutions are increasingly responsible for collections that span both legacy digital media and time-based audiovisual carriers. From floppy disks and CD/DVDs to MiniDiscs and tape-based formats, these materials require different, but overlapping, approaches to ensure their long-term preservation and access.

Designed for digital preservation and data professionals, as well as heritage practitioners responsible for audiovisual and legacy media, this hands-on workshop brings together forensic imaging workflows and audiovisual digitization approaches. Participants will gain a clear understanding of when and how to apply each method within a preservation strategy. Through live demonstrations on a professional forensic workstation alongside audiovisual capture setups, participants will be introduced to a range of tools, workflows, and decision-making processes. 

By the end of the workshop, participants will understand how to:

• Identify digital and time-based storage media, common formats and metadata
• Distinguish forensic imaging from digitization and select the appropriate approach
• Apply forensic imaging techniques to legacy digital carriers (e.g., floppy disks, CDs, USB drives)
• Capture audiovisual content from formats such as MiniDisc and other time-based media
• Conduct safe handling and write blocking to prevent data alteration
• Set up forensic imaging stations in a variety of institutional settings  
• Troubleshoot unreadable or failing media
• Integrate these workflows into institutional practices that support long-term preservation and access 

Learning to Work with Audiovisual and Legacy Media
University of Southampton
£175, discounted places on request
Online, 25 September 2026, 1100-1530 (BST)
See more here and book

Shannon Taggart became aware of Spiritualism as a teenager, when her cousin received a message from a medium that revealed details about her grandfather's death. In 2001, while working as a photographer, she began taking pictures where that message was received - Lily Dale, New York, home to the world's largest Spiritualist community - proceeding to other such communities as England’s Arthur Findlay College. Taggart expected to spend one summer figuring out the tricks of the Spiritualist trade. Instead, Spiritualism’s mysterious processes, earnest practitioners, and neglected photographic history became an inspiration. Her project evolved into an eighteen-year journey that has taken her around the world in search of ‘ectoplasm’—the elusive substance that is said to be both spiritual and material.

In this talk, Taggart introduces her project and the resulting book, Séance, which offers haunting images exploring Spiritualist practices in the US and Europe in conjunction with rare historical photographs. Séance examines Spiritualism’s relationship with human celebrity, its connections to art, science, and technology, and its intrinsic bond with the medium of photography.

Séance: Artist talk
Shannon Taggart
2 September 2026, 1830 (BST)
University of Brighton, Sallis Benney Theatre, Brighton, BN2 0JY
See: https://www.ticketsource.com/centre-for-design-history-university-of-brighton/seance-artist-talk-by-shannon-taggart/2026-09-02/18:30/t-ldxkqqr

The Herschel Museum of Astronomy will launch two new exhibitions exploring the connections between photography, astronomy and scientific discovery: Photology: John Herschel, Henry Talbot and Early Photography and The as-yet unseen by contemporary Irish artist Grace Weir.

Photology: John Herschel, Henry Talbot and Early Photography will explore Sir John Herschel’s pivotal role in the development of photography, and his collaboration with photographic pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot. Visitors to the exhibition gallery will discover how Herschel refined photographic techniques, developed new processes such as cyanotype, and coined many of the terms still used in photography today. The exhibition also examines his lasting influence through the work of pioneering figures including Anna Atkins, Julia Margaret Cameron and Mary Somerville.

The as-yet unseen, a new artistic intervention by Grace Weir, curated by Bridget de León, will unfold through the museum’s historic house. Created in response to the museum’s dual identity as both a family home and a site of major scientific discoveries, the exhibition considers observation as a form of continuous and highly attuned looking, grounded in the rhythms of domestic life. The exhibition brings together new site-responsive works, an embroidered tablecloth inspired by William Herschel’s first mapping of the Milky Way, a drawing scattered with stardust minerals, new paintings of prisms, and cyanotypes capturing shadows within the house. It also features a live counter displaying the current distance to Uranus in the Herschel’s 18th-century workshop, alongside selected existing artworks.

Together, the exhibitions will reveal the close relationship between astronomy and photography, showing how light, observation and experimentation have driven and influenced both scientific discovery and artistic practice. Through historic objects and contemporary artworks, visitors are invited to consider new connections between the Herschel family’s work and the ways we record, interpret and understand the world around us.

A programme of events, including a cyanotype workshop and a stargazing evening, will provide additional engagement for visitors.

Dr Amy Frost, Senior Curator at Bath Preservation Trust, says: “This is the first time in the Museum’s history that contemporary site-specific artworks have been integrated within the historic spaces and collection in this way, so it’s really exciting for us – it feels like a thread being created through time. The two exhibitions offer visitors different perspectives on the Herschel family’s extraordinary legacy; ‘Photology’ highlights John Herschel’s important contribution to the development of photography, while Grace Weir’s exhibition brings contemporary artistic responses into conversation with the house and its history. Together, they explore how observation, curiosity and experimentation have connected astronomy and photography since the nineteenth century. We look forward to inviting audiences to look afresh at the historic house, its collections and the stories it contains.”

Bridget de León, curator of ‘The as-yet unseen’, says, “I have worked with Grace Weir for many years – we put on the first solo exhibition at the Science Museum, London by a contemporary artist and we are thrilled that Weir will again be the first contemporary artist to have her work displayed in the Herschel house. Her show plans to draw out stories relating to the Herschel family and shine a light on the pivotal role that Caroline Herschel, William’s sister, played in the astronomical discoveries made in the back garden of their house in Bath.”

Photology: John Herschel, Henry Talbot and Early Photography and The as-yet unseen
5 September 2026-3 January 2027
Herschel Museum of Astronomy, 19 New King Street, Bath, BA1 2BL
Both exhibitions are included with museum entry, which costs £12.50 for adults and is free for children
See: https://herschelmuseum.org.uk/

New Brighton Creative Futures (NBCF) and the Martin Parr Foundation are developing a major new public artwork honouring one of Britain’s most important photographers - Martin Parr - and his landmark series The Last Resort, made in New Brighton.

NBCF is inviting donations, local business sponsors and supporters to help bring it to life. The Last Resort is one of the most important bodies of photography ever made., and it was made while Parr was living and working in New Brighton. The series did more than document a place and a period - it changed how everyday British seaside life was seen, with wit, honesty and colour, and it changed what documentary photography could be.

For New Brighton, this is not just art history. It is local memory, cultural identity and international significance, all in one place. This project celebrates that legacy and gives it a new, public life on the street - something residents and visitors can stand in front of, share and be proud of. As part of the project NBCF is asking If you - or someone in your family - was captured in New Brighton during Martin Parr's The Last Resort.  Whether you were a child on the beach, a face in the crowd, or you simply have memories of those days on the seafront, your story is part of this town's history — and part of this tribute. Help celebrate Martin's connection to New Brighton by sharing what you remember.

The ambiiton is to create a mural that is not merely decorative and not simply commemorative. It aims to create an artwork that is:

• Visually ambitious
• Rooted in place
• Informed by Martin Parr’s legacy
• Meaningful to local people
• Strong enough to stand within New Brighton’s wider OpenAir Gallery
• Capable of attracting regional, national and international cultural interest

The aim is a permanent cultural marker for New Brighton — a piece of public art that belongs to the town and rewards the people who pass it every day.

Alongside the artwork, it is exploring a wider public programme celebrating Martin Parr and photography in New Brighton. Subject to funding and partner support, this could include:

• A screening of a Martin Parr documentary at a local cinema
• Public talks and discussion events
• Opportunities for residents to share memories and stories of New Brighton
• A public launch and celebration

Over the past eight years, New Brighton’s Victoria Quarter has gradually evolved into one of the most concentrated clusters of large-scale murals in the United Kingdom - a walkable, open-air gallery where art, public space and independent businesses sit side by side.

This tribute to Martin Parr will join that growing collection, adding one of the most significant chapters yet to the town’s creative story.

There are two easy ways to support the mural: donate through our GoFundMe campaign, where you'll see the running total grow and can quickly share it with friends and family, or you can give directly here through a secure Stripe payment form, as either a one-off gift or a monthly donation that helps us plan ahead. However you choose to give, every contribution goes straight into bringing this tribute to life.

Every contribution helps bring this tribute to New Brighton. Donations go directly towards creating the artwork and the public programme around it — and every penny stays in the town’s creative future.

Read more and donate here: https://www.hellonewbrighton.com/martin-parr

Irène Gernsheim, née Guénin, the second wife Helmut Gernsheim, the photographer and photographic historian, died aged 92 years on 22 April 2026. Irène and Helmut were married in 1971. After Helmut Gernsheim's death in 1995, she contributed to preserving his legacy and regularly spoke about his work in the history of photography. 

In 2002 Irène, passed Gernsheim's collection of twentieth century photography, including his own photographs, to the Reiss-Engelhorn Museum in Mannheim, Germany. The REM held an exhibition, curated by Claude Sui, based on this material from September 2012-February 2013. For the first time since the Gernsheims sold their collection to the University of Texas in 1963 Niepce's View from the Window at Le Gras (c.1826-27) returned to Europe and was shown in the exhibition. 

Helmut's first wife, Alison, née Eames, whom he married in 1946 died in 1969 and was a significant and equal collaborator on both his, and their joint publications, notably The History of Photography (OUP, 1955 and 1969).

Bristol's Negative Thinking is holding a two-day workshop which will give you the skills and insight you need to produce albumen prints from your own collodion glass negatives. The weekend will start by learning how to make wet plate collodion negatives; working in the studio and darkroom to produce negatives of sufficient contrast and density to be subsequently printed on to albumen paper.

You’ll make a number of different negatives in sizes from 4×5 up to 8×10 inches, using a variety of cameras and lenses, and you’ll be instructed on how to prepare the chemistry and process the negatives correctly. You will then prepare the salted albumen mixture, in readiness for the paper coating process. By the end of dayone , you’ll have a number of finished glass negatives ready for printing!

Day two will begin with preparing albumen paper, first by coating sheets with the salted albumen, and then sensitising with silver nitrate. You’ll learn the proper techniques for doing each step, as well as which papers to use for the process. After drying, the prepared paper will be exposed and processed, and you’ll leave the workshop with a selection of beautiful handmade prints along with your glass negatives.

This workshop is suitable for all skill levels, and all materials are provided.Please note: albumen is produced from egg white, so please take this into consideration if you have allergies to eggs, as you will be handling raw produce.

The Wet Plate Negative with Albumen Printing workshop
Negative Thinking
Studio F1, Willway Yard, Bedminster, Bristol, BS3 4BG
Led by Tim Pearse, over two days, 15 hours
Cost £250 including materials
See: https://www.negative-thinking.co.uk/wet-plate-neg

Oxfam's Henley-on-Thames shop is offering a collection of books from the library of Bert Hardy and his wife, Sheila. Many of them are inscribed to them both. The books have been donated to Oxfam by Michael Hardy, Bert's son from his first marriage. The inscriptions include such luminaries asHelmut Gernsheim, Tim Gidal, George Rodger, and Fay Godwin amongst others. Oxfam is asking £4995 for the collection, but would probably negotiate. 

The books are: 

A collection of photography books inscribed by their authors and presented to documentary and Picture Post photographer Bert Hardy (1913-1995) and his second wife Sheila, herself a Picture Post employee. The collection was brought to us by Michael Hardy, one of Bert's sons from his first marriage, himself famously a subject of some of his father's photographs. A few of the books were inscribed to Sheila after Bert's passing.

The Blitz - The Photography of George Rodger [hardcover in dust jacket]
"For Bert & Sheila. A book full of memories. With my love George Jan 1995" [Bert Hardy died on 3rd July 1995]

George Rodger - Magnum Opus [paperback, accompanying text in German]
"For Sheila and Bert (the other parallel line) George", with additional signature above dated 1987

George Rodger (Gordon Fraser Photographic Monographs no. 4) [paperback]
"To Bert With Best Wishes George, Apr 1995" [Bert Hardy died on 3rd July 1995]

Tim N Gidal - Modern Photojournalism - Origin and Evolution 1910-1913 [paperback]
"To Bert Hardy, one of the great photo reporters with good wishes Tim Gidal, Jerusalem 1990"

Fay Godwin - Our Forbidden Land [hardcover in dust jacket, first edition]
"For Bert with very best wishes Fay 27.9.90", with additional signature on the title page

Fay Godwin - Land [paperback]
For Bert with greatest admiration and all best wishes Fay 2.5.87"

Photographs - Jane Corkin Gallery 1989 [paperback]
For Bert and Sheila Hardy, for vision and with admiration, Jane. 10 June 1992. Toronto"

Manpower - Photographs by Sally Soames [paperback]
"For Sheila and Bert Hardy with love from Sally xx April '89"

David Steen - Lucky Boy [hardcover]
"My dear Sheila, Happy memories of early days at Picture Post. I owe so much to Bert, he gave me the passion for photography - he changed my life. I wish you good health and happiness love David x", with date January 2015

Robert Waterhouse - The Other Fleet Street - How Manchester Made Newspapers National [paperback]
"Sheila Hardy with many thanks for your help (see pages 184-185) Bob Waterhouse Oct 2004" [the pages referenced contain a feature on Bert Hardy]

Brian Moynahan - The British Century - A Photographic History of the Last Hundred Years [hardcover in dust jacket]
"The picture on page 209 is one of my personal favourites. All best wishes - what a contribution Bert has made - Brian Moynahan"

Venetia Murray - Echoes of the East End [hardcover in dust jacket, first edition]
"To Bert and Sheila with love and thanks for all your help - Venetia"

Helmut Gernsheim - A Concise History of Photography [paperback]
"Bert Hardy with thanks for his fine contributions to this book Helmut Gernsheim Lugano, Easter 1987"

Fi McGhee - Photographers and their Images [hardcover in dust jacket]
"Bert - Thank you so much for all your help and encouragement. With love, Fi"

Godfrey Smith - The English Season, with Photographs by Homer Sykes [ hardcover in dust jacket]
"Bert and Shelia. Many thanks and best wishes Homer", with date 14/2/90 above

Assignments 3 - The British Press Photographers' Association Yearbook edited by Tom Hopkinson [paperback]
"Bert and Sheila from Tom and Dorothy Jan 1990"

Additional to this are the following two books, both part of the same collection donated by Michael Hardy:

The Picture Post Album - A 50th Anniversary Collection [hardcover in dust jacket]
Signed by Bert Hardy to the front of the jacket, which features one of his best known photographs

Country and Cockney Camera [two paperback volumes, in slipcase]
Each book is inscribed "Bertie, with love, Sheila Christmas 1975"

And four further books which contain one or more handwritten page numbers. The numbers refer to pages with photographs by Bert Hardy or references to his name in the text. Again these books were part of the same collection donated by Michael Hardy:

Times Gone By - A Photographic Record of Great Britain 1856-1956 [paperback]
Jorge Lewinski - The Camera at War - War Photography from 1848 to the present day [hardcover in dust jacket]
Otto Steinert - Subjektive fotographie 2 [hardcover in dust jacket, text in German, contains a receipt for the purchase of the book in Bert Hardy's name]
US Camera 1954 [hardcover in dust jacket]

See the online listing here: 

This summer, the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA) will shine a light on the power of landscape photography by exploring the ways in which the camera has shaped how the natural world is seen and understood. On view until 24 January 2027, Sightlines: British Landscape Photography, 1840 to Now spans nearly two centuries and presents more than one hundred photographic works, ranging from the pioneering botanical studies of early innovators William Henry Fox Talbot and Bessie Rayner Parkes to the charged images of industrial landscapes by Bruce Davidson and Rachel Whiteread.

Sightlines will run alongside John Constable: The Landscape Reimagined, which opens on 3 September expanding the exploration of the British landscape to two of the YCBA’s four floors.

“Britain has one of the great traditions of landscape art, and photography both inherited and transformed the ways the land was seen and understood,” said Martina Droth, Paul Mellon Director, YCBA. “When we look at landscape photographs across time, from the early studies made directly from nature to later works that confront industrialization and its social consequences, we see the land continually remade. With the YCBA’s deep holdings in British landscape—and with our forthcoming John Constable exhibition—Sightlines offers a distinctive vantage point on this history, showing how photographs capture and reveal the ways the land is experienced and inhabited, and how profoundly it has been shaped by human action.”

Since the earliest days of photography in the mid-nineteenth century, the camera has been an essential tool for observing and depicting the environment. Landscape photography, in particular, embodies ideas about beauty, nature, history, science, and society. Some images romanticize the land. Others expose the social and environmental impacts of modern life. In every case, landscape photography does more than document the world around us. It actively constructs it and shapes how we understand it, reinforcing or challenging dominant ways of thinking, knowing, and feeling.

Taken together, the works in Sightlines invite visitors to consider photography’s complex cultural role: as a tool to build knowledge about the landscape; as an artistic medium to inspire, awe, and communicate; and, increasingly, as a vehicle to critically examine social and environmental conditions. “Landscape photography influences how we see, value, and inhabit our environments,” said Sightlines curator Jackson Davidow, Project Manager, YCBA. “It opens the door to an ongoing conversation between the artist, the viewer, and the natural world. In that way, this is a truly special exhibition, and we’re thrilled to show so many remarkable and important works in our space.”

Among its abundance of stunning images, the exhibition features majestic views of natural beauty, scenes of social life and industrial transformation, and surreal digital photomontages. It encompasses not only photographs but also works in other media related to the photographic image, including prints, drawings, and books, capturing the evolving nature of photography itself. A true testament to the pictures and the artists who captured them, Sightlines reveals British landscape photography as a dynamic and continually evolving field of inquiry that invites us to contemplate anew what a landscape is and can be.

Sightlines: British Landscape Photography, 1840 to Now
until 24 January 2027
Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, CT
See: https://britishart.yale.edu/exhibitions-programs/sightlines-british-landscape-photography-1840-now

Images: (Top): Henry Stuart Wortley, Clouds, 1863, albumen print from a wet collodion negative, 6 7/8 × 9 inches (17.5 × 22.9 cm). Yale Center for British Art, gift of Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro in honor of Scott Wilcox; (Below, left): Bessie Rayner Parkes, photogenic drawing negatives, 1859, from an album of photogenic drawing negatives and prints, album 7 7/8 x 6 3/4 inches (20 x 17 cm). Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund; (Below, right): Hugh Owen, Harvest Scene with Stooks, before 1855, albumen print, 6 3/4 × 8 3/4 inches (17.2 × 22.3 cm). Yale Center for British Art, gift of Hans P. Kraus.

The work being under taken at Liverpool Museums on the Stewart Bale Ltd photography archive continues. A second newsletter has just been issued which discisses the process of cataloguing. Three volunteers talk about an image with has resonated with them. 

Stewart Bale Ltd was a family run photographic practice specializing in commercial, architectural and industrial photography. It was based in Liverpool from c1911 until the early 1980s, with an additional studio in London from 1949 to 1970.

To find out more about the archive and to sign up for this news see: https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/archives-centre/about-archive-centre/stewart-bale-collection

Image: Stewart Bale Ltd. Photograph of exterior, Swansea Civic Centre, 1934. The Archives Centre, National Museums Liverpool, Stewart Bale Collection, SB/P/11401-1.

Following on from two previous tours the art historian Aneela de Soysa has arranged a further 14-day tour of Sri Lanka with a focus on Julia Margaret Cameron's final years in the country. Julia Margaret Cameron  was one of the most influential photographers of her nineteenth century and spent the last four years of her life in Ceylon. In 1875, aged 60, she and her husband Charles, then 80, left for British Ceylon to join four of their sons. By then she had made more than 1,000 photographs during a twelve-year career in England. Fewer than 30 of her Ceylon photographs survive.

The journey explores the social, cultural and economic context in which these final photographs were made, while introducing nineteenth-century colonial photography in Sri Lanka. Cameron's Ceylon images include plantation workers, villagers in Kalutara and portraits of the botanical artist Marianne North. The visit will also explore ancient sites which connect directly to the Cameron family: Hardinge Cameron was involved in restoration work at Anuradhapura, while Charles Hay Cameron made an early colonial drawing of the Sacred Bodhi Tree in 1830 after travelling through dense jungle to reach it.

Full details of the itinerary and cost can be found in the attached brochure which can be downloaded from the website, below. 

Sri Lanka: Julia Margaret Cameron. Photography, Empire and the Island
31 January-13 February 2027
led by Aneela de Soysa
https://www.aneeladesoysa.com/

CEWE, which is supporting the National Trust as it discovers its photography holdings across its historic properties and sites has released a short film about how photographs are bringing Calke Abbey's history to life. The film features Mort Marsh, Calke's Collections and House officer, and Dr Jayne Knight, Assistant National Curator of Photography. 

Check out the film below or at the link here: https://youtu.be/j_TBXyCBHA8?si=EPG_CgQ3DG-D6X4V

BPH has just learnt of the passing of Sidney Ray last year and it is important we remember such significant figures from British photography. Sidney Ray, who died last year aged 85 years, was a lecturer at the Polytechnic of Central London (PCL) for many years and a respected authority on photographic optics and technology.

Born in Aberdeen, he was educated at Owen’s School, Northern Polytechnic and City University, where he gained a degree in Chemistry and a Masters in physiological optics. His career began in 1960 at Johnsons of Hendon as a photographic chemist, before he joined PCL, now the University of Westminster, in 1966. He taught on Britain’s first honours degree for photographic technology. As senior lecturer he focused on optical systems and visual perception with responsibility for applied photography on the BSc course in Photographic and Electronic Imaging Sciences.

His book High Speed Photography and Photonics was commended in the 1998 Kraszna-Krausz book awards and its follow-up Scientific Photography and Applied Imaging won the main prize in 2000. These, his Photographic Optics and others, went through multiple editions becoming standard works on their subjects. With fellow PCL luminaries Ralph Jacobson and Geoffrey Attridge he co-authored the updated [Ilford] Manual of Photography. Many of his publications appeared under the Focal Press imprint. He wrote regularly for the British Journal of Photography.

Sidney gained his Associateship of the IIP in 1967 and then its Fellowship along with two Fellowships of the Royal Photographic Society and one from the Master Photographers Association.

Sidney had a personal interest in the history of photographic optics. In 1989 he presented a paper on this area at the RPS Historical Group’s 1989 conference for photography’s sesquicentennial commemoration which is when I first met him and he was later supportive with my PhD. His work in the field of photographic optics and wider technology was recognised by the RPS in 2001 with an Honorary Fellowship.

Sidney Ray was married and had two children. 

Sidney Frank Ray (5 October 1939-18 March 2025)

A story that has been live for a while is the proposed sell off of the archive of the now-closed Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) in Glasgow. The story of the CCA and its closure, and relationship with Creative Scotland, the Scottish government and Glasgow City Council, is outside the scope of BPH. Check out the museum press and The Herald websites for more on this.The recent threat to 103 Trongate, Glasgow, which houses Street Level Photoworks and other arts organisations is a further sign of the pressure arts organisations are under in Scotland. 

The sale of the CCA archive which includes photography is of interest, both from the photography perspective and the wider issues it raises around the value and sale of archives especially where they have been formed by bodies in receipt of public funds.  

Steven Wright, a business recovery partner at the accountancy firm Dains, was appointed as the provisional liquidator and as such has a duty to recover as much of the value of CCA's assets to pay creditors and staff who having outstanding pay and redundancy payments. Part of the assets of the CCA is the archive which consists of the CCA's predecessor body, the The Third Eye Centre (1973-1991) and the CCA itself (1992-present). Dains instructed Middleton Barton Valuation (MB Valuations) to assess the value of the archive and offer it for sale by private treaty. MB's summary of the archive is reproduced below for the record. No value has been given for the archive which in commercial terms is likely to be negligable - much of the material could not be exploited as copyright will subsist with the artists represented or their estates - but its cultural and historical value to Glasgow and beyond is significant.

With the deadline for expressions of interests or offers this week there is an urgency to resolving the archive's status and where it might go. Ideally, it will be passed, not sold, to a public body in Scotland. 

See:

Dains - https://www.dains.com/insights/steven-wright-appointed-as-provisional-liquidator-of-the-centre-for-contemporary-arts-2026-02-10

CCA - https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2026/07/outcry-over-plan-to-sell-building-that-housed-glasgows-centre-for-contemporary-arts/

CCA archive - https://mbvaluation.com/asset_for_sale/sale-by-private-treaty-the-third-eye-centre-centre-for-contemporary-art-archive/

Image: Public domain

Trongate 103 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78l2ljw6d8o

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The Third Eye Centre & Centre For Contemporary Art – Archive

Third Eye Centre

The archive covers the period from January 1973 to December 1991

Scope and Content:

The archives contains administrative paperwork, committee papers and legal documents, publicity materials such as exhibition posters and flyers, publications such as exhibition catalogues, documentation such as VHS, audio recordings and images in multiple formats.

The contents include:

• Paper records
• Film records
• Photograph records
• Publications
• Brochures, Flyers and Posters

Administrative / Biographical History:

In 1974 the Scottish writer and playwright, Tom McGrath, founded The Third Eye Centre in Glasgow. Described by the Guardian as ‘a shrine to the avant garde’, the centre hosted visiting artists and performers such as Allen Ginsberg, Whoopi Goldberg, John Byrne, Edwin Morgan and Kathy Acker, as well as quickly becoming the focus for Glasgow’s counter culture. When it consolidated its activities in the 1980s it presented some of the key exhibitions by the new Glasgow painters such as Steven Campbell, Ken Currie and Peter Howson and was the home of the National Review of Live Art.

With the demise of The Third Eye Centre at the turn of the 1990s, the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) established in its place, opening in 1992. In 1996, the organisation was awarded a lottery grant to redevelop and expand the building complex and in 2001 the newly refurbished CCA opened to the public. Now housing a spectrum of cultural tenants as well as a café/restaurant, bar and cinema. In 2006, the organisation itself underwent a profound cultural shift, deciding to pursue a more open curatorial policy – an ‘open source’ approach – which encouraged artists and organisations to propose their own programs to sit alongside those curated by CCA. Today, that policy has produced a livelier and more varied program that offers a new kind of accessibility to audiences, drawing on the spirit of The Third Eye Centre and the early history of the CCA.*

Centre for Contemporary Arts

The archive covers the period from January 1992 to Current.

Scope and Content:

The archive comprises of fourteen collections arranged into format; slides, VHS, photographs, publications, ephemera, audio, posters, film, VHS, news cuttings and paper records which are subdivided into CCA (1992-present) and Third Eye Centre(1973-1991).

The contents include:

• Paper records
• Film records
• Photograph records
• Publications
• Brochures, Flyers, Posters, and Ephemera
• Administrative / Biographical History

The venue has had four directors in its history: Jo Beddoe, Penny Rae, Graham MacKenzie and Francis McKee. The 1990s saw a programme bristling with energy and excitement. A challenging live art programme welcomed Ron Athey and Goat Island, as well as a series of adventurous and often provocative exhibitions such as Bad Girls and Slip of the Tongue, Janine Antoni’s first solo show. In 1994, CCA presented New Art in Scotland, by Douglas Gordon, Jane Lee and Nicola White. Key emerging artists presented in this show included Nathan Coley, Jacqueline Donachie, Louise Hopkins, Carol Rhodes, Richard Wright and David Shrigley. Ross Sinclair’s Real Life Rocky Mountain and The Persistence of Painting – helped to confirm the breadth of the nineties art scene in Glasgow.

In 2006, CCA underwent a profound cultural shift, deciding to pursue a more open curatorial policy. This open source approach encourages artists and organisations to present their own programmes in CCA. Today, that policy produces a livelier and more varied programme that offers a new kind of accessibility to audiences, drawing on the spirit of The Third Eye Centre and the early history of CCA.

General

Since news of the CCA’s liquidation, there has been clear interest from researchers, academics, and the Scottish archive sector in ensuring the archive is safeguarded and preserved for the long-term. It is identified as a culturally and historically valuable archive to Scotland’s art scene, and documents a significant chapter in contemporary art and culture through the records which relate to past exhibitions, events, workshops, festivals and performances.

In summary, this is a nationally important collection detailing a unique chapter in Glasgow’s contemporary art scene over the last fifty years. It is visually rich, and comprises a variety of both physical and digital records.

Further Information & Viewing:

Please contact Tom McWillliam by email thomas@middletonbarton.com, or contact the Glasgow office on +44 (0)141 478 0732.

Offers:

Expressions of interest and/or offers invited by 14 August 2026.

https://mbvaluation.com/asset_for_sale/sale-by-private-treaty-the-third-eye-centre-centre-for-contemporary-art-archive/