The V&A will unveil a new display of works from its permanent collection of photographs in the Photography Gallery on 30 April. The re-hang will show 60 works including 20 new acquisitions of contemporary photography by artists such as Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane.
A section of the new display will look at the first ever exhibiton of photographs held in a museum, which took place in 1858 at the then South Kensington Museum (now known as the V&A). On show will be the earliest known photograph of a photography exhibition next to three works that can be seen in the 1858 picture. There will also be a selection of photographs that were either included in the 1858 exhibtion or are variations of works that were. The works will be hung in a tightly packed arrangement to evoke the style of a 19th century installation.
The rest of the gallery will tell the story of modern and contemporary photography from 1900 to today and will include works by well-known photographers such as Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, Cecil Beaton, Robert Frank and Diane Arbus. These will appear alongside new acquisitions by internationally recognised artists such as Thomas Ruff, Wang Qingsong, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane and young British photographers like Sarah Pickering.
The V&A began acquiring photographs in 1852 and is now the home of the national collection of the art of photography. The collection is one of the largest and most important in the world and is international in scope, ranging from the beginnings of photography to the present day. The current Photography Gallery opened in 2003 and is re-hung annually.
To celebrate the re-hang, the V&A is dedicating a Friday Late event to photography. Taking place on 29 May 2009, Friday Late: Flash! will include talks by photographers such as Jem Southam and Sarah Pickering and behind-the-scenes tours of the V&A’s photography collection. Portrait studios for visitors to have their picture taken have been specially commissioned for the event.
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The Projection Box has announced details of it's 2009-2010 Essay Awards which carry a first prize of £250 and publication of the winning essay in the journal Early Popular Visual Culture. The award, now in its third year, aims to encourage new research and thinking into any historical, artistic or technical aspect of popular optical media, including: photography, early cinema, panoramas and dioramas, the magic lantern, shadow theatre and optical toys, and to promote engaging, accessible, and imaginative work. Essays of 5000-8000 words should not have been previously published and may be co-authored. They should be submitted in English.
The deadline for entries of 30 January 2010 and full details and application form can be found here: www.pbawards.co.uk.
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The Magic Lantern Society has launched The Illustrated Bamforth Slide Catalogue a searchable DVD and accompanying booklet which records and illustrates the lantern slide sets of the Bamforth company. James Bamforth and Company was the leading producer of Life Model lantern slide set between 1890 and the early 1900s and the DVD describes 1400 slides listing around 20,000 individual slides of which 4003 are illustrated. The DVD includes reproductions of Bamforth catalogues and slide readings and the booklet gives a wider contextual history of the company and its output.
James Bamforth estanlished his Holmforth photographic studio in 1870 producing portraits and began the production of magic lantern slides in the early 1880s by the late 1890s production had grown to an industrial scale. The firm also co-operated with the Bradford-based Riley Brothers company and after 1902 published an extensive series of postcards. An office was established in New York. The firm also produced cinematograph films. After 1915 the company concentrated on postcard production and in 1918 the film business mnoved to London. The firm ceased to operated in 1993.
The DVD has been produced in an edition of 350 and may be obtained from the Magic Lantern Society via its website or through the honorary secretary: Mike Smith, The Magic Lantern Society, South Park, Galphay Road, Kirkby Malzeard, Ripon, North Yorkshire, HG4 3RX. It costs £25.
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The Rothshild Autochromes celebrate the earliest form of colour photography and a new exhibition at Exbury give - some for the first time - a glimpse into the bygone Edwardian era. Lionel de Rothschild was an early exponent of the art of the autochrome, his attention and eye to detail clearly evident in his photographs. Lionel was later to purchase the Exbury Estate in 1919, channelling his energies away from photography and into the development of his lasting legacy - the establishment of the world-famous rhododendron gardens.
The exhibition helps celebrate the 90th anniversary of Lionel purchasing the Exbury Estate, and is staged in conjunction with The Rothschild Archives. An article by Victor Gray of the Rothschild Archive is available here.
The exhibition is on from 1 May-27 September. Admission is included within the entry price to the Gardens. More details are available here.
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The National Media Museum in Bradford is advertising for a Collections Access Assistant to work on the Zoltan Glass Collection at a salary of £13,343pa. The job description reads:
Award winning, visionary and truly unique, The National Media Museum embraces photography, film, television, radio and new media, including the web. Part of the NMSI family of museums, it aims to engage, inspire and educate through comprehensive collections, innovative education programmes and a powerful yet sensitive approach to contemporary issues.
Insight is the Collections and Research Centre of the National Media Museum.
Joining the Collections team, you will research, identify and repatriate archived material to facilitate and encourage public access. Specifically, your work will focus on the Zoltan Glass project.
Glass was a Hungarian photographer who specialised in documenting the pre-war German car industry and also undertook glamour and advertising photography. The Museum holds over 12,000 of his images of his, part of which are currently being catalogued, digitised and sequenced.
Desired Qualifications:
Demonstrable experience in collections care/management and access gained within a museum/heritage environment is essential. Keen to learn, you will be able to understand and engage with the Zoltan Glass project, as well as embracing the broader access and outreach philosophy of the Museum. An up-to-date knowledge of cataloguing and documentation best practice is also important - ideally supported by a natural, ongoing interest in photography and other media.
HOW TO APPLY:
For Job Description, call 01274 203386. The deadline for applications is 23 April 2009.
Please email your CV and covering letter, explaining clearly how you meet all of our stated requirements, to recruitment@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk .
Please quote ref CA/RS09
Alternatively, you can send your CV and covering letter to:
Rosie Smith
HR Advisor, ref. CA/RS09
Human Resources Department
National Media Museum
Bradford
BD1 1NQ
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The Beijing World Art Museum is hosting an exhibition of photographs of China taken by John Thomson from the archives of the Wellcome Institute in London... reports the Daily Telegraph newspaper. It will be shown in Liverpool early in 2010. Taken between 1870 and 1871 by the Scottish photographer John Thomson, the images reveal with often startling intimacy a cast of characters from orphans and street gamblers, to beautiful peasant girls and their high-born ladies.
Hailed as a pioneer of photojournalism, Thomson spent two years travelling more than 5,000 miles in pursuit of the images that historians say are unique in their empathy towards their subjects As well as shooting traditional, stiff-backed portraits of Manchu noblemen, Thomson plied the streets in search of scenes that would bring the exotic world of China to life for a curious public back in England.
"These pictures are fascinating because they reveal a world that most artists of that period ignored," said Betty Yao, who has organised the exhibition that opens in Beijing next week. "Most material from this late Qing era is stuffy, formal and posed, but Thomson's work is full of life."
What is doubly remarkable, added Mrs Yao, was that Thomson captured such intimate moments while using cumbersome equipment and glass-plate negatives that needed to be coated with emulsion before exposure.
"He was the original photojournalist, and he used incredible persistence and hard work to get precisely the pictures he wanted. He never gave up," she said.
Among the images that testify to that persistence is a rare picture of a woman's bare, bound foot. Thomson later admitted, in perhaps an early example of "chequebook journalism", that he had paid the woman "handsomely" to expose her withered foot.
In other pictures, Thomson captured the sorry inmates of a "foundling" hospital where orphaned children were offered for free to "respectable people", and a public street slide-show where the public could see images from exotic and faraway places often to gasps of amazement.
When he returned to London, Thomson used his pictures to illustrate talks and lectures of his own, which earned him the moniker "China" Thomson.
An early herald of globalisation, Thomson recognised that the days of China's isolation from the world were passing, observing that "through the agency of steam and telegraphy, [China] is being brought day by day into closer relationship with ourselves".
Shortly before he died in 1921, Thomson offered to sell his glass negatives to Henry Wellcome, the pharmacist-philanthropist and keen collector, and it is from the archives of the Wellcome Library in London that the images have been taken, many to be exhibited in public for the first time.
The full report can be found here.Read more…
Francis Hodgson, Sotheby's head of photographs in London has left the company. A company spokesperson was unable to explain the reasons for his departure but did confirm that the the auction scheduled for 19 May would go ahead with Jocelyn Phillips managing the sale. Hodgson's last sale, held in autumn 2008, had disappointing results, reflecting the global financial clash. Sotheby's also announced this week that they were further reducing lots below $5000 to continue focusing on the top end of the market.
Hodgson joined Sotheby's after a long involvement in photography. He worked as the manager of the print room at the Photographers’ Gallery in London and later founded and directed Zwemmer Fine Photographs, a gallery specialised in photography, and has worked with several other galleries.
Hodgson was also director of photography at Photonica, a major stock image library, where he was responsible for opening up the stock photography market to more artistic photography than had been considered possible. He was also at one time director of content at Eyestorm, the online art dealership. He has acted as representative and agent to photographers, and has been a writer and broadcaster on photography for many years.
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The National Media Museum is advertising for a web developer at a salary of £23,759.
Award winning, visionary and truly unique, the National Media Museum embraces photography, film, television, radio and the web. Part of the NMSI family of museums, with a world-leading online presence, we aim to engage, inspire and educate through comprehensive collections, innovative education programmes and a powerful yet sensitive approach to contemporary issues.
You’ll help us enhance our online presence by maintaining and developing the website. Working with designers, content specialists and stakeholders at all levels of the organisation, you will use your creativity, cultural vision and strong technical abilities to help us deliver a truly compelling user experience.
With a good track record of developing websites in a Microsoft environment, you will be at ease with object-oriented languages, content management systems, databases and XML technologies. You should also know how web technologies relate to design, content and information architecture. If you can combine this technical expertise with good communication, teamwork and organisational skills, you’ll have exactly what it takes to help us improve our online offering.
Contract Type: Fixed Term 2 years, full time (35 hours)
Closing Date: 23rd April 2009
To apply, please write with full CV and covering letter to: The HR Department, National Media Museum, Bradford BD1 1NQ or email: recruitment@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk
http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/job/845644/web-developer/?grse=grse_1&email=jobsbyemail&lijbeid=9866879Read more…
I am writing a short article on the darker side of photography in Oz during the 19C - very short as we were well behaved in the Colonies! Would anyone have a photo of a Stanhope I may use, with due acknowledgment?Many thanksJohn DaviesMaybe you could contact me off list atjdavies5@smartchat.net.au
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"My Photo" is much more interesting than my own mug. It's William West Kirkby, the first Anglican missionary to reach the Yukon Territory (in 1859). He was from Lincolnshire and studied at Oxford. In 1861 Kirkby and two Canadian Indian guides canoed down the Mackenzie River, north toward the Arctic Ocean, then up the Peel River to Fort McPherson, and finally west via the Porcupine River to the Hudson's Bay Company post at Fort Yukon. In 1861 Fort Yukon was in Russian America. In 1867 Alaska (Russian America) was sold to the United States and later Fort Yukon was determined to be in Alaska and the Hudson's Bay Company was asked to leave. This CDV of Kirkby in his arctic outfit is one of my prized cartes. To have a CDV of a man who was on the Yukon River in 1861 in Russian America is quite exciting. I collect early photography that pertains to Alaska, especially cartes de visite and stereoviews. Here is a link to the back of the Kirkby carte:http://homepage.mac.com/alaskana/AHBWP/WilliamWestKirkbyCDVback.jpgDick Wood, Juneau, Alaska.
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Colin Harding, curator of photographic technology at the National Media Museum, has a book due out in June 2009 which compiles a series of 75 articles originally written for the British Black and White Photography magazine. The cameras, which are sourced from the National Media Museum in Bradford, are arranged in chronological order, with a chapter for each era and a double-page spread devoted to each camera. Each spread has a large photograph of the camera in question, smaller ilustrations of variants, a potted history giving an insight into the camera's development and a succinct biography and photograph of the inventor where appropriate.
The book is: 192 pages and hardbound. It is available for £25 and is published by Photographers' Institute Press. A review will appear here after publication.
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Frances Lincoln publishers have announced a new book called A Village Lost and Found by Brian May and Elena Vidal. The book is scheduled for publication on 8 October at an online price of £35. Brian May's painstaking excavation of exquisite stereo photographs from the dawn of photography transports the reader back in time to the lost world of an Oxfordshire village of the 1850s.
At the book's heart is a reproduction of T R Williams' 1856 series of stereo photographs Scenes In Our Village. Using the viewer supplied with this book, the reader is absorbed profoundly into a village idyll of the early Victorian era: the subjects seem to be on the point of suddenly bursting back into life and continuing with their daily rounds.
The book is also something of a detective story, as the village itself was only identified in 2003 as Hinton Waldrist in Oxfordshire, and the authors' research constantly reveals further clues about the society of those distant times, historic photographic techniques, and the life of the enigmatic Williams himself, who appears, Hitchcock-like, from time to time in his own photographs.
The product of more than 30 years research, the mixture of social, photographic and biographical detail is handled with admirable lightness of touch, belying the depths of scholarship which underpin this ambitious enterprise.
Publication Details below and here:
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
ISBN: 9780711230392
Format: 310 mm x 235 mm (12.2 inches x 9.3 inches)
Binding: Hardback
256 pages
560 photographs in colour and black and white
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The Scarborough Evening news reports....Images taken by celebrated Victorian photographer Frank Meadow Sutcliffe that have never been seen before have been restored to their former glory.
The Sutcliffe Gallery, in Flowergate, Whitby, owns the rights to Sutcliffe's 1,600 images, which depict people and places around the Whitby area. Now the gallery owner, Mike Shaw, has painstakingly restored 200 of his photographs in time for the gallery's 50th anniversary.
Mr Shaw has spent years restoring the images, which were taken between 1875 and 1910, working on each one by hand using computer software.
Prints are now available for sale at the Sutcliffe Gallery. They range from Whitby coastguards on exercise, and Cooper's saddlery shop, to views of Robin Hood's Bay and Staintondale Hunt.
* When Sutcliffe took his photographs he did not keep a record of what he had taken. The Sutcliffe Gallery has identified many of the pictures which now hang there, but there is little information about the "new" photos. If you can help with identification of people or some of the more unusual settings drop into the gallery in Flowergate.
For more information visit www.sutcliffe-gallery.co.uk or call (01947) 602239.
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