Blogs

As Assistant Exhibition Organiser for The National Media Museum, you will assist with the management and organization of the practical and administrative aspects of our temporary exhibitions programme. You will be part of a team that, each year, delivers content for up to six temporary exhibitions, six displays, one semi-permanent exhibition and all associated web content, multi-media and interactive exhibits. So over the course of the contract, there’s lots to get involved in.

Ideally, you will have a background in the museum or cultural sector, including collections management. If you come from a different sector, you must have outstanding project management skills with demonstrable proof that you can co-ordinate events, manage transport and delivery issues, organise essential documentation and communicate project requirements to colleagues, designers, drivers and contractors.

Award winning, visionary and truly unique, The National Media Museum embraces photography, film, television, radio and the web. It aims to engage, inspire and educate through comprehensive collections, innovative education programmes and a powerful yet sensitive approach to contemporary issues.

Together, the Science Museum, The National Railway Museum and The National Media Museum form a unique family of museums with a vision to provide outstanding visitor experiences. We aim to engage and inspire diverse audiences, while at the same time rewarding and developing the people who contribute to our success.

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

Closing date: Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Assistant Exhibition Organiser

Fixed Term Contract (until end Oct 2012), Maternity Cover

£16,606 - £18,000

National Media Museum, Bradford

Full-time 36 hours per week, office hours

The Directory was created by the Photography and the Archive Research Centre, University of the Arts London, London College of Communication, to help researchers to look for photographs relating to their interests. The project is led by Val Williams, and its researcher, since 2004, is Bob Pullen.

The Directory is a portal to Institutions in the UK, and provides information and contact details of publicly accessible photographic collections. It is a constantly developing resource of information on photographic collections, and its value and significance as a research tool will steadily increase as institutions add their collections to it. While the internet is a powerful resource bringing a wealth of information onto to your screen, there is no substitute for visiting institutions, talking to those responsible for collections, and actually holding photographs in your hands.

It is searchable by a number of fields. 

The project updates John Wall's Directory of British Photographic Collections, (National Photographic Record/Royal Photographic Society, Heinemann, 1977)

See: http://www.directoryphotographiccollectionsuk.org

I have been researching a Civil War map reproduction technique involving the photographing or direct copying of maps using the salted paper process.  These maps were fairly common in the United States during the Civil War due to the limited availability of lithographic presses as well as the increased demand for up-to-date maps of strategic sites such as waterways, railroads, etc. 

While researching this topic I looked into the history of salted paper maps and found several examples by Talbot as well as information regarding it's extensive use by the English Ordnance Survey under the direction of Henry James in the 1850's.  A wonderful publication in the collection of the Geography and Maps Division at the Library of Congress shows the results of an Ordnance Survey review committee tasked with determining the accuracy and reliability of photography for the reduction of maps.  This copy has several photographs of the facilities and examples of maps as well as hand colored engravings of the darkroom equipment.  This image is of the darkroom facilities and map mounting workshop. 

I would be interested in knowing if anyone in the UK has done research in this area or if anyone knows where the archival papers and documentation of the Ordnance Survey is held.  (These salted paper maps were only done as internal copies and were not available for sale or distribution.)

A brief overview of this research can be read at:   Heliographic Musings

Image: Photographic Headquarters, English Ordnance Survey, from The Report of the Committee on the Reduction of Ordnance Plans by Photography, 1859.

This interesting exhibition will be held at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San
Fernando, Alcalá 13, 28014, Madrid, from 24 November to 20 January 2012.

130 objects are on display including views of Spain by the relevant photographers
of the time, cameras, travel books, documents and a collection of stereoscopic
views by Joseph Carpentier, J. Andrieu and Ernest Lamy as well as the Gaudin
Bros. and Ferrier & Soulier.

A Sutton panoramic camera negative believed to show Dunolly, Australia, c.1862, is being offered at auction on 11 December 2011. The negative is one from a group that was discovered some years ago. The camera and other negatives were previously sold at Christie's. See: http://leonardjoel.com.au/lot_details.php?lot=227246&auction=229# for more information. 

The Kraszna-Krausz Foundation, in partnership with the World Photography Organisation, is looking for the Best Photography Book and Best Moving Image Book of the year. A £10,000 prize will be split between the winners of each category who'll be announced at the Sony World Photography Awards ceremony on 26 April 2012.

The judging panel for the Best Photography Book Award will be chaired by Lindsey Stewart, Bernard Quaritch gallerist and historical photography expert. The photography panel is completed by Gerry Badger, author and winner of the 2007 Kraszna-Krausz Book Award for his work The Photobook: A History, Volumes 1 and 2 (Phaidon, 2004 & 2006) and the photographer Jem Southam.

See: http://www.kraszna-krausz.org.uk/ for details of submissions which are due by Wednesday 30 November 2011. 

Henderson, Neil

Empting frames. Animation Practice, Process & Production. Vol 1, No.1 (Mar 2011)

This short essay brings together some thoughts about two films, both of which take as their starting point the photographic still image and use film to expand and question the immobility of that image, teasing out small shifts and changes in its appearance. Candle and Tidal combine 16mm film and Polaroid photography to create a metaphor for movement and loss, evoking the alchemy of the photographic as it becomes a memory in a digital age. Through a commentary and reflection the formal characteristics of the work are described, and I explore how the filmed Polaroid is animated by the chemical transformation inherent in the Polaroid process. One of the key points is how the films concern themselves with articulating the filmic interval, as a chemical manifestation/metaphor

The article is available as a FREE download at: http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/File:download,aid=10814/ap3.1.1.77.pdf

or doi: 10.1386/ap3.1.1.77_1

The auction of printed books at Christie’s South Kensington on 28 November includes about 90 lots of photobooks, among them fine photobooks from the collection of Bob and Laurence Calle (lots 371-443); the 72 lots include a remarkably fresh, unrestored copy of Moi Ver’s Paris from the collection of its publisher and in the original glassine jacket (lot 419); an excellent copy of Man Ray’s Photographies inscribed to Bob Calle (lot 418); the first American edition of Robert Frank’s The Americans (lot 397) in a very good dust-jacket; and many other masterpieces in the field. Other consignments include a pristine copy of Alvarez Bravo’s Fotografias (lot 356); an original Cecil Beaton scrapbook (lot 357); the first edition of Ruscha’s 26 Gasoline Stations (lot 363); a unique copy of The Art of Edward Weston (lot 369); the rare slipcased version of Bruce Weber’s O Rio de Janeiro, and others.

Christie's Fine Printed Books including Photobooks from the Calle Collection

Monday 28 November 2011, South Kensington

See: http://www.christies.com/lotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5505099

Under Eagle Eyes: Lithographs, Drawings and Photographs from the Prussian Expedition to Japan, 1860-61. Edited by Sebastian Dobson & Sven Saaler, with contributions by Nakai Akio, Peter Pantzer, Veit Hammer, Timon Screech, Sebastian Dobson & Sven Saaler.

In the roll call of Western nations that participated in the “re-opening” of Japan in the last years of the Shogunate, the Kingdom of Prussia has long been marginalised. The Prussian Expedition to Japan of 1860-61 still receives little scholarly attention outside Germany and Japan, and even among German and Japanese scholars investigation into Count Friedrich zu Eulenburg’s mission has focused almost entirely on the diplomatic negotiations which eventually led to the signing of a Prussian-Japanese treaty in Edo in 1861, an event currently being celebrated in its 150th anniversary year as the beginning of German-Japanese relations.

However, as contemporaries observed, this was no ordinary expedition. Eulenburg’s civilian staff consisted not only of four diplomats, but also of four scientists, two artists and one photographer, all of whom made use of an unexpected five-month stay in Edo to examine and record a country still little-known in Europe. This book seeks to reconstruct the scientific and artistic legacies of Eulenburg’s expedition, much of which either languished in obscurity or was even believed to have been lost. In particular, the iconography of the Prussian Expedition, consisting of photographs, lithographs and work in more traditional media, is presented here for the first time.

The book will be launched on 1 December 2011 at Daiwa Foundation Japan House, 6:00 – 7:00pm, followed by a drinks reception to 8:00pm. See: http://www.dajf.org.uk/event/under-eagle-eyes-lithographs-drawings-and-photographs-from-the-prussian-expedition-to-japan-1860-61

 Over the last couple of months I have been working on a previously uncatalogued collection of large format, 50.8 cm x 44.5 cm, glass plate negatives donated to the Powerhouse Museum in 1969. The 28 collodion portraits were found in a chest in our stores at Castle Hill and have been identified as all being originally taken by the Freeman Borthers Studio here in Sydney. We are currently conserving and cataloguing the photographs but hope to be posting them onto flickr commons by the end of the year for researchers to use. 

The Freeman Brother Studio lays claim to being the longest running studio in Australia. It was established as the ‘Freeman Brothers and Wheeler’ by William Freeman and his brother James in George Street in 1854; it was still running nearly 150 years later. James was the more experienced of the two having worked in Richard Beard’s gallery in Bath before coming to Australia and was certainly instrumental in the success with which they plied their trade in Sydney.[1]

One of the keys to their success was their continual upgrading of equipment and premises to deliver the latest techniques. As a result they attracted the cultural elite of Sydney to their studios where they were photographed using the techniques of the day. Thus surviving examples can be found as daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, collodion glass plates, flexible sheet negatives all of which were then used to make albumen, gelatin and platinum prints on card, glass, and paper.

In 1864 the brothers undertook a major renovation of their studio which opened to the public in January 1865. Here they claimed … the most artistic arrangements in the distribution of light and shadow have been effected in their Gallery. In carrying out these alterations, Messrs. Freeman Brothers have availed themselves of the very best and latest improvement in the construction of a Photographic Studio, which have been forwarded them from home, "and which they have adapted to the requirements of ' the climate according to the dictates of their experience. By a simple and beautiful arrangement, any kind of light can be thrown on the sitter, to suit the varieties or dress or complexion, so that the sunniest effects of a Lawrence or a Reynolds can be obtained, varying down to the most somber and effective tones of a Rembrandt. These remarks Messrs. Freeman wish apply to all the varieties of Photographic Portraiture, from the largest style adapted to Photography down to the universally popular Carte de Visite. While announcing the above important improvements, Messrs. Freeman wish to recall the attention of the public to their beautiful Sutton's Panoramic Apparatus from the camera, of which they have now a splendid and varied collection of Views of Sydney and its neighborhood …[2]

In January 1867 James Freeman went to England leaving his brother and their partner Victor A. Prout to take control of the business.[3] Why James left is unclear, perhaps illness or an argument but it was clearly unexpected for it was February before the official notice of his retirement from the studio of ‘Freeman Brothers and Prout’ was published in the papers. From this date William and Victor Prout took over the formal management under the name of ‘Freeman and Prout’.[4]

In 1868 the studio acquired over 20,000 negatives from the demise of Dalton Brothers, one of Sydney’s other pre-eminent studios. It turns out the acquisition was not just photographs for in advertising this acquisition they also called attention to the tinted and coloured cards and miniatures produced by Miss Hunt, … for so long favourably known while in Mr. Dalton's employment …. Miss Hunt must have greatly added to the studio for  the surviving coloured work from Dalton Studio ranks among the best produced in this period in Australia.[5]

James Freeman’s retirement appears to have affected William for he returned to England in 1868 and for awhile both brothers lived there. This arrangement lasted only for a few years until William returned to manage the Sydney studio after the death of James in 1870. The studio suffered a huge blow in November 1871 when a fire on the premises destroyed their entire stock of negatives, including those acquired from Dalton Studio’s.[6]

In 1890 Freeman Brothers passed to William Rufus George who managed the studio until his son Alfred took over in 1903. Harold Cazneaux worked for the studio from 1904 to 1918, a period which saw them embrace a more informal style of portraiture and wedding photography. During the depression the studio was in competition with the street photographers who would snap passers by in the street. Valentine Waller who managed the business though this period was instrumental in lobbying for the State Government to bring in the regulation and registration of this form of photography in 1937. The company continues to survive and evolve moving to digital photography in 2003.[7]

The scale of their enterprise did not seem to affect the quality of the work they produced; in fact the studio from its inception spared no effort in touching up, and printing, their photographic prints. This combination of high quality work and patronage by the elite of Sydney makes their early work excellent examples of nineteenth-century Australian photography, illustrated by their winning silver and bronze medals at the London International Exhibition in 1862.

Photograph

Reverend W. B. Clarke, from collodion negative, Freeman Brothers Studio, 1871-1875,
Powerhouse Museum, H8504-1 

References 

Advertisement, The Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 3 January 1865, page 8

Alan Davies, Freeman Studio in the Picture Gallery, exhibition catalogue, State Library of New South Wales, 2003

Advertisement, The Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday 2 May 1868, page 1

Notices, The Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 12 February, 1867, page 1

Notices, The Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday 2 May 1868, page 1

Government Notices, The Sydney Morning, Saturday 11 November 1871, page 2

Dr J H Robbins writes...Readers may be interested to know that a Victorian Scrap Album has been identified as belonging to Major-General Richard Clement Moody RE (previously Colonel) who had a significant role in British Columbia in the years 1858-1863. Bought in the 1970s in Dorchester, England, this has just been identified as belonging to Col Richard Clement Moody RE. The Royal Engineers are widely recognised as being amongst the pioneers of photography 

Background:

In around 1859, Col. R.C. Moody, commander of the Columbia detachment of the Royal Engineers based at New Westminster, had his portrait taken with an unidentified Aboriginal. The photographer was probably Lt. Arthur Reid Lempriere RE, who was in charge of photography for the detachment. This image and two others including a portrait of the same Aboriginal that appear to have been taken at the same time; form part of a large number of photographs, many captioned in pencil as well as others from British Columbia and a pencil drawing of Moody's house dated 1863 and signed by Henry Pering Pellew Crease.There are also pictures of houses lived in or visited by the Moody family in England, a Grand Tour of Loire Valley châteaux, Brittany Costumes, Brussels and Bologna. It seems probable that Moody took at least some of the photographs himself, although others like the two hand coloured prints entitled Japanese Dancing Girls, and a Japanese Priest as well as those from France and Italy have been purchased or collected. A photograph (circa 1859) of the people involved in the Boundary Commission survey to establish the 49th parallel has the name of Colonel Moody on the reverse.

Two pictures from the album and some more information can be seen at https://sites.google.com/site/moodyalbum/ 

The pictures here are: top: a portrait of an unknown First Nations man.; below: Portraits, Moody is on left in photo, his companion is believed to be Captain Luard RE. 

Greater China Photographic Society aims to unite the efforts of cultural enthusiasts, scholars, photographers and photographic followers of the art of photography, for all people of the world who love Chinese Culture. Our mission is to promote the photographic arts, Chinese culture and charity for the benefit of Society and the World. Our vision is to create unlimited new vistas.

This new appointment of Chief Executive Office Worldwide of the Greater China Photographic Society (GCPS) is located in Hong Kong and is available immediately.

1. The post is for a creative person well acquainted with the photographic arts who could promote opportunities between the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States and, with or without support, with China (Mainland and Taiwan). They would be well acquainted with the photographic venues of the world including museums and galleries. He/she must be willing to travel, especially throughout China. Additionally, the person would be expected to design and run photographic courses/workshops/, photographic events and.

2. The successful candidate will be from a photographic or similar media background with appropriate academic qualifications and distinctions. He/she will demonstrate exceptional management and communication skills. The fluency of English to a good standard is required plus Mandarin and /or Cantonese would be an advantage.

 The First Contract will be of 6-12 months duration, offering a salary of HK$30,000- (approximately sterling pound 2,400- or USD3,900-)/month plus quarter allowance of HK10,000- (Pound 8,000- or USD 1,300-). For information, if the applicant have no other Hong Kong income, Annual Salary Tax is about HK$33,000- for single and HK$15,000- for married. The GCPS would pay one round trip air ticket between UK, USA or Europe Airport and Hong Kong.

 For further information regarding this post contact The President.  Applications in confidence should be sent by email to adm@gcpshk.com or by letter to Suite 5401, Central Plaza, No. 18 Harbour Road, Hong Kong and consist in the form of a full curriculum vitae, supporting letter and names of two referees. The closing date for applications is 20 January 2012

James Garfinkle advises...After 31 years of being the custodian of Mathew Brady's Studio Wet-Plate Camera, I have decided to let another person or institution have the pleasure of owning 'the most iconic piece of photographic Americana.' The camera was used to take portraits of Lincoln and other notables in the Civil War period.

Its provenance is unmatched: Meserve / Kunhardt collection, then at auction at Christie's in 1980, to me.  Two owners in about 100 years.  The serial number on lens matches that in Brady's bankruptcy filing, included with the lot. The camera has a reserve of $25,000. 

It was most recently displayed at the 'Lincoln in New York' exhibition at the New-York Historical Society.

The sale is Wednesday, November 30th in Dallas. James Garfinkel can be reached at: jamesgarfinkel@gmail.com. The sale is part of a Heritage Auctions Americana sale. More details here: http://historical.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=6066&lotNo=38365

Since 1964 the National Gallery of Art has offered professional museum training to candidates from all backgrounds through a variety of internship programs. Nine-week summer internships provide opportunities to work on projects directed by a Gallery curator or department head. Biweekly museum seminars introduce interns to the broad spectrum of museum work, and to Gallery staff, departments, programs, and functions.

Curatorial: Photographs, Charles Marville Exhibition
The intern will assist in the research and organization for an exhibition on 19th-century French photographer Charles Marville. He or she will primarily help with the production of the catalogue. Tasks include editing, fact-checking, securing comparative illustrations, and conducting research for a comprehensive chronology, as well as maintaining correspondence with lenders. The intern will participate in the daily functions of the department, including research on the permanent collection. Current art history, 19th-century French studies, or French history graduate students and 2012 graduates of such programs are invited to apply. Knowledge or coursework in the history of 19th-century art or photography is preferred. Reading knowledge of French is required.

Curatorial: Photographs, Garry Winogrand Exhibition
The intern will assist with the organization for an upcoming retrospective exhibition of photographer Garry Winogrand. The intern will assemble reference materials, maintain bibliographies and chronologies, and assist in writing wall text. Tasks also include establishing and updating research files on individual objects, and conducting research for the artist's chronology. The intern will participate in the daily functions of the department, including research on the permanent collection. Current art history graduate students and 2012 graduates of a BA/MA/PhD program are invited to apply. Knowledge or coursework in the history of photography and/or 20th-century art is required.

Eligibility
Eligibility varies according to internship. Several opportunities are geared to undergraduates graduating in May 2012. The majority of slots are for currently enrolled graduate students of all levels and those graduating in May 2012 with a relevant degree (such as MA, MBA, MFA, M Arch, M Ed, JD, or MLS). Please check prerequisites carefully. Applicants from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply. This is an international program.

Terms
Summer interns are in residence at the Gallery from June 11 to August 10, 2012. Interns receive a stipend of approximately $4,500 that is subject to all applicable taxes.

Application Timeline and Procedures

January 5, 2012

Deadline for application packets. Send one original and five copies of the application form, six copies of your full résumé or CV, and one copy of official transcripts from each undergraduate and graduate institution attended to our mailing address. Applications received after this date will not be considered.

January 13, 2012

Semifinalists will be notified of their status and asked to submit additional materials by January 21, 2011. Semifinalists will be asked to send a writing sample (approximately 20 pages, including footnotes or endnotes, bibliography, and images) to our e-mail address. Recommenders listed on the application form will be contacted directly by the Gallery's academic programs staff.

January 20, 2012

Deadline for the writing sample and recommendations.

March 9, 2012

Finalists will be selected.

Note: Should you have difficulty in securing transcripts, you may request that the records officer or registrar from each institution send the transcripts directly to the National Gallery via fax or e-mail. The fax number is (202) 842-6935, attn: Department of Academic Programs; the e-mail address is intern@nga.gov.

For applicants at institutions that do not issue transcripts: send six copies of comparable documents. If you have a question about what might be considered a comparable document, please contact intern@nga.gov.

Please collate and send the application packet in the following order: 1) completed application form, 2) full résumé or CV, and 3) transcripts (arranged chronologically, most recent first, if you are sending them to the Gallery directly).

Application Materials
Summer Internship Application (PDF 58K)
(Download Acrobat Reader)

Review Process
All applications will be reviewed by a selection committee composed of Gallery staff and outside specialists.

Mailing Address
Department of Academic Programs
Division of Education
National Gallery of Art
2000B South Club Drive
Landover, MD 20785

Inquiries
Additional information about National Gallery of Art internships and curatorial fellowships is available from the department of academic programs: telephone (202) 842-6257 or e-mail intern@nga.gov.

Beato’s Delhi offers a pictorial history of Delhi, brought vividly to life through the visual virtuosity of Felice A. Beato, the famous nineteenth-century photographer who came to India to record the last embers of the 1857 ‘Mutiny’, and Jim Masselos who, in 1997, retraced Beato’s footsteps and photographed the same sites as far as possible.
By the time Beato reached Delhi in January 1858, the British had already subdued the city, so he could not record the military campaign itself. However, his lens was perhaps the first to capture the battleground and other places of note in that campaign, providing for posterity some unique views of Old Delhi before substantial parts of it were demolished in the aftermath of 1857, or radically redeveloped as the years progressed.
Beato’s luminous views are juxtaposed with the author's present-day photographs of the bustling metropolis, shedding light on how the face of Delhi has transformed in the intervening 154 years. Supplemented with an illuminating text by Masselos and Narayani Gupta, Beato’s Delhi is a moving testament to the resilience of this ever-evolving city.

Author Bio: Jim Masselos is an honorary reader in history at the University of Sydney. He has written extensively on Indian history and culture, including aspects of the history of Bombay. Narayani Gupta has been a consultant with INTACH, after she retired as professor of history at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

To pay tribute to Daguerre's 224th birth anniversary today (18th November 1787), the search giant Google celebrates the inventor of the world's first commercially successful photographic process with another patented Google Doodle.
The Doodle depicted what appeared to be a photograph of a family, with five of the letters in "Google" replacing the heads, and the "l" depicted as a lamp.

Hovering the mouse or pointer over the Doodle reveals the reason for the photograph-themed drawing: Louis Daguerre's 224th birth anniversary. As in the past, visitors who see the Doodle on Google's home page (www.google.com) and click on it are taken to a search results page for Daguerre.

St Andrews University is advertising two jobs for a Photographic Golf Collection Project Curator and a Photographic Golf Collection Digitisation Officer. The role requirements are: 

Photographic Golf Collection Project Curator - JC1049

Department of Special Collections, University Library, £24,370 - £29,099 per annum, Start: February 2012, Fixed term 4 years, Hours of work - 36.25 per week

We are seeking an individual to fulfil the role of Photographic Golf Collection Project Curator in support of the digitising, cataloguing and exhibition of an extensive golf photography collection over the period of four years from February 2012 to December 2015.   

Within a dynamic department during a time of exciting change, you will work under the direction of the Photographic Archivist. You will be responsible for the systematic cataloguing, intellectual arrangement, interpretation and exhibition of over 200,000 images on the subject of golf. This collection is the work of Lawrence Levy.  In direct support of the promotional and fundraising ambitions of the University, you will curate a series of high-calibre photographic exhibitions which represent the collection’s unique documentation of golf’s history from 1978 to 1994. As part of an externally funded project, you will directly contribute to the creation of access and awareness to an unsurpassed collection of great scale and cultural significance whose character is tied to St Andrews’ place in the world as the home of golf.   

For further details about the project and post please contact Marc Boulay, the Photographic Archivist for the Department of Special Collections via email at mdab@st-andrews.ac.uk or by telephone at 44 (0)1334 462326.

Photographic Golf Collection Digitisation Officer - SB1059

University Library, Department of Special Collections, £17,179 - £19,822 per annum, Start: January 2012 or as soon as possible thereafter, Fixed Term: 4 years

The University of St Andrews Library Department of Special Collections is seeking 1 full-time or 2 part-time (one full-time equivalent) staff to fulfill the role of Photographic Golf Collection Digitisation Officer in support of the digitising, archiving, and physical preservation of an extensive golf photography collection over the period of four years from January 2012 to December 2015. 

Within a dynamic department during a time of exciting change, the post-holder(s) will work under the direction of the Photographic Archivist. They will be responsible for the systematic preventive conservation, digitisation, physical arrangement, and electronic record creation of over 200,000 images on the subject of golf. As part of an externally-funded project, the post-holder(s) will directly contribute to the creation of access and awareness to an unsurpassed collection of great scale and cultural significance whose character is tied to St Andrews’ place in the world as the home of golf. 

For further details about the project and post please contact Marc Boulay, the Photographic Archivist for the Department of Special Collections via email at mdab@st-andrews.ac.uk or by telephone at 44 (0)1334 462326.    

Ref No: SB1059
Closing Date: 8 December 2011

Fuller details are here: https://www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/login.aspx?enc=vDVLPY6BrOnmx9szwB5icMU/Bp97ap1BlI/jb0LhRYVeoh/cn5bYgvW+9EbbSw7a

Interesting story in the 16 November issue of the Irish Times about 19th-century images from China captured by Scottish photographer John Thomson:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2011/1116/1224307633848.html

Situated at the Kadırga Cultural Center, this new 1,000-square-meter museum space will feature five photo galleries, a workshop space, a library and considerable archive space. Opening on 20th November, the museum will be Turkey’s first museum dedicated in its entirety to photography, and the hope is that it can considerably support the development of photography in Turkey and provide a solid platform for academic and artistic research.

The museum will host three exhibitions after the Nov. 19 opening ceremony. The exhibition titled “Republican Period Photography Masters – Trailblazers” will take place at the Klasikler Gallery under the sponsorship of Çetin Nuhoğlu, and is made up of works by 50 photographers who have left their mark in every field of the art of photography. 

The first temporary exhibition, “Fotoğrafımızda Bugün-2011” (Present time in our photography – 2011), featuring works by 200 photographic artists, will bring a contemporary view to Turkish photography. Visitors will see works not only by Turkish photographic virtuosos, but also see the advent of photography in the early republican era.

The second temporary exhibition, “Basılı Fotoğrafımız – Albümler” (Our printed photography – albums), will present an important selection including albums, books and portfolios to visitors. After the exhibition, the collection will be presented for research use in the archive of the museum.

Photo: The Istanbul Photography Museum is situated on a 1,000 square-meter area at the Kadırga Cultural Center. Copyright: Istanbul Photography Museum

Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851) was a true nineteenth-century visionary—a painter, printmaker, set designer, entrepreneur, inventor, and pioneer of photography. Though he was widely celebrated beyond his own lifetime for his invention of the daguerreotype, it was his origins as a theatrical designer and purveyor of visual entertainment that paved the way for Daguerre’s emergence as one of the world’s most iconic imagemakers.

In Speculating Daguerre, Stephen C. Pinson reinterprets the story of the man and his time, painting a vivid picture of Daguerre as an innovative artist and savvy impresario whose eventual fame as a photographer eclipsed everything that had come before. Drawing upon previously unpublished correspondence and unplumbed archival sources, Pinson mixes biography with an incisive study of Daguerre’s wide-ranging involvement in visual culture. From his work as a commercial lithographer to his co-invention of the Paris Diorama—a theater in the round in which Daguerre employed natural light and special effects to simulate time and movement in large-scale paintings—here we are given access to Daguerre the artist, whose tireless experimentation, entrepreneurial spirit, and exceptional talent for popular spectacle helped to usher in a new visual age.

Filled with more than one hundred illustrations and including the first complete catalogue of Daguerre’s paintings, works on paper, and daguerreotypes to appear in print, the publication of Speculating Daguerre will be a much-heralded event for anyone with even a passing interest in one of the most fascinating characters in the history of photography.

The author, Pinson, is the Robert B. Menschel Curator of Photography, as well as the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Assistant Director of Arts, Prints, and Photographs, at the New York Public Library.

Published next week (21st Nov), you can pre-order it using the Amazon link on the right - should be an interesting read.

"By setting Daguerre's work as a painter and designer in the Parisian theatre and demonstrating how this led to his central involvement with the Diorama, Pinson describes a visual sensibility and culture that is normally overlooked by photographic historians. Speculating Daguerre is an entirely original, informative, and valuable contribution to the history of photography, and it will appeal to a wide variety of audiences." - Roger Taylor, curator emeritus, Victoria & Albert Museum, London"