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In the late 1800s, the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago undertook an impressive engineering project to reverse the flow of the Chicago River. To document this feat, photographers surveyed the river system shooting more than 20,000 photos using six-by-eight-inch glass plate—a process that involved great precision so that multiple images aligned to create one continuous scene.

A century later, author Michael Williams stumbled across the bulky negatives, buried in the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District archives. A sample of the collection—with text by Williams and Richard Cahan—is on display at the Notebaert Nature Museum. “The Lost Panoramas: Chicago and the Illinois Valley a Century Ago” features sweeping scenes of the riverbed and its state-of-the-art infrastructure and provides a fascinating view of a true city on the make.

You can purchase the book using the Amazon link on the right, if interested.

Explainers educate, entertain and inspire visitors, interpreting and communicating information about the Museum's subject matter in unique, engaging ways.

Skills required: Knowledge of media literacy, and/or aspects of photography, film, television, radio or new media. Good presentation/perfomance skills. Good communication skills, written and oral. Good organisational skills

Closing date for applications is 7th December. Further details can be found here.

Good luck!

An interview with John Myers, discussing his photography practice from the 1970s and the current Middle England exhibition at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham - with thanks to Pete James for the information.

John Myers - Middle England from Ikon Gallery on Vimeo.

Photographs by two of Britain’s most accomplished photographers of the nineteenth century: Roger Fenton (1819-69) and Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79) are on display at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter, from 15 December to 1 April 2012. Some were commissioned by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, others purchased directly from the photographer.  Together they demonstrate the royal couple’s involvement in the early photographic world.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were enthusiastic patrons of photography.  Between 1842, when the first photograph was taken of a member of the royal family and 1861 when Prince Albert died, the couple amassed a collection of works by the leading photographers of the day.  After Prince Albert’s death, Queen Victoria continued collecting.  By the time of her death in 1901 the collection was estimated at 20,000 photographs.

Victoria and Albert’s patronage helped foster this new art form.  They attended exhibitions, became patrons of the newly established Photographic Society of London, commissioned portraits and purchased the work of British photographers.  Queen Victoria preferred portraits, while Prince Albert acquired topographical views and fine art photographs. 

The exhibition is accompanied by a book by Sophie Gordon Roger Fenton & Julia Margaret Cameron: Early British Photographs from the Royal Collection.

The photographs have been generously lent by HM The Queen from the Royal Collection.

See: http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/microsites/fentoncameron/