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Well, a tintype will do, in fact.

That is if you are in possession of the only authenticated photograph of the outlaw known to exist which is a 130-year-old tintype of Billy the Kid. This credit-card-sized tintype of William H. McCarty, alias William Bonney, alias Billy the Kid is widely regarded as the most important photograph of the American West. 

Extensively studied and documented, the photograph is nearly as famous as its infamous subject. It was taken around 1879, outside a saloon in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, when McCarty was barely out of his teens and already a budding cattle thief and jailbird. (Note the shabby clothes and goofy hat in the larger image.) The Kid gave it to his pal Dan Dedrick, and it's been in the family ever since. It's occasionally shown up in museum shows and has been featured in numerous books on the Kid, including one by Pat Garrett, the sheriff who gunned Billy down on July 14, 1881--130 years ago next month.

​The photo will be up for auction on June 24-26, with an anticipated sale price in the $300,000-$400,000 range, though some say it could fetch as much as $1million. The New York Times reported that there will be "armed guards" when the photo is previewed June 24, just in case some varmint in the crowd decides to turn outlaw!

Auction details can be found here. The closest cowboy I've come across is Woody (of Toy Story fame), and he ain't no outlaw.

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, we aim to engage, inspire and educate through a powerful yet sensitive approach to contemporary issues.
Working across both the National Media Museum and The National Railway Museum, you will develop and deliver high profile marketing and communications campaigns with innovative content. Focused on meeting customer acquisition, engagement and revenue targets, you will ensure consistent brand messages across all digital platforms, including social media.
Knowledge of contemporary digital marketing and media trends is essential, preferably gained within an arts, heritage or leisure environment. With practical experience of developing complex digital communications strategies, you will have extensive insight into optimising relationships with third party websites, community portals and social media.
We welcome applications from all sections of the community in which we work. We particularly welcome applications from disabled people and we guarantee interviews to suitably qualified disabled applicants.
To apply, please send your CV and covering letter to recruitment@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk
Closing date: 27th June 2011
Interviews: 5th July

£19,000
6 month fixed term contract

Good luck!

According to the Yorkshire Film Archive, the magic lantern manufacturer, Riley Brothers, operated out of 55 & 57 Godwin Street, Bradford. They produced a machine called the Kineoptoscope in 1896 using a design patented by Cecil Wray.  This was advertised at the time in The Era as, 'Steady as Lumière's. No breakdowns. Most portable and the most perfect known'.  This was modified into the Kineoptoscope camera in June 1897, and it may be this which is being used in this film. The Riley Brothers put on the first cinema performance in Bradford at the People’s Palace on 6th April 1896, now the site of the National Media Museum.

Hundred of images of old Ireland and the globe-trotting adventures of affluent West Cork Methodists are among the subjects in an extraordinary collection of 19th century photography recently discovered in a house clearance. This also includes an important late 19th century magic lantern made by The Riley Bros of Bradford.

With an estimate of €1,500-€2,500, details of tomorrow's auction in Cork can be found here.

Roger Watson's book about the race between two eccentric characters on either side of the English Channel in the 1830s to develop the world's first photograph has been acquired by the publishers, Pan Macmillan. This non-fiction work features English polymath Henry Fox Talbot and Louis Daguerre in France as they raced to claim the new technology and techniques.

Entitled "Capturing the Light", Pan Macmillan has bought the UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, and plans to publish it in 2013. Non-fiction publisher Jon Butler said, "This is narrative non-fiction at its very best‚ a tale of two lone geniuses racing to be the first to solve an ancient puzzle, in the best tradition of Longitude or Fermat's Last Theorem. And at the very heart of the book, a tiny, ghostly image of a Victorian window, so small and perfect that it 'might be supposed to be the work of some Lilliputian artist': the world's first photographic negative.

Watson is a curator of the Fox Talbot Museum at Lacock Abbey, and the full report can be found here.

Ian Leith reports that a new version of the English Heritage/National Monuments Record guide to the archive is now available online. The 48 pages guide details the mainly photographic & measured drawings holdings of the NMR up to early 2011 and is a selective guide to main holdings. Go to: http://www.englishheritagearchives.org.uk/Catalogues/Default.aspx Ian has kindly provided a version that can be accessed here as a word document: EH/NMR collections list 2011

For access to items from the collection please go to NMR Enquiry & Research Services - Enquiry.ResearchServices@english-heritage.org.uk  quoting the code or numbering indicated. Ian Leith can be contacted at NMR Acquisitions, English Heritage, tel: +44 (0)1793 414730.  

Following on from the success of the 2009 Visual Literacy Series Staging, Manipulation and Photographic Truth, this year the Society will be holding two major events based on Photography and the City. Details of the first are below.

London: 18th June 2011 in partnership with the University of Westminster. Andy Golding and Eileen Perrier will focus on how to think through the production of photographic projects, how to contextualise the city, its development and inhabitants and consider ways in which the city and its social conditions, (housing, work, poverty, war), cultural trends (music, film, fashion) and artistic production can be represented through photography.

They will discuss the genres of documentary, urban landscape, street photography, fashion, photojournalism, conceptual art and constructed photography in representing city themes. Informed by significant historical images, beginning with Henry Fox Talbot's photograph of the construction of Trafalgar Square, they will show the development of student work from their summer school Photographing London leading to the most fascinating and revealing images. The teaching and learning experience has evidenced a structure to creative practice and has resulted in a valuable and growing archive of city based photography.

Tom Hunter will talk about his own photographic practice and how it responds to the city. His work, which focuses on his local neighborhood of Hackney in East London covers topics including the representation of marginal groups, such as squatters and travellers within the city. His work also sets out to document the changing face of the inner city by looking at council estates through their architecture, the residents and their histories. He will also be looking at local businesses which chart the different waves of immigration which have made such a powerful impact on the history and development on the East End of London. www.tomhunter.org

Marco Bohr Representing Tokyo Marco Bohr's presentation will focus on the different approaches used by Japanese photographers to represent the megapolis Tokyo. From the student uprisings in the late 1960s to the post-recessionary period of the 1990s, the photographic representation of Tokyo is inextricably linked to social, political and ideological shifts in Japanese society. Marco's talk will focus on how photographers utilized photographic techniques, such as blurriness, high key printing or overexposure, to create a subjective vision of a dense urban landscape. The varying impressions of Tokyo project a cityscape that is fluid, evolving and multifaceted. Marco is currently completing his PhD on Japanese photography of the 1990s at the University of Westminster.

Rut Blees Luxemburg will talk about her photographs which explore the public spaces of the city, where the ambitions and unexpected sensual elaborations of the ?modern project? are revealed and contested. In her photographic work she brings to light the overlooked, the dismissed and the unforeseen of the urban complex and creates immersive and vertiginous compositions that challenge prevailing representations of the city. Her large-scale photographic works expand the concept of the common sensual in relation to urban public space and representation. RBL?s work has been exhibited internationally and included in key publications and exhibitions on contemporary photography and art. Her monograph ?Common sensual? collects the artist?s work including her collaborative forays into opera, literature, architecture and urban culture. www.rutbleesluxemburg.com

Members and Students £15/Non Members £20
To book call reception on 01225 325 733 or email reception@rps.org

World-class photography takes over London’s most celebrated venues, large and small, for the festival’s inaugural year. The London Street Photography Festival launches this summer to celebrate the time-honoured genre. An exciting new addition to London’s cultural calendar, the festival, 1st-31st July 2011, features curated exhibitions alongside a diverse events programme bringing together leading international artists past and present. Highlights include the first UK exhibition of the incredible archives of mysterious Chicago street photographer Vivian Maier at the German Gymnasium, as well as a newly discovered body of work by previously unknown British photographer Walter Joseph - a gritty portrait of post-war London at the British Library.

Photo Fusion will present rare perspectives by leading female street photographers from around the world, whilst the voyeuristic Seen/Unseen showcases new work by award-winning photographers George Georgiou and Mimi Mollica, using the London bus as a vehicle to explore an unknowing public. Leading street photography collective In-Public will see two of its celebrated members, Nick Turpin and Nils Jorgensen, unite in a joint show presenting work from England and France at St. Pancras International.

The festival will also present the first ever International Street Photography Award, alongside a student category, celebrating the best work undertaken today from thousands of submissions received from around the world.Through a varied programme of exhibitions, talks, workshops and interactive events, the festival will provide a unique insight into the field of street photography from the industry’s leading practitioners and experts. In an exploratory talk at the V&A by Curator of Photographs Susanna Brown, visitors will be able to examine up close some of the collection’s most fascinating acquisitions, including original prints by Henri Cartier Bresson, Gary Winogrand and Diane Arbus.

A range of practical and creative workshops and interactive events will be led by eminent practitioners in the field, including the Olympic Photo-Cycle with Toby Smith, and David Gibson’s photo-walks. Courses vary in duration from two to five days, and include the extraordinary London to Paris Street Photography Workshop with InPublic founder Nick Turpin. The festival will launch with 4 exhibition openings on 30th June, starting at 4pm at the British Library, and from 6:30pm at the German Gymnasium.

The full programme can be found here.

Dear All,

I have included a couple of links that might be of interest. 

http://photohistory.jeffcurto.com/about

It is quite American but very interesting. You can access them form itunes or the website. I have listened to a lot of them and leaned a great deal.

http://www.picturehistory.com/product/id/8403 

This link is useful for research purposes if trying to date pictures or trace a photographer.

I hope this helps 

Nick 

http://teachyourselfphotography.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-get-most-out-of-your-black-white.html

Having been recently acquired by the British Library, these images by Walter Jospeh will become a valued public record of the post war period and the hardships and pleasures Londoners faced.

Joseph (1922-2003) was born in Darmstadt to an Orthodox Jewish couple. He fled Germany as a young man in 1939 (his twin brothers following shortly after) and came to England. As a German national he was interned in the Isle of Man during the Second World War. After the war he was employed in newspaper photographic laboratories, but remained a dedicated amateur and semi-professional photographer for the rest of his life. These fascinating views of London markets, street traders and entertainers were taken between 1947-48.

Joseph doubted his photographic skills but his family always loved his images. There is a striking similarity between the story of Walter Joseph and that of Vivian Maier, who’s work is on display just around the corner at the German Gymnasium.

Details of this exhibition can be found here.

Image © Sonia Lichtenstein, courtesy of British Library

Originally published as a serial between 1844 and 1846, The Pencil of Nature was the first book to be illustrated entirely with photographs. Early enthusiast William Henry Fox Talbot hoped to spur public interest in photography—but was forced to cease publication after just six installments. In its time, The Pencil of Nature was not a commercial success. However, as with some other great works of art, it has been required to undergo the test of time in order to be duly recognized and appreciated.

More than 165 years later, Talbot’s book is recognized as a major contribution to both the history of photography and the development of the book. Indeed, it has been said that the importance of The Pencil of Nature in the history of photography is comparable to that of the Gutenberg Bible in the history of printing. Talbot invented the Calotype process and his photographs transformed everyday subjects into works of art. Architectural studies and local landscapes, still-lifes, close-ups, and even a single, carefully executed portrait—Talbot’s twenty-four prints remain strikingly modern and quietly beautiful.

The Pencil of Nature has been published in several different incarnations since its original appearance. Da Capo press published a reproduction in 1969 and Hans Kraus published the most accurate facsimile along with a commentary by Larry Schaaf in 1989.

This KWS edition is has been reproduced from the original plates held in the National Media Museum, Bradford. A 35-page illustrated introduction by Colin Harding, Curator of Photographic Technology at the Museum, gives shape to Talbot’s life and times, how Talbot became interested in the notion of a “photogenic drawing” process (placing photographic images on paper), how he invented the Calotype (the process by which photographic images could be developed on paper) in 1840, how he used the Calotype process to take photographs, and finally, how he conceived of The Pencil of Nature—the means by which he could show, for the first time in a book, the art of photography to the world.

Published at $150 the book is available on Amazon.co.uk for £98.33. Interestingly Amazon also offers a free copy of The Pencil of Nature (not the KWS version) for the Kindle (see: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Pencil-of-Nature-ebook/dp/B004TPLAU6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=A3TVV12T0I6NSM&qid=1307877780&sr=1-1)

The publisher's description is here: http://kwspub.com/The%20Pencil%20of%20Nature.html

Quaritch is hosting a wonderful exhibition of highlights from the Terry Bennett collection until Saturday (see: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/exhibition-early-chinese) in their former premises in Lower John Street close to Paccadilly Circus and Soho. At an informal reception last night Lindsey Stewart of Quaritch and Terry Bennett introduced the exhibition and some of the key pieces on show. The collection has been compiled by Bennett over a twenty year period and is probably the best of its type in the world. Quaritch have published the first two volumes of Bennett's history of photography in China and the next volume is due out in 2011/12.

The exhibition closes on Saturday - do take the opportunity to see an exceptional collection of historic photographs of China.

One of fifteen sets of the Reports by the Juries (1852) given by the Commissioners of the Great Exhibition of 1851 to William Henry Fox Talbot and presented by him to his daughter Matilda sold at auction in London today for £216,000 including buyer's premium (£180,000 hammer price). The successful bidder was the London-based dealer, author and collector of middle eastern photography Badr El-Hage. El-Hage, who is known to have close links with several museums and collectors in the Middle East, was presumably buying the four volume set on behalf of a client.

Bidding on the lot, which was estimated at a very modest £20,000-30,000, opened at £16,000 with commission bids and then it quickly became a bidding battle between a seated and relaxed El-Hage and a nervous tall gentleman standing close by him at the back of the auction room. The standing gent was taking instructions via a mobile phone. One telephone line was also open.

El-Hage entered the bidding early on battling with the standing gentleman who looked to have it within his grasp at £150,000 before El-Hage, returned at £160,000. The standing man paused, hands shaking, and asked his caller whether he wanted to carry on. For a fraction of a second the lot appeared to be his at £170,000. El-Hage, with no hesitation, then bid again taking the price to t £180,000. The standing man asked his caller if he wished to bid and then stopped at that point. El-Hage raised his bidding number 795 and the auctioneer brought his hammer down. The lot had sold.

The four volume set which contained some of the strongest calotype prints in any set I have seen will require an export licence. As there are other sets in the UK - albeit without the particular Talbot provenance - this is unlikely to present any great hurdle. There are sets in, for example, the British Library, at the National Media Museum and in the University of London's Senate House. Furthermore, there are, presumably, still sets in the hands of descendents or passed to libraries from the 115 recipients presented with copies back in 1852 and some more of the 15 sets that Talbot was awarded - although it is likely that the full quota was never completed.

There have been two relatively recent sales: in 2001 Christie's sold a set with medals, originally presented to Lt. Crossman RE for £64,250 (including premium) and in 2007 a set formerly from the Fred Spira Collection, originally presented to John Gott, sold for €75,600 (inc premium) approx £45,200.

A link to the original BPH blog report which includes a link through to the full catalogue description is here: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/reports-by-the-juries-1851

The Royal Photographic Society, has announced that its Director General, Stuart Blake, will be retiring in the coming months. Society President, Rosemary Wilman, acknowledged Mr Blake's more than 20 years' distinguished service, initially as finance officer and since 2004 combining this role with that of Director General. The Society’s Trustees are now in the process of recruiting a new Director General, with a revised remit, to work with them in leading the future direction and development of The Royal Photographic Society. Details of the post, and how to apply are below.

BPH readers may be interested to know that a former Director General went on to head the National Media Museum and British Film Institute.

Founded in 1853 and the recipient of a Royal Charter in 2004, The Royal Photographic Society is an educational charity and learned society, ‘to promote the Art and Science of Photography’. The Society is the largest membership organisation representing individual photographers in the UK and also has a considerable overseas membership, a testament to its high global reputation.

Membership is open to all with an interest in photography, regardless of experience. The interests and activities of The Society are diverse, covering both the amateur and professional fields in all their varied aspects. The Society recognises world-class achievement with its global leading Distinctions. It runs a highly-respected annual programme of educational events, the prestigious annual Royal Photographic Society Awards and national and international exhibitions. With The Society’s staff and headquarters based in the beautiful city of Bath, the work of the Society involves a large and highly engaged volunteer community, who, along with its Trustees, support its wider regional and overseas operations.

With the retirement of the present Director General, The Society is seeking a dynamic and visionary individual to take up this critical post. The Director General will work with The Society’s Trustees to lead the future direction and development of the Organisation, and in addition, will have management responsibility for its staff and daily operations. As the key representative of The Society to its stakeholder and volunteer community, and to potential new members, the Director General will demonstrate flexibility, confidence and creativity. The post holder will drive innovative developments to raise the profile of the organisation nationally and internationally. Whilst an interest in photography and the arts is highly desirable, a genuine passion for the mission and future of The Society in the 21st Century is essential.

For further information on how to apply for this post, please visit www.perrettlaver.com/candidates, quoting reference 0886. The deadline for applications is midday on Wednesday 22nd June 2011.

How would you like to view 100 exquisite salt prints of Hill & Adamson’s most celebrated images from 1843 to 1847? Well, the Bicknell Album which is the only known large presentation album of their work still in private hands will be on exhibit in London shortly.

All other known Hill & Adamson albums are in permanent public collections. Hill himself personally selected and assembled the 100 calotypes for Henry Bicknell who was a major 19th century art collector.

You can view this plus other images by William Henry Fox Talbot, Anna Atkins, Roger Fenton, Julia Margaret Cameron, Lewis Carroll, and Alvin Langdon Coburn in an exhibition entitled Early British Masters in Photography put together by Hans P. Kraus, Jr. Fine Photographs, a dealer in 19th and early 20th century photographs, specializing in the paper negative era which flourished before 1860.

In addition to early British photographers, the exhibition will include work by Gustave Le Gray and Edward Steichen. The American artist Steichen’s elegiac and painterly composition, Little Round Mirror, 1902, is considered one of his most important early achievements in photography. A gum over platinum print, it is one of only four exhibition prints known. 

Details  of this London exhibition can be found here.

Photo: David Octavius Hill & Robert Adamson, A Newhaven Pilot
Salt print from a calotype negative, 1843-1845, 19.8 x 14.0 cm
In "The Bicknell Album" of 100 calotypes by Hill & Adamson

The Britain from Above Project will make accessible approximately 95,000 images dating from 1919 to 1953 from the Aerofilms Collection. This important historic aerial archive was acquired by a partnership of English Heritage, and the Royal Commissions on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales and Scotland in 2007 and illustrates the changing face of Britain throughout the 20th century. This post will be based in Edinburgh and will have particular responsibility for cataloguing the Scottish images which date from 1919-1953.

The post holder will be expected to have a degree in history, geography or other relevant discipline and/or a proven track record of working with photographic or other archives. The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate a high level of computer literacy and experience of using GIS and aerial photographs.

RCAHMS provides a challenging and stimulating working environment. Benefits include flexible working hours, generous support for Continuing Professional Development and a choice of Civil Service and stakeholder pension is also available. RCAHMS is an equal opportunities employer and operates a no-smoking policy within its building.

RCAHMS - The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Fixed Term Appointment - 8 Months. £22,664 to £27,359.

For further information and an application form, contact HR department at personnel@rcahms.gov.uk, or in writing to HR department, RCAHMS, John Sinclair House, 16 Bernard Terrace, Edinburgh, EH8 9NX (Tel: 0131-662 1456; Fax 0131-662 1477).

Closing date for the return of completed application forms 12.00pm on 22nd June 2011.

One exhibition that might not come across your radar is Snaps Walking Pictures at Bridlington until 3 August 2011. Easy On The Eye have a display of walking picture images running from April 16 – August 3 2011 at Sewerby Hall, near Bridlington, East Yorkshire. I have also done an online gallery of the images for people who might be interested (“Snaps” Walking Pictures ).

The idea for this display arose after contacting East Riding of Yorkshire Council, and curators at Sewerby Hall and Gardens, who were helpful in furnishing me with information and images they held regarding the Snaps company and William Foster-Brigham, who operated in Bridlington.

It is difficult to display original waking pictures. They were produced at speed and can become brittle with age and sensitive to light. For the exhibition I decided to produce a series of prints based on the original images but incorporating graphic and handwritten elements often found on the back of the photographs, placed there by the producers and subsequent owners. The original images were scanned at very high resolution then edited digitally, although nothing has been removed from the photographs themselves beyond some cropping. These new images were then uploaded to a local photographic processors via the internet and outputted onto Fujiflex, one of the new photographic papers developed in recent years for digital photographs. One cannot help but wonder what William Foster Brigham would have made of all these innovations in his trade.

The original photographs are largely from the Easy On The Eye collection of Walking Pictures. In most cases the people are unknown but where we have any detail it is given in the caption list accompanying the gallery. I would like to thank Colin Harding at Bradford Media Museum for the loan of a couple of images. Also David Barnard who ran the remainder bookshop Wharf 18, Prince Street. David allowed me access to the premises to look for traces of the Snaps business before he closed his shop at the start of 2011.

See: http://gohomeonapostcard.wordpress.com/exhibition/ 

As already reported here in brief Elizabeth Edwards, who has published extensively over the last 30 years in the areas of photography, history and visual anthropology, will join De Montfort University (DMU) as the first Director of the Photographic History Research Centre.

Many of Professor Edwards’ edited books and monographs – such as Photography and Anthropology (1992), and Raw Histories (2001) – have become required reading across the subjects of photographic history, art history, history, anthropology and the history of science.

Her recent work includes the book, Photography, Anthropology and History (co-edited with Christopher Morton, 2009) and a forthcoming monograph with Duke University Press on photography and the historical imagination in late-Nineteenth- and early-Twentieth-Century England.

She is known equally well for her collaborative efforts to digitise museum collections, most notably through the creation of The Tibet Album, British Photography in Central Tibet 1920-1950.

Professor Edwards succeeds Emeritus Professor Roger Taylor, who retired last session. Professor Taylor’s research in photographic history prepared the formation the centre, as acknowledged in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.

Professor Edwards currently leads the HERA-funded project, ‘Photographs, Colonial Legacy and Museums in Contemporary European Culture’ (PhotoCLEC), which transfers to DMU with Professor Edwards. The university is also pleased to welcome Matthew Mead, the Research Fellow associated with this project.

Both Edwards and Mead joined the university on 1 June 2011.

National Media Museum - 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, we aim to engage, inspire and educate about the world of media.

You will provide wide-ranging support to the Marketing and PR team, from general admin through to collating press cuttings and distributing marketing materials. It’s the perfect opportunity to build your knowledge of marketing and PR, learning to write copy, produce basic artwork and co-ordinate photography and filming and represent the Museum at events. Knowledge of PR/Marketing and an interest in the arts would be ideal – but if you have office experience, good organisational skills and the confidence to work with people at all levels, you’ll soon settle in.

Marketing and PR Assistant
£14,500 Bradford

To apply, please send your CV and covering letter to recruitment@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk  

Closing date: 10th June 2011
Interviews: 23rd & 24th June 2011

We welcome applications from all sections of the community in which we work. We particularly welcome applications from disabled people and we guarantee interviews to suitably qualified disabled applicants.

We regret that we can only respond to successful applicants.
No agencies please.