Blogs

The news doesn't look good for Eastman Kodak. From the Wall Street Journal: Kodak Hires Restructuring Lawyers. Eastman Kodak Co. has hired law firm Jones Day for restructuring advice as it faces growing concerns from investors over its turnaround prospects, people familiar with the matter said.

The move to hire restructuring lawyers signals Kodak is intensifying efforts to ensure it has the financial wherewithal to complete a difficult strategic and financial revamp. Shares in the 131-year-old company have lost around a third of their value this week following Kodak's disclosure that it pulled $160 million from a credit line.

That drawdown heightened concerns about the company's cash flow and triggered downgrades of its credit rating.

Kodak shares plunged Friday afternoon, down 60% in recent trading to 68 cents...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204138204576603053167627950.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories

Business Week carries some more detailed analysis: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-01/kodak-said-to-weigh-bankruptcy-to-clear-path-for-patent-sale.html 

These pictures of children from the 1950s and ‘60s, are a mere fraction of John Chillingworth’s work, but remain as fresh today as they were when picture magazines were at their zenith. In the 1950s John was a member of the ‘star’ team of photographic journalists whose images told stories for the seminal British picture magazine, Picture Post.  During the celebration of 150 years of photography, at the National Museum of Photography,Film and TV (now the National Media Museum), he was described as a ‘maker of photographic history’.

His earlier images, held by the London-based Getty Images-Hulton Archive, are still reproduced in publications around the world.  All are available to dedicated collectors of classic photography, both in the UK and abroad. “Like so many great British photographers,” says Matthew Butson, vice-president of London-based Getty Images/Hulton Archive, “the work of John Chillingworth deserves wider recognition today.”

Far from being a mere ‘journeyman’, John followed the path trodden by the great miniature camera pioneers and as he did so, helped bring a fresh dimension to the craft of ‘story-telling’ photography. It has been said that his way of seeing pictures influenced the visual development of subsequent generations of photographers.  ‘Memory Lane’ it may be for some and surprising to others, but each one of this selection of his images from around the world still has its own story to tell. 

The Innocence of Childhood Photographs by John Chillingworth Hon FRPS - 3rd October - 28th October 2011

Free Entry: Monday–Friday. 9.30–16.30

The Royal Photographic Society, Fenton House, 122 Wells Road, Bath BA2 3AH For further information please contact Lesley Goode.  01225 325720 lesley@rps.org.

Image: John Chillingworth, Whitechapel girl, London, 1953, Getty Images-Hulton Archive.

John's own website is at: www.johnchillingworth.co.uk

After the appointment of a new Director-General a few weeks ago, the Royal Photographic Society has today announced its new President. 

Roy Robertson, its first Scottish president since the Earl of Crawford in 1897, resides in Newport-on-Tay and will be replacing Rosemary Wilman at the helm of this 158-year-old institution. He will hold the position until 2013. Robertson's photographic interests include documentary, contemporary and landscape photography.

The full news article can be found here.

Photo: Copyright Robert Gates

Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the War is a compilation of 100 photographs of the American Civil War (1861-1865), made by Alexander Gardner and other photographers (Timothy O’Sullivan, John Reekie, David Knox, D.B. Woodbury etc.) in his employ. This two-volume book contained 50 hand-mounted original prints. 

I came across a blog featuring a fascinating image of London with St Paul's in the background taken in 1844 by Joseph Cundall (1818-1895) (aka Stephen Percy). He was both a Victorian children’s book publisher as well as an early pioneer of photography. Ever eager to 'network', Cundall would provide employment for many of the best artists of the day by using them as illustrators.

Together with Robert Hunt, he started the Calotype Club in 1847. His passion for photography grew when he moved to 168 New Bond Street where he founded The Photographic Institution. He was also a founder member of the Royal Photographic Society of London.

According to the blog, "One day in 1844, twenty-six year old Joseph Cundall walked from his printing shop on Old Bond Street down to the Thames River carrying the box camera he recently designed and built, along with bottles of’ silver nitrate and gallic acid. Once settled on the Blackfriars Bridge, under a black cloth, he painted the chemistry onto some writing paper that had already been treated with silver nitrate and potassium iodide and then, inserted it into the camera. Focusing on St. Paul’s Cathedral in the distance, Cundall opened the lens and made a single exposure.

This calotype (paper negative) was used later to make several positive prints, one of which was given to his friend, optician Richard Willats, who pasted it into an album. That album and what might be the earliest photograph taken by Joseph Cundall is now at Princeton University."

If you're interested in all things London during the Victorian days, there is a database of approximately 9,000 biographical entries on photographic companies and the people who worked within the photographic industry in London during the 19th century, produced in collaboration with English Heritage's National Monuments Record, on this link here.

Photo: London in 1844 (J Cundall).

A small display featuring portraits of children by Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79), one of the most influential figures in early photography, opens at the Victoria and Albert Museum's Museum of Childhood, London on 15 October 2011. It closes on 13 February 2012

The images explore Cameron’s vision of childhood, in which children are sacred and the embodiment of innocence. She strove to establish photography as an art form, using soft focus and compositions inspired by Renaissance paintings, and incorporating the irregularities of early photographic processes in her pictures. In doing so, her portraits succeed in conveying the emotional and spiritual aura of the sitter. 

After the Museum of Children showing the exhibition will move to Cameron's former home, Dimbola, on the Isle of Wight which is dedicated to her life and is home to a gallery. 

Image: Florence [Fisher], Julia Margaret Cameron, 1872, from the V+A Collection.

For more information see: http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/whats_on/exhibitions_and_displays/julia_margaret_cameron/index.html

The V+A has a small display running - curated by Marta Weiss - that explores photographs that make reference to themselves, other media and texts. It aims to demonstrate how such Postmodernist approaches to photography have persisted for over 30 years. Spanning the mid-1970s to the present day, it shows work by some of the most influential artists associated with Postmodernism, such as Cindy Sherman and Richard Prince, alongside more recent work by Anne Hardy, David Shrigley, Clare Strand and others.

The showing is show at the V+A in London until 27 November 2011 in Gallery 38A and admission is free.

See the links here for more information:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/signs-of-a-struggle-photography-in-the-wake-of-postmodernism/ 

and reviews:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/signs-of-a-struggle-vampa-london-2341103.html

http://www.timeout.com/london/art/event/235523/signs-of-a-struggle-photography-in-the-wake-of-postmodernism

http://i-donline.com/2011/08/say-cheese-in-a-postmodern-way/

Image:  Clare Strand, from the series Signs of a Struggle, 2002. Gelatin silver print.

The International Street Photography Award is looking for exceptional international photographers that display a unique style and depth of work in the genre of street photography. The genre crosses over into portraiture, documentary and art photography (see the 2011 finalists for inspiration and a guide to what defines street photography). The 2011 winners can be seen here: http://www.londonstreetphotographyfestival.org/gallery/international-street-photography-award

So what is street photography?: http://www.londonstreetphotographyfestival.org/what-is-street-photography  The London Street Photography Festival defines Street Photography as:“Candid photography which captures, explores or questions contemporary society and the relationships between individuals and their surroundings.”

Prizes and categories 

The international winner will receive £2,000 cash PLUS a solo exhibition in London PLUS an all-expenses paid trip to the exhibition launch and awards ceremony in London in June 2012 - total value £10,000. Selected finalists will be exhibited in the same gallery and one image from each entrant will be showcased in a digital display. The first 500 applicants will be automatically entered into a draw to win some fabulous prizes including: a signed print from one of the 2011 exhibitions, an Olympus PEN camera, £100 Blurb voucher, a Crumpler Muffin Top camera bag, photo-books by Magnum and Thames & Hudson. Categories include an overall winner, a runner up, and 10 finalists.

Entry fee

£30.00

• Participants from certain countries receive a 50% discount on the entrance fee.
• You can submit between 5 and 8 images within the fee.

• One image from ALL PHOTOGRAPHERS will be displayed on a large screen during the Awards exhibition and profiled (optional) on the LSPF website.



• ALL PHOTOGRAPHERS who enter will receive a £28.95 voucher to print their own book with Blurb, which expires on 31 March 2012.

• FEEDBACK: For an additional £15, LSPF can provide written feedback by an Award judge on your submissions. Choose the "Written Feedback" drop down when you submit your images to the Awards.

Register online

http://www.londonstreetphotographyfestival.org/competitions/international-award-2012/international-award-2012-info

Application deadline

05 January 2012

BPH recently took notice of a new photography festival based in Bradford (click to see the original posting). The Yorkshire Post carries an interview with Anne McNeill, the Director of Impressions Gallery, who co-founded and has been instrumental in driving the festival.

Part of the interview by Nick Ahad is shown below: 

McNeill has led a consortium which will create the city-wide festival showcasing the work of leading contemporary photographers in established venues, pop-up sites, and in public spaces around the city.

McNeill has high hopes for the festival. “We really do think Bradford can become the UK’s top destination for photography,” says McNeill.

You’d be forgiven for raising your eyebrows at this statement. That Bradford is beleaguered, there is no doubt. McNeill, who moved Impressions Gallery to the city from York, says it is time for a change in attitude when it comes to Bradford – and a city-wide, month-long photography festival can play a major part in achieving that.

“I think the reputation of Bradford is a misperception. People perceive Bradford as a certain thing, as a city on its uppers, but it has beautiful buildings, the university, it has been named the City of Film and it has this great swell of cultural activity happening all around the city.”

The seeds were sown for next month’s festival over a decade ago, when a similar photography festival took place across Yorkshire in 1998. A decade later, McNeill combined with Nicola Stephenson, director of Leeds based Culture Company to run another photography festival which ran in venues in Bradford and Leeds in 2008.

McNeill says: “Having a festival spread between two cities was confusing for visitors, who didn’t understand why or how a festival could run in two different places. We knew there was an impetus to do something like this, but realised the way to make the festival a success would be to have it based around a single city in and around the city centre.”

It was a good idea, clearly and a consortium was pulled together, with partners including Leeds Met and The National Media Museum. An application was made to the Arts Council, which stumped up £100,000 to fund the festival.

McNeill says it was enormously encouraging that, in a time of stringent cuts, the Arts Council had the faith in the project to invest such an amount.

With the funding in place, you’d be forgiven for thinking Leeds might be the obvious venue for a cultural event of this magnitude but, despite a number of Leeds-based companies involved in the consortium organising the festival, Bradford, it was agreed, with its history in photography and with a national museum dedicated to the art form, was the natural home for Ways of Looking.

The venues taking part include Gallery II, Impressions Gallery, National Media Museum, the Hungarian Cultural and Social Centre and there will be photographs on billboards around the city.

The quality of the artists taking part is impressive, with Turner Prize winners Douglas Gordon and Jeremy Deller, renowned Magnum photographer Donovan Wylie, and photographer Red Saunders all working to the festival theme of Evidence.

The full report and interview can be read here: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/lifestyle/the-arts/art/bradford_is_perfect_home_for_new_photo_festival_1_3804604

'

Image: Peasants Revolt 1381, 2010 by Red Saunders at Impressions Gallery.

The Natural History Museum in London will be hosting a groundbreaking new exhibition in 2012 exploring the captivating story of Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s last expedition to Antarctica in 1910-1913, the Terra Nova expedition. 

The exhibition goes beyond the familiar tales of the journey to the South Pole and the death of the Polar Party to explore the Terra Nova expedition from different perspectives. It will reveal powerful stories of human endeavour and struggles for survival, and celebrates the expedition's scientific achievements. At the centre of the exhibition will be a stylised representation of Scott’s Terra Nova expedition hut that still survives in Antarctica today.

To commemorate the centenary of the expedition and celebrate its achievements, there is a chance to relive the daily events of the Terra Nova Expedition, as recorded by Robert Falcon Scott in his famous journal.  Dividing the text into daily blog entries - combined with a twitter account and RSS feed - and linking to the famous photographs held in the Scott Polar Research Institute, means that the latest communication technology will add an extra dimension to a well known text: the dimension of time. It will follow the expedition's progress day by day, over many months, beginning with its departure from New Zealand, and ending with its tragic and heroic conclusion.

twitter.com/scottslastexp   RSS Feed

The Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge will also be running a series of exhibitions and events to mark the centenary over the next 12 months (spri.cam.ac.uk/museum). You can also watch a video here which includes rare photographs, BBC archive footage of the Antarctic, and interviews with polar historians and scientists. They explore the legacy of Capt Scott's Terra Nova expedition, bringing to life the experiences of the men who took part.

The NHM exhibition opens on 20th January 2012, and further details will be posted in BPH shortly. If you can't wait for this, there is another exhibition entitled "The Heart of the Great Alone" opening in London next month, details which can be found here.

Photo: Installation of Scott's last Expedition at The Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney.

Mention was made here of Tripe photographs being  offered by Bonhams. Sotheby's has now revealed that it will be offering an important cache of previously unseen Tripe material. 

Sotheby's London is pleased to announce that it will offer for sale a remarkable group of more than 220 newly-discovered photographs by Linnaeus Tripe depicting India and Burma in the mid-1850s, including 42 images of which no other prints are recorded, and five previously unknown photographs.

Tripe was one of the greatest photographers working in India in the 19th Century and this is the largest single collection of his photographs ever to have been offered for sale. Tripe’s Views of Mysore of 1854 (estimated at £100,000-200,000) and his Views of Burma of 1855 (estimated at £200,000-300,000*) are highlights of Sotheby’s Travel, Atlases, Maps and Natural History Sale on 15th November 2011.

These extraordinary photographs were presented by Tripe to the Governor-General of India, the 1st Marquess of Dalhousie, and have come by descent to the present owner. They have not been seen by scholars for 150 years and are being offered for sale for the first time.Sotheby’s Specialist Richard Fattorini said: “This is a ground-breaking discovery and represents the largest group of photographs by Linnaeus Tripe ever to be offered for sale. These rare and beautiful images, printed by Tripe from waxed paper negatives, will rewrite the scholarship on his work. The images are among the first photographs taken of Mysore and Rangoon. They were presented by Tripe to the 1st Marquess of Dalhousie, the Governor-General of India, who sent Tripe as part of the Mission to Ava in 1855 as an “Artist in Photography”.

The title was apt - Tripe was truly an artist in his medium, with an extraordinary compositional eye. Linnaeus Tripe (1822-1902) is one of the most important photographic innovators of the 19th century. His works are often stylised and his subtle use of light and shade remarkably accomplished. Tripe was also a master of photographic printing. He used albumenized paper and hyposulphite of gold as a toning agent, which gives his best preserved works a wonderfully rich violet hue. While on leave from the Army in December 1854, Tripe embarked on a private expedition from Bangalore, accompanied by fellow amateur photographer Dr A.C.B. Neill.

Tripe recorded a series of views of little-known Hindu and Jain temples in Mysore. The photographs in the series are the earliest views of India by Tripe to be recorded. These, and Dr Neil’s images, are the earliest photographs made of the sites. The set includes 56 albumen prints, of which nearly every image is signed by Tripe in ink. It contains 26 unique prints, including three previously unknown photographs for which the negatives have not survived. Of the remaining 30 prints, only one or two other prints by Tripe have been previously recorded. The only other set of Tripe’s Views of Mysore known to exist, but comprising just 22 prints, is held by the J. Paul Getty Museum in the United States of America.Colossal statue of Gantama, Amarapoora. In April 1855, Lord Dalhousie recommended that a political trip to Amerapoora (Amarapura), Burma, take place following the 1852 Anglo-Burmese War. An artist had been intended to accompany the group, but it was decided photography was a more suitable medium for accurate documentation of architecture and Tripe was employed on Lord Dalhousie’s recommendation.

This presentation set of 134 albumen prints including two 2-part folding panoramas, is the largest single group of Tripe’s Burma photographs and are among the first photographs taken in that country. They include wonderful images of religious and secular architecture in the capital, as well as palace remains at Ava and the remarkable Shwe Dagon Pagoda at Rangoon (pictured, page one).This unique set, of which nearly every image is signed by Tripe, contains 13 unique prints, including two newly discovered and previously unseen photographs for which the negatives have not survived. They are preserved in the original blue morocco presentation portfolio.Also in the sale is another group of 36 photographs of Burma by Tripe, from the same consignor, estimated at £40,000-60,000.

On October 17th 1874, Kingston born photographer Eadweard Muybridge shot dead the drama critic of The San Francisco Post, Harry Larkyns, with a single bullet from a Smith and Wesson No 2 revolver. A jury, convinced by lawyers under the patronage of railroad magnate Leland Stanford, acquitted him of “justifiable homicide” and Muybridge went on to photograph and publish his outstanding 1887 work “Animal Locomotion” in eleven volumes and 781 plates measuring 19 1/8 inches by 24 3/8, composed from over 20,000 gelatin dry plate individual glass negatives, printed as paper collotype photographs of men, women, children, horses, and other animals shot sequentially for the first time in stop motion and full photographic resolution.

Commissioned and organized by the University of Pennsylvania the work comprised: Vols. 1–2 Males (nude), Vols. 3–4 Females (nude), Vol. 5 Males (pelvic cloth), Vol 6 Females & Children (semi-nude and transparent drapery), Vol. 7 Males & Females (draped) & Miscellaneous Subjects, Vol 8 Abnormal Movements Males & Females (nude and semi-nude), Vol. 9 Horses, Vol. 10 Domestic Animals and Vol. 11 Wild Animals & Birds.

Muybridge’s plates were to be sold as full sets by subscription, in individual folders of an “Author’s Edition” of 20, and were also offered in a 100 – plate “Subscription” set where the buyer could choose plates from a prospectus. Copper collotype plates for the work were prepared by the Photo -Gravure Co. of New York City and the “Elephant Folio” books were printed by J.B. Lippincott of Philadelphia. Complete copies were sold for $500 unbound and $550 in leather. The attenuated version, bound in “full Russia leather” was priced at $100 plus + $1 per additional plate.

Only 47 complete sets of Animal Locomotion were ever completed on commission. Housed today in museums and libraries around the world, exhibited in galleries such as London’s Tate Britain, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, London’s Victoria & Albert, they have been described as ‘the eighth wonder of the world” for their analysis of human and animal movement in all its wonder and eccentricities.

“Muybridge’s Revolver” at London’s Horse Hospital (http://www.thehorsehospital.com/now/muybridge%e2%80%99s-revolver/) is a rare opportunity to re-examine Eadweard Muybridge’s “Animal Locomotion” in an “Author’s Edition” accompanied by a selection of projected animations taken from original plates, culminating on the 2nd October with a live performance finale installation to Muybridge’s moving images from sound archeologist Aleksander Kolkowski of the Recording Angels, accompanied by Marek Pytel’s film “Eadweard Muybridge” premiered in 2010 at the British Library. Also rare screenings of Thom Andersen’s “Eadweard Muybridge Zoopraxographer” (1974) on the 27th September, and a discussion evening on the 14th with renowned Muybridge and pre cinema chronophotographic specialist Stephen Herbert.

A selection of original “Animal Locomotion” plates on exhibition will be offered, framed, for purchase and a further 60 original plates, also framed, for sale by prospectus.

www.realityfilm.co.uk

The Swiss Eduard Spelterini (1852-1931) was perhaps Europe's greatest pioneer of ballooning in the late 19th and early 20th century. He was the first to cross in a balloon and photograph from the air the Alps in 1898 and to take aerial photographs of the pyramids of Giza, ancient Persian cities and South Africa's gold mines.

Born an inn-keeper's son in a remote village in Switzerland he lived an extraordinary life and became an international celebrity as an aeronaut and socialised with Europe's rich and noble of the Belle Epoque. What makes Spelterini interesting and important are his achievements in aerial photography.

The talented and soon accomplished photographer made the camera a firm part of his balloon equipment from 1893. A vast number of his sensational images have been coloured in an elaborate technique at the time and were used by Spelterini to illustrate the many hundred lectures he gave about his travels and expeditions in many countries. A sequel to 'Eduard Spelterini - Photographs of a Pioneer Balloonist', this new book presents a selection of around 80 of these coloured photographs.

The remarkable quality of the colouring enables an altogether new view at Spelterini's spectacular work as a photographer. The pictures in 'Eduard Spelterini and the Spectacle of Images' are complemented by essays on historical and technical aspects of photography and air travel by expert authors.

You can pick up a copy of this book using the Amazon link on the right.

Photo: From the book "Eduard Spelterini and the Spectacle of Images".

Photographs from the 1869—1870 Polynesian excursion of the French Navy Commander, Paul-Émile Miot (1827—1900) An elaborate, handsome book of formerly unpublished photographs, drawings and objects from Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands. When the French Navy Commander Paul-Émile Miot was sent to Oceania on the Astréein 1869, he took his camera equipment along, as he had on his previous expeditions including the one to Newfoundland.

The photographs taken on the Polynesian journey and published for the first time in this illustrated volume are unique, not only because they are the first photographic record of the South Sea people.

The distinctive, complex compositions and the fond eye with which he stages the portraits, make his photographs rare historical documents.

Miot’s photographs are neither an artist’s „snapshots“ of exotic scenery nor a journalist’s academic documentation of a foreign place. With his photographs, he seems to have captured the essence of a paradise, the last paradise as the 19th Century Western World imagined it to be.

His formal portraits of the Tahitians are iconic likenesses from an era of transition from painting to photography. In remote Polynesia, this development took place 30 years later than in Northern America and Europe.

If the book is of interest, you can purchase it through the Amazon link on the right.

I am one of the world's largest private photography dealers and am interested in all areas of photo history from early 19th-century to contemporary. In the 19th-century area, I have a particular interest in quality early paper, including salt prints and paper negatives. I have one of the largest and most diverse paper negative collections (and early glass negatives--prior to 1865--as well) in private hands.  Besides the 19th-century, my photographic interests extend to Between-the-Wars material and other 20th-century images, particularly European, to today's contemporary art photography market.

I am a member of AIPAD, the Daguerreian Society, and a founding member of the Getty Museum's Photography Council.

I also write the E-Photo Newsletter, which has the largest circulation of any publication devoted to Photography Collecting.

My websites include:

http://www.iphotocentral.com

http://www.vintageworks.net

http://www.contemporaryworks.net

Linnaeus Tripe (1822-1902) was a career army officer in the Madras establishment of the East India Company. In June 1855, Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General, recommended that Tripe be appointed to Arthur Phayre's mission to Ava. The climate, bad weather and Tripe's health meant that he had to telescope what he expected to accomplish in four months into thirty-six days, during which he made two hundred and nineteen negatives. Most of these are of the temple architecture at Amarapura, the capital of Upper Burma, or along the Irrawaddy, and in Rangoon.
On his return to Bangalore, Tripe assisted by Henry Yule, (who was to publish an account of the mission), chose one hundred and twenty negatives of which Tripe was required to produce fifty sets. This took most of 1856, (during which some of the negatives were spoiled by the sun's heat), after which each had to be mounted.

Next month, one of these volumes, containing 112 photos, will be under the hammer at Bonhams. The auctioneers expect the Lot to fetch a high price of between £70,000 and £90,000 because very few complete or near complete sets were believed to have survived.

Details of this lot can be found here.

The following site give a good description of the current exhibition at the National Museum of Fine Arts which includes 22 John Thomson images acknowledging the source from which the origination was taken (by me!) courtesy of the Wellcome Trust Library which takes an extremely enlightened view with regard for the use of their material for academic purposes, in particular, when and where the images are of the host country in this instance: Taiwan

See: http://taiwanreview.nat.gov.tw/fp.asp?xItem=163462&ctNode=1342

Photograph: An Aboriginal Mother and Child, Formosa was taken by John Thomson in 1871. (© Wellcome Library)