Blogs

This is an exciting opportunity for a talented Press Officer, with proven contacts from within the arts media, to join the Press team in one of the world's most prestigious museums, the Science Museum in London. Our enthusiastic and committed Press team is constantly devising new, innovative ways to promote the Museum, its exhibitions and programmes. We create campaigns that not only win awards, but attract visitors and reflect the cutting-edge nature of this high-profile national institution.

You will develop and implement an integrated communications campaign for Media Space, an iconic new space in the Science Museum opening in spring 2013. Showcasing the world leading collection of the National Media Museum and the innovative Science Museum contemporary arts programme, the space includes a temporary exhibition space which will hold a charged offer as well as a constantly changing free offer.

In addition to your extensive contacts, you will bring substantial experience working within an arts-focused cultural environment. You must also be able to demonstrate experience managing the reputation of an organisation.

You’ll be able use your creativity and enthusiasm to the full - researching, structuring and managing Press and PR campaigns, building and maintaining strong relationships with the media, and proactively seeking opportunities to increase on and off line media coverage of the Museum’s activities. With proven journalism, PR or communications experience, you’ve got the writing, communication, planning, persuasion and “selling in” skills necessary to get first-rate PR campaigns up and running.

Evening and weekend work will occasionally be required as part of your core hours.

We offer excellent benefits. These include 25 days’ annual leave pro rata, BUPA dental and medical cover and a generous company pension scheme.

This role will be offered on a two-year fixed-term contract.
Closes Midnight 9th July

PLEASE NOTE: Interviews will be conducted on 17th July and you must be available to attend if shortlisted.Application Instructions:For the full job description and to apply, please visit www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/jobs

BPH has learnt that a major private collection of early photography - perhaps the world's best - is to be transferred to an institution. After briefly blogging this earlier today BPH was asked to remove the posting until the official announcement is made. Needless to say it is good news in that such a major collection will be preserved and made accessible. The collection owner describes the venue as "a wonderful home".

Watch this space!  

The 'world first photograph' will be loaned, along with 119 other images and photography-related items from the Harry Ransom Center’s Gernsheim collection, to the Reiss Engelhorn Museum in Mannheim, Germany, for the exhibition The Birth of Photography-Highlights of the Helmut Gernsheim Collection. The exhibition will run from September 9 through January 6, 2013.

The First Photograph has been removed from display at the Ransom Center to be prepared for its departure in July. The First Photograph will be back on display at the Ransom Center in February 2013.

The First Photograph was acquired by the Ransom Center as part of the Gernsheim collection from Helmut and Alison Gernsheim in 1963. Taken in 1826 or 1827, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce’s View from the Window at Le Gras depicts the view from an upstairs window at Niépce’s estate, Le Gras, which is in the Burgundy region of France. Niépce’s photograph represents the foundation of today’s photography, film, and other media arts.

The First Photograph forms the cornerstone of Helmut Gernsheim’s photographic collection, which was the largest in the world when the Ransom Center acquired it in 1963. The Gernsheim collection is one of the seminal collections in the United States of the history of photography and contains an unparalleled range of more than 35,000 images. Its encyclopedic scope—as well as the expertise with which the Gernsheims assembled the collection — makes the Gernsheim collection one of the world’s premier sources for the study and appreciation of photography

In 2002, the Forum International Photographie at the Reiss Engelhorn Museum acquired Gernsheim’s later collection of contemporary photography, along with his own photographs and archive. For the first time in half a century, major portions of both Gernsheim collections are being reunited: the historical material housed in the Ransom Center and the contemporary collection in the Forum International Photographie at the Reiss Engelhorn Museum.

While the First Photograph is on loan, the photographic print View from the Window at Le Gras, 1826, 2009 by Adam Schreiber will occupy the display in the Ransom Center’s lobby. The photograph depicts the Niepce plate in situ in the museum display, as photographed by Schreiber in 2009. Schreiber is a member of the Lakes Were Rivers artist collective, a group of artists who work primarily in photography and video. In summer 2013, the Ransom Center will host an exhibition in which members of the collective will display their original works paired with Ransom Center collection material that inspired them.

The European Centre for Photographic Research (eCPR), Newport, is offering two PhD studentships in conjunction with other partners: 

Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru-National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, is offering one PhD studentship full-time maintenance grant of £13,590 plus tuition fees from September 2012 for up to 3 years. The studentship is designed to support research undertaken within the photographic collections of the Library in relation to eCPR’s research strands.

The Library has extensive photographic holdings particular to the social documentary of Wales ranging from pioneering experiments in the medium during the 1840s and 50s, to date. It is expected that the successful candidate’s research will contribute to the interpretation, cataloguing and digitisation of the Library's extensive collections. Candidates for the studentship should have strong interests in the multiple currency of photographs within libraries and have already undertaken work in museums, libraries or archives at post-graduate level. An interest in either: photographic histories and wider visual cultures of Wales, curating, photography and the book, digitisation, and the representation of nationhood would be advantageous.

Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales offers one 3-year full-time PhD studentship of £13,590 per year, plus tuition fees, from September 2012. The project will link key strands within eCPR’s research expertise to the historical photographic collections of the Museum. With the support of a major gift from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Museum has recently begun a significant programme of research, digitisation and public dissemination centred on a wealth of hitherto unresearched historic photographic holdings. The successful candidate’s research will contribute to the interpretation, cataloguing and digitisation of this diverse and unique resource.

Candidates for the studentship should have strong interests in the evolving and shifting status of photographs within museums as art, artefact and document, and experience of postgraduate-level work in museums or archives. An interest in either: photographic histories and wider visual cultures of Wales, curating, photography and The Museum, digitisation, and the representation of nationhood would be advantageous.

Further details of eCPR’s research activity can be found here: www.newport.ac.uk/research/ResearchGroups/ecpr
The successful candidates will be expected to submit a completed PhD by the end of the award period in September
2015. There will be need for extensive work on site in both the Library and the Museum and to participate in eCPR’s research community. A willingness to engage with the Welsh language would also be welcome.

The doctoral supervisory team will include: Russell Roberts (russell.roberts@newport.ac.uk), Mark Durden and Ian Walker.

Application deadline: extended to 31 July 2012

Applications should be in the form of a single document (Word or PDF) including:
- CV
- Statement of proposed research (max 1,000 words)
- Personal statement on how the proposed research relates to your previous experience and
interests (max 500 words)
Please note only shortlisted candidates will be notified and interviews are expected to take place in
July
Applications should be sent via email to: Joan Fothergill – joan.fothergill@newport.ac.uk

English Heritage has launched a four year project aimed at conserving 95,000 of the oldest and most valuable photographs in the Aerofilms collection, those dating from 1919 to 1953.  Once conserved, they’ll be scanned into digital format and made available online for everyone to see.

The new Britain from Above website was launched in June 2012 with thousands of images online. The website will give users the opportunity to share and record  memories of the places shown and to help English Heritage identify some of the locations and buildings.

The project will finish at the end of 2014.

See: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/professional/archives-and-collections/nmr/archives/photographs/aerofilms/ and http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/

The Royal Astronomical Society has announced the death of Peter Hingley, the Librarian at its Burlington House headquarters. Peter had an extraordinary knowledge of historical astronomical documents and will be missed by all who knew him. Although not a photographic historian per se Hingley had a detailed knowledge of photography and how it related to astronomy (see: http://www.ras.org.uk/library/images) along with personalities who straddled both disciplines. He published and lectured on early photography and astronomy.

See: http://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/219-news-2012/2138-peter-hingley-1951-2012

The Ransom Center has appointed Jessica S. McDonald, a curator of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, as its new chief curator of photography. McDonald begins her position at the Ransom Center in September.

As the Nancy Inman and Marlene Nathan Meyerson Curator of Photography, McDonald will oversee a collection that spans from the world’s earliest-known photograph to prints from some of the great masters of the twenty-first century. The Center’s photography holdings include the Helmut and Alison Gernsheim collection, a seminal collection of the history of photography and one of the world’s premier sources for the study and appreciation of photography.

In addition to the history of photography, the Ransom Center’s photography collection focuses on photojournalism and documentary photography, with holdings of more than 5 million prints and negatives, supplemented by books, manuscripts, journals, and memorabilia of photographers.

“McDonald’s broad experiences —  from teaching to curatorial — confirmed that she can lead our photography department, build the collection, support research, and plan exhibitions,” said Ransom Center Director Thomas F. Staley. “The possibilities under her guidance are exciting.”

McDonald’s professional experience includes affiliations with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Visual Studies Workshop and George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. In 2011, McDonald received an Ansel Adams Research Fellowship from the Center for Creative Photography.

McDonald recently curated the exhibition Photography in Mexico: Selected Works from the Collections of SFMOMA and Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauserand edited the anthology Nathan Lyons: Selected Essays, Lectures, and Interviews, which University of Texas Press published in June.

Image: Jessica S. McDonald. © Caren Alpert Photography.

Along with a group of other keenly interested visitors we were treated to a feast of wonderful Fox Talbot and Calotype treasures (Including access to the fantastic Hill and Adamson Album).

On the train in to London in the morning I typed Fox Talbot into my Kindle store search engine and was delighted to find the text of the Pencil of Nature can be downloaded as a free edition.  Having just read Talbots narrative in which he looks forward in places far sightedly to the possibilities that photography would offer in the future, I had the privilege to hold a copy of the book in my hands only a few hours later!  Amazing. 

Many Thanks John for both your excellent presentation and the chance to see these treasures first hand.

London Festival of Photography

http://www.lfph.org/

The Royal Collection is advertising for two new positions within the photograph collection: a Cataloguer (2 year contract), and a paid Curatorial Intern position (9 months). Details are currently live on the British Monarchy website, and can be accessed via this link: http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/about/working-for-us

The closing date for applications for both positions flexible.

Cataloguer

Location

Windsor Castle

Grade

24

Starting Salary

c. £19,436 per annum, plus benefits

Hours of work

35

Contract Type

Fixed-term

Position start date

10 Sep 2012

Position end date

9 Sep 2014

Curatorial Intern

Location

Windsor Castle

Starting Salary

£12,500.00 pro rata

Contract Type

Fixed-term

Position start date

8 Oct 2012

Position end date

6 Jul 2013

Greetings all. I have recently acquired the attached photograph. The image, removed from an album containing other images from Britain c. 1855, is mounted on thin paper and appears to be a salt print -- possibly from a paper negative. Unfortunately there are no notations identifying location, date, or maker. Any help identifying this photograph will be greatly appreciated. 

This very interesting image turned up in a provincial general auction today. Does anyone have any thoughts on date, participants or the cameras?

Hello all

I am hoping there might be images of the Tasmanian section of the  1862 International Exhibition in London that anyone could direct me to web-link-wise, or otherwise. I am further hoping to be able to see/identify the busts and subjects of photographs that were listed as exhibited - a long shot I know !

Also I would really appreciate help to find/obtain a listing of all the Tasmanian exhibits/exhibitors, because I have only found a partial list to date.

thanks very much for any help

Julie

Originally published in 1858, the world's largest photo book was sold at auction this week for £337,250 from its original estimate of  £50,000 – £70,000. The book is made up of 20, un-enlarged prints of Egypt, Sinai and Jerusalem taken by Frith during a trip Frith took to the Middle East in 1856 using the wet collodion process. Each measure a colossal 30in x 21in.

Details can be found here and here: 

70^•

• An excellent copy of Frith's mammoth masterpiece with images measuring 490 x 390mm. "This is the largest book with the biggest, unenlarged prints ever published" (Gernsheim)

Consisting of 6,000 photographs, 56 cameras and 100 rare books owned by Pinhole Resource LLC, this collection has been keenly vied by Eastman House, the Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin, the Center for Creative Photography in Phoenix, and a number of other world institutions.

But it has finally found a home in the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives at the New Mexico History Museum. The acquisition is a big step for the Palace Archives, which is looking to move away from strictly historical photography. At the moment, it is accessible only to those who want to look at it for academic and professional purposes, but more than 906 of the images also have been digitized and can be searched by visiting http://econtent.unm.edu/cdm4/indexpg.php and clicking on "Browse Pinhole Resource Collection."

The museum plans to host an exhibit of the photographs in April 2014, which will be titled Poetics of Light, to coincide with World Pinhole Day, last celebrated on 29th April. Further details can be found on this news report here.

Photo: Digital imaging specialist Mark Scharen shows New Mexico History Museum marketing manager Kate Nelson a pinhole camera that the museum has acquired as part of the largest collection of pinhole photography in the world. The homemade prototype zone plate camera is among dozens donated to the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives by the nonprofit Pinhole Resource LLC. - Natalie Guillén/The New Mexican

The British Library has secured the Dillwyn Llewelyn/Story-Maskelyne photographic archive which was offered to any United Kingdom institution under the government’s acceptance in lieu scheme.

The Dillwyn Llewelyn/Story-Maskelyne photographic archive is a significant addition to the Library’s collection and enhances and supports the 2006 donation of Talbot material by Petronella and Janet Burnett-Brown and other members of the Talbot Family Trust. The British Library has further enhanced its position as the leading centre for material relating to Talbot and his circle of early photographers.

The Dillwyn Llewelyn/Story-Maskelyne photographic archive, approx 164 early photographic prints in 5 photograph albums (including W.H. Fox Talbot, High Street Oxford), 50 glass negatives, the memoirs and journals of Thereza Story-Maskelyne in 10 volumes (the memoirs including a further 52 early photographs), photographic research papers of Nevil Story-Maskelyne in 2 portfolios, and related albums and papers.

John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810-1882) initiated his first photographic experiments -- prompted by news of the activities of William Henry Fox Talbot (a cousin by marriage) -- at his house at Penlle’r-gaer (usually spelled Penllergare by the family), near Swansea, in February 1839, and daguerreotypes of his family and house survive from as early as the following year. He claimed (in a letter to Fox Talbot) to have been familiar with all the known photographic processes, and in 1856 announced his own innovation, the oxymel process, ‘a mixture of honey and vinegar, whereby the collodion plates of the period could be prepared some time before use and developed when the photographer returned home’ (ODNB). He was on the first council of the London Photographic Society, and was awarded a silver medal of honour at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1855 for his instantaneous photographs.

The photograph albums in the archive not only provide an important, family collection of some of Dillwyn Llewelyn’s best-known images, but also demonstrate the extent to which the whole Dillwyn Llewelyn family and its wider offshoots participated in the experiments, either as subjects or as photographers: amongst the identified images are photographs by his sister, Mary Dillwyn, his son-in-law, the mineralogist Nevil Story-Maskelyne (grandson of the astronomer royal, whose photographs often depict the family house at Basset Down, Wiltshire), and at least three of his children.

Dillwyn Llewelyn’s daughter, Thereza Story-Maskelyne, was closely involved with his photographic activities, and was also an active amateur astronomer – both activities highly unusual for a woman of the period; she combined both fields in the pioneering telescopic photographs of the moon which she took with her father in the mid-1850s. Thereza’s memoirs and journals in the present archive are a rich source of information on her scientific career, and include not only an important series of photographic prints, but also her own watercolours of comets and other phenomena from the 1850s onwards.

The acquisition builds on an important earlier gift to the British Library of the work of Nevil Story-Maskelyne (1823-1911), which included paper negatives, salted paper and albumen prints, collodion on mica negatives and research papers on early photography. The additional material now acquired – which includes a series of Story-Maskelyne’s wet collodion negatives, as well as prints and other papers – brings together the largest surviving archive of the work of an important- if undeservedly little-known - photographer. The journals of his wife Thereza contain many references to the photographic practises of the Llewelyn and Story-Maskelyne families and will form a rich primary resource for the study of this formative period of British photography.

Images: from top:

1. Portrait (self-portrait?) of Nevil Story-Maskelyne, late 1840s (reproduction from the original calotype negative.
   
   
2. John Dillwyn Llewelyn, Thereza Llewelyn and dickies, mid-1850s (salted paper print).
   
   
3. John Dillwyn Llewelyn, Gipsies – Palmistry, mid-1850s (albumenised salted paper print
   
   
4. John Dullwyn Llewelyn, Costume of Glamorganshire, mid-1850s (albumenised salted paper print).
   
   

Courtesy: John Falconer / British Library

Dawn of Japanese photography[II]. Tokyo 2011. Soft Cover 21 x 30 cm. 89 pages. with 30 images of which 20 are photographs. A series of articles, the lead article:'Photography and the Prusian Expedition to Japan 1860-1861', both in English and Japanese [pages 22 to 66]. Pages 3 to 22 photography pages. Pages 66 to 89 2 smaller articles only in Japanese.

The British Library has secured the Dillwyn Llewelyn/Storey-Maskelyne photographic archive which was offered to any United Kingdom institution under the government’s acceptance in lieu scheme which enables taxpayers to transfer important works of art and other heritage objects into public ownership while paying Inheritance Tax, or one of its earlier forms. The taxpayer is given the full open market value of the item, which is then allocated to a public museum, archive or library.

The Dillwyn Llewelyn/Storey-Maskelyne photographic archive is a significant addition to the Library’s collection and enhances and supports the 2006 donation of Talbot material by Petronella and Janet Burnett-Brown and other members of the Talbot Family Trust. The British Library has further enhanced its position as the leading centre for material relating to Talbot and his circle of early photographers.

The Dillwyn Llewelyn/Storey-Maskelyne photographic archive, approx 164 early photographic prints in 5 photograph albums (including W.H. Fox Talbot, High Street Oxford), 50 glass negatives, the memoirs and journals of Thereza Story-Maskelyne in 10 volumes (the memoirs including a further 52 early photographs), photographic research papers of Nevil Story-Maskelyne in 2 portfolios, and related albums and papers.

John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810-1882) initiated his first photographic experiments -- prompted by news of the activities of William Henry Fox Talbot (a cousin by marriage) -- at his house at Penlle’r-gaer (usually spelled Penllergare by the family), near Swansea, in February 1839, and daguerreotypes of his family and house survive from as early as the following year. He claimed (in a letter to Fox Talbot) to have been familiar with all the known photographic processes, and in 1856 announced his own innovation, the oxymel process, ‘a mixture of honey and vinegar, whereby the collodion plates of the period could be prepared some time before use and developed when the photographer returned home’ (ODNB). He was on the first council of the London Photographic Society, and was awarded a silver medal of honour at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1855 for his instantaneous photographs.

The photograph albums and negatives in the archive not only provide an important, family collection of some of Dillwyn Llewelyn’s best-known images, but also demonstrate the extent to which the whole Dillwyn Llewelyn family and its wider offshoots participated in the experiments,

either as subjects or as photographers: amongst the identified images are photographs by his sister, Mary Dillwyn, his son-in-law, the mineralogist Nevil Story-Maskelyne (grandson of the astronomer royal, whose photographs often depict the family house at Basset Down, Wiltshire), and at least three of his children.

Dillwyn Llewelyn’s daughter, Thereza Story-Maskelyne, was closely involved with his photographic activities, and was also an active amateur astronomer – both activities highly unusual for a woman of the period; she combined both fields in the pioneering telescopic photographs of the moon which she took with her father in the mid-1850s. Thereza’s memoirs and journals in the present archive are a rich source of information on her scientific career, and include not only an important series of photographic prints, but also her own watercolours of comets and other phenomena from the 1850s onwards.

No wish or condition as to the permanent allocation of the photographic material had been expressed by the offerors.

This year's Photomonth, thanks to the jubilee, will be unique in many respects! As every year, many eminent authors and specialists have been invited to co-operate with the Festival, and the Photomonth in Krakow programme will include dozens of exhibitions and events. The exhibitions will be presented in parallel in the Krakow’s best exhibition halls and public areas, and the events (meetings, workshops, projections, lectures, and urban games) will be an integral part of them. Photomonth in Krakow’s entire programme is absolutely pulsing with the keyword of this year's Festival: JOIN US! Join us, celebrate our birthday, celebrate photography!

Photomonth in Krakow’s 10th birthday will be graced by magnificent exhibitions by unquestioned stars of both older and contemporary world photography. This year's MAIN PROGRAM includes exhibitions by Alexander Rodchenko, Jerzy Lewczyński, Sally Mann, Sergey Bratkov, and photographs of celebrities from the collection of Cezary Pieczyński.

http://www.photomonth.com/index.php/en/page/1/aktualnosci.html

Alfred Maudslay, Photography and the Mimetic Technologies of Archaeology: A Study in Method, Process and Effect / Photographic History Research Centre, De Montfort University, Leicester/ British Museum, London. An AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award studentship, starting October 2012,  covering stipend and tuition fee costs is offered within the Photographic History Research Centre (PHRC) in the Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities in collaboration with the British Museum.

The project addresses the practices of photography in relation to the task of documentation and recording in the field of Maya archaeology in the late 19th Century. Its focus is a series of 1513 photographs made by Alfred Maudslay in Mexico and Guatemala for thirteen years between 1881 and 1894, notably at Copán, Palenque, and Yaxchilán. The project will explore the ways in which Maudslay used photography to constitute the qualities of archaeological objectivity and observation, in the production of 'evidence' and archaeological knowledge. It will also explore how the established truth values of this mimetic technology were employed to fuel the burgeoning public interest in ancient archaeological sites and civilisations, establishing a broader visual rhetoric for the 'uncovering' of the Maya past. The project will also explore the methodological implications for a ‘photographic history’ approach to collections and institutions.

The focus will be on the British Museum’s outstanding collection of negatives, casts and paper squeezes made by Maudslay. The PhD studentship will be based at DMU’s  Photographic History Research Centre  (PHRC) within the Faculty of Art Design and Humanities. PHRC undertakes innovative research on photography and its practices from the early nineteenth century to the present day, and over a wide range of social and cultural processes, networks of photographic knowledge, science and technology, aesthetic, evidential and informational values and institutional practices.

Supervision will be available from Professor Elizabeth Edwards (DMU) and key members of British Museum staff who have active interests in photography, history, archaeology and collections history.  The studentship will be based at DMU Leicester, with extended London-based periods of study at the British Museum and related archives.  PHRC is a dynamic and growing research community. The successful candidate will be expected to contribute to the development of this community and that at the British Museum.

Candidates might come from a range of possible disciplines: archaeology (not necessarily Meso-American), art history, history of photography, science and technology studies, visual anthropology, and visual culture studies. A reading knowledge of Spanish would be an advantage.

For a more detailed description of the PHRC please visit our web site or contact Professor Edwards (eedwards@dmu.ac.uk) who will be happy to discuss the studentship further.

This research opportunity builds on DMU’s excellent past achievements and is looking forward to REF2014 and beyond. It will develop both the university’s and the British Museum’s research capacity into new and evolving areas of study, enhancing DMU’s national and international research partnerships.

Applications are invited from UK or eligible EU/overseas students  (see http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Documents/GuidetoStudentFunding.pdf Annex A) with a good first degree (First, 2:1 or equivalent) and MA in a relevant subject. The CDA scholarship is available for three years full-time study starting October 2012, providing a bursary for both maintenance  (currently c. £13,500) and fees.

To receive an application pack, please contact the Faculty Research Office via email at ADHresearch&innovation@dmu.ac.uk.  Completed applications should be returned together with a full CV, two supporting references, a statement explaining your interest in the project, and an example of your written work of c.3000 words.

Please quote ref: AHRC/CDA/PHRC12

CLOSING DATE: June 25^th 2012. Interview date: July 2^nd 2012

National Photography Month  2012 is the UK's first nationwide month long celebration of photography. The Photo Marketing Association and Photo Imaging Council are behind this new initiative to help the public understand and appreciate the importance of photogaphy as a medium to 'capture and keep' their treasured memories and life's most important moments.

Backed by companies and organisations across the photographic world including National Geographic and the Royal Photography Society, June 2012 will be month-long celebration of the excitement and value of photography. Leading photographers and other high-profile figures will join the campaign to highlight the intense personal importance of photography - why it's a unique and vital part of human culture and family histories.

Novices and keen photographers alike will be invited to take part in activities and events across the UK where they will be encouraged to develop the skills to capture and preserve our personal histories for future generations.

Details can be found here.