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The Photographs collection consists of more than 250,000 original photographic images of which at least 130,000 are original negatives. They date from the 1840s to the present day. The department is also responsible for the upkeep of records pertaining to the Photographs Collection as well as records relating to photographic portraiture.

Six month internship

We have an opportunity for a paid intern to work on the addition of past photographic display records (including press releases, review excerpts and hand lists to the Gallery’s website).  This frequently visited web page on the photographs section of the website has become a valuable archival resource detailing important exhibitions and displays dating back to the 1970s.

The successful candidate will also have the opportunity to shadow work of the photographs department and assist with shared tasks such as integrating archival records, retrieving original works and re-housing elements of the collection.

This opportunity will suit someone who has an interest in photographic portraiture and British history and can demonstrate accuracy and attention to detail and is able to work as part of a small team. It will provide the successful candidate with an invaluable insight into how a national photographs collection has been managed, interpreted and exhibited over time.

Main duties

1. The addition of past photographic display records to the website. Ensuring the correct documents are included and filed in the correct manner before past display files are passed to the archive.
2. The integration of records into Notes on Photographers and archive Sitter files.
3. Working with aspects of the Photographs Collection including tasks such as the re-housing of original photographs. This will include re-wrapping original negatives and expanding sequences in our Special Collections Store.
4. Curating a photographs section web featurhttp://www.npg.org.uk/about/jobs/curatorial-internship-photographs.phpe, such as a slideshow or spotlight feature. There may be an opportunity to contribute to a small display within the Gallery.

Read more and apply here: http://www.npg.org.uk/about/jobs/curatorial-internship-photographs.php

Travel, Atlases, Maps and Natural History

London

30 April 2015

Viewing 25-29 April

(early viewing by appointment)

 Online catalogue:

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2015/travel-atlases-maps-natural-history-l15401.html

Photographic highlights include:

 Lot 157

Sir William Everett’s album of 43 silver prints and 14 watercolours of Eastern Turkey [1879-1887]

£5,000-7,000

Lot 210

Edward Chapman’s personal annotated set of 89 albumen prints of Yarkand and Kashgar (1873-74)

£10,000-15,000

Lot 215

Dr Charles Hose. Album of 169 platinum prints of Sarawak [c.1884-1900]

£30,000-40,000

Lot 224

John Thomson. The Antiquities of Cambodia, 1867, First edition, with 16 albumen prints

(illustrated above)

£20,000-30,000

Lot 225

John Claude White. Sikhim, and Sikhim & Tibet frontier. Two albums of 60 carbon prints [c.1903]

£10,000-20,000

Lots 226-234

SINGAPORE. A private collection of 19^th century photographs of Singapore and region

Lot 240

St Julian Hugh Edwards. Album of 63 albumen prints of Amoy (Xiamen) and vicinity [China, 1860s]

£40,000-60,000

Lot 256

Major J.C. Watson. Presentation album of 100 albumen prints of Ningpo (Ningbo). [China, c.1870]

£40,000-60,000

Lot 257

Major J.C. Watson, Dr John Dudgeon, John Thomson. Album of 99 albumen prints of Peking (Beijing), Ningpo (Ningbo) and environs. [China, late 1860s]

£40,000-60,000

Other Photographs:

EUROPE & GENERAL TRAVEL

Lots 68-70, and 86

POLAR

Lot 77

NEAR & MIDDLE EAST

Lots 146, 148, 156, 157, 160, 163, 173, 179, 184-188, 190, 193,

ASIA

Lots 205-210, 212-220, 222, 224-234, 239-243, 245-247, 250, 256-258

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2015/travel-atlases-maps-natural-history-l15401.html#&page=all&filter=mediums/Photographs&sort=lotNum-asc&viewMode=list

Icon Photographic Materials Group is pleased to announce that we will be co-hosting a one day event with Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales on the theme of digitisation and display to coincide with their exhibition, Historic Photography Uncovered and the recent launch of their online database of images from their historic photography collections.

Speakers at the event will be talking on a range of subjects such as support for digitisation projects, considerations relating to the display and loan of photographs, and mounting methods for water sensitive materials. There will also be behind-the-scenes tours and a guided tour of the exhibition. Please see the ICON PhMG webpage for more details ( http://tinyurl.com/IconPhMGCardiff).

Date: 16th April 2015

Time: 11.00 to 15.30 (registration/coffee at 10.30)

Location: Cardiff, National Museum Cardiff

Cost: £20 Icon members; £30 non-members; £7.50 Icon member concessions (includes lunch)

Booking: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sharing-photographs-digitisation-and-...

Can anybody identify these images please? They are possibly salt prints but have no identification. Thank you

Can anyone help with the three photographs below and the questions posted? 

Date of Photo and age of man

Date of Photo and age of woman

Can anyone help - we think they are relatives but the date and age would help to decide ?

Is this a mourning photo - mother of a lost baby ?

can anyone explain the photo - any idea when and how old she is - was this a usual thing to do ?

The exhibition Drawn by Light. The Royal Photographic Society Collection was opened today by photographer John Swannell HonFRPS at the National Media Museum after a very successful showing at Media Space, London.

The exhibition spans Gallery 1 and 2 in the museum and admission is free. It is open until June.

The Bradford showing includes new works recently added to the RPS Collection, including photographs by Swannell and Susan Derges. A series of public events are planned over the next three months. 

Find out more here.

Photos: John Swnnell opens the exhibition; left, Colin Harding the exhibition curator with John Swannell / Credit: Michael Pritchard.

Sir Harold Evans, former Sunday Times editor and prolific writer on photojournalism is to receive the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation’s Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Award at a ceremony on 18 May 2015, while South African photographer David Goldblatt will be awarded the first ever Kraszna-Krausz Fellowship in recognition of his extraordinary work in books throughout a distinguished career.

The Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards are the UK’s leading prizes for photography and moving image books. Judged by a panel of prominent experts, they celebrate the books which have made original and lasting educational, professional, historical and cultural contributions to the field. The longlisted and shortlisted publications for The Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award and The Kraszna-Krausz Moving Image Book Award will be revealed at the opening of the awards display in Media Space’s Virgin Media Studio on 20 April 2015. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on 18 May 2015, with a £10,000 prize split between the two categories.

On Sir Harold Evans’ naming as recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Award, Michael G. Wilson, Chairman, Kraszna-Krausz Foundation said ‘With a distinguished career spanning many decades and both sides of the Atlantic, Sir Harold Evans represents the very highest standards of professional journalism. He has been both a writer and editor for many of the great periodicals of our time as well as author of books about the recent history of America. It is our great pleasure to award him the Kraszna-Krausz Outstanding Contribution to Publishing prize.’

On the awarding of the Kraszna-Krausz Fellowship to David Goldblatt, Wilson said: ‘David Goldblatt is the 2015 inaugural Kraszna-Krausz Fellow in recognition of his incredible achievement as a photographer working in the medium of the photography book. Throughout his career, Goldblatt's projects have exemplified the highest standards of intellectual rigour and creative production. His photography books have inspired multiple generations of photographers and are among the most influential of the 20th and 21st centuries.’

The First Book Award is the world’s leading book prize for emerging photographers. The Award was established in 2012 by MACK and the National Media Museum and is open to photographers who have not previously had a book published by a third party publishing house. Media Space will present a display of the winning project, together with an overview of the winners from the first three years of the Award and this year’s shortlisted projects. The winning project will be published by MACK on 20 April at the opening of the display accompanying the awards.

The photographers (and works) shortlisted for the First Book Award 2015 are announced as: Ciarán Óg Arnold (I went to the worst of bars, hoping to get killed but all I could do was get drunk again), Fine Bieler (Traumkaßte Bilder mit Anspruch auf Wahrheit), Marguerite Bornhauser (Plastic Colors), Ivars Gravlejs (Early Works), Tine Guns (The Diver), Kevin Lear (A Glass Darkly), Vittorio Mortarotti (The First Day of Good Weather), Musa Nxumalo (I, II, III, IV, In search of …), Charlotte Tanguy (In a Sense), Ofer Wolberger (billie).

Lucy Kumara Moore, Director, Claire de Rouen Books and First Book Award judge, said: ‘For me, the pleasure of judging this prize was in knowing that I could focus on the quality of the work contained within the submitted book dummies, rather than the material and conceptual ways in which the dummies had themselves been assembled. Michael Mack's understanding of photo book publishing is exceptional, and this is the strength of the First Book Award - it allows a talented practitioner to begin to refine the way in which their work is presented to the world. Importantly, this year the prize also involves an exhibition at Media Space for the winner, thereby foregrounding further the sensitivities of different formats of presentation - the book, the exhibition, etc - and how these might complement each other.’

The display accompanying The Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards and the First Book Award 2015 will run from 20 April to 28 June 2015 in the Virgin Media Studio, Media Space, Science Museum, London. Visitors will have a unique opportunity to look through copies of the newly and soon-to-be-published books by each of the shortlisted entrants and award winners, alongside a selection of striking images from the previous First Book Award winners.

Details can be found at www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/mediaspace<http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/mediaspace>.

Image: Children on the border between Fietas and Mayfair, Johannesburg, c.1949 © David Goldblatt, courtesy The Goodman Gallery

Last year BPH reported that George Eastman House was changing the status of the library within the institution. A consequence of this was the departure of Rachel Stuhlman after nearly thirty years. One year later and BPH can report that Virginia Dodier was appointed Associate Librarian of the Richard and Ronay Menschel Library at George Eastman House last June and that the library continues to provide a service to GEH and to external researchers. 

Dodier will be familiar to many in the UK as she worked on the V&A's Clementina, Lady Hawarden: Studies from Life, 1857–1864 exhibition and book. Hawarden was also the subject her MA thesis. 

George Eastman House announced [2 June 2014] that Virginia Dodier has joined the museum as associate librarian for its Richard and Ronay Menschel Library. A specialist in libraries, archives and museums (LAM), she will maintain the research library and rare books collection of George Eastman House; serve as chief cataloger of the library’s collections and acquisitions; contribute to exhibitions, publications, and public programs developed by museum curatorial staff; and collaborate with other staff to provide an integrated approach to technology and other museum initiatives.

Dodier brings more than twenty years of professional experience to her new role at George Eastman House. She previously served as director of the Carlsbad Museum and Art Center in New Mexico for ten years. Prior to that, she was the study center supervisor in the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, where she facilitated access to the museum and departmental collections, oversaw library acquisitions, and assisted researchers.   

She received a master’s degree in the history of art from Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London, as well as a master’s degree in library science with an archives studies certificate from Emporia State University in Kansas. Recently, Dodier worked with the independent press archive at the Visual Studies Workshop (VSW) in Rochester as part of her practicum for her master’s degree in library science. She is the author of Clementina, Lady Hawarden: Studies from Life, 1857–1864, which accompanied an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

She can be reached :

George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, 900 East Ave, Rochester, NY 14607

e: vdodier@geh.org

t: 001 585 271-3361 x307, x336

Photo; Michael Pritchard, October 2014

Kate Bush, the Science Museum Group's Head of Photography and Dr Jonathan Miller opened Revelations. Experiments in Photography last night at Media Space, London. The exhibition has been curated by Dr Ben Burbage and Greg Hobson.

The exhibition looks at how photography was used to record and measure phenomena which lay beyond human vision from the 1840s to contemporary artists. The show is fills the three galleries of Media Space. 

To read more about the exhibition or to book tickets click here

Right: Dr Jonathan Miller opens the exhibition (left and below)

The Royal Photographic Society's Documentary and Visual Journalism Group is running a one-day conference on war photography on Sunday, 19 April 2015, at the Discovery Centre, Winchester. Speakers include Dr Hilary Roberts, Research Curator of Photography from the Imperial War Museum. A supporting exhibition Then and Now, is on show at the same venue from 17-28 April.

The conference, which is open to everyone, features five respected speakers who will discuss different aspects of the genre

Read more about the speakers and event here. 

The inaugural Photography Oxford Festival in 2014 offered a wide-ranging programme of exhibitions and events throughout September 2014, including a number of historic shows. The Festival trustees are inviting applications from interested groups or consortia to submit proposals to manage the Festival for three years, the first of which will take place in 2016. 

An invitation to tender is available here Photography%20Oxford%20Invitation%20to%20tender_Festival%202015-17.pdf.

Last night saw the launch of Ken and Jenny Jacobson's Carrying Off the Palaces: John Ruskin's Lost Daguerreotypes at the publishers, Quaritch. The long-awaited book more than lived up to everyone's expectations - it is a stunning volume, well-research and well-illustrated as one would expect. BPH will carry more on the content shortly.

You can read more about the history of the book here and how to purchase a copy. It remains at a special price of £75, until 31 March 2015. Contact: Alice Ford-Smith at Quaritch (a.ford-smith@quaritch.com) to order. The United States launch will be in New York at AIPAD in April.  

The images show Ken and Jenny with their book, with their daughter, and views of the launch.

Considering the photography as a tool, channel, support and a relevant object for the study of Art History, the Department of Science and Technical Heritage of the Faculty of Arts, University of Porto plans to open a course of study and dissemination on the subject entitled Encounters with Photography. This first reedition is dedicated to the Urban Body. Developped by the XIVthSemana de História da Arte, this conference will be held between April 15 and 16, 2015 and has as main objectives:

• Reflect on issues and problems related to the state of the art and historiographical practices of photography;
• Launch the discussion on categorization, classifications, practices and techniques;
• Address new perspectives on the use of photography and image in the sciences;
• Push for inter- and multidisciplinary field of expression and photographic aesthetics.

Link to the conference

https://encontrosdefotografia.wordpress.com/

Link to the program

https://encontrosdefotografia.wordpress.com/programme/

Cheltenham was one of the first towns in the country to establish a professional photographic studio and has one of the oldest camera clubs. The book, marking the 150th anniversary of Cheltenham Camera Club, reviews the history of photography in the town and its leading figures such as Hugo van Wadenoyen and Dr E. T. Wilson, physician, philanthropist, a pioneer in photomicrography, co-founder of the Cheltenham Photographic Society and father of polar explorer Edward A. Wilson. It outlines technological developments in photography and sets the photographic scene in Cheltenham into the wider social context, ending with a summary of photography in Cheltenham today.

Illustrated, 76 pages. 210 x 148 mm

ISBN: 978-0-9931482-0-0

Published by Cheltenham Camera Club.

£10 (includes postage and packing in UK)       

further details: www.cheltenhamcameraclub.co.uk

The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions visitor figures for 2014 have brought mixed fortunates for photography. The National Media Museum showed a 10 per decline from 2013 with 431,328 visitors and a 63rd ranking.

More positively, particularly in the light of the proposals to cut hours and staff, the Library of Birmingham had 2,414,860 visitors and was ranked 10th - the only non-London venue to appear in the top ten. 2014 was its first full year of opening. 

The original data can be found here: http://www.alva.org.uk/details.cfm?p=423

Today's Google doodle celebrates Anna Atkins' 216th birthday. Atkins was a botanist and created a series of cyanotypes of ferns other specimens. She is considered the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images. Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Atkins

There's an interesting Q+A with Colin Harding, the curator of the exhibition Drawn By Light which opens at the National Media Museum on 20 March (admiission is free) after a very successful run at London's Media Space. There is an associated day of events and activities at the Museum on 21 March.

See: http://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/q-a/11032015-q-and-a-colin-harding

More information on Drawn by Light and Museum events around the exhibition can be found here: http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/planavisit/exhibitions/drawn-by-light/about

The annual William Herschel Society President's Lecture will take place on Saturday, 14 March 2015 at 7pm at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 16-18 Queen Square,Bath BA1 2HN. It will be given by Dr Alan Chapman, Wadham College, Oxford, titled: John Herschel: Optician, Natural Philosopher & Astronomer by Inheritance.  

Sir John Herschel was a scientist and astronomer like his father, Sir William Herschel. In 1809 he entered the University of Cambridge; in 1812 he submitted his first mathematical paper to the Royal Society, of which he was elected a Fellow the following year. An accomplished chemist, Herschel discovered the action of hyposulfite of soda on otherwise insoluble silver salts in 1819, which led to the use of "hypo" as a fixing agent in photography. In 1839, independently of William Henry Fox Talbot, Herschel also invented a photographic process using sensitized paper. It was Herschel who coined the use of the terms photography, positive, and negative to refer to photographic images. In 1820 Herschel became a founding member of the Royal Astronomical Society. From 1833 until 1838, his astronomical investigations brought him and his family to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, where he met Julia Margaret Cameron, who became a lifelong friend. In 1850 Herschel was appointed master of the Mint, but he resigned six years later due to poor health. His remaining years were spent working on his catalogues of double stars and of nebulae and star clusters.

Allan Chapman has been based at Oxford University for most of his career, as a member of the Faculty of History, Wadham College. He is an accomplished lecturer and public speaker (including as visiting professor at Gresham College in London). In January 1994, he delivered the Royal Society History of Science Wilkins Lecture, on the subject of Edmund Halley.

He is also a television presenter, notably 'Gods in the Sky', covering astronomical religion in early civilisations, and 'Great Scientists', presenting the lives of five of the greatest thinkers. Not averse to other forms of television, he also participated in the TV quiz 'University Challenge – The Professionals' as part of the Royal Astronomical Society team, broadcast in June–July 2006

Tickets on the door: Students £4, Visitors £5

See: http://www.williamherschel.org.uk/events.htm

The current issue of Source magazine 81 (Winter 2014/15) takes a look at the future of photography archives. It has collated the visitor numbers for some of the UK and Ireland's principal archives - Imperial War Museum, Birmingham Central Library, English Heritage, National Portrait Gallery, National Library of Wales, National Photographic Archive (Ireland), National Media Museum and National Museums (N.I.) - between 2009 and 2014, Nearly all show a decline in user numbers which can possibly be attributed to digitisation and new ways of making those archives available. More cynically, but perhaps realistically, the fact that in many cases the cut in opening hours and staffing have prevented public access. A second chart gives a snapshot of the costs of those archives and the number of staff, where the institution has provided the information.

Sarah Macdonald, formerly curator of the Getty Images Archive and Roger Hargreaves, a curator for the Archive of Modern Conflict in London, are quoted. 

Can anyone report on the exhibition up through 26 April at the Hayward Gallery "History is Now" in which artist-curators "take on Britain" since WWII? April 16, Laura Guy, curator, writer and lecturer at Goldsmiths, presents her research focusing on "the recent histories of British photography".