Blogs

The arrival of photography in London in 1839 would change the way people saw their city, and each other, forever and the collections at LMA contain an extraordinary range of images, recording the capital and its people in stunning detail.

This exhibition presents some of the most striking images of London and Londoners from the era, from the first known photograph of the capital to the opening of Blackwall Tunnel, taking in the Crystal Palace, the first Tube line and life on the city’s streets.

London Metropolitan Archives 
Free during normal opening hours
5 May-8 October 

See: http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/visiting-the-city/archives-and-city-history/london-metropolitan-archives/Pages/default.aspx

Birkbeck's History and Theory of Photography Research Centre has announced its summer seminar programme. The events are free and open to all at 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD.

Wednesday 6 May, 6-7:30

Room 112

Work in Progress Seminar

Raul Valdivia (Birkbeck, Iberian and Latin American Studies)

Popular or vernacular photography in Peru

This paper explores how the act of photographing the ‘masas populares’ by the masses themselves is part of a representational process where aesthetic and political elements are combined to create counter-hegemonic visual narratives and histories from below.

Tuesday 12 May, 7-9

Room 112

Reading Group

Jacques Derrida, ‘The Deaths of Roland Barthes’, The Work of Mourning (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2001) 31-67

Wednesday 20 May, 6-8:00

Panel Discussion

Room G04

Photographs of London

Tom Allbeson (Nottingham) on Herbert Mason, ‘St Paul's’, 29 December 1940; Lynda Nead (Birkbeck) on Bert Hardy, ‘Life in the Elephant’, Picture Post, January 1949; Ian Walker (Newport) on Thomas Struth, ‘Clinton Road’ 1977; Responding: Mike Seaborne (Freelance, formerly Museum of London).

Please book your free place

Coming up on Sunday 17th May 2015 is Photographica 2015, Londons Annual International Camera Collectors and Users Fair, it will take place at the regular venue - The Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Hall, 80 Vincent Square, London SW1P 2PB. 10am-4.30pm admission £5.

There will be up to 135 stalls selling user and collectable cameras, consumables, lenses, literature and images. It is not a trade show for new equipment.

PhotographicaFlyer.jpg

It is organised by the Photographic Collectors Club of Great Britain. http://www.pccgb.net/

If you want early Buyers tickets or to check if there is still a sales table available please ring Angela on 01684 594526 .

Details and late breaking news are also available on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/photographicafair

It is a great day, you may find that rare item you have been looking for.

Thanks

Nigel Richards

I am looking for information about the best way to digitize 19th century photographs on paper. The Neue Pinakothek in Munich (Germany) has recently acquired a large collection of photographs from the nineteenth century. Processes range from early caloytpes (1840s) to Albumen prints and silver gelatine. At the moment tentative plans are being made to start a digitisation project.

I am looking for information on the conservational requirements regarding light and heat that should be met.  These will of course differ depending on the process and year of origin. Is it better to photograph the images or to scan them? We would like to meet the highest standards in this project, but are lacking the necessary information. Does anyone work in the field and can give advise or point out literature regarding the task?

Any information will be greatly appreciated

I'm exploring the somewhat little-known historical connections between photography and philanthropy, and I'd very much like to hear any insights or suggestions others may have. In the broadest sense of the term "philanthropy" these connections began with Daguerre, who received a 6,000 Franc annual stipend for life from the French government in recognition of his contribution (he also convinced the government to give 4,000 Francs annually to Niépce's estate). Since then various governments, private donors and foundations have made gifts and grants to many photographers, but I've been unable to find more than the briefest of mentions of these seemingly important connections. Recent history is somewhat easier to document, but I would greatly appreciate hearing about any 19th or early 20th century acts of philanthropic generosity toward specific photographers.

Last year Sutton Archives was awarded £96,000 by the HLF to rehouse, digitise, catalogue and research the glass plate collection of the Edwardian photographer David Knights-Whittome  (shops in Sutton and Epsom). Since then we have recruited a part-time Project Officer who is managing the 23+ volunteers who are doing most of the work - cleaning plates, rehousing them in four-flap folders, digitising the plates and original envelopes, cataloguing the plates and researching the individuals photographed.

We have digitised over 1200 1/4 plates so far (there are about 10,000 plates in 5 different sizes) and created both a Blog and Flickr account enabling us to share the project with others. As David was active in the area between 1904-1918 the collection includes many WW1 soldiers and nurses - there are nearly 300 on our Flickr site. 

The Past on Glass Blog is contributed to by both staff and volunteers - telling the story of individuals we've researched, what we're discovering about David's technique and the ups and downs of such a project.

You can follow the Blog here - include your email address to receive updates - https://pastonglass.wordpress.com/

Our Flickr account can be viewed here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pastonglass/sets/

Enquiries about the project can be made to Abby Matthews, Project Officer, The Past on Glass abby.matthews@sutton.gov.uk 

Is anyone able to identify for me who the New Zealand photographer S. C. Hall was? He or she seems to have been active during the period from the 1940s to the 1960s and specialised in hand coloured landscape photographs signing them "S. C. Hall / A.R.P.S." Thank you.

Brett Rogers OBE, Director of The Photographers' Gallery, London, will give a talk titled: 'Game Changers' Ten key photography shows that set the agenda for photography curating on Wednesday 29 April at 4.30pm. It will take place in the Main Lecture Theatre, London College of Communication, Elephant & Castle, SE1 6SB and is part of LCC Photography's talks programme. The talk is free and all are welcome. 

See: www.lcc.arts.ac.uk

Image: Viviane Sassen, In Bloom, Dazed and Confused, July 2011. Courtesy: the artist and The Photographers' Gallery. 

Below are details of the 2015 summer term programme for the History of Photography Seminars. The seminars are free/open to all and will take place at The Courtauld Institute of Art.

• Tuesday, 5 May – Liena Vayzman (LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York): Claude Cahun’s Photographic Self-Portraits: Staging the Self and the Aesthetics of Resistance. 5.30pm, Research Forum Seminar Room  more information

• Wednesday, 10 June – David Campany: Polished steel and palpitating flesh: Photography Between Image and Object. 5.30pm, Research Forum Seminar Room   more information

 Further information : http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/researchforum/calendar.shtml

Research Forum

The Courtauld Institute of Art

Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN

BPH learnt recently that Marc Boulay was to return to his native Canada after a successful spell as photography archivist at the University of St Andrews Library. We asked Marc to say a few words...

Following a very rewarding seven years, this marks my last week as Photographic Archivist within the Special Collections Division of the University of St Andrews Library.  I am returning to Toronto, Canada, and in May shall begin a new career path working with Axiell ALM, specialising in collections management systems for archives, libraries and museums around the world. A change of direction for certain, but rest assured my passion for photography will endure!

I have greatly enjoyed working with my colleagues in the UK and am so very grateful for everyone’s willingness to share their time and energy in advancing the aims of the Photographic Collection at St Andrews. The material held here is truly amazing and, I’m proud to say, is now more readily available for research by a wider public. Following my years of building infrastructure, developing the collection in new directions, and establishing a vibrant network of likeminded colleagues, my departure is bittersweet, as it is now that the work taking place at St Andrews is gaining proper momentum. 

Looking back, what moves me most is my time with each of you, the precious all too rare moments basking in the wonder of the collections, and the enthusiasm for photography in Scotland and the rest of the UK which endures all! As evidence of this, check out the Season of Photography website, which is but one of the more public initiatives I am proud to have contributed to over the years.

I know that I am leaving the Photographic Collection in good hands and I will certainly watch with great interest to see how it evolves in the years to come.  

Marc Boulay / marc.boulay@axiell.com (from 4 May)

BPH has been notified that Terry King FRPS died on 20 April. Terry was a photographer, teacher and poet as well as an accomplished photographer and practitioner across a range alternative photographic process. Terry was chair of the RPS Historical Group between 2003 and 2007 and gained his Fellowship for a set of gum bichromate prints.

He ran Hands-On Pictures for many years in Twickenham and, latterly, in Kingston-on-Thames.

Details of the funeral arrangements will be posted when known. 

A fuller obituary is on The RPS website. 

Image: Terry King, a daguerreotype by Mike Robinson

We are very pleased to announce the schedule of Trinity Term events for the Oxford Photography Seminar, co-sponsored by the History of Art Department's Centre for Visual Studies and the Bodleian Libraries. The aim of the seminar is to bring together scholars, curators and students to explore photography from a wide variety of historical, material and theoretical perspectives. It also seeks to introduce researchers to Oxford's rich photographic resources. The coming term will thus include both work-in-progress research papers and a site visit to the Pitt Rivers Museum's outstanding photographic collection--please see the attached poster for details. (To sign up for the site visit, which has a  limited number of places available, please go to our Eventbrite website.)

Seminar attendees are also warmly invited to a lecture by Ken Jacobson marking the appearance of a book by Ken and Jenny Jacobson entitled Carrying Off the Palaces: John Ruskin’s Lost Daguerreotypes, published by Bernard Quaritch. The talk will take place at 5:15 pm on June 3 in the Weston Library's Lecture Theatre and will be followed by a reception. (Places are limited and must be booked in advance by completing a booking form.)

We look forward to seeing you at the Photography Seminar and book launch!

Best wishes,

Mirjam Brusius (Dept. of History of Art and Bodleian Libraries, Oxford University)
Geraldine Johnson (Dept. of History of Art, Oxford University)

The Royal Photographic Society has published a practical guide to photographing old photographic plates and lantern slides. It is aimed at amateurs and carries the important caveat that if the emulsion is fragile then a professional conservator should be consulted. 

Take a look here. 

The Royal Society for Asian Affairs (RSAA), a registered charity with Royal Charter, with a mission 'to promote greater knowledge and understanding of Central Asia and countries from the Middle East to Japan' and the specific objective 'to conserve all of the Society’s valuable archives, photographic and written' is offering thirteen lots of rare books and early and important photographs at a Sotheby's auction later this month. The lots are expected to realise around £250,000. A number of academics, curators and librarians have mounted a campaign to protest against the sale.

Amongst the photographs being sold are important albums by J C Watson showing China c.1867-1870; John Thomson's Antiquities of Cambodia, c1867; J C White photographs of Sikhim and Tibet and others.The lots can be seen here.

The sale appears to be the result of the RSAA's spending exceeding income since at least 2009, although it does have investments of nearly £300,000. The RSAA's accounts and Charity Commission filings can be viewed here.

This is not the first time that the RSAA has tried to sell part of its historic archive. In 2014 a unique map annotated by T E Lawrence was offered at a Sotheby's auction with an estimate of £70,000-100,000. It was withdrawn soon after news of the sale broke. Read more here.

There have been a number of sales from UK museum and gallery collections as local authorities have attempted to preserve services in the face of government funding cuts. This recently prompted an unprecedented joint statement by ten of the UK's leading funding, membership and museum bodies on unethical sales of public collections. The signatories which include Arts Council England, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund will refuse to work with, or provide grants or funding, to museums whose governing bodies choose to sell items from their collections in contravention of long-standing de-accessioning protocols. 

At the time of writing the RSAA was unavailable for comment and it has been asked for a statement on the forthcoming sale. This will be published here when it is provided. 

Image: From lot 257. Watson, Major J.C., Dr John Dudgeon, John Thomson, (and others?). ALBUM OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF PEKING (BEIJING), NINGPO (NINGBO), AND ENVIRONS. [CHINA, LATE 1860S]. Estimate £40,000 — 60,000

Original post: 8 April 2015 / UPDATED: 18 April

The RSAA issued a statement on 15 April acknowledging 'the deep and understandable concerns' of members and non-members. It added that the sale was essential to ensure the long-term future of the Society and that 'no further sales are envisaged'.

UPDATE 2: 4 May

The sale realised £136,250 (including buyer's premium) and it is likely that the RSAA will net less than £100,000, much less than the exoected £250,000 plus originally expected. 

Despite huge popularity across the social strata in the United States of America, Victorian tintype photography never attained the same level of acceptance in Great Britain and as a result it has been annexed to the periphery of photographic history. The photographic establishment's adherence to the inflexible structure of the British class system created a hierarchy of respectability within photography and the tintype's negative reputation was nurtured in contemporary journals and publications, including the British Journal of Photography.

This stigma continued into the 20th Century as Helmut Gernsheim and Alison Gernsheim's 1955 tome The History of Photography still derided tintypes as “these hideous, cheap-looking pictures”, decades after they had become synonymous with lower class itinerant or seasonal portrait photographers or as spur-of-the-moment seaside novelties. Fast forward to the 21st Century and tintype photography is now enjoying a renaissance amongst the alternative photographic process community and contemporary tintypes are again being created across the globe.

This exhibition of original 19th Century photographs will reveal the tintype as an invaluable document of working class people and their photographers, and help to reposition tintypes as a significant and worthy subject within photographic history.

Victorian Britain and the Tintype Photograph. An exhibition of Victorian tintypes curated by Sheila Masson

English Speaking Union Scotland Gallery, 23 Atholl Crescent, Edinburgh, EH3 8HQ

Saturday 27th June - 19th July 2015

Contact: britishtintypes@gmail.com
www.britishtintypes.com
www.facebook.com/britishtintypes
Twitter: @britishtintypes

De Montfort University is pleased to announce the availability of one Taylor Bursary for its MA in Photographic History. The Bursary offers £5,000 toward the defrayal of tuition and other costs related to the MA, and is open to all students UK, EU and International.

To apply for the Taylor Bursary, please submit your cv and a proposal outlining your MA thesis topic, in English, to the Programme Leader by 15 May 2015. This proposal should be around, but no longer than 4,000 words. For questions about the MA programme or the Taylor Bursary Fellowship please contact Programme Leader, Dr Kelley Wilder at kwilder@dmu.ac.uk

The Taylor Bursary will be awarded to the applicant who will contribute significantly to the field of photographic history.

The MA in Photographic History is the first course of its kind in the UK, taking as it does the social and material history of photography at its centre. It lays the foundations for understanding the scope of photographic history and provides the tools to carry out the independent research in this larger context, working in particular from primary source material. You will work with public and private collections throughout Britain, handling photographic material, learning analogue photographic processes, writing history from objects in collections, comparing historical photographic movements, and debating the canon of photographic history. You also learn about digital preservation and access issues through practical design projects involving website and database design. Research Methods are a core component, providing students with essential handling, writing, digitising and presentation skills needed for MA and Research level work, as well as jobs in the field.

For further details on the course and application process, please see the course description here.

Edinburgh's Stills' presents a two-person exhibition showcasing historically important work by Anna Atkins (1799-1871) and Margaret Watkins (1884-1969), who made pioneering photographic work in the 19th and 20th centuries respectively. All works in this exhibition will be on loan from collections in Scotland.

Fascinated by science and art, Anna Atkins became one of the earliest pioneers of photography. In 1843, she started to produce British Algae; Cyanotype Impressions, the first book ever to be illustrated with photographs. The cyanotype process allowed her to experiment with a new method of accurately depicting botanical specimens in a book.

The modernist photographer Margaret Watkins had a successful career in New York and was active in the Clarence White school of photography before circumstances led to her relocation to Glasgow in the late 1920s. Her work became largely forgotten until, after her death, hundreds of photographs were discovered by her friend and neighbour.

ANNA ATKINS: Cyanotypes

MARGARET WATKINS: Advertising photography

Saturday 25 April - Sunday 12 July 2015

Open daily | 11am - 6pm | FREE

Read more here

Images: (left) Anna Atkins Ptilota Sericea, (circa 1843) cyanotype © CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection; (right) Margaret Watkins, 'Hand Cigarette Holder' ('Myers Gloves'), (1924). Courtesy of the Margaret Watkins' Archive c/o Joe Mulholland, Glasgow

Debbie Ireland will talk about Isabella Bird and how she - the nineteenth century’s most renowned woman travel writer - became a photographer. The talk takes place at The Royal Photographic Society in Bath on 5 May 2015 and coincides with the publication of Debbie's new book of the same tile. A student of John Thomson, Bird (who was also a RPS member) recorded her three very different journeys in Chinai including her exploration of the Yangtze Valley and beyond.

At the talk here will be an opportunity to purchase and have signed copies of Debbie's newly published book. Isabella Bird A Photographic Journal of Travels Through China 1894-1896 (£25, Ammonite Press, April 2015) covers three journeys, beginning in the small port of Chefoo in 1894, where she arrived without money or luggage having been expelled from Korea. The photographic journal ends in 1896 with Isabella’s exploration of the Yangtze River and beyond.

This lavish pictorial record, produced in collaboration with the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), features 200 unique photographs taken by Isabella during her final Chinese expedition. The photographs and original observations, commented on by travel expert Deborah Ireland, transport readers to nineteenth century China and the insightful social observations of a passionate, courageous and unstoppable woman.

Deborah Ireland has spent seventeen years working in photography, having held the positions of Assistant Curator of The Royal Photographic Society’s Collection, head of the AA World Travel picture library and a judge for Travel Photographer of the Year since its inception in 2003. Deborah’s interest in the history of travel photography led her to research and write for The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), leading to the publication of Isabella Bird.

- See more at: http://www.rps.org/events/2015/may/05/isabella-bird---photographic-travels-through-china-189496

HELP!!  I'm hoping that someone could give me more info on Richard Beard's studio addresses, dates in particular. I'm also looking for info on Beard & Foard's Photographic Institutions. I have not had much success online! Any help would be greatly appreciated!

DSGulledge

This two-day symposium will feature presentations by experts from England, France, and across the United States. Topics will include the art form’s early patronage by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the reasons why collectors of American Modernism also collected photographs, photography’s changing fortunes on the art market, and its legitimization as a collectable category in the fine arts. The symposium will conclude with an interview of a major collector of photography today. 

The speakers include, from the UK, Dr Sophie Gordon, Philippe Garner and Marta Weiss. 

Center for the History of Collecting Symposium, Frick Collection, 1 East 70th Street, New York

Friday and Saturday, 8-9 May, 2015, cost $50

The full programme can be seen here.