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Hello, I am researching this photo of Rossetti by Carroll. Sorry for my bad quality pics. I believe it's an albumen print, on very thin paper, 5-3/8 x 4 inches. I know the original was taken in 1863, however, the back has a faint pencil inscription: 1873 Life photo. There is an identical print with the oval framing in Morton N. Cohen's Reflections in a Looking Glass- from the Ransom Center.

Would anyone know if Carroll's photos were reprinted in the 1870s? Or could this be a more recent print?

Any information would be appreciated.

Best, David

New website launched: Ken Keen & Light from the Darkness is a comprehensive cover of the book “Christian Art and Places of Worship”. A collection of pictorial, handcrafted images to illustrate the subject. The website gives a comprehensive description of Ken’s routine and method for making photographs of church interiors using a large format camera and historical or ‘alternative’ printing methods.

By virtue of being handcrafted, each original picture has its own intrinsic beauty, and that makes the image unique. There is a special aesthetic when photographs are made using a Historical Process. The composition and the appearance of these images resonate with a spiritual and romantic undertone. The alternative processes give this collection of images a timeless feel. This allows the viewer to experience the photographer’s presence, proof that the artist is an integral part of the work.

“Perception is, I believe, the key to unlocking the darker world, a world as it appears to many with Visual Impairment. Living as I do, in such a world that appears but dimly lit, living in a state of permanent twilight, gives me a great and beautiful feeling of peace.”

Ken lost most of his sight after surgery to remove a nasal tumor. He is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society RPS and a Fellow of the Disabled Photographers Society. In recent years, Ken was Chairman of the RPS Archaeology and Heritage Group, even though he was by that time, registered as blind. 

You can visit the website here: kenkeenandlightfromthedarkness.com

To kick off the 'Rethinking Early Photography' conference, the University of Lincoln is hosting a free public lecture by distinguished photo-historian Larry J. Schaaf. Professor Schaaf will be talking about the controversy that was sparked in 2008 over his identification of the now-infamous 'Quillan Leaf' as possibly originating with Thomas Wedgwood.

In 2008, a simple photograph of a leaf was due to be sold at the famous New York auctioneers Sotheby’s. One newspaper suggested that the image could be worth millions. The leaf made headlines around the world when Professor Larry Schaaf’s speculations as to its age threatened to rewrite photographic history. A media firestorm ensued and the leaf was removed from sale. Come and hear Professor Schaaf publicly discuss his conclusions about the leaf for the first time.

The paper will discuss the implications of the row for photographic historiography. It will also draw on subsequent research into 'The Leaf'. Discussing the dating and authorship of the image, Professor Schaaf states: 'the answer lies within my original bookends...Beyond that, however, I feel that there needs to be an examination of just what is history, how do we approach constructing or re-constructing it, and how do we accommodate evolving information and perspectives without destroying the historical record in the process?'

This lecture will be the first time that Professor Schaaf has publicly aired his conclusions about 'The Leaf'. The lecture is free. All are welcome.

Details of the 'Rethinking Early Photography' conference (16th-17th June) can be found here. There is no need to come to the conference to attend the public lecture, though you are of course very welcome to register and take part in this event as well. Queries can be directed to rethinkingphotography@gmail.com

Free public Lecture by Larry J. Schaaf, 4pm 15th June 2015

'The Damned Leaf: musings on history, hysteria & historiography'

Co-op Lecture Theatre (MB0312), Minerva Building, Brayford Pool, University of Lincoln (UK), 4pm 15th June 2015.

You can read more about the leaf photograph and the Sotheby's auction here and news of the withdrawal from auction here

PARC launches its second Moose on the Loose Biennale of Research. Highlights this year include Martin Parr and Nicholas Barker talking about making films, Paul Lowe's remarkable panoramic photographs from the Siege of Sarajevo, Sara Davidmann on the new film about her family archive 'To be Destroyed', British Council films from the 1940s, Anna Fox Work Stations files from the Camerawork archive,  Women and photography in the 1970s, Shadows conference on alternative photography techniques and much more.

It's all free and everyone's welcome.

Full programme and booking at www.mooseontheloose.net.

The National Gallery of Art’s web feature for the exhibition Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860 aims to preserve the exhibition as an online resource for the artist and includes additional material on the photographic practices of Tripe and his contemporaries.

The exhibition opens at the Victoria and Albert Museum on 24 June and runs until 11 October.

See the website at the following URL: http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/features/captain-linnaeus-tripe-photographer-of-india-and-burma.html   

Peepshows were introduced in the mid-eighteenth century by Martin Engelbrecht in Augsburg. They called for a long wooden cabinet designed for purpose incorporating a viewing lens and sometimes a mirror. In the 1820s peepshows made entirely of paper appeared on the scene more or less at the same moment in Vienna, London and Paris. The clumsy cabinet was no longer called for. The new peepshow was equipped with paper bellows so it could be expanded or contracted in a trice. Paper peepshows were light; they were comparatively cheap. They fitted neatly into the pocket. Viewing a Paper Peepshow is an intimate, individual experience that, in the age of television and hand-held computers, gives a real sense of personal discovery. The viewer engages by peeping through a tiny hole and thereby discovers inside layers of images, like a pocket-sized stage set.

The format lent itself to a wide variety of subjects: to coronations and to state visits and funerals, to pleasure gardens, to trips up rivers and to the ceremonial openings of new railways, to distant views of cities and to tourist landmarks, to military engagements in exotic places, and to the July Revolution and the fall of the Bourbons in France in 1830. The Crystal Palace, erected in Hyde Park 1851 for the Great Exhibition, inspired the production of very large numbers of peepshows, mostly made overseas and imported. Peepshows made possible visits to sites existing in the imagination, to plunge down Alice's rabbit hole, for example, and to wander through the Garden of Eden in Paradise.

The main center of peepshow manufacture in the nineteenth century was toy-making Nuremburg. Briefly in the 1950s it was Britain. Nowadays it is the United States. Paper peepshows are no longer intended essentially for children but for bibliophiles and art-appreciating adults.

This stunning book charts the history of these charming collectables. The illustrated catalogue section includes the following data where known: country of origin, publisher, date, method of printing (eg chromolithograph), shape and dimensions, and number of scenes. As well as a full description of each piece, the author gives fascinating historical and cultural context for these items - ranging from depictions of the July Revolution (Paris, 1830), or the opening of the Thames Tunnel to the nursery tale of 'Puss in Boots'.

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has received about 350 of these fragile toys from the British collectors Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner, who own Marlborough Rare Books in London.

ISBN: 9781851498000
Publisher: Antique Collectors' Club
Territory: USA & Canada
Size: 9.25 in x 11.75 in
Pages: 272
Illustrations: 511 color
Hardcover

See more here

Dominic Winter's spring Photography auction comprises 225 lots and is strongest on 19th-century material with good albums and collections featuring Asia, India, Africa and Europe. Highlight of the sale is an album of 79 Hugh Owen photographs (lot 370, slideshow link available on request). The albumen prints were made in the 1870s from the original paper negatives of the early 1850s. This ‘Canon Cole album’ has not been at auction before having been fortuitously given to Bristol photographic historian Reece Winstone in 1962 since when it has remained in his family’s hands. A number of the photographs are reproduced in Winstone’s Bristol’s Earliest Photographs (1970) but many of these ‘art’ photographs are unknown as salt prints, making this a unique and important treasure trove carrying an estimate of £20,000-30,000.

Other photographers represented in the auction include James Anderson, Antonio Beato, Thomas Biggs, Bisson Freres, Bonfils, Samuel Bourne, Jane Bown, Larry Burrows, Skeen/Scowen/Apothecaries & Co., Alvin Langdon Coburn, James Craig Annan, Howard Coster, Edward S. Curtis, Frantisek Drtikol, Olive Edis, Roger Fenton, Francis Frith, Frank Mason Good, Pietro Guidi, John W.G. Gutch, Lai Fong, William Baker, William Henry Jackson, Yousuf Karsh, Rudolf Koppitz, John Dillwyn Llewelyn, Maull & Polyblank, Farnham Maxwell-Lyte, Angus McBean, Felix Nadar, Carlo Naya, Talcott Harmon Pankhurst, James Robertson, Shepherd & Robertson, Benjamin Stone, Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, William Henry Fox Talbot, Charles Thurston Thompson, John Thomson, Pierre Verger and film director Paul Morrissey. 

Dominic Winter Auctioneers

Photography 1850-2000

Friday 17 April : 1.30pm

Online catalogue: http://www.dominicwinter.co.uk

Viewing times:

Thursday 16 April 9am - 7pm

Friday 17 April from 9am

Earlier times by appointment only

Session 1: Charles Clifford: 83 photographic views of Spain from between 1853 and 1863. These views are studio experiments made by Charles Clifford, creator of the first photographic archive in Spain. The photographs on sale are mostly inedited either as far as format, framing and the use of title cards are concerned or because they have been unknown until now. This important photographic production cannot be found in any of the major international collections in which the artist’s work is included. The photographs are related to the catalogue found in A Photographic Scramble through Spain, A. Marion & Co., London, (1861).

Session 2: Photographs and Photographic books: 230 lots from the beginnings of photography to the present day. The photographs and photographic books are by important nineteenth century artists such as: Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, Charles Marville, Auguste Salzmann, Félix Teynard, Alphonse Delaunay, Charles Clifford and J.Laurent, as well as artists who actively participated in twentieth century artistic debates during the inter-war period such as: Constantin Brancusi, Alexander Rodchenko, Joaquim Gomis, Piet Zwart, Man Ray, Brassaï, Raoul Hausmann and Emili Vilá. There are also documentary photographers such as: Dorothea Lange, George Rodger, Francesc Català-Roca, Werner Bischof, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Joan Colom, Colita and abstract photography by Annelisse Hager, Gyorgy Kepes, Myron Kozman and Mario Giacomelli. There is also an important group of photographs taken in Latin America by Hugo Brehme, Leo Matiz, Hermanos Mayo, Walter Reuter, Kurt Severin, Fritz Henle, or by contemporary artists such as: Joseph Beuys, Buby Durini, Pere Noguera, Francesc Torres, Ralph Gibson, Pierre Gonnord, I J. H. Engström, Eduardo Cortils, Juan Pablo Ballester, Bela Adler and Daniel Steegmann.

Viewing:

7, 8, 9 &10 April 2015

13 & 14 April 2015

9.30 to 14.00 and 16.00 to 19.00

Auction Date:

15 April 2015

Balclis, Rosselló, 227, 08008 Barcelona, Spain.

Tel: (34) 93 217 56 07

Fax: (34) 93 217 10 92

Email: info@balclis.com

Download catalogues:

Charles Clifford

http://juannaranjo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/clifford-web1.pdf

Fotografías y Fotolibros

http://juannaranjo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/general-web-1.pdf