Blogs

This remarkable collection grew from Mike Simkin’s fascination with the pre-cinema moving image, with many fine rarities in every area: optical toys, magic lanterns, illuminants, books, catalogues and ephemera rounded off by the huge slide collection. Predominantly mahogany-mounted and hand-painted, it encompasses Isaac Knott Royal Polytechnic sets, Henry Langdon Childe chromatropes, dissolve sets, story sets and a multitude of mechanical slides, with many by Carpenter & Westley in all categories.

The Collection will be offered for auction in lots on 7 July 2016 by Special Auction Services. The printed and online catalogue is now available and can be seen online here: http://www.specialauctionservices.com/large/cm070716/index.html 

With their power to create a sense of proximity and empathy, photographs have long been a crucial means of exchanging ideas between peoples across the globe. This book explores the role of photography in shaping ideas about race and difference from the 1840s to the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights.

Focusing on Australian experience in a global context, a rich selection of case studies show how photographic encounters between Aboriginals, missionaries, scientists, photographers and writers fuelled international debates about morality, law, politics and human rights. While the camera has been extensively analysed as a weapon of authority, surveillance and control, this volume uncovers a story of photography as a more complex social force. Drawing on new archival research, it is essential reading for students and scholars of race, visuality and the histories of empire and human rights. 

Jane Lydon is the Wesfarmers Chair of Australian History at the University of Western Australia. She currently leads the Australian Research Council-funded project, ‘Globalization, Photography, and Race: the Circulation and Return of Aboriginal Photographs in Europe’, which is partnered with four major European museums: the University of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum, UK, the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, UK, the Musée de Quai Branly in Paris, France, and the Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden, the Netherlands.

Photography, Humanitarianism, Empire
Jane Lydon
Bloomsbury Academic, 208pp. 
ISBN 9781474235501

Complete the Order Form below which includes a special 30% discount offer: Flyer%20PHE%202016.pdf

Anthropology & Photography is a new open-access publication series edited by the RAI Photography Committee. Emerging from the international conference of the same name organized by the RAI at the British Museum in 2014, the series will highlight and make available to the widest possible audience the best new work in the field.

The second in the RAI Anthropology and Photography on-line pamphlet series has been published and is available for free via download. It is titled:  Emilie Le Febvre, A Shaykh's Portrait: Images and Tribal History amongst Bedouin in the Negev

See more and download here: https://www.therai.org.uk/publications/anthropology-and-photography

This one-day international symposium, held at the V&A, London, will explore Paul Strand’s breakthrough pictures, his experiments with film in the 20’s and 40’s beside significant place projects conceived as books from Ghana to the Hebrides. Speakers include Peter Barberie, The Brodsky Curator of Photographs, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Writer and Journalist, Sean O’Hagan, Academics, Barnaby Haran and Fraser MacDonald, Artists Paul Duke and Nii Obodai and Curator Osei Bonsu.

Booking details below and the programme can be seen here: https://shop.vam.ac.uk/whatson/index/view/id/1246/event/Reframing-Paul-Strand/dt/2016-06-03/eType/1/free/2

A new website looking at early Norfolk photography has been launched by John Benjafield. The site aims to provide reference material and place the region's photography into a wider context.

See: http://www.earlynorfolkphotographs.co.uk/

Mirjam Brusius, a postdoctoral fellow at the Bodleian Libraries and the History Faculty, has been awarded the prestigious Aby Warburg Prize, which is awarded every four years to early career researchers. The prize - awarded by the City of Hamburg, Germany - is named after the Hamburg-born art historian Aby Warburg (1866-1929), one of the most influential thinkers in art history and cultural studies in the 20th century.

Dr Brusius received the award for her research, which uses the interdisciplinary ‘Warburgian’ approach to study the work of photographic pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot, whose personal archive is held in the Bodleian Libraries. Warburg used large collections of photographs to compare different images to one another and draw broader conclusions about the visual, art history and antiquity. Dr Brusius’ research examines how Talbot used a similar approach decades earlier, and how he used photographs to classify objects and make sense of them in the context of scholarship and museums. She has published a monograph, a co-edited volume and several articles on this topic and continues to study questions of cultural transmission and the cultural significance of antiquity in European museums.

The Aby Warburg Prize is given to both eminent established scholars and junior researchers in the scholarly field of arts, culture and the humanities. Dr Brusius won the junior award, which includes a cash prize of 10,000 Euros, and she will receive the award at a ceremony in Hamburg in November 2016.

You can read more about Mirjam here: https://www.trinity.ox.ac.uk/people/profiles/mirjam-brusius/

The BFI has announced progress towards realising its ambition to build a new International Centre for Film, TV and the Moving Image, with an offer of support of up to £87m towards the £130m total project cost, subject to a tender process beginning. The BFI hopes to open the new building to the public in 2022.

The BFI is at the heart of film in the UK with a network of partners and alliances, filmmakers and audiences that together create an environment where film, TV and the moving image as a cultural art-form and economic driver can flourish. The major new cultural venue on London’s South Bank (on the existing Hungerford Car Park site) will be a flagship national home for this most diverse, influential and rapidly evolving art-form.

The new Centre will be the final piece in the development of London’s South Bank Cultural Quarter reflecting the UK’s worldwide reputation for creativity and achievement in film, TV and moving image. It will fuel the imagination of both the public and industry; giving visitors - from school children to award-winning creatives - new experiences in film whilst providing a hub for filmmakers, artists and industry professionals to meet, exchange ideas, showcase their work and develop skills.

Highlights include:

• Constantly evolving, rich programmes of film, TV and moving image to provide a depth of experience that includes on-stage interviews and masterclasses, world premieres, new releases, classics, restorations, film and live music events and presentations using new and emerging technologies;
• Adventures in some of the earliest experiments in moving images - including a giant zoetrope and new camera obscura to the latest wonders in holographic and virtual reality storytelling;
• The best possible presentation of films in three cinemas (800, 180 and 120 seats) in a technologically perfect environment screening on every format of film and digital – enabling work to be shown as the filmmaker originally intended;
• Using the BFI’s world-leading knowledge of film and TV, a state of the art education and research centre will be open to school groups, students and families with free access to the world’s biggest film collection, events and exhibition schedules and expert education teams;
• A major gallery space to present exhibitions of international scale celebrating Britain’s award winning creativity and skills in areas such as animation and VFX to showcasing the most intimate and rare film ephemera including scripts, private letters and photographs;
• Specially commissioned new moving image installations from great filmmakers and visual artists throughout the building’s public spaces;
• With over 7 million views of BFI archive collections online in 10 months, the UK’s appetite to explore its film heritage is bigger than ever. New creative presentations of the UK’s national collection of film and TV – the BFI National Archive – will give the public a new way to enjoy over 100 years of filmmaking;
• The Centre will be a new home for the BFI London Film Festival, giving it a venue of international stature.

The BFI is currently working closely with the other key landowners (Southbank Centre, Braeburn Estates, Jubilee Gardens Trust and Lambeth Council) and the local community to ensure that the development will be sensitively designed to complement an expanded Jubilee Gardens. The new Centre will occupy a riverside position on London’s South Bank and as part of this development Braeburn Estates will also create c.6,500 sqm of new green parkland on Jubilee Gardens, dramatically extending the current space between The London Eye and Hungerford Bridge.

One of the ambitions for the Centre is to work with the BFI’s existing partners to share content digitally across the UK through a network of nationwide venues that can also host touring exhibitions and programmes and develop pioneering in-venue film education programmes. This builds on the success of the BFI’s UK-wide strategy, including its VOD platform BFI Player, the BFI Film Audience Network (FAN) and a national film education programme through Into Film.

The new Centre has been welcomed by London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Leader of Lambeth Council Lib Peck and has been embraced by industry figures including Lord Puttnam, Idris Elba, Helen Mirren, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Tom Hiddleston, amongst others. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “London is home to some of the world’s finest arts and cultural organisations, one of which is undoubtedly the BFI, an internationally renowned centre for independent cinema. These plans for a new state-of-the-art building offer a fantastic opportunity for the capital’s moving image artists. As well as strengthening London’s position as a global leader for the creative industries, the centre will create a new generation of TV and film lovers and give Londoners of all ages the chance to experience film and its amazing heritage in the UK.”

Amanda Nevill, BFI CEO said: “British film and British filmmakers deserve a home now more than ever, a building that will express our optimism, our confidence and our excitement about Britain’s leading role in the future of film, television and the moving image at home and internationally. It will be a place where filmmakers and audiences will come together to be inspired by our creative legacy and to be part of this most fast moving, dynamic and popular art-form.”

Lord David Puttnam said: “British film and TV is the envy of the world. We combine being at the forefront of the latest innovations in technology with a legacy of over 100 years of filmmaking driven by an extraordinary and seemingly endless pool of talent and creativity. Why then do we still not have a 'home' that reflects this? Tate Modern, The Royal Opera House, The National Theatre, The British Museum – every other major art-form have buildings to be proud of and which support their role in delivering culture to the world. This is what British film and TV have long needed and deserved – it’s also the initiative I've waited my whole life to celebrate!” 

See: http://www.bfi.org.uk/international-centre-for-film-tv-and-the-moving-image

The Institute for Photography in Scotland is a newly formed association between The National Galleries of Scotland, The University of Glasgow, The University of St Andrews, Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, and Stills, Edinburgh.

It aims to enable awareness of and engagement with Scotland’s photography, both nationally and internationally, and to promote collaboration amongst member bodies.One of its objectives is to carry details of photography events taking place in Scotland. 

See more: http://www.institutephotographyscotland.org/

Might anyone know about gigantic wet plate negatives 5 by 8 feet held in Fort St Cyr, France possibly of the new Paris Opera of 1875  or   a  4 by 6.5 feet set in  Berlin?

Gael

The College of Psychic Studies invites you to come and experience a unique and exciting encounter with the spirit world in the form of an exhibition spanning 150 years of mediumistic art, spirit photographs and artefacts from the College archives.

Six floors of the CPS Victorian townhouse in South Kensington will showcase over 300 spirit photographs, writing slates, spirit trumpets, planchettes and crystal balls. Expect to see the President's office used by former College President Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, still in use today and the rooms where psychic detective Harry Price built his laboratory.

Breathe in the atmosphere as you enjoy an unparalleled collection of mediumistic art. Highlights include the recently discovered drawings by Alice Pery (1833-1906), the visionary paintings by Ethel Le Rossignol (1873-1970) and an opportunity to see new acquisitions by contemporary artists invited by the College to exhibit works for sale during the exhibition.

The exhibition is timed to coincide with the summer show at the Courtauld Gallery featuring the extraordinary spirit drawings of Georgiana Houghton (1814-84). Georgiana was a founder member of the College and an album of her watercolours from our archives has been loaned to the Courtauld Gallery and forms an important part of their show.

The world of spirit awaits your arrival.

Encounters with the Spirit World
14-20th August 2016, from 12 noon-5pm
16 Queensberry Place, South Kensington, London, SW7 2EB

Free Admission

The BBC’s Antiques Roadshow featured an English Pattern wooden cine camera believed to have been owned by Cherry Kearton. Expert Hilary Kay identified the camera as being made by the Williamson Kinematograph Co Ltd but this was based on the star trade mark that was on the lower film magazine. The upper magazine was different to the lower one. The camera had large hinges that I would not associate with a Williamson product. I wonder if any member of this forum can offer an expert opinion.

The show was available on the BBC I Player at the time of this posting.Antiques Roadshow starts at 15m 30s.

BPH also reported on a Kearton camera purchased by the National Media Museum. See: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/national-media-museum-acquires-wildlife-pioneers-movie-camera

Quaritch will be exhibiting a number of important examples British photography in Room C6 at PhotoLondon which runs from 19-22 May 2016 at London's Somerset House. This year Quaritch's exhibition will highlight the richness of the contribution of early Scottish photographers through the work of D. O. Hill & Robert Adamson, Thomas and James Craig Annan and James Anderson. Its selection by Hill & Adamson focuses on one of their favourite sitters – the art historian, Elisabeth Rigby, later Lady Eastlake, who published one of the first essays on the relationship between art and photography.

Quaritch is also showing a unique early daguerreotype view of London, photographs by Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), Julia Margaret Cameron, and George Davison among others.  British photographers of the 20th and 21st centuries include Bill Brandt, Roger Mayne, Tony Ray-Jones, Martin Parr and Mike Seaborne.

Find out more about PhotoLondon here: http://photolondon.org/

Quaritch can be found here: http://www.quaritch.com/departments/photography/

Images: 

Top: THOMAS ANNAN (1829–87), Close, No. 65 High Street, Glasgow, 1868–1871, printed circa 1876-77. Carbon print, 10⅞ x 8¾ (27.5 x 22 cm.), numbered ‘13’ with printed title on the mount. 

Left:  C. L. DODGSON i.e. LEWIS CARROLL (1832–1898). Alice and Ivo Bligh, Lambeth Palace, 7th July 1864. Albumen print from a wet collodion negative, trimmed to oval approximately 7⅞ x 6 inches (20 x 15.1 cm.), mounted on card, titled ‘Alice and Ivo Bligh’ on mount with border and bow in ink, annotated ‘6th earl of Darnley’s children’ in pencil. 

Greetings…In late 2013 I posted on BPH that I was researching the 1867 portrait photograph of Montauk (USA) Indian Stephen Talkhouse Pharoah that is in the 1869 Shindler Catalogue at the Smithsonian. The British connection was that it was William Henry Blackmore who funded Shindler to do the copying and that I thought perhaps the original prints or glass plates may somehow wound up in England at his Salisbury museum. It seems that they didn’t.

However, three original prints were found in the U.S., the photographer and studio location identified, and a possible scenario how the photograph got to Washington, DC from Sag Harbor, NY to be copied. All the research notes “Looking for Mr.Talkhouse” can be downloaded for free until June 1,2016 at www.tookerphotocollection.com on the DOWNLOAD page.

This is an intriguing American story that begins in 1803 with President Thomas Jefferson, British scientist James Smithson (Smithsonian),William Henry Blackmore, Smithsonian Superintendent Joseph Henry, Samuel Morse, Judge Henry P. Hedges and others. The reader will be fascinated by the intermingling of relationships, personalities, and happenstances that shaped the early years of photography in America.

I would like to thank and acknowledge three BPH members for their assistance in the research. Paula Fleming Richardson(Native American Photography at the Smithsonian,The Shindler Catalogue) who generously provided insights from her research on the Shindler Catalogue and guiding commentary as the research progressed. Anthony Hamber for his book Collecting the American West, The Rise and Fall of William Blackmore and, author and collector Neil McDonald who identified the original print which was in an unmarked folder at the New York Public Library.

Many appreciations.

Kevin J. McCann

A year ago, in Spring 2015, we launched www.britishphotography.org to showcase our private collection of British photographs and to use the collection as an educational resource. Since then we have acquired several hundred additional photographs by, among others, Ian Berry, John Blakemore, Jane Bown, Bill Brandt, Mat Collishaw, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Fay Godwin, Bert Hardy, Paul Hill, Susan Hiller, Colin Jones, Dafydd Jones, Chris Killip, Neil Libbert, Daniel Meadows, Paul Nash, Edwin Smith, Jo Spence and Homer Sykes.

We have also continued the process of making the collection available on line by adding a significant number of new works to the website.

Where possible we continue to acquire substantial bodies of work and we are delighted to have recently made one of our most significant acquisitions: the entire Daniel Meadows touring exhibition, Daniel Meadows. Early Photographic Works, consisting of over one hundred and thirty works, including framed photographs, screen projections and digital films. This acquisition follows other substantial purchases that include an important group of conceptual self-portraits by Susan Hiller; the entire Anna Fox touring exhibition, Cockroach Diaries and Other Stories; over four hundred photographs and contact prints by Jo Spence and Terry Dennett; and fifty vintage prints of Dafydd Jones's era defining photographs of high-society in the 1980s.

We also commissioned a major new series of photographs by Andrew Bruce and Anna Fox entitled Spitting, a response to the original Spitting Image puppets of Margaret Thatcher and her government ministers that are in our collection.

Sadly, in the year since we launched the website the climate for photography in Britain has worsened: Birmingham Library has closed the inspiring photography department run by Pete James and his colleagues; The National Media Museum in Bradford has announced the end of its commitment to photography; the fate of the Media Space at the Science Museum is uncertain; and Tate Britain remains without a curator of British Photography.

However, we continue to do what we can: acquiring photographs, commisioning work, giving lectures, participating in panel discussions, building the website, and loaning pictures to exhibitions worldwide. We are also in discussions to tour the collection internationally and look forward to announcing other new initiatives in the coming months.

In addition to www.britishphotography.org we can also be followed on twitter and Instagram.

Claire and James Hyman

An extremely rare and important album of photographs by the celebrated early Victorian photographer, Oscar Gustav Rejlander, most of which have never been exhibited before, has been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, it was announced today, Monday, 9 May 2016. BPH reported on the original auction sale and export ban here.

The album was acquired in November 2015 following receipt of a grant from the Art Fund after a temporary Export Bar was placed on it in March 2015. This prevented the album from leaving the UK after it was sold to an overseas buyer last year.

The scarcity and remarkable condition of the album, which was sold by a Yorkshire auction house after lying undiscovered in a family collection for more than 140 years, make it one of the most significant 19th century British photographic objects to have come to light in recent decades.

Rejlander is best known for his pionering work combining multiple negatives in the darkroom to create new, articifial compostions. He was also a portraitist of extraordinary skill who influenced famous photographers such as Julia Margaret Cameron and Lewis Carroll and who also collaborated with Charles Darwin and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The National Portrait Gallery album is one of a small set of private albums Rejlander put together to showcase his portrait work.

Previously unseen photographs include several self-portraits, comprising one of Rejlander himself, taken in the 1850s, as well as a previously unknown portrait of Rejlander and his wife Mary Bull (a frequent collaborator and model for her husband).

Rejlander photographed numerous illustrious sitters during his career, several of which feature in the album. They include the poet and dramatist Sir Henry Taylor and the Hon. Lionel Tennyson, grandson of the Poet Laureate, Alfred Lord Tennyson. The album also features a small number of well-known genre photographs, including ‘Trying to Catch a Fly’, ‘The Infant Photography Gives Painting a New Brush’ and ‘Head of St John the Baptist in a Charger’.

Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London says: “We are delighted to welcome this album into the Gallery’s Collection, not least because it will provide access to important examples of portraiture from the history of photography. We also hope it will enable visitors to engage with Victorian photography in a new way and make comparisons with later developments.”

Dr Phillip Prodger, Head of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, London, says: “The Rejlander album becomes one of the jewels in the crown of our already impressive collection of 19th century photographs. It transforms the way we think about one of Britain’s great artists. And it contains some of the most beautiful and expressive portraits of the Victorian era.”

Stephen Deuchar, Art Fund director, says, “This is an excellent addition to the National Portrait Gallery’s 19th-century collections and displays and we’re delighted to have helped make the acquisition happen.”

The Rejlander album will be on display in the Gallery in October 2016.

Background

Oscar Gustav Rejlander is believed to have been born in Sweden and studied art in Rome, working there as both a photographer and as a portrait painter and copyist of old master paintings. He established a photographic studio in Wolverhampton around 1846, moving to London in 1862 where he would work for the rest of his career.

The precise dates at which Rejlander began to exhibit his photographs is unclear, however it was no later than 1855, since he won a bronze medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition that same year. From that time until his death in 1875, his work was regularly exhibited and reviewed in the photographic and periodical press, earning him a reputation as one of Britain’s leading photographers. The range of his work includes portraits, landscapes, nude and anatomical studies and genre subjects.

The National Portrait Gallery holds 15 photographs by Rejlander. Nearly all are small carte-de-viste-albumen prints.

Funding package for the album - total cost £74,651.This is made up of: 

• £26,862 grant from the Art Fund
• £35,153 from the Gallery’s own resources (Grant in Aid)
• £12,600 from individual Gallery supporters

Ben Uri is delighted to announce its first exhibition to bring together three major twentieth century photographers - Wolfgang Suschitzky, Dorothy Bohm and Neil Libbert - presenting their artistic responses to three great world cities across three crucial decades.

Today, London, Paris and New York are so familiar that it is hard for a modern viewer to imagine them afresh without the visual expectations fostered by art, film and advertising in the digital age. Yet when each of these photographers arrived at their respective destinations, they found cities that were strange and new to them and responded by photographing them without prejudice or expectation.

The photographs reveal that all three cities were not only places of social division and political tension, but also of beauty and magic. The exhibition includes many works never previously exhibited in the UK, and each series presents an opportunity to view an aspect of the work of a renowned photographer in real depth.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue. This will include interviews with each of the artists by Prof Michael Berkowitz (Professor of Jewish Studies, University College, London); Zelda Cheatle (photography lecturer, curator and writer) and Dr Jessica Feather (Allen Fellow, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art).

London, Paris, New York, 1930s-60s:
Photographs by Wolfgang Suschitzky, Dorothy Bohm and Neil Libbert
20 May–27 August 2016

Ben Uri Gallery & Museum | 020 7604 3991 | www.benuri.org
Ben Uri, 108A Boundary Road, off Abbey Rd, London NW8 0RH

Image: © Wolfgang Suschitzky, Charing Cross Road, London, 1936

The Scottish Society for the History of Photography has been active since 1983 and has organised the annual Annan Lecture series since 2006. Its next lecture takes place on 26 May in Glasgow and will be given by Dr Roberta McGrath who will consider the importance of other histories - and theories - and what it means to look at a photograph. 

Dr. McGrath is a leading authority on feminist visual representation and the way in which images are viewed and consumed. She attended Glasgow School of Art, and received her PhD from the University of Middlesex. She subsequently taught photographic theory and criticism in the University of Westminster and Edinburgh Napier University.

Join SSHoP today to gain free entry to this event!  Ticket price for non-members: £5 

Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-wide-margins-of-photographic-history-annan-lecture-roberta-mcgrath-tickets-25018931297?aff=es2

Dr Mike Ware is to be awarded the prestigious 2016 Allied Professionals Special Recognition Award at the annual meeting of the American Institute for Conservation of Art and Historic Works (AIC) in Montreal, Canada. 

Ware has been a dedicated and prolific contributor to the science and practice of photography for over 30 years. Educated at Oxford University as a chemist, his academic career was followed by one that revolutionized the collective scientific knowledge of historic photographic processes. He has demonstrated his commitment to the conservation of photographic heritage with more than 60 publications in both the popular and academic literature, including four books. His work has transformed the treatment, storage, and exhibition practices for early silver and cyanotype prints, allowing conservators to set best practices for the preservation of these materials based on scientific principles.

His recent research into of the technical history and chemistry of platinum and palladium prints, soon to be published by the Photographic Materials Group of American Institute for Conservation of Art and Historic Works, provides a scientific foundation for the printing and preservation of this important class of photographs. Mike’s contributions are numerous: he engages in research, teaching, photography, lecturing, and publishing that bring his invaluable contributions to a global audience. But the two qualities that stand out are his incredible generosity of spirit and his impeccable standards of practice. Always accessible and enthusiastic, his love of photography and photographs is contagious.

This award expresses the AIC's deep and sustained gratitude for Mike’s many contributions.

Mike Ware's website can be found here.

The AIC can be found here.