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This project aims to explore the rich history of studio portraiture practiced by women in the UK from the 1890s to the 1960s. In 1890 it is claimed that only one woman ran a leading London West End photography business. By 1911 the number of women employed in the photographic industry had reached over five thousand, offering women newfound independence through the profession of photography. This CDA offers an opportunity to explore the careers of professional women photographers in the commercial sector in this period, and the consequences of their work for British social and cultural history. The project will explore how studio photography develops alongside evolving ideas about the role women were to play in British society. The research will also reflect upon the ways in which women photographers have contributed to and fundamentally changed the practice of studio portraiture.

The National Portrait Gallery’s outstanding Photographs Collection will be a key resource. The student will have unique access to substantial collection holdings of portraits by women studio photographers practicing at the turn of the century in Britain, and early to mid-twentieth century studio portraitists. This visual material is supplemented by letters and correspondence, period magazines and journals held in the Heinz Archive and Library.

The student will be encouraged to pursue his/her own original line of inquiry and to decide the scope of their chosen research, both in terms of the timescale and geographical reach, and the key practitioners to research. The student will engage with a set of research questions, agreed with the supervisors, which explore the subject in its historical and art historical context.

Areas of particular interest include: the economic and sociological factors specific to British women that impacted the development of studio photography; the education of women photographers; networks of professional women photographers in the UK and abroad; the changing economic base for photographic portraiture, notably in the shift from high society to high street; the evolving conventions and iconography of studio portraiture as practiced by women; unpacking the gendered dynamics of the gaze; the studio as a space for the construction of identities; and the ways in which gender identities have been undermined through the practice of studio portraiture.

The supervisors of this project are Lucy Soutter, Ph.D., Principal Lecturer, Photography (University of Westminster) who specialises in the history and theory of photography, with research interests in portraiture, staging and women’s studies, and Phillip Prodger, PhD, Head of Photographs (National Portrait Gallery) who leads the Gallery’s photographic exhibitions and displays programme, and oversees the Gallery’s Collection of photographs.

This studentship offers a fully-funded research project, with unparalleled access to the extensive visual and archival resources of the National Portrait Gallery. The student will be offered practical work-based training in collections and curatorial practice; be encouraged to contribute to the NPG’s Staff Research Seminar programme and to other staff and student training sessions; prepare interpretative text for the NPG website and for collection objects; and propose one or more displays for the NPG galleries. Sector specific training will be provided by the Thames Consortium to develop skills relevant to working in museums and galleries and the student will participate in training provided by the University of Westminster.

We seek applications from outstanding postgraduate students for this collaborative doctoral award, which will begin in September 2017. The studentship will last for three years, with an option to apply for a further 6 months funded under the AHRC’s Student Development Fund. Part time award holders will be funded for a maximum period of 6 years.

A maintenance grant of £14,553 p.a. for full-time study will be paid by the AHRC to the award holder, subject to eligibility criteria. The studentship includes an additional six months of funding from the AHRC’s Student Development Fund, which can (subject to agreement) be used to support appropriate training or a placement based on the student’s individual training needs. The AHRC will make an additional, one-off annual maintenance payment of £550 to cover the special costs of working at two sites. The National Portrait Gallery will also provide up to £1,000 per year for three years (subject to agreement) to support the student’s research-related expenses.

The Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM) is the UK’s leading centre for research in art and design. The UK’s 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) ranked CREAM as one of the top three art and design departments in the UK and number one in the field of UK arts departments with research profiles across both theory and practice.  With over 60 doctoral students and more than 30 research active staff, CREAM is a leading provider of both practice-based and theoretical PhD research in photography, film, moving image, digital and experimental media, ceramics, visual art, music, and art-science relationships. We are highly international with research expertise in South and Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and European media arts. Our students undertake practice-based and theoretical research in contemporary art and in arts and media history. 

Read more here: http://www.ahrc-cdp.org/what-can-a-woman-do-with-a-camera-women-and-the-practice-of-studio-portraiture-1890s-1960s-with-the-national-portrait-gallery-university-of-westminster-cream/

Eligible candidates will hold at least an upper second class honours BA degree and preferably a Masters degree. Candidates whose secondary level education has not been conducted in the medium of English should also demonstrate evidence of appropriate English language proficiency normally defined as 6.5 in IELTS (with not less than 6.0 in any of the individual elements).  For entry requirements, please visit https://www.westminster.ac.uk/courses/research-degrees/entry-requirements

Please note that the studentships are not available to applicants who already have a PhD or who are currently enrolled on a doctoral programme at Westminster or elsewhere.

Prospective candidates wishing to informally discuss an application should contact Sabina Jaskot-Gill, Associate Curator, Photographs, at the National Portrait Gallery, sjaskotgill@npg.org.uk or Dr Lucy Soutter at the University of Westminster, l.soutter1@westminster.ac.uk

The closing date for applications is 5pm 9 June 2017.

Interviews will take place on 20 June 2017.

For further information, including how to apply, please visit 

www.westminster.ac.uk/courses/research-degrees/research-studentships

The University of Oxford's History of Art department is sponsoring The Photography Seminar with a series of meetings beginning on Tuesday, May 9.  The talks start at 1pm in St Luke’s Chapel by the Radcliffe Humanities building on Woodstock Road on May 9, May 16, May 23 and May 30. The final seminar on June 6 will take place in the Department of History of Art. The convenors are Geraldine Johnson and Sajda van der Leeuw. All are welcome. 

May 9th (Tuesday, Week 3 – St Luke’s Chapel, Radcliffe Humanities)
Earth in Focus: Photography and Land Art around 1970
Sajda van der Leeuw (University of Oxford)

May 16th (Tuesday, Week 4 – St Luke’s Chapel, Radcliffe Hunanities)
Photosynthesis: Fractals, Algorithms and Wild Matter in
New Forms of Photographic Practice
Dr Daniel Rubinstein (Central Saint Martins)

May 23rd (Tuesday, Week 5 – St Luke’s Chapel, Radcliffe Humanities)
Views on a Photo Studio in a Small Town in Cameroon:
Obsessions and High Fashion as a Response to Insurrection
Prof. David Zeitlyn (University of Oxford)

May 30th (Tuesday, Week 6 – St Luke’s Chapel, Radcliffe Humanities)
Pictorialist Prints: Eduard J. Steichen’s Rodin—Le Penseur,
1902 to 1906
Dr Patrizia Di Bello (Birkbeck College, University of London)

June 6th (Tuesday, Week 7 – History of Art Dept., Littlegate House, St Ebbes)
How Do We Do Art History?
Photographs and Glass Slides in the Visual Resources Centre
Dr Deborah Schultz (Regent’s University London) and
Francesca Issatt (University of Oxford)

*Wks 3-6: meet in the Math Institute’s café for informal lunch from 12:30pm to 1pm,
followed by talks in St Luke’s Chapel, Radcliffe Humanities, from 1pm to 2pm.

**Wk 7: bring lunch to the History of Art Dept. for informal discussion from 12:30pm to 1pm,
followed by a site visit to the Visual Resources Centre’s photo collections from 1pm to 2pm.

Photography%20Seminar%20poster-TT%202017.pdf

Hackney Archives is looking for enthusiastic and hard working individuals who are passionate about heritage to assist us with digitising a large photographic collection so that it can be made publically available.

It holds a collection of 150,000 negatives captured between 1952 and 1979 by Gibson's photography studio (formerly situated on Lower Clapton Road, Hackney). The Gibson collection records the people of Hackney as they got married, worked, celebrated and mourned and offers a unique insight into life in this diverse London borough over a 27 year period.

You'll gain experience of caring for a historic photography collection, supporting a large scale digitisation project, creating increased access to collections, researching social histories and using a variety of ways to engage the public with archive collections. We have an induction process during which we'll give you further information about the role and initial training.

See images from the collection

For more information and to apply please fill in the application form and return it to etienne.joseph@hackney.gov.uk by Wednesday 10 May. application form [doc, 61.5Kb]

See more here: http://www.hackney.gov.uk/archives

Described as the “greatest photographic document of Caribbean people in post-war Britain ”, the collection of 100 black and white photographs chronicling 40 years of Caribbean heritage in Birmingham by Vanley Burke, known as ‘Rivers of Birminam’, have secured a permanent home in the city, thanks to the Collecting Birmingham initiative.

The photographs are by far the largest and most significant collection of work by the celebrated photographer in any public collection. The 100 photographs were selected and grouped together by Vanley Burke and curator Lynda Morris for the ‘By the Rivers of Birminam’ retrospective exhibition, held at the MAC in 2012, and reflect Burke’s photographic work across over 40 years, from 1968 to 2011. A selection of these will initially be displayed at Soho House in the community gallery, which explores the extraordinary lives of everyday Birmingham people.

“These photographs are seminal in their representation of Birmingham’s Caribbean communities and the Handsworth area of the city from 1967 – they provide a unique window into the social politics of Birmingham from the 1960s onwards, recording the fight against racism through anti-National Front demonstrations and rallies, and also include Mohammed Ali’s visit to the city in 1983 as well as intimate portraits of communities and individuals such as the iconic photograph ‘Boy with a Flag’” comments Lisa Beauchamp, curator of modern and contemporary art at Birmingham Museums Trust.

“Vanley is a remarkable photographer, able to capture poignant and arresting moments through the medium of black and white photography. His ‘Rivers of Birminam’ series are unparalleled in their recording of Britain’s Caribbean communities, and tell a story of Birmingham and Black British history that feels as relevant and important now as they did when the photographs were first taken. We’ve had a small number of photographs by Vanley in Birmingham’s collection for a while, but it has been a long ambition of ours to be able to represent his practice more fully. To have ‘The Rivers of Birminam’ series of 100 photographs in Birmingham’s collection is incredible and I’m sure they will be cherished and enjoyed by our audiences.”

Burke’s photographs are taken from a unique perspective; arriving in Birmingham from Jamaica in 1965 at the age of 14, he has experienced first-hand the changes in his community and the city. His work offers an intimate view of the people around him, and remains rooted in these communities even as his reputation grew nationally and internationally. Whilst he has displayed his work at solo exhibitions in galleries in London, New York and Mali, he also exhibits his photographs in local venues such as community centres, pubs and schools.

Vanley Burke, said: “I am delighted the collection has found a permanent home in the city with Birmingham Museums. The photos reflect an important era of migration and settlement in Birmingham and it feels only right that the people represented in the images and their families can appreciate them for many years to come. In fact, I feel like the photos belong to the people of Birmingham as so many people feel connected to the stories and experiences documented in them and I’m very pleased they will now be part of the city’s collection.”

The works were acquired as part of the Collecting Birmingham project, a three year initiative run by Birmingham Museums Trust which looks to local communities to share their views on what items should be added to the city’s collections to represent them and their lives. “We are creating a unique record of life in our city for future generations – this isn’t just about our history but also the contemporary world in which we live, which will be our children and grandchildren’s history. Through focus groups involving many different communities within the city, Collecting Birmingham identifies a host of key items – from ancient relics to contemporary photographs – that will help us tell the stories relevant to people in the city today,” adds Lisa.

The ‘Rivers of Birminam’ images will go on display at Soho House on 27 April 2017 in the community gallery as part as part of The Extraordinary Lives of Everyday People exhibition, which includes a suitcase and objects from Mrs McGhie-Belgrave to reflect her arrival in Birmingham from Jamaica and her life and work in the city. 

Soho House is open Wednesdays, Thursday, and the first Sunday of the month from 11.00am to 4.00pm, and entry to the visitor centre (including the community gallery), café and gardens are free. Admission to the house itself is £7.00 for adults, £5.00 for concessions and £3.00 for children; family tickets are also available.

Image: © Vanley Burke, Boy with a flag, Wilfred, in Handsworth Park, 1970.

The Scottish Society for the History of Photography is presenting Zelda Cheatle as its 2017 Annan lecturer. Zelda has had a close association with Scotland and Scottish photography for many years and will talk about her experience of photography here from the early 1980s onwards, at a time when she ran the Print Room of The Photographers’ Gallery. She will go on to talk about her experiences as a gallerist in the 1990s, and how universities, art colleges, institutions and galleries in Scotland contributed to the excellence and diversity of photographic practice up to the present day.

She will then go on to talk about various experiences of collecting photography, collections, and how to enjoy all aspects of collecting.

Zelda Cheatle is renowned for her pioneering work in establishing photography as art, as a curator, lecturer, editor and publisher (Zelda Cheatle Press).

She has worked in photography since graduating and opened her own gallery, Zelda Cheatle Gallery, in London in 1989. For 16 years, the gallery exhibited work by established and eminent photographers of the early 20th-century and supporting emerging photographers.  The gallery helped build collections and Zelda continues to work with museums and public collections nationally and internationally.

She is on the board of the Koestler Trust and their Arts Committee, helped create the John Kobal Foundation (now Taylor Wessing at National Portrait Gallery), established The Photography Fund which collected over 6000 prints, and is a nominator for Deutsche Borse and Prix Pictet competitions, in 2016 chaired the judges for Sony World Photography Awards, also curating the show for Somerset House.

Zelda now works internationally, most recently in China, Dubai, UAE, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Also working with Autograph Archive in London, making acquisitions of vintage works from black photographers working in the UK during the 70s and 80’s.

She is currently working with Photo London leading a course ‘On Collecting Photography’ March – May 2017.

Tickets cost £5 and the event takes place at Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow. See more here: http://sshop.org.uk/project/annan-lecture-2017-zelda-cheatle/