Blogs

In an informal setting and in dialogue with experienced and imaginative guests, The Colin Rowe Lectures aim to discuss the role of the image in architecture, particularly the crucial role of architectural photography. The lectures are considered as an open forum of discussion for architects, photographers, students and the simply curious. All are welcome.

Our next lecture will be delivered by acclaimed South-African photographer Guy Tillim. Tillim started photographing professionally in 1986, working with the Afrapix collective until 1990. His work as a freelance photographer in South Africa for the local and foreign media included positions with Reuters between 1986 and 1988, and Agence France Presse in 1993 and 1994.Tillim has received many awards for his work, and is the 2017 recipient of the HCB Award presented by Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson. Solo exhibitions have taken place at several institutions internationally; the 2014 Barbican exhibition Constructing Worlds: Photography and Architecture in the Modern World included Tillim’s work on the Congolese city of Kinshasa and its late-modernist colonial buildings.

Colin Rowe lecture

Hello everyone, I am currently working on an archival project, The Family Museum, focused on amateur family photography. Over the past 25 years, my project co-founder, Nigel Shephard, has collected around 25,000 photos and 300 family albums dating from the mid-19^th century to the present day. Inspired by the richness and size of this archive, we’d like to use it as a resource for exhibitions and presentations exploring themes related to family, popular culture and amateur photography. Its present content is focused almost wholly on British photography and amateur photographers.

The first exhibition we’re researching and planning for 2018 is centred on ‘Stickybacks’, the popular Edwardian studio portraits produced as a strip of six images on gummed paper, each portrait measuring approx 2in x 1.5in. The spur for this show was a selection of these photos originating from a Swindon studio, and we’re in touch with the Swindon Musuem and Art Gallery and local history networks there to collaborate on the exhibition.

Our fascination with the Stickyback phenomenon stems from its itinerant and ‘pop-up’ nature (the studios sprang up around the UK, on the Isle of Man and in Dublin), and the portraits themselves, many of which have intimate and playful aspects borne out in later photo-booth and even selfie photo culture. The ‘travelling box’ or ‘sliding box’ technology used in the Stickyback studios (developed principally we believe between the late 1890s and 1910 by Spiridione Grossi, originally from Liverpool, and later patented by him in 1916, as ‘Improvements in Strip Printing Photographic Apparatus’) is also an aspect we’re researching.

There are some excellent notes on the Stickyback phenomenon on a few local photography websites (notably Sussex PhotoHistory and Cambridgeshire Photographers), and Michael (Pritchard) thank you very much for your help on a couple of questions. If any other members have researched or come across Stickybacks, it would be great to hear from you.

Rachael
The Family Museum

See more here: https://www.recruit.ox.ac.uk/pls/hrisliverecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=131230

Dominic Winter's biannual auction of Photography takes place at their salerooms in Gloucestershire on Wednesday 4 October. The sale comprises 140 lots (297-347) and includes a mixture of 19th and 20th century material from salt prints and daguerreotypes to Polaroids and C-prints. Estimates for single and group lots range from £100 to £5000. Catalogues are available in various digital formats and can be accessed at the auctioneers' website. 

Official viewing takes place Tuesday 3 October, 9-6 and morning of sale from 9am. The sale starts at 10am with lot 1 and the Photography section is estimated to start at about 1.30pm. Bidding can be made in person, by phone, commission and online in real time (additional charges apply).

Pictured here is one photograph from an album of approximately 470 photographs by W. Rausch of Bulawayo. Covering the period from the time of the Second Matabele War to the Second Boer War, 1896-1900 the monstrous 16.5kg album is a veritable archive for the work of the Rausch studio. Estimate £3000-5000.

For further information and enquiries please contact Chris Albury chris@dominicwinter.co.uk / 01285 860006

Dominic Winter Auctioneers, Mallard House, Broadway Lane, South Cerney, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 5UQ

www.dominicwinter.co.uk

I am seeking any information about this albumen photograph: "The Confessional" Printed by Frith, "Goodman Phot.

"21 x 16.5 cm photo on a 37 x 29.5 cm mount.

I am assuming that this was published in "Gems of Photographic Art" by Frith.

My attempts to find a copy online have been fruitless. The George Eastman House and The Ransom Center apparently have copies, but neither is digitized.

I have many questions about this image:

Is the photographer Claudius E. Goodman? He is referenced here on this site, but as a stereoscopic photographer.

This genre scene seems to me, to be a cut above most. Was this his only large scale photo? Why ? The busy composition reminds me of Don Quixote by William Frederick Lake Price.

Is this an enlargement of a stereo view scene? The vertical composition seems to indicate, no.

Which Frith version of "Gems" was this included in? What year? Are there digital copies of Gems of Photographic Art online?

Thanks in advance for any info- or guesses.

David

The Tate's annual report for 2015/16 reports a large growth in the photography collections. As part of the donation of photographs from the Eric and Louise Franck London Collection, an important group by black British photographers was accessioned during the year. Jane and Michael Wilson donated a body of British and international photographic works, among them important works by Taryn Simon. A purchase of a large body of work by Chris Steele-Perkins was supported by the Photography Acquisitions Committee. Following the Rauschenberg exhibition at Tate Modern, a boxed portfolio of twelve photographs by the artist was presented by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

Across the Tate some 1,113 new works entered the collection with a collective value of £27.4 million.

The full report can be read here: http://www.tate.org.uk/download/file/fid/113367 and an itemised list of all the acquisitions with values can be read here: http://www.tate.org.uk/download/file/fid/113372

Kate Bush has been appointed by Tate Britain to the new post of Adjunct Curator of Photography, starting in October 2017. Kate is a curator and critic specialising in contemporary art and photography. She was most recently Head of Photography at the Science Museum Group – including the Science Museum in London and National Media Museum in Bradford which she joined in 2014 – and was previously Head of Art Galleries at the Barbican Centre in London. 

She will work with Ann Gallagher (Tate’s Director of Collections for British Art), Alex Farquharson (Director of Tate Britain) and Simon Baker (Tate’s Senior Curator of Photography and International Art) alongside Tate Britain’s wider curatorial team, researching and building the collection of British photography and curating exhibitions and displays at Tate Britain.

Image: Science Museum Group / Jennie Hills, 2014

Simon Baker is Tate’s first Curator of Photography. Since his appointment in 2009 he has worked on acquisitions, displays of the permanent collection and exhibitions at both Tate Modern and Tate Britain, and in advisory roles for Tate St Ives and Tate Liverpool. Major exhibitions on which he has worked include William Klein + Daido Moriyama (2012); Conflict, Time, Photography (2014); and Performing for the Camera (2016).

Simon has been invited by Stills to present a talk in Edinburgh as part of their programme of 40th anniversary events. With reference to recent projects, he will discuss strategies for exhibiting and collecting photography at Tate and the processes of identifying and selecting work for acquisition or display.

Ticketed: £4 + booking fee

See more and book here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/stills-40th-anniversary-lecture-simon-baker-senior-curator-international-art-photography-at-tate-tickets-36276232187

The Martin Parr Foundation, a new centre for British photography and the works of Martin Parr, will open in Bristol on 25 October 2017. The Martin Parr Foundation was established in 2014 and will open to the public in the Paintworks complex, Bristol, and comprises a studio, gallery, library and archive centre.

The aim of the Foundation is to support and promote photography from the British Isles. It will do so by preserving the archive and legacy of Martin Parr, and by holding a growing collection of works by selected British and Irish photographers as well as images taken in the British Isles by international photographers. The Foundation will also house an expanding library of British and Irish photographic books.

Martin Parr (b. 1952) is one of the most significant documentary photographers of post-war Britain. He has developed an international reputation for his innovative imagery, his oblique approach to social documentary, and his contribution to photographic culture both within the UK and abroad. Alongside his reputation as a photographer, Parr is known as an important collector, especially of photobooks. Over the past 40 years, Parr’s dedication to discovering and promoting the overlooked, and his support of both photographers and photography has contributed to the way the history of the medium is understood and defined. His collection of around 12,000 photobooks, one of the most inclusive photobook collections in the world, has been both gifted to and acquired by Tate with assistance from the Luma Foundation, The Art Fund and Tate’s supporters. Some of the proceeds from this acquisition have been invested in the Martin Parr Foundation.

The Foundation gallery space will be open to the public on a regular basis and will present work related to British photography as well as images by Martin Parr. The first exhibition from 25 October – January 2018 will be ‘Black Country Stories’ by Martin Parr, followed by ‘Town to Town’ by Niall McDiarmid and the David Hurn ’Swaps’ show in Spring 2018.

The Martin Parr Foundation will house a collection of post-war documentary photography relating to the British Isles, both prints and book maquettes, including works by Keith Arnatt, Richard Billingham, Elaine Constantine, John Davies, Paul Graham, Ken Grant, John Hinde, Peter Mitchell, Tony Ray-Jones, Paul Reas, Simon Roberts, Graham Smith, Tom Wood and Eamonn Doyle. The collection will include two original maquettes of ‘In Flagrante’ by Chris Killip, the full sets of ‘Belgravia’ by Karen Knorr and of ‘Hackney Flowers’ by Stephen Gill and the original prints from Victor Sloan’s 1989 exhibition, ‘Walls’, from the Orchard Gallery in Derry.

Martin Parr’s archive held by the Foundation will consist of works spanning Parr’s career from his student days to the present, including ephemera, correspondence, books and published editorial work.

The Martin Parr Foundation will offer the facility to book group visits and individual research sessions alongside a programme of public talks, educational events, book signings and seminars, all related to photography in a wider sense. Parr commented, ‘Post-war British documentary photograph continues to be underappreciated and I wanted to make a small contribution to rectify this. The Foundation will support and preserve the legacy of photographers who made, and continue to make, important work focused on the British Isles.’

Jenni Smith has been appointed Director of the Martin Parr Foundation. Six trustees have also been appointed and will meet twice a year. The Foundation is also working closely with the University of the West of England, and will exhibit the final show of their newly established MA Photography course.

The Martin Parr Foundation is open to the public from Wednesday–Saturday.

Martin Parr Foundation, 316 Paintworks, Arnos Vale, Bristol, BS4 3AR, UK
(+44) 0117 329 3270

www.martinparrfoundation.org

Photos: Louis Little

UPDATED: There is an extensive interview with Parr by Gemma Padley in the BJP which gives more background to the Foundation and its objectives. It can be read here.

Considered one of the most important photo historians of the 20th century, Peter E. Palmquist (1936-2003) had a keen interest in the photography of the American West, California, and Humboldt County before 1950, and the history of women in photography worldwide. He published over 60 books and 340 articles and was a strong proponent of the concept of the independent researcher-writer in the field of photohistory. With co-author Thomas Kailbourn, he won the Caroline Bancroft Western History Prize for their book, Pioneer Photographers of the Far West. Professor Martha Sandweiss, Princeton University, wrote, “He (Peter) established new ways of pursuing the history of photography, and with his collections and research notes soon to be accessible at Yale, he will be speaking to and inspiring new generations of students and researchers forever.” Established by Peter’s lifetime companion, Pam Mendelsohn, this fund supports the study of under-researched women photographers internationally, past and present, and under-researched Western American photographers before 1900.

A small panel of outside consultants with professional expertise in the field of photohistory and/or grant reviewing will review the applications in order to determine the awards. Applications will be judged on the quality of the proposal, the ability of the applicant to carry out the project within the proposed budget and timeline, and the significance of the project to the field of photographic history. Each recipient of the award will agree to donate upon completion of the project a copy of the resulting work (i.e., published book, unpublished report, thesis, etc.) to the Humboldt Area Foundation to submit to the Peter Palmquist Archive at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library and a report to Humboldt Area Foundation at the end of the grant period. We ask that award recipients acknowledge the financial assistance provided by the Palmquist Memorial Fund in publications or other work products supported by that fund.

RANGE OF AWARDS: $500 - $1,500

ELIGIBILITY

Individuals researching Western American photography before 1900 or women in photography as well as nonprofit institutions conducting research in these fields are eligible to apply.

Completed applications must be postmarked by: November 1, 2017 by 5:00 pm, and submitted to:

Humboldt Area Foundation • 363 Indianola Road, Bayside, CA 95524 Award Recipients will be notified by January 15, 2018

For more information contact:

Humboldt Area Foundation at (707) 442-2993

Application available here in Fillable PDF format. All Humboldt Area Foundation grant opportunities are listed here.

We are looking for a  Curator to take responsibility for the conceptual development, organisation and co-ordination of exhibitions and publications assigned by the Director and Chief Curator, including budgetary management and fundraising. The Curator also contributes ideas to the Gallery’s programme, liaises with other internal departments as appropriate and represents the Whitechapel Gallery at relevant networking events. 

Conditions of Work

•    Full time permanent position
•    Hours of work: 9.30am – 5.45pm, Monday - Friday plus some occasional weekend and evening work, which will be compensated by time off in lieu
•    Salary: £32,000-35,000 per annum
•    The period of notice is 3 months in writing on either side
•    Probation period: 6 months

For further details, and how to apply visit www.whitechapelgallery.org

Deadline for applications is midnight on Monday 9 October 2017.

This major survey exhibition focuses on artists who have shaped our understanding of the British landscape and its relationship to identity, place and time. Exploring how artists interpret urban and rural landscape through the lens of their own cultural, political or spiritual ideologies, the exhibition reveals the inherent tensions between landscape represented as a transcendental or spiritual place, and one rooted in social and political histories.

Though primarily photography, A Green and Pleasant Land includes film, painting and sculpture by over 50 artists, illustrating the various concerns and approaches to landscape pursued by artists from the 1970s to now.

Artists included in the exhibition: Keith Arnatt, Gerry Badger, Craig Barker, John Blakemore, Henry Bond and Liam Gillick, Paul Caponigro, Thomas Joshua Cooper, John Davies, Susan Derges, Mark Edwards, Anna Fox, Melanie Friend, Hamish Fulton, Fay Godwin, Andy Goldsworthy, Paul Graham, Mishka Henner, Paul Hill, Robert Judges, Angela Kelly, Chris Killip, John Kippin, Karen Knorr, Ian Macdonald, Ron McCormick, Mary McIntyre, Peter Mitchell, Raymond Moore, John Myers, Martin Parr, Mike Perry, Ingrid Pollard, Mark Power, Paul Reas, Emily Richardson, Ben Rivers, Simon Roberts, Paul Seawright, Andy Sewell, Theo Simpson, Graham Smith, Jem Southam, Jo Spence, John Stezaker, Paddy Summerfield, The Caravan Gallery, Chris Wainwright, Patrick Ward, Clare Woods and Donovan Wylie.

Towner Art Gallery
Eastbourne
29 September-21 January 2018

See more: http://www.townereastbourne.org.uk/exhibition/a-green-and-pleasant-land/

Image: John Davies ‘Agecroft Power Station, Salford’ 1983, © John Davies.

In recent years scholars both in Japan and Australia have become increasingly concerned with the close ties between these two emerging nation-states in the nineteenth century. Whereas much of the scholarship on Japan’s international relations of the period has focused on the Euro-American ‘treaty port’ powers, this talk asserts the significance of merchants as transcultural mediators in the Asia-Pacific region. To do so, the analysis will focus on vernacular, often marginalised forms of visual culture such as family photograph albums, postcards, private art collections, and company adverts. Specifically, this talk will examine as case studies two business partners in Meiji Japan who shared strong personal ties to the Australian colony of Victoria: Samuel Cocking and Theophilus Alexander Singleton. Through their long-term careers spanning their entire adult lives in Japan, this talk aims to highlight the direct cultural ties between nineteenth-century Japan and Australia, and in so doing, to challenge those twentieth-century historical narratives that understood the two nations’ ties as mediated through the Euro-American metropolitan centres.

Luke Gartlan is Senior Lecturer in the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews and serves as editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed quarterly journal History of Photography.

Venue:Room: KLT

Organiser: Centres & Programmes Office & SOAS Japan Research Centre

Contact email: centres@soas.ac.uk

See more here: https://www.soas.ac.uk/jrc/events/seminar-and-events/25oct2017-trading-places-photography-and-anglo-australian-merchants-in-meiji-japan-.html

A new temporary exhibition featuring Victorian and Edwardian cartes-de-visite and cabinet card portraits opens at the College of Optometrists in London on Sunday 17 September. The distinctive feature about this small exhibition is that all the portraits are of people wearing spectacles or vision aids, or they relate to blind or visually impaired people. We Called to See You: Visual Aspects of Victorian Cartes-de-Visite Portrait Photographs features items from the internationally renowned British Optical Association Museum, supplemented by extensive loans from the Ron Cosens Collection in association with the website www.cartedevisite.co.uk.

Victorian cartes-de-visite, first patented in 1854, were a novel way of sharing a photographic studio portrait... and many surviving examples feature spectacles, providing us with an interesting social record of the eyewear of the time and the manner in which the sitters cultivated their self-image. They were the first photographs to be published en masse and, hence, form a particularly useful early record of real people wearing glasses.

The launch of the exhibition coincides with the College's annual participation in the Open House London event, and the College will be open to visitors that afternoon between 1pm-5pm, free of charge, with no booking required. Normally, however, the exhibition will only be open on Mondays-Fridays during office hours, by prior appointment.

The College of Optometrists
42 Craven Street
London
WC2N 5NG

Exhibition Website

Hello, I am looking for information on this Julia Margaret Cameron photo 'The Neapolitan' by JMC, 1866, depicting her cousin, May Princep. This is a CDV sized print, 8.5 x 6 cm, pasted to a paper mount, 21 x 16 cm. This image is not on a Cameron CDV mount, so apparently pasted into a private album.

Ford and Cox's "Complete Photographs" notes that Cameron made private albums of her "Miniature" Photos for friends and family. I am wondering if anyone would have a guess as to where this image originated.

Are there private albums that included only a few Cameron photos? Was this image sold to the general public?

Thanks in advance for your consideration,

David McGreevy

The International Journal on Stereo & Immersive Media is a new open access and peer-reviewed journal that aims to reflect on the emergence of our progressively immersive media culture with a historical, critical and contemporary perspective. This immersive media culture depends both on state of the art technologies and on historical and archaeological media that once sought to expand our sensory experiences.

This Journal welcomes papers addressing the redesign of our sensory mediation, focusing on one or more of the following themes:

1. Stereoscopic and Panoramic Photography (historical and contemporary)
2. Optical and Otological Media Archaeologies
3. Media Arts and Immersion
4. Architecture, Games and Augmented Realities
5. Urban behaviour and the Influence of Sound devices
6. Sonic Art and New Technologies

Please find registration and submission informations at http://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/stereo/information/authors

Submissions deadline: 16 October

Image caption: Sir Charles Wheatstone and his family by Antoine Claudet,
Stereoscopic daguerreotype, circa 1851-1852 © National Portrait Gallery, London

An exhibition of 14 portraits by Andrew Paterson are on display at the Inverness College UHI until 30 September, as part of the 2017 FLOW Photography Festival. They can be seen in the second floor library/art gallery. 

Andrew Paterson (1877-1948) was an internationally renowned, multi-award winning artist-photographer, whose studio was based in Inverness from 1897 until his death in 1948 (then taken over by his son Hector until 1980). Paterson’s services were sought over several decades by many leading political and commercial figures of the day. The Glasgow Daily Record noted that “his portraits have been regarded as setting new standards of excellence in the expression of character.” His portrait photography was exhibited widely at home and abroad during his life-time, and there was a day in the 1920s when Andrew’s son Hector answered a knock at the studio door to be confronted by a tall lean man with a long grey bushy beard. He asked if Mr Paterson was in “because I want to be photographed.” It was George Bernard Shaw.

From 500,000 photographs and 2,000 films in the British Empire & Commonwealth Collection held at Bristol Archives, 27 people were asked to choose just one. This exhibition reveals their choices and the reasons for that choice explained in their own words.

The former British Empire & Commonwealth Museum collected photographs and film from people who worked in the Empire, their families, and companies and government departments working with the colonies. Some are from well-known people, such as the writer Elspeth Huxley, others from anonymous photographers. Some record great historical events, but many document the everyday lives of families living and working abroad. It is a fascinating collection, giving a broad view of the Empire and the early years of independence.

The selectors include artists, photographers, film makers, colonial workers and their families, development workers and local communities. Each brings a different perspective to how they ‘read’ the image and the legacy of Empire.

Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
30 September-31 August 2018
See more here: https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/bristol-museum-and-art-gallery/whats-on/empire-through-lens/

Does anybody know of any institutions who have Adolphe Braun photographs of the vault of the Sistine Chapel? Here in the History of Art Department at the University of Oxford we have a full set of 125 carbon prints that measure aprox 49x63cm. I have tried to find other institutions who may have a full series or part of it in any size but particularly in this larger scale. I see that the Getty have a set of 7 or 8.

http://ox.libguides.com/visualresourcescentre/braun

Any help would be much appreciated.

Francesca

Visual Resources Assistant

Here is an article written by an Indiana (USA) Anglophile - it includes his visit to Lacock Abbey. Fun read. "I squealed with geeky joy as I stood in front of the famous window. It’s a rather unremarkable photo of a window, but it’s the most important photo of a window ever taken."

https://www.anglotopia.net/british-history/winston-churchill/after-the-dreaming-spires-oxford-trip-diaries-day-nine-castle-combe-lacock-abbey-and-chartwell/

Lee