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The Katz International Photography Award (KIPA) is an independent and privately funded non-profit initiative. It was conceived and created in 2018 by Ms. Atalia Katz representing the Katz Family (Israel) whose many of its members engage in creative activity.

Ms. Katz is an active and prolific photographer. Most of her work focuses on social and humanistic causes. Her social involvement inspired her to envision the creation of the KIPA award. She is motivated by her commitment to the medium of photography and the recognition that images are the most effective means of conveying strong and convincing messages that would cultivate a better understanding of our societies towards improving the condition of humankind.

The mission and objective of the Katz International Photography Award (KIPA) is to support creative photography and encourage photographers in the advancement of their career. The award is intended for artists in the field of creative photography who demonstrate professional accomplishment and serious artistic commitment and​ seeks to stimulate creative inquiry and to encourage innovative modes of thinking and imaging.

As an international commitment KIPA is open to promising photographers or artists using photography, regardless of nationality, religion or gender. A jury of five internationally recognized experts in the fields of art and photography will evaluate the submissions and elect the winner.

The winner will be awarded a prize of $ 10,000 either for a completed project or preferably towards the completion of an ongoing endeavor. The prize can be used towards financing expenses that will help in the completion of the project or towards an exhibition or a publication. In addition, the winner will beneficiate from curatorial advice and assistance for a period of twelve months by Dr. Nissan N. Perez. The second runner-up will receive curatorial advice for six months and the third will one for three months.

The Award is administered by Ms. Atalia Katz, founder and permanent president, Dr. Nissan N. Perez, and in collaboration with PHOTO IS:RAEL (The International Photography Festival). For additional information, details, timeline and applications please visit the award’s website at: www.katzphotoaward.org

This portrait (below) shows Captain Alexander Leslie-Melville (1831-57), known as Lord Balgonie. He was the eldest son of the 8th Earl of Leven, a Scottish peer. Lord Balgonie served in the Grenadier Guards during the war, and died only a couple of years after returning to Britain. At the time, his death was attributed to the hardships of the war. Fenton has photographed him standing in front of a sheet, which serves as a make-shift studio and he looks unkempt and shaken, as if he has recently stepped off the battlefield. In recent years, this photograph has been described as the first photographic portrait of shell-shock. From the collection of the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII.

Fenton's photographs are most successful when he has a personal connection to the subject matter, whether it be portrait or landscape. In other words, when he is not constructing or documenting as representation, but attempting to capture the spirit of person/place.

In portraiture, this personal connection can be seen in the photographs, 'Lord Balgonie' (1855), 'Fitzroy James Henry Somerset, Baron Raglan' (1788-1855) (4 Jun 1855), 'Omar Pacha' (1806-1871) (1855) and 'General James Bucknall Estcourt' (1802-1855) (1855), a man deep in thought or, perhaps, melancholy. These are psychological portraits that attempt to get under the skin of the sitter, not mere representations for use as a template for painting. ...

Roger Fenton (1819-69)
Lord Balgonie
1855
Albumen print
17.7 x 11.7 cm (image)
Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017 RCIN 2500273

...

With regard to his landscapes of the Crimea the same feelings can be observed. One is the representational urge, the other the artistic. The first problem is the barrenness of the landscape and what to do with the inevitable horizon line. When photographing people in the landscape Fenton makes use of low depth of field either pulling the figures towards the front of the image ('Sir John Miller Adye (1819-1900)' 1855, and 'General Scarlett and Colonel Low Apr 1855') or the mid-distance (such as 'Captain and Mrs Duberly Apr 1855' and 'Colonel Doherty and the Officers of the 13th Light Dragoons 1855') whilst allowing the horizon line to float in the distance, either placed through the figures or floating above them. This low depth of field allows the horizon line to soften and the solid space around the figures to become ambiguous and fluid. It also allows the light in this vast expanse of country to do its duty, to illuminate the isolation of these figures "in the field." A similar technique was used by Edward S. Curtis when photographing the Native American Indians against the vastness of country - low depth of field, letting the light and composition do the work as subject is located - or vanishes - into the landscape. ...

Taken a mere 15 years after the birth year of practical photography, Fenton's "subtle and poetic interpretations" still resonate today. That he captured such acclaimed images using a heavy land camera, the photographs taken sometimes under fire, the glass plates prepared and developed in a 'travelling darkroom' - his horse drawn photographic van - make Fenton's achievement all the more remarkable. The shadow of war that he captured, the presence of the men, women and landscapes of that time and place, are made alive to us today.

Note this:

There is the date a photograph is made, and the date it is viewed. There is something about the different way a photograph exists in time, different from the date a poem is written and the date it is read, different from the date a painting is finished and the date it is viewed.

And then:

Photographs remind us
of people, passing
They distill an essence
which
in turn
Instills in us
memory of time, place, spirit

Dr Marcus Bunyan

APOLOGIES I GOT THIS COMPLETELY WRONG - THE EXHIBITION STARTS 9 NOVEMBER 2018! AT LEAST IT IS UP THERE...

READ THE FULL REVIEW AND SEE THE IMAGES AT https://wp.me/pn2J2-9Ie

Apologies if this has been posted before. I've just come across Harvard Library's high-resolution scanning of all of Virginia Woolf's photo albums, covering her life during the years 1890 to the late 1940s (continued by Leonard after her death in 1941). Many famous faces here, including her mother Julia Jackson (frequent model for her great aunt Julia Margaret Cameron), father Leslie Stephen (compiler of the first DNB), E.M. Forster, T.S. Eliot, J.M. Keynes, Lytton Strachey, her sister Vanessa Bell and nephews Julian and Quentin Bell, and many others, including a childhood collection of cartes-de-visites. The scans (of the album pages themselves, not cropped to the individual photographs) are of excellent quality, and the interface easy to use. There are six albums, for which the direct links are as follows:

http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.HOUGH:4458847
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.HOUGH:4394409
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.HOUGH:4394410
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.HOUGH:4395032
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.HOUGH:4395033
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.HOUGH:4420078

The next Cultures of Photography seminar in conjunction with the Photographic History Research Centre takes place at De Montfort University, Leicester, on 9 April 2018 from 1700-1830. 

In a paper titled: For ‘the interchange of thought and experience among photographers’. The role of the photographic society in British photography Michael Pritchard will discuss some of his recent research looking at the role of the photographic society in nineteenth century Britain.

Cultures of Photography Seminars
Spring Term 2018| 9 April l Clephan Building 2.02b l 5.00-6:30pm
Open to all
@PHRC_DeMontfort
facebook.com/PhotographicResearch

For the past seven years, photographer Tif Hunter has nursed an interest in ‘tintypes’. These are handmade, one-off images which use a 19th century technique, developed in the early days of photography. First invented in the 1850s, tintypes were particularly popular during the Civil War in late 19th century America.

Messums Wiltshire is offering the unique experience of having a tin-type portrait taken by Tif in our 13th century barn. There are only twelve opportunities, across the course of two days for this to happen! Tin-types are original in ways that photographs from the 20th and 21st century simply are not. There are no negatives to print from and no other ways of creating identical multiple images. When Tif creates his beautiful prints he does so through using digital scanning and printing techniques. Tin-types, produced literally on a single tin sheet cannot be modified in anyway. Tif joins a whole host of makers such as the ceramicist and painter Makoto Kagoshima who have created one-off pieces of art in our medieval barn.

A tintype is a photograph with warm monochromatic tones on a thin sheet of metal. Tintypes, (or wetplates as they are also known) involve a cocktail of chemicals and must be prepared moments before the image is taken and developed and fixed immediately after. Each one-off tintype has a beautiful surface of marks and smears resulting from the chemistry involved. The final image is grainless with exquisitely smooth tones.

This photographic experience will be complemented by a pop-up exhibition – Mirror Mirror – Tif’s original tin-types and prints in the Long Gallery spanning the genres of still life and portraiture. This will be the prologue for our larger Image show on from 15 September – 21 October 2018 across both of our exhibition spaces. Image is a two-fold exhibition showcasing a diverse range of contemporary and historical photographers, with a focus on portraiture, encompassing Surrealism, fashion, celebrity and visual humour. This show will feature some of the most respected names in the industry such as Peter Beard, Andy Warhol, Man Ray, Mick Rock, Guy Bourdin and Neal Slavin. Upcoming and established women artists featured in our medieval barn will include Anna Fox, Alison Goldfrapp, Polly Penrose, Maisie Cousins and Juno Calypso.

Hunter’s pioneering work with tintype portraiture, combined with 21st century lighting techniques, has led to many commissions including those from The Jerwood Foundation and retailer Toast. Tif has worked for an international range of clients for over twenty years. His commercial work has been featured in Lurzer's Archive 200 Best Ad Photographers Worldwide. Hunter’s clients include British Airways, Sony and The Guardian. His personal work has been exhibited and sold at the Michael Hoppen Gallery. Tif Hunter lives and works in an 1850s saddlery workshop in Bermondsey, London.

Mirror Mirror
Private view & talk 16 May 2018
Portrait Experience 19-20 May 2018
See: https://messumswiltshire.com/mirror-mirror/

Messums Wiltshire

Place Farm, Court St, Tisbury, 
Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP3 6LW

E: info@messumswiltshire.com
T: 01747 445042

Rochester, NY will draw hundreds of people April 20th-22nd to celebrate the past and present of photography at the RIT Photo History Photo Future Conference. 

The three- day conference includes presentations from academics, individual researchers and hobbyists alike. Topics to be covered range from photogravure, paper and chemicals, education, historical cameras and research projects (full program can be viewed here: https://www.rit.edu/twc/photohistoryconference/program ). The conference will be followed by an antiquarian photography sale on Sunday where conferees will be able to browse and purchase antique photography books, equipment,and ephemera. 

Registration is still open at: https://www.rit.edu/twc/photohistoryconference/register . This conference is sponsored by the Rochester Institute of Technology Library and the RIT Press publishing enterprise.