Blogs

Every week we ask a photographer to describe what photography means to them in less than 5 minutes as a piece of audio. This is then included within the weekly A Photographic Life podcast, presented by Grant Scott. The 88 contributions in this book are edited transcriptions of that audio. Including UK based photographers Paul Trevor, Daniel Meadows, Brian Griffin, Robert Darch, Alys Tomlinson, and Sirkka Liisa Konttinen amongst many others. 

What does photography mean to you? Is a simple question but its simplicity of language is deceptive. The reality of such an enquiry is that it forces the photographer to whom it has been addressed to question the very essence of their relationship with a medium that provides them with a creative outlet that is a visual representation of what they think, believe, experience, and wish to convey. It also introduces reflections concerning outcome versus intent, success versus failure and recognition versus anonymity. It is a question that goes deep.

The responses were generous, illuminating and honest. Often raw in their passion, considered in their introspection. Most importantly, themes began to develop, themes of approach, intention and desire. 

Storytelling  is a constant foundation for many photographers as is the importance of collaboration. Many reveal a love/hate relationship with the medium, detailing the torment they often feel as part of their photographic process. Others felt the need to place their practice into the context of their journey, reflecting on those photographers whose words and images informed their own understanding of the medium. Some are up-beat others more melancholic in their presentation, but all are passionate, informed and engaged. Their words force the listener to stop and take stock, they force self-questioning, reconsidering pre-conceived understanding. They make you think.

This book contains some of the world’s most interesting photographers explaining what photography means to them with a portrait of each photographer submitted by the photographer. It’s a small book that will fit in your pocket, camera bag or on your desk. The perfect companion to your photography and your sense of self as a photographer.

What Does Photography Mean to You?
Edited by Grant Scott
£9.99
Softcover
Bluecoat Press

On sale now at https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/what-does-photography-mean-to-you/?fbclid=IwAR0TvEEp0k1ZFpCiCdIIzEhhwinR1sQKJldnlM1b8oRgEpbqwK6BetSARx4

The Reece Winstone Archive is planning to become a charitable trust in order to ensure the corpus remains intact...writes John Winstone. We also have a policy of seeing continuing growth. The Archive presently holds 100,000 images of Britain from the 1930s to the 1980s and, in particular, on Bristol. Included in this tally are some 10,000 collected photographs of Bristol and area down to 1840 and the work of other twentieth-century freelance topographic photographers working across England in black and white and colour.

Reece Winstone FRPS was founder of the RPS Photo-Journalism Group in 1957, a member of the RPS Historical Group and published many photographs of Bristol in 37 volumes in a long freelance career.

We are looking for volunteers interested in undertaking digitising various parts of the Archive, mostly medium format negatives. For reasons of ease of lending material in the pandemic we would like to hear from those living in the south-west in the first instance.

Please contact John Winstone at reecewinstonearchive@gmail.com.

Image: Reece Winstone in Queen Square, Bristol, on 9 October 1948 taken by Bristol CC member N. Dibble.
 

The Cinema Museum, established three and a half decades ago by Martin Humphries and Ronald Grant, is at once a visitor attraction, heritage site and sporadic cinema. While this means it carries broad appeal to a range of audiences, straddling several sectors has posed a problem when emergency pandemic funding programmes are staunchly siloed.

The venue, a Grade II Listed former Victorian workhouse that counts Charlie Chaplin among its previous residents, is now crying out for public support via a Crowdfunder page – with great success thus far.

Read more here: https://advisor.museumsandheritage.com/features/people-power-cinema-museum-reliant-on-crowdfunder-campaign-after-missing-all-government-support/

The Crowdfunder can be seen here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/reopen-and-reimagine-the-cinema-museum

The long history of the renowned Alinari photographic firm, founded in 1852 in Florence, reached a turning point in December 2019 as the regional government Regione Toscana acquired the company's millions of photographic objects, documents, specialized publications and historical technical equipment; the acquisition of the digital assets will soon complete the process.

The Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia (Alinari Foundation for Photography) was established on July 16, 2020. The shift from private to public ownership represents not only a management challenge, but also a unique opportunity to root the activities of the newly created Fondazione into the fabric of the vibrant international scientific community at the highest intellectual level. So as to facilitate this transition, the Photothek of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz in partnership with Regione Toscana and Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia will host a study day with prominent international scholars in dialogue with artist Armin Linke.

The goal of the event is to identify new directions and outline new research scenarios that will connect the past, present and future of the Alinari project.

The recordings from the individual presentations made at the study day are now available here: https://vimeo.com/khiflorenz

The University of Edinburgh's Centre for Global History's seminar series is hosting Dr Luke Gartlan of the University of St Andrews who will be presenting a paper Bringing Empire Home: St Andrews and the Global Networks of Victorian Photography on 18 November at 1600. Registration is free and open to all.  

Details here: https://www.ed.ac.uk/history-classics-archaeology/centre-global-history/events-and-seminars/current-programme

Rebecca Gowers uncovered a fascinating story within her family tree - that of Harry Larkyns. She learnt that Harry was an attractive cad who lived a charmed life right up until the moment he fell in love with the wife of noted photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Rebecca will discuss the scoundrel Harry Larkyns and will be joined by our The National Archives collections expert Katherine Howells, who will showcase some of the Muybridge pictures held within our collection at The National Archives. This talk will conclude with a live Q&A with Rebecca Gowers and Katherine Howells.

Presented by The National Archives
Online, 18 November 2020 at 1930
Book here.

An online event with Dr Jan Graffius, curator of collections at Stonyhurst College, who will be talking to Gilly Read FRPS about Roger Fenton and his photographs of Stonyhurst and the surrounding countryside.  

Although Roger Fenton (1819-1869) is best known for his images of the Crimean War, he trained as a painter and photographed many varied subjects. He lived near Stonyhurst at Crimble Hall and took many landscape photographs around Stonyhurst as well as photographs of the College itself. Fenton was also the first secretary of the Photographic Society, now the Royal Photographic Society. 

The talk is free and can be booked here: https://rps.org/stonyhurst

“The collection is the most comprehensive private collection of Nasa photographs ever presented at auction, and spans every visual milestone of the space program, from the early days of Mercury, the technical advances of Gemini and lunar orbiter, to the triumphs of Apollo,” Christie’s said in a press release promoting the sale.

Voyage to Another World: the Victor Martin-Malburet Photograph Collection is a chronological journey of humankind’s achievements in space beginning with the early days of rocketry in the 1940s to the first color photograph of Earth and the moon together in the same still image, taken from the Voyager 1 space probe in 1977.

Neil Armstrong’s giant leap for mankind is on sale to the highest bidder after a private collector released a treasure trove of Nasa images from spaceflight’s golden era for auction, including the only photograph taken of the first human walking on the moon.

The July 1969 snapshot is the highlight of the collection of 2,400 vintage images across 700 lots featured on the Christie’s of London website, including the first selfie from space by Armstrong’s Apollo 11 crewmate Buzz Aldrin and the epochal Earthrise photograph that captured the planet emerging above the moon’s horizon.

For more see https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/nov/11/nasa-photos-auction-first-selfie-in-space

See the auction here from 6-16 November 2020: https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/voyage-another-world-victor-martin-malburet-photograph-collection/lots/1949

If you missed the launch of 'Photography of Protest and Community' with myself and Wendy Ewald last week you can watch a recording of the event below, courtesy of Street Level Photoworks.

This awful year has taken another toll:  I am mourning the loss of a friend and mentor whom I never actually met face to face. Alan Elliott passed away on Oct. 30, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia, surrounded by family.  He was a remarkable 99 years old and still active in the photographic community until the Covid lockdown confined him to the Napier Street Aged Care Home.  He had participated in the Analogue Photography Group for the Melbourne Camera Club in 2019 and he missed interacting with family and friends.

Alan was a member of the Order of Australia, a Lifetime Member of the ARPS, a holder of the Fenton Medal from the UK RPS and a retired industrial chemist.  But to me, Alan was a knowledgeable mentor and friend as I researched the life, works and family of Walter Bentley Woodbury (1834-1885). Woodbury happens to be my Great Great Grandfather.  Alan answered my emails, sent me the transcripts of the “Woodbury Letters and Documents” in the keeping of the RPS which I didn’t know existed, and a copy of “Walter Woodbury: a Victorian Study” which he had written with other members of Victorian Chapter of the ARPS.  He answered my questions, directed me to sources, obtained permission for me to quote material, and in January, when he had to leave his home on Dorcas Street and move into the Aged Care Facility, he sent me his research notes on Woodbury.

I dedicated my recently completed book on Woodbury’s life and family, “Not White Enough”  which deals as much with the prejudice Woodbury and his family faced as with his inventions to Alan. (Woodbury had married Marie Olmeijer, a Javanese Eurasian woman, who was visibly biracial, and brought her to England when he needed to patent his Woodburytype process.)  I wish I could have placed a copy of the book in Alan’s hands, because without him, it wouldn’t exist.

It is rare in life to meet such a kind and generous person as Alan.  I will miss him.

Muriel Morris

Chilliwack, BC, Canada

BPH reported the death of Chris Killip recently. Mark Haworth-Booth, the former curator of photographs at the V&A Museum, has a written a blog which corrects that assertion in some of Killip's obituaries that he was not properly recognised and considered during his lifetime.

The V&A, perhaps exceptionally, purchased work by Killip from 1978 and later purchases included all 69 photographs from his first book, Isle of Man: A Book about the Manx, published in 1980. Haworth-Booth was also consulted over his appointment as Professor at Harvard in 1991. 

The full blog can be read here: https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/museum-life/chris-killip

A BPH correspondent has been trying to find a reference to a photographer whose glass negatives were found in a friend's loft. The negs are all apparently marked 'H.M. & S.' and appear to date from the late 1890s or early 1900s. Does anyone recognise the initials?

In 2021 The Photographers' Gallery, London, celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. A new online resource looks at the history of the Gallery's print sales from 1971.From the Gallery's outset founder, Sue Davies, recognised that selling photography could  help support its programmes at Great Newport Street.

The text is accompanied by audio - interviews with former managers of print sales Helena Srakocic Kovacs (1975-1980), Zelda Cheatle (1981-1989) and Francis Hodgson (1989-1993). 

Read and listen to more here: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/printsaleshistory

Cambridge University's Whipple Museum collections are now fully online. Like other museums, only a small proportion of our collection is on display at any one time and, in the current public health situation, physical access to museums has become very challenging. But now you can search and browse through records and images of close to 7,000 objects, as well as records of its trade literature - all from the comfort of your own home.

In addition, the Researcher Portal allows you to download images, book research visits, request permission to publish images, and suggest ways to correct or improve the published records.

For photographic historians the Whipple collection includes some important photographic equipment. 

See: https://collections.whipplemuseum.cam.ac.uk/ 

A free new online picture archive from Reach plc, the owners of The Mirror and The Express newspapers, has been launched as the nation goes into lockdown. Despite events being cancelled nationwide the new tool allows people to celebrate and share historical moments like fireworks night, Remembrance Sunday. Memory Lane is backed by broadcaster, author and historian Professor Kate Williams.

The launch of Memory Lane follows a YouGov survey carried out for Memory Lane suggesting that the past is in danger of being lost because 80% of Brits haven’t digitised all their photos.

According to the newly commissioned nostalgia survey for Memory Lane almost a third of the population (31%) are looking at old photographs to get themselves through these times. So Memory Lane is asking the public to preserve, discover, celebrate and share images which matter to them as we enter another challenging time during the pandemic.

However, BPH would highlight the T&Cs of the site and warn potential users to be mindful of this if choosing to upload images:

If you post or upload content to the Site, you grant us a perpetual, royalty free, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and licence to use, reproduce, publish, communicate to the public, translate, create derivative works from and distribute such content into any form, medium or technology now known or hereafter developed. In addition, you waive any and all moral rights in such content.

See: https://www.memorylane.co.uk/

A new resource describes the history of photography and photographic studios in South Africa. It is accompanied by a gazetteer of studios for the same period. The text and resource has been compiled by Carol Hardijzer. 

See: http://www.theheritageportal.co.za/article/operators-mirrors-memory-south-african-photographers-1846-1915?fbclid=IwAR3isIOP6e1voF0SUGI61PPC3Bz5A9O9jtq9YrKH7uFPc-CQv7euhJoo_Zs

The latest edition of The Classic - a free magazine about classic photography is now available. In addition, the publishers have also launched The Classic Platform, an online resource with articles from Denis Pellerin and Richard Meara, and more due to go up shortly. Also available is an auction calendar. 

See:  https://theclassicphotomag.com/the-classic-04/

https://theclassicphotomag.com/the-classic-auction-calendar/

Due to new lockdown restrictions Dominic Winter’s photography auction set for 18th November is rescheduled for Wednesday 16th December with a revised viewing period from Monday 7th December (strictly by pre-booked appointment and subject to any revised COVID-19 restrictions). Meanwhile the catalogue is viewable online in various formats at the auctioneer’s website.

In a bumper sale of over 400 lots it is hard to pick one single special theme but the predominance of China and Japan material is irresistible. When a privately owned collection of 90 photographs of China, Formosa and Japan in the 1860s recently came to light there was understandable excitement. The distinctive hand of John Thomson was familiar and easily recognised and the knee-jerk reaction was that most of the other photographs would be found to be by Felice Beato. However, on closer study something much more intriguing transpired and as the name of Beato faded away so the somewhat surprising name of the lesser-known American photographer Charles Leander Weed took centre stage.

Charles Weed (1824-1903) is most famous for his pioneering mammoth-plate photographs of Yosemite but knowledge of his work from his two periods based in China (1860-61 & 1866-70) is far hazier. Weed photographed in Japan in 1867 during his second period out East and took photographs with both his mammoth-plate and stereoview cameras. Many of the photographs were published in an Oriental Scenery series in both formats by Thomas Houseworth of San Francisco in 1869. However, not only was Weed uncredited but neither series appears to have been successful and, as a result, only handfuls of these Weed photographs are known institutionally and privately today. The collection is offered in 50 lots and represents half of the photography lots with a Far Eastern theme.

A further 70 lots of travel photography features India, Nepal, Cuba, West Indies, South America, etc., a good album with large-format views of Europe by Bisson Freres, Edouard Baldus, Robert Macpherson, et al. (1850s to early 1860s), albums of Greece, Turkey and one of USA in the 1880s (with 135 albumen prints by Carleton Watkins, Isaiah Taber, William H. Jackson et al.), plus an album of remote St Kilda in the 1880s with interesting provenance.

The 19th-century theme continues with photographs by Roger Fenton, Julia Margaret Cameron, Oscar Rejlander, Robert Macpherson, two rare salt prints by Peter Hinckes Bird, and a fine large-format print of Gustave Le Gray’s Brick au Claire de Lune, 1856, which graces the front cover of the catalogue.

Military photography is especially well represented with nearly 100 lots, of which nearly a half are daguerreotypes and ambrotypes of British officers, from the collection of Jack Webb. Star of the section is a three-quarter-plate daguerreotype group portrait taken outdoors at Dum Dum Artillery Station, Calcutta, February 1847.

The 20th century material includes a never-before-seen collection of negatives of the Beatles taken by Lord Christopher Thynne in April 1964 during the filming of the Beatles’ first feature film A Hard Day's Night. Just back from their first American tour, the film was a rushed project to capture the Beatlemania fad before their 'five-minute' fame passed! Largely taken at Marylebone Station and in the Garrison Room and gardens at Les Ambassadeurs, London, the photographs also feature shots with co-star Wilfrid 'Steptoe' Brambell, schoolgirl Pattie Boyd (to become the wife of George Harrison) and inspired director Richard Lester. The collection is split into 11 lots with varied estimates, and the medium format and 35mm negatives come with full copyright.

Fashion makes an appearance with a monumental 3-volume work, Les Actualités de L’Elégance, c.1914-25, while other 20th-century work includes signed photographs by Alberto Korda, Yousuf Karsh, Martin Parr, a special signed print of Christine Keeler by Lewis Morley, and a group of 4 photographs from the Cottingley Fairies series.

The sale is rounded out with lots of cartes de visite, stereoviews, glass negatives and lantern slides, assorted albums and folders, individual prints, cameras and accessories.

Digital catalogues in various formats are now available here. Printed catalogues can be had from the auction offices (£15 post inclusive). Public viewing daily from Monday 7th December, strictly by pre-booked appointment and subject to up-to-date government COVID-19 guidelines.

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

Image: lot 147. Three-quarter-plate daguerreotype of a military and family group outdoors, Calcutta, February 1847.

An early album of salt prints by Rev George Bridges is being offered in an online auction by Sotheby's from 3-17 November 2020. Bridges was a contemporary of Talbot and these show some of the first Calotypes of Greece, Turkey and Italy. It is estimated at £20,000-30,000. 

The lot description reads: 

BRIDGES, GEORGE WILSON

Album of photographs titled 'Talbotype album Mediterranean', 1846-48

oblong 4to (208 x 275mm.), 24 SALTED PAPER PRINTS (each 150 x 208mm., or the reverse), each mounted by the corners without adhesive through slits in pale blue laid paper (no visible watermarks), recto only, each with contemporary manuscript captions in pencil and/or ink, one of Athens dated 1848, one of Pompeii dated 1847, contemporary black half morocco gilt, green cloth boards, upper cover with black morocco gilt label, flat spine gilt, patterned endpapers in green, purple and gold, preserved in a modern green cloth folding box, cloth boards cockled and dampstained, binding slightly rubbed

AN IMPORTANT ALBUM OF PIONEERING TOPOGRAPHICAL PHOTOGRAPHS WITH SOME OF THE FIRST CALOTYPES OF GREECE, ITALY AND TURKEY, comprising views of Athens (15), Rome, Naples, Pompeii (3), Sicily (Messina, Mount Etna, and Palermo), and Constantinople.

George Wilson Bridges (1788-1863) was the first photographer to use William Henry Fox Talbot's "Talbotype" (calotype) paper photographic process in Greece and Constantinople, and was one of the earliest calotype photographers in Italy. Bridges was an English clergyman who had lived in Jamaica and Canada and on his return to England came to know William Henry Fox Talbot. In December 1845 Bridges was instructed in the art of the calotype photographic process by Nicolaas Henneman (valet and assistant to Talbot), at Talbot's home of Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire. In March 1846 Bridges embarked on what was to be a seven-year tour of the Mediterranean, joining two other calotype pioneers, Calvert Jones and Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot in Malta. He then set out and travelled to Sicily, Italy, Greece, and the Holy Land, and during his travels he also visited Constantinople. Although Bridges produced around 1,700 calotype negatives during this seven year tour his photographs are rare.

PROVENANCE:

Unknown owner, "Malta, Februari, 1849" (ink inscription on verso of preliminary blank, with the original owner's name inked-out); in the 1850s this album was gifted to a friend in whose family this album was preserved until 2012 when acquired by the present owner

Details are here: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2020/travel-atlases-maps-natural-history/bridges-album-of-talbotypes-photographs-of-athens