Blogs

What can picture postcards tell us about the history of nursing, and images and stereotypes of nursing over the years? Join historian Julia Hallam to find out more.

Pictures of Nursing is a travelling exhibition and digital resource curated by Julia Hallam for the National Library of Medicine, NIH, Washington, DC based on a collection of 2,500 postcards donated to the Library by Michael Zwerdling, a former hospice nurse. The cards date between the late 1890s and the 1980s and depict nurses and nursing from twenty countries worldwide. Hallam's talk will focus primarily on the years 1890 - 1910, a period known as the golden age of the postcard, and trace the dominant trends in the public image of nurses and nursing that emerge at this time.

To book: register to attend and a link will be circulated in advance with instructions on how to join the event.

Brent has a rich history of multiculturalism. Roy Mehta’s exquisite black and white photographs capture the daily rituals of its various communities, most notably the Afro-Carribean and Irish, engaged in seemingly simple activities at home, in the street and at church. Shot from 1989-1993, the images move from profound moments of faith to quiet family moments and to the noisy streets outside, and remind us that every moment is an opportunity for connection and reflection.

'Mehta doesn’t shy away from the sadness and difficulties of this foundational story, but his multiracial faces – taken in Brent, northwest London – remain coloured with British dreams, and they exude a vitality which suggests that, although things are never going to be easy, all will eventually be well.’ Caryl Phillips from the introduction

Revival: London 1989–1993. Photography by Roy Mehta
Foreword by Dr Mark Sealy, introduction by Caryl Phillips
Published 14 January 2021
Hoxton Mini Press
£25 Hardback, 96pp. 

Order: https://www.hoxtonminipress.com/products/revival

This series of three seminars considers the evolving importance of photograph archives.  Moderated by Paul Lowe, curators Alison Nordström and Hilary Roberts will draw on their vast professional experience to consider how archives are created, what is involved in maintaining them for future generations and issues associated with their exploitation.

The three parts are: 

Session 1. Creating the Archive (7 January)

Potential topics:  What is an Archive (including the difference between a collection and an archive)? Who creates an archive? What is its purpose? What should be included (proactive vs passive collecting)?  How should it be organized? What is the cost of creating an archive?  What is its value? What are the essential decisions when creating an archive? Differences between an individual artist’s archive and institutional archives. Case studies: different kinds of archives. What happens when your photographs become part of an institutional collection?

Session 2. Preserving the Archive (21 January)

Potential topics:  Preserving images and preserving objects. Stages of archive preservation and management (short, medium, long term);  Past versus Present Practice (format issues, accountability, ethics, due diligence) The importance of collaborative relationships; Roles of the Photographer, the Photographer’s Representatives, Museum, Libraries and Archives; The Acquisition Process; Collections Management & Interpretation;  How the archiving process supports the evolution of interpretation and understanding; What are the essential decisions when preserving an archive? 

Session 3. Accessing the Archive (4 February)

Potential topics:  How will your photographs outlive you? How will they be seen? Who uses archives, why and how?  What are the potential benefits?  How do you balance access and preservation needs?  How do you fund archives?  Are they viable sources of revenue?  What is the future of archives in the internet age?

Each are online and run from 1000-1115 (Eastern Time) / 1500-1615 (GMT) and are free. 

To register click here.

Image (cropped): Hilary Roberts. The Tim Hetherington Archive in storage, New York 2015.

I’m proud to inform you that a new biographic study has been published: "Stefano Lecchi pupil of Daguerre: the latest revelations" (texts in English, French and Italian).

Following detailed research in an international context, the author of this study would like scholars and enthusiasts to be aware – for the very first time – of Stefano Lecchi’s complete biography, full of information so far unpublished, starting with his date and place of birth (a brain teaser that called for years of intense investigation, countless attempts and a bit of good luck before finding a solution) until the story of his stay in Naples and Pompei which includes some really surprising news, as well as findings about the time he came and then left Rome, probably for good.

His journeys through various European countries (UK, Malta, France, Italy) are punctually narrated thanks to the announcements published in newspapers, and through the documents that testify the presence of Lecchi in some cities, his marriage in Malta and the birth of his children in France and Rome.

As a pupil of Daguerre, Lecchi had exhibitions in Cosmorama and in Diorama before dedicating himself to the daguerreotype: he worked at this art with passion and tenacity, culminating with the invention and patenting in France of a particular process for coloring daguerreotypes, a «photographic apparatus» with an innovative mirror that reversed the images framed by the lens, and a chemical method for printing photogenic images on paper, the results of which left stunned the Anglo-Saxon amateurs photographers George Wilson Bridges and Richard Calvert Jones, both trusted correspondents of the famous William Henry Fox Talbot.

BIOGRAPHY: http://www.robertocaccialanza.com/biography.html

PUBLISHED BOOKS: http://www.robertocaccialanza.com/books.html

Roberto Caccialanza

Knight of the Order “To the merit of the Italian Republic”

Independent researcher and historian of Photography

Member of the European Society for the History of Photography

_________________________________________________________