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Born in England in 1958 I emigrated to Australia in 1986. I started taking photographs at the age of 17 before formal studies began in Australia at the age of 30. My photography is as much European as it is Australian and my archive contains many photographs of England, France and Europe.

In 2021, I celebrate 30 years of art practice with the creation of a new website (https://marcusbunyan.com), the first to contain all my bodies of work since 1991 (note: more bodies of work still have to be added between 1996-1999).

My first solo exhibition was in a hair dressing salon in High Street, Prahran, Melbourne in 1991, during my second year of a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art Photography) at RMIT University (formerly Phillip Institute out in Bundoora). Titled 'Of Magic, Music and Myth' it featured black and white medium format photographs of the derelict Regent Theatre and the old Victorian Railway's Newport Workshops.

The concerns that I had at the time in my art making have remained with me to this day: that is, an investigation into the boundaries between identity, space and environment. Music and "spirit" have always been an abiding influence – the intrinsic music of the world and the spirit of objects, nature, people and the cosmos ... in a continuing exploration of spaces and places, using found images and digital and film cameras to record glances, meditations and movement through different environments.

30 years after I started I hope I have learnt a lot about image making ... and a lot about myself. I also hope the early bodies of my work are still as valid now as they were when I made them. In the 30 years since I became an artist my concerns have remained constant but as well, my sense of exploration and joy at being creative remains undimmed and an abiding passion.

Now, with ego integrated and the marching of the years I just make art for myself, yes, but the best reason to make art is ... for love and for the cosmos. For I believe any energy that we give out to the great beyond is recognised by spirit. Success is fleeting but making art gives energy to creation. We all return to the great beyond, eventually.

Each photograph in this posting links to a different body of work on my new website. Please click on the photographs to see the work.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

SEE THE FULL POSTING AT https://wp.me/pn2J2-igh

Marcus Bunyan (Australian born England, b. 1958)
An English fair
1993
Gelatin silver print

Marcus Bunyan (Australian born England, b. 1958)
An English fair
1993
Gelatin silver print

Marcus Bunyan (Australian born England, b. 1958)
Manchester Mardi Gras
1993
Silver gelatin print

The annual Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards celebrate excellence in photography and moving image publishing. They recognise individuals who have made an outstanding or original contribution to the literature of, or concerning the art and practice of, photography or the moving image. Two winning titles are selected: one in the field of photography and one in the field of the moving image. The author/s or editor/s of each winning book receive a £5,000 cash prize.

Submissions are welcome from publishers, authors, collectives and individuals self-publishing their work. There is no entry fee.

• Books must be published between 1 January and 31 December 2021
• Books must be published, distributed or available to buy (including online) in the UK

Further details, terms and conditions, and the entry form for the 2022 Awards can be downloaded here.

A conference based upon the research project “Forms and Formats of Photography’s Institutionalisation” at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities Essen (KWI), will take place on Thursday and Friday, 23/24 June 2022, organised by Anja Schürmann (KWI Essen) and Kathrin Yacavone (University of Cologne). A call for papers has been issued below: 

The term ‘institutionalisation’ refers to a process in and through which things, people, actions, and relationships are typified, standardised, and thereby fixed for a longer period; in the process the appearance, reception and interpretation of the physical objects which are part of institutions are shaped and defined. In the context of the current debate surrounding the foundation and possible functions of a Federal German Photography Institute, the conference is dedicated to the historical, political, sociological, aesthetic and photo-historical discourses on the institutionalisation of photography as a medium, a cultural and social practice, as well as an art form, document and technology. The forms and formats, as well as the traditions and practices, of the classification, collection, exhibition, conservation, archiving and sale of photographic images will be examined from various cultural-critical perspectives and taking into account diverse methodological approaches, both theoretical and practical.

The starting point is not primarily individual images, monographic groups of works, modes (portrait, landscape, etc.) or genres (art photography, advertising and scientific photography), but rather the question of how various practices in dealing with photography as an art and medium have (co-)shaped these categories and to what extent they are subject to historical and cultural value shifts and changes that are tied to issues of institutionalisation (without being completely absorbed by them). The temporal and geographical focus of the conference will be Germany since 1945, while comparative perspectives, drawing international comparisons between different (European) countries, are equally welcome.

• To discuss these and related issues during the two-day conference, we are inviting proposals for contributions from the perspectives of photographic history and theory, cultural and media studies, art history, history and sociology, as well as from specialists in the institutional curation, collection and archiving of photography. We are seeking contributions in the forms of case studies on specific collections and their history of institutionalisation as well as broader cultural-historical and systematic overviews of the topic. Contributions may address the following specific questions and themes, but are not limited to them:
• Which initiatives on an individual (Gernsheim, Krauss, Honnef, Eskildsen et al.), collaborative (DGPh, Deutscher Fotorat), private (e.g. photokina, Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation) and national level have attempted to institutionalise photography (e.g., as an art form)? And how and why did they succeed or fail?
• To what extent did the legitimisation of photography as fine art (in the 1970s) affect the evaluation of other types of photography (e.g. documentary, photojournalistic, amateur and advertising photography) in such initiatives
• How do public, private, commercial or philanthropic galleries, or even private collections compare to established museums in their treatment of photography? Are collection criteria adopted when, for example, a private collection moves to a public museum or archive? What happens to photographic estates when they enter the art market (e.g. Ronkholz/VAN HAM)?
• What role does digitisation play in recent initiatives and what influence does it have on institutional issues involving existing collections and archives of photography?
• To what extent does the materiality of photography (analogue/digital, photo albums or photo books) affect its institutionalisation? Or: to what extent do digital images renew, shift or update the logics and principles of analogue collections?
• How can the tensions between (implicit or explicit) institutional criteria for collecting photography and the multifaceted ways in which the medium is used in our everyday lives be analysed?
• How did the practices of classifying, collecting and archiving photography differ in East and West Germany? And how were these differences negotiated after the reunification?
• What influence do art academies and institutions providing practical photographic training have on the institutionalisation of photography, more broadly?
• To what extent are networks and photojournalistic societies and agencies, or festivals and pop-up activities, complementary or contrary to the established institutions of photography?
• Which cultural-political frameworks and policies promote or prevent grass-roots initiatives to establish photography as a medium in its own right, and what role does digitisation play in this context?
• From an international and comparative perspective, how does the historical and current situation in Germany compare to other (European) countries with respect to these dynamics? and finally:
• what is the relationship between photographic historiography and/or the theory of photography, and the forms and formats of the institutionalisation of photography?

We invite proposals (in English or German) for 20-minute presentations. Abstracts of approximately 400 words, including a short biography (of max. 100 words) should be submitted by Monday 10 January 2022 by e-mail to fototagung2022@gmail.com. Any queries should also be directed to the conference organizers using this address. Notification of acceptance will be sent out by the end of January 2022.

Four Corners seeks a Curatorial and Archive Coordinator to join our team. This is an exciting opportunity to work on Four Corners' public exhibition and archive programmes. Four Corners is a centre for film and photographic arts, based in East London for over 40 years. Our Gallery and Archive programmes engage audiences with issues emerging from radical histories, and stories from the margins that might not otherwise be told. We recognise that access to the arts is not always equal, and we aim to change that by championing creative expression and new voices through skills, mentoring and production opportunities.

Four Corners is a registered charity. We are a team of twelve part-time staff, and we work closely with volunteers, freelancers and partners in visual arts, film and TV, archives, community and higher education to deliver our programmes.

Background to this post
This post is part-funded through Four Corners' Hidden Histories project, which is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Four Corners Archive comprises the film and photographic heritage of Four Corners, Half Moon Photography Workshop and Camerawork magazine, 1972 to 1987. The collection and online archive offer a rich source of material on working lives, protest, feminism and the lived experience of communities. The project aims to develop Four Corners Archive as an active site for community-engaged practice, research and public programmes that explore radical and untold social histories.

We are seeking applicants with a background and expertise in archives, museums or galleries working within fields of photography, curation, visual arts or related sectors.

The post is offered on an 18-month contract from January 2022 to June 2023 in the first instance.

See more here: https://fourcornersfilm.co.uk/work-with-us

In Our Own Image: Photography in Ireland 1839 to the Present presents the first comprehensive historical and critical survey of photography from across the island of Ireland. This landmark centenary exhibition charts how the medium has both reflected and shaped Irish cultural identity, from the work of the earliest photographic pioneers up to the emergence of a recognisably modern state. Throughout the period of intense change that characterised Ireland in the late 19th and into the mid-20th century, we see how photography served as a mirror for shifting experiences of what it meant to be Irish. More than that, it also defined the way we saw ourselves, creating an image of life on the island of Ireland that still forms part of our identity today.

This landmark season of exhibitions, online programmes, installations, events and education programmes launches in November 2021 and continues until November 2022.

It is curated by Gallery of Photography Ireland with the Office of Public Works, Dublin Castle.

Exhibition dates
29 November 2021 - May 2022
Book a free tour

The Centre has for over 40 years responded to the needs of fellow professionals offering a programme of courses and workshops on aspects of the preservation and conservation of historic photographs. The Centre will offer a limited programme in the Spring of 2022.

From November 2021 in conjunction with Conserve Photography Ltd, we are now also offering online teaching courses. The first course we are releasing focuses in detail on the Degradation of Photographic Materials. To see the course video and find out more details visit www.conservephotography.comwww.conservephotography.com

The Centre's career and professional development courses offer conservators and other heritage professionals specialist training in this challenging field; enabling them to hone their practical skills and upgrade their knowledge of current developments and techniques. Course tutors are Ian L. Moor and Angela H. Moor who communicate their knowledge, expertise and passion in such a way as to bring alive the history and diversity of photography whilst still fully addressing the 21st Century problems of preserving and conserving this evocative and transient medium. Their approach cannot fail to stimulate participants to a deeper understanding of, and professional growth in this demanding discipline.

For more details please visit our web site www.cpc-moor.comwww.cpc-moor.com

Fabrica gallery, in partnership with Spectrum Photographic, Loupe Magazine and Photo Fringe are pleased to announce that a new photographic image highlighting the current turmoil in Afghanistan by Rick Findler has been chosen for the In Between Gallery. This work will sit in Fabrica’s large window space, which shows contemporary photography in the heart of Brighton’s busy shopping streets for all who pass by, from 20 December 2021 until Spring 2022.

The work is named Lost Connection I Afghanistan and was taken in Afghanistan in Spring 2021. All throughout Bamyan Province (a picturesque mountainous region of Afghanistan 80 miles west of Kabul) thousands of unconnected and unfinished electricity pylons stretch for miles, and have done so for more than two years. The pylons remain standing, unused and unemployed, symbolic of the corruption afflicting the electricity sector, the feeling of an abandoned population and their disillusionment toward the governing authorities. I wondered if you might like to run this work as Rick's best shot? I can share more images from the series if helpful and one plus some more info is included below for now. All the very best, Nicola Award winning photojournalist chosen to have work exhibited in new outdoor exhibition in central Brighton Fabrica gallery, in partnership with Spectrum Photographic, Loupe Magazine and Photo Fringe are pleased to announce that a new photographic image highlighting the current turmoil in Afghanistan by Rick Findler has been chosen for the In Between Gallery.

This work will sit in Fabrica’s large window space, which shows contemporary photography in the heart of Brighton’s busy shopping streets for all who pass by, from 20 December 2021. The work is named Lost Connection I Afghanistan and was taken in Afghanistan in Spring 2021. All throughout Bamyan Province (a picturesque mountainous region of Afghanistan 80 miles west of Kabul) thousands of unconnected and unfinished electricity pylons stretch for miles, and have done so for more than two years. Just 35% of Afghanistan's population has access to electricity, with the electricity sector fraught with tales of corruption. The pylons remain standing, unused and unemployed, symbolic of the corruption afflicting the electricity sector, the feeling of an abandoned population and their disillusionment toward the governing authorities. As the west turns it's back on Afghanistan, it is the people stuck in the middle which are affected the most. They feel abandoned - abandoned by both their government as well as the global powers that once protected them.

These pylons, which once held so much promise for so many people, symbolise a nation forgotten by everyone. An esteemed panel (Liz Whitehead, Fabrica, Claire Wearn, Photo Fringe, Hazel Watts, Spectrum, Cairo Clarke, curator and writer, Luke Archer, Loupe Magazine and Ibrahim Azab, artist and curator) unanimously decided on Findler as the overall winner of a recent call out for a work for the space. The image will be displayed from 20 December 2021 to April 2022.

This image is one of seven from the series and has not been displayed to the public before now, giving Brighton audiences the first chance to see this work.

Liz Whitehead, Director, Fabrica, said, “As the host of the In Between Gallery the opportunity it affords is to put photography onto the street at Christmas. This photograph keeps Afghanistan in the public imagination”

Claire Wearn, Director, Photo Fringe said, “Photo Fringe aims to develop new ways of seeing together. Rick's powerful photo challenges typical imagery of Afghanistan and gives a haunting insight into current conditions in need of global attention. Luke Archer, of Loupe Magazine said, “Rick’s image stands apart from the rolling news coverage of Afghanistan. Instead his carefully composed landscape encapsulates the enormity and complexity of the issues that have plagued Afghanistan’s recent history. It is an image that needs to be shown 

Chiswick Auctions will feature some very interesting 19th-century photography in its upcoming 19th & 20th Century Photographs sale, kicking off with 50 cased images, and then moving into early paper photographs, including a rare and early salt paper calotype photograph dating from 1858 of eminent female photographer Julia Margaret-Cameron.

The 19th & 20th Century Fine Photographs sale will be one of our broadest yet in terms of 19th Century Photography on offer, including pieces from key figures of the pre-Raphaelite movement.

The image Mrs Cameron & Julie was a self-portrait taken at Little Holland House, 1858, of Julia Margaret-Cameron and her daughter – the person who famously originally gave her a camera in 1863, given with the words “It may amuse you, Mother, to try to photograph during your solitude at Freshwater.” It has an estimate of £4,000 – 6,000.

“This image has not appeared on the auction market for nearly 40 years, and interest and understanding of Cameron’s body of work has grown immeasurably since then,” said Head of Photography, Austin Farahar.

“The offering of this calotype photograph in our 1 December auction presents a unique opportunity to acquire a truly important piece of the story of one of the foremost female photographers of the 19th century.”

Alongside this, the sale will also include portraits taken by Margaret-Cameron, including Déjatch Alámayou / King Theodore's Son, 1868 – of the son of Tewodros (Theodore) II, emperor of Ethiopia.

Also included is her 1865 portrait of Henry Taylor - who was a poet, essayist, and civil servant. The estimates for these two lots are £500 – £700 and £400 – £600 respectively.

The Sale also features the Mac Corquodale family photograph album with a rare portrait of Alice & Edith Liddell, and two other photographs taken by Lewis Carroll (lot 140 & lot 152)

Across the rest of the auction, there are some truly remarkable examples of 19th-century photography in a variety of formats, documenting fascinating moments of history, from Britain’s colonial past to the phenomenon of early American so-called ‘freak shows’ to early mixed-race relationships.

One lot includes an early Ambrotype portrait of the Carolina twins, Millie & Christie Mckoy, who were sold into P.T. Barnham’s famed American Museum in New York. After being abducted and taken to England, they were later reunited with their mother and freed under the Emancipation Act of 1863.

Another includes a collection of a collection of photographs documenting the Anti-plague Medical Campaign in India in 1897, including family portraits, group pictures, portraits of workers and street views.

There is also a collection of 10 photographs of Suffragette protests from 1910, from a selection of press agencies of the time, including the “Topical” press agency, London News Agency Photo and World Graphic Press.

In total, the sale features works from over 170 photographers and studios - including 19th-century names such as John Jabez Edwin Mayall, Antoine François Jean Claudet, and Francis Frith, and 20th-century photographers Melvin Sokolsky, Norman Parkinson and Andre de Dienes - spanning topics from street photography to dance to the military. A wide range of photographic techniques are also showcased across the lots, including magic lantern slides, silver gelatin prints, and wet plate negatives.

19^th & 20^th Century Photographs, Wednesday 1 December, 2:30pm

For further information on the auction, please contact Head of Department, Austin Farahar austin.farahar@chiswickauctions.co.uk and find viewing times below: 

Viewings at our South Kensington Showroom

Thurs 18 Nov, 10am to 5pm
Fri 19 Nov, 10am to 5pm
Mon 22 Nov, 10am to 5pm
Tue 23 Nov, 10am to 5pm
Wed 24 Nov, 10am to 5pm
Thurs 25 Nov, 10am to 5pm
Fri 26 Nov, 10am to 5pm
Mon 29 Nov, 10am to 5pm

19^th & 20^th Century Fine Photographs, Wednesday 1 December, 2:30pm

View the catalogue online here.

Antonella Russo provides an incisive examination of Neorealist photography, delineates its periodization, traces its instances and its progressive popularization and subsequent co-optation that occurred with the advent of the industrialization of photographic magazines. This volume examines the ethno(photo)graphic missions of Ernesto De Martino in the deep South of Italy, the key role played by the Neorealist writer and painter Carlo Levi as "ambassador of international photography", and the journeys of David Seymour, Henry Cartier Bresson, and Paul Strand in Neorealist Italy. The text includes an account the formation and proliferation of Italian photographic associations and their role in institutionalizing and promoting Italian photography, their link to British and other European photographic societies, and the subsequent decline of Neorealism. It also considers the inception of non-objective photography that thrived soon after the war, in concurrence with the circulation of Neorealism, thus debunking the myth identifying all Italian postwar photography with the Neorealist image.

This book will be particularly useful for scholars and students in the history and theory of photography, and Italian history.

https://www.routledge.com/Italian-Neorealist-Photography-Its-Legacy-and-Aftermath/Russo/p/book/9781350162259

The V&A has released the first in a series of films about photography processes based on its collection. The first deals with the the autochrome and is presented by curator Catlin Langford. Invented by the Lumière brothers in 1907, the Autochrome revolutionised photography. Bringing soft, natural colour into images for the first time, this technique made photographs the most realistic that they had ever been.

Find out about the careful handling of these delicate, light sensitive plates, how the photography process works, and see collection highlights from photographers such as John Cimon Warburg and Helen Messinger Murdoch.

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKINhG0g3kk&t=180s

Auction house Reeman Dansie will offer an exceptional archive of photographs, ephemera and related artefacts from the studio of mid-20th century high-society photographer Pamela Chandler (1928-1993).  Pamela Chandler's position as a leading London based photographer of this vintage era led to commissions from Royalty, stars of stage and screen and literary figures, including becoming the photographer of choice for the publicly evasive J. R. R. Tolkien, she has the distinction of being the first female photographer to produce an official portrait of a Prime Minister when she photographed Harold Macmillan.

This extensive archive comprises a lifetime’s work, together with related letters and memorabilia from her glitterati subjects, many of the images are to be offered together with copyright passing to the successful bidders. The collection will be sold on 1 December 2021

Pamela worked briefly as a film extra at various studios including Pinewood, Denham and Elstree, before a chance meeting led her to secure an photographic apprenticeship at the Landseer Photographic Studio in the heart of the West End. After only six months, Max Andrews, a magician friend of Pamela’s father, contacted her and explained that he had taken premises for a magic shop which also included a photographic studio and that he required a photographer, so Pamela went into partnership with Max at his South Molton Street premises. Max concentrated on running the magic shop, leaving Pamela free rein to run the photographic studio. In these early days, she did all the photography and printing herself which gave her a solid bedrock for her career. After a year or so Max disappeared and Pamela was forced to wind up the business,

Pamela joined the Royal Photographic Society in 1949.  At the RPS she met the then curator and subsequent President, J. Dudley Johnston. He was impressed by her work and enthusiasm, and she was commissioned to take his official portrait for use by the RPS, they became friends and corresponded right up until his death. In 1951, Pamela found new studio premises at 33 Beauchamp Place, Knightsbridge, and this was to be her base for the principle part of her photographic career.

The catalogue will be available in print and online shortly.

See more here: https://www.reemandansie.com/news-item/the-pamela-chandler-1928-1993-collection/?pc=42

Skewed, cynical, and socially ambiguous, the photographs of Garry Winogrand epitomised the experimental style and irreverent attitude of post-war American street photography. This, along with the support of the Museum of Modern Art and its influential director of photography John Szarkowski, granted his work a significant presence in New York’s art world during the late 1960s and ‘70s. However, at the height of his fame, Winogrand turned his camera back on this world, producing a withering depiction of the exclusive art openings, functions, and balls held at institutions such as MoMA and The Metropolitan Museum of Art during the Vietnam war. In a seemingly bizarre development, this body of work would go on to be exhibited at MoMA in 1977 – alongside his shots of protests, sporting events, and press conferences – putting the museum’s institutional framework on display within its walls.

Simon Constantine's paper will consider the extent to which this exhibition and its accompanying photobook, Public Relations, can be understood as evidence of a little-recognised strain of institutional critique within Winogrand’s street photography. In doing so, it will seek to offer a non-formalist understanding of American street photography as a practice forged in dialogue with the wider post-war avant-garde. It will also attempt to explain the presence and status of these apparent critical tendencies within the work of an otherwise establishment photographer.

Simon Constantine is Lecturer in History of Photography at Birkbeck, University of London. His work addresses street photography and recent documentary photography, with a particular focus on large-scale projects and photobooks which seek to map, criticize, or conceptualize the contemporary global economy. He has presented papers at SOAS, the University of Birmingham, Roma Tre University, and the Institute of Historical Research, and worked as an editor for the journal parallax. His writings have been published in the Oxford Art Journal, Arts, and The Burlington Magazine.

Street Photography as institutional critique? Gary Winogrand's photographs of the art world
30 November 2021 at 1800 (GMT)
43 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PD
Birkbeck History and Theory of Photography Research Centre

Image: Garry Winogrand, Opening, Frank Stella Exhibition, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1970

Belfast based photographer Donovan Wylie will deliver an artist talk at the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol on his creative practice, followed by a book signing. This talk will also be streamed live via Zoom. Donovan will address questions around process, touching on how conversations begin and evolve within the medium of photography, both conceptually and through methodology.

Talking through many of his projects – such as The Maze and Outposts – he will also discuss how processes develop (or do not develop!) and how one project leads into another.

Donovan Wylie talk and book signing
23 November 2021 at 1900 (GMT) 
Gallery Ticket - £6 - Zoom Ticket - £3 / £5 / £10 (pay what you can)
See: https://www.martinparrfoundation.org/events/donovan-wylie-2/

Image: G40. S Armagh. From Project British Watchtowers 2005 © Donovan Wylie

Youth of Yesterday is an exhibition featuring photographs taken of young people in Bethnal Green from the 1970s by photographer Philip Cunningham. In the mid-1970s Philip was a youth worker at Oxford House while studying art at Ravensbourne College of Art. While a student, Philip became interested in photography and Oxford House had a fully equipped dark room and was home to Tower Hamlets Arts Group. Philip took hundreds of photographs of local people at a time when Bethnal Green was seeing great change. These photographs capture daily life, friendship, streets, and youth culture in the late 1970s.

In this talk Philip will be showcasing and discussing more of his images about the East End and the stories behind them.  This talk accompanies the exhibition... YOUTH OF YESTERDAY, 22 September - 17 December at Oxford House

Photographing the East End: Philip Cunningham In Conversation
25 November 2021
1830-1930 (GMT), live event, free
Oxford House in Bethnal Green
Derbyshire Street
London, E2 6HG
See more and book here

MACK, the book publisher, has announced its new annual research fellowship, in which it invites proposals for books that investigate an area of cultural history which is deserving of and lacking in critical attention. 

It is especially interested in projects that include, but are not limited to, untold historic lineages, overlooked collectives and communities, specific movements of activism and collaboration, and artists who work in the intersection of art, photography and literature in new ways. The successful candidate will research, edit, write the primary text for, and manage the production of a book on the subject to be published by MACK.

The role can be adapted to the work and life commitments of the successful candidate, but we anticipate that it will either involve an estimated 2 days a week commitment over a 6-month period, or a block of approximately 40 - 50 days within an agreed time frame. The successful applicant will receive a fee of £8,000 plus funding for agreed costs. 

Applicants should send a covering letter with their CV and the names of two referees to fellowship@mackbooks.co.uk by no later than 20 January 2022, outlining their proposed research project (including key thesis, figures, events, movements and so on), together with relevant past research and proven track record in no more than two A4 pages maximum. Successful candidates will be invited for an interview.

See: https://mackbooks.co.uk/pages/job-vacancies

An open-access archive of more than 100,000 digitised photographs of British art and architecture is now available to search and download. Between 1964 and 1969 the Paul Mellon Foundation began to collate an internationally important collection of reference photographs of British paintings, sculpture, architecture, and the decorative arts, as well as images of sketchbooks and exhibitions.

The photographic archive provided access to art that was often locked behind the closed doors of Britain’s private country houses and collections. This activity was continued when the Foundation was re-established as the Paul Mellon Centre (PMC) in 1970, and maintained until 2013, at which point the collection contained more than 100,000 reference images.

This historically important and visually rich collection has now been digitised, with typed and handwritten descriptive notations transcribed for searchability, and is available, free, online.

Visitors to the online resource, can learn about the nation’s heritage through images collated from the exhibition, publication and sale of British works of art.

Users are able to download, compare, and contrast the works using digital tools. More than 44,000 images are available for reuse, offered with a Creative Commons licence for non-commercial purposes. In doing so the PMC joins major international institutions like the Rijksmuseum, whose open access image collections have become significant resources for new artistic and research projects.

A series of short essays (https://photoarchive.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/groups) on the archive platform outline the continued relevance of this historical resource. Bendor Grosvenor writes on the uses of the collection in the identification and reattribution of works of art; Paris Spies-Gans (Harvard University) discusses the historical gender biases and omissions intrinsic in the collection; Martin Postle (PMC) outlines how images can be helpful in the preservation and restoration of damaged works; and Anjalie Dalal-Clayton (UAL) and Ananda Rutherford (Tate/UCL) consider the historical implications of Eurocentric, racist, outmoded, and other problematic terminology used in cataloguing historic collections.

There is also a series of short films (https://photoarchive.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/groups/archive-journeys) which demonstrate the archive in use from the point of view of an artist, an archivist, a curator, a dealer, a photographer, and a conservator.

Visit the Photographic Archive online catalogue : https://photoarchive.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/collections

Thanks to a transformational gift of £2 million from The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation, the Bodleian Libraries are recruiting a Curator of Photography for the first time. Your will increase the impact of our photographic holdings by carrying out a full range of curatorial work including: answering enquiries; teaching and public engagement activities with the collections; cataloguing; and collection development.

You can expect to work with incredible collections, documenting photography from its earliest days through to contemporary photography. You will be passionate and knowledgeable about photography, possess the strong communication skills needed to share these collections with the Libraries’ many audiences, and the know-how to ensure the collections are managed in-line with the Libraries’ curatorial standards.

The candidate we are looking for could be an experienced curatorial professional with an extensive professional network in the world of photography and photographic collections, or a talented individual with less experience in either curation or photography, but the clear potential and desire to address any gaps in your current skillset.

Benefits include 38 days’ leave (including bank holidays and fixed closures), a generous pension scheme, extensive training and development opportunities, access to travel and childcare schemes, and much more. See  https://www.jobs.ox.ac.uk/benefits#/ for further details.

You will be required to upload a supporting statement as part of your online application. Your supporting statement should list each of the essential and desirable selection criteria, as listed in the further particulars, and explain how you meet each one. Please do not include CVs in your application.

Only applications received online before 12.00 midday (GMT) on Friday 19 November 2021 can be considered. Interviews are expected to take place on Thursday 9 December 2021.

For further particulars, and details of how to apply, please click here.

It is 60 years ago this month since the first ever exhibition in the UK of Photography as a Fine Art was held in the Concert Suite at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Whilst photography had been recognized as a Fine Art by many galleries in USA, including The Eastman House and the Museum of Chicago, the “establishment” at the Royal Photographic Society in London were less progressive with their views at that time.

It was with this background that S.D.Jouhar (who had argued for many years that photography was, indeed, a Fine Art) formed The Photographic Fine Art Association in August 1961, and he was it’s Chairman. Others on the committee included Louis Demolin, Hubert Davey, Dennis Gasser and Bertram Sinkinson.

The Association had, as it’s definition of Fine Art:

"Creating images that evoke emotion by a photographic process in which one's mind and imagination are freely but competently exercised. From a technical point of view, therefore, personally controlled, disciplined interpretation and technical execution, showing fine perception and skill in the making shall be necessary requirements of such work in colour or monochrome.”

Works of art were provided for the Exhibition by Geoffrey Ashbourne FRPS, J Bell FRPS (Trichrome-Gum Process), H Cartwright, R H Cherry (Trichrome-Gum Process), Louis Demolin, Eric Freeborn FIBP FRPS, Miss Jeanette Klute, the late George Halford and S.D. Jouhar, (all of whose works for this Exhibition were Ektacolor Prints).

A second exhibition based entirely on S.D.Jouhar’s works was mounted and held at Ealing Technical College later in 1961. No less than 12,000 people visited it during a two-week period. Examples of S.D.Jouhar’s photographs can be seen at http://www.sdjouhar.com

The V&A Photography Centre has been entirely rehung with two new photography displays. Maurice Broomfield: Industrial Sublime presents the late photographer’s dramatic photographs of mid-century British and foreign industry, and Known and Strange: Photographs from the Collection highlight photography’s power to transform the familiar into the unfamiliar, and the ordinary into the extraordinary. 

Maurice Broomfield: Industrial Sublime showcases the late photographer’s dramatic photographs of mid-century British and foreign industry, capturing factories and their workers in an era of rapid transition. Born to a working-class family near Derby, Maurice Broomfield (1916-2010) worked at the city’s Rolls Royce factory after leaving school at the age of fifteen. He attended Derby Art College in the evenings, then worked in advertising before earning a position as Britain’s premier industrial photographer throughout the 1950s and 60s.

The display features over 40 original exhibition prints, drawn from Broomfield’s extensive archive housed at the V&A. These are shown alongside a selection of Broomfield’s cameras – lent from the private collection of his son, the renowned documentary film maker Nick Broomfield – as well as other contextual items which have never been exhibited before, including historic film footage, audio recordings, press cuttings, contact prints, negatives, trade publications and pages from works order books, shining a light onto the photographer’s working processes.

Most of Broomfield’s photographs were originally commissioned for publication in company reports, but he also selected and printed some of them at large scale for inclusion in photography exhibitions. From shipyards to papermills, textiles to food production, and atomic power stations to car manufacture, Broomfield emphasised the dramatic, romantic, sublime and sometimes surreal qualities of industry. Today, many of the factories he photographed – and the communities of workers and skills that supported them – have either vanished or been subsumed into global corporations.

His archive, containing over 30,000 images, comprising negatives, contact prints, exhibition prints, press cuttings, business records, and promotional materials, survives as a valuable record of this history, while his images can be appreciated for their artistry. Highlights include his spectacular image of a half million-volt charge on ceramic insulators for Royal Doulton potteries; a surreal scene of a woman inspecting the assembly of a generator for the English Electric Company; blast furnaces and fettlers at the Ford car factory at Dagenham; and the high-tech lighting laboratory at Phillips in the Netherlands. Broomfield’s photographs remain relevant today, prompting questions about digital technologies replacing manual labour, the UK entering an uncertain economic future in relation to the rest of the world, and the toxic social and environmental legacy of industry.

To accompany the display, the V&A has published a new book on Maurice Broomfield, written by V&A Senior Curator Martin Barnes and with a foreword by Nick Broomfield. Barnes discusses the life and work of Maurice, whom he came to know well as he worked to transfer his archive from his Hampshire home to the museum.

Images:
Top right: Maurice Broomfield, Woman Examining a Sample, Shell International, Holland Laboratories, 1968. © Estate of Maurice Broomfield.
Centre and lower: Installation shots of the Broomfield display. Courtesy: V&A Museum, London. 

Leicester's De Montfort University has re-launched its MA in photographic history with an innovative new distance learning approach to teaching that allows students to take the course at their own pace. The new course starts from January 2022 and then runs on a termly rolling basis meaning students can join at three points during the year, building up credits to a full MA.

The postgraduate course builds on remote teaching expertise developed over the past two years and will particularly suit students and those simply wishing to learn, especially from outside of the UK and unable to commit to full-time, or even traditional part-time, study. Teaching is asynchronous except for tutorials which are by appointment. All students will have anytime access to audio and/or visual material of lectures. 

Units of 15 learning credits can be completed on a standalone basis offering those simply wishing to develop knowledge in particular areas a rigorous and assessed pathway to do so. Any credits can be used to extend this in to a full MA. Those looking to study full-time can complete a MA in one year, or part-time in two years. 

The standard modules are: 

• Learning Photographic History Online (compulsory for all students)
• Photographic Historiography I (15 credits)
• Photographic Historiography II (15 credits)
• Photography and the Arts (15 credits)
• Photography, Science and Technology (15 credits)
• Photography, Ethics and Emotions (15 credits)
• Material Histories 1830s to 1930s (15 credits)
• Material Histories 1930s to Now (15 credits)
• Photography and Politics (15 credits)
• Photography and Digital Politics (15 credits)
• Fieldwork (30 credits)
• Dissertation or Heritage Project (60 credits)

Each 15 credit module encompasses 150 hours of learning, researching and assessment. The 30 credit module and 60 credit module are 300 and 600 hours respectively.

Full details can be found here: https://www.dmu.ac.uk/study/courses/postgraduate-courses/photographic-history-ma-degree/photographic-history-ma-degree.aspx