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Do you have experience in developing and telling engaging stories to non-specialist audiences? Do you want to play a key role in an exciting project for the National Science and Media Museum?

The Sound and Vision galleries will bring our world-class collections of photography, film, television and sound technologies to the forefront of the National Science and Media Museum. New galleries will highlight the significant contribution sound and visual technologies have had on the world, and a programme of activities developed alongside the galleries will raise aspirations, develop skills and increase digital confidence in young people. Sound & Vision’s galleries and activities will be a driving force in the regeneration of Bradford.

We are now recruiting for a story weaver who can lead the creative content for the National Science and Media Museum’s transformation of its public offer through the Sound and Vision Masterplan Project. As Interpretation Manager you will develop and implement the gallery interpretation strategy for the project. Through your work with the project team, architects, designers and other contractors you will ensure that the interpretation elements are creative, engaging and connect with our audiences.

You will understand the importance of design, AV, interactives and text in the exhibitions, bringing skills for writing briefs, directing contractors and designers to achieve excellence in our interpretive approach. You will also work on our collaborative community projects to develop content that will be shown on gallery.

The role will sit in the exhibitions team, but will be operate across departments, particularly the curatorial, masterplan and learning teams to help deliver new and innovative ways to tell stories about our collections to a broad range of audiences.

For further information and to apply please visit: https://bit.ly/3BAQfhG

The V&A’s Collections Division comprises six curatorial, research, and conservation and collections care and access teams. The curatorial departments are arranged as Decorative Art and Sculpture; Performance, Furniture, Textiles and Fashion; Art, Architecture, Photography and Design; and Asia. The staff in these teams are at the heart of the founding purpose of the museum: to care for, research and develop the collections, to exhibit them to the public, to make them available for study and research, and to broaden access to the collections.

This is an exciting new role and the postholder will take responsibility for the development, care of, documentation and research, presentation, and interpretation of a part of V&A’s Collection, in this case, the Photography Collection. The role is especially focused on curating contemporary photography. The postholder will be expected to represent the Museum at the highest level and play an active role in the field of contemporary photography collecting, nationally and internationally.

As a member of the Art Architecture, Photography and Design, the postholder will also play a role in the wider work of the V&A, contributing to policy, projects and public programmes, supporting fundraising and income generation, and supporting senior colleagues in the running of the Department, including by creating a positive environment, encouraging collaboration across the museum, supporting change, leading and managing Assistant Curators and sharing knowledge, expertise and best practice to help them develop and perform.

Closing date for receipt of applications is 8 November 2021 at 23.59

Article on the female figure photographer, Eva Grant. She was born in Istanbul, grew up in Greece, and became a student nurse in London. To supplement her meagre income, she did a bit of swimwear modelling, only to find out she had a real passion for being on the other side of the camera. She was active during the 1950s and early sixties. She published her own magazine called Line and Form that ran for around 40 issues.  https://pamela-green.com/all-about-eva-grant/

Image © Eva Grant

Recently found this Tin Type on a notable online auction site and thought what lovely bonnets the couple are wearing. On that and nothing else I decided to buy the picture. When it arrived I removed the frame and glass protection and scanned the image at 1200dpi to see what I had bought.

A superb backdrop of three of the arches on Brighton Beach is what I suspect I might see and then there were the hats.



Next the precise location was to be found and this was established as on the beach outside an arch directly what is today 'The Brighton Fishing Museum'. It apppears the lady sitter is sitting on one of the still extant pieces of antique fishing boat winding gear.



Below is the view looking north from the sea and back to the arches - very similar to the original camera position.



If the original picture is combined with the Google view of the location it is most apparent the images are identical in location and perspective.

A number of recent interviews for the Pittsburgh Photo Fair may be of interest to BPH readers. They cover a range of topics including conservation, collecting, contemporary publishing, and historical photobooks by women. Details are below:

Challenging the Canon: Olga Yatskevich on Photobook History

What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women 1843–1999, focuses on historically significant photobooks produced by women. Officially released on 1 November 2021, the book was recently shortlisted for the Paris Photo - Aperture Foundation Catalogue of the Year Award 2021. I spoke with Olga Yatskevich about 10x10’s ongoing exploration of photobook history and the underrepresentation of women in this field. 

Reimagining Aperture: In conversation with Sarah Meister

Following an exceptional curatorial career at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Sarah Meister joined Aperture as Executive Director in May 2021. I spoke with Sarah about Aperture’s history, her vision for its future, and the central role of photography in our contemporary experience.

Sotheby’s Photographs at 50: Brandei Estes on Collecting

This year Sotheby’s celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first photographs auction, which took place at Sotheby’s London in 1971. Coinciding with this occasion, I spoke with Brandei about the evolution of the art photography market. We discussed what drives her passion for photography and her advice for new collectors.

Photography in Four Dimensions: Paul Messier on Conservation

An interview with Paul Messier about the extensive collection of historic photographic papers he assembled, now held at Yale. We discussed recent projects from his expansive career in conservation and current challenges in the field.

Sotheby's latest sale of Travel, Photographs, Maps and Natural History is now available online and the auction runs 9-17 November. Notable 19th century photographs and photobooks include:

Lot 8. A newly discovered 1860s album of photographs of China and Japan by John Thomson, Milton Miller, John Dudgeon, J.C. Watson, and Charles Frederick Moore. 

Lot 9. Collection of thirty-six photographs of China by Thomas Child and others.

Lot 10. A rare 1872 Foochow printed vocabulary and handbook of the Chinese language with contributions by John Thomson and Dr John Dudgeon on photographic terms and apparatus in English and Chinese.

Lot 21. An early album of photographs of Japan by Felice Beato, circa 1868.

Lot 50. A first edition of Maxime du Camp's photobook Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie (1852) with 125 salted paper prints.

Lot 146. A rare example of the Photographic Club's Album for the year 1857, one of circa 50 copies published, containing salted paper and albumen prints by members including Roger Fenton, Oscar Rejlander, Hugh Welch Diamond, John Dillwyn Llewelyn, Benjamin Brecknell Turner and Francis Bedford.

Lot 148. A carbon print by Benjamin Brecknell Turner of The Mill Stream, Boulter's lock.

Lot 176. A signed photograph portrait of Robert Falcon Scott by John Thomson.

View the sale here: www.sothebys.com/travel