Blogs

Maud Sulter (1960-2008) was an award-winning artist, writer, curator and activist of Scots-Ghanaian heritage. Focussing specifically on her work as a lens-based artist, Professor Susannah Thompson will consider Sulter’s legacy in the context of Black British identity, feminism and recent Scottish art, as well as exploring the recent resurgence of interest in her work amongst an emerging generation of feminists and women of colour.

Susannah Thompson (pictured) is an art historian, writer and art critic based in Glasgow. Her research focusses on Twentieth century and contemporary art in Scotland, particularly the work of women artists, and on feminist approaches to art and visual culture. Forthcoming projects include a series of essays and events related to the painter Joan Eardley, essays on the sculptor Edmonia Lewis and the artist and critic Cordelia Oliver, and a range of activities on the theme of Scotland and Surrealism. Susannah was Director of Postgraduate Research and Co-Director of Visual Culture in the School of Art, Edinburgh College of Art before joining The Glasgow School of Art in 2017 where she is Professor of Contemporary Art and Criticism and Head of Doctoral Studies.

Annan Lecture 2021: Scots w’Afro: The Photography of Maud Sulter
21 August 2021 at 1800 (BST)
£5 (non-members)
Online
Book here: https://studiesinphotography.com/pages/annan-lecture-2021-scots-w-afro-the-photography-of-maud-sulter-with-professor-susannah-thompson

The National Stereoscopic Association's Sessions on the History of Stereoscopic Photography are a conference-within-a-conference presenting international scholarship on the history of stereoscopic photography. The online presentations are free to the public.

The Sessions on the History of Stereoscopic Photography at the 47th Annual 3D-Con will feature the following presenters:

Friday, August 13th / Session 1 — 7:30-9:20 AM PDT / 1530 -1720 (BST) / 1630-1820 (CET)

What did the Victorians See in the Stereoscope
Dr. Denis Pellerin, London Stereoscopic Society

A Victorian Visionary: The Untold Story of William England
Dr. Gerlind-Anicia Lorch, Independent Scholar

Excavating Views: "He Looks so Royal and Confident"
Dr. Neal Sobania, Pacific Lutheran University

From Stereoscopes to Reenactment: Visual Immersive Representations of the South African "Anglo Boer" War (1899-1902)
Mr. Santos Z. Roman. University of California, Riverside

Minstrelsy, Blackface, and Racialized Performance in Nineteenth-Century Stereoviews
Dr. Melody Davis, Russell Sage College

Session 2 — 9:35-11:00 AM PDT / 1735-1900 (BST) / 1835-2000 (CET)

Connecting the "Dots": Sears Roebuck’s Stereographs in Context
Dr. Leigh Gleason, UCR-Arts, University of California, Riverside

Selective Ignorance: (Un)Comfortable Visions of America in View-Master™ Stereographs
Prof. Patrick Alan Luber, University of North Dakota

Navigating the Atlantic — in 3D! Digitizing Domino Danzero’s Original 1900-1901 Stereograph Cards at Missouri State University
Ms. Shannon Mawhiney, Ms. Leslie James and Ms. Hannah Fuller, Missouri State University Library

The "Outlander Effect"
Dr. Peter Blair, Independent Scholar

Introduction to SuDagraphy and the Single Image Stereoscopic Auto‐Pseudographs
Ms. Ilicia Benoit

For full details and to book see: https://www.3d-con.com/history.php

Headstone Manor and Museum, which is close to Kodak's former factory at Harrow, is hosting a talk titled Kodak in Britain. The talk will look at some of the history of Kodak in Britain, the Harrow factory and museum, and some of the products that Kodak manufactured from 1890.

It will also look at the Kodak Historical Collection, now at the British Library, and how it moved from Harrow to the library – and what happened to it afterwards.

Kodak in Britain
3 August 2021 at 1400 (BST)
Click here to book: https://harrowarts.com/classes/hmm-tuesday-talk-kodak-in-britain-with-dr-michael-pritchard

As part of my PhD research and in association with Collecting the West: How Collections Create Western Australia (University of Western Australia and Deakin University, ARC LP160100078) I have been tracing the first collections of photographs in Western Australia's state collecting institutions (WA Museum, Art Gallery of WA, State Library of WA, and State Record Office of WA).

This article, published in the Journal of the History of Collections, presents evidence for the composition of the 'foundational' photograph collections of Western Australia and their use, and places them in a global context of scientific exchange and Empire. This collection had strong ties to British collecting institutions and scientific communities, for example, through the Director and Curator of the institution, Bernard Woodward, nephew of Dr Henry Woodward, Keeper of Geology at the British Museum.

My investigation of these collections and the paths they may have taken across global networks of exchange is ongoing. If anyone knows of correspondence or collection items that may relate Western Australia's early photograph collections, please do get in touch.

Rebecca Repper, Foundational photographs: Photograph collecting in Western Australia’s early Museum and Art Gallery, Journal of the History of Collections, 2021;, fhab027, https://doi.org/10.1093/jhc/fhab027

William Fagan's illustrated online talk will celebrate the ongoing development of a new, interactive timeline of the history of photography in Ireland which is being developed by the Gallery of Photography, Ireland. He will share some of the key images in Ireland's photographic history and explore the stories behind them. Considering photography both as an art and a science, he will look at who took photographs and why they took them and how photography was used for good and otherwise, including some early examples of photographic 'fake news'.

He will also look at how photography has impacted on Ireland's visual knowledge and culture and will end at the present where everyone is now a photographer of some kind.

Illustrated history of photography in Ireland since 1839
William Fagan
Online, 17 August 2021 at 1930 (BST)
Free

https://www.galleryofphotography.ie/william-fagan-illustrated-talk

Two online talks take place this week look at different aspects of photographic history. On Wednesday, 28 July Dr Beatriz Pichel discusses some of the themes in her new book  Picturing the Western Front: Photography, Practices and Experiences in First World War France and on Thursday 29 July Betty Yao looks at John Thomson and his photography of Asia. 

Both talks are free but require booking. Details are here: 

Dr Beatriz Pichel https://rps.org/WW1

John Thomson: https://rps.org/HistoricalJuly

For much of the twentieth-century, the contribution of William Friese-Greene to cinema was disputed. Having famously died at a meeting of cinema exhibitors with only the price of a cinema ticket in his pocket, cinemas around the country shut down their projectors to mark his funeral. The film The Magic Box – made for the Festival of Britain and released just before it closed in 1951 – told the story of Friese-Greene and his pioneering work and claimed him to be one of the inventors of moving images. By the time a plaque was unveiled at his birthplace in Bristol to mark the centenary of his birth in 1955, Friese-Greene’s reputation had begun to decline and some film historians said he was overrated, his inventions failed to move the technology forward, and he took ideas from others to claim as his own.

Film director and historian Peter Domankiewicz has spent over 20 years researching Friese-Greene and is about to start a PhD on the subject. He has discovered a different Friese-Greene: someone who should be credited with more than he has been to date, including his support of women photographers and his willingness to collaborate on projects. Domankiewicz is joined by writer and commentator Sir Christopher Frayling, one of Britain’s leading writers on cinema, to discuss Friese–Greene, early British cinema and The Magic Box. Both have contributed essays to the forthcoming Bristol Ideas’ book, Opening Up the Magic Box. The conversation will be hosted by Bryony Dixon.

Opening Up the Magic Box – a heritage element of the Film 2021 programme – marks the centenary of the death of Bristol-born film pioneer William Friese-Greene and the 125th anniversary of the first public cinema screening in Bristol, which took place at the Tivoli on 8 June 1896, as well as celebrating Bristol – a UNESCO City of Film since 2017.

Peter Domankiewicz and Christopher Frayling: Who was William Friese-Greene?
Sunday, 1 August 2021
1400-1500 (BST)
£8.50 full / £5.00 concessions / £5.00 under 24s, refugees and asylum seekers.
Bristol: Arnolfini
Book here: https://www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/10811/who-was-william-friesegreene#

Autograph is seeking a consultant or consultants, to deliver a cataloguing and collection accreditation project for our unique photography collection, between October 2021 and October 2022.

This project offers a wonderful opportunity to get to know the Autograph holdings which are located at Rivington Place, London. The growing collection – a living archive – includes approximately 7,500 prints, 10,000 + negatives, 5,000 slides, archive film, several thousand digital and analogue contact sheets, plus related ephemera.

Please click here to download the Brief for Services, which sets out the history of our collection and its uses, the project deliverables, expected outcomes, required competencies, fee, timetable and tender process.

Tenders must be submitted by noon on 26 August 2021
Please send your tender to cherelle@autograph-abp.co.uk

For any questions about this opportunity please email holly@autograph-abp.co.uk in the first instance with a short paragraph outlining your query and provide a contact telephone number. Please note that queries will not be answered after 19 August 2021 due to annual leave.

Consultancy interviews will be held on 15 September 2021 either in person at Autograph, Rivington Place EC2A 3BA or via Zoom, subject to public health regulations in place in September.

Curator Jan Brazier introduces the Australian women working in commercial photography 1850-1920. On 12 June 1871, the Illustrated Sydney News observed about 'Lady Photographers’  that the womanly attributes of ‘Delicacy, cleanliness, patience and … long suffering’ were the conditions essential for success for working in photography. Women certainly did work in commercial studios in a range of roles, yet uncovering their contribution is difficult.

This talk explores this history by looking at the stories of some of the women working in photography in Australia from the mid-19th to the early 20th century. It supports the exhibition The business of photography at Chau Chak Wing Musuem, Sydney. 

Thursday, 22 July 2021 at 1830 (AUZ) | 0930 (BST) | 1030 (CET)
Free
Detail and register here: https://www.sydney.edu.au/museum/whats-on/talks-and-events/out-of-focus.html

The exhibition can be explored here: https://www.sydney.edu.au/museum/whats-on/exhibitions/the-business-of-photography.html

The Golden Fleece is, in its opening statement, 'the home of The Creative Camera Archive, plus notes on photography, photographers and photographic ephemera'. It includes a searchable archive of Creative Camera 1-362  and DPICT issues plus a list of features.  Elsewhere it has resources on Tony Ray-Jones, Raymond Moore, Edwin Smith, Olive Cook and the Cambridge Darkroom.  Plus features on Frederick Evans, Hugo van Wadenoyen, Modfot One and Peter Soar. 

Details here: https://the-golden-fleece.co.uk/wp/

HSBC have just launched their new History Website, documenting and sharing its heritage journey and story. The archive, which has amassed a diverse range of material and content over the decades, reaches right back to their early foundation in 1865. As one of the largest financial organisations in the world, HSBC has survived the Great Depression and the Second World War, going on to grow exponentially in scale and reputation, recognised as pioneers in technology.

The unique HSBC History Website contains over 150 years of heritage and was launched on 6 July 2021. This site will act as a single point of reference for internal and external stakeholders, such as employees and customers, facilitating access and research, and exploration and discovery.

We are thrilled that this vast digital collection is managed and shared via our PastView platform and that visitors will be able to uncover a wealth of born-digital and digitised HSBC assets in a host of new and digitally immerse ways.  

Photographs feature with the earliest from c1863. 

You can access the HSBC History Website here: https://history.hsbc.com

Image: Photograph of Wardley House, the first head office of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in Hong Kong, c.1870s. HK 0117-0001

Scottish Transport & Industry Collections Knowledge Network (STICK) is inviting submissions for papers for its 2021 conference – 'Snapshot in Time' – to discuss the importance of photography as a documentation and advocacy tool for industrial and transport heritage. The conference is scheduled for Wednesday 17 November 2021.

Photography is an invaluable tool for recording industrial and transport history – it is ideally suited for rapid documentation in a world where dramatic or catastrophic change can occur to the fabric of industry, almost overnight, and revolutionised the documentation of historic sites. 

Papers for presentation will be accepted on a broad range of subjects, including:

• Case studies in photographic survey
• The use of photographs for education, outreach and advocacy
• The research utility of existing archives of photographic material
• Developments in photographic survey techniques and their future (e.g. photogrammetry)

STICK anticipates the conference to be hosted online via zoom. 

STICK would welcome 200-word submissions from academics, enthusiasts and heritage professionals for talks of 45 minutes. Proposals may be submitted to Matthew Bellhouse Moran at matthew@hmsunicorn.org.uk with “STICK Conference Proposal” as the email title.

See: https://stickssn.org/call-for-papers-snapshot-in-time/

Image: Hillbank Works, Dundee. A flax mill and jute mill on Alexander Road/Dens Road in Dundee.

Sekai Machache (she/her) is a Zimbabwean-Scottish visual artist and curator based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her work is a deep interrogation of the notion of self. She is interested in the relationship between spirituality, imagination and the role of the artist in disseminating symbolic imagery to provide a space for healing. Sekai works with a wide range of media including photography. Her photographic practice is formulated through digital studio based compositions utilising body paint and muted lighting conditions to create images that appear to emerge from darkness.

The Divine Sky utilises allegory and performance to tell a complicated history through poesis, immersive storytelling and photography. This series has taken form during the Covid-19 lockdown period when restrictions to our movements has called for establishing new ways of working and structuring artistic output.This work denotes a process of inscribing and re-inscribing thought through automatic drawing with ink on paper, indigo pigment on fabric, performance to camera, layering and overlaying.

The V&A Museum, London, has announced its 2022-2023 programme. Of particular interest to the photography world are new photography displays although photography will feature in exhibition highlights including Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature, Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear, and Africa Fashion. 

In November 2021 the Photography Centre will be entirely rehung with two new displays: 

• Maurice Broomfield: Industrial Sublime in The Bern and Ronny Schwartz Gallery. The exhibition will showcase the late photographer’s spectacular photographs of mid-century British industry,
• Known and Strange: Photographs from the Collection in The Sir Elton John and David Furnish Gallery 6 November 2021-6 November 2022 will focus on the contemporary – highlighting photography’s power to transform the familiar into the unfamiliar, and the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Phase 2 of the Photography Centre is due to open in 2023. 

Image: Maurice Broomfield, Tapping a Furnace, Ford, Dagenham, Essex, 1954. © Estate of Maurice Broomfield

The Royal Society has digitised books and archival material held in its collection. These include Anna Atkins' Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843). The volume was given to the Royal Society by Anna Atkins. Other material of photographic interest are travel and photography notes from John Herschel (c.1838-); and the visitors book for Birr Castle (1850-2-14).

See: https://royalsociety.org/collections/turning-pages/

George Shaw was one of Birmingham's first photographers and a key member of the emerging professional classes in Victorian Birmingham with a wide ranging network which encompassed his work as a patent agent, chemistry professor and his involvement in the arts. In this talk, artist Jo Gane will discuss Shaw's life and work, alongside presenting new photographs she has made which expound upon his story.

This talk is free but places are limited. The talk will take place via zoom and ticket holders will be sent a link to join on the day of the event.

21 July 2021
1830-1930 (BST)
Free 
Book here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/online-talk-george-shaw-a-photographic-pioneer-tickets-161213141847

Between 1914 and 1918, military, press and amateur photographers produced thousands of pictures. In her new book Picturing the Western Front: Photography, Practices and Experiences in First World War France (Manchester University Press, 2021) Dr Beatriz Pichel argues that photographic practices also shaped combatants and civilians' war experiences. Doing photography (taking pictures, posing for them, exhibiting, cataloguing and looking at them) allowed combatants and civilians to make sense of what they were living through.

Picturing the Western Front
28 July 2021 at 1800 (BST)
Free
Register here:https://rps.org/WW1

India will have its first memorial to Joseph Nicéphore Niépce on 5 July, the 188th anniversary of his death.  Renowned painter and sculptor Mr. Sunil Kumar from Trivandrum is the creator of the statue. The memorial is being built by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce Foundation, Mavelikkara, and will be located in Mavelikkara, Kerala. 

Foundation bearers are the following: Patron – A P Joy (Managing Editor, Fotowide Photography Magazine), Chairman - Saji Ennakkad (writer, photographer and photography historian), Vice Chairperson - Dr. Bindu D Sanil (writer and professor), Secretary – T L John (painter and photographer), and Treasurer - Anil Ananthapuri (professor). The memorial is set to be dedicated on his next birth anniversary.

This is the first memorial dedicated for the inventor of photography in India.

The photographic art reproduction came into being simultaneously with the invention of the medium: Joseph-Nicéphore Niépce captured engravings in his earliest heliographs, while William Henry Fox Talbot praised the reproductive capacities of the calotype in The Pencil of Nature (1844). As much as art has affected photographic reproduction (for instance, Louis Daguerre who arranged sculptural pieces into elaborate still lives recalling those by Dutch Golden Age masters or, perhaps, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin), the reproduction has affected art. As Walter Benjamin has influentially argued, it put the ‘aura’ of the original into question. Together with Paul Valery and Erwin Panofsky, Benjamin sparked a century-long debate on the interrelationship between the original and the copy, which is still far from any decisive conclusion with Peter Walsh, Michelle Henning, Georges Didi-Huberman, and Bruno Latour readdressing the problem in the last decade.

What is more, the other aspects of the photographic reproduction have received much less scholarly attention. Despite the valuable efforts of Dominique de Font-Réaulx, Stephen Bann, and Patrizia Di Bello, there is still much to be discovered with regards to its materiality, function, and reception: What technical challenges has photographic reproduction faced since the appearance of the medium and how has it resolved them? How have new technologies changed the relationship between the original and the copy? What were the multiple uses of photographic reproductions? What do they tell us about the aesthetic taste of their day? What impact has the photographic reproduction had on the fine arts since the nineteenth century? Does it itself have any artistic value?

This conference is free and does not require registration. See the full programme and get the link here: https://events.st-andrews.ac.uk/events/photographic-art-reproductions-from-1839-to-the-present/

Lynn Wray, Research Fellow at the National Science and Media Museum, introduces a new research initiative, ‘Communities and Crowds’. She writes...We have recently launched an exciting new research project called ‘Communities and Crowds’ that builds upon the participatory work the museum has been developing with local communities in Bradford as part of the Bradford’s National Museum project, and seeks to understand how this could be enhanced by citizen science methods.

Using the Daily Herald Photographic Archive as a case study, we will together examine how the benefits of local knowledge, in-person and in-depth material engagement with our collection objects and participatory, face-to-face collaborative working methods can be combined with the breadth and collective intelligence of remote, online citizen research to achieve a common goal. We will do this in order to make previously hidden objects visible, searchable and discoverable, bring to light hidden histories, and tell untold stories within our collection. We hope, in particular, to address questions of inequality in the collection by interrogating together how we might better document, categorise and interpret these photographs.

Read the full blog post here: https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/opening-up-the-daily-herald-archive-to-citizen-led-research/