Blogs

As part of Glasgow’s Aye Write festival two recent Scottish-focused photography publications are the focus of talks. Curator Louise Pearson delivers a fascinating insight into the life and work of an aerial photography pioneer in Alfred Buckham: Daredevil Photographer. This is based on the current exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and itsaccompanying publication.

The same day, but following after, renowned photographer Thomas Joshua Cooper and writer Catherine Mooney sit down with contributor and Director General of the National Galleries of Scotland, Anne Lyden, to discuss Desire Lines: A Year of Celtic Saints, their stunning new photography book. 

Alfred Buckham. Daredevil Photographer
Louise Pearson
Sunday, 16 November 2025 at 1615
Mitchell Library, Glasgow
See: https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/alfred-buckham-daredevil-photographer-louise-pearson

Desire Lines: A Year of Celtic Saints
Thomas Joshua Cooper, Catherine Mooney and Anne Lyden
Sunday, 16 November 2025 at 1800
Mitchell Library, Glasgow
See: https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/desire-lines-a-year-of-celtic-saints-thomas-joshua-cooper-catherine-mooney-anne-lyden

Are you passionate about photography, history, and uncovering stories hidden in collections? Do you already have experience of cataloguing or working in a research environment? This is your chance to play a key part in bringing one of Scotland’s most remarkable photographic collections to life. 

We have a rare opportunity to join our Collection & Research team to support the cataloguing of The Annan Collection. This is an extraordinary archive spanning over 150 years of photographic history. 

We’re looking for someone who brings strong organisational skills, a keen eye for detail, and confidence using digital tools to record and manage information accurately. You’ll be a clear communicator who enjoys working collaboratively as part of a team, while also taking initiative when working independently. 

You’ll have a qualification in art history, the history of photography, or demonstrable knowledge of a subject area relevant to The Annan Collection, along with some experience of cataloguing or working in a research environment, which can come from any background. 

You’ll be at the heart of a major project to create catalogue records and support the digitisation of the collection objects. This will give you the chance to build on your current research skills and grow your knowledge of photography collections. You’ll develop detailed insight of the photographs, negatives, archive documents, camera equipment and ephemera held in the collection.  

Importantly you will facilitate access to the collection for internal colleagues and external individuals and groups to help make the collection accessible to a wide public audience. Additionally, you will help work towards a public display of the material from The Annan Collection. 

Cataloguing Assistant (The Annan Collection)
National Galleries Scotland, Edinburgh
Full -time and Fixed Term (22 months from January 2026 )
Salary £27,363 - £28,491 per annum (pay award pending)
Application Deadline: 12 noon, 21 November 2025
See the full details and apply here: https://ngs.ciphr-irecruit.com/Applicants/vacancy/338/Cataloguing-Assistant-The-Annan-Collection

See also: https://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/scottish-photography-40-and-a-major-archive-acquisition

Fiona Kinsey, Senior Curator, Images & Image Making, at Museums Victoria with responsbility for the Kodak Australasia collections is leaving after twenty-eight years, with twenty-one of those spent on the Kodak collection.

She writes: "Along with a team of Museum staff and a group of former workers from Kodak Australasia, I have spent many years on a long-term project to document and interpret the Kodak Heritage Collection which I led the acquisition of in 2005. This extensive and significant collection is comprised of tens of thousands of items including photographs, objects, documents and moving footage films relating to the company’s operation in Australia, as well as 50 oral history interviews undertaken by the Museum with former Kodak Australasia staff. It has now been registered, image-captured and published online. Explore our flagship website for the collection, Kodak Snapshots - 120 Years of Manufacturing in Australia - Museums 

Previously, with a small team of curators, collection managers, public programs staff and photographers, I was lead curator on a community collecting project in 2006. The result was the Melbourne’s Biggest Family Album Collection of over 1000 images, dating from the 1880s to the 1980s.

During my time at Museums Victoria I have also worked on a wide variety of other collections, ranging from leisure and information technology to domestic life, including the Hecla Collection, which I helped acquire. I have also contributed to exhibitions on a diverse range of topics including The Melbourne Story, horology (clocks and watches), CSIRAC (Australia’s first computer), tools of trade, Kodak Australasia, and Museum Victoria’s Treasures."

 During her time at Museums Australia Fiona was instrumental in forming links with other Kodak historical collections at the British Library (Kodak Ltd), in Rochester (Eastman Kodak Co) and with other scholars. She spoke regularly about the Australia Kodak collection forming a network with researchers and institutions. 

Fiona I will remain connected to the museum as Curator Emeritus but will not be monitoring emails. If in future you have any questions about Kodak's history in Australia or the collection, please contact the Ask Us team by email at: discoverycentre@museum.vic.gov.au

See: https://museumsvictoria.com.au/about-us/staff/fiona-kinsey/

and some Kinsey-Kodak publications:

Links

• • Kodak Snapshots
  • Audio-Visual Material in the Kodak Heritage Collection at Museums Victoria
  • Kodak Collection Audio-Visual Material
  • Kodak Heritage Collection
  • Baker & Rouse, Photographic Manufactures & Retailers, 1887-1908
  • Images & Image Making Collection
  • Melbourne's Biggest Family Album Collection

The Autochrome Lumière, publicly released in 1907, was the first commercially successful colour photography process and was heralded as a revolution in photography. Today, autochromes are rare and valued objects in cultural institutions, tied to the origins of widely accessible colour photography. The dyes used in the autochrome plates are extremely light sensitive and fugitive, meaning that the colours in autochromes tend to change or fade when exposed to light or external factors, like moisture. When autochromes are damaged, there are limited options available for physical restoration. For this reason, despite their historical and cultural significance, many cultural institutions have chosen not to exhibit original autochrome plates.

Across 2023-2025, PERCEIVE have been examining the unique materiality of autochromes and devising ways for plates to be exhibited and restored, including via digital interventions. PERCEIVE, standing for Perceptive Enhanced Realities of Coloured collEctions through AI and Virtual Experiences, works on new ways to perceive, preserve, exhibit, understand and access fragile, coloured cultural heritage. PERCEIVE’s scenario considering historical colour photographic processes focuses on autochromes and has involved a collaboration between Colourlab at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A).

Fragile Colours: Perceiving and Experiencing Autochromes
Monday, 1 December 2025, 1000-1630
V&A Museum, London, and online
See the programme and book at the links here: In person and Online

19 is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to advancing interdisciplinary study in the long nineteenth century, based at Birkbeck, University of London. The latest issue No. 38 2025, edited by Gülru Çakmak and Patricia Smyth, '19th Century Visual Technologies in Contemporary Practice' presents scholarship on photography, stereography and  immersive media. It explores the relevance of nineteenth-century visual technologies in shaping contemporary understandings of perception, memory, and cultural practice. The articles collected examine the interplay between technological innovation, spectatorship, and ideological frameworks. Through analyses of immersive exhibitions, virtual reality reconstructions, and contemporary photographic interventions, the collection investigates how historical technologies of vision continue to shape collective memory, national identity, and public engagement.

Contributors adopt a media archaeological approach, attending not only to canonical technologies but also to experimental or marginalized practices that challenge teleological narratives of progress. From immersive panoramas and stage spectacles to early photographic processes such as daguerreotypes, cyanotypes, and albumen prints, historical case studies demonstrate how visual media mediated experiences of reality, illusion, and historical memory. These nineteenth-century forms are shown to resonate in contemporary art and heritage practice, where artists and curators recontextualize, critique, and reinterpret their optical logics and ideological assumptions.

See the articles (and those from past issues here): https://19.bbk.ac.uk/articles/

Illustration: from  Plaster Peaks, Photography, and the Spread of Scientific Knowledge: The Tale of Tenerife by Kris Belden-Adams

If some kind member has a copy of Le Courrier Cinematographique for 1927 (volume18), I'm hoping that the following text might be found on page 46: "Philo - Ciné de l'Imperator tourne sans relâche les promeneurs qui, le lendemain, peuvent aller voir s'ils se reconnaissent dans les agrandissements faits d'après le négatif et en acheter à bon compte des épreuves."

It may only be brief, but I would be very grateful indeed to know the full text of this little article.

With my thanks.