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Beyond the Fine Print – The Copper Photogravure Printing Plate for Horst’s Bacchanale

These were the copper plates used to print the photographer’s first book, Horst: Photographs of a Decade, published by J. J. Augustin in 1944. And amongst them was the copper plate for Bacchanale. All the plates on offer were attached to wooden bases and wrapped in brown paper, with printed papers of the contents attached to it.

by Michael Diemar

The Next Generation in Classic Photography – David Zerbib

In 2017, a few years after returning to Marseille, I became a private dealer in photographs and prints. Then I met Paul Benarroche, a photography expert. I established my own appraisal practice in 2022. I now work as an expert for auction houses.

by Michael Diemar

As Alike as Two Eggs

What separates the Teller Twins from the thousands of people who may have lived long enough to vote for both Washington and Lincoln, if voting had been universal? The twins had a face-to-face encounter with George Washington when they were six or seven. Amazingly, that meeting was documented in Benson Lossing’s book, The Hudson, from the wilderness to the sea, published in 1866.

by Stephen White

André Jammes,
keeper of a bibliographical tradition

News came that André Jammes had passed away at the age of ninety‑eight and a half. To those who worked with him, he remains above all a master of method, a man who taught material bibliography less through speeches than through his writings, less through words than through silence, patience, and high standards.

by Serge Plantureux

The Next Generation in Classic Photography – Joséphine Boyer

After two years as Head of the Photography Department at Millon, I plucked up the courage to leave the auction house. I began hunting for bargains, and with the help of leading dealers, I learnt the trade, refined my eye, and broadened my knowledge.

by Michael Diemar

“By Who Exactly?”
The Colour Photography of Dr Hugh Roubiliac Roger-Smith

The writing identified the locations but there were no indications as to the identity of the photographer. Still, on one slide I spotted some writing that might lead to an identification, “Dot Ethel” and “Belsize Crescent”

by Michael Diemar

The Frozen Past: A Photographic Record of Inupiaq Lifeways created by the Lomen Brothers Studio

Lomen photos helped to sell meat along with the fiction that herding benefitted all Alaskans equally. They show Native youths straddling reindeer, and herds streaming across tundra, a tide of furry backs. There are dancers with wolf-head hoods straight from a creation myth.

by Michael Engelhard

“By who Exactly?”
Not by Margaret Bourke-White

Mila and I have our theory as to why the print was miscatalogued. There are several prints of this image, entitled Unter der Brause (Under the Shower) and Neumüller also produced an exhibition that was shown at several salons around the world.

by Stefan Fiedler

Histoire du Eye Club.
Les valeurs de la photographie. Paris-Londres-New York (1960-1989)

Her thesis maps out the complex story of how the modern photography market was formed and developed up until 1989.

by Michael Diemar

Felice Beato – The Road to Mandalay

Felice A. Beato was for a long time somewhat of an enigma. It was not wholly clear where he was born, how he acquired British citizenship nor when he died. In 2009 however, his death certificate was discovered, showing that he was in Venice in 1832 and died in Florence in 1909. But there are still many unknowns in his story.

by Matthew Butson

The Next Generation in Classic Photography – Giovanni Teeuwisse

My fascination with photography began when I was 14 after seeing an exhibition by Henri Cartier-Bresson in Amsterdam. I remember standing in front of his photographs, feeling as though I was peering into these fleeting moments that would have otherwise been lost to time.

by Michael Diemar

In Memoriam: Dr Jens Mattow

He described himself in self-deprecating terms as a little "house mouse" in the world of photography. He was much more than that, but it does say something about how he went about his business.

by James Kerr, Daniella Dangoor and others

Fabricated Dreams – Joel-Peter Witkin’s Contact Sheets

For Witkin, his contact sheets are far more than a tool for selecting a final image. They represent a critical moment in his creative process, where the emotional and conceptual weight of the photograph begins to crystallize. They are visual roadmaps that capture not only his technical decisions but also the evolution of his provocative imagery.

by Daphne Srinivasan

The Next Generation in Classic Photography – Mila Palm

The selection is based on instinct, rarity, ingenuity, subject, emotional impact, aura, aesthetic and/or documentary value. Sometimes it is precisely the aesthetics of the “imperfect” or the mysteriousness, the enigma, that is the real attraction.

by Michael Diemar

Heat and Dust – Captain Linnaeus Tripe’s views of Burma

The trip lasted three and a half months but because of sickness and bad weather Tripe had only 36 days to photograph the region. This was indicative of the problems of the 19th century photographer in the East: heat, dust, and flies in summer, damp humid conditions and sickness during the monsoon months, the rapid deterioration of photographic chemicals, and difficulties procuring and transporting the bulky equipment.

by Matthew Butson

The Next Generation in Classic Photography – Wouter Lambrechts

I’m particularly proud when a museum shows interest in Bazar Nadar’s offerings. Public collections open up photo history to a broader audience, which I, as a teacher, naturally welcome. Then, the photos and stories are seen by a wider audience. For instance, some lovely autochromes ended up at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

by Michael Diemar

Paperbase: Visualizing the Material History of Black and White Paper

The Lens Media Lab at Yale University’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage has undertaken an extensive project to document and characterize its collection of over 7 500 dated and identified gelatin silver papers manufactured between 1890 and 2010.

by Damon Crockett, Paul Messier, and Katherine Mintie, Lens Media Lab

The Next Generation in Classic Photography – Kate Hershkowitz

The plan is to continue Robert Hershkowitz Ltd, as well as develop my own business within, which will include material in which my father hasn’t been prominent, such as vernacular photography, cased images and some modern and contemporary.

by Michael Diemar

Unending frames

Every photographer is faced with an array of choices. Decisions need to be made. Where to point and shoot. What to include and what to leave out. How the photograph’s edges will work alongside the images they contain. Then, of course, there is the matter of the things that sneak into frame; and those that might get cropped, as if by a guillotine.

by Patrick Pound

Carleton E. Watkins –
The Great American West

In the summer of 1861, Watkins first travelled to the remote and unexplored Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove of Big Trees, two hundred miles east of San Francisco, to photograph their fabled wonders.

by Matthew Butson, Vice President – Getty Images, Hulton Archive

Framing Portraits –
Art Nouveau and Beyond

The frame was made from wooden clothespins, otherwise often used to construct crosses of the same size. It’s an example of “Gartenarbeiten”, meaning Trench Works, which were made from everyday objects during the First World War.

by Michael Diemar

The Next Generation in Classic Photography – Barnabé Moinard

I chose to be a full-time dealer so that I would be fully invested and not be tempted to rely on a safety net. It's not always easy, but it's exciting!

by Michael Diemar

Out of the Blue and Into the Black –
Paul Joyce remembers Dennis Hopper

At this stage of his career Dennis was basically uncontrollable. He made enemies left, right and centre and cared not a jot about it. For instance, he found himself sitting next to George Cukor, director of The Philadelphia Story (1940) and A Star is Born (1954), at a Hollywood dinner. In horror, fellow guest Peter Bogdanovich heard him say to Cukor, “You’re old Hollywood and we are going to bury you!”

by Paul Joyce

The Magazine Files
The Unpublished Picture Post Stories – Conservation of the Galleys or Mock-ups.
Interview with Emma Lowe, conservator at Getty Images Hulton Archive

The first steps in any conservation treatment are to photograph it, record the damage, which may look very different when flattened, and then dry clean all the surfaces.

by Michael Diemar

Otto Steinert:
A Treasure Trove of 22 Prints Goes to Auction

He left his mark on German post-war photography like no other. Otto Steinert spanned the arc from New Seeing to Subjective Photography, broke with the conventions of documentary photography, and fundamentally influenced the visual language with his tension-filled compositions.

by Anna Zimm

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