A Second Lease of Life –
Sitters and PhotographersPart Two: Mrs Summers (sitter) and Richard Dighton (photographer)
On May the thirteenth 1875, Mrs Elizabeth Summers pushed the door of Richard Dighton’s photographic studio, at 433 High Street, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and had some carte-de-visite portraits taken. After she collected the photographs or they were delivered to her house, she wrote down the date of the sitting on the back of one of the mounts.
In Memoriam : Sean Thackrey 1942 – 2022
In 1970, Sean and Susan Thackrey opened a gallery, The Poster, in San Francisco, which later became the Thackrey & Robertson Gallery when Sally Robertson became a partner. In a Victorian on Union Street, down a brick ramp, Robertson hung vintage Art Nouveau posters and prints, and Thackrey focused on rare vintage 19th century photographs
Henri Lefort: The Ultimate Entertainer
A new book, available as a free download
Interview with author Denis Pellerin
All his life, Lefort seems to have devoted his energy to entertaining his fellow citizens, whether as a composer of comic songs, a toy-maker, an optician or a stereo photographer. He made them laugh but also travel, dream and escape from their daily lives through various optical instruments and dioramic slides with day and night effects, or through the scenes he staged for the stereoscope or the landscapes and interiors of palaces he photographed.
Jerry McMillan on non-objective abstract photography and shooting the LA art scene in the 1960s and ’70s
McMillan and four friends; Ed Ruscha, Patrick Blackwell, Don Moore and Jo Goode, decided to leave Oklahoma City, and go to art school, the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. They shared a house in Hollywood, where Patrick Blackwell would interest the others in photography.
Alfred Hind Robinson’s Panoramas
Very little is known about Robinson as his photography was very much a hobby and has rarely been seen outside the UK. Very much a pillar of society, Robinson was a local magistrate for much of his life and regarded photography much as he did his other recreational pursuits of hunting, fishing and shooting.
“And then I suddenly realised I had bought Gustave Le Gray’s La Grande Vague”
Only when I got it home did I start to go through the pages carefully. I hadn’t turned more than a page or two when I stopped short.
The European Society for the History of Photography (ESHPh) and its journal, PhotoResearcher
Interview with Uwe Schögl
"The year 2010 marked a major turning point for PhotoResearcher. As soon as I became president, I realised that PhotoResearcher had to be the calling card of the ESHPh and have a high level of scientific excellence.
B.C. Almanac(h) C.-B.
Re-drawing the map
The diverse group of Almanac participants, including dancers and sculptors as well as visual artists, didn't care if they were referred to as photographers, and the common thread uniting the project became “artists with cameras.”
Interview with Anne Strathie, author of Herbert Ponting: Scott’s Antarctic Photographer and Pioneer Filmmaker
(The History Press, 2021)
In January 1911, Ponting loaded up a sledge with 200 lbs of photographic equipment and headed across the Antarctic ice, intent on capturing images he which would appeal to Scott, as well as to Gaumont (who would distribute his films) and publications whose sponsorship was vital to the expedition.
The Monster Whale of Pevensey Bay
On that particular Monday, around eight o’clock in the evening, William Richards, a coastguardsman at the Pevensey Sluice Station, noticed something floating in the water, about half a mile at sea.
Patrick Pound: The Collection is the Medium . . . continued
When I click buy on eBay that for me is like taking a photograph. That’s my decisive moment...
L’Origine du Monde
What was the purpose of this collection? For whom was it intended? Between a desire for beauty and the stimulation of sexual imagination by voyeurism, speculation about motives could only be misleading.
The Photographers’ Gallery at 50:
Notes on a long association
Now working in the field of photography, I soon heard of The Photographers’ Gallery, a new beacon for contemporary photography, and I became a frequent visitor, getting to know first the Director Sue Davies and then Dorothy Bohm, a committed friend to the Gallery.
A Second Lease of Life – Sitters and Photographers
Part One: Mrs Alfred de Beauchesne (sitter) and Savary (photographer)
For some strange reason I felt I had to find out exactly who the model and the photographer were. I consequently bought the image, started doing some research and here is what I found.
The night Herschel shared his discovery of the cyanotype process with the world:A letter from Joseph Cundall to Alfred Swaine Taylor
I happened to be present last night, at the reading of a paper of Sir John Herschel, upon some new effects lately obtained by the action of light upon prepared papers. Some of the results appeared to me to be very striking, and beautiful, and as they are new, you may not yet have heard of them.
Jill Kennington
Model Years
The Story of a Memoir
She was part of the process, and we have, in no particular order, John Cowan, Helmut Newton, William Klein, Saul Leiter, Richard Avedon, Guy Bourdin, David Bailey, Norman Parkinson, John French, Bert Stern, Bob Richardson, David Montgomery; the list goes on. It's a hell of a roster, of the Sixties going into the Seventies.
Letters from Lázsló Moholy-Nagy to Erzsi Landau
The relationship between László Moholy-Nagy and Erzsi Landau is still surrounded by a certain mystery. Some photo historians say they were simply good friends, while others say their relationship was much more than that, suggesting that Erzsi Landau may have been the one taught Moholy-Nagy the basics of photography.
“Problems, problems” – Letters to and from Photographers
After a series of poorly received stories, editor Audrey Withers wrote this letter, informing Cecil Beaton that she had had to kill every picture he had taken for the story
La Salpêtrière – Fact, fiction and speculation about Blanche Wittmann
“Listen, Blanche. I know there are things you don’t want to talk about, but you’ve known me for a long time and you know that I have no intention to make fun of you. I’d like you to explain something about the attacks you used to have.”
Rose Boyt – A proposal from Andy Warhol, friends in the bath, and posing for her father, Lucian Freud
Andy took me to Studio 54 and introduced me to the door staff so I could get in any time I wanted to party. Out of the blue he asked me to marry him, a proposal both of us knew would not lead to anything, although I was pleased to receive his seal of approval.
Masterworks of Modern Photography 1900-1940: The Thomas Walther Collection at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Exhibition at Jeu De Paume 14 September 2021 – 13 February 2022
Known throughout the photography as having "the eye", many would add that he has the gift like no other for getting to the essence of a photograph.
The London Photograph Fair – 40 Years On
2022 will mark the fortieth anniversary of the establishment of the London Photograph Fair. Its first outing was on Sunday September 12th 1982, and it was held at the Photographers’ Gallery in Newport Street, just off Charing Cross Road.
“Talking French”
A conversation with Philippe Garner about the British fashion photographer
John French
French’s images pack their punch precisely because of their essential simplicity; but this apparent simplicity was hard won, underpinned by the high technical standards that he set.
A Gust of Photo-Philia: Photography in the Art Museum
by Alexandra Moschovi
Where does photography stand in today’s art museum? And how did it arrive there?
The Democratic Picture: Grace McCann Morley and Photography in the San Francisco Museum of Art
The San Francisco Museum of Art opened its doors on the top floor of the War Memorial Veterans Building in 1935.