| Aug 24, 2010 | The Gernsheim Collection | | | |
This online exhibition coincides with the exhibition Discovering the Language of Photography: The Gernsheim Collection at the Harry Ransom Center, 21st and Guadalupe Streets, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas (September 7, 2010—January 2, 2011).
When The University of Texas at Austin purchased the Gernsheim collection in 1963 it was the largest, and arguably finest, collection of photographs held in private hands, made up of some 35,000 photographs taken by several hundred different artists. The collection’s encyclopedic scope—as well as the expertise with which Helmut and Alison Gernsheim assembled it—makes the collection one of the world’s premier sources for the study and appreciation of photography.
Helmut and Alison Gernsheim were also pioneering historians of photography, writing more than 30 books and 200 articles based on their collection. The Gernsheims, therefore, not only built their collection upon the foundations of the medium’s history, the images also served as the touchstone from which they wrote some of the first histories of photography prior to the explosion of the photography market and the establishment of the history of photography as an academic discipline.
This exhibition is made up of two complementary and interweaving narratives—the history of photography as told through the photographs themselves and the history of the Gernsheims’ formation of their collection. The collection’s most notable strength is its holdings in nineteenth-century British photography, but the exhibition features masterpieces from photography’s first 150 years, as well as many lesser known images that are seminal to its history.
Exhibition: The Gernsheim Collection
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| | Aug 23, 2010 | Documentary: 19th century Jacob Riis and How the Other Half Live | | | |
The book by Jacob Riis How the Other Half Live is justly viewed as one of the key works in both documentary photography and social commentary. The style switches from statistical detail, to anecdotal evidence and on to humour with dexterity but at the same time it is a damning indictment of the social ills of tenement housing of late nineteenth century New York.
As the quality of the images in the nineteenth century books of Jacob Riis are so poor I'm seeking scans of photographs.
Exhibition: Documentary: 19th century Jacob Riis and How the Other Half Live
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| | Aug 23, 2010 | Documentary: 19th century William Notman and the Victoria Bridge, Montreal, QC, Canada (1858-1860) | | | |
The contemporary book The New World in 1859 being the United States and Canada, Illustrated and Described - Part Third, Upper and Lower Canada (London: H. Bailliere, ca. 1859) described the construction of the Victoria Bridge, Montreal, QC, Canada which was regarded as one of the wonders of the age.
The estimated cost is about £1,250,000 stg. The weight of the iron in the tubes will be 8,000 tons, and the contents of the masonry will be about 3,000,000 cubic feet The whole will be completed in the autumn of 1859 or spring of 1860. As is well known, the engineer of this greatest bridge in the world is Mr. Robert Stephenson of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
This exhibition only includes the work of William Notman but other photographers recorded the construction and inauguration including William England.
Exhibition: Documentary: 19th century William Notman and the Victoria Bridge, Montreal, QC, Canada (1858-1860)
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| | Aug 23, 2010 | Documentary: 19th century Charles Nègre and the Vincennes Imperial Asylum | | | |
The following contemporary account was published on the "Imperial Asylum at Vincennes for Convalescent Workman" The Medical News and Library, Vol.XVIII, December, 1860, No. 216, p.184-185.
Nearly forty acres of forest, belonging to the domains of the Crown, were consecrated to the Asylum, which is built upon an elevated terrace, freely exposed to the air from all quarters. Since the opening of the institution, up to the end of June 1860 (comprehending a period of two years and ten months), the number of convalescents admitted has amounted to 14,000. These convalescents belong to the following categories: 1st. Convalescents sent from the hospitals of Paris and the suburbs; 2d. Convalescents sent by the local charitable institutions of the city; 3. Convalescents from injuries received in the public works; 4th. Members of societies of workmen established for their mutual assistance; 5th. Workmen belonging to establishments, the directors of which have obtained from the Minister of the Interior authorization to send, on payment of a subscription, their convalescents to the Asylum, such as the railroads, gasworks, and some large private establishments; 6th. Workmen who have been treated at their own homes, and who have received from their medical attendant certificate of convalescence.
Exhibition: Documentary: 19th century Charles Nègre and the Vincennes Imperial Asylum
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| | Aug 22, 2010 | Photograms | | | |
An evolving exhibition showing examples for photograms from the work of the 1840s by Anna Atkins, through the folk art of Anna K. Weaver used to raise money for her missionary work in South America and the rediscoveries in the 1920s by Man Ray, Christian Schad, László Moholy-Nagy and on to the present with the environmental work of Harry Nankin in Australia, Hajicek & Panaro-Smith in the United States and the oddly disturbing artwork of Adam Fuss.
Exhibition: Photograms
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| | Aug 12, 2010 | Documentary: 19th century Documentary Projects (Updated) | | | |
The classification has been updated and new series have been added.
There were diverse kinds of documentary photography in the 19th century just as there are today.
| Human endeavor |
- Engineering feats: Great buildings (Crystal Palace, Paris Opera)
Monuments (Statue of Bavaria, Eiffel Tower)
Railways
Bridges
Shipping (Great Eastern, Suez canal)
- Medical advances: Discovery of ether (Photographs by Southworth & Hawes)
- The effects of progress: Destruction of the mounds (Photographs by Thomas Easterly)
- Events: Blondin crossing Niagara Falls (Photograph by J. McPherson)
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| Family of man |
- Ethnic surveys: Native Americans (Photographs by W.H. Jackson, Alexander Gardner and later Edward Sheriff Curtis)
- Occupationals: Moscow (Photographs by William Carrick), London (John Thomson)
- Social conditions: Edinburgh (Photographs by Archibald Burns), Glasgow (Photographs by Thomas Annan), Paris (Photographs by Charles Marville), New York (Photographs by Jacob Riis)
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| Natural catastrophes |
- Fire: 1853 Oswego Mills, NY (Photographs by George N. Barnard)
- Flood: 1864 Sheffield (Photographs by James Mudd), 1884 Cincinnati (Photographs by B.D. Jackson), 1889 Johnstown (Photographs by George Barker, R.K. Bonine, Langill & Darling)
- Earthquake: 1868 California (Photographs by William Shew, Carleton E. Watkins), 1891 Japan (Photographs by Ogawa Kazumasa)
- Tornados: 1890 Louisville, KY (Photographed by W. Stuber & Bro.)
- Famine: 1878 (ca) Indian Famine (Photographed by Colonel Willoughby Wallace Hooper)
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| Human tragedies |
- Grand scale (War, revolts, civil conflict): 1846-1848 Mexican-American War (Photographs by an unknown Daguerreotypist), 1848 Chartist Meeting in London (Photographed by William Edward Kilburn), 1848 Paris Uprising (Photographs by M. Thibault), 1855 Crimean War (Roger Fenton), 1860s American Civil War (Photographs by Alexander Gardner, George N. Barnard, the Mathew Brady Studio and numerous others), 1871 Paris Commune and the destruction of the Vendome Column
- Small scale: Murder, assassination, capital punishment, accidental
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Exhibition: Documentary: 19th century Documentary Projects
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| | Aug 8, 2010 | Newsletter 4.05 - August 8, 2010 has been emailed | | | | Luminous-Lint Newsletter 4.05 - August 8, 2010 has been emailed to all those on our mailing list and you can subscribe to these free newsletters if you haven't already done so.
Past issues of the newsletter are in the library on the Luminous-Lint website. Best, Alan
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| | Jul 18, 2010 | Portrait: The Guinea Pig Club | | | |
Surviving members of the famous ‘Guinea Pig Club’ – RAF airmen who received pioneering reconstructive surgery by Archibald McIndoe following appalling burns injuries during world war II. The self-styled ‘Guinea Pigs’, a name adopted as a badge of honour by the hundreds of young allied airmen treated for severe burns by the pioneer plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe during the Second World War. From their shared experience emerged a camaraderie that developed into one of the first patient ‘support groups’.
McIndoe was a pioneer in burns treatment and has paved the way for the plastic surgery techniques of today. Plastic surgeons and their burns teams can now help people with severe burns to survive and have fulfilling lives.
Simon Chaplin, Director of the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, said: "These portraits remind us of the profound effect surgery can have on peoples' lives. It is impossible not to be moved by the courage and determination shown by the 'Guinea Pigs', and their success will provide inspiration to future generations of patients.”
The Guinea Pig Anthem
(Sung to the tune Aurelia by Samuel Sebastian Wesley, 1864)
We are McIndoe’s army,
We are his Guinea Pigs.
With dermatomes and pedicles,
Glass eyes, false teeth and wigs.
And when we get our discharge
We’ll shout with all our might:
“Per ardua ad astra”
We’d rather drink than fight
John Hunter runs the gas works,
Ross Tilley wields the knife.
And if they are not careful
They’ll have your flaming life.
So, Guinea Pigs, stand steady
For all your surgeon’s calls:
And if their hands aren’t steady
They’ll whip off both your ears
We’ve had some mad Australians,
Some French, some Czechs, some Poles.
We’ve even had some Yankees,
God bless their precious souls.
While as for the Canadians -
Ah! That’s a different thing.
They couldn’t stand our accent
And built a separate Wing
We are McIndoe’s army,
(As first verse)
Photographs and text kindly provided by
Nicola Kurtz
www.nicolakurtz.com
The photographs were taken at the 65th reunion in East Grinstead in September 2006.
The archival records of the plastic surgery are from
Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Exhibition: Portrait: The Guinea Pig Club
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| | Jul 17, 2010 | Edwin Smith: A Genius Rediscovered | | | |
There is an exhibition of the work of the British architectural and topographical photographer Edwin Smith at the Chris Beetles Gallery in London over the summer and it is certainly time to re-examine his work. Following his premature death from cancer in 1971 his widow Olive Cook bequeathed his archive to the British Architectural Library at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The introduction to this exhibition prepared by Robert Elwall puts the work in context.
Special thanks to Giles Huxley-Parlour of the Chris Beetles gallery for assisting with this exhibition.
Exhibition: Edwin Smith: A Genius Rediscovered
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| | Jul 17, 2010 | Kurt Edward Fishback: Portraits of the American Photographic Community | | | |
Since the late 1970s Kurt Edward Fishback has taken portraits of artists, photographers, writers and those associated with the cultural world of the West Coast of America. This led to the book Art in Residence: West Coast Artists in Their Space (Solomon Dubnick Press / Blue Heron Publishing, 2000). Many thanks to Kurt for sending through these photographs it is appreciated.
If I had to select a favorite it would be difficult given so many powerful portraits but the image of Greg MacGregor (1987) with cloud-like smoke rising from one of his explosions produces a chuckle.
Exhibition: Kurt Edward Fishback: Portraits of the American Photographic Community
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