Cairo to Constantinople: Early Photographs of the Middle East

An exhibition in Edinburgh (London in the Autumn) and talks on BBC Radio 4 by John McCarthy about the early work of Victorian photographer Francis Bedford.

Egypt

In 1862 Albert, Prince of Wales, toured the Middle East. At the time it was still predominantly controlled by the Ottoman Empire. As he travelled, his photographer Francis Bedford kept a detailed photographic record of the trip. In this series John McCarthy revisits the scenes of Bedford’s photographs – Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Greece. He considers how the immediate physical, political and social landscape has evolved during the intervening 150 years.

Some of Bedford’s photographs are of widely known locations – the Pyramids at Giza, the Mount of Olives, the temples at Baalbek, the Acropolis – others are of remote hilltops and apparently random buildings, scenes without any obvious significance. Both however hold fascinating and unexpected tales and insight.

The series will reflect on the rise and fall of empires – the Ottoman, British and French all play their part in these stories. They are now all gone, but the world’s powers still seek to influence the politics of the region.

In each episode John McCarthy focusses on two of Bedford’s original photographs, revisiting the sites and taking his own pictures of the same scenes today.

In the opening programme, John travels to Egypt to consider pictures of the Prince’s party gathered in front of the Pyramids of Khufu and Khafre at Giza, and a broader Cairo picture taken from a key minaret in the city.

This radio series coincides with a major exhibition of Bedford’s photographs by the Royal Collection, currently showing at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh….Go here for the John McCarthy Radio Broadcast

Cairo to Constantinople

Friday, 08 March 2013 to Sunday, 21 July 2013  The Queen’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh

In 1862, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) was sent on a four-month educational tour of the Middle East, accompanied by the British photographer Francis Bedford (1815-94). This exhibition documents his journey through the work of Bedford, the first photographer to travel on a royal tour. It explores the cultural and political significance Victorian Britain attached to the region, which was then as complex and contested as it remains today. 

The tour took the Prince to Egypt, Palestine and the Holy Land, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Greece. He met rulers, politicians and other notable figures, and travelled in a manner unassociated with royalty – by horse and camping out in tents. On the royal party’s return to England, Francis Bedford’s work was displayed in what was described as ‘the most important photographic exhibition that has hitherto been placed before the public’. See all the details of the exhibition here

Francis Bedford

Francis Bedford (1816-1894) Bibliography

…..Bedford began to photograph as an amateur sometime around 1852, with the intent to aid himself in his lithographic work. His book, The Treasury of Ornamental Art, has been described as “probably the first important English work where photography was called into play to assist the draughtsman.”
But Bedford also began to pursue the creative aspects of photography as well.
The 1850s was a period of enormous growth for photography in England. Frederick Scott Archer had just perfected the wet-collodion process and photography, though still difficult to use, suddenly became both more accessible and far more useful in a wide variety of ways. Archaeologists, anthropologists, botanists, geologists, art and architectural historians, scientists and learned men of every stripe were realizing that photography not only facilitated their studies, but that accurate, exact, and exactly duplicatable visual records made it possible to expand the dimensions of their respective disciplines beyond levels impossible to reach before photography’s invention….read more here

 

What is photography?

Well in this instance it is Phil Coomes of the BBC talking about the use by photo-journalists of Instagram as a way of increasing the awareness of a more serious set of pictures about a subject.

Yet what is photography if not something that shapes the world? It captures a moment in time and renders it in two dimensions; it’s down to the skill and authority of the photographer to select the right moment and view that will ensure the tones and shapes in the frame lead the viewer to want to know more about the subject. writes Coomes

Mendel released a number of pictures via the photography app, Instagram….This has created something of a split among photographers and editors as to whether such an approach is acceptable.

So what do you think, read Phil Coomes on the BBC website here, see if you agree

Drowning world by Gideon Mendel

The debate about what is photography was one we had during the most recent Intermediate Photography course, new dates are now available for the next term, you can see those dates here

Did the Lomo camera save film photography?

Lomo Cameras were part of a retro craze when film was still the only way to make photographs. This article on the BBC website By Stephen Dowling gives some of the history and reasons why the little Lomo camera became so popular. I have one of the original LC-A Lomo cameras, sadly it almost never gets an outing these days.

It was a nervous time for film photography when digital cameras took off in the 1990s, and seemed set to take over entirely. But with some help from Vladimir Putin – then deputy mayor of St Petersburg – the little Lomo camera became a retro cult classic, and showed film had a bright future.

In 1991, a group of Austrian art students on a trip to nearby Prague found, in a photographic shop, a curious little camera.

Black, compact and heavy, the camera was rudimentary. The lens was protected by a sliding cover. Loading, focusing and rewinding were all done by hand.

After developing the shots, the students found it produced pictures unlike anything they had seen before.

The colours were rich and saturated, an effect heightened by the lens’s tendency to darken the corners of the frame to create a tunnel-like vignetting effect, and there were dramatic contrasts between light and dark. The Austrians were hooked, and so were their friends when they showed them the results back home in Vienna. READ MORE HERE

There is a huge Lomo movement and the production of odd fun cameras with time lapse, or multiple lenses helped to spread the interest, in almost an ironic way what started as a niche or specialist home spun interest camera has spawned a flash website with galleries and a global community, here is a link to the Lomo site

Characteristics of the camera that appealed to those seeking something different were

• Vignettes – the Lomo’s shots show a characteristic vignette at the edges, like tunnel vision
• Bold colours – a Lomo hallmark, especially with cross-processed slide film
• Long shutter speed – the Lomo LC-A’s shutter stays open for as long as it needs to expose a photo, which can lead to interesting light trails
• Expired film – the LC-A’s lens suits the warped coloured shifts found on cheap, expired film
• Small size – the best camera is the one you have with you, and the LC-A fits in a jacket pocket

2012: Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year – Winner

Wildlife photography is one of the most popular items we write about. So many people would love to make pictures of wildlife but don’t have the time, gear or knowledge so being able to see the work of these winners is a joy

Paul Nicklen (Canada)

Bubble-jetting emperors

This was the image Paul had been so hoping to get: a sunlit mass of emperor penguins charging upwards, leaving in their wake a crisscross of bubble trails. The location was near the emperor colony at the edge of the frozen area of the Ross Sea, Antarctica. It was into the only likely exit hole that he lowered himself. He then had to wait for the return of the penguins, crops full of icefish for their chicks. Paul locked his legs under the lip of the ice so he could remain motionless, breathing through a snorkel so as not to spook the penguins when they arrived. Then it came: a blast of birds from the depths. They were so fast that, with frozen fingers, framing and focus had to be instinctive. ‘It was a fantastic sight’, says Paul, ‘as hundreds launched themselves out of the water and onto the ice above me’ – a moment that I felt incredibly fortunate to witness and one I’ll never forget.

The exhibition of this prestigious award is held at the Natural History Museum

Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition 2012
19 October 2012 – 3 March 2013
Open 10.00 – 17.50 daily

This world-renowned annual exhibition at the Natural History Museum provides a spotlight on the rarely seen wonders of the natural world.

The 100 winning images that will be on show are selected from 1,000s of international entries and are beautifully displayed in sleek backlit installations.

Admission:              Adult £10*, child and concessions £5*,                                    family £27* (up to 2 adults and 3 children).

You can book tickets on line here and directions are here

The competition is hosted by the NHM and the BBC and there is a link to pictures on the BBC website here

There is a fabulous book associated with this competition have a look at it here

British Wildlife Photography Awards 2012

Wildlife and photography seem to go hand in hand, so many people just love photographs of animals. Usually such awards are the preserve of the magnificent animals in far off places so this award is always a pleasure to consider as it is from our own doorsteps.

All the 2012 British Wildlife Photography Awards category winners and selected highly commended images are in these galleries.

The overall winning image by Dr Matt Doggett was his image entitled: “Gannet Jacuzzi”

Here are a couple more to whet your appetite

Fairy tale 1 by Alex Saberi

Beautiful Bluebells by Ian Wade

If you would like to see all of the winners the BWPA site is the place to go

If you just want a taste of the superlative images of wildlife from our shores then the BBC has a brief gallery here

London Festival of Photography – Street Photographers

Phil Coomes writing on the BBC website today features a number of street photographers who are contributing to the festival of photography.

“The London Festival of Photography returns for its second year in June comprising 18 main exhibitions with further shows, workshops and talks going on throughout the month.

Each year it also organises three photographic competitions, one of which is the Student Street Award, and this year I was invited along as one of the judges.

Our role was to select six portfolios to go forward to the final round which are to be exhibited at Orange Dot Gallery in Bloomsbury, plus each student would be offered the chance to attend a workshop with photographer Peter Dench, whose latest work England Uncensored I wrote about recently.

The submissions ranged widely in quality, style and impact making the final selection a tough one. Some entries fell in and out of the final six as the judges debated the various entries before managing to agree. I think in the end we came up with a good mix of work and nothing too obvious. Each photographer had their own vision and way of interpreting the public space through their lens.”…….MORE

One of the excellent photographers featured in Phil’s article is

Heather Shuker

“Originally a Business Studies graduate I fell in love with photography in 2003 after spending a year volunteering for a charity in Sierra Leone. Starting with short courses at Central St Martins, followed by a post-graduate degree at the same institution and a photography MA at Brighton University, all the while taking any form of commissioned photography work available, my plans to “be a photographer” began to take shape.

As a photographer, I am particularly partial to the street, an environment where things are constantly changing and every photograph is unique, a brief moment in time when all the necessary elements come together. Working on the street is extremely challenging, both technically and physically, and requires determination and confidence.

Street photography for me is all about people; I photograph “life” and “happenings”, my approach being that of the unobserved observer, exploring everyday gestures and interactions to reveal people as they truly are. My photographic work has required me to question the boundaries between what is considered public versus private – particularly my series focusing on girls in nightclub toilets, and more recently my work featured in the exhibition on the topic of public smoking.

It has been great working with Peter Dench, as I have been an admirer of his work for some time. Peter’s tips on how to achieve better street photographs have become a real help in the pursuit of “that photograph”, such as, “if it moves, follow it – get in as close as you can” – not a bad rule, considering he has only been punched once.

Peter’s tips have served as a great guide. Street photography shapes you as a photographer, giving you confidence to carry on trying new things, new angles, and pushing for ‘that’ superior image.”

It is certainly worth seeing the other photographers featured and reading the rest of Phil’s article, find them here

Leica camera fetches 2.16m euros at auction

From the BBC website we learn that a Leica camera fetches 2.16m euros at auction

“A prototype Leica camera has sold for 2.16m euros (£1.74m), setting a new world record for a camera.

It was one of just 25 models created in 1923 as a prototype for the groundbreaking Leica A, which was the first commercially successful compact camera to use 35mm film.”….MORE

Has Instagram made everyone’s photos look the same?

From the BBC

“Instagram, the photo app, has been sold to Facebook for $1bn. But has it sparked a wave of generic retro-looking snaps, asks photographer Stephen Dowling. Instagram – and its bedfellows such as Hipstamatic, Camerabag and Picplz – have brought to digital photography a fever for a certain style of imagery. Smartphone photos are given saturated colours and Polaroid-style borders, dark vignettes, light leaks and lens flare like those that plagued the Kodak moments of previous generations. It may be 2012, but popular photography hasn’t looked like this since the early 1970s.

The trend began a few years ago with Hipstamatic, an app which apes the look of lo-fi toy cameras. Now Instagram allows a pic to be taken on your smartphone, a digital “filter” to be applied, and the resulting pic made viewable to the site’s ever-increasing community. Chances are that that artfully retro pic of a display of cupcakes your friend showed you at the weekend was an Instagram pic.”

Continue reading the main story

Before and after…

Applying Instagram’s X-Pro II filter to the image for a more “vintage” feel

“Launched in March 2010, Instagram took until the end of that year to notch up its millionth user but from there its ascent was dizzying. Just 15 months later there are more than 30 million account holders and a billion pictures on the site’s servers. That’s a lot of cupcakes.

Instagram’s use of filters mimics some of the processes photographers used to push photographic boundaries – such as the super-saturated colours created cross-processing slides in negative chemicals, or using expired film’s palette of soft, muted colours, or playing around with camera settings or darkroom equipment to boost contrast.”.…..MORE…….

I think this conclusion is where my thoughts lie..

“The ability to turn an everyday pic into something “artistic” at the click of a button is the very embodiment of digital photography’s curse of convenience – no long learning curves, or trial and error with expensive rolls of film. But is it creative?

Writer and photographer Kate Bevan doesn’t think so.

“Do I think it’s artistically valid? No. I think it kills the creative instinct. However, I do love sharing and I understand the mindset that wants to make his or her pics stand out, even though Instagram does the opposite of that.” The first time one sees a picture with an Instagram-type filter applied, it might be impressive. But the thousandth time? “I’m all in favour of people experimenting with pictures, and I’d never be elitist about photography,” suggests Bevan. “But I don’t think it encourages experimentation – it encourages the use of lazy one-click processing.”..…..MORE

What do you think?

 

Afrikaner Blood – Learning to be racist in South Africa

Afrikaner blood

“This short multimedia film is the first production of Frog in a tent. It looks at how an extreme right-wing group is teaching young white South Africans to eschew Nelson Mandela’s vision of a multicultural rainbow nation. The fringe group Kommandokorps, led by old-apartheid army leader Franz Jooste, organizes camps during school holidays for Afrikaners, white teenagers of mainly Dutch and German descent. He teaches them to defend themselves against crime in South Africa and that black South Africans are their enemy. He tells them they are firstly Afrikaners and should deny their South African identity. We followed them on one of the camps, where in nine days boys who once carried a budding belief in South Africa’s unity become toughened men with racist ideas.”

This short multimedia (stills and video) tells the story of a sort of summer camp you just wouldn’t send your kids to, there are assertions that groups like this are so few that they only represent a lunatic fringe, still scary.

The BBC has some of the still and video on their site here is the link or you can directly to the Frog In A Tent site here

Elliott Erwitt on the art of photographic sequencing

Last week a friend gave me the Elliot Erwitt book Snaps for my birthday, it is a great tome just stuffed with insightful, witty images. Now today I find that on the BBC website there is a little film about his book Sequentially Yours.

“The book Sequentially Yours collects a series of vignettes by legendary photographer Elliott Erwitt.

Each photo is taken just moments apart with the sequence telling a story that is surprising, moving or simply funny.

The Paris-born photographer, whose Russian-Jewish family emigrated to the US in the late 1930s, got the idea when he was looking through the contact sheets of all his work.

He realised that “sometimes a story is better told by more pictures rather than one”.

The short stories about life and lovers, pets and children were shot all over the world during the past 60 years.

In his studio and apartment facing New York’s Central Park Erwitt told the BBC how patience is the key to getting a good sequence of photographs.” This link takes you to the BBC website where you can watch the short video.

There is a much fuller article with slide show of about 20 images on the Time LIghtbox site

“Elliott Erwitt generally likes to let his pictures do the talking. “I’m very bad about talking about things,” he tells me with a smile, during a recent sit-down to look through his latest book, Sequentially Yours, published this month by teNeues.

The book playfully presents a series of unscripted vignettes that bear the personal hallmark and humor of his classic images and movies, but with an original twist— rather than single shots, the photos are shown as sequences. The result is somewhere between single exposures and films, and the stories play out like silent movies—touching, funny, sad, irreverent and full of surprise.

Erwitt uses his film sparingly; he’s the first to acknowledge that he does not take as many frames as most photographers when he shoots. “The process is sometimes more interesting than the finished picture,” he says. And it’s that thought that served as the impetus for Sequentially Yours. Looking through his archive, Erwitt decided it made more sense to show sequenced images— as opposed to a single shot a la Henri Cartier-Bresson’s “Decisive Moment.”....MORE

Read more:
http://lightbox.time.com/2011/10/18/elliott-erwitt-sequentially-yours/#ixzz1ocy01TCh