Archived News

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As your newly appointed president, I should like to introduce myself and acquaint you with the course I intend to pursue.

Unlike my predecessors, I have no photographic qualifications but I have survived, even prospered, in this profession. If I were starting out now, I would, quite rightly, get nowhere. I quake when I look at the jobs advertised on the website.

I was trained with some basic instructions (on a half-plate Cambo) from a photographer at Sotheby’s and from books and on projects with colleagues and friends. It is thanks to one of those friends that I joined the association. I became a member in 1995 and was elected to the committee in 1998. Having retired from that role after 20 years, I have been invited to return as president.

During my tenure I propose to build and develop relationships between you, the members, and our potential recruits: students at art schools and photographic colleges, as well as those on courses in archaeology, architecture, museum studies and other branches of the cultural heritage sector.

We should signal that working in this sector, as the ‘eyes’ of cultural institutions, is a viable and satisfying profession and I hope to persuade you that fostering the next generation safeguards it, by raising its profile with the young and, therefore, for the future. We have a combined great store of knowledge, skill and experience, of whose value we should be more appreciative.

With our unique history, witnessing the change from analogue to digital image-making and experiencing a revolution in working practices, we have the advantage of a long perspective. The young will benefit their hosts with their clear-eyed eagerness. Their familiarity and natural skill with new and developing software, and with new methods of communication, will be of great value in preparing us for the next, probably rather less cataclysmic, revolution. By forming links between the two types of institution, the ‘practical’ and the academic, research also may flourish.

AHFAP is an association of professionals and the immediate demands of work must outweigh what we feel we can offer voluntarily, in terms of time and manpower. I believe, however, that the training of a new generation ought to be intimately linked with daily work. I plan to approach some of you directly, so please look on this programme with tolerance, patience and, best of all, enthusiasm.

In conclusion, I am happy to report what has been drawn to our attention, that two recently retired members, Ken Jackson and Dave Lambert, of the V&A and the Tate respectively, have a combined length of service of nearly 100 years and a joint length of employment as photographers of more than 100. Congratulations to them both.

Colin MaitlandDecember 2019

Historic Photographer of the Year calls on photographers from around the globe to explore and capture the very best historic places and cultural sites that the world has to offer.

Whether it’s a ruined English castle, an underground Roman villa or the haunting beauty of a long-forgotten battlefield, historical sites are among the most picturesque places to photograph on Earth. The 2019 Awards launch for entries on 12th June 2018 and is open to amateur and professional photographers around the world.

The Awards challenge photographers everywhere, amateur or professional, to explore and share the most astonishing imagery of those places which dominate our past. Entries will be judged on originality, composition and technical proficiency alongside the story behind the image and its historical impact. Judging all entries will be a panel of experts including Claudia Kenyatta, Director of Regions for Historic England, broadcaster and historian Dan Snow of History Hit TV, head of the television channel HISTORY™ Dan Korn, author and digital colourist Marina Amaral, Chairman of The Association for Historical and Fine Art Photography Richard Everett, and co-founder of Trip Historic Elli Lewis. The winners will be announced in November 2019.

The Awards are run by Trip Historic, the leading online travel guide to the world’s historic sites. Official partners for 2019 include History Hit TV, a multi-channel history network led by historian and broadcaster Dan Snow – dedicated to bringing you the most extraordinary, dramatic, important and fascinating stories of our shared past; television channel HISTORY™; the Association For Historical And Fine Art Photography; and Historic England, the public body that helps people care for, enjoy and celebrate England’s spectacular historic environment, from beaches to battlefields to parks and pie shops.

The overall winner will see their work showcased on the official competition website and will receive a cash prize of £400, while each category winner will receive their own unique money-can’t buy experience.

For more information and to enter visit www.historicphotographeroftheyear.com

Following strong interest and some excellent applications from archives and other memory institutions over the last three years, the TWA Digitisation Grant has relaunched in 2019. We are very pleased to be increasing the fund this year with the primary winner receiving up to £6,000, the secondary winner up to £3,000 and shortlisted applicants up to £500 of match funding, to support them in digitising their holdings.

The TWA Digitisation Grant opens on 19th June 2019 and welcomes applications from the following UK institutions: 

• Public,      private & charity Archives
• Business/corporate Archives
• Public & private Libraries
• Museums
• Galleries

Last year’s esteemed judging panel will return to assess the applications and select the winners: including ARA chief executive - John Chambers; HLF appointed special advisor - Claire Adler; and senior digitisation consultant at TownsWeb Archiving - Paul Sugden.

The Grant can be used to fund the digitisation of bound books, manuscripts, oversize maps and plans, 35mm slides, microfilm/fiche, glass plate negatives, and other two-dimensional cultural heritage media. 

The deadline for applications is 28th July 2019 with announcements of winners at the ARA Annual Conference in Leeds on 28thAugust 2019.

Find out how to apply and for more details please go to:

https://www.townswebarchiving.com/twa-digitisation-grant/

After providing over £12,000 of support for UK cultural heritage institutions to digitise their holdings in its first two years, the TownsWeb Archiving Digitisation Grant has returned once more in 2018.

The Grant has funding awards of up to £5000 available to help museums, archives, libraries and galleries digitise and open up access to their collections.

Any UK museum is welcome to apply for the funding, simply by completing and submitting the Grant application form. As in previous years, each bid will be scored across three core criteria: heritage need, social and community impact, and research impact.

As in previous years, applications will be assessed by a three-strong judging panel made up of John Chambers, chief executive of the Archives & Records Association; Claire Adler, independent HLF mentor and heritage consultant; and Paul Sugden, lead digitisation consultant at TownsWeb Archiving.

The deadline for TWA Digitisation Grant applications is 12th July 2018. Find out how to apply and read more details at:
https://www.townswebarchiving.com/twa-digitisation-grant

British Photographic History - Obituary: Sue Davies OBE

Sue Davies - The Guardian

The Last Word - Radio 4

See here for Vid Ingelevic's presentation in tribute to Sue

Self Employment Grant

The Government are now rolling out the 2nd grant for the self employed and the deadline to apply is the 19th October. Please check if you think that you are eligible but haven't heard from them yet. Use the online eligibility checker.

Important update for Self Employed:

The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) – the Government grant to self-employed individuals whose businesses have been adversely affected by coronavirus – has now been extended and eligible people are able to claim a second, third and fourth grant. Check out Martin Lewis' website for more info here and the government website here

You can also defer your payments on account until January 31st 2021. See here for details

Dear Colleagues,

Our health and our safety are no laughing matters. The evidence is clear that to eliminate the risk of infection all human social contact must be avoided for some considerable time. Being effectively locked up is a grim prospect but it is the only sure way to protect ourselves and check the spread of this virus.

As if this weren’t enough, for many of us our livelihood is jeopardised. Naturally, the mechanisms for obtaining financial support or compensation are in the early stages of development but we have found two websites so far. We hope to be able to add to this list and we welcome suggestions and contributions from the membership.

This UK government site has information about eligibility for statutory sick pay and universal credit for the self-employed:  Support for those affected by COVID-19

The Arts Council website states ‘that we will refocus some grant programmes to help compensate individual artists and freelancers for lost earnings. This will require further planning. It may take about ten days before we can announce the details.’  See here for updated information from The Arts Council:  Emergency measures and funding

There is also some useful information on the following websites:

https://www.the-aop.org/coronavirus-guidance

https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

Announcement from the government for the self employed https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme

We will be updating the information as and when it comes in.

For almost exactly 35 years our association has stood for the free and copious exchange of knowledge and information and supports individuals by mutual encouragement. Heed the warnings and be patient.  

AHFAP committee

This contribution from former chair Tony Harris concerns alternatives to rented Adobe software.

The Affinity series of apps do exactly what Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign do, 16bit, ICC profiles etc. Plus they are not on the subscription model and cost £40 each, even cheaper with the offer below. Could be a worthwhile saving in these times for freelancers and as they are made in Nottingham you'd be supporting the UK software industry.

From Affinity......

• Announcing a new 90-day free trial of the Mac and Windows versions of the whole Affinity suite.  
• A 50% discount for those who would rather buy and keep the apps on Mac, Windows PC and iPad.
• A pledge to engage more than 100 freelance creatives for work, spending the equivalent of our annual commissioning budget in the next three months (more details of this will be announced soon).

The introduction of the 90-day free trial and deeply discounted pricing is done in the hope that this will make life a little easier for people who rely on creative software to make a living, but may be stuck at home without their usual tools, or for students who might not have access to their Affinity apps on their personal devices. In addition, by increasing our spend on commissioning work from freelancers we can also put some extra money into a part of the industry which will be particularly affected.  We plan to make the free trial and additional discount available until 20 April, but of course we will continue to review the situation as time goes on.
For more information and to sign up for the trial or buy the app see here

The National Trust for Scotland is pleased to invite papers for the Second Morton Photography Symposium, to be held on Thursday 2nd April 2020 at Glasgow Women’s Library:

'Ways of Seeing': Women and Photography in Scotland

The Trust’s major photographic collections feature many women as takers, collectors, preservers or subjects. Prominent examples include the c.6,000 images taken by folklorist Margaret Fay Shaw, the family albums compiled by Violet May Brodie (née Hope) and the hundreds of photographs collected and kept by Glaswegian Miss Agnes Toward, all of which frequently depict women.

These photographs show Scottish women in many lights – artist and model, wife and socialite, mother and sister, amateur and academic. The images of these women breathe life into our places and can help institutions like the Trust improve at putting women of all backgrounds at the centre of the stories we tell about our history.

The aim of this symposium, in collaboration with Glasgow Women's Library, is to explore how photography is used to tell women’s stories. We are particularly interested in how this is done in historic houses and heritage/museum spaces, and intend to challenge the existing display and interpretation practices of these institutions. We are also especially interested in photographs taken by Scottish women or depicting women’s lives in Scotland, as well as photographs where the absence of women can tell stories of their overlooked and marginalised lives.

Proposals are welcomed for papers on any of the above themes, or in response to any of the questions below:

• How has the camera impacted the representation of Scottish women or women in Scotland?
• How has photography by women illuminated the stories of marginalised women?
• What are (especially Scottish) women’s unique ‘ways of seeing’ the world through the camera lens?
• How has the camera been used to objectify women in Scotland, or Scottish women abroad?
• How have women photographers in Scotland, or Scottish women abroad, taken control of their own image?
• How does gendering the ‘woman photographer’ position them as ‘other’?
• Where are the women in our public photographic collections?
• Where are the women of colour in our public photographic collections, and what are the consequences of their absence to our national identity?
• How are photographs being used (or failing to be used) to tell women’s stories in museum and heritage institutions, including historic houses?
• How has photography by Scottish women or women in Scotland been collected or displayed in the past?
• 
  

As well as full-length papers, we welcome proposals for the Shutter Speed Session that will take place during the symposium. This will be a quick-fire series of 5-minute talks followed by questions. We intend to publish the proceedings in a special edition of Studies, the journal of the Scottish Society for the History of Photography.

Please send a proposed title and abstract of 200-300 words for a 20-25-minute paper (or 100 words for a 5-6-minute paper for the Shutter Speed Session) to Ben Reiss at breiss@nts.org.uk by Friday 11th October. Please note if you would be happy for your proposal to be considered for either format. Prospective speakers at any stage of their career and from any personal or professional background are encouraged to submit. We particularly welcome submissions from women across race, gender identity, disability, class and sexuality. Travel bursaries may be made available to full-time students, people not in work or those on a low income. Any enquiries about delivering a paper or attending the symposium may also be directed to Ben at the above address, or phone 07864 918969.

Ben Reiss, Morton Photography Project Curator

National Trust for Scotland

breiss@ nts.org.uk | 07864 918969

Contact Email: breiss@nts.org.uk

URL: https://www.nts.org.uk/stories/explore