for cultural heritage imaging professionals
HPOTY - 2019 - Overall Winner - Stéphane Hurel - Arromanches
Following the huge success of last year’s awards, Historic Photographer of the Year celebrates the very best historic places and cultural sites across the globe, from the most famous national treasures to the most obscure hidden gems.
This year’s Awards call on photographers everywhere, amateur or professional, to scour their own photographic archive and share the most astonishing imagery of those places which dominate our past. With varying restrictions in place across the globe, rather than asking entrants to head out and explore, Award organisers are instead seeking entries already captured and are keen to discover the very best images that reside in photographers’ archives.
This year the Awards will include several specialist categories focusing on crucial periods and regions of history, including the Historic England category and Where History Happened category in association with Sky HISTORY.
Entries will be judged on originality, composition and technical proficiency alongside the story behind the submission and its historical impact. By taking part, entrants will get the chance to win an array of prizes including a special behind-the-scenes heritage experience from Historic England.
See our Blog page for an interview with 2017 winner Matt Emmett.
For more information and to enter the competition see here.
And to see last years entries see our Gallery pages.
Affinity software trial & discounts
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
Second Morton Photography Symposium-Call for papers
Ways of Seeing': Women and Photography in Scotland - event suspended
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
