Iago, Study from an Itlaian 1867, Julia Margaret Cameron © National Media Museum, Bradford

Julia Margaret Cameron: Influence and Intimacy

The Science Museum is London opens a new exhibition marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of pioneering photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. The exhibition, which includes the only existing print of the iconic portrait Iago, draws from the world’s largest collection of Cameron’s photographs, part of the Science Museum Group’s National Photography Collection.

Cameron’s portraits of influential artistic and literary friends, acquaintances and family members including Alfred Tennyson, Thomas Carlyle, William Holman Hunt and several striking photographs of her niece Julia Jackson, mother of Virginia Woolf, both revolutionised photography and immortalised the Victorian age. Her purposefully unconventional approach, using a lack of sharp focus and technical faults to harness photography’s expressive power, instilled feeling and energy into her images and became a hallmark of her style despite fierce criticism from the photographic press.

The Gardeners Daughter, 1867, Julia Margaret Cameron © National Media Museum, Bradford

Exploring the vibrant life and genius of the trailblazing British artist, the exhibition features unique objects including a daguerreotype portrait (the first known image of Cameron) and her camera lens (the only piece of her photographic equipment known to survive). Also on display are handwritten notes from the original manuscript of her autobiography Annals of My Glass House, personal letters by Cameron and others and a selection of extremely rare photographs taken in Sri Lanka during her final years.

A key element of the exhibition is one of the National Photography Collection’s greatest assets: The Herschel Album, compiled by Cameron in 1864 as her finest work to date and a gift to her friend and mentor, the scientist and photographer Sir John Herschel. Representing for many the finest album of Victorian photography, it was the first photographic item to be placed under an export ban and saved for the nation in 1975.

Young Ceylonese woman plantation worker, c.1875-1878, Julia Margaret Cameron © National Media Museum, Bradford

This marked a major milestone in the classification of photography as art and vindicated Cameron’s artistic aspirations for her medium. The exhibition is co-curated by Colin Harding, Curator of Photography and Photographic Technology at the National Media Museum, Bradford, and Tim Clark, Associate Curator, Media Space.

Kate Bush, Head of Photography, Science Museum Group

‘Julia Margaret Cameron is deservedly regarded as one of the founding figures of modern photographic
portraiture. The range of her work, from tender, naturalistic observation, to dramatic
staged tableaux, anticipates every subsequent approach to the genre. Her closely
framed faces, bold, expressive and minimal, are as radical and visionary as the woman
who created them.’

Julia Margaret Cameron: Influence and Intimacy 24 September 2015 to 28 March 2016
Virgin Media Studio, Media Space, Science Museum, London.
Entrance free.

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Triptico (1) ©Juan Manuel Cruz del Cueto.

The increasing interest in everything Cuban continues with another exhibition focussing on the small Caribbean Island. Castro’s Cuba – Hardship and Opportunity is a collection of work to go on display at St John’s College, Oxford. Coninciding with the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Cuban Communist party, the collection is a celebration of the unique nature of the country as seen through the lens of photographers Uwe Ackermann, Robin Laurence (both from Oxford) and Cuban national Juan Manuel Cruz del Cuetro.

13-04-DSC5307 ©Uwe Ackermann

Castro’s Cuba – Hardship and Opportunity – opens on October 10th Cuba’s Independence Day. It will be open to the public until October 24th.

Ackermann and Laurance have both travelled widely in Cuba, facing challenges that only Cuba can present. Their work shows a side of Cuba rarely seen by tourists. Laurance is an established photojournalist and the Founding Director of the Oxford Photography Festival.

Ackermann is a Professor Emeritus of Physiology who followed Castro’s example of arriving for his first visit to Cuba by boat. (The two Castro brothers famously arrived by motor yacht with their fellow revolutionaries in 1956.)

Juan Manuel Cruz del Cueto has documented areas of Cuban life only accessible to insiders. He has worked with the UN and UNICEF and has gained special permission from the Cuban authorities and the British Home Office to visit Oxford during the exhibition.

Castro’s Cuba – Hardship and Opportunity will be at the Barn Galleries, St John’s College from October 10th – October 24th. Opening times : 10.00am – 4.00pm. Entry is free.

cubajuly1 001 ©Robin Laurance

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Malecon, Havana © Luigi Visconti, www.lumas.co.uk

The world-renowned, Stuttgart-based photographer Werner Pawlok is already one of LUMAS’ best-selling photographers for his series ‘Cuba – expired’, having dedicated himself to the Caribbean country since 2004. In July 2015, he revisited Havana to capture an historic period of change in the Cuban capital, in a series of photographs exclusively created for the LUMAS portfolio. The result is a range of powerful shots with a bittersweet aftertaste. Pawlok tells the tale of a rapidly changing country and provides an insight into decades of glory and unimaginable splendour.

Cremeria La Vina © Werner Pawlok, www.lumas.co.uk

The architecture, colour, light and atmosphere in Cuba is a huge influence on Pawlok’s work and the same can be said for the two other artists whose works feature in Viva Cuba! Luigi Visconti is particularly inspired by the art deco, art nouveau and eclectic design influences in Cuban architecture and this is shown in his photographs of promenade facades. His works presented at LUMAS mirror the flat, confrontational buildings and, by removing perspective and everyday life, the photographs become focused purely on the extraordinary architecture of the city.
Philadelphian-born Larry Yust worked in theatre and film whilst pursuing a parallel career as a still photographer in the 1990s. His work is drawn from his understanding of the film-making process and uses Photographic Elevation, created by walking or riding along a path parallel to the subject being photographed, and taking individual overlapping shots, which are then put together digitally. His Photographic Elevations are made up of between five and fifty individual shots.

Viva Cuba at LUMAS London, 57 South Molton Street, W1K 5SJ

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Talenthouse and Pearson are giving you the rare opportunity to get your own photography work in front of influential British portrait and fashion photographer (and co-founder of Dazed & Confused magazine) Rankin.

The competition will see entrants submitting their work that seeks to ‘capture the magic of learning and education through striking and memorable imagery that creates an emotional connection with the viewer’, which should give good scope for a wide range of interpretations and images.

Selected photographers will be awarded a cash bursary for each photograph chosen for Pearson’s official photo library, and have their work credited and showcased across Pearson’s official channels. Additionally, a select number of photographers will be offered career opportunities with the potential to continue to work on paid projects for upcoming Pearson projects.

British celebrity photographer Rankin talking about what they were looking for:

‘Working with Pearson and Talenthouse, we are aiming to create a collection of beautiful and evocative images that capture the power of learning in all its diverse forms. We are inviting photographers from around the world to get out their cameras and submit candid and creative expressions of the learning journey.’

Other judges include Hermeti Balarin, creative director at Mother, Rebecca Sinclair, Global Brand Architect at Pearson and Jodie Wightman, creative Director at Together. So if you are looking for your photographic break, this competition will put your work in front of the right people.  Photographers have until 18 August at 6pm GMT to submit their ideas on the Talenthouse website.

If you enter let us know through the comments below and we will bring you details of the winning photographers later in the year.

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The fictional film is the graduation film for Australian Andrew Keresztes, who is currently studying at the London Film School, and a project for New Zealander Natalie Samson who is the Head of Awards and Events at Women in Film and Television UK. The duo, based in London, aim to raise over £5,500 to cover the shoot of the film.

No Man’s Land delves into the mental aftermath of a photographer who captured the most iconic images of war and famine in his day. War photos have a very powerful influence on the public, but this film looks at the impact on the person that took it. Do I take this photo of a dying child and broadcast the atrocity to millions, or do I pick them up and run them to safety?

“It is our endeavour to get inside the mind of a character like this in our short film.” says Natalie Samson, Producer. “What these photographers do is to document, often in their most extreme moments, the complex lives of others. How close can you get to the action, or the subject experiencing the madness of war? Every connection with each subject leaves perpetually burning moral questions. Did I do the right thing? Did I do enough?”

Andy and Natalie, director and producer of No Man’s Land

Check out the funding page to see the different reward levels and let us know if you do contribute using the comments below. We hope the No Man’s Land project gets funding and the photographic community get behind it, we also look forward to seeing the final film if successful.

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Tie up’s between brands and photographers ‘of the moment’ don’t always work out. But not so in this latest project between Benjamin Von Wong and whisky brand Ballantine’s. Earlier this year the Scotch whisky and ‘hyper-real’ photographer Benjamin Von Wong journeyed to Tulum, Mexico with a team of 35 to participate in a unique, experimental underwater photographic shoot.

‘Ballantine’s Presents Benjamin Von Wong’s Underwater River’ is the fourth installment in a series of collaborations between Ballantine’s and unique talent from around the world and whose stories are showcased in unique films featuring projects inspired by their personal history, talents and beliefs.

VonWong’s Underwater Fisherman in collaboration with Ballentines

Floating thirty metres (30m / 100ft) down in the ancient ‘Angelita’ Cenote ‘sinkhole’, is a cloud-like layer of hydrogen sulfide which separates salt and fresh water, creating a unique visual phenomenon – an ethereal, flowing ‘underwater river’.

Inspired by this natural phenomena and wanting to celebrate his Chinese heritage, his beliefs and his deeply ingrained passion for experimentation, Benjamin set to work with Ballantine’s to create a single, seemingly impossible underwater image – a stunning, contemporary recreation of a fading ancient tradition, the Chinese Cormorant Fisherman.

Behind the Scenes on Von Wong’s underwater shoot

After just one month of intensive planning and research, across three continents, a specialist team comprised of some of the world’s most experienced divers, set builders, underwater film makers and a record-breaking free-diver descended on the Mexican jungle, for five days in May to undertake a challenge none of them had ever before contemplated.

Bringing the epic production to life involved the ever present risks that accompany any underwater shoot, but these were further exacerbated in this beautiful location thanks to the hydrogen sulfide cloud which posed an ever present threat to the crew’s safety.
Benjamin Von Wong is a pioneering photographer for the digital age. Of Chinese descent and having lived around the world whilst travelling constantly, he took up photography as a way to occupy his mind and to explore the surreal worlds around him, all the while building up a community of followers and enthusiasts as he shared the images and ideas online.

Combining this new found passion with the skills and problem solving from his previous job as an engineer, he has since become known for a style described as ‘hyper-real’; creating scenarios, ideas and imagery that somehow seem to trick the viewer into questioning ‘how?’, and documenting the meaning and process behind it all– including having turned cosplayers into comic book icons on San Franciscan skyscrapers, creating dreamlike photos in the world’s oldest monastery and capturing fire scenes in Shanghai using just a smartphone.

Watch the behind the Scenes video to understand what was involved in the shoot:

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Lemons and Peony, After FDZ 2009 © Paulette Tavormina. Courtesy Beetles+Huxley, London.

Influenced heavily by the art of the 17th Century, Tavormina’s work has been described as Sumptous, luscious and haunting. Still life painting, as viewed from its golden age have been an inspiration for her photographic work.

‘I have long been drawn to the seventeenth century Old Master still life painters Giovanna Garzoni, Francesco de Zurbarán, and Adriaen Coorte. I am particularly fascinated by Zurbarán’s mysterious use of dramatic light, Garzoni’s masterful compositions and colour palette, and Coorte’s unique placement of objects.’

Sometimes spending an entire week on the meticulous arrangement and photographing of her compositions, Tavormina fastidiously pulls together the visual and symbolic connections between quotidian objects to produce images of powerful emotional resonance. Featuring works from her series Natura Mortura and Bodegón, this summer’s retrospective of Tavormina’s photographs will show her work to be part of a trend in contemporary photography towards reclaiming genres of art that have previously been the reserve of more traditional mediums.

Crabs and Lemons, After PC, 2009 © Paulette Tavormina. Courtesy Beetles+Huxley, London.

Tavormina, previously a prop and food stylists in Hollywood, now photographs works of art for Sotherby’s New York and being around work of the highest standard has obviously rubbed off. Each object in her images painstakingly set against other items and lit exquisitely. It is easy to see why her work is commanding a premium price.

The Paulette Tavormina photo exhibition London at Beetles Huxley 30th June to 25th July.

Quince, After GG, 2008 © Paulette Tavormina. Courtesy Beetles+Huxley, London.

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© Christina Broom/Museum of London

Soldiers and Suffragettes: The Photography of Christina Broom includes a cross section of her work, including Suffragette processions, First World War soldiers, official photographs of the Household Division and key London events, from the Lord Mayor’s Parade and royal coronations and funerals to historical pageants. These photographs are joined by original glass plate negatives, and objects which build a fuller picture of Broom’s character and her career, including personal possessions, a suffragette banner, letters, press passes, notebooks and a cuttings album.

In 1945 Christina’s daughter Winnie recalled how she found herself in the company of Queen Mary who enquired after the whereabouts of her mother’s negatives. Explaining that she had placed a large number in banks, Winnie received the response: ‘I suggest you should get them to safe places – museums etc…for posterity where people may go and look at prints when they have more leisure’.
Anna Sparham, Curator of Photographs at the Museum of London, said:

“In a letter from Christina Broom’s daughter, Winifred, in 1975 she said ‘naturally the Museums are not interested in our lives – but are glad of our negatives’. It excites me hugely to be proving this statement wrong as we bring these beautiful objects and imagery together for the first time in one space for everyone to see.”

The majority of the exhibition content derives from the Museum of London’s collection of her work, including a 2014 acquisition of 2,500 photographs, supplemented with a few key loans from Royal Collections, The University of Texas, Austin and the National Portrait Gallery.

© Christina Broom/Museum of London

An events programme is running alongside the exhibition. Further information is available from www.museumoflondon.org.uk/christinabroom.

Soldiers and suffragettes: the photography of Christina Broom
Museum of London Docklands
Friday 19 June – Sunday 1 November 2015
FREE

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The competition is open to 18-30 year olds and titled Bing Originals. It tasks image-makers to take a photo that captures their own unique perspective on what inspires them.

The competition will remain open for submissions at www.bingoriginals.co.uk until June 21st, after which all qualifying entries will be judged by a panel including the UK Bing Homepage editor and a representative from Dazed. The winner will not only have their shot featured on the UK Bing homepage and Dazed website, but they’ll also receive a DSLR camera for them to take their photography talent to the next level.

Competition judges will select the winning image that shows, through both its composition and the description an entirely unique and thought provoking perspective. They are looking for that one picture that nobody else has. So we hope the winning entries steer well away from the usual photography competition clichés that always turn up.

As always let us know if you enter using the comments below. There’s also other award categories using social media (instagram), so feel free to use the site to gain more exposure to your own entries.

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