When Director Anthony Bannon welcomes The Photographic Historical Society’s PhotoHistory XV symposium to the Dryden Theater this October 22, it will be the 15^th time we have shared resources with George Eastman House in the 41 years since the first PhotoHistory. It is a valuable partnership for all concerned.  For our Society, it provides an association with the premier photographic historical facility in the world. For Rochester and GEH it brings an unmatched degree of attention created by the attendance of the world’s leading photo historians who will be in attendance here this October.  We are extremely pleased that our long relationship continues with respect and affection.

We anticipate that PhotoHistory XV will bring some 150 visitor-historians drawn here by a rich selection of original papers that will cover old photographic processes, the development of the photo industry, the history of color photography and much more. Our speakers join us from five countries for the talks, which are a major component of the symposium. Registrants also participate in a Trade Show and Swap meet on the following day.

At previous symposia have heard from such notables as Beaumont Newhall, photographic historian and Director of Eastman House; Edwin Land, inventor of the Polaroid camera; and Steven Sasson, inventor of the digital camera.

The Photographic Historical Society, founded in 1966, is the first organized society devoted to photographic history and the preservation of photo antiques. This year, in a bid to attract younger historians, we are offering students free admission to the symposium. The 15^th PhotoHistory changes from a triennial event to one held every two years by popular request. As president of The Photographic Historical Society and general chairman of PhotoHistory XV,  I invite you to check our web site at www.tphs.org and to join us to meet historians, collectors, photo experts, and dealers from around the world.

Anthony Jones is one of the few remaining photographers who still looks for the beauty in everyday objects and places, who looks for the abstract in the concrete and captures images that have the flavour of urban life. In an age of digital, he still holds steady the tiller of silver based photography and the elegant beauty of images created with a critical eye looking for the innate beauty and design in everyday life.

Anthony Jones, London Taxis, 1998. One of fourteen photographs donated by London- based photographer Anthony Jones, that will appear in our upcoming benefit auction.

It’s not fashionable but it is classical and though bigger, brighter and more colourful images are in vogue now, like the fads of the past they will seem old before their time and the classic modernist work of Anthony will still seem relevant, significant and beautiful.

Working in black and white with a medium format camera, Anthony walks the streets of his native London looking for momentary juxtaposition of disparate objects creating a pattern that only black and white can reproduce. His image of a London taxi in front of the Bank of England holds both the motion and constant change of urban life and the solidity of tradition and steadfastness.

His work has the flavour of Paul Strand’s images of New York in the 1930s and of Bill Brandt’s London work a decade later. Anthony’s work comes from a long tradition of the lone photographer, walking the streets with his eyes open to the moment when balance occurs and an image can be made.

His work does not speak of today or yesterday or tomorrow. Instead they speak of the abstract patterns created by the momentary conjunction of objects and places in the modern metropolis. His images are quiet reflections in the midst of a noisy city. His images both define and belie the facts of modern urban life.

Editor’s Note:  Look for more in our 2011 Benefit Auction blog series leading up to the big event October 3rd.

During their recent visit to the area for a family wedding, fashion photographer David Burton and his wife Sarah stopped by our Gannett Foundation Photographic Study Center. Archivist Joe Struble prepared a selection of ‘fashion in photography’ images on the print rail and brought a few albums out for viewing— which gave us a chance to take a closer look at one album that made a particular (and timely!) impression with the Burtons : the British royal family.

Archivist Joe Struble (left) with Sarah and David Burton.

A view of images on the print rail.

Sarah Burton examines the royal family album.

The following details are from the album Famile Royal D’Angleterre, ca. 1863 (seen above). The images are printed by the van dyke brown process on silk (look closely and you can see the stiching and fabric folds).

 Queen Victoria

 Princess Louise

Princess Alexandra 

Prince Albert Victor 

 Princess Beatrice

Prince Leopold

View more of our The Photography Collection or browse selected sets on Flickr.

Alejandro Cartagena’s long-term photographic study focuses on the expanding suburbs outside of his home in Monterrey, Mexico. Wandering around the region for over five years, Cartagena was originally drawn to the infrastructure sprouting up in the hills seemingly overnight. These prefab, cookie-cutter, single family homes were emblematic of an expanding middle class but also of a creeping encroachment upon the natural landscape.

Alejandro Cartagena, Fragmented Cities, Santa Catarina, 2008

Photographing with a large format camera, Cartagena aesthetically references the topographic surveys of the American West undertaken by photographers such as Carleton Watkins, Timothy O’Sullivan and William Henry Jackson. Spurred by curiosity, economics and notions of “manifest destiny” these photographers recorded the majestic West before it became subjugated to the needs of private interests and expanding population.  Jackson’s photographs, in fact, were an inspiration behind the creation of Yellowstone National Park (America’s first) in 1872.

The stark contrast in Cartagena’s photograph is suggestive of his intent. In the image, a parade of identical concrete-block housing units march unrelentingly towards a magnificent peak. This progress, if we are to call it that, will inevitably contribute to the forces eroding the grand rock-face of nature, in Mexico and beyond.

Read more about Michael Itkoff’s publication Daylight Magazine and browse his Street Portraits series, one of which is featured our 2011 Benefit Auction.

By Tom Hoehn, Guest Blogger and George Eastman House member (“and proud of it!”)

My name is Tom Hoehn, a longtime member of George Eastman House. The current exhibit, Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera,” (which, by the way, is just fantastic!) brought back a memory from my days as a kid in Rome, N.Y., that I wanted to share as guest blogger.

I was a fan of Norman Rockwell’s paintings, who wasn’t? As a kid I would write letters to people and almost 100% of the time I would get a
personal response. I couldn’t text them, “friend” them on Facebook, Google their address. I had to take a pen (or pencil in my case) to paper. My kids, who
can’t comprehend a world like this, wonder if dinosaurs wandered the streets of my hometown at that time as well.

I had a print of a Rockwell painting, his well-known self portrait, featuring him peeking around the canvas at a mirror. I had the idea of sending
it to him for a signature. Industrious kid that I was I put it in a mailing tube and carefully penned his name in his trademark block letter style hoping
to get his attention.  I addressed it “Norman Rockwell, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.” It had to find its way to him. I was a kid, what did I know? I also enclosed two $1 bills for return postage.

A short time later I got a response! Unfortunately, it was my print, unsigned, with a letter stating he was under contract and couldn’t sign
prints. However, Mr. Rockwell took the time to send me this postcard.

I also noted he hand wrote his return address on the envelope. Taking time to personally respond to a kid. What a guy.

I was happy because I got my requested signature! But that isn’t the end of the story. About a week later I got another envelope from Norman Rockwell, again with a handwritten address. Enclosed was the reminder of my $2 — in 13-cent stamps!

That’s just so, well, Norman Rockwell!