Album of early woman photographer purchased by the National Library of Wales
The album, auctioned last May at Christie's to an American dealer has been bought back by the National Library of Wales. The library had applied for and was granted an export ban by the government and raised £48,000 to purchase the album of photographs made by Mary Dillwyn in the 1840s and 1850s. Mary Dillwyn, was one of a circle of early photographers living in Swansea involved in pioneering the scientific development of photographic processes. The album contains 42 salt and one albumen prints. Instead of the stiff formal portraits associated with this period, there is an intimate spontaneity in the photographs of individuals and groups. The album also contains two photographs of a snowman being built at the family home in Penlle'r-gaer (perhaps the first photographs of a snowman ever taken) and of fowls. In addition there are seventeen flower studies.

The full text of the press release can be found on the Library's website.

February 2003
Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Photography Book Awards
The Kraszna-Krausz Foundation has announced its 2002 Photography Book Awards. The two main prize winners, each receiving 5,000 pounds are: The Photographic art of William Henry Fox Talbot by Larry J. Schaaf, judged best book in the Art, Culture and History category; and The Beautiful and the Damned: The Creation of Identity in Nineteenth Century Photography by Peter Hamilton and Roger Hargreaves, winning best book in the Craft, Technology and Scientific Books category. The award also includes seven honorable mention prizes of 750 pounds each. The Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards alternate annually between prizes for photography publications and those for books on the moving image.

January 2003
New Center for photography in Switserland
As part of a new collaborative relationship between Switserland's Fotostiftung Schweiz and Fotomuseum Winterthur, a new center for photography will be built in an industrial area across the street from the Fotomuseum. The new facility will enable the museum to present longer-lasting exhibitions from its growing collection of photographs. The two institutions will retain their individual identities: the Fotomuseum Winterthur will continue its focus on international contemporary photography, masters of photographic history, and applied photography, while Fotostiftung concentrates on the development, preservation and conservation of Swiss photographic heritage. When complete, the new photographic center may be the largest in Europe.

November 2002
Selection of the Willy Pragher archive online
The State Archives Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, keeps the complete photo archives of press-photographer Willy Pragher.
With about one million photos from 1926 to 1992 (concerning mainly Southwest-Germany and its neighbouring countries as well as Berlin
especially in the 1920's and 1930's and Romania 1939-1945) it is one of the biggest in an public archives of this kind in Germany. The State Archives Freiburg im Breisgau has made an internet presentation of a selection of his work.
Go to Fotosammlung Willy Pragher

September 2002
Welsh photographers online
The National Library of Wales' digitisation programme has come on-line. The items published on the website reflect the diverse nature of the collections held by the institution. Among the highlights are: photographs by Welsh photographers John Thomas (1838-1905) and Geoff Charles (1909-2002) and America Carleton E. Watkins (1829-1916); manuscripts, including a Latin version of the native Welsh law which is set apart from other Welsh law books by a series of illustrations in the text; early charts of the Welsh coastline by Lewis Morris (1701-1765); a searchable database of the Library's collection of framed works of art; and archive material including a fascinating population survey of the Welsh diocese of St. Asaph undertaken in the 1680s.
Go to the NLW website: Treasures

August 2002
Portaits by the German photographers Fritz Eschen (1900 - 1964) and
his son Klaus Eschen (* 1939)
The Deutsche Fotothek has created an online portait gallery of famous scientists, writers, politicians and mucisians. The images are also proof of the quality and versatility of portrat photography.
Go to the exhibition...

July 2002
NISO metatdata for images in XML schema
The Library of Congress' Network Development and MARC Standards Office, in partnership with the NISO Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images Standards Committee and other interested experts, is developing an XML schema for a set of technical data elements required to manage digital image collections. The schema provides a format for interchange and/or storage of the data specified in the NISO Draft Standard Data Dictionary: Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images (Version 1.2). Released as a Draft for Trial Use over the period 1 June 2002 to 31 December 2003, this NISO document (NISO Z39.87-2002 AIIM 20-2001, in PDF) has been produced "to facilitate the development of applications to validate,manage, migrate and otherwise process images of enduring value" and "to facilitate interoperability between systems, services and software, as well as to support the long-term management of and continuing access to digital image collections". A corresponding XML schema to assist in implementation is available from the Library of Congress at:
http://www.loc.gov/standards/mix/

July 2002
Photographs of London now online
A consortium of libraries, archives, museums, record offices and national bodies who hold photographic collections are presenting samples of their collectins now on the web. The images represent London topography, people, architecture, archaeology and landscape, from the mid 1860s till the present.
Go toPhotoLondon web
Guildhall Library Printroon: Workers on The Silent Highway, John Thomson. 1877. Woodbury Print. (Ref : Photos. C.48.32. 1877)

March 2002
First photographic image sold for € 489,750
Sotheby's Paris offered the second and third part of the Jammes Collection of photography, containing much material from the first period between its invention in 1825 and 1860, including the first photographic image, taken by Nicéphore Niepce in 1825. Both Niepce's account of the process and the print, which shows a man leading a horse, were acquired by the Bibliothèque nationale de France for € 489,750. The two-day auction was the largest sale ever of 19th and 20th century photographs from a single collection, the auction house said.

Early Dutch photographs on the net
Dutch photography has a highly praised past. That is what many foreign experts say. From March 2nd onwards everyone can verify this statement because 3700 of the earliest recorded images are to be seen on a new website: www.earlyphotography.nl.

The photographs are from the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, the Leiden University Printroom and 25 other Dutch public collections. Not only Dutch photography is included but also international collections, like photographs from Maxim Du Camp and Gustave Le Gray. The website gives a cross section of the photographic production in the pioneering years including the many different processes and techniques.

November 2001
Export ban for Alice photos
The UK Government has placed a temporary export ban on a set of rare photographs of Alice Liddell, the little girl who inspired the Alice in Wonderland stories. The photographs by Lewis Carroll went on sale at Sotheby's auction house in London. The government has imposed the temporary export ban in the hope that an estimated £600,000 can be raised to keep the images in Britain. See: bbc.co.uk

October 2001
Virtual exhibition on Jewish life in Dresden
On the occassion of the opening of the new Jewish synagogue on the 9th of November 2001 the Deutsche Fotothek in Dresden published an online version of the "Blicke / Fragmente. Bilder jüdischen Lebens aus Beständen der Deutschen Fotothek" exhibition. The website shows a choice of over 150 photographs on Jewish life and culture that can be seen at the Zentralbibliothek Zellescher Weg in Dresden until the 1st of December.
Go to website (in German)...

Fritz Eschen (1900-1964)- Door with provisional nameplate (Emil Israel Blumenfeld) and Judenstern, May 1947, Courtesy of Deutsche Fotothek Dresden

June 2001
British Library acquires Fox Talbot's book on the invention of photography
The British Library has just acquired a copy of the first book to announce the invention of photography: Some Account of the Art of Photogenic Drawing by William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), published in 1839. This is the first separate printing of Fox Talbot’s announcement of his discovery of photography.

European Commission on Preservation and Access
P.O. Box 19121, NL-1000 GC Amsterdam, The Netherlands
ecpa@bureau.knaw.nl