Opposition grows to Bradford photography collection move
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Version 0 of 1. The sudden and largely secret decision by the trustees of the Science Museum to relinquish the major part of the photography collection now in the National Media Museum, Bradford (Bradford rages at museum’s ‘cultural vandalism’, 4 March) is a backward step in our understanding of the importance of visual culture. The National Museum of Photography, Film & Television (its name until the ill-judged change in 2006) began assembling its world-ranking collection 33 years ago. It made this known throughout the world and built a team of experts from a wide spectrum of photographic art and science. But it has now made most of its remaining experts redundant, thus apparently abandoning scholars and scholarship in the region. For its first decade, and for some years thereafter, the front doors of the museum announced that it was “about the art and science of photography”. In that decade, when many leading photographers – from Britain and abroad – exhibited there, the museum attracted 8 million visitors. At the time, this was more than any other museum outside London and more than all but the big five in London. The International Herald Tribune called it “the world’s most popular institution devoted to photography”. Less than three years ago, the Science Museum opened Media Space – a £4.5m gallery designed as a London showcase for the Bradford collections. At the time, the Science Museum’s director was quoted as saying that there was “a definite correlation between art and science”, but the planned closure of Media Space later this year suggests he has changed his mind. The present move to separate the interdependent aspects of the art and science of photography reverses prevailing worldwide practice, and takes the study of photo history in Britain back several decades. Moving most of the museum’s photography collection away from Yorkshire goes against government policy when the museum was opened – to put such facilities outside London – and against the present government’s claimed “northern powerhouse” strategy. A number of us who have deposited our photographs in the museum did so specifically because we wanted our work to be preserved in the north. These new proposals have consequences too great to be left to internal decisions within the Science Museum Group – as this appears to have been; then merely announced as a fait accompli. Has the Science Museum explored other options, such as making the museum independent? Or handing it over to the city of Bradford, which owns the building and has spent considerable sums of money on it over the years? Photography in Britain unquestionably needs a national home and a national identity. Many of us who have been involved in the founding and development of the museum would welcome the opportunity to be involved in trying to solve whatever problems are being encountered in retaining the collection in a national home for photography – preferably in the north of England. Laura Ager Museum educator Clive Barda PhotographerFozia Bano Festivals and events producerEls Barents Founding director, Amsterdam photography museum Ian Beesley Photographer, course leader MA in photographyCatalin Balog Bellu Director, Photo Romania Association Barbara Binder Administrator Dorothy Bohm Photographer Jo Booth Lecturer in photographyJoe Brook Galleries, media and design managerBarbara Brown Head of photograph conservation, University of Texas Mirjam Brusius Research fellow in photographic history, Oxford University David Burder 3-D imagesNeil Burgess Agent and editor John Chillingworth Photojournalist Susie Clark Photographic conservatorJohn Davies PhotographerCaroline Dempsey ConservatorTony Earnshaw Programming and festivals directorRoy Flukinger Senior research curator, University of Texas Colin Ford Founding director, National Media MuseumRichard Fowler Museum designerJanine Freeston Photohistory researcherJudy Goldhill PhotographerPaul Graham PhotographerMichael Gray Ex-director, Fox Talbot MuseumSue Grayson Ford Ex-director, Photographers’ GalleryMartin Gresswell Ex-curator, National Media Museum Brian Griffin PhotographerDr Juliet Hacking Photographic historianMichael Hallett Photohistorian and criticPeter Hamilton Photographic curator and historianProfessor John Hannavy Photohistorian and photographerRuth Haycock Exhibition and event coordinatorNick Hedges PhotographerPaul Hill Photographer, author, teacherFrancis Hodgson Professor in culture of photography, Brighton University David Hockney Artist and photographerNancy Honey PhotographerMichael Hoppen Michael Hoppen GalleryGraham Howe Curatorial assistanceDavid Hurn PhotographerJames Hyman Hyman Gallery and Hyman CollectionPete James Independent photography curatorPaul Joyce Photographer and film-makerMartin Kemp Emeritus professor of history of art, Oxford UniversityBill Lawrence Former head of film, National Media Museum Dewi Lewis Publisher of photography booksAndrea Livingstone Trustee, Kraszna-Krausz FoundationMike Leigh Film-makerMichael Mack Publisher of photographic booksDavid Mallinson Grandson of Horace NichollsConnie McCabe Head of photograph conservation, National Gallery of Art, Washington DCEamonn McCabe PhotographerDon MCullin Photographer Daniel Meadows PhotographerDavid Mellor Professor of art history, Sussex UniversityJohanna Melvin Artist/editions consultantTerry Morden Former head of exhibitions, NMeMIga Niewiadomska PhotohistorianSean O’Hagan Photography writer, the Guardian Richard Ormond Ex-museum directorMartin Parr PhotographerIan Potter TV historian, writer, documentary makerGrace Robertson PhotographerPrunella Scales Actor Emma Shaw Heritage AV specialistSven Shaw Assistant gallery developer Kathleen Soriano Independent curator and broadcasterJen Skinner Film consultantNeal Slavin PhotographerSara Stevenson Hon senior research fellow, Glasgow University John Taylor Editor and curatorEmma Thom Web content designer and strategistDenis Thorpe PhotojournalistJohn Trenouth Television curator Sebastian Vaida Artistic director, Photo RomaniaSheena Vigors Ex-television curator, NMeMTom Vincent Ex-education and film departments, NMeM Simon Wallis Director, Hepworth Gallery, WakefieldRoger Watson Curator, Fox Talbot MuseumTimothy West Actor Philippa Wright Curator • I agree wholeheartedly with Helen Pidd’s view that exhibitions from national museums should tour (Opinion, 2 March). She cites as examples that both the National Portrait Gallery’s BP Portrait Award and Vogue 100: A Century of Style “would transfer perfectly to the north of England”. I am happy to say that both are touring exhibitions. Vogue 100 is going to Manchester Art Gallery (24 June – 30 October) and while this year’s BP Portrait Award is not touring to the north of England (though it has in the past, most recently Sunderland in 2014), it has just ended its run at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. The exhibition next opens in Ulster Museum, Belfast, on 11 March. The gallery’s Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize has just opened at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke on Trent, and we have an extensive ongoing national programme of touring displays, many of which involve working closely with our colleagues in museums in the north of England. These include the nationwide tour of the gallery’s recently acquired Van Dyck Self-portrait, visiting the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, in 2017 and Picture the Poet, currently at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery in Carlisle. Dr Nicholas CullinanDirector, National Portrait Gallery, London • The end of your report about the outrage at the transfer of the Royal Photographic Society’s collection to the Science Museum says it all: the collection is accessible only by appointment, and “about 500 people have looked at the collection in the last year”. In the Science Museum this collection would see that many in a single morning. As a keen amateur photographer, I visited Bradford a while ago for a specific exhibition and, with some free time, I asked to see some of the RPS works – and then heard about the need to make an appointment. Why have a collection which nobody sees?David ReedChairman, Hampstead Photographic Society • From early times humans have made images. Early painters mixed colours from sources far and wide, and vied to outdo each other. The early photographers were pioneer scientists, as so wonderfully illustrated by the recent Revelations exhibition at the National Media Museum. Early photography, and the moving images that grew out of it, were based on the developing chemistry of fixing images. Patents were obtained for processes by people like Fox Talbot. So far so technical. But hot on the heels of the scientists came others more interested in the creative possibilities of the techniques. Some had a deep interest in the science behind the processing of their images, some not. Two sides of a coin – science and art in the photographic image, promoted side by side in Bradford. The conservation of images is a challenge. The fading of tapestries, drawings and photographs, and the deterioration of the materials they are made from, are technical problems which the collections’ staff face (not for much longer for those who curated the Revelations exhibition and others, as they are already being made redundant as part of the Science Museum’s “proposed” changes). It seems Bradford was good enough to nurture and develop the collections so that they can become too desirable to be left in the north. The V&A has already borrowed exhibition material, as have other museums and galleries around the world. Researchers find Bradford from all over the world and seem happy with the place. Science Museum North? No! Let’s have the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford. Grand Central travels both to and from London.Pamela TidswellCleckheaton, West Yorkshire • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com |