Jo Gane: Photographic Artist & Educator


Centre for West Midlands History talk about Photography and Electroplate in 1840s Birmingham


I'm looking forward to presenting my research into Photography and Electroplate in 1840s Birmingham at the Centre for West Midlands History at University of Birmingham on Thursday 15th June from 7 - 8.30pm, online.

This talk discusses findings from my recent Midlands for Cities PHD placement at Science Museum. 

To book please follow the Eventbrite link below;

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/photography-and-electroplate-in-1840s-birmingham-tickets-646958228477


New research featured on National Media Museum website


I'm pleased to share that a breif outline and introduction to my current research into the daguerreotype and electroplate in 1840s Birmingham has been featured on Media Museum's Objects and Stories website.

This article is a brief introduction to a full academic paper which will be published in the Autumn issue of Science Museum's journal.

The article is available on the link below;

https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/faster-photographs-electroplate-daguerrotype

This research was produced on a recent PhD placement with Science Museum, funded by Midlands for Cities doctoral training partnership.

image courtesy Birmingham Museums Trust CCO


Portrait project at Nuneaton Library - seeking participants


I'm very excited to announce that I've been commissioned to make a new series of portraits with the large scale nineteenth century studio camera. 

I'm now looking for people to take part in this photographic project to record stories of objects and environments from the local area. I'm looking for people to share a broad range of everyday stories about the interaction between people and their environments and objects that might be particularly relevant to Nuneaton and Bedworth.

These portraits will form part of a larger body of work looking at our connection to places and materials through photography. The resulting images and prints will be exhibited at Nuneaton Library in July 2023 and Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park in October 2023.

To take part you’ll need to commit to being involved in three sessions to help produce your part of the artwork that will be shared publicly.

  1. Initially your portrait will be made at Nuneaton Library on a large scale nineteenth century studio camera using a historic photographic process from 1851 involving glass plates. This process takes around an hour.
  1. Following this, a further conversation will be held in the location that holds your memories.
  1. Print-based artwork to document these stories will then be produced in workshop sessions at Nuneaton Library, or in Jo Gane’s studio on Bulkington Lane, Nuneaton.

To get involved

Please email art@comptonverney.org.ukwith details of the story you’d like to contribute about your experiences of place and objects in Nuneaton and Bedworth, including your name and preferred contact details.

further details are available here.


Recreating Talbot Prints at the Bodleian, Oxford


I've been working on a commission which has just opened at the Bodleian library in Oxford as part of the exhibition 'Bright Sparks : Photography and the Talbot Archive.'

I have re-made a calotype negative and salt print of Talbot's 'Unknown Saint' using congruent photo-chemistry and processes to those Talbot was working with in the 1840s.

The print was orginally comissioned as the Talbot image contained too much silver and was too light sensitive to be shown. The act of re-making it with the orginal 15th century glass was really special and illuminates the materiality of Talbot's work in new, tactile ways.

I reflect on the process for the audio guide here

The exhibition runs until 18th June 2023 and the negative, print and notebook containing my experiments has been accessioned and will be held in the Talbot Archive at the Bodleian.


Beyond Silver at the Hive, Jewellery Quarter


I'm pleased to be exhibiting some new and old work in the exhibition Beyond Silver at The Hive in Birmingham's jewellery quarter from 19th January - 10th February 2023.

Exhibition Text by Hannah Fletcher;

Metals and minerals are of the earth - extracted, purified, dried, cut, mould, extruded, dissolved and filtered. Photographic images are of the earth, they are metals and minerals, polished, coated, sensitised, exposed, developed, washed, fixed, displayed. We rely on the sensitivity of these metals to depict the world around us, the earth that they come from. 

Silver has taken a leading role in this history - it is a history of colonisation, extraction, and depiction. From Louis Daguerre’s Daguerreotypes to Henry Fox Talbot’s calotypes in the early 1800s, to today's digital Chromogenic prints - silver is seen as unbeatable when it comes to making a quality, archivable photographic image. However, silver is not the only metal used for image making.

The London Alternative Photography Collective present “Beyond Silver”, an exhibition that explores the relationships between analogue photography and metallurgy. The exhibition will consider the use of silver in photography, as well as shining a light on many of the other metals that are used within photographic image production, in both historical and contemporary practice. In addition to silver, the exhibition will include works which utilise  lesser known metals in photography including iron, copper, tin, aluminium, platinum and palladium.

Exhibiting artists: Ignacio Acosta, Victoria Ahrens, William Arnold, Alex Boyd, Alice Cazenave, Caitriona Dunnett, Hannah Fletcher, Jo Gane, Kate Goodrich, Martha Gray, Charlotte Greenwood, Constanza Isaza,Elissa Jane Diver, Soham Joshi, Melanie King, Liane Lang, Sara Mulvey, Andrés Pardo, Oliver Raymond-Barker, Megan Ringrose, Kris Skyla, Sayako Sugawara, Diego Valente, Eileen White

Further information about the exhibition is available on the link here