2027 Salt and Silver - Early Paper Processes Workshops
I'll be teaching and hosting more workshops on early (1840s) paper based photographic processes at my studio in Nuneaton, UK alongside process historian Rob Douglas in 2027. This is unique opportunity to learn how to make photographs with these processes with the support of two experts in a very small group.
We've decided to host three separate workshops to each cover different elements of early paper photographic processes and the calotype in detail.
Workshop dates and topics are as follows;
- 20th and 21st May 2027: The Photogenic Drawing and the Salt Print
- 17th and 18th June 2027: Introduction to the Calotype
- 14th, 15th and 16th July 2027: The Calotype
Full details of the workshops are available here. Spaces are limited so please get in touch soon if you'd like to book in.
Ikon gallery exhibition, Birmingham
I've been working with Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and Arc Boulton Academy school to make new photographs which explore identity and heritage with pupils through making images with historical photographic processes.
The school is located close by the site of Frederick Henry Henshaw's studio, a meeting place for a generation of Victorian artists and scientists. We explored this local heritage and the pupil's interests in workshops during the summer term 2026.
This work is now part of an exhibition at Ikon which runs from 2nd - 11th October 2026. More detailsa are available on the link below;
https://www.ikon-gallery.org/exhibition/future-heritage-ikon-and-ark-birmingham-schools
PhD awarded.
My PhD has been awarded and my thesis titled "Revealing early photography in Birmingham through the practice of Jo Gane and George Shaw (1818 – 1904)" and artist's publication "Floating, as it were, on the confines of sense" are now available on the BCU Open Access research repository via the link below.
https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/17085/
My research is a conversation between George Shaw's work on early photography in 1840s Birmingham and my practice with the same historical processes in the city today.
New paper published in PhotoResearcher 45
My latest paper has been published by the European Society for the History of Photography, in their journal, PhotoResearcher, issue 45, guest edited by Professor Kelley Wilder. This special issue about Electricity and Photography was a real joy to work on and contains some fascinating papers.
I explore George Shaw's lectures about electro-magnetism and the historical significance of electrical activity in the landscape at Packington Park in my paper, titled ‘In the highest degree satisfactory to himself and honourable to the town’: George Shaw and Electrometallurgy. This involved making a new calotype in the landscape at Packington.
The paper is available via the link below.
http://www.eshph.org/journal/category/no-452026/
Our Freedom opens at Southbank Centre
At the end of 2025 I was commissioned by Open Eye Gallery as part of a national project to work with communities as part of a programme of events to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war. This launched at Southbank centre in March 2026 before embarking on a nationwide tour to a selection of the arts centres involved.
More information about the project and selected works are here;
https://ourfreedom.org.uk/exhibition/photographer/jo-gane/
I was the commissioned photographer for the Midlands and worked with many artists, art galleries and organisations in the Midlands to explore what Freedom means in 2026 and to make photographs with people. Over three months I made over 100 tintype portraits on varied locations with people involved in the project.
Some of the organisations I worked with were;
- Warwickshire Libraries
- Grain
- Knowle Royal British Legion
- Arden Academy
- Newhampton Art Centre
- Burton Brewhouse
- Brewing Heritage Trust, Burton
It was a huge privilege to meet and talk with everyone involved in this project, but especially veterans who fought in WW2.