the Photographer - Issue Four 2017-18

Mission impossible Jack Lowe’s Lifeboat Station Project

Kindertransport The Magazine of the BIPP / 2017-18 / Issue Four

Marion Trestler’s émigré portraits

Tim Flach’s Endangered MANDRILL Mandrillus Sphinx. Range: Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon. IUCN Red List Status: Vulnerable

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“A portrait photographer’s dream!”

Max 5* Features Rating – Digital Photographer magazine Issue 194, December 2017

73 “A slick v17 upgrade to a program that is already a firm favourite.

Highly recommended.”

– Professional ImageMaker magazine, December 2017

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Issue Four, 2017-18

Tim Flach / Endangered 2 In his latest book, Tim Flach explores the idea that without pictures facts in the form of words alone are detached from our consciousness – and so sets out to bond that connection in a way that only his images can the Photographer is published four times a year by the British Institute of Professional Photography, Ardenham Court, Oxford Road, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire HP19 8HT. T: 01296 642020 E: info@bipp.com W: www.bipp.com President: Kevin Wilson Hon FBIPP Chief Executive: Chris Harper FBIPP Directors: Bryn Griffiths FBIPP, Roy Meiklejon FBIPP, Denise Swanson FBIPP, Frank Tomlinson FBIPP, David Wheeler FBIPP

Marion Trestler / Kindertransport 30 Often haunting and elegant, and sometimes humorous and characterful, Marion Trestler’s émigré portraits tackle probably the most difficult genre Bella West / Awards judging 44 In Bella West’s notes from chairing the 2018 BIPP Awards judging, she provides unique perspective on what the process is like on the ground and what can make all the difference to an entry Membership Services Advisory Board Annemarie Farley FBIPP (National) Frank Tomlinson FBIPP (National) Gerry Coe Hon FBIPP (National) Denise Swanson FBIPP (National) Jo Scott FBIPP (National) Scott Hogg ABIPP – Scotland Faizal Kirk ABIPP – North East David Stanbury FBIPP – North West Katrina Whitehead LBIPP – Yorkshire Bryn Griffiths FBIPP – Midlands

Image © Jack Lowe

Image © Tim Flach

Jack Lowe / Lifeboat Station Project 14 A mid-life correction, an extended journey and an early photographic process came together to give life to Jack’s epic project that brought the RNLI some 26m views… in its first year

BIPP Company partners, member benefits, regions and events 48 NPG / Victorian Giants 54 No fusty portraits and bowler hats – this is the birth of artistic portraiture Business / Pension provision 62 Scott Johnson FBIPP – South East David Wheeler FBIPP – South West Roy Meiklejon FBIPP – Cotswolds John Miskelly FBIPP – Northern Ireland Editor: Jonathan Briggs, editor@bipp.com Advertising: Tel 01296 642020 Email: jack@bipp.com UK Subscribers £20, EU £40, Rest of the World £50 ISSN: 0031-8698. Printed and bound by Magazine Printing Company, Hoddesdon, Herts

Neither the British Institute of Professional Photography (BIPP) nor any of its employees, members, contractors or agents accepts any responsibility whatsoever for loss of or damage to photographs, illustrations or manuscripts or any other material submitted, howsoever caused. The views expressed in this magazine are the views of individual contributors and do not necessarily represent the views of the BIPP. All advertisements are accepted and all editorial matter published in good faith. The Publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, that any particular product or service is available at the time of publication or at any given price. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means whatsoever, or stored in a retrieval system, or broadcast, published or exhibited without the prior permission of the publisher. This magazine is the copyright of the BIPP without prejudice to the right of contributors and photographers as defined in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. Registered at Stationers’ Hall, Ref B6546, No. 24577. © BIPP 2018

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Life on the edge Scientific facts have been likened to words in a dictionary: on their own they are not very engaging, but once assembled into a story or a poem they can capture the imagination like never before – a role that Tim Flach’s Endangered perfectly fulfills

PHILIPPINE EAGLE Scientific name: Pithecophaga Jefferyi Range: Philippine islands of Leyte, Luzon, Mindanao, and Samar IUCN Red List Status: Critically Endangered

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or 20 years, Tim Flach’s work has been concerned with telling the stories of animals, and of our relationship with them: how we look at them, how we imagine them, and how our understanding of them is shaped. His books have led him naturally into dialogues with conservation scientists about how animal portraiture might be used to communicate the challenges they face in their work: it is easy to garner public sympathy for the plight of the tiger and the panda, but how could the same be achieved for less photogenic creatures, like vultures or zooplankton, which perform equally important roles within their ecosystems?

Tim says: ‘Creating a sense of personality encourages a sense of kinship with the animals – brings them into our world. Using a style of representation culturally associated with humans engages the viewer and helps draw people to the stories that reside around ecosystems.’

On a trip to the Amazon for his work on Lewis Blackwell’s Rainforest (Abrams, 2014), Flach noticed that the local populations were often migrant workers who, rather than seeing themselves as custodians of natural resources (as he might have expected) instead depended upon their exploitation for their livelihoods. This made the urgency of the problem of conservation more

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prominent to him, and when his publisher approached him to discuss a new book project, it seemed obvious that he should use it to help to tell the story of how the environment is changing, and to help move the conversation on to what it is that we are doing to our world.

The result is Endangered (Abrams, 2017), a collaboration with conservationists from around the world that has taken two years. Tim thinks that the book represents a natural coming together of all the strands in his work that have been developing since his first book, Equus, in 2008. Endangered was not simply a matter of ticking off species from the at-risk list, but rather entailed asking the scientists which they considered the most important stories, and the ones that needed to be told with the most urgency.

He then had to work out where in the world he needed to travel in order to make the pictures that would help to tell these stories. What is clear is that the individual photographs are parts of a much larger narrative.

‘The more important idea is that the coral, the ice, the changing climate – everything is connected,’ he says. ‘Facts and scientific information are not the only ways to communicate the message; rather we need to engage with people emotionally, to compel people to take action.

I am hoping that people will get a better idea of these stories through my work.’

Image © Tim Flach

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BENGAL TIGER Scientific name: Panthera Tigris Range: Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russian Federation, Thailand; possibly also Laos, North Korea, Vietnam IUCN Red List Status: Endangered

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As we have come to expect from Flach’s work, the photographs are stunning. A beautifully lit mandrill (on this issue’s cover) calmly considers the viewer, every hair perfect as if he has come straight from hair and make-up. The critically endangered Philippine eagle is captured in a remarkable trio of photographs that look so much like a fashion shoot that one can almost imagine the photographer coaxing the subject to look left, to look away, to puff up his feathers. The eagle is named Pag-asa (‘hope’), and was the first eagle to be bred in captivity at the Philippine Eagle Foundation on Mindanao, where the photograph was made.

Tracking down the elusive saiga (right) took two trips to a remote area of Russia. Hunted almost to extinction by the 1920s, successful conservation measures saw the population recover. The early 1990s saw over a million of these antelopes living across the Eurasian steppe, but illegal hunting and recent disease linked to climate change has placed them once again on the list of critically endangered species. It is the males who are pursued, by poachers on mopeds until they die from exhaustion. Their horns are then

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Endangered

by Tim Flach, prologue and epilogue by Dr Jonathan Baillie, body text by Sam Wells. (Abrams, £50)

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Image © Tim Flach

SAIGA Scientific name: Saiga Tatarica Range: Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russian Federation, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan IUCN Red List Status: Critically Endangered

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Image © Tim Flach

CHALICE CORAL Scientific name: Echinophyllia Aspera Range: Indian and Pacific Oceans IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern Corals form when a single polyp attaches to a hard surface then multiplies. The hard coral structure is formed by secretion of calcium carbonate armour, which builds onto the skeleton of the polyp colony. Over centuries coral reefs are formed. As the oceans absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, this produces carbonic acid, which begins to dissolve the coral. Ocean acidity has increased by 30% since the Industrial Revolution, a figure that is projected to rise to 150% by the end of the century.

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ground down and sold in East Asia for traditional medicine. Tim’s first trip, in unbearable summer heat which caused his lenses to malfunction, resulted only in a series of out-of-focus pictures of these easily spooked creatures. A second ten-day trip in winter extremes of -30 degrees required Tim to lie motionless for hours in a ‘fly-infested hole’, wearing a Russian Arctic sniper suit, and using the longest lens that Canon could provide (800mm). The single headshot presented here gives no indication of the difficulty involved in creating it, and is, of course, as perfect as it

would have been had it been shot in the studio with his usual Hasselblad H4D-60.

The book is first and foremost a book of photography, but the message of the understated text is unecquivocal, and brings the pictures to life. We are told how some animals are hunted for bushmeat, others for trophies or for the illegal pet trade. More still are losing their habitat due to logging, agriculture, the expansion of cities, flooding and rising temperatures caused by anthropogenic climate change.

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INDIAN GHARIAL Scientific name: Gavialis Gangeticus Range: India, Nepal; possibly also Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Pakistan IUCN Red List Status: Critically Endangered. Image © Tim Flach

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The Indian gharial was once found in huge numbers from the Indus River in Pakistan east to the Irrawaddy Myanmar, and all through India’s great rivers. The species has long had to contend with persecution from fishermen, and being hunted for its skin, eggs, meat and body parts. More recently irrigation, engineering projects and the encroachment of human settlements mean that today they number just a couple of hundred, which are mostly found in two sanctuaries in northern India.

Image © 2017 Tim Flach

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WHITE-BACKED AFRICAN VULTURE Scientific name: Gyps Africanus Range: Sub-Saharan Africa IUCN Red List Status: Critically Endangered

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Some creatures are already gone. The text on corals tells us how scientists have pinpointed five mass extinction events in the Earth’s geological timeline. The coral record suggests that primary causes for these events have been changes in sea level, acidity and temperature, all of which are happening again now. The concern is that we may be entering the sixth extinction event, and that we are the cause.

The book’s epilogue, by Professor Jonathan Baillie, the Chief Scientist at the National Geographic Society, describes Endangered as ‘a first step in exploring how and why we connect emotionally to other forms of life through visual imagery’. He asks whether the book has made the reader care more about these threatened species, and warns: ‘Never before has it been so important to connect people with nature – our future depends on it.’ tP 12 the PHOTOGRAPHER / 2017 / Issue Four

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‘With courage, nothing is impossible’ Jack Lowe’s epic Lifeboat Station Project found its magic ingredient in a wet plate collodion process dating from the mid-19th Century. Despite its complexity, his work depicting the RNLI delivers striking New Heroes of the sea

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© 2017 Jack Lowe / The Lifeboat Station Project

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hen Jack Lowe was a little boy he had two loves: photography, and the lifeboats. As a young man he became a photographer for a while, moving down to London where he first worked as an assistant before becoming an advertising photographer. Unhappy with the results he was getting from his lab, Jack started doing his own scanning and printing and the prints were good enough that within a couple of years he found that he had moved full time into printmaking and digital retouching for other photographers. Fast forward ten years to 2012 and Jack was spending most of his time crouched in front of a computer screen; he describes what happened next as a midlife correction.

‘Some people were a little upset when I stopped printing,’ he says ‘but the challenges had gone. I felt like I was just going to work, and I knew that needed to change.’

On a piece of paper he wrote down the things that he loved and the list was short: Photography; The Sea; Lifeboats… A map of all the RNLI (The Royal National Lifeboat Institution) stations in the British Isles on an old tea towel in his kitchen gave him the idea that was to eventually become the Lifeboat Station Project. The first proposal to the RNLI was for a series of photographs of the view from each of the 238 stations. The pitch fell on deaf ears, and the idea was put onto the back burner.

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Left: Boathouse View – Cromer, Norfolk

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Right: Port Isaac, Cornwall

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As Jack continued with the day job he was looking into old photographic processes, searching for a connection to a feeling that he remembered from his childhood darkroom. Some early tintypes were posted on Instagram: ‘The reaction was fantastic, especially to the portraits – people seemed really struck by them. Wet plate was the magic ingredient, the key to unlocking the engagement I envisaged.’

A revised proposal was submitted successfully in 2014. The views from the boathouses remained, but there was now to be a group portrait of every RNLI crew, along with individual portraits. Crucially, of course, this time around the entire project was to be made on a 10x12 glass plate camera, using an antique process that dated back to the 1850s.

With 238 RNLI stations, many in some of the remotest parts of the UK and Ireland, the project might seem large enough without the extra work and complications of the wet plate collodion process. The process itself brings numerous constraints, not least that everything, from coating to development, must be completed before the plate dries out. Just as Roger Fenton had his horse-drawn photographic van in 1855 Crimea, today Jack Lowe has ‘Neena’, a decommissioned NHS ambulance repurposed as a mobile darkroom. Added to this the photographer has to deal with an incredibly narrow dynamic range, and an old lens which loses sharpness if you move too far away from the centre of the image.

Exposure times which range between six and twenty seconds mean that the portrait subjects will usually need to have something to steady themselves on, and a paper-thin depth of field often dictates the arrangement of a group. The collodion process also has a narrow range of sensitivity to light, mainly registering from blue upwards into the UV band of the spectrum. This means not only that skies are rendered with very little detail, but also that the resulting image is greatly affected by the ambient UV levels.

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In the first year of the project alone, the RNLI calculates that The Lifeboat Station Project brought them 26,000,000 views from coverage on TV, radio, press and social media

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© 2017 Jack Lowe / The Lifeboat Station Project

Below: Julianne and Rosalyn, Filey, Yorkshire

Thick clouds from a storm can cause UV levels to drop to a point where it is almost impossible to make a satisfactory portrait, resulting in dark and somber plates with a very hard light. More importantly, as Jack discovered early on, UV levels at our latitude are affected greatly by the seasons. As he enters the fourth year of the project he will now only go on the road to make the photographs from March to September.

Talking to Jack, it is apparent that the intrinsic difficulty of the process contributes enormously to the success of the project.

RNLI stations are not unused to photographers, and on his blog

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Follow Jack: www.lifeboatstationproject.com www.patreon.com/jacklowe

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Below: Behind-the-scenes at Fishguard, Pembrokeshire – September, 2016.

Image ©: John Chennells

Jack explains how at first he had to overcome the feeling that he was just another photographer. Whereas most of us might pull out a D-SLR, shoot 100 frames and be gone within a couple of hours, the wet plate process might require a couple of days at a location in order to produce a number of photographs that could be counted on one hand. The amount of time required to set up and then take each shot, combined with the unfamiliarity of the large wooden box and Jack in his canvas apron, forces a seriousness of purpose upon the occasion that can’t easily be created with the modern digital process. Jack likes to bring his individual subjects with him into Neena to watch the plate develop. If a subject was initially sceptical, that is often the moment when their doubts drop away.

Heroes of the past ‘You have made us look like the lifeboat heroes of the past’ is a

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Right: Jack Lowe with his 1905 Thornton Pickard camera in front of Ilfracombe’s Shannon Class lifeboat.

Image ©: Duncan Davis

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common reaction on seeing the developed plates. Jack believes that the reason for this is that they are the same people: the RNLI today might have boats and technologies of which those early lifeboatmen could not have dreamed, but they are still crewed by men and women who are willing to risk their lives, in the worst of conditions, to help others. The use of a process that is almost as old as the RNLI itself puts this into focus and collapses the gulf of time between today’s crews and the crews of the past.

The connection he makes with his subjects means that each time a new station is visited, the number of followers on his

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Below: Margate, Kent

© 2017 Jack Lowe / The Lifeboat Station Project

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Right: Clovelly Village and RNLI Lifeboat Station, Devon

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various social media platforms goes up. The volunteers want to follow his progress, and as they tell their friends about the photographer who visited their station, he gains more followers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The growing sense of engagement from the RNLI crews around the coast is intrinsic to the project’s viability. Jack describes how the photographs have almost become secondary, and that the most important thing is that the whole project now feels like a collaboration between him and his subjects: ‘If you are a photographer it should be a given that you can take a good photograph.

But, beyond that, what does photography add to the story of these RNLI men and women? I’m making great efforts to really understand what it’s like to be part of their communities, and my reward is that story to tell.’

January 2018 will be the third anniversary of the project, which is scheduled for completion sometime in 2020. Jack feels that he has recently reached a turning point with it. He had initially kept on a few of his old print clients, but 2017 was the first year that he went full time with the project as his sole source of income. It doesn’t appear to have been easy – on 12 January 2015, the day he set out for the very first shoot, his wife presented him with the notice of eviction they had just received on the family home.

Whilst that hurdle was overcome, he talks of days driving Neena across the country when he would be nervously watching the fuel gauge, unsure how he was going to fill the tank, or indeed how he would pay for that night’s accommodation. A recent blog post entitled ‘Mission Fatigue’ marked something of a watershed moment: ‘Over the last three years, I haven’t been so good at showing the down times on the road. In an effort to keep the Project as a “good news story”, I’ve become extremely skilled at masking any difficulties.

In short, people close to me have been saying I make it look too easy.’

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Left: Five Helms, Minehead, Somerset

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The post went into some detail about these difficulties, and the response from his followers was immediate. Messages of support flooded in, along with orders for prints that people had been thinking about, and simple donations. A few weeks later a limited edition LSP key-ring, engraved with a quote from the RNLI’s founder, sold out in two hours from his webshop.

‘With courage, nothing is impossible’ Sir William Hillary, founder of the RNLI

Jack thinks that November 2017 has been a turning point. A friend pointed him towards a crowdfunding site called Patreon, and he immediately saw that it might be a good fit. On the site, he saw a couple who were sailing round the world, raising funds through many tiny contributions from followers who in return received access to video diaries, or small merchandise items. Everyone can still follow The Lifeboat Station Project on Instagram, but with his Patreon page a donation as small as £3 a month allows followers access to special blog posts and video content, and priority access to special editions like the key ring, or prints.

Jack has found that if people are enjoying what they can access free of charge then some of them are also happy to respond to a request for help in funding that content. After only a month of using Patreon, the Lifeboat Station Project has 60 patrons and Jack believes that he has finally passed the tipping point where people realised that the project needs, and deserves, support: ‘This started as a photographic project, but the funding of it has become interesting in itself. I knew that the support would be there as long as I was imaginative about it. I have enjoyed freeing my mind from the constraints of the art world.

When the culture changes you have to figure out how to adapt to it – if millions of people are on Facebook being entertained free of charge, you can moan all you like but it makes no difference.

It’s taken perseverance, but I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.’ tP Issue Four / 2017-18 / the PHOTOGRAPHER 27

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Fujifilm

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Echoes of War in rural Somerset How a Somerset museum is using latest Fujifilm imaging techniques to help showcase rural life during The Great War

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awrence Bostock needed help. The Head of Design at the Glastonbury-based Somerset Rural Life Museum was planning a major new ‘lest we forget’ exhibition that would explore the many ways in which the county was affected by the events of the First World War. The local area was used as a place of respite and recuperation for wounded soldiers. Red Cross hospitals were set-up across the county and many country houses and schools were converted for military use.

Using objects, archive documents, photographs and a remarkable collection of watercolours illustrating daily life at a local hospital (that would be digitally displayed for the first time) the Bostock mission was to reveal how profoundly the war completely changed rural communities in Somerset.

He explained: ‘This important exhibition will run for six months until June 2 and we expect tens of thousands of visitors to come to our museum –

which has recently been the recipient of a £2.4 million facelift.’

He added: ‘For Echoes of War I wanted to embrace latest imaging technology wherever possible when it came to display, but of course budget is always a key issue. I had discovered a profile that said it could handle digital wallpaper, so I contacted Chas Halsey, the expert MD at Focal Point Imaging in Exeter, and in turn Chas contacted Mark Wade, a senior imaging product specialist at Fujifilm, to get samples sent to us.”

The museum had invested in a brand new super-fast Epson SCP20000 64-inch-wide large-format printer and Fujifilm’s powerful ImageHunter RIP software, providing easy resizing, tiling and cropping.

Said Lawrence: ‘I really wanted to save money by printing and fitting all

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the elements in-house, so Fujifilm sent us samples of their personal matte wallpaper – and it worked perfectly. We used it in green banding stripes, rather than have to commit to painting areas of the wall and then apply vinyl. It was easy to print all the text, and then the images, all in one go. We used self-adhesive vinyl fabric media which has a really good texture and is simplicity itself to apply to a wall. Mark helped us with technical support and a few tricks of the trade.’

‘I’ve been organising exhibitions for 30 years and I recall the days where we would need to outsource photographic black and white printed text panels, which we then over-mounted with our colour photographs. These were the old traditional methods – but this is now all about evolution. Just having the technology to design on the computer, press a button and see it come out at the other end on to media that you can handle yourself and simply adjust on a wall as you wish, is nothing short of brilliant.’

He added: ‘This system means we can save a great deal of money and we have become very proficient at it. The museum is now producing very high standard exhibitions and people can’t understand how we do it for the cost.

Focal Point MD Chas Halsey, said: ‘Lawrence’s smart use of wallpaper, self-adhesive media and fast-drying Fujifilm photo satin papers – plus a little help from his friends at Focal Point and Fujifilm – has meant he could do everything in-house extremely cost-effectively.’

Fujifilm senior product specialist Mark Wade added: ‘As Lawrence has seen, our equipment and media product line-up is constantly evolving to make things easier and ever more cost-effective for our clients. We are here to answer questions and deliver bespoke solutions.’ www.swheritage.org.uk/ echoes-of-war www.focalpointphotographic.co.uk www.fujifilm.eu/uk

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Safe passage Spanning eight years and tackling one of the most difficult portraiture types, Marion Trestler’s collection of émigrés – many of whom arrived on the Kindertransport – offer up haunting and elegant imagery

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here’s a great deal of risk involved in embarking on a portraiture project where the subjects are difficult to tie down, difficult to communicate with and where age is no respector of a photographer’s own aims, objectives and master plan. Marion Trestler set out on what would become the book and exhibition Vienna – London: Passage to Safety some eight years ago.

Trestler was so committed to the project that she would often make repeated visits to her subjects, striking up continuing friendships and enjoying experiences that will indeed live long in her own memory. A particular visit in some ways set the tone for the whole collection, as one of her early portraits was of none other than Wolf Suschitzky (left). Visiting a man whose expertise crossed the two genres of stills and moving image; for whom the word iconic can truly be applied to images of his such as the evacuation of London Zoo or that snapshot of a girl where not much more than her legs, shoes and the hem of her skirt can be seen as she leaps nimbly across a puddle on the pavement (Charing Cross Road, London, 1937), was nerve-wracking to say the very least. Trestler explains: ‘I think he was very kind to me… in the end. He was a man who could perform on both sides of the lens and that was very apparent to me – the immediacy of his own approach to my portraiture was a surprise. It was on some level as if his force of personality was running me, as a photographer, and I had to gain his respect by battling back and making

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it mine. That experience affected me really quite significantly and will be something I will never forget. I’m honoured to have gone through that experience and process with him.’

The aim of her project was to create émigré portraits in photographs and words; eventually a set of 21 present-day portraits of those who had found their way to Britain after Austria fell under the sway of the National Socialist regime in 1938.

The book, edited by Trestler, couples set-piece portraits with the subjects’ own historical photographs and documents from the era as well as in-depth interviews that reveal the life stories of each.

The stories that unfold are typically varied and diverse; often unexpected and sometimes what you’d even call successful lives.

But all are bound by the sense of shock experienced following the Anschluss or annexation of Austria. The leaving behind of family members – who were later murdered – has haunted them for the rest of their lives.

‘I have no memories of Vienna or of our deportation,’ says Erich Reich (right) more than 70 years after the event. The little boy who stands in London Liverpool Street station’s Kindertransport memorial is Erich. He was taken in by a family from Sudetenland who lived in Dorking. ‘They were good, honest, hardworking people,’ he explains. Erich thought that Emily and Joseph Kreibich were his real parents; he attended the local school and church on Sundays. But this image of his life and background came to a shuddering halt in 1945 when a stranger appeared. ‘I was outside playing with my scooter and suddenly there was this man. It was my brother, Jacques. I had no memory of my real family.’ Erich is the founder of the charity fundraising, activity travel specialist, Classic Tours that has raised more than £90m for around 300 different charities. He received a Knighthood in 2011 for his charitable achievements. He is chairman of the Kindertransport-Association of Jewish Refugees that looks

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Alice Teichova and husband Mikulás Teich met in Exeter in 1940 in a club frequented by refugees, many of them Czech students. Her father introduced them. ‘Here is my daughter!’ he said. Mikulás replied: ‘My condolences!’

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after the ‘Kinder’ to this day. He says: ‘I am very Jewish. My parents were murdered because they were religious. I am not religious, but it would pain me deeply if my children were to cast off Judaism.’

Trestler’s son, Lucian, provides a dedication for the book: ‘If you’ve convinced yourself that we are other, that we are not one people on this earth, that we should be divided, I pity your damaged soul.’ Trestler herself explains: ‘When I started the project I could hardly have foreseen that eight years later, in 2017, the world would be facing a new era of mass migration with rising levels of xenophobia, exile and displacement across continents. The horrific lessons of the Second World War are clearly in danger of being forgotten.’ It is this that makes this collection timely and generates a definite sense of discomfort.

Amongst the logistical challenges of taking on interviews with increasingly elderly subjects and the organising of an array of different writers, sat the core photographic idea for the project.

The concept itself was always clearly defined and relatively easy to set out ahead (although time was never on Trestler’s side).

The major difficulty was how the present-day portraits would become more than just a collection of people of a certain generation. Each was always going to be an environmental portrait of a type – the obvious issues of mobility and diminishing health saw to that – but since each image would be the lynchpin for the chapter, the feeling and the individual story had to find its way through the lens.

That Trestler was entirely embedded in the editorial process, as well as the photography, is probably the foundation stone for the tension and character that prevails each portrait – as is so obviously found in Ernest Schwarzbard’s portrait (right). That Ernest preferred to communicate by means of postcard, says it all. But more often than not, going into the home of a subject is

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not the easiest platform for creative direction and organisation of a portrait. Trestler comments: ‘It was always hard. I can’t think of a single session that wasn’t fraught with problems, and the thin line that had to be trodden between being intrusive and achieving workable material; between providing direction and allowing sometimes strong and stubborn characters to dominate. There’s a lot to be gained as a photographer, however, by doing the “difficult thing”. I’m an entirely different person, photographically speaking, than I was at the beginning – even though that process and criticism has often been a bitter pill.’

For Trestler, the difficulties seemed to keep on rolling in.

Almost every instance of a sitting would present the polar opposite of what you’d want from a photographic perspective. You can’t exactly go around re-arranging houses just for what you want pictorially. She agrees: ‘There was a point at which I had to try and relax within the surrounds I found myself in. You can only go so far, and to be frank sometimes you have to be willing to diverge and come away with a different type of picture than that which you thought you wanted. To say the sessions were fluid would be putting it lightly. But I think what helped was that I did understand very closely the people and the stories I was looking to document. Given time I did fine tune my sense of attitude that would come across from the subject – be that authority and confidence, a sanguine nature or thoughtful introspection. What was important was that they wanted to give me that personality and put across how their experience being part of the Kindertransport had shaped them. As the project proceeded I would say I got better at letting them speak through the picture, and becoming the facilitator of that opportunity.’

Joseph Horovitz (right) was born in Vienna, Austria and was 12 years old when he was forced to flee his home city. His father was the publisher Béla Horovitz, the co-founder in 1923, with

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Eric Sanders has spent considerable time sharing his eperiences of and knowledge about exile and forced emigration with researchers from Austria, Germany and the UK. As a cross-border intermediary in the truest sense of the word, he has opened many doors – including his knowledge of the British war intelligence service known as the Special Operations Executive which was responsible for sabotage, subversion and supporting the anti-Nazi resistance in Europe.

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Trata Maria Drescha with her mother Lisa. ‘I am definitely a “glass half full” person.’

Ludwig Goldscheider, of Phaidon Press. He studied music and modern languages at New College, Oxford, and later attended the Royal College of Music in London, studying composition with Gordon Jacob. His musical career began in 1950, when he became director of music at the Bristol Old Vic. He was subsequently active as a conductor of ballet and opera. The ballet Alice in Wonderland is probably his best-known work. When he talks about his life today (at the time of the interview, aged 85) he does so in Schönbrunner Deutsch – elegant turn-of-the-century Viennese. In some ways he seems from another world. Trestler’s backlit portrait only serves to emphasise this impression. His language is full of sharp wit. He says: ‘Thanks to Hitler I never had to learn

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‘Vienna – London: Passage to Safety’; Émigré portraits in photographs and words. Marion Trestler (Ed). Published by SYNEMA Publikationen (Vienna) 2017. Hardcover, 224pp & 100 ills. ISBN: 978-3-901644-73-3. £25 UK distributor: Art Data orders@artdata.co.uk

Greek.’ Joseph was really resistant to the idea of posing with the piano and was emphatic about how he wanted to be photographed. It is now his favourite image of himself… But when Marion Trestler talks about the impetus for the project, no quips can diminish the seriousness of what it’s about: ‘What stood out was the speed at which events took place. From lives of seeming normality and stability to impending, unspeakable horror. Many of the men had fought in the Great War. They had lined the trenches and some had been decorated. Many were brought up

by Catholic families and some didn’t even know they were Jewish.

They felt so entirely Austrian. Their fates would often rest on tiny incidents of chance and whim.’ tP www.mariontrestler.com

Image © Marion Trestler

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Below: Otto Deutsch (left) with his cousin Alfred Kessler. ‘The only thing I really hate is when people of my generation say “we didn’t know about it”. That’s hypocrisy.’

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PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS 2018

PA S S I O N S

R U N

H I G H

A N D

A PRINT CAN BE ALL N O T E S F R O M AWA R D S J U D G I N G B E L L A W E S T F B I P P

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irstly, my sincere thanks to my team of judges who gave their time at this year’s awards judging. The team was made up of David Stanbury FBIPP, Carolyn Mendhelson, Emily Hancock FBIPP, and Paul Wenham Clark FBIPP who were selected for their experience within the industry and in their fields.

There was a professional synchronicity between them – sometimes during a judging process, passions run high which – although unintended – can result in a lack of equilibrium amongst the final judging. I’m delighted that this wasn’t the case in the 2018 judging – just an abundance of enthusiasm, constructive discussions, professional respect and all aiming for the same outcome, to find the best within our organisation.

The BIPP does not give awards freely, it is the judges’ decisions to evaluate and reward those that have created outstanding work, and I mean truly world class. This relates not just to concept and execution but embellishment and presentation – the finished print can determine the difference between a merit and a bronze or a gold or silver.

Do consider this when entering any print award – the awarded work this year was all printed on beautiful stock, sympathetic to the nature of the content.

The specification for submissions in each category was a set of five prints per entry. Some consideration has to be put to the selection and my advice would be to imagine you are selecting a set of images for an exhibition – so they firmly illustrate one photographer’s style. Possibly the category where this needs most careful consideration is within

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IMAGE © STUART MANSFIELD FBIPP | BIPP PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2017

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PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS 2018

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Weddings as many of us are mixing styles (as that is what is being sought today). Be clear about the style that you want to portray (this process also applies to your selection for qualification and also your own business marketing and who you are selling to). Show that your understand light and use it to create dynamic, also that you have a flair for composition and storytelling that goes beyond the norm.

Use the idea of entering next year’s awards, or creating a qualification panel, to go out on every job and do something for yourself, that takes you out of the norm.

All members of the jury addressed each set of prints with open minds, they listened and discussed all the entries – albeit some categories and sets in more detail than others. You can be the finest photographer in the world, but the most important skill that makes a good judge is the ability to listen and be open to other views. As a Chairperson looking in, there is nothing greater than judges asking each other to explain in detail, why they are so passionate about a photograph – and vice versa. It’s good, healthy discussion.

I am always very aware of the time and expense that entrants put into these awards so it is important that each entry is given time and debate. This year did not disappoint – some categories stronger than others of course and there are categories that we have not awarded.

Thank you to everyone who submitted work this year and do remember, the true value of entering awards is not necessarily in the winning, but the process that leads you there.

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IMAGE: AARON DICKSON | PROVISIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2017 | JOINT WINNER

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BIPP / Company partners

Trust the UK’s leading, multi award-winning professional print lab to print your images. Loxley Colour has a long history in the photography industry, which has given us invaluable insight into what makes the perfect printed product. Choose from a wide range of hand made products direct to you or your customer from our 72, 000 sq. ft. facilities located in the UK. Whether it’s photographic and Giclée prints, the iconic Bellissimo albums range, wall products that wow or a complete mounting and framing service that offers photographers limitless options, Loxley Colour is the lab of choice for professional photographers who care about quality. Enjoy Complimentary Colour Correction, a free test prints service and excusive discounts for BIPP members’ qualifications prints.

Quick, convenient online ordering and an award winning customer service team make partnering with Loxley easy.

For more information visit the website or contact us on 0845 519 5000 or cs@loxleycolour.com www.loxleycolour.com

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BIPP / Company partners

AIM has recently launched a new insurance package for the modern professional photographer which combines very competitive premiums via interest-free Direct Debit with leading-edge cover, which has been extended to help deal with some of the risks associated with operating in the digital environment. Examples include: • computer and equipment breakdown • data reinstatement • cover against damage caused by computer hackers This year we have appointed AIM as broker to look after the BIPP’s own insurances. As well as providing a significant cost saving, we can thoroughly recommend from first-hand experience their friendly personal service.

Please do give them a try when your renewal comes around! www.aimriskervices.com

One Vision Imaging are one of the largest professional photographic laboratories to be found in the UK. For well over 30 years One Vision Imaging have been servicing professional photographers with the very highest standards of processing and finishing. As imaging specialists they also cater for many other sectors such as design and advertising agencies, graphic designers, Government funded bodies as well as keen enthusiasts.

Not only do they offer the most comprehensive professional photographic services to be found anywhere in Europe but they pledge to ensure that their service is an unrivalled experience and that this is matched by their quality of product and product range. www.onevisionimaging.com

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BIPP / Regions & Events

Cotswolds Stefanie Calleja-Gera ABIPP stef@scg-photography.com

Midlands Paul Witney ABIPP linkingrings@hotmail.com

North East Kevin Weatherly LBIPP kevinweatherly@mac.com

2018 PORTFOLIO REVIEWS If you are thinking of going for your first – or upgrading to your next – BIPP qualification, you might like to take advantage of a Portfolio Review to gain an understanding of what you need to do to qualify and how long the process might take.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION • Portfolio Reviews cost £50 for Members, £90 for Friends, and £100 for Non-Members (inclusive of VAT).

• All Portfolio Review sessions run for 45-50 minutes.

Portfolio Reviews offer professional photographers the opportunity to receive face-to-face advice on their work from one of BIPP’s Approved Assessors. Our Assessors fully understand the requirements for qualification and are highly experienced photographers with a wealth of industry knowledge.

We recommend candidates seek guidance on preparing for qualification at a portfolio review before booking a qualification date.

• Please bring approximately 40 low-res images (no more than 5MB per image) on a laptop or tablet.

• If you are a non-member interested in applying for Provisional membership please bring copies of your insurance.

• Please note portfolio reviews are non-refundable and non-transferable.

2018 PORTFOLIO REVIEWS DATES Wednesday 21 February 2018 London Tuesday 13 March 2018 London Saturday 17 March 2018 The Photography Show,

NEC Birmingham Sunday 18 March 2018 The Photography Show,

NEC Birmingham Monday 19 March 2018 The Photography Show,

NEC Birmingham Tuesday 17 April 2018 Falkirk Wednesday 18 April 2018 Holiday Inn Gosforth

Park, Newcastle Upon Tyne Thursday 19 April 2018 DW Stadium Wigan

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Tuesday 22 May 2018 London Tuesday 12 June 2018 Sandy Park, Exeter Wednesday 13 June 2018 Cardiff City Stadium Wednesday 22 August 2018 London Thursday 18 October 2018 Inn On The Lake Hotel, Gravesend Friday 19 October 2018 Franklin Gardens, Northampton Saturday 20 October 2018 Doncaster Racecourse Thursday 22 November 2018 The Ricoh Arena, Coventry Wednesday 28 November 2018 London

For further information and details on booking visit www.bipp.com/events 03/02/2018 17:49

North West Jonathan Beer FBIPP info@jonathanbeer. co.uk

Northern Ireland David Campbell ABIPP marlin1@ btconnect.com

Scotland Jon Lee ABIPP jonleephoto@ o2.co.uk

South East Chris Harper FBIPP chris@bipp.com

South West Bella West FBIPP bellawest@me.com

Yorkshire Katrina Whitehead LBIPP katrinabipp @gmail.com

2018 QUALIFICATION ASSESSMENT DATES Licentiate & Associate Wednesday 25 April 2018 Submission Deadline

Buckinghamshire Friday 30 March 2018

Licentiate & Associate Licentiate & Associate Licentiate & Associate Fellowship

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire

Wednesday 18 July 2018 Wednesday 10 October 2018 Wednesday 7 November 2018 Thursday 8 November 2018

IMPORTANT INFORMATION • The non-transferrable/non-refundable fee for 2018 is £150 inc VAT. • At least 4 weeks before Assessment (by the deadline date) the following items need to be sent to Head Office: • Completed Membership Application Form (for non-members) • Completed Qualification Submission Form • Submission Fee • 4 copies of your Supporting Evidence • Copies of Professional Insurance • Your disc of 25-50 images including digital copies of your supporting evidence • Printed images (or albums in the case of Weddings) & supporting evidence should be taken on the assessment day

ASSESSMENT DAY • On the day of your Assessment you will need to attend with your portfolio of 25-50 images and any other supporting evidence which is not contained in the book or folder submitted previously.

PLEASE NOTE You are able to book your assessment online however it cannot be confirmed until your Qualification Submission Form, submission fee and supporting documentation have all been received by Head Office.

No refund will be given in the event that you wish to change or cancel your assessment If you have any queries please contact Head Office on 01296 642020.

• Please note that you must have booked and submitted your paperwork, CDs and supporting evidence by the submission deadline.

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BIPP / FEP

FEDERATION OF EUROPEAN PHOTOGRAPHERS AND EMERGING TALENT AWARD BIPP is the sole UK link to the Federation of European Photographers (FEP), a network of Professional Photographers Associations from across Europe, recognised by the EU and officially registered in Belgium.

It represents the interests of member associations on a European scale on topics like education, training, professional standards, authors’ rights and more.

All qualified BIPP members have the opportunity to submit for a European qualification – details can be found at bipp.com – but the FEP is also building a collection of awards and competitions.

European Professional Photographer of the Year Awards The FEP established the European Professional Photographer of the Year Awards to promote the highest standards in European professional photography.

The FEP European Professional Photographer of the Year Awards 2018 competition attracted over 200 photographers from 25 countries, with nearly 2,000 images submitted. The judging is taking place online by a team of 15 qualified professional photographers from 11 countries, chaired by Jorgen Brandt MQEP. The initial results will be announced in February online. The winners will be announced and awarded at the FEP Awards Ceremony, which will be held on 25 March in Dublin.

FETA Emerging Talent Award The FETA is an award for photographic students under 30, introduced by FEP in 2013.

The judging for this year’s Award has just been completed. It was chaired by QEP Jim Lowe FBIPP and was undertaken online by three international judges: MQEP André Boto, Portugal, QEP Eugenio Li Volsi, Italy and MQEP Laila Villebeck, Sweden. The five shortlisted students are: Pertra Basnakova Student at the Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Slovakia Marco Cavarischi Student at the Istituto Europeo del Design (IED), Rome, Italy Lea Jörres Student at the Dortmund University, Germany Fabian Poprawski Student at the Dortmund University, Germany Dawn Richardson Student at Falmouth University, UK The winner is amongst them... and will be announced on 25 March in Dublin, at the FEP Awards Ceremony.

Best of luck to all the candidates!

For further information, please visit www.europeanphotographers.eu

Due to the popularity of the BIPP qualification acrylics, we’re having more produced.

If you’re interested in one, just drop Jack a line at jack@bipp.com

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BIPP Brochure out now! BIPP’s going to be on the road for a quite a bit this year – our next stop is the Photography Show in March. So make sure you stop and pick up our new brochure. Detailing how BIPP can help professional photographers, it’s received a great reception so far!

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Image © Tim Flach

Thank you to Tim Flach, Lee Howell and everyone who allowed us to use their images in this edition. Hope you agree it looks great! And don’t worry if you can’t make it to the show, the brochure is downloadable on bipp.com!

03/02/2018 17:50

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‘The birth of a new way of seeing’ Think of Victorian-era photography and many might think stiff, fusty portraits of women in crinoline dresses and men in bowler hats. But Victorian Giants is anything but – a line in the sand marking the beginning of truly artistic portraiture

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our of the most celebrated figures in art photography, including previously unseen works and a notorious photomontage, can be found amongst Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography (1 March – 20 May 2018), at the National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition will combine for the first time ever portraits by Lewis Carroll (1832–98), Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–79), Oscar Rejlander (1813–75) and Lady Clementina Hawarden (1822-65).

The four created an unlikely alliance. Rejlander was a Swedish émigré with a mysterious past; Cameron a middle-aged expatriate from colonial Ceylon (now Sri Lanka); Carroll was an Oxford academic and writer of fantasy literature; and Hawarden was landed gentry, the child of a Scottish naval hero and a Spanish beauty, 26 years younger.

Yet, Carroll, Cameron and Hawarden all studied under Rejlander briefly, and maintained lasting associations, exchanging ideas about portraiture and narrative. Influenced by historical painting and frequently associated with the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, they formed a bridge between the art of the past and the art of the future, standing as true giants in Victorian photography. Their radical attitudes towards photography have informed artistic practice ever since.

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Left: Unknown young woman

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Termed the ‘Father of Photoshop’, Swedish born Oscar Rejlander used his pioneering technique of combining several different negatives to create a single final image in Two Ways of Life (above). It was so large it had to be printed on two sheets of paper joined together and was constructed from over 30 separate negatives. Victorian Giants includes the finest surviving print of this famous picture.

An album of photographs by Rejlander purchased by the National Portrait Gallery following an export bar in 2015 also goes on display together with other treasures from the Gallery’s world-famous holdings of Rejlander, Cameron and Carroll, which for conservation reasons are rarely on view. The exhibition also includes works by cult hero Clementina Hawarden, a closely associated photographer. This will be the first major showing of her work since the exhibition Lady Hawarden at the V&A in London and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles in 1990.

Lady Hawarden is a bit of a mystery. She married Cornwallis Maude, 4th Viscount Hawarden, in 1845 and lived in London until 1857, when she moved with her husband to the family estate in Dundrum, Ireland. Most of what we do know about Hawarden comes from her photography. It is thought that she began to experiment

Above: Two ways of Life by Oscar Rejlander, 1856-7 © Moderna Museet, Stockholm Right: Mountain Nymph, Sweet Liberty,

by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1866 © Wilson Centre for Photography

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Left: Alice Liddell by Lewis Carroll, 1858 (c) National Portrait Gallery, London

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with photography in 1857, taking stereoscopic landscape photographs around the Dundrum estate. In 1859 the family moved back to London. Hawarden then began to photograph her daughters, firstly making stereoscopic photographs, before moving to large-format, stand-alone portraits. Hawarden and her husband had ten children, and she was simultaneously a prolific photographer, exhibiting her work with the Photographic Society of London in 1863 and 1864, under the titles ‘Studies from Life’ and ‘Photographic Studies’, and was awarded the Society’s silver medal in both years. She died at 5 Princes Gardens, South Kensington, on 19 January 1865, after suffering from pneumonia for one week, aged 42. It is suggested that her illness had much to do with endless contact with photographic chemicals. Rejlander wrote an obituary in the British Journal of Photography of 27 January 1865 stating that Hawarden ‘worked honestly, in a good, comprehensible style’.

Lewis Carroll’s photographs of Alice Liddell, his muse for Alice in Wonderland, are among the most beloved photographs of the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection. Less well known are the photographs made of Alice years later, showing her as a fully grown woman. The exhibition brings together these works for the first time, as well as Carroll’s Alice Liddell as Beggar Maid on loan from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, known of course by his pen name Lewis Carroll, took up the new art form of photography in 1856 under the influence first of his uncle Skeffington Lutwidge, and then of his Oxford friend Reginald Southey. He became a well-known gentleman-photographer, and perhaps considered making it his living. Dodgson found photography to be a doorway into higher social circles and made portraits of notable sitters such as John Everett Millais, Ellen Terry, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Julia Margaret Cameron, Michael Faraday, Lord Salisbury, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It is thought that Dodgson created somewhere around 3,000 images – with more than half believed to be lost or destroyed. His photographic work and studio ceased as suddenly as it started after nearly a quarter of a century when he decided that the wet collodion process he used was far too time consuming. The new dry-plate process used commercially in the 1870s offered faster portraits and created a shift in the kinds of images entering popular taste. The photographic art form has always been exposed to major shifts in both technology and style…

Victorian Giants illustrates how different photographers approached the same subject, such as when Cameron and Rejlander both photographed the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson and the scientist

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Left: Photographic Study, 5 Prince’s Gardens (Clementina Maude) by Clementina Hawarden, 1863-4 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

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Charles Darwin, or when Carroll and Cameron both photographed the actress, Ellen Terry. The exhibition includes the legendary studies of human emotion Rejlander made for Darwin, on loan from the Darwin Archive at Cambridge University.

Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London, says: ‘The NPG has one of the finest holdings of Victorian photographs in the world. As well as some of the Gallery’s rarely seen treasures, such as the original negative of Lewis Carroll’s portrait of Alice Liddell and images of Alice and her siblings being displayed for the first time, this exhibition will be a rare opportunity to see the works of all four of these highly innovative and influential artists.’

Phillip Prodger, Head of Photographs, National Portrait Gallery, London, and Curator of Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography, says: ‘When people think of Victorian photography, they sometimes think of stiff, fusty portraits of women in crinoline dresses, and men in bowler hats. Victorian Giants is anything but. Here visitors can see the birth of an idea – raw, edgy, experimental – the Victorian avant-garde, not just in photography, but in art writ large. The works of Cameron, Carroll, Hawarden and Rejlander forever changed thinking about photography and its expressive power. These are pictures that inspire and delight. And this is a show that lays bare the unrivalled creative energy, and optimism, that came with the birth of new ways of seeing.’

Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography is at the The National Portrait Gallery, London from 1 March to 20 May 2018.

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Business / Pension provision

Auto-enrolment: the regulator is watching T

he automatic joining of workers to a company pension scheme, known as auto-enrolment, celebrated its fifth birthday in October (2017). The process is finally completed on 1 February 2018. While it may appear that the government is happy that its role, for the moment, is complete, for employers the duties are to be never ending.

Nathan Long, a senior pension analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says auto-enrolment tackles a huge, impending social problem of people not having sufficient monies squirrelled away to support themselves in retirement: ‘It is so important in fact that the sniffer dogs at the Pension Regulator have been unleashed to track down the employers that are not complying with these new rules. In fact the Pension Regulator has issued fines to employers on more than 20,000 occasions.’ These can run up to £10,000 per day for the largest firms, but even the smallest of firms can see fines of £50 or £400 per day.

And anyone doubting whether the Pensions Regulator actually collects these fines, and then follows through on non-payment with court action, would do well to look at the regulator’s website and in particular, the section

A blind spot when it comes to pensions auto-enrolment could turn out to be very expensive and the Pensions Regulator is actively sniffing out companies large and small and issuing fines as it goes on penalties. As of July, the fines amounted to more than £12.6m. Fines range from a lowly £500 up to a whopping £52,500 handed to firms that include R&B Services, a cleaning company in Aberdeen, Cromwell Care Home in London and The Norfolk Ski Club.

Firms in all sectors are being penalised including those in catering, pharmacies, shoe shops, small taxi firms, pubs and even solicitors. It’s only a matter of time before a studio becomes entangled with the Pensions Regulator.

The rules For those not yet familiar with the rules, employers of all shapes and sizes – even those with just one member of staff – are now tasked with ensuring their eligible staff are saving for retirement. Eligible staff are those aged between 22 and State Pension Age and who earn over £10,000 per year. Pension contributions for these employees currently need to be at least 2% of ‘qualifying earnings’ with at least 1% coming from the employer. These ‘qualifying earnings’ are effectively all earnings between £5,876 and £45,000, meaning there is no need to pay pension contributions on the first £5,876 that an employee earns.

The problem for employers, as Long sees it, ‘is that these minimum contributions are due to rise to 5% in April 2018 (with at least 2% coming from the

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‘For those not yet familiar with the rules, employers of all shapes and sizes – even those with just one member of staff – are now tasked with ensuring their eligible staff are saving for retirement.’

employer) and 8% in April 2019 (with at least 3% coming from the employer)’.

‘It may be job done for the government,’ says Long, ‘but it’s one that is never truly complete for employers due to their on-going responsibilities as part of the rules.’

These can be broken into several steps: 1. Join staff to the company pension when they become eligible You need to keep an eye out for newly eligible staff. The obvious group are your new employees. Long says that providing they (presently) earn over £833 per month or £192 per week and are between 22 and State Pension Age you’ll need to put them in. He adds: ‘Be careful with those people who weren’t enrolled first time round as they didn’t earn enough or were too young, because when their circumstances change you’ll need to put them in too.’

You may be a business that employs staff who receive a seasonal spike in earnings – a Christmas bonus or through extra hours. As the eligibility is measured by pay period, even a short spike could mean you have to enrol members of staff, so remain vigilant. It is possible to offset this disruption by deferring entry to the pension by up to three months.

Don’t ignore those who are not enrolled – if they ask to join you’ll have to enable this and pay contributions if they earn over £490 per month (£113 per week).

2. Deduct the correct level of contribution from an employee’s pay and pay this and the required amount from the company to the pension provider Long says that this should be a matter of course for most employers, particularly if they outsource their payroll or use a provider’s payroll software. He advises firms to ‘be extra vigilant though when pay changes or bonuses are paid as these events could lead to change in the amount that needs to be deducted’.

Employers also need to comply with the increased contributions that will be in effect from April 2018 and April 2019.

3. Certify your scheme meets the requirements at least every 18 months Certification is simply an audit of your pension scheme to make sure you have paid the right amount, for the right people. There is no need to submit anything, it is a self-certification, but you need to have your house in order should the Regulator come calling, as it increasingly is.

4. Re-enrol any staff that are not in the scheme every three years Lastly, re-enrolment of those who have opted out or left the scheme previously must happen every three years, around the anniversary of an employer’s staging date (start date for auto-enrolment).

This ensures staff are continually given the opportunity to save for retirement.

Once this exercise is complete, the results must be passed on the Regulator.

Don’t fall foul of changes The government has done a pretty good job of improving the rules as they go g Issue Four / 2017-18 / the PHOTOGRAPHER 63

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g

along, even though they may seem rather onerous at first.

There is, however, a ruthless determination to ensure auto-enrolment remains successful and with the government currently consulting on any necessary amendments the rules are almost certain to be tweaked. Long says that there are a number of key areas under scrutiny: ‘The government is particularly looking at whether everyone that needs to be saving for retirement is included, whether the required pension contributions are enough to provide for retirement, and how people can be encouraged to take greater interest and more personal responsibility for their retirement.’

Recommendations on rule changes are due by the end of 2017 and Long reckons firms should expect to see the age at which people are swept up into saving for retirement fall, possibly to as little as age 16. ‘This is great for pension savers,’ he says, ‘but will impact on some sectors more heavily, like hospitality and retail who employ large numbers of younger people.’

Long also thinks it would not be a surprise to see the level of earnings that you need before being enrolled to fall from the current level of £10,000 although quite where this will land is uncertain. Pressure is also mounting to include the self-employed in this pension saving regime, with the Conservative Party specifically referencing this issue in its manifesto, ‘but whether an almost non-existent majority and the Brexit agenda allow this to occur is another question’.

It’s unlikely that contributions will be pushed higher in the short term, but

it is widely recognised that 8% contributions are not enough. Long says that there is a growing consensus that contributions of 12% are more appropriate, ‘but decisions are unlikely to be made until the current increase to contribution levels has been fully phased in. Small businesses in particular should be alive to the very real risk of increased costs coming down the tracks.’

It’s clear that larger employers are driving higher levels of understanding and engagement amongst their staff by embracing workplace financial education programmes. Smaller businesses may struggle to offer these services. A possible solution to improved engagement recommended by Long could lie in allowing staff to be able to select where their auto-enrolment pension contributions are paid if they already have their own pension plan: ‘There would still be a company appointed provider for anyone that doesn’t choose, however anyone who has truly got to grips with their pension planning could continue to contribute to their preferred plan. The onus would then be on pension providers to engage with their customers in order to retain their business.’ He adds that this solution need not add more administration for employers. In the same way that you require an employee’s bank account details so you can pay their salary, simple details of pension provider and policy number could allow correct payment of pension contributions. The technology to enable this already exists, it simply must be adopted for this revised purpose.

The key message for employers of any size is that auto-enrolment is an on-going exercise and crucially requires on-going compliance with any rule changes.

First up will be the contribution hikes in 2018 and 2019, but employers need to keep their wits about them. Long says ‘that while it may seem the Pension Regulator is out to get small businesses, actually the opposite is true and their website is a great source of information for businesses of all shapes and sizes’. tP See www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk

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