Harry Price Library of Magical Literature

The Harry Price Library of Magical Literature is a rare collection of ancient volumes on the arts of magic and summoning ghosts.

Based at the University of London, is the UK's largest of its kind and contains letters between Price and the legendary illusionist Houdini. It also has detailed correspondence between Price and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a believer in the paranormal.

Price wrote of his library: "Apart from its bibliographical and historical interest, the main purpose of the Research Library is to assist students in the investigation of alleged phenomenological happenings; to help them detect the psychic impostor and charlatan, and to enable them to recognise genuine phenomenon." (via)

Some of the photographs that are part of this collection were shown at The Photographers Gallery a few years back, and proved to be an eccentric selection of images; definitely worth a visit.

You seem to be able to buy prints of a few of the images contained in the archive here.

Leonora Hamill

'Attack' is a powerful short film by Leonora Hamill, in which we witness a woman experiencing a panic attack. When faced with only black space around the woman, every twist and turn of her body is magnified, small gestures and facial movements become all the more concentrated modes of expression, 'exploring the physicality of anguish'. Unfortunately I can't find the film online, but the stills are here.

David Favrod

Found via Feature Shoot this excellent and original work by David Favrod; an attempt to give representation to his Japanese heritage. More here and his site (under construction) is here.

Dawn Woolley

Dawn Woolley, 'Holiday', from the series Substitutes

I met Dawn a couple of years back when she was graduating from the RCA and after just coming across a postcard of her work hidden inside one of my folders of visual ephemera (or piles of old stuff as others may call it!), I've been reminded of how great her 'Substitute' series is. She calls her work 'self-portraiture, but not in the traditional sense', as instead of physically placing herself in the frame, she creates a photographic copy of herself, which when re-photographed in various scenarios, becomes a substitute and a visual representative of herself. See more here.

Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism

By the wonderful Carolyn Drake who will be lecturing at the festival on the Thurs. If you don't know it do check out her work, it's very special.

This festival in Hanover in June looks really interesting.
2 competitions with tasty cash prizes; for pics and for multimedia.

News and Updates

We have a lovely range of new editions on our Contact Editions site, including the above image from Chloe Dewe Mathews. There's also a heap of new video interviews up on the site, with our photographers talking about their working practices.

We've just closed this round of submissions to Contact and will be starting the judging very soon; we'll be posting some of the entries and comments from the judges on here in the coming weeks...

Yoshihiko Ueda

Yoshihiko Ueda from Quinault
I'd never heard of Yoshihiko Ueda and first was attracted to his work through the tones in his Bones and Stonewares series here, but the more I dug around the more interesting work I found. A well-known commercial photographer in Japan he also shoots his own 'art' projects. An idea of the range of his work can be seen from this online gallery, as well as more examples here. I'd really like to see these prints close to, to see how these tones are achieved, and I'll only have to wait till March, when the Quinault series (above) is at Michael Hoppen Contemporary, more info here.

On the Photobook

"One is torn between narration and categorization, between chronology and inventory.
What should be recognised here is that photographic books (and exhibitions), frequently cannot help but reproduce these rudimentary ordering schemes, and in so doing implicitly claim a share in both the authority and illusory neutrality of the archive. Herein lies the 'primitivism' of still photography in relation to the cinema. Unlike a film, a photographic book or exhibition can almost always be dissolved back into its component parts, back into the archive. The ensemble seem to be both provisional and artless. Thus, within the dominant culture of photography, we find a chain of dodges and denials: at any stage of photographic production the apparatus of selection and interpretation is liable to render itself invisible (or conversely to celebrate its own workings as a kind of moral crusade or creative magic)."
Allan Sekula, from 'Reading an Archive'

I'm a little late with my addition to Andy Adams (Flak Photo) and Resolve Blogs 'Future of Photobooks' discussion, but this quote seems like a relevant starting point. There are many different strands to the discussion - in terms of format, content, aesthetics and experimentation, but essentially my feelings on this topic are that the photobook is a certain format because photography lends itself to that format. I'm all for experimentation within that format- zines, self publishing, 'curated' books, and feel that this will be a natural evolution of the photo book, but essentially, I can't see the traditional book format; a designed tangible object, dying out, or in fact straying too far from what it has always been.

The discussion has thrown up some great places to look for independent photobooks, the first port of call being the new blog started by Joerg Colberg of Conscientious and Mrs Deane. There's also Alec Soth's new venture, Little Brown Mushroom. One of my favourite independent books that I have seen recently is David Gray's Vampire, which is a 10x8" singer sewn book, and is accompanied by a 10x8" signed edition print.

Charlie Brooker on News Format

ooh he's everywhere isn't he and sometime you wish he'd brush that chip off his shoulder and just smile...but this is brooker gold...and a reminder not to fall into cliched formats.

Slideshow Submissions Deadline MONDAY!

Just to remind you all that submissions for our spring slideshow close on Monday! Send all your images to competitions@contacteditions.co.uk and we'll show them in Bristol at a weekend event at the excellent Emporium gallery, dates TBC.

Roni Horn: Bird

Have only just come across this book by Roni Horn published by Steidl in 2008! so a bit behind really, but thought it was worth sharing. There are more spreads here and here.

BlackLab event tonight!

Quick post to say the brilliant BlackLab are having a night of screenings, socializing, conversations and chats about issues relating to photography, imagery and film in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.

The fun takes place at An Outlet (77 Dale Street, Manchester, M1 2HG) on tonight from 7.30pm.

For more information, contact blacklab@gmx.com.