It is with great honour and surprise that I have been invited to give the 2023 Royal Photographic Society Hurter and Driffield annual lecture. To be hosted at The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester on Saturday the 18th March 2023.
A history of advanced heritage imaging: From paper to plate to pixels. Since its inception, photography has been used by the heritage sector to document and disseminate its historical and cultural assets with the aim of furthering study and enhancing scholarship. With the digital age comes new imaging technologies and methods such as multispectral imaging (MSI), reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) and photogrammetry or 3D imaging .
This lecture will consider these new technologies and their practical uses within the heritage sector and explore how they have been influenced directly from the ideas of early photographic pioneers such as Henry Fox Talbot and Sir John Herschel, to inform the work of exploratory technical researchers Hewlett Packard and NASA. It will draw on specific examples from the archives of the John Rylands Research Institute and Library (JRRIL) and the leading-edge technologies utilised by its Imaging Team.
The talk will be preceded by the Group’s AGM. The visit and talk will also provide the opportunity to visit the exhibition Transitions in Print exhibition which closes on the 18 March. The exhibition examines secrets of the European printing revolution. See: https://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/rylands/visit/events/transitions-in-print/
The Hurter and Driffield Memorial lecture series was inaugurated by the Royal Photographic Society in 1921. It is held biennially by the RPS’s Historical group.
Tony Richards is Senior Photographer at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester. He is currently the lead photographer for advanced imaging techniques. The JRRIL Imaging Team are at the forefront of supporting Digital Scholarship through the use of these advanced imaging techniques to inspire and support further research of Special Collections Library material. Tony is also a practitioner of historic photographic processes and is interested in how current digital methods influence his historical practice.
Tickets available via Eventbrite
Congratulations.
I’ll try to come along to your gig, I’ve put the date in my diary. Looking forward to hearing you speak.
Hi Pete, make sure you apply for a ticket as there are very limited spaces.