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Flash Briefing
Online photography exhibitions from The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG, located in London) We are the UK's learned society and professional body for geography, supporting geography and geographers across the world. Website: https://www.rgs.org/ Twitter: @RGS_IBG Instagram: @rgs_ibg

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What: What the traveller saw: The photographs of Eric Newby An online exhibition displaying a selection of stunning photographs from Eric Newby’s travels. Eric Newby (1919-2006) is considered to be one of the most prolific contributors to travel writing and photography in the 20th century. From an early age, Newby took an interest in photography, receiving his first camera on his seventh birthday. He recalled how, even at that age he was aware that it was “a pretty feeble affair”, taking “pictures the size of the smaller sort of Lithuanian postage stamp - that is, when it took any at all – with ludicrous results”. Despite this his interest in photography continued... In 1938, aged 18, Eric signed on the four-masted Finnish barque Moshulu, and engaged in the 30,000 mile round-trip grain trade race between Ireland and Australia, taking his Zeiss Super Ikonta with him. His combination of “pin-sharp observation with irony and understatement” brought together exceptional photography with witty, humorous and self-deprecating prose that became his trademark. Newby served with the elite Special Boat Section during World War II. Captured during an operation off the Italian coast in 1942, he spent three years in a prisoner of war camp. He managed to escape, and before being re-captured met a young Italian-Slovenian woman named Wanda Skof, whom he later married, and who would become his equal partner on many of his later travels. His memoir of that time, Love and War in the Apennines (1971) became one of his most acclaimed books. See the photographs here: https://www.rgs.org/about/our-collections/online-exhibitions/what-the-traveller-saw/ __________________________________________________________________
What: Everest - A Reconnaissance This exhibition showcases a selection of platinum prints, available to purchase, made from the newly digitised glass and celluloid negatives of the 1921 British Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition. The 1921 British Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition mapped approach routes to the mountain and climbed to 23,000 feet, laying plans for future attempts and providing some of the first – and finest – close-range images of Everest. Photography has always been an important component of Mount Everest expeditions. From the first expedition onwards, cameras and the paraphernalia required were part of the equipment factored into the logistics of climbing the mountain. For the porters it was certainly a heavy load. From cameras and lenses to glass plate negatives, tripods and chemicals, the early expeditions took all that was needed both to expose and to develop pictures on the mountain. The 1921 photographs were taken by a disparate group of men, from scientists to climbers, doctors of medicine to surveyors and there are fascinating differences in how each saw and recorded their time on the mountain. These early photographs are part of the Society’s wider collection of over 20,000 Everest images, documenting the expeditions carried out under the auspices of the Mount Everest Committee. They are also a critically important source of historical documentation for the Tibetan and Nepali peoples – the Everest archive at the Society holds some of the first photographs of people in the region – as well as being a valuable tool for wider research. See the photographs here: https://www.rgs.org/about/our-collections/online-exhibitions/everest-a-reconnaissance/
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London History Podcast : Victorian Photography If you want to learn about Victororian photography and the people on the photos listen to our Victorian Photography podcast with guest Colin Webb who colourised old victorian photographs. It’s 20 minutes long just long enough for you to have a cup and tea and biscuit: Listen here: https://www.londonguidedwalks.co.uk/018-victorian-photography.php