First Major Christina Broom Exhibition – The Unsung Female Pioneer of UK Press Photography
So wonderful to be contacted by the Museum of London this afternoon regarding this totally fascinating photography exhibition celebrating the extraordinary life and work of Christina Broom. Widely considered to be the UK’s first female press photographer, Broom began her photographic career in 1903 at the age of 40.
Soldiers and Suffragettes: The Photography of Christina Broom will include a cross section of her work, including Suffragette processions, First World War soldiers, official photographs of the Household Division and key London events, from the Lord Mayor’s Parade and royal coronations and funerals to historical pageants. These photographs will be joined by original glass plate negatives, and objects which build a fuller picture of Broom’s character and her career, including personal possessions, a suffragette banner, letters, press passes, notebooks and a cuttings album.
Broom was compelled to work, turning to the photography trade after her husband, Albert Broom, was injured in a cricket accident and she became the breadwinner. Although she had other female photographer contemporaries, they were mainly confined to the studio she was the first to take to the streets to photograph newsworthy events, from her home in Fulham. Broom continued to be active over thirty-six years until her death in 1939, during which she made approximately 40,000 photographs largely selling these as postcards from her stall at the gates of the Royal Mews in London, an enterprise her daughter Winifred Broom was also part of, helping to print the photographs from the age of 14.
Anna Sparham, Curator of Photographs at the Museum of London, said:
“Broom successfully positioned her camera at the heart of momentous occasions both of London and national importance, capturing the beauty of a Suffragette spectacle alongside the poignancy of a soldier departing for War.”
The majority of the exhibition content will derive from the Museum of London’s collection of her work, including a recent acquisition of 2,500 photographs, supplemented with a few key loans from Royal Collections, The University of Texas, Austin and the National Portrait Gallery.
A Portrait of Christina Broom – © Museum of London
To accompany the exhibition Philip Wilson will publish Soldiers and Suffragettes: The Photography of Christina Broom. The book, the first to pull together the broad spectrum of Broom’s work, will feature over 250 illustrated images and four critical essays from leading photography experts, including Anna Sparham, Curator of Photographs at Museum of London and Hilary Roberts, Imperial War Museum Research Curator of Photography.
An events programme will run alongside the exhibition:
Christina Broom: close up
Thu 25 Jun, 7-8pm. £12.50
Exhibition curator, Anna Sparham, Edwardian postcard expert, Guy Atkins and women’s history specialist, Di Atkinson, will unpick the remarkable career of Christina Broom and discuss the intriguing and changing role of the image in Edwardian society. Plus an after-hours viewing of the exhibition.
Women’s movement
Sat 13 & 27 Jun, 11 & 25 Jul, 8 & 22 Aug, 11am 1pm, £20
A talk and guided walk to discover what life was like for women at the dawn of the 20th century.
Early photography workshop
Sat 18 Jul & 26 Sep, 2-5.30pm, £35
Artist and historic photography expert Jo Gane will talk about early photography and attendees can try your hand using pinhole and early developing techniques.
To book event tickets visit museumoflondon.org.uk//broomevents or call 020 7001 9844.
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: [email protected]
