May 2026 - No. 28
WELCOME TO OUR NEWSLETTER THIS ISSUE CELEBRATES THE UPCOMING CENTENARY OF THE STEPHEN H. TYNG FOUNDATION - IN THE CARE OF THE VISUAL ART GROUP Next year, 2027, will mark the Centenary of The Stephen H Tyng Foundation. In 1927, a wealthy New Yorker, Stephen Tyng, bequeathed £1000 (over £50,000 in today’s money) to establish a Charitable Foundation. Stephen Tyng, a keen and able photographer and member of the RPS was a regular visitor to Great Britain. Tyng had been concerned about the apparent decline in interest in Pictorialist Photography. The purpose of his generous donation was to enable the purchase of outstanding examples of photographs to re-kindle that interest and generally encourage pictorialism in photography whilst recognising that this could be interpreted in a number of different ways. Each year a photograph would be chosen by a small group of Tyng Collections selectors, acquired and subsequently donated to the Royal Photographic Society to form part of their Permanent Collection. Over the years a wonderful collection of photographs was purchased and by 2017, when the RPS Collection was sold to the Victoria and Albert Museum, some 221 photographs had been amassed in the Tyng Collection. These include portraits of Helen Keller and composer Jean Sibelius by Yousuf Karsh and later scenes by Tim Rudman, Joan Wakelin, Ian Berry and Tony Worobiec. Although not on open display, the Tyng pictures are available for all to see, upon written request and by appointment. For many years, the Tyng Foundation was run by the late Alastair McGhee ARPS, who some of the more senior members among us may well remember. In order to guide the selectors in their choice of prints, McGhee indicated ‘beauty of subject’, ‘tonality’ and ‘composition’ as ideals. Times and arrangements have changed and there is now a new Tyng Foundation, similar to the former except that now any new
photographs acquired by the Tyng Foundation are donated directly to Royal Photographic Society and not to the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is my sincere wish and the wish of my fellow Trustees that soon the new Tyng Foundation Collection will be freely available for all to see and enjoy. We believe that was Stephen Tyng’s original intention. To that end recent acquisitions have recently been shown at Visual Art Group weekends and also at ‘Rollright’. After all their hard work, reconstituting ‘the Tyng’ and having the terms of the Trust Deed legally changed in favour of the RPS, both Andrew Crawford ARPS and Paul Mitchell FRPS have both chosen to stand aside. Gradually a new group of VAG members have been invited to serve as Tyng Trustees and have been appointed. I feel greatly honoured to follow in the footsteps of a raft of distinguished photographers from the last 100 years, as Chair of the Tyng Foundation. I am ably supported by Samantha Ruth ARPS (Tyng Secretary), Sally Kitchingman LRPS and now more recently by Barry Barker FRPS, who was invited to be a Trustee and has taken on the role of Treasurer. Barry will also oversee the Foundation’s ethical investments, the fund that provides for the annual purchase of pictures. At an early Trustees meeting, it was agreed that the selectors to be invited on an annual basis would be made up of a Tyng Trustee, a Visual Art Group Committee member and an invited guest selector from the VAG general membership. This year the selectors were Samantha Ruth ARPS (Tyng Trustee Secretary), Barry Barker FRPS, (VAG Treasurer and committee member), and Viveca Koh, FRPS, FIPF representing the VAG membership.
Robert Herringshaw ARPS, Tyng Founda�on Chair