The New Photo-Documentary Archive - Research & Development.

The New Photo-Documentary Archive project builds on the successes of previous work shown below.

The R&D phase will develop plans for the NDA as an ambitious cross-disciplinary documentary photography project that brings together the UK’s leading contemporary photographers and academic researchers at the country’s top universities.

The ambition is to create a comprehensive archive of photography, audio and text that documents all aspects of British society, and not only influences how we see ourselves today, but also leaves a legacy for future historians, academic researchers and policymakers.

partnering with sitting within Falmouth’s Institute of Photography, partnered with other higher education institutions, policy-makers, agencies and influential bodies such the Universities of Oxford and St Andrews, the Bodleian Library, the National Health Service, UK Parliament. Inspired by the iconic Farm Securities Administration of the USA in the 1930s, the NDA is an ambitious and far-reaching proposition which has potential for considerable impact on future social, economic and cultural policy.

Co-Leads

Craig Easton is a globally renowned photographer with a track record of creating large-scale collaborative and group projects that deal with major societal concerns that promote discussion and debate. The success of those projects, such as Sixteen, Bank Top and Fisherwomen have put him in a unique position to bring together a diverse team of leading contemporary photographers and academic researchers and lead a once-in-a-generation project that will create an archive of documentary photography. That archive will be the cornerstone of

Lottie Davies

Examples

Sixteen was a multiple award-winning group photography project conceived and led by Craig Easton in which he invited fifteen leading contemporary photographers to join him and collaborate with sixteen-year-olds from all around the UK. Young people from all different social backgrounds and locations were invited to respond to questions about what it means to be sixteen in the UK today. The work challenges the notion of meritocracy and examines how social background, ethnicity, gender, location, education, health etc all influence what young people think they can achieve in life.

Each photographer worked on their own series within the context of the wider project and in total over 175 young people were involved, both as collaborative participants as well as individual creators making their own work.

Alongside the main project, we ran multiple schools and university workshops and created opportunities for young people to contribute by making their own work as well as taking part in public debates and symposiums organised with MPs, local radio, newspapers and major art institutions such as Tate Liverpool.

The project was shown in 20 exhibitions both in gallery settings and outdoors in the public realm from Shetland to Cornwall and Belfast to London throughout 2019/2020

Some sample images from Sixteen…

The Scottish Islands

The North

Publication & Exhibitions

Media

Behind-the-scenes

with Anne Braybon (curator), Liz Wewiora (project manager) and photographers: Linda Brownlee, David Copeland, Lottie Davies, Jillian Edelstein, Stuart Freedman, Sophie Gerrard, Kalpesh Lathigra, Roy Mehta, Christopher Nunn, Kelly O’Brien, Kate Peters, Michelle Sank, Abbie Trayler-Smith, Simon Roberts and Robert C Brady

BANK TOP is a collaboration with writer, poet & social researcher Abdul Aziz Hafiz, examining the representation & misrepresentation of northern communities. The work focuses on a small, tight-knit community in Blackburn, England, a town that has become synonymous with the use of words like segregation (BBC Panorama described it as ‘the most segregated town in Britain’) & integration (Casey Review to the UK Government).

Hafiz writes: “the work is a response to this simplistic representation and the callous use of language by policymakers and the media when they try to explain the challenges faced by such neighbourhoods and towns and resets the experience of these communities in the context of Government industrial/social policy and contemporary and colonial British foreign policy.”

Is Anybody Listening? and ‘Our Time, Our Place’ community engagement and mentoring programme for young people, graduates, mentees & interns

The touring show, mentoring programme and symposium brought together two bodies of work and used them as a springboard for discussion and to create opportunities for communities and young photographers.

The evaluation report shows live audience figures of 41,136; Young People engagement programme (51 direct participants); Public discussion event 81 participants; 12 month long Young Photographer Mentorship Programme, 7 particpants; Micro-commissions - 3 graduate photographers; Symposium - 40 attendees.

Full details of the project are presented on the University of Salford Art Collection website: https://artcollection.salford.ac.uk/craig-easton-ialotop/