THE NEW DOCUMENTARY ARCHIVE PROJECT - R&D

The New Documentary Archive Project (NDAP) will be a centre of excellence in visual storytelling restoring public confidence in authentic and verifiable information. It will realign documentary photography with integrity and evidential truth that will contribute to rebuilding trust in democracy. It will provide an invaluable resource for exhibitions, publications, artists, researchers & policymakers for decades to come.

The NDAP archive builds on the successes of previous projects as shown below.

The R&D phase will develop plans for the NDAP as an ambitious cross-disciplinary documentary photography project that brings together established and emerging photographers with academic researchers to create a comprehensive archive of photography, audio and text that documents all aspects of British society at a critical point in our nation’s history.

The ambition for the project is that it will not only influence how we see ourselves today, but will also leave a legacy for future historians, academic researchers and policymakers. The archive will be the foundation for multiple touring exhibitions, print and online publications as well as public events and conferences over many years.

The R&D period will allow me, Craig Easton as the project leader, to liaise with stakeholders from community groups, universities, media, publishing and exhibition venues to devise a strategy for the wider NDAP and set out the blueprint for how the project will benefit each group and create opportunities for a new generation of documentary photographers from diverse backgrounds.

There will be a specific focus on training in archiving methods and development of a roadmap that ensures all stakeholders are able to contribute to and influence the planning of the NDAP strategy from the outset. Those stakeholders will include: community groups, youth groups, university and academic researchers, schools, the NHS, industry.

In the short term - during the R&D phase - there will be few public facing outcomes. This will be a learning, development, consultation and evaluation period with the goal of preparing the foundation for a future nationwide project with a lasting legacy.

Medium and long-term outcomes will include:

• a major new archive of photography, writing and oral history that will be held at The Bodleian Library at Oxford University and fully cross-referenced for future generations

• a comprehensive programme of exhibitions, publications and public-facing discussion events and conferences

• opportunities for a new generation of aspiring photographers to be mentored by the NDAP team and launch their careers

• community engagement programmes to encourage participation in the arts, culture and society decision-making.

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 and 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 with academic researchers to lead a once-in-a-generation project that will create an important archive of documentary photography & build opportunities for the next generation of photographers.

Examples of previous projects

SIXTEEN

Sixteen was a multiple award-winning, Arts Council England funded, group photography project conceived and led by Craig Easton in which he invited fifteen leading 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 symposia 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 - live audience figures were in excess of 350,000.

SIXTEEN: sample images - Craig Easton

SIXTEEN: behind-the-scenes at exhibition venues, schools & university workshops, lectures & collaborative editing sessions

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

SIXTEEN: publication & exhibitions

SIXTEEN: media

BANK TOP

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.”

Craig Easton was awarded the title of Photographer of the Year at the SONY World Photography Awards for this work and the book, published by GOST, was shortlisted for the three main global book awards: Les Rencontres d’Arles Book Prize, The Kraszna-Krausz Book Award and The Aperture/ParisPhoto Book Award.

Bank Top, along with another project Thatcher’s Children (Orwell Prize, special award for ‘Exposing Britain’s Social Evils’), formed the basis Is Anybody Listening? and Our Time, Our Place - a year long touring exhibition, mentoring and youth engagement project and symposium organised in conjunction with Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool and the University of Salford Art Collection.

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, Bank Top and Thatcher’s Children and used them as a springboard for discussion and a chance to create opportunities for communities, youth groups and early career 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 participants; 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/

Is Anybody Listening: Online photo-ethics discussion & debate with Mariama Attah (Open Eye Gallery) & Liz Wewiora (Salford University)

Is Anybody Listening: Symposium at The Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead plus Youth Group exhibition installation, The New Adelphi Gallery, Salford.

Is Anybody Listening: publications & exhibition installation shots

FISHERWOMEN

Fisherwomen is the culmination of seven years work celebrating the contemporary and historic role of women in the UK fishing industry.

The work was shown in touring exhibitions around the UK, supported by Arts Council England, published as a critically acclaimed portfolio and was later used as the foundation for academic research by the Universities of Exeter and Sussex and The Seafarers Charity.

BBC Radio Four made a half-hour special, available here

FISHERWOMEN: sample images - full project available here

FISHERWOMEN: BBC Radio Four special