Supervisory Meeting - 28/03/2012 @ MMU

Present at Meeting - Simon Faulkner / David Brittain / Gavin Parry

The meeting discussed my practical photographic portraiture as seen in previous posts:

• It was noted that Hardman's technical language had been observed during the making of some of these portraits.


• The meeting also addressed the issue of the difference between the 'Now' and 'Then' of when Hardman's portraits had been taken : differences within the purpose of the two archives were also discussed [Commercial v's Research]


• Do these two differences need to be taken into account ?


• Advice was offered to continue with current photographic work engaged with and to provide further examples for the forthcoming meeting scheduled for early May 2012.


• Advice was also offered to begin writing short texts to accompany the practice. These should attempt to try and explain and discuss the practice element of the project.


• One piece of text should be provided for the next meeting.


• The three separate stands of research should continue simultaneously:

1. Working within the archive using photography to document the archival process.

2. My own photographic portraiture.

3. Accompanying written work informed by historical and theoretical readings.

Studio Portraits - 22/03/2012 @ SHC

Additional colour portraits using natural light and large format camera movements to deliberately drop out focus.

Studio Portraits - 06/03/2012 @ SHC

These portraits are the first in a series exploring the use of a 210mm lens as opposed to the much wider 90mm Rodenstock I have been using for the location portraits. All the portraits have been shot using natural light. I would like to re-shoot using more camera movements in order to force certain areas of the figure out of focus - see ECH portraits posted previously.

Supervisory Meeting - 29/02/2012 @ MMU

Present - Simon Faulkner / David Brittain / Gavin Parry

The meeting discussed recent developments within KWR's research in relation to:

1. Reading around the subject area
2. Work within the ECH Archive
3. Own photographic practice

The discussion focussed predominently upon the latter, details as follows:

DB Suggests - Make a different and 'unnatural' kind of portrait.
GP Suggests - Look at the technical language of ECH
SF Suggests - Consider Benjamin's idea of the 'Aura'

Royal Photographic Society - 1955

I have recently been in touch with Dr Michael Pritchard FRPS, FBIPP who is the Director General of The Royal Photographic Society.

I was curious about a lecture given to the society by ECH back in 1955 and understood there to be an article printed supporting what had been presented. Dr Pritchard was kind enough to dig the article out and forward it over to me directly.

It is called:

Exhibition Quality - some ways of attaining it .... by E. Chambre Hardman - Delivered on 2nd March 1955

ECH Archive Meeting - 08/02/2012 @ Liverpool Records Office

Present - Sharon Oldale [Team Leader - Conservation]

I have now volunteered to help conserve the ECH negative archive that is stored within the Liverpool Records Office. This work involves re-housing both Cellulose Nitrate & Acetate materials created by ECH dating from 1930's to 1960's. It will bring me into direct contact with the ECH archive.

The work adhere's to the following process:

LCC - ECH Collection Repackaging Project

• Gloves on !


• Remove item from glassine envelope and keep envelope to one side


• Complete condition report


• Brush both sides of item with soft brush if necessary


• Put item into new sleeve pocket. Sleeves may be filled with 4 prints / paper items


• Create a label stating BH number, reference and any information from glasssine envelope


• Put filled sleeves into new ring binder box


• When box is full - number the box and list the contents on the spine


• Note 'location' on documentation form


• Enter box worth of data onto database

Supervisory Meeting - 01/02/2012 @ MMU

Present - Simon Faulkner

• The meeting adressed the RD1 re-submission - The proposal is almost entirely ready for re-submission.


• The meeting also addressed the work being conducted within the ECH archive, which is now progressing.


• A need has been identified to further develop the documentation of work within the ECH Archive and portraiture work for next full team meeting scheduled for 29/02/2012

Marc Henry @ Wilkinsons Farm [Altcar] - 27/01/2012

Marc Henry - Photographer

Supervisory Meeting - 11/01/2012 @ MMU

Present - Simon Faulkner

This meeting was used to finalise all changes to RD1 Methodology Section which now links directly to the 4 aims of the project and reads like this:

Methodologies: “Every image of the past that is not recognised by the present as one of its own, threatens to disappear irretrievably’ (Benjamin, 1999)

This project intends to link two different archives of photographs, whose distinctions should be clarified. The first conventional photographic archive is that of ECH, which consists of the vernacular portraits of a high street photographer, many images of which will not have been seen for the past half century. This archive could be considered largely dormant prior to my intervention, where upon it will be activated again, through the work I conduct within it. The second is my own photographic archive, created in the contemporary moment, in direct response to the first and can therefore be considered active from the outset.

The research process begins with the exploration of various aspects of the ECH commercial portraiture archive held in the Liverpool Records Office. (Aim 1) This part of the collection has remained dormant, in sealed biscuit tins ECH used for archival purposes from the early 1920’s. Working as a volunteer conservationist for the Records Office, I will be able to work through the entire ‘biscuit tin’ collection, helping to assess the physical quality of the materials, then re-archiving the negatives, as the collection is methodically re-housed, through the use of modern storage methods. It will be my intention to photographically document this process as an important part of my methodology. As this work has only just begun, I will be ideally placed to uncover any hidden contents within this archive and intend to collect and re-photograph a series of my own visual typologies from these works including Artists, Actors, Sculptors, Musicians etc. Over the next three years investigation and detection will also play a significant role within my methodology and I will be interested in locating existing (hidden) ECH works currently held within the Merseyside community, with help from both local media and various government agencies, such as the Liverpool Post / Echo. The re-found works will then be photographed as they sit, with details of the subjects and current owners recorded. Working with these typologies I will photographically respond to them with the creation of my own active archive, drawing on both physical attributes and uncovered lineage to link the two archives across the 50 year gap. The collection is supported by studio registers, notebooks and diaries and many of the negatives have hair and fabric clippings still attached from ECH’s sitters, a practice I will also be employing. (Aim 2)

Main areas of consideration within the first two years of the written thesis element of the project are ‘The Photographic Portrait’, ‘The Archive’ and ‘Photographic Typology’, ‘Artist as Archivist’, ‘Appropriation Art’; reading specifically around the history and development of all these areas and paying particular attention to practitioners who bring these key elements together within their work such as Sherrie Levine, Mandel & Sultan, Tacita Dean, Taryn Simon, Pierre Huyghe, Aleksandra Mir, Nicky Bird. (Aim 3) Allan Sekula argues that photographic archives, like photography itself, are suspended between discourses of science and art, providing a dual collision with both empirical and aesthetic discourse. He then goes on to state that not only are pictures in an archive literally for sale, but their meanings are also up for grabs. (Sekula, 1992)

Research access has also already been negotiated for the National Trust element of the collection, with the additional possibility of being actively involved within the transfer of the archive into new accommodation to be held within the redeveloped Liverpool Central Library in 2013. This additional interaction within the National Trust ECH archive will offer direct access to his entire extant photographic oeuvre. Imagery that is selected from this archive will be recorded and written about within the thesis element and additional factual detail can be extracted from the supporting ECH ephemera. The proposed annual interim shows, will provide the opportunity to practically test the relationship between the retrospectively defined ECH typology and the ongoing portraiture I will be creating in response to it. These shows will not only display the portraits from both practitioners, but will also detail the method and process involved during the projects documentation. The final show would offer the opportunity to exhibit both old and the new together, highlighting the very different objectives both practitioners had for producing their respective work (I.E.ECH’s commercial necessity versus the artists desire to contribute to existing knowledge through contemporary interpretation and archive intervention). This final exhibition would present the culmination of the two different arms of the project. (Aim 4)

ECH Archival Access - 10/01/2011 @ Liverpool Records Office

This afternoon was spent looking through 3 boxes of re-housed ECH negatives [Cellulose Nitrate & Acetate] mainly dating from the 1930's.

Supervisory Meeting - 26/10/2011 @ MMU

Present - Simon Faulkner / David Brittain / Gavin Parry

The meeting highlighted the need for more talk of the 'Process of Enquiry' in terms of:

• Writing in relation the ECH Archival materials


• The use of the camera to photograph existing imagery

It was suggested that the re-written Methodolgy Section of the RD1 should start with a quote - perhaps by Walter Benjamin:

"Every Image of the past that is not recognised by the present as one of its own, threatens to disappear irretrievably"

Supervisory Meeting - 05/10/2011 @ MMU

Present - Simon Faulkner / David Brittain / Gavin Parry

• The meeting discussed the changes required to the Methodology Section of the RD1 Proposal as highlighted by scrutineer Dr Steven Gartside.


• A need for a stronger and clearer use of the archival material was identified.


• The project needs to be focussed more on the Archival work and subsequent Archival intervention.


• It was identified that this intervention could be very imaginative.


• In order to try and develop this, further research is required around photographic / archival projects as a way of further developing ideas.

The following Practitioners have been identifed:

• Jacqueline Butler - Paper Landscapes and Impulse, Gesture - 2010


• Nicky Bird - Tracing Echoes - 2001


• Pierre Huyghe & Douglas Coupland - School Spirit - 2002


• Christian Boltanski - The Reserve of the Dead Swiss - 2002


• John Stezaker - Moving Portraits - 2007


• Aleksandra Mir - Living & Loving Series - 2002


• Tom Phillips - We Are The People - 2004


• Geoff Batchen - Forget Me Not - 2004


• Taryn Simon - A Living Man Declared Dead - 2011