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)
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