RD2 Resubmission - 7th March 2014

The RD2 transfer from MPhil to PhD document has now been resubmitted for scrutiny by Professor Stephen Dixon and Dr Alice Kettle, the findings of which are scheduled to be fedback on Monday 31st March 2014.

The re-submission was required to respond to a number of recommendations and amendments as specified by the scrutineers, which in summary requested greater clarity in terms of the practical output of the project and further work on the Literature Review component of the report.

A full copy of the report can be obtained by request.  The Abstract for the report was as follows:

Edward Chambré-Hardman (1898-1988) was a Liverpool based commercial portrait photographer, practicing between 1923 to 1966.  He left behind a vast collection of photographic work including portraiture, landscape and topographical cityscape works, all of which are now archived within the Central Liverpool Library.  The focus of this project specifically concerns the commercial portraiture component of Hardman’s archive, which consists of approximately 140,000 individual sheet negatives. This report explains what steps have been made to develop this project from MPhil to PhD, including an evaluation of the existing aims, as compared with the revised aims now being proposed.

 The first section of the report details the original project aims as specified in the RD1 report, it then goes on to list the revised aims as driven by the research and creative practice conducted to date.  The initial aims are then elaborated upon, with a rationale being proposed in relation to the new aims.  The second section details all the research and creative practice conducted to date, including the difficulties experienced with accessing Hardman’s archive and the subsequent development of a database designed to drive the process of archival intervention.  The second section addresses the research and practical output of the project to date in terms of both technical testing and case study development.  The third section elaborates upon the research and creative response to the archive that will be conducted in order to complete the doctorate.  This will include how the created database will help drive the archival intervention and the various forms this intervention will take, it will also propose a future work-plan and timeline for the forthcoming two years until completion.  The final part of this section will detail the provisional layout of the written component of the project and also explain what format the practice based component of the project will take, including details of the proposed final exhibition. 

 The fourth and final section of the report is the literature review, which intends to assess current knowledge regarding the use of archival intervention within the visual arts and in particular, photographic practice. This review consists of five interrelated parts linked together through the proposed creative practice element of the project.  It begins with mapping the field of practice in relation to archival intervention, examining the work of key contemporary practitioners using archives within their work (specifically photographic), drawing a distinction between the different types of archives being used.  The following part of the review examines key theoretical texts with the intention of framing the project in relation to both historic and contemporary discourse surrounding the archive.  It then goes on to address the use of typology within the visual arts, offering a specific definition in relation to the ways in which this project will use typology for the creation of practical output.  Lastly it will briefly discuss commercial photographic portraiture within a historical context, touching on issues of photographic conservation in relation to cellulose nitrate materials.

 The report will demonstrate how the project will represent a significant contribution to knowledge, firstly through the generation of creative practical output which can be both displayed through exhibition and reflected upon within the written component of the project.  Then secondly, through the methodology and models employed using site specific archival materials and the precedents this practice might offer to others working within a similar field.