 |
DPA COLLECTIONS |
The pivotal feature of our work is the preservation of early photographs (or documentary collections connected with photography). The Archive comprises three distinct elements - two special collections which have been grown from scratch, the Archive of Family Photographs and the Contemporary Commissions Collection. A third element is formed by donations of original photographs of every description, similar to material found in libraries, record offices and museums throughout Britain. The DPA places considerable emphasis on securing detailed, contextual information about the photographs to assist careful analysis and creative interpretation of the photographic record.
The DPA collections are available to the public on request for reference purposes only under supervised conditions. The collections are housed at the Greater Manchester County Record Office, 56 Marshall Street, Manchester, M4 5FU. For access contact archives@gmcro.co.uk
Archive of Family Photographs
 | History In 1975, Manchester Studies established a research project to locate and preserve the records of working people. The project officers visited hundreds of homes within Greater Manchester, and discovered that the one record most likely to survive was the collection of family photographs. So the project concentrated on systematically collecting an archive of family photographs which is now the core of the DPA. The photographs were copied on to 35mm negatives and the originals were returned to their owners. Contact prints were made from the negatives so the archive could be viewed, and extensive information was obtained from the donor about the content of the photograph and the photographer. This is what makes this archive so different to the vast majority of those held within other record offices and libraries. The DPA recognised that the image as a source of historical information could not stand alone, hence the decision to create information sheets to give the photographs a context. The archive contains over 80,000 images, dating from the earliest days of photography in the 1840s to the 1950s. The majority fall within the period from the 1890s to 1939. The geographical area covered is the County of Greater Manchester plus the cotton towns of North East Lancashire and the villages on the Cheshire and Derbyshire borders. The images depict aspects of the lives of individual families and therefore the life of the region, and the emphasis is on people rather than places. The archive documents a way of life common to working people. However, the picture is fragmented; routine daily activity is conspicuous by its absence. Instead, the emphasis is on photographs being reserved for the special occasion: rites of passage such as christenings, breechings, and comings of age; weddings and anniversaries; works outings, Whit walks, street parties, carnivals, processions, seaside holidays, Empire Day, Sports Day. There are also many school photographs, with class groups posed in the classroom or school yard. |
| Arrangement As the photographs were collected within the context of the families who created them, the cataloguing system took account of this. Two sequences were established for access purposes. The first was the arrangement in Depositor order, whereby all material relating to one depositor was kept together as an archive. Contact prints and the corresponding information sheets are stored within reference albums. The second is an alphabetical subject index on 5x3 index cards. These two sequences enabled the DPA to preserve the archival integrity of the family photographs, while at the same time assisting a subject-based approach. |
The Archive of Family Photographs includes:
Studio Portraitsof infants, adults and family in Sunday best dress. Rites of passage were marked by a visit to the studio - christenings, breechings, confirmations, comings of age, engagement, weddings and anniversaries.
Street Portraits
feature their subjects at the front door, in the backyard, and outside the shop,
workshop or public house. Outdoor settings offer telling contrast with the
anonymity of the studio, and can portray subjects in their everyday, working
dress.
Domestic Interiors.
The dining rooms, sitting rooms, libraries and billiard rooms in the mansions of
the wealthy were photographed in the 19th century as evidence of their owners'
status and success. Interiors of working class homes, though comparatively
scarce prior to 1940, are relatively well represented in our collection.
|
Work Interiors increase significantly from the 1890s when photographs could be reproduced relatively cheaply in the printing press. The Cotton Industry is particularly well represented in our collection. Typical are those pictures which show workers posing beside their dormant machines, often when the work place is decorated for some special occasion. |
| Sport, Leisure
and the Special Occasion. Photographs of the special day feature
prominently in the family album. They include works outings, youth
organisations, church groups, Whit walks, street parties, carnivals, processions, and, of course, the family holiday at the seaside. |
 |
Access and Services
The collection can be consulted by any one during the Records Office's opening hours. Researchers are strongly advised to make an appointment beforehand. Any research will be on the Record Office's usual terms i.e. the first 15 minutes is free staff time is charged at the pro rata rate of £15 per hour.
The DPA provides a copy print service subject to copyright restrictions. This service normally takes 14 to 21 days from receipt of order. A price list is available on request.
Items required for publication or commercial use are subject
to reproduction fees. The DPA and the original donor (where applicable) must be
sought by those wishing to reproduce photographs from the collections.
Contemporary Commissions Collection
In 1985 the DPA began to build from scratch a collection of contemporary documentary photography. We add to this collection by commission. We do not purchase existing work. Though we set out to create a contemporary collection of photographs documenting life in the North West, we now see our role as a national archive of documentary work and practice. This means that the subject and location of our commissions have become less important than the attempt to document the photographer's approach and process.
Contemporary Commission Programme
From the beginning the DPA’s interest centred on the interpretation of the photograph as a primary source in historical research. There is nothing new in the idea of taking photographs for the specific purpose of historical record. This was an application of the new technology which had inspired the pioneers of photography from its earliest days.
At the DPA, however, we wanted to move away from established notions of record photography. The difference in approach between record and survey photography and the documentary tradition is absolutely fundamental. Objectivity is rejected in favour of subjective interpretation. Documentary photographers seek to do more than convey factual information through their photographs: their aim is to persuade and convince. Their power lies in their ability to comment, suggest, insinuate and appeal to our emotions. Photographs by documentary photographers are both individual interpretations and historical records. Even when no longer topical, these images will communicate powerfully and directly down the generations.
Thus our photographers are appointed for the quality of their interpretation.
They are encouraged in their photographs to comment on the subject, to invite
comparison, to invoke emotion, to influence response. The very best of their
work is very powerful communicating directly without the need for words. As such
their images can exert a profound influence both on the contemporary and the
future critic.
Content of the Collection
The Photographer’s Written Record
Though the creative photographer strives to produce pictures which require no words to define or explain, images alone can rarely suffice as primary sources for historical analysis. The historian needs factual information both about subject content and the photographer’s intentions in order to interpret the subtleties of the photograph. For this reason we ask commissioned photographers to provide a written record which serves to contextualise their images and aid our understanding.
We place great emphasis on the production of this written record. This written element is often an entirely new experience for the photographers who work with us. We ask them to record the reasons for their choice of subject, their thoughts about it, what they hoped to show, avenues thwarted, what techniques they chose to use and why, which photographs they felt succeeded and why. For some of our photographers the written information has taken the form of a diary, while others have produced detailed information sheets to accompany each set of negatives and contacts.
Preservation of the Total Body of Work
For these same reasons the DPA requests photographers to deposit in the Archive the total body of material produced in the course of the commission. All negatives, contacts, work and exhibition prints together with the written account, in fact everything produced during the period of the commission, are stored in the Archive for future preservation. Copyright is retained by the photographer who can take out material on the understanding that it is returned to the DPA for safe storage.
Preservation of the total body of work will play a vital role in assisting users to a better understanding of the images. A reading of the contact sheets can illustrate the photographer's approach and method; it can point up omissions, reflect obsessions and, potentially, contain elements of style or technique, which may be developed in later work. It can, in some cases, modify the viewer’s perception of a subject who otherwise has no right of redress.
The mere existence of a work print is in itself evidence of a process of selection and rejection which will repay closer study. Preservation of the negatives together with its original exhibition print reveals the technical effects the photographer was hoping to achieve at the time of production. And, by reading the images in the context of the photographer’s own written account we can progress towards a fuller understanding of their message and purpose.
Subjects
To carry conviction photographers have to think and feel strongly about their
chosen subject. So those commissions work best where photographers select the
subject of their own choice. However, the DPA does have preferences for
certain subject areas. We are interested in commissions which explore aspects of
ordinary, everyday mundane, experience which tends to pass unnoticed. We also
see a value in providing an alternative perspective on subjects which may have
become stereotyped or conventionalised through excessive coverage.
