The DPA which was formally established in 1985, and its trustees were keen from the outset to commission photographers to document particular aspects of contemporary life. The DPA trustees, Audrey Linkman, Dermot Healy, and Caroline Warhurst, had a clear vision of what they wanted. They were looking for photographers of vision and ability, who did not work within the traditions of the record and survey movement.

Recognising that photographers have progressed beyond the portrayal of simple factual information, they sought photographers whose work was a deliberately personal and subjective interpretation, whose pictures "comment, suggest, insinuate and appeal to the emotions." 

In choosing its commissions, the DPA focused on the more mundane and routine aspects of life, which are traditionally not well recorded. It also offered alternative perspectives on some well-worn themes.

The DPA adopted a policy of maintaining written records documenting the image content and detailing photographers' approaches and responses to their subjects. So the entire body of material produced during the course of the commission was kept - negatives, contact prints, work and exhibition prints, and the written record. That way, the process of how the commission developed, and how the photographers worked, was fully documented. 

In total, some thirteen commissions were produced between 1985 and 2000, creating a body of work which will speak to generations to come. A full list of the commissions is given below.

C1. Martin Parr. Retailing in the Borough of Salford (1985)

1514 colour negatives; 156 black & white work prints; exhibition prints

Explored the range of retail outlet from corner shop to hypermarket and included home sales such as Avon and Sarah Jane Lingerie.

C2. Marianne Morris. Children in the Eighties: Adults of the 21st Century

(1987)

793 black & white negatives; 190 work prints

Studies of seven individual children from a variety of different backgrounds including urban and rural, black and white. Two of the children attended Chethams School of Music.

C3. Clement Cooper. Afro Caribbean Youth in Moss Side

(1987)

691 black & white negatives; 33 work prints

Taken in a number of youth clubs in the Hulme, Longsight and Moss Side districts of Manchester. The photographer deliberately sought to convey a positive image of black youth following bad publicity after a spate of urban riots.

C4. Shirley Baker. Manchester International Airport: A Typical Day

(1987) A one-day photographic commission

547 black & white negatives; 38 colour negatives; 72 black & white work prints; 12 colour work prints

Experience of the airport from a passenger perspective including the queues and the long waits. Featured in Granada T.V.’s Celebration series, broadcast 23 October 1987.

C5. Ged Murray. Old Trafford: Off the Field of Play

(1987) A one day photographic commission

381 black & white negatives; 20 work prints

Set in the cricket ground of Lancashire County Cricket Club, this commission ignores the field of play and concentrates instead on the staff who work behind the scenes - the people who run the various refreshment and catering facilities, the ground staff who maintain the pitch, the people operating the scoreboard and the various attendants in the seating areas.

C6. Clement Cooper. To complete work on the church, Robin Hood pub and youth in Moss Side for the exhibition and publication (1987)

507 black & white negatives; 10 work prints

Selections from this work together with photographs taken in Manchester pubs and churches appeared in an exhibition toured by Cornerhouse and in the book entitled Presence published by Cornerhouse in 1988. The work also featured in Granada T.V.’s Celebration series broadcast 23 October 1987.

C7. Brian Lomas. The Passage of Time: The Hand of Man

(1990)

682 black & white negatives; 55 work prints

The decaying market gardens and allotments on Ashton Moss which had once provided fresh food for the city of Manchester and its satellite towns.

C8. Shirley Baker. Photographer at Work

(1989/90)

812 black & white negatives (including one roll of colour film); 118 work prints; 21 colour en prints

Undertaken in the 150th anniversary year of birth of photography this project attempted to put the photographer in the picture by focusing on different types of photographic activity including commercial advertising, portraiture and police work.

C9. Paul Reas. Tourism in the North West

(1989/92)

506 colour negatives; 29 work prints

A look at the heritage industry in some sites in the North West including the Albert Dock and Quarry Bank Mill.

C10. Tom Wood. Care in the Community

(1988)

Approx. 3000 35 mm colour negatives; 60 colour work prints; hundreds of en prints

Based in Rainhill Psychiatric Hospital on Merseyside prior to the evacuation of patients into the community and its sale for building and development. This commission was undertaken in collaboration with Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool.

C11. John McDonald. The Bolton Commission: Worktown Revisited

(1991)

1599 black & white negatives; prints

A look at aspects of life in Bolton some fifty years after its adoption as Worktown by Mass Observation.

C12. Tom Wood. Cammell Lairds, Birkenhead

(1996)

760 medium format colour negatives; work prints

An attempt to find new ways of portraying people at work this focusses on one ship being refitted.

C13. Lisa Woollett. Youth Culture on the Streets of Ashton under Lyne

1999-2000

Work in progress looking at the behaviour of young people on the streets of Ashton under Lyne in the evening.