Clive Egginton
Confirmation of Registration Statement [Ph.D]
Title
The City as Bricolage: An Audio-Visual Acquisition Strategy for the Archive.
Contents
The Research
Proposal Aim and Objectives
The Research Question
Rationale
The Case Studies
Reflection
Key Terms and Methodology
Literature Review
Time Line
Research Training Needs
References
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The City as Bricolage
An investigation into developing an audio-visual acquisition strategy for
archives.
Program of research.
Aim
1
This research aims to investigate methods through practice-based research
that will ensure the photographic and alternative audio-visual records of the
city are as representative as possible.
Objectives
To understand the value of our existing audio-visual records as an effective
means of archiving memory.
To investigate ways of making new work that addresses the contemporary
requirements of The Sheffield Archives and to research the most effective
means of responding to these requirements.
To experiment with and assess a range of methods relevant to the above aim
and in order to ensure that the records of the city are as representative as
possible.
To collect material relating to Sheffield's communities and organisations in
order
to ensure the city's diversity is represented in the collection.
To explore and evaluate the most effective ways to maximise access to
archival material.
The research question
What is the role of an audio-visual practitioner within the context of
contemporary archive practices?
A few subsidiary questions that will inform the approach to the investigation
of the central question are:
What methodology will ensure the aim of the program is met and what are
the ethical implications?
What new challenges does any archive face in the transition from the
analogue to the digital and how does this alter the decisions a photographer
might need to take?
How do photographs facilitate the communication across different
geopolitical and historical contexts?
What are the mechanisms by which photographs foster cross-cultural
identification
and forge emotional communities?
The archive record is...the direct, un-interpreted and authentic voice of the past:
the primary evidence of what people did and what they thought; the look of
places and events recorded through images-both still and moving; life’s
beginnings and life’s endings; the growth and decline of industries and the ebbs
2
and flows of communities and cultures. The archive record is the foundation on
which are built all our histories, with their many and varied voices...1
The recently refurbished Sheffield Archives on Shoreham Street house and
make available, for a variety of reasons, items and artefacts dating from the
12th century. Amongst them are business records, ecclesiastical records,
family and estate records,
local government records, local public records and records from individuals.
The archive is however aware that their profession is currently undergoing
unparalleled changes in the wake of technological developments. This not
only brings with it new social and cultural dimensions, but also a shift in the
accepted role of an archive. Nationally this has also been recognised and in
May 2006 the National Archive launched a 4-stage program called Access to
Archives or A2A. Its main function seems to have been distributing National
Lottery funds for regional archives to digitise their collections. This program
is now over and by their own evaluation have gathered and made available
30% of what are in our regional collections. This was clearly an ambitious
project and brought into stark contrast a few of the challenges facing
contemporary archiving.
As a result of A2A came “Archives for the 21st Century”, a government white
paper from November 2009 seeking to summarise and outline the
importance of this sector. It is, as one would expect, riddled with references
to new technology and whilst this is a very thorough document exposing
expectations from the public about everything from 24 hour access to
equipping archivists with the new skillsets they will require, there is precious
little about those who are the collectors. It’s as if the expectation is that this
will happen automatically without regard to planning or method. Added to
this comes the historic value of archives, that is, not recognised as the equal
of museums and libraries culturally in terms of budget priorities.2
The motivation for this Ph.D research is derived from a few key areas. The
city’s archive recognises that their collection policy is effectively a passive
document. There is an acceptance that they need to be more aggressive in
their collecting, acquiring archives that are representative of the community
they serve. Current policy nationally is only geared to digitising what has
already been collected it does not address ways of collecting for the digital
age. Finally, clear gaps in the city’s collection can be identified. This research
aims to test a documentation programme to rectify this.
Rationale
Sheffield archives currently have 55,000 photographs in boxes waiting to be
categorised. This has come about for a number of reasons and it is within the
current collecting and acquisition policy that the research is targeted.
The research proposes methods of collecting data not readily available to the
city's archive. The archives practice can be broken down into four categories:
transfer, donation, revocable deposit and purchase. In essence, there is no
policy of commissioning or making new work with the distinct ideal of future
preservation.
I want to find out whether by making new work using a variety of methods,
the city can start to think in terms of a “living archive”. I conceive of the
“living archive” as constructed on an understanding that by critically
examining decisions in the present about what we wish to preserve for future
generations, a broader and richer collection can be made.
HM Government. (2009) Archives for the 21st Century. Crown Press. P.6
Funding for local authority archive services varies from £56,000 to £2.35m(£0.21– £4.69percapita) per annum
(Source: Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, Archive Statistics 2006-07 Actuals).
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2
3
Dialogue with the archive also exposes gaps within the collection. We could
link these gaps to groups of people who have been marginalised for a variety
of reasons: examples might include asylum seekers, the gay community, and
older people.
What I wish to study is the viability of different methods of collecting
material for archive purposes using photography, testimonies and moving
image.
Towards a new Archive
The research methodology I propose to use is Action Research combining
ethnographic, case study and action research approaches. Action research
means integrating research into the development of the intervention.
Flexible by nature this kind of research is responsive to the needs of the
intervention and the particular socio-cultural context. I will be closely
following the guidance offered by Jean McNiff and Jack Whitehead 3 (2011)
in “All you need to know about Action Research” surrounding planning,
conducting and disseminating the research.
Case studies are a qualitative research method characterised by the in-depth
study of
a particular example. Ethnography is the study of a culture in all its rich
detail. The methods or “tool box” will include; photography, moving image,
residencies, workshops and photo-elicitation interviews.
I envisage three phases for the research.
1. Collection
Over the duration of the research I will look at three main areas: work,
leisure and health.
Archives as institutions, and the collections within them, are generally
acknowledged by both academics and society at large as a passive source of
information to be exploited for a variety of reasons. What is only just being
acknowledged more openly is the relationship between the archive and
power, or access to social capital.4
I see the research highlighting this in terms of what kind of data can be
collected.
For a photographer access is everything, does this therefore imply that
certain aspects of any archive will be missing because the photographer is
unable to access certain communities? While certain social groups may be
reticent about such endeavours I wish to ascertain how a diverse range of
groups can be supported to produce their own images and testimonies? I
will, therefore, explore examples of work produced by "amateurs",
reinforcing the idea of photography being the most democratic of recording
mediums available to us, or as Coleman (1982) would put it,
"Photography is too important to leave to photographers."
McNiff is Professor of Education Research, York St John University. Whitehead is a Professor at Liverpool Hope
University.
4 Social capital does not have a defined undisputed meaning, on both substantive and ideological reasons. For this
reason there is no commonly agreed upon definition of social capital and the particular definition adopted by a study
will depend on the discipline and level of investigation. Further reading required.
3
4
2. Editing
What to collect – and who is interested?
Widespread access to recent technology means that an ever-increasing
number of photographs are produced. The program of research will therefore
attempt to outline what tools of decision-making could be developed for such
an archive. I will examine what defines photographic quality for archival
purposes, as opposed to other uses of photography.
3. Access
What does access mean for an archive? The most obvious contemporary
viewing platform is the Internet and the latest thinking is that this is how the
majority of us
will access information in the future. Our familiar world of photographs and
other
paper documents is rapidly giving way to the eDocument. This will no doubt
give rise to questions regarding authenticity and origin. It will also pose
challenges to those in custody of the originals about how contextually the
new versions are understood.
This research will also address how people without Internet facilities see the
work.
In summary then there have been many studies of city life made by
photographers;
one thinks of Atget's Paris, Roger Maynes's London and Nayoa
Hatakeyamas's Tokyo, for example, but these highlight an individual view
rather than a community's.
I will look to revisit aspects of McLuhan's theme of social constructionism as
described in his 1951 work "The Mechanical Bride", the core idea of which is
that truth is something people construct in the process of living in a world
that is constructing them. In a way I am asking what images of real life mean
to us and why do we keep returning to them time after time? I want to argue
that they reinforce a kind of mass interpersonal relationship, or as touched
on in my MA, a form of Stieglitz's theory of Equivalence suggesting a link
between the physical and the representational.
John Szarkowski (1978, p.2) gave us a way personal visions can take one of
two forms in an essay to support an exhibition Mirrors and Windows at
MOMA in 1978.
“In metaphorical terms, the photograph is seen either as a mirror-a romantic
expression of the photographer's sensibility as it projects itself on the things and
sights of this world; or as a window-through which the exterior world is explored
in all its presence and reality.”
I am aware that since the writing of this book the medium’s familiarity now
belies its complexity as a means of representation. It is my hope that in going
beyond the premise that photography is an authoritative form of
representation, by exploring a range of highly subjective visual, oral and
written interpretations of Sheffield, we will reach a richer more eloquent
contemporary view of Szarkowski’s meme.
It is clear that the practice of photographic documentation and archiving has
changed with each technological breakthrough. What has not changed is the
on-going need to understand the world and those around us.
5
I am intending to conduct four case studies to collect material and test the
methodology.
Case Study 1: The Individual
… most of the generating ideas in photography now spread through personal
contact. Growth can be slow and hard when you are groping alone. It quickens
when you meet other photographers who have worked and thought intensively
about their medium. You listen, and ask, and a phrase sticks in your memory like
a barb. Suddenly a way of working, dim till then, comes clear before you. 5
Photography lends itself as an individual pursuit. One person, one camera.
These individuals are seldom organised as serious bodies for the purpose of
documenting a given situation. I often wonder why because when they do, as
in the case of the United States Farm Security Administration [FSA], or the
U.K.’s Mass Observation project both originating in the 1930’s, they produce
a wealth of material valuable to a variety of organisations. I have recently set
up a forum of photographers in an effort to channel what everyone is doing
within the confines of Sheffield. It seems to me that presenting a common
purpose may give my colleagues, as it did for me, a new way of exploring
their practice. Within this case study I envisage social media will become an
important area for discussion together with an exploration of funding
specifically targeted for these purposes.
The first case study has in many ways already begun. Archive-Sheffield as an
umbrella idea currently has five individuals working on several projects with
a variety of groups. The tone of McNiff and Whitehead’s framework is
underpinned by a socio-ethical polemic and it begins by clearly identifying a
concern to be studied. The framework for this case study would currently
translate as this:
· our concerns are: Child Health, Substance Abuse, Mental Health, The
Homeless and Minority Communities not always from other nations.
· we are concerned because we all have a personal relationship with these
topics and agree as “concerned photographers” that we have a duty to
bring them to the attention of others. This sits firmly in a photographic
tradition that has many exponents.
· the way forward must be through negotiation. Action Research
demands an ethical dimension whenever it is used. Because this
methodology is attempting to make all parties involved co-researchers, it
is paramount that everyone understands the methods involved in
collecting any data.
· try it out! Seems simple enough, however the time involved with some
of the concerns can be difficult to manage. It can often take weeks to gain
the trust of a group or individual. A negotiated position helps with this
process and participant inclusion breaks down any possible “us and
them” situations.
· monitor the situation. The key to this lies in the ability to share work
made as quickly as possible with the group one is working with. As
mentioned this case study will explore social media and online galleries.
· testing the validity, highlighted above through the use of publication
and exhibition. To date three exhibitions have been shown as a collective
and more as individuals in venues not normally associated with works of
5
“About Aperture” Founders statement extract, Aperture vol. 1. No. 1, 1952
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art. Examples include the city archive, the children’s hospital, the main
railway station, two pubs, a supermarket and the street. As outlined in my
proposal one key objective is to explore and evaluate the most effective
ways to maximise access to archival material.
· modify practice in light of the evaluation. We have established a group
of like-minded practitioners that include fellow photographers, film
makers and writers. We call ourselves The Monday Club and we meet
often to evaluate the tasks in hand. We share experiences, ideas on
equipment, new practitioners found, anything in fact that will further
inform our practice.
I imagine this case study to be on going throughout the planned research
with the theoretical contextualisation being written simultaneously, as will
be the case with all the studies. The importance of this point is due to Action
Research being a reflective practice where continuous assessment of any
chosen topic is required. I also imagine my “in summary” document will
focus more on the effectiveness of this methodology in achieving my aim and
less on specific outcomes realised during the research.
Case Study 2: The Group
By group I’m referring to a collective already organised in some form or
other but not for the purposes of using photography or audio-visual
technology. As outlined in the proposal a number of marginalised groups
have a scarce or tokenistic representation in the collection. My research aims
to show how by working with groups to produce their own material, their
own narrative, polemic or otherwise, it will remove the mediation of a
trained and selective eye. I have approached three groups, two that fit within
the category health and another belonging to work.
Phoenix Futures are an organisation that runs a nine-month rehabilitation
program for drink and drug dependency. They are used to working with
visiting creative practitioners and are interested in using video and
photography to relate their stories. Personally I’m trying to negotiate
working together with one or more individuals within this group over the full
course of their treatment.
Scott Mental Health Action Group is a members’ only drop-in centre that
provides
a variety of support options and activities. I came across SMHAG through an
ex-serviceman’s support group of which I’m a member. We share several
traits, one of them being the use of a creative pursuit for the therapeutic and
social dimensions involved.
Stephen Carley is head of the Art Department at King Edward VII School. I
have previously involved his pupils in several external projects, which thanks
to his open and forward thinking attitude have borne successful outcomes. I
want the voices of those not yet fully formed so to speak, (in acceptance that
this ethically loaded) whose life experiences, expectations and prejudices are
ahead of them. This generation, this Google-Wikipedia-YouTube generation
will without doubt give a new voice to any archive with what they produce
and how they produce it.
Added to this is a group of sixth form pupils from Tapton School under the
supervision of Jenny Bows and John Short. Again this is an established
relationship having worked alongside Jenny and her students on a project
called “Families of Steel” a few years ago. The aim of the project was to give
young people the opportunity to find out more about their local heritage and
to encourage individuals from the Steel Industries to play a part in recording
their own histories for future generations.
Photographs produced during the project formed part of an exhibition at Site
Gallery, and a large scale public siting in which the images were displayed on
advertising billboard hoardings throughout Sheffield and Rotherham.
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Case Study 3: The Archivist in Residence
We are of course familiar with the tried and tested phenomenon that is the
artist in residence. This nuanced archival twist offers itself to exploring other
aspects of whatever organisation it is attached to. Of course to make new
work, but perhaps using what is found within the organisation as a point of
departure. I contemplate using this method in the workplace, Sheffield’s
industry to be exact, taking the time to form meaningful relationships with
both the employers and management.
This method will suit other institutions too, not purely manufacturing and I
am currently in negotiation with Sheffield Council to see how an intervention
may be possible.
I am in discussions with TSL Turton Limited a spring manufacturer
currently undergoing an interesting transition and consolidation. I have two
main concerns that I aim to follow over the course of a year. Firstly their
apprentice policy and secondly how they transform multiple sites [currently
4] into one factory building and the subsequent re-use policy for the empty
premises. Andrew Eyre is the forward thinking director of TSL and has plans
to convert one of the sites into an arts space in an area of the city currently
undergoing regeneration.
Case Study 4: The Archive Interface
I envisage trying to condense what I have learned in the past two years from
my discussions with the archive into a way of working alongside the
archivist. There is a policy in place but as yet not for commissioning new
work. This is important for two reasons, firstly archives are being asked
nationally to expand their remit, they need outreach projects to show they
are relevant to the communities they are there to serve. In Sheffield this has
just been made harder due to a three-day week policy, however, this and the
fact that more and more volunteers are being tasked to do some key work;
digitising, cataloguing and even cleaning of artefacts, will provide the
narrative for this case study. Secondly this interface with the public is key in
how archives will need to operate in the future, some even go so far as to say
survive in their current form.
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“I remember a winter afternoon in the dreadful environs of Wigan. All round
was the lunar landscape of slag-heaps, and to the north, through the passes,
as it were, between the mountains of slag, you could see the factory chimneys
sending out their plumes of smoke. The canal path was a mixture of cinders
and frozen mud, criss-crossed by the imprints of innumerable clogs, and all
round, as far as the slag-heaps in the distance, stretched the ‘flashes’ – pools
of stagnant water that had seeped into the hollows caused by the subsidence
of ancient pits. It was horribly cold. The ‘flashes’ were covered with ice the
colour of raw umber, the bargemen were muffled to the eyes in sacks, the
lock gates wore beards of ice. It seemed a world from which vegetation had
been banished; nothing existed except smoke, shale, ice, mud, ashes, and
foul water. But even Wigan is beautiful compared with Sheffield. Sheffield, I
suppose, could justly claim to be called the ugliest town in the Old World.”
George Orwell
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Personal Reflection
What, I wonder, would Orwell make of Sheffield today boasting, as it does, to
be the UK’s greenest city? It took him a mere three days to arrive at this toxic
averment early in March 1936 whilst lodging with the Searle family in
Parkwood Springs researching The Road to Wigan Pier. This book is
mandatory reading for all committed socialists. My belief anyway, re-reading
it as I did in the Spring of 2010. This paragraph is where I stopped, accepting
that whilst this is an important milestone in 20th century literature, it was
most definitely of its time.
So what of my time? Did I know my hometown, the way I thought I did?
The decision to put the book back on the shelf and to ask these questions
coincided with an impasse in my image making. My Masters degree,
Deichniúr Fear – Ten Men – was over. I was facing the awkward, what now?
It was a reactive piece, a response to having spent fifteen years working with
various ex-servicemen looking at their lives post active service. From the
Nuclear Test Veterans; some not old enough to vote at the time, but deemed
old enough to stand as little as four miles away from multiple atomic
explosions, via some Falkland Veterans, then on to a pilgrimage of sorts for
the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings accompanied by some feisty
octogenarians to the Normandy beaches. My reaction was mildly
embarrassing; I concluded it was all about me. I wanted to know how they
had coped with it all and thereby, somehow, try and put my own military
past in a more comfortable place. For that read, erase from my memory. Ten
Men refers to the hunger strikes at Long Kesh prison in 1981. I was stationed
in County Fermanagh on the volatile border between north and south
Ireland and as each man died, the worse the troubles became and the more I
feared for my safety and sanity. The first to die, Bobby Sands, was voted in as
a member of parliament for Fermanagh and South Tyrone one month into
his strike, probably in the vain thinking that the British government would
be setting up an interesting precedent by allowing one of its members to die
in such a way. They miscalculated Thatcher and her venal interpretation of
the word power.
As the years passed I knew I would have to return and with the 25 th
anniversary of that ignominious moment in history looming I decided to
scratch the itch and explore my memories of it and those culturally still at
play in the area. In order to do this I would evaluate a contemporary use of a
modernist photographic theory, Equivalence, described by Minor White
(1963) as:
“…probably the most mature idea ever presented to picture-making
photography.”
I chose wisely, if ever there was a theoretical position with enough wriggle
room to
hide an Imperialist Prison, Equivalence was it. What attracted me initially
was, and to further paraphrase White, that it functions as an experience and
not a thing.
I made the assumption at the time that a thing (his words) meant a given
appearance or style to a photograph, in other words that an image mirrors
something in the maker but does not conform to anything conventionally
understood as a photograph. I don’t wish to dwell too much on this; the
language is fragrant and relentlessly spiritual, other than to say it offered me
a kind of freedom to move away from considering the formal graphic
constraints of a photograph and confront symbolism and metaphor. An
example of this was the burying of exposed film in the peat on the border,
only printing once the acidity had corrupted the image. Another involved
using multiple exposures, often delayed by days in order to forget what
images were already present then go on to cover them with fresh light, new
information and experience attempting to visually represent the layers of
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history and the various complex interpretations of it. In both examples the
content was the same, images made whilst revisiting consequential locations
in Fermanagh either for myself or for the locals. The significance of this was
my subsequent rejection of the research methods. I look at this work now as
bland and of minimal importance; barley an image of any consequence
beyond its surface for any viewer.
Impenetrable probably. This continual reference to self became convoluted
trying to justify often quite banal work. I compounded this by scaling down
the images.
I demanded that the viewer be close to them to make anything out, I wanted
them to make an effort to engage with the work. It should have had an
audience of one.
However, there it was, an outpouring of sorts and yes an equivalence; I had a
feeling about something and here is my symbol of that feeling, the content I
photographed was irrelevant, it was about something else.
The impasse was relatively short lived once I made the connection between
the people and the land of Ireland. The desire for identity linked with
location can be overwhelming and yet Erving Goffman (1986) tells us that
personal identity is defined not by ourselves, rather by how others identify
us. Having travelled widely as a photographer I have always observed the
lives and cultures of others applying, as Goffman suggests, my own criteria to
understand where I was and who I was looking at. A very English construct
no doubt; my conditioning clearly on show here. I admit that in making new
work to try and understand my own identity alongside location still had to
begin with the observation of and connection to others. I am a photographer;
I understand things mediated by the act of photography, negotiating ones
position, working, showing and revisiting until something reveals itself. And
no not the truth, but something to inform an audience about others whose
existence and experiences will be unfamiliar to them. I attempt ethical
interventions that aim not to judge, but are on the whole celebratory and
hopefully informative. By consciously rejecting one method it forced me to
adopt another, a visual style if you like that supported the reading of an
image. I chose what Walker Evans called ‘Documentary Style’ (in Thompson
1982). Documentary is a problematic word; it implies truth, something
obviously with the addition of the word style Evans was acutely aware of. I
prefer to use it as meaning that this style constructs representations of reality
and of course, only from my perspective. Reality and in particular social
reality is consensually validated. Documentary Style is helpful in one respect,
it is a genre that defines what it is not; fashion, advertising or manipulated
art, inferring instead straight non set-up photography.
So in the same way Goffman suggests a politics of identity, insomuch as
others determine it, here we have a politics of vision, that is, what does the
other/viewer do with these images? The problem of interpretation is
profound. John Grierson (in Bate 2009, p.59), acknowledged as the founder
of social documentary, offers us this:
“A good documentary is a good interpretation of real life, one that lights up the
facts.”
Therefore, I am adopting this genre in acceptance that there is a tradition, a
history that photography has impacted on by recording places, faces and
events in the past. It means that that there are conventions at play to assist in
social and cultural understanding; photographs are a part of everyday life.
The link with my previous work is clearly one of memory. Not only has the
very invention of photography changed the way we individually recall things
or people and places, it has also altered our collective memory and in a sense
my new work is addressing questions involved with public memory; indeed
what some might refer to as history.
All I knew at this point is that I would work in my hometown.
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In early 2010 I found myself researching the Egginton family history in
Sheffield’s main archive. My great, great grandfather moved from
Birmingham to the city and started a foundry with his brother. Five
generations later it’s still there, however, the last known archival reference
was made in 1962. A passing remark about this made to one of the archive
staff opened up the potential for the research I am proposing. Dr. Cheryl
Bailey is the senior archivist working in the institution and whose job
description includes monitoring their acquisition strategy. In effect her
advice was to do something about it, as they couldn’t, such is the funding
dilemma they are currently experiencing. Cheryl made me look at my work in
a different way; she exposed gaps in the body of work that meant it was of
little use in pure archival terms. No names and no dates.
In many respects the history of photography is primarily the history of
subject matter and I began determining subjects from the archives point of
view, not from what was in the archive but rather what wasn’t. My change in
reading habits brought new understandings about archives, essentially as
their being power bases whose origins lie in the information requirements
and social values of the ruling classes.
“…when power is denied, overlooked or unchallenged it is misleading at best
and dangerous at worst. Power recognised becomes power that can be
questioned, made accountable, opened to transparent dialogue and enriched
understanding.” (Schwartz Cook, 2002, p. 2)
This sentence comes from quite a challenging document and as a novice I
read it as the archive industry being in crisis. The profession itself seemed
loathed to admit the enormity of the power it wielded. The evolving nature of
the archive was changing its ability/capacity for storing and communicating
the record. Advances in technology were outstripping its organisational
culture whilst at the same time driving peoples desire for knowledge of the
past. To me it read like the history of making and keeping records was
littered with chaos, eccentricity, inconsistency and a heap of subversion.
I decided that I would do no un-negotiated work, my position as a
photographer had to be clear and conducted in a partnership with my chosen
subject. This in turn meant writing to each one with a proposal of sorts
outlining the nature of a relationship and outcome. This needed letterheads,
an identity, a logo, a mission statement and a web site.
The working title for the public project is “Archive Sheffield”, more as a
demand than an institution and I wrote the following mission statement to
accompany my proposals.
Archive Sheffield exists to create new photographic images to depict and
preserve the diversity of Sheffield’s population. By developing relationships with
both individuals and organisations we will share an understanding of how our
city functions, our work, our leisure and our health, preserving them for future
generations. At the heart of this project lies a belief that by reporting human
experience accurately, honestly and with an overriding sense of social
responsibility, it will serve to provide a credible source of images for decades to
come. Sheffield is not place, it is people. (Egginton, C. 2010)
On reflection the strategy worked too well; I didn’t get a single rejection from
the
dozen or so letters I initially sent out. This in turn presented some serious
logistical issues; I promised for example that I would provide an edited
version on CD’s to everyone I worked with, I considered this the least I could
do. This meant digitising the film, editing and some post-production all
taking a considerable amount of time. Storage whether analogue or digital
became problematic requiring specialist equipment in both cases, this ongoing issue has since been partially resolved by Cheryl offering to house my
work in the main archive itself. This relationship will form part of one of the
case studies as outlined in my proposal.
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Since 2010 I’ve had numerous conversations with the archive about what I
am doing. As I was refining my ideas and strategy going forward, they were
experiencing the cuts most city libraries and archives are suffering
nationally, culminating in their five day week becoming three. This in simple
terms means time will only be dedicated to organising and preserving what is
already housed in the collection. The new knowledge this research hopes to
establish will stem from the exploration of a fifth category in the archives
acquisition document, as outlined in the proposals rationale. That is, actively
and strategically making new work thereby not passively waiting for items to
come to the collection.
Key Terms and Methodology
Action Research
First coined by Kurt Lewin in 1946 and characterised as:
“A comparative research on the conditions and various forms of social action and
research leading to social action.”
It has in the intervening years become known by a variety of names:
participatory research, collaborative inquiry, action learning even
emancipatory research. Put simply action research is best described as
“learning by doing.” There are key attributes I believe will be helpful to my
inquiry not least its focus on turning the people and organisations I work
with into researchers too. The research takes place in real-world situations
and in no way claims to remain objective but openly and actively recognises
their bias towards all participants. Since its 1946 debut others have taken the
core principals and expanded it to fit their own requirements. Richard
Winter [1989] provides us with the most comprehensive overview outlining
six key axioms one of which is defined as Theory, Practice, Transformation.
Theory informs practice, practice refines theory. Key to my thoughts are that
the principals of Action Research allow flexibility, especially with the
involvement of others in the research perhaps sometimes demanding
changes in circumstances. In keeping with a paradigm of praxis it recognises
that knowledge is derived from practice and that practice informed by
knowledge is ongoing and a cornerstone of Action Research.
I have chosen to use it for a variety of reasons but principally because it
places the researcher at the centre of the research, action researchers are
described as insider researchers. It allows for the I and We, not the They and
Them. It is inclusive and positions itself by having both social and moral
dimensions.
In expansion [further reading required] it appears that Kurt Lewin refined
an approach begun by John Collier in the 1930’s in his role as Commissioner
for Indian Affairs. Lewin gave us its first framework: observe – reflect – act –
evaluate – modify.
It is this framework that has been tinkered with in the intervening years in
order to accommodate whatever circumstances were being observed and I
imagine my criteria will differ too once work begins on my case studies. Jean
McNiff and Jack Whitehead (2011) are discussing the most contemporary
ideas on Action Research. They have, in a way, reclaimed it as being a
disciplined and systematic process and have proposed a plan that has
practical value for my study:
· take stock of what is going on
· identify a concern
· think of a possible way forward
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· try it out
· monitor the action by gathering data to show what is happening
· test the validity of claims to knowledge
· modify practice in light of the evaluation 6
This in turn provides the necessary questions I can apply to my case studies;
what is my concern, why am I concerned about this, how do I show this etc.
The validity of the work produced can be tested in few ways including
publication and exhibition, however the key strength of this methodology is
that it is cyclical; it provides a framework that allows for modification and
movement in other directions fundamental in my work as a reflective
practitioner.
Due to this methodological approach, carried out in real-world
circumstances with
other people involved, I am expecting to encounter a number of ethical
considerations. Winter further refined his methodology in 1996 by listing a
number of principals. They are the kind of principals we now take for
granted some have even been enshrined in law, permissions and
confidentiality for example. Others are mainly concerned with decisionmaking being a collective responsibility or equality of access to material and
outcomes.
Case Study
Robert K. Yin (1984, p.23) defines case study research as an empirical
inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life
context; when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not
clearly evident and in which multiple sources of evidence are used.
In many respects case studies go hand in glove with action research as its
guiding methodology. Case studies require an overriding question that can
be worked on by the research object, that is, program, organisation,
individual or group of people whose social, cultural or historical dimensions
are to be studied. Case studies are open to a variety of data gathering
methods aimed specifically at understanding and answering the research
question. An example of this in my research would be; what will students of
school age choose to record for archival purposes? How will they record their
interests, and how will they share their findings? From this a program of
collection can be organised and subsequent data analysed based on the
questions posed above.
Concerned Photographer
Cornel Capa coined this phrase in a book published in 1968. It described a
photographer as being dedicated to the ideals of Photojournalism, ideals that
led to the founding in 1946 of Magnum, the pioneering agency for
photographers returning from documenting WW2. It featured the
photographs of four photographers who had died in the course of doing their
jobs as journalists, his brother Robert, Dan Weiner, Werner Bischof and
David Seymour.
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The lead page says simply, “to photography, which demands personal
commitment and concern for mankind.”
In his introduction Capa’s main concern was framed in the following
question, “what happens to a photographers work after their death?” Even in
1968 he was vexed about just how many photographs were being taken, the
same introduction contains references to technological advances making
photography seem easy. He talks of photography losing its own self-respect
because of its popularity as well as the trust and confidence of viewers in its
veracity and artistry. He goes further arguing that, and I paraphrase, “the
controls and production demands exercised by the mass communications
media on the photographer are endangering our artistic, ethical and
professional standards and tend to obliterate the individuality of the witnessartist.” All this in 1968. Far from being an elitist Capa is swift to point out
that photography is demonstrably the most contemporary of art forms, vital
and effective in its universal ability for communication between people and
nations.
It is my belief that the current proliferation of organisations dedicated to
social reportage photography is an attempt by contemporary concerned
photographers to extract themselves from the casual, albeit prolific
photographers. Being a concerned photographer indicates an interest in the
times in which you find yourself – what is happening in society and with the
people.
Visual Ethnography
Sarah Pink in the introduction of “Doing Visual Ethnography” [Pink 2007]
describes using and analysing images within the contexts of where they
become meaningful, in this research, the archive. It is clear that this subgenre of anthropology is in a state of evolution, an evolution linked to
advances in technologies and the subsequent uses of them. Historically this
is contentious area with anthropologists claiming subjectivity and nonrepresentation, some claimed a lack of scientific rigour when photographs or
film were used for research purposes. I will initially involve myself in the
creation of visual images in line with the aims of each case study before any
interpretive/reflective process can meaningfully take place in ethnographic
terms.
Reflexive Photography
Reflexive Photography is deployed in qualitative research by both
researchers and participants. Using Action Research as my methodology this
distinction is important insomuch as when the participants make the
photographs they are identifying the research issues themselves and can
therefore be used to critically analyse the situation from their perspective.
Two of my case studies will use this method to explore ideas around social
interaction and cultural memories. The technique was inspired through the
works of Paulo Freire who by the use of both photographs and drawings as
“coded situations” [Banks 2001] helped promote analysis of the underlying
situation the group was experiencing.
Photo-Elicitation Interviews
This technique of adding a photograph into an interview stems from how the
brain responds to being stimulated. Douglas Harper [2002] describes how
the parts of the brain that process visual information are evolutionarily older
than the parts that process verbal information, thus images evoke deeper
elements of consciousness than words. It seems that this technique elicits
not so much more in the way of information, rather a different sort. Kolb
(2008) further reinforces its usefulness in both participatory transdiscipline
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(holistic) research settings to help further define data quality.
The use of using photographs in research has an indistinct history and when
it was used the photographs were made by either a professional
photographer or the researcher themselves. I will employ this method into
the case studies where the participants make the images.
Literature Review
Mass Observation
This project seems the obvious place to start, beginning as it did with two
anthropologists and a diarist in a northern town around 1937. Their term “an
anthropology of ourselves” triggered the recruitment of both paid and
volunteer observers nationally to record the lives of everyday people. They
used a variety of methods to collect information and “The Worktown Project”
in Bolton particularly advanced the use of photography and film for
ethnographic purposes. As with a lot of things that have idealistic beginnings
the emphasis changed after WW2 with the consumerists taking over and it
ultimately became a limited company in 1949.
The work was only first made available to the public by Sussex University in
1970 and has had charitable status since. In 1981 the idea of a national panel
was once again put in place and they meet annually to review their
acquisition strategy. This strategy is in line with national directives and does
not contain a policy of making or commissioning work preferring instead a
donation led system.
The emphasis for their on-going collecting is on the written word and
directives are sent out each year with topics they wish to get material on, last
year for example was school teachers and pupils, siblings and the diamond
jubilee.
It is my intention to join their volunteer scheme next summer to understand
more about how the acquisition policy is formed and implemented.
The National Archives – Collection Development Tools and
Guidance [Draft]
This Crown Copyrighted document appears to be the latest in a series of
papers responding to developments in technology and to the surge in the
public interest and awareness of archival material, due in no small part to
television programs such as “Who Do You Think You Are”.
It is designed to encourage institutions to fundamentally think about
archiving afresh paying particular attention in how they review and develop
their collections. It is the first national document that speaks about ensuring
diverse aspects of modern life are represented within archives. It is a bold
document coming at a time when local government is not committing any
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money for this activity, if anything the policy is to further shrink the budgets
in this sector.
I am working closely with Dr Cheryl Bailey of the Sheffield Archives on
distinct areas of this document most directly in developing the collection and
reviewing who is represented. Together we have written a successful funding
bid for £25K to help further commission writers, filmmakers and
photographers to implement aspects of the city’s acquisition strategy.
Document Scotland
This group of four photographers acknowledge the long and pioneering
tradition Scotland has brought to the genre of documentary photography.
They recognise that Scotland is undergoing a period of profound change both
politically and culturally as an increasingly diverse and multicultural nation
takes shape. They are of the belief that photography has a moral duty to
record and represent aspects of this change to leave a visual document for
and of Scotland.
The Usefulness of Reflexive Photography for Qualitative
Research: A Case Study.
Professor Salomé Schulze.
This case study explored the usefulness of reflexive photography within the
human and social sciences. It was conducted in the University of South
Africa and was testing ways of using photography to see how the
consequence of positive discrimination to address the racial imbalances of
employment was working. In her theoretical framework she cites Lewin (in
Harrington and Schibik 2003) who postulate that individual behaviour is a
function of the interaction between individuals and their environment. This
method is used in tandem with photo-elicitation interviews accepting Jay
Ruby’s (1995, p.5) premise that before participants apply meanings to the
photographs they have no intrinsic meaning.
The citing of Lewin who, as previously mentioned, gave us the core sequence
of an Action Research intervention supports the basic framework for my
research; methodology, case study and audio-visual ethnography.
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Timeline
September 2013
TSL Turton case study negotiation.
Tapton School case study negotiation.
Further reading and refinement of the proposal to include more details
surrounding each case study.
Ethics Documentation.
Begin Literature review.
October 2013
Research Training – Staff Development Sessions
Further development of case studies.
November – December 2013
Research Training – Staff Development Sessions [Lit’ Review, Research
project design, qualitative research, Endnote sessions.]
January – June 2014
Bringing two case studies to a close, TSL and Tapton.
Research Training – Staff Development Sessions [Mixed method research,
action research, evaluation methods.]
July – September 2014
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Write case study evaluations.
October 2014 – June 2015
Case study 3 – The interface with the archive.
July 2015 – June 2016
Write and present work for submission.
Research Training Needs
I shall be following a plan outlined by the research office in their training and
staff development sessions. My main concerns are:








research project management
effective report writing
reviewing literature
epistemological underpinnings of research
the essentials of qualitative research
mixed method research
action research
approaches to evaluation
Each session is self-contained and can be accessed according to need over
the course of my research program.
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References
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Archives for the 21st Century, ISBN978-0-10-177442-0, 2009, p6
Bate, D. (2009) The Key Concepts: Photography. Berg, New York.
Banks, M. (2001) Visual Methods in Social Research. London. Sage.
Capa, C. ed. (1968) The Concerned Photographer. Grossman, New York.
Coleman A.D. (1982) Light Readings: A Photography Critic’s Writings, University of New Mexico.
Fenwick, G. (1998) George Orwell: a biography, St. Paul's Bibliographies
Flew, T. (2008) New Media: An Introduction 3rd ed. Oxford University Press.
Goffman, E. (1986) Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Touchstone.
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Grierson, J. (1998) ‘Untitled Lecture on Documentary’ in The Documentary Film Movement: An
Anthology. ed. Ian Aitkin, Edinburg University Press.
Harrington, C. E. & Schibik T. J. (2003) Reflexive Photography as an alternative method for the study
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Kolb, B. (2008) Involving, Sharing, Analysing – Potential of the Participatory Photo Interview. Art.12,
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Lewin, K. (1946) “Action Research and Minority Problems.” Journal of Social Issues, 2: 34-46.
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McNiff, J. & Whitehead, J. (2011) All you need to know about Action Research. 2nd Edition. Sage,
London.
HM Government. (2009) Archives for the 21st Century. Crown Press. P.6
Pink, S. (2007) Doing Visual Ethnology: Images, Media and Representation in Research. Sage, London.
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New York.
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Winter, R. (1996) “Some Principals and Procedures for the Conduct of Action Research.” Falmer Press,
London.
Yin, R. K. (1984) Case study research: Design and methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. p. 23
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References used but not referred to in this text.
Flew, T. (2008) New Media: An Inroduction. Oxford University Press, Oxford & Melbourne.
Grey, C. & Malins, J. (2004) Visualizing Research: A Guide to the Research Process in Art and Design.
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Hill, M. R. (1993) Archival Stratergies and Techniques. Sage, London.
Hill, P. & Cooper, T. (1998) Dialogue with Photography. Dewi Lewis, Stockport & Farrar, Straus &
Giroux, New York.
McLuhan, H. M. (1951) The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man. Vanguard Press, New York.
Reason, P. & Bradbury, H. (2006) Handbook of Action Research, Sage. London
Robson, C. (2002) Real World Research. Blackwell. Oxford.
Shore, S. (2007) The Nature of Photographs. Phaidon, London.
Wells, L. ed. (2009) Photography: A Critical Introduction. Routledge, Abingdon.
Willis, P. (1977) Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids get Working Class Jobs. Gower,
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http://www.redeye.org.uk/
http://www.aperture.org/
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