A photographic collection to be proud of
“The British Library has only just opened its first exhibition from its photographic collections, so I like to think we have done some ground-breaking work which has encouraged other institutions to go down the same path.
“We’re getting a much better grip on the collection now, and a key is the work we are doing at the moment to bring it all together under one archive management system.”
The current Gas Hall exhibition Birmingham Seen, which puts painting and photography side by side on a scale never previously seen to show the changing face of the city over two centuries, is one benchmark of progress.But in a few years time there is the prospect of the move to the new Library of Birmingham, with improved storage facilities and a gallery similar in scale to the Waterhall where exhibitions can be shown.
“We will bring all the collections into one environmentally-controlled area,” says James. “The aim with the new building is to make the collections work for the library, the city and the region as a photographic history research and archive centre, to improve access so we can get more out on display.”
The new building project in itself will be documented, with Michael Collins and Andrew Lacon already commissioned to record the new building as it goes up in Centenary Square. Stuart Whipps, well known for his images of the deserted Longbridge factory, has been assigned to document the existing building before it is demolished.
And the collection continues to grow. In the storeroom, James shows me some of the latest acquisitions, including 36 prints from the 1980s by Brian Griffin, possibly the most internationally-admired living photographer from Birmingham. He has recently been commissioned to make a series of portraits linked to the Olympics, ranging from Lord Coe to apprentices working on the building site.
There are photographs by Daniel Meadows and Homer Sykes, both of whom were directly inspired by the rediscovery of Sir Benjamin Stone’s work when it was exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in the 1970s. There are also four prints from the American photographer Paul Fusco’s series recording the crowds which turned out to witness the passing of Bobby Kennedy’s funeral train in 1968.
The library was able to acquire these effectively at cost price in gratitude for its staging of the whole exhibition at Curzon Street Station in 2007, thought by Fusco to be the best presentation on its international tour.
“There’s a lot of support for what we do here, and a lot of photographers like to have their work in the collection and let us have it for knock-down prices,” says James. We also recently acquired work from Stuart Whipps’s work at Rover and photographs from Simon Roberts’s book We English, a study of how the English spend their leisure time. We’re trying to be more pro-active, but the more you acquire the more you want to get it out there so the public can see it.”
* Birmingham Seen is on view at the Gas Hall, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, until January 3.
* ‘A tribute to the archive’
The Colin Ford Award, created in 2003, is named after the photography historian who created the National Museum of Photography (now the National Museum of Media) in Bradford and was its first director.
Before that he was the keeper of photographs and film at the National Portrait Gallery, the first holder of a post dedicated to photography in a national museum.
Now retired, he was commissioned by Birmingham City Council to produce a report on its photography collection for the original Library of Birmingham project.
Emphasising that he plays no part in selecting recipients of the award named after him, Colin Ford said: “The general view is that you have a collection in Birmingham of national, not to say international, importance.
“Pete James has spent a very long time trying to get that recognised, and that’s why he’s been recognised by the Royal Photographic Society. The award is almost a tribute to the collection as much as to Pete, and I hope it will help to get it the recognition it deserves.”
