After spending over six months working with Jinx in the George Rodger Archive, it feels like I’ve come to the end of this chapter. During this time I successfully conducted interviews with Jinx and documented them using audio recorders; photographed the archive and some of its contents and I pulled parts of an archive together to share a story (or two). After much deliberation, I decided to share George’s work on the Nubas which is work that has notably been in the public eye since its publishing in 1955. I used a range of means to try and retell this … Continue reading Evaluative Conclusion

Monday 19th May, Phil Coomes, picture editor from the BBC interviewed me over the telephone regarding my project with the George Rodger Archive. It was such an honour to feel as though my work meant something more than just my work for university. I know that this work is worth more, of course, but to have it being recognised is fulfilling. Phil was a very relaxed and easy interviewee; I am thankful for his patience as I was feeling anxious that day while waiting for my book to arrive. Phil started the interview by asking how I got to the … Continue reading Interview with the BBC

Since November I have been visiting Jinx Rodger and the George Rodger Archive investigating its stories. Jinx is so lively and warm at her grand age of 89; she doesn’t act a day over 30 really. She still dreams of being in a world of travelling with George across continents meeting new people and taking their photographs. It’s a life she looks back on with such delight and nostalgia. When I met Jinx, of course she had a lot of questions about what I wished to do but at that point I wasn’t sure. It’s funny, I have never really … Continue reading My time in the archive

I am currently designing an iBook for #GeorgeRodgerArchive. The idea is that it will be a digital version of the one that will feature in the exhibition so that there is a sense of continuity in the project. The iBook in many aspects is more versitile than a physical book as audio and videos can be included in them. However, I didn’t want to have an iBook as part of my exhibition piece because of the nature that it could be found at home; whereas there is only one physical copy. Drawing on my inspiration from ‘Dear Robert’ by Joel … Continue reading Making an iBook

For the exhibition, I wanted to include audio aspects so that the viewer can listen to Jinx’s voice. I had already decided that the online and offline presence to the project would be marginally different based on my research into the dissemination of archives. Therefore I wanted to make the physical archive much more exclusive. With this in mind, I have decided to have two MP3 players which will play Jinx reading the letter George sent her following his experience with the Nuba tribe and also George’s diary entry from the same event. When Ollie Sharpe, former Coventry University student, … Continue reading Editing Audio Tracks

I have been in an ongoing conversation with Joel Kantor about disseminating archives. When I was speaking to Joel, author of ‘Dear Robert’, he didn’t think that his iBook was really a reflection of an archive. He said that he thought he was taking his resources and making a narrative from it. “Generally we collect images and they enter a framework, with a particular subject matter, as a result of an “ambition” to report on our collection (which we call a book most often). The book can go into our archive but our archive does not make up our book. … Continue reading Joel Kantor and discussing purpose and audience

I have been thinking again about the openness of archives which is what I based my symposium talk on in February. I discussed the dissemination of different kinds of photography archives and what extent to which the material was ‘free’, but what I didn’t talk about was audience themselves and their reasons for wanting the archives to be free and available at all. Before Christmas I spoke with Aaron Guy, who is researching for his PhD in the dissemination of archives, and he reminded me of three levels of audience’s interests: academic, community and individual. He said that this is … Continue reading Australian Aborigines archive