Almost two weeks ago now I went back to the George Rodger Archive. I have been several times before this visit to talk to Jinx and record our conversations; I found that from these visits I had learnt a lot about George, the archive and herself. I realised what was important in the archive: -Africa George loved the remote parts of Africa, meeting and documenting new tribes. His prestigious story 38 is a significant part of the archive- having a print box to itself and being featured in over half og the magazine articles kept by Jinx. -Magnum relationships Jinx … Continue reading Visiting the George Rodger Archive

At 88 years of age, Jinx Rodger still spends 6 hours everyday cataloguing her late husband’s archive – an archive which spans every photograph, artefact and correspondence, because, as Jinx admits “I just can’t throw anything away […] I looked up to him like a God” (Jinx, 2013). George Rodger is the Magnum Photos co-founder that photography forgot (*) and yet George photographed in 61 countries during the Second World War (Naggar, 2003), more than any other photographer (Jinx, 2013). Jinx shared George’s passion for photography and saw her travel thousands of miles with him on assignments with Magnum. As … Continue reading The George Rodger Archive Proposal

In October 2013, before meeting both Carole and Jinx I had the opportunity to sit in a Skype conversation between David Campbell and Carole Nagger, discussing George Rodger. Phonar Interview CC: BY-ND 3.0 Phonar.org Notes from conversation: Writing the Biography “to me it’s a cross between fiction and non fiction, when working with material you have to imagine” Carole talks about writing a biography based on her research taken from the archive which is solidified: she wanted to fill in the gaps to help the narrative, so to speak, flow. C.N “kept a diary every day of his life” D.C … Continue reading Interview with David Campbell and Carole Naggar

From my previous research with archives, I was looking at how archives are in this transition to becoming more open rather than concealed. Digital technologies is changing how we see archives: physical artefacts are now being replicated ready for digital viewing giving everyone the right to view archives (be it at a cost). The digitisation process  Focussing on physical archives and their place in becoming more open and available I have been looking at the digitisation process. First and foremost it is undeniably expensive: Brewster Kahle (founder of archive.org) estimated that it would cost the Library of Congress $750 million … Continue reading Concealment of Archives