Scholarship winner photographs history in the making
University of Bolton Photography masters student, Anna White, has been capturing the history of tomorrow, recreating the famous Worktown project.
Anna has been the John Marriott Humphrey Spender scholarship recipient for 2010-11 which is generously provided by Bolton le Moors Rotary Club. She has spent the past year taking pictures of people living, working and socialising in Bolton. A collection of her images are now exhibiting at Bolton Museum in the Spender Archive.
Anna’s aim was to reinterpret the famous photographs of Humphrey Spender and his Mass Observation images. These are a collection of pictures taken by Spender that documented the lives, work habits, hobbies and interests of working people in 1930s Bolton.
But while Anna kept to the general theme of Spender’s original idea she also developed a unique concept for her own interpretation.
Anna said: ‘My concept for the images was, in some ways, to do the complete opposite of Spender. Instead of hiding the camera, to be unobserved, I used an old 1920s press camera and took photographs of people in plain sight, with their permission. I did this to engage with Bolton and so people could start to understand what I was trying to do.’
In keeping with the Mass Observation theme, and to create her own part of the town’s recent history, Anna documented the time, location, weather conditions and other factual information for every photograph. She also conducted short interviews with the pictures’ subjects to fully document what living in Bolton is like now.
Anna hopes the town will remember her project in years to come: ‘Bolton people really got behind the idea. In 75 years we can all look back and see what Boltonians looked and lived like. It is a lasting legacy and something everyone can be a part of and be proud of.’
Anna collaborated with poet Andrew McMillain on the project. He spoke to people Anna was photographing, asking them what their everyday lives were like. Andrew then compared and contrasted this information with the observations of the original 1930s project and created words to accompany Anna’s images.
Anna is pleased with her own contribution to, and interpretation of, the Mass Observation movement. But she also feels there is still plenty of scope for future generations to work with: ‘The theme was very broad and I have only touched the surface, it was a far reaching and challenging project and there is still so much that could be done. I hope that I have made an impression that other people can take on, as well as leaving a record of what 2011 was like.’
The exhibition, Worktown: ‘The Everyday’, is open now and runs to Saturday 18 February 2012 at Bolton Museum and Archive Service.
