City's pictorial history honoured

[Kev]

Liverpool's photographic collections have been recognised as being of national and international importance.

The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council has awarded Liverpool Record Office its "designation status" for its extensive archive of pictures.

Organisations with designated collections are seen as looking after the UK's cultural heritage.

Liverpool City Council leader Warren Bradley said the pictures were "hugely important".

"Liverpool has a rich and varied past and can look back on a fascinating story," he said.

"The work of our record office to preserve and catalogue the images which capture this story, and make them available to everyone, is truly priceless.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/o.gif http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/start_quote_rb.gif We place huge importance in looking after our photographic collection - they are the collected memories of Liverpool http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/end_quote_rb.gifDavid Stoker - Records office manager

"I'm very proud that this collection has taken its place among the most culturally significant in the country."

The extensive photographic archives at Liverpool Record Office includes town planning, transport and public health documents.

There are about 180,000 photographs from the late 19th Century onwards.

The collection includes the complete work of Edward Chambre Hardman, which is part owned by the council and part owned by the National Trust.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42295000/jpg/_42295844_liverclock203.jpg
Lunch was eaten off the Liver Building clock before it was erected

Hardman was one of the most admired portrait and landscape photographers of the 20th Century.

The collection also includes 150,000 of his portrait photographs, of local people and visitors including Ivor Novello and Margot Fonteyn.

Record office Manager David Stoker said: "We place huge importance in looking after our photographic collection - they are the collected memories of Liverpool.

"Our images are used every day to support all kinds of research, publications, exhibitions and the council's work with the media and cultural organisations."

Liverpool Record office attracted more than 43,200 visitors during 2005/06 who consulted nearly 40,000 documents and took up over 40,000 computer and microfilm sessions. source (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/6132670.stm)....

[scouserdave]

Just sold 12 pics to Lancaster's Carnegie Publishing for their Liverpool: A People's History book:celb (23):

[scouserdave]

BTW,
I place Edward Chambre Hardman up there with Bill Shankly.

[Kev]

LIVERPOOL'S photographic archives have won national recognition.

The collections have been recognised as being of national and international importance.

Now the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council has awarded Liverpool Record Office the prestigious "designation status".

The designation scheme celebrates the leading museum, library and archive collections in England which are of outstanding significance for the country's cultural heritage.Record Office manager David Stoker said: "We place huge importance in looking after our photographic collection.

"Our images are used every day to support all kinds of research, publications and exhibitions.

"At the heart of the work of the Record Office is making sure this wonderful record of Liverpool's history can be seen by as many people as possible."

The extensive photographic archives include the complete work of Edward Chambre Hardman - 150,000 photographs - and the city engineer's archive and housing department archive - 180,000 photographs. source (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpoolecho/news/echonews/tm_headline=photo-finish-on-archives%26method=full%26objectid=18131860%26sitei d=50061-name_page.html)....

[theninesisters]

For some cracking pictures, try:

http://www.liverpoolpictorial.co.uk/ainscough/

I've got his book at home, for someone to travel miles out of his way to take pictures of a town is either batty or someone we have to be so thankful for!!!!

[ChrisGeorge]

For some cracking pictures, try:

http://www.liverpoolpictorial.co.uk/ainscough/

I've got his book at home, for someone to travel miles out of his way to take pictures of a town is either batty or someone we have to be so thankful for!!!!


Thanks, Jona76. Great to see.

Chris

[Waterways]

BTW,
I place Edward Chambre Hardman up there with Bill Shankly.

He was a babbling lunatic?

[sweetpatooti]

Great pics of Ainscough's.

My dad used to answer the telephone with "Ann Fowler's Home for Fallen Women". He did it for years.

[Ged]

He was a babbling lunatic?

Which one?:PDT_Aliboronz_24:

[knowhowe]

You can see a few of ECH's wonderful images of Chester and Liverpool from my collection here-

http://www.bwpics.co.uk/gallery/oldpics.html

I occasionally used to visit him in his chaotic house in Rodney Street, of which more anon...

[Howie]

An inspiration through a lens
Feb 19 2008
by Peter Elson, Liverpool Daily Post

The work of Liverpool’s greatest photographer is being used to encourage young people to follow his lead. Peter Elson reports

http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/article/20031701/2008/02/18/12098513.jpeg

LITTLE could I have imagined as I slogged away, heading the Daily Post’s four-year campaign to save photographer Edward Chambré Hardman’s archive, what it would result in.

With help from the small but tenacious Liverpool Preservation Trust, the simple aim was to keep this fabulous collection of photographs in its city of origin.

A bonus was the possibility of also saving 59, Rodney Street, Chambré Hardman’s astonishing “time-capsule” Liverpool studio-home. But all the time, there was a far distant dream the pictures would inspire and stimulate a future generation to emulate Hardman in the visual arts.

Luckily, the National Trust’s Simon Murray (now director of operations) monitored my Daily Post articles, decided to investigate, and finally advised purchase of both house and archive.

These campaigns always need “angels” to make them a reality. Liverpool Riverside MP Louise Ellman was a stalwart supporter, and even asked a question about the archive’s plight in the House of Commons.

The then Liverpool council leader, Mike Storey, helped “bang heads together”, as he eloquently put it, and commissioned a special humidified store room at Liverpool Record Office, Central Library, to finally house the archive in safety.

Finally, there was the couple of million pounds spent on restoring Hardman’s house and garden by the National Trust to create a museum for the public.

All that seemed a long time coming, but it has arrived and is now well established as a visitor attraction. It’s something everyone on Merseyside should take huge pride in.

Now comes the icing on the cake. We’re at the point where the photographs, which include a record of Liverpool from the 1920s to the 1960s, portraits, landscapes at home and abroad, are to tour Merseyside.

That vague hope of bringing these atmospheric photographs into the open so young eyes could see their city in a fresh way by understanding its past will become a reality.

Hopefully, those unfamiliar with Hardman’s work will also marvel at and be inspired by the artistry and technical accomplishments of this outstanding photographer.

The exhibition is called Liverpool People and Places – the photography of E Chambré Hardman, but it is more than simply placing his photographs in public places unexposed to his vision.

It will combine 20 striking Hardman images with work by young Liverpudlians as part of the European Capital of Culture celebrations. The youngsters have spent the past four months using photography as a method of recording the city, its life and its heritage.

The touring exhibition will be launched at Liverpool’s Metquarter designer shopping centre on April 7 and will finish at the Echo Arena Liverpool in November to coincide with the National Trust’s AGM, when it is held there in November.

Coincidentally, another National Trust exhibition of Hardman’s work will be one of the first to go on show at the newly-restored Victoria Gallery & Museum, Brownlow Hill, University of Liverpool, when it opens to the public.

Simon Osborne, the National Trust’s Liverpool property manager, says: “Through Liverpool People and Places, we hope that the city’s young people will explore and develop their own photographic skills.

“The aim of the project also enables the National Trust to continue paying for an archivist and restoring Hardman’s archives to make access easier.

“Also important is getting the pictures out to a wider community and encouraging young adults to participate in the project to introduce them to the pre-digital camera age.

“The students will be equipped with single-lens reflex cameras and get into John Moores University dark rooms to develop and print films. Liverpool Community College will look at how glamour photography was produced in studios in a way that is completely unknown now.

“It’s about engaging with the community so people have an awareness of a by-gone art form. These pictures were a complete revelation to the students who were absolutely enthralled.”

With the exhibition travelling to unusual locations like the Metquarter and Liverpool South Parkway station, Simon believes they will touch audiences who do not visit traditional galleries.

Wayne Colquhoun, chairman and founder of Liverpool Preservation Trust, formed the organisation to alert people to the potential mistakes in losing our cultural heritage.

“I hoped at the start of our dogged campaign that it would one day inspire a new generation to view Liverpool through the individual lenses of our own eyes,” says Wayne.

“To know these photographic works of art are now being used as a springboard to do this means all the long campaigning was more than worth it, because investing in youth forms a future generation’s cultural legacy.

“If one young person is inspired to become a photographer half as great as Chambré Hardman, then I will feel proud to have played my part in some small way. When these works go on exhibition, people should stop, look around and imagine how impoverished Liverpool would be without the knowledge of our historic past through Hardman’s legacy.”

The project is financed by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Liverpool Culture Company. Five organisations are currently involved: Interchill, Liverpool Community College, Shorefields Technology College, New Heys Community School and South Liverpool Youth Offending Team.

Laura Naylor, National Trust community project officer and exhibition organiser, says: “All the student participants toured Hardman’s former home and studio.

“They were supplied with an ‘inspiration pack’ of landscapes, portraits and house ephemera. A project officer helped the groups increase their understanding of Hardman and encourage thinking about wider social issues, like citizenship.”

Besides developing creative thinking, photography, animation, and film-making, she hopes the young people involved will also develop a sense of team work and a historical awareness of their surroundings.

Cllr Warren Bradley, leader of Liverpool City Council and deputy chair of the Liverpool Culture Company, sees this as one of the key targets for 2008: “One of the aims of this year is to engage as many people as possible in exploring their identity and celebrating their culture. I applaud the way the National Trust is taking Edward Chambré Hardman’s work out into the community for a new generation to appreciate.”

THE Liverpool People and Places exhibition opens in Liverpool’s Metquarter on April 7, and then tours community spaces across the city until November. Details of further venues will be announced shortly.

Source: Liverpool Daily Post (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-life-features/liverpool-special-features/2008/02/19/an-inspiration-through-a-lens-64375-20492132/)

[Howie]

Photography exhibition at Metquarter
Apr 8 2008
by Catherine Jones, Liverpool Echo

AN exhibition of work by celebrated Liverpool photographer Edward Chambré Hardman has opened in the city centre.

The Metquarter exhibition, Liverpool People And Places, marks the culmination of a major project involving young people and the National Trust.

It combines a selection of Irish-born Hardman’s iconic images of Liverpool in the middle of the last century, alongside work by youngsters, who have spent the past five months recording the city through 21st-century eyes.

When Hardman died in 1988, his photographic studio and house in Rodney Street contained his entire life’s work.

It was the only known British photographic studio of the mid-20th century where the photographer’s entire output was preserved.

Liverpool People And Places is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Culture Company.

It is on show at Metquarter until April 27 and will then move to Queen Square.

Source: Liverpool Echo (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2008/04/08/photography-exhibition-at-metquarter-100252-20733077/)