Output details

Archive: Imagining the East End

'The East End Archive' that Andrews directs has resulted in symposia and publications as well as the website www.eastendarchive.org. The output submitted is Andrew’s contribution to a co-authored book exploring photographic representations of the East End as a geographic and imagined space, investigating key issues related to building the archive. Andrews’ contributions use image and text to explore issues central to the construction of the EEA.

The research examines key considerations in the construction of an archive and proposes that photographic archival material should be given a broader context to facilitate understanding of content and photographic practice. It proposes that photographic archive materials should engage with subjectivity and the imagination as a means of re-exploring the concept of ‘document’. It raises fundamental questions regarding the construction of online archives and issues relating to digital image conservation.

‘The Archive' explores the contention: that there are no fixed boundaries to ‘the East End’, which is the product of an imagined space based on photographic representation, journalistic invention and social movement; that there are both problematic and positive issues relating to online archives and digital image conservation, explored particularly through a pilot study at the EEA with Diprose and Seaborne’s pioneering work with digital print materials; that there should be an expanded conception of photographic archive, utilising “factual” and “imagined” approaches; and that it is essential to collect “bodies of work” to understand photographic meaning, thereby giving the image greater context.

‘Why One is Never Enough’ explores this issue further: examining the working practice and personal interests of each photographer, including Andrews’ own photographic work. These journeys are threaded through the book with constructions of meaning explored.

Andrews and Nick Haeffner collaborated on the concept, picture research, layout and editing.

Exhibition from the EEA, Hoxton Hall November 2013 material from the book presented.