These blog posts are intended to explain a little more about this project and collection of postcards as well as the process and development towards displaying them in a gallery setting and the purpose of this additional website.
I was initially interested in the collections of others and set out contacting local postcard collectors with the intention of photographing and documenting the material they owned. In particular, postcards that showed scenes of Southampton. My idea was to look at how the area has changed over the years but also the architecture that has survived. Unfortunately the collectors I managed to contact for one reason or another were unable to take part. The main issue seemed to be handling the material and taking it away from the storage in their homes to be photographed in a studio. Perhaps rightly so a collector should be precious of their items but some of these people had the own website or blog in which they shared and showcased their finds (how I came across them in the first place) so it was very much the case of "look but don't touch". I will write further about the psychology behind collecting in another post.
My next option for acquiring material to use was to visit the local archives at Southampton City Library and Southampton University. Both of these trips were very interesting and insightful into the towns past. But again there were issues surrounding access. All that was available were poor quality photocopies or very expensive digital copies. Neither of these options was ideal. It was also difficult sourcing the correct material to view because there was such a vast amount of it and no way of previewing how it would look, apart from a short written description, before requesting to view the original copy brought out of the archives. This experience and frustration led me on to researching about the developments in archiving techniques. Many institutions are starting to build up digital databases online for the public to gain further access to the collections. It is also a useful research tool.
I was initially interested in the collections of others and set out contacting local postcard collectors with the intention of photographing and documenting the material they owned. In particular, postcards that showed scenes of Southampton. My idea was to look at how the area has changed over the years but also the architecture that has survived. Unfortunately the collectors I managed to contact for one reason or another were unable to take part. The main issue seemed to be handling the material and taking it away from the storage in their homes to be photographed in a studio. Perhaps rightly so a collector should be precious of their items but some of these people had the own website or blog in which they shared and showcased their finds (how I came across them in the first place) so it was very much the case of "look but don't touch". I will write further about the psychology behind collecting in another post.
My next option for acquiring material to use was to visit the local archives at Southampton City Library and Southampton University. Both of these trips were very interesting and insightful into the towns past. But again there were issues surrounding access. All that was available were poor quality photocopies or very expensive digital copies. Neither of these options was ideal. It was also difficult sourcing the correct material to view because there was such a vast amount of it and no way of previewing how it would look, apart from a short written description, before requesting to view the original copy brought out of the archives. This experience and frustration led me on to researching about the developments in archiving techniques. Many institutions are starting to build up digital databases online for the public to gain further access to the collections. It is also a useful research tool.
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