A Record of England: Sir Benjamin Stone and the National Photographic Association 1897-1910

This volume explores the origins, formulation and eventual failure of the National Photographic Record Association which was founded by Stone, its driving force. It emerged from the wider photographic survey movement in which amateur photographs were encouraged to record and archive the antiquities and customs of the British Isles photographically, and deposit the results for the public good in the British Museum.

Based on detailed and new archival research the volume brings a fresh and more nuanced reading to Stone’s photography, positioning it not in terms of individual vision but in the wider cultural processes of both amateur photography and the preservationist movement as an expression of historical consciousness. It argues that, contrary to earlier readings, survey photography cannot be reduced to a middle class nostalgia but is concerned with a dynamic vision of the place of the past in the future and the creation of a collective memory bank for the nation. The volume comprises a scholarly essay, bibliography and selection of photographs, made specifically to demonstrate those arguments.

Eiluned Edwards

Current research

I am currently working on three projects: a book entitled Textiles and Dress of Gujarat to be published by Mapin Publishing (India) with V&A Publishing in 2010; research on the regional production of saris for an exhibition entitled Simply Sari to be held at the Textile Research Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands in 2010 for which I am writing the catalogue; and collecting oral histories among block printers and dyers of western India.

Recent research

I have recently completed a programme of research funded by the British Academy and the Laura and Luigi Dallapiccola Foundation with printers and painters in Srikalahasti and Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh, printers in Jaipur, Bagru and Sanganer in Rajasthan, and printers in Gujarat. I also carried out research with indigo farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The project has been developed in collaboration with artisans at these sites with technical input from Dr Ismail Mohammad Khatri. The material will be developed in to a book but has already been disseminated through conference papers, journal articles and other publications.