Beyond the View, Reframing the Sunbeam Photographic Collection

This exhibition co-curated by Karen Shepherdson and Rob Ball explored C20th seaside photography taken on the South East coast of the UK.

The exhibition and associated publication Beyond the View: Reframing the Sunbeam Photographic Collection (Shepherdson/Ball)considered the work of commercial seaside photographers, utilising the SEAS holdings and over 500 located ‘walkies’. Early beach photographers were itinerant and their work often dismissed as inartistic and disposable; research revealed the creativity and technical skill involved in making these images and established their contribution to British photographic history. It also demonstrated how seaside photography brought insights into broader social histories of leisure and reflected wider society. The beach photographer represented an affordable alternative to studio portraiture, documenting the leisure time of individuals whose image might otherwise not have been captured. Via interpretation of these images, material shifts in portraiture were revealed, reflecting the changing social landscape of the second half of the 19th C. These themes were further explored in the on-line exhibition curated by Shepherdson, Beyond the View: Reframing Early Seaside Photography (2015) for the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

The Beyond the View exhibition featured in the Financial Times (FT) Weekend Magazine (July 2014) who highlighted the personal relevance of the images. ‘Surely one of the reasons we love poring over old family snapshots like these is because, along with the past, they’re often where we see the earliest incarnations of the people we’ve become’ (circulation 2014: approx. 720,000). Visitors’ comments also evidenced the personal resonance of the imagery and its relevance to social history, including: ‘Wonderful pictures of ordinary people going about their ordinary lives’; ‘these images are interesting – emotionally, as social documentary, as photographs. Equals looking at equals’; and ‘So many local people and self and family!’ and ‘that’s how the seaside was. Lovely memories'.

• https://www.seasphotography.org.uk/