Photographed narratives in London, 1900–35

Forthcoming essay for the Camden Town Group Online Research Project by Tate to be launched in 2011 as an online resource of the Camden Town Group Painitngs.

The Camden Town Group of artists was formed over ‘a good dinner with an abundance of wine’ in 1911. Walter Sickert and a collection of younger painters such as Harold Gilman, Charles Ginner and Spencer Gore were influenced by recent examples of French painting and took London, and frequently the north London suburb of Camden, as their subject.

The Group was fascinated by the changing ways of life in London in the 1910s and the capital as a bustling modern metropolis. The modern painters celebrated ordinary people and urban scenes and captured the mood of this transitional period in British history, preferring to paint themes such as: life in the city; people; style; sex; and the infamous Camden Town murder.

Tate Britain holds the most extensive collection of Camden Town Group paintings and drawings in the world. Together these works constitute a major resource for understanding an important period in the development of modern art in Britain and for appreciating the impact of cultural and social changes in British society in the years before the First World War. The innovative project by Tate aims to reflect upon the significance today of the Camden Town Group and to stimulate further research and thinking about this key period in history.

The project site will include transcripts of contemporary reviews and letters, excerpts of historical films of London sites, vintage photographs and films, and music hall songs, which will provide a rich and flexible research resource for future generations. The project also involves innovative work in the development of the technological infrastructure to support this and future cataloguing projects in ways that will maximise the research value of the published materials. The Online Research Project has at its core a catalogue of Tate's holdings, prepared by Tate curators and cataloguers. Each art work will have an entry, with a full scholarly apparatus including an exhibition history and literature references, technical notes and comparative illustrations. The project, however, is conceived as a broad and multidisciplinary investigation into the Camden Town Group. Dr Ysanne Holt has commissioned leading scholars in fields such as Art and Design History, Conservation Studies, the History of Photography, Literature and Film Studies to explore different aspects of Camden Town art in relation to such themes as modernity and the metropolis, class and social type, popular culture and performance.

The project launched in spring, 2011, is expected to make a considerable impact on the future of museum cataloguing projects in general, as well as an important contribution to the current widespread reassessment of Edwardian Visual Culture.

The Camden Town Group Online Research Project has at its core a catalogue of Tate's holdings, prepared by Tate curators and cataloguers. Each art work will have an entry, with a full scholarly apparatus including an exhibition history and literature references, technical notes, and an often extensive commentary on the work's subject and historical and social context, complete with comparative illustrations where appropriate. Each artist will also have a biography and a selected bibliography.

The project, however, is conceived as a broad and multi-disciplinary investigation into the Camden Town Group, its aims, history, impact and achievements. The entries on individual works will therefore link to a range of other texts and materials on the project micro-site, allowing visitors to follow their own research interests. Leading scholars, working in fields such as cultural history, design history, social geography and literature, will be invited to explore different aspects of Camden Town art. Major themes will include modernity and the metropolis, social class and social type, popular culture and performance, gender and sexuality, and the countryside.

Funded by The Getty Foundation from 2009 to 2011, the project aims to reflect upon the significance today of the Camden Town Group and to stimulate further research and thinking about this key period in British history. Alongside scholarly essays and factual shorter texts, the project site will include transcripts of contemporary reviews and letters, excerpts of historical films of London sites, vintage photographs and films, and music hall songs, which, it is hoped, will provide a rich and flexible research resource for future generations. The project will also see innovative work in the development of the technological infrastructure to support this and future cataloguing projects in ways that will maximise the research value of the published materials.