26.10.12
The Guardian Collection: New Guardian project to revive photo archive
The Guardian newspaper has created a new project to revive a number of photos from its archives by turning them into pieces that can be displayed in people’s homes
The Guardian Collection is a series of images from its archives that will be available for purchase from 2 October 2012, and an exhibition of the photographic prints will take place from 2-11 October at the Guardian Gallery in London. Celebrated works include those of Tom Jenkins and Christopher Thomond.
We spoke exclusively to Monisha Saldhana, head of brand extensions at The Guardian, to find out why the paper decided to embark on this interesting photography venture and what it meant to them and their readers.
Monisha explained that as the head of branding department for the paper it was her job to come up with an innovative idea to enhance the brand and the paper’s profits. They quickly realised that there was a whole archive of images sitting beneath their noses, waiting to be rediscovered.
“The archive of images goes back over hundreds of years, documenting important moments in time,” explained Monisha. “These images were taken with the intent of going into the newspaper.”
Now the images’ new purpose will be to end up as works of art that people can hang on their walls. Creating The Guardian Collection has been a fascinating journey through history, Monisha says. “You’re so used to seeing them in a small size in the paper and a newspaper is disposable, so people were surprised seeing them in a new light as art forms.” She explained that most images only appeared once in the paper or online and then were never seen again, and some were never seen at all. It was time they came back into the limelight,
Monisha said that The Guardian are looking to expand the current number of around 127 images to a far greater collection, calling upon the photographers to make their own selections and send in all the information and data needed to transform them into pieces of art.
The most interesting find, as Monisha explained, was that the landscape images of the British countryside proved to be most popular. Monisha felt that the public had a very strong sense of nostalgia for these forgotten archived images.
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