Reanimating the Archive: How and for Whom? Archival and Curatorial Issues Raised by Collective Practices in Camerawork

Four Corners and Half Moon Photography Workshop (along with its renowned magazine Camerawork) were two community-based cultural organisations, based in East London from the mid-1970s. Their early work played a major role in the development of radical, community-based film and photographic practice of the era. Both organisations embraced a collective practice, and a socially-engaged, pluralist approach. They aimed to open up the practice of filmmaking and photography, to encourage an active participation both practical and theoretical. The archive of Camerawork/Half Moon Photography Workshop and Camerawork magazine, emerging from a contested history, now forms part of Four Corners’ Archive. Both digital and physical, this extensive resource covers both the magazine and collective’s early history from 1972 to 1987. It contains a rich variety of material that covers working life, anti-racist protest, feminism, images of childhood, international freedom struggles, and the politics of representation. This chapter discusses how an active archival approach might engage with the complex and sometimes contested interpretation of these collective practices. What curatorial issues might they raise for exhibition and public engagement? And how can researchers, audiences and practitioners learn from these original collaborative practices?