Other lives of the image

The project will examine the ways in which a collection of apartheid-era photographs from South Africa held at the Pitt Rivers Museum, can be of value to South African and British audiences today. The photographs, taken by Bryan Heseltine and his aunt Irene Heseltine in the 1940s and early 1950s, are of particular importance to the visual history of South Africa. The research will establish a comprehensive digital research catalogue for the collections and use this as the basis for fieldwork in South Africa. Fieldwork will consist of local exhibitions, reception analysis, interviews, and historical research, to critically examine the range of meanings and uses for such historical imagery in the region.