UNCOVERING PHOTO HISTORY

Anna Sparham and Petra Felgen on their revealing new book, 100 Photographs from the Collections of the National Trust

- Kim Bunermann

Photography is now a widespread medium but in the digital world, the importance of preserving historical images for future generations has been overlooked. Although creating images hasn't always been as easy as it is today, the invention of photography allowed people to record moments of time for eternity, offering us glimpses of life in the past.

The task of preserving this history today falls to charities such as the National Trust.

Established in 1895, the Trust now looks after 250,000 hectares of countryside, 780 miles of coastline and more than 500 historic properties across England, Wales and Northern Ireland; including their history, art and photographic collections.

To bring these historical photographs to a wider audience, the National Trust has partnered with CEWE, Europe's market leader in photographic books. With decades of experience in bringing memories to life, CEWE shares the National Trust's values of conservation of resources and environmental protection. We talked to Anna Sparham of the National Trust and Petra Felgen from CEWE to find out about the book and the partnership...

Hi Anna, what was the inspiration behind curating this collection of 100 images from the National Trust?
Anna: Interestingly, the National Trust has only had a national curator of photography post since 2019 and I’m the second person to take that on. The photography collection has been somewhat sidelined in terms of expert curation, so the inspiration behind creating the book was to raise the profile of the collection by showcasing some compelling images and the research that has been done in the past, as well as new research I’ve done.