As part of a collaboration with the Cambridge University Library Special Collections Department. I was given access to the newly digitised Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) collection and asked to creatively respond to photographic material in the collection.

 

l used two of the albums in the archive to create my response to the brief. The first albums was by Margaret 'Killie' Campbell documenting the peoples of southern Africa. These are a series of sepia-toned prints taken in the late 1940s by various photographers and artists, including Mignon Herring, Barbara Tyrrell, Lyn Acutt and Killie Campbell. The photos are accompanied by typescript captions and explanatory notes supplied by Campbell, some of which use anachronistic or inaccurate terms to describe individuals or groups of peoples. The second was an album by of John Ewart Marnham a British civil servant. This collection of photos document his work and travels to Johannesburg between 1967 and 1970 as well as his home life in Johannesburg showing his garden and flowers.

 

 | was inspired to create a new narrative for the women documented in the album. I did this by removing the typescript captions and using the symbolism of various flowers depicted in the Marnham's garden as new narrative are those of as pride, kindness, grace, hope and confidence.