All about Eve: the photography of Eve Arnold

I curated this exhibition as a retrospective of the work of Eve Arnold, who passed away earlier in 2012. The exhibition was put on in time to serve as a venue for her Memorial on the 22 March 2012. There are 120 images on display, most of then well known but some not often seen in public before. I have added extracts of her autobiography as text panels and added a list of all the jobs she ever did during her long career. I was able to get clearance to show the Omnibus film that was made about her in 1996 on a loop in the show as well as the web based Magnum tribute to her

Considering Vietnam

The Vietnam War is evolving from contemporary memory into history. Fifty years on, it still serves as a benchmark in the history of war reporting and in the representation of conflict in popular culture and historical memory. This conference seeks to explore the legacy of the US involvement in South East Asia and the resonances it still has for the coverage of contemporary warfare. In particular, the conference will reassess the role of the media in covering the war and the implications this has had for the coverage of subsequent conflicts, the impact of the war on popular culture, the ways that wars and their aftermaths are experienced on the ‘home front,’ and issues around memorialisation and memory, particularly in museum culture. The conference will bring together practitioners, academics and curators in an interdisciplinary engagement with this complex but important issue

Mythologizing the Vietnam War - Introduction

The Vietnam War is evolving from contemporary memory into history. Fifty years on, it still serves as a benchmark in the history of war reporting and in the representation of conflict in popular culture and historical memory. However, as contemporary culture tries to come to terms with the events and their political, psychological and cultural implications, the 'real' Vietnam War has been appropriated and changed into a set of mythologies which implicate American and Vietnamese national identities specifically, and ideas of modern conflict more broadly, particularly in shaping the mediation of the twenty-first century 'War on Terror'. This collection of interdisciplinary critical essays explores the cultural legacies of the US involvement in South East Asia, considering this process of 'mythologising' through the lenses of visual media and tracing the war's evolution from contemporary reportage to subsequent interpretation and consumption. It reassesses the role of visual media in covering and remembering the war, its memorialisation, mediation and memory

Stories See Though a Glass Plate II 1916:Lewes Remembers

An exhibition of 80 light boxes in 65 windows throughout Lewe

Magnum Magnum, Portrait of Magnum at Its 60th Anniversary

The publication of MAGNUM MAGNUM marked 60 years of Magnum’s history. Lardinois was the editor of the volume and at the start of the project, conducted extensive background research. The foreword was written by Gerry Badger and Lardinois contributed a critical text, added the biographies of the 69 photographers together with the inventory of Magnum’s published books and oversaw the layout. Martin Parr originated the idea of asking every Magnum photographer to choose six significant photographs from another Magnum photographer’s images and explain the selection. Lardinois researched the logistics of this proposition, working closely with Parr. She negotiated with the photographers and estates and led the complicated process of matching up the pairs through to completion. It was the first time in the history of the agency that every member, with no exception, participated in one project. The book’s concept, asking the photographers to choose work of a colleague and explain those choices, sheds a light on the inside workings of the illustrious agency. It shows what constitutes Magnum Photos at that moment in time. In addition to this is gives an understanding of the selection and editing process itself. All of the living photographers participated and collaborated with a colleague or a photographer’s estate. The book’s concept asked the photographers to choose work of a colleague and explain those choices, thus shedding a light on the inside workings of the illustrious agency. The large format of the volume, the first edition, enabled many photographs to be printed in large duo-tone, thus creating an ‘exhibition that could be viewed at home'. The book was published in three formats (large, compact, and mini) and in nine languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, Korean and Russian. it proved a best seller and is still in print. Lardinois’ critical text analysed how the agency was formed, its subsequent development, photographers’ attitudes towards the nature of being a ‘Magnum photographer’ and its 60 years survival as a cooperative. The photographers included Susan Meiselas (selected by Jim Golberg), Donovan Wylie (selected by Trent Parke), Elliott Erwitt (selected by Ferdinando Scianna) and Henri Cartier-Bresson (selected by Eve Arnold). The Sunday Times previewed the publication on 15 April 2007 and it was favourably reviewed world-wide

Discovering the Story of the Reeves Archive in Sussex

Keynote paper about the Reeves Archive in Sussex. Edward Reeves took up studio photography circa 1855. Today his great-grandson Tom is still running the business at 159 High Street, Lewes. This studio is believed to be the oldest continuously operated photographic studio in the world. Today it houses an archive of over 100,000 glass plates taken by the first three owners as well as approximately 150,000 images taken by Tom Reeves the current owner, on film and as digital files. Unusually the family has kept business ledgers and the related paperwork. This archive is both a unique record of the daily life of Lewes and the history of commercial photographic practice