A Rather Fabulous Foursome

Who are these handsome lads and lasses? Who indeed!

We may not know who they are or what they did but they have one thing in common for certain - they were all photographed at W. W. Winter Photographer's in Derby, on quarter plate glass negatives, most likely in the late 1940's.

How do we know?

There's a rather fabulous project going on at W. W. Winter's at the moment. We have our very own Artist in Residence. Debbie Adele Cooper has been combing our archive, delicately scanning these old glass negatives to reveal a myriad wonderful faces. Her research has taken her back through traditional darkroom printing and now onto vintage photography techniques.

Get involved and have your photo taken!

The rediscovery of these lost faces reminds us of our personal histories and the traces we leave... perhaps the above sitters had families in Derby. Maybe their offspring are living here today. Do you look like one of the people in the portraits that Debbie has revealed? Then she wants to hear from you now!

You don't have to be related to the people in the pictures, just have a resemblance to the original, and a link to Derby yourself.

Take a look at the DerbyAnon website - new images are still being added.

Follow the project on Twitter and Instagram via @archive_artist

Contact Debbie via email through info@debbiecooper.org

We look forward to seeing you in the studio and finding out whose face you fit!

Heritage Lottery Funding Bid

 

Progress

Hours of discussion, paperwork, statements of interest, meetings etc are starting to come together for Winters. We had a hunch there would be some interest based on the amazing support we got from the public during last years Heritage Open Days. There are of course no guarantees but we are hearing the right noises going in to this final stage of application.

When will we know?

Our full complete application is submitted in two weeks and we should have an answer by July. Our thoughts? We can't help but dream big!

Over the side entrance - three 'Ws' and 1867

The dream!

We will need your help to turn the dreams in to reality. We hope to dip our toe in the water with an archiving work room and bring those plate negatives back to life but this is just the beginning. It is developing 'Friends of Winters' that will be the foundation of things to come. We need a body of people who want to be active in restoring, conserving and developing every aspect of our heritage with emphasis on the building (which already has a grade 2 listing) and access to the public.

The ceiling cornicing on the left is currently hidden by a lower false ceiling. Wouldn't it be lovely to have all these architectural details revealed?

Outcomes...

Will it be a museum? A center for study? A center for learning? Is it important to 'travel back in time' and realise a museum studio; to catalogue all the images onsite; to transfer skills and knowledge of traditional photography? We believe that all these things are important, but you will have to drive the project (with our full support) whilst we concentrate on the day-to-day running of the business and our lovely 21st century customers.
We are hugely grateful to our current list of volunteers offering their help. Do get in touch if you are also interested in cataloguing and archiving. However, also let us know if you would like something to really get your teeth into. Do you have a passion for heritage and / or photography? May be you have some project management experience, or have worked on similar projects in the past? We want to hear from you please!

 How many feet have trodden these stairs. Look at the curve in the lead where 150 years of wear is showing.

 

Get in touch

Email us on office@wwwinter.co.uk to let us know. There is no commitment at this stage. We are simply putting together a pool of interested parties. who will love and cherish this place as we do :-)