“Rebuilt in 1836” it says on the façade of the Old Town Hall, tying the place to a time of Victorian enterprise, when thronging visitors brought prosperity and civic pride to Gravesend. The ‘show-off’ portico’s Greek Revival style originated in the Grand Tour, a period of exploration, when cultural objects were collected in cabinets of curiosities, as memory tokens and souvenirs.
By 1849, with the opening of the railway, the tourist were abandoning Gravesend and seeking novelty at rival destinations, precipitating a slow decline in fortunes. Does this short, self-confident interlude in the 1830s and 40s, embodied in the fabric of the Old Town Hall, still represent Gravesend at it’s finest?
In 1837 Louis Daguerre created his first photograph, by fixing a transient moment of light and shadow on a polished silver surface. His daguerreotypes, always more beautiful than rival techniques, remain the most detailed, subtle and incorruptible of all photographic images and each one is unique. Described as 'mirrors with memory' they were created to be treasured keepsakes.
By 1850 the process had been superseded by glass plate negatives, which allowed multiple copies of the same moment to be made, resulting an abandonment of Daguerre’s method. Does this pioneering creative period in the 1830s and 40s, captured by these jewel like objects, still represent photography at it’s finest?
Gravesend and daguerreotypes, a place and a process, both the product of Victorian creativity and enterprise, both of which rose to prominence only to fade in influence, as technological advances bought irrevocable change.
Daguerrotype of Charles Dickens taken in London around1850
(From - http://www.photohistory-sussex.co.uk/DickensCharlesPortraits.htm)
The desire to hold onto the past and bear witness to the changes that have happened in Gravesend has inspired the heritage project ‘Talking Halls’. A process that will delve into the archives to uncover and interpret the ‘what’ and the ‘when’ of the Old Town Hall’s multiple stories. Heritage has become a form of tourist attraction, with the building now becoming the repository of selected selected.
The building already has two conspicuous commemorative symbols; the war memorials. Along with the portraits of the Mayors and the ceremonial chairs, they represent an official, communal form of remembering. But what about the ‘how’ of memory? What about the personal, everyday acts of remembrance? What about the unofficial voices of unrecorded Gravesend lives?
In the Town Hall's parlour, above the fireplace, there is mirror freckled with age. One of the few remnants of imperfection in an otherwise pristinely restored building. My proposal is to commission a triptych of beautifully framed daguerreotypes, to be installed in the parlour to complement this original mirror and echo its proportions and detail.
The subject of the images will be arrived at through conversations with three people from Gravesend, based around their personal everyday acts of remembrance. Not so much ‘what’ they remember, as ‘how’ they remember; tapping into our universal need to hold onto our own stories. Combining the latest digital photographic techniques with the historic daguerreotype process will produce objects that are precious, unique, incorruptible and celebrate these ‘unofficial’ stories within the reinterpretation of the Old Town Hall’s heritage.
It will make an important statement about the place of local people in the future of the Old Town Hall that these are valuable and fixed representations of their personal stories. These ‘mirrors with memory’, will reflect the viewer in the space, as they draw close to examine the intricate images that capture a contemporary moment in time.
Each of the objects will be the by-product of a collected story. In order to retain this link, in a way that parallels the research process of the ‘Talking Halls’ heritage interpretation project, I will produce a book containing fragments of the stories, for future visitors to discover.
The daguerreotypes will be manufactured by Christopher Brenton West, who is a leading expert in this intricate photographic process, which is rarely practiced today. Examples of his beautiful work can be seen on his website www.daguerreotypes.co.uk
Lucy
