Mass-Observation and Visual Culture

<p>Mass-Observation and Visual Culture: Depicting Everyday Lives in Britain critically analyses the role that visual culture played in the early development of Mass-Observation, the innovative British anthropological research group founded in 1937. The group’s production and use of painting, collage, photography, and other media illustrates not only the broad scope of Mass-Observation’s efforts to document everyday life, but also, more specifically, the centrality of visual elements to its efforts at understanding national identity in the 1930s. </p><p>Although much interest has previously focused on Mass-Observation’s use of written reports and opinion surveys, as well as diaries that were kept by hundreds of volunteer observers, this book is the first full-length study of the group’s engagement with visual culture. Exploring the paintings of Graham Bell and William Coldstream; the photographs of Humphrey Spender; the paintings, collages, and photographs of Julian Trevelyan; and Humphrey Spender’s photographs and widely recognized ‘Mass-Observation film’, Spare Time, among other sources, Mass-Observation and Visual Culture: Depicting Everyday Lives in Britain positions these works as key sources of information with regard to illuminating the complex character of British identity during the Depression era. </p> <p>Contents</p><p>List of Illustrations</p><p>Acknowledgements</p><p>Introduction: Unprofessional Painting: Mass-Observation and Visual Culture</p><ol> <p> </p> <li>Another Place in Time: Humphrey Spender’s Northern Photographs</li> <p> </p> <li>Julian Trevelyan: ‘Jekyll and Hyde’</li> <p> </p> <li>The Euston Road in Worktown</li> <i> </i><p> </p> <li>May the Twelfth and <i>Spare Time</i> </li> </ol><p>Conclusion: ‘Signs that Say What You Want Them to Say’: Mass-Observation in Contemporary Contexts</p><p>Bibliography</p>