The Bodleian Library, Oxford has acquired the archives of photographer Douglas Meadows.  The archives were on display at the Weston Gallery for a short time and I went to see the exhibition on 21st November.

In 1974 Douglas Meadows bought a 1948 bus, converted it to a camper van including a darkroom, and armed with £2000 in grants, set off around the country to photograph anyone who volunteered. All photographs were developed overnight in his bus, and then a free copy was given to the subject the following day. He said “everyone is entitled to be ordinary” and as such all the subjects were ordinary working people – no celebrities or aristocrats.

In the late 1990s he set out to track down those people and take an up to date photograph. This wasn’t an easy process as he hadn’t taken names. That was the ethos he adopted when first taking the photos. So the only way was to select three venues, Southampton, Hartlepool and Easington, and ask the local papers to publish the original photographs. As a result many people came forward and new photographs were taken.

The exhibition displayed these photographs side by side, alongside the newspaper cuttings, and also some of the recordings he made during his journey in 1964 were available. Altogether an entrancing exhibition, and a great record of then and now.