Daniel Meadows and his wife Georgie invited Emma Shaw (our Media Developer) and I to their home to interview and produce films to accompany the upcoming exhibition Daniel Meadows: Early Photographic Works. So, with equipment and belongings packed and the car ready, we set off for Monmouth. We received a wonderful welcome, and—armed with quite a heavy agenda—we started filming early the next morning.
Daniel has an extensive archive of personal documents—bus receipts, snapshots, posters, letters and so on—which span his entire career to date. These documents have been collected, cared for, and well looked after over the years. Each document reveals an interesting story about Daniel and his life as a documentarist. We asked Daniel to select ten objects from his archive to speak about, from which we would create a series of small films.
Discussing many aspects of his practice Daniel told us—with affection—stories of the people he has met and documented, many of whom he is still in contact with today. The films highlight not only Daniel’s practice, but also the warmth and natural affinity he has with people and their stories. The exhibition provides a window onto the life of others, and the films a window onto his.