In 2014 Alan Ward purchased a substantial collection of ‘quarter plate’ glass negatives on a whim, from an eBay seller in Brighton, that had no provenance. With a few clues offered up in the images and the original boxes they came in, he pieced together the beginnings of a substantial lost family history, that seemed strangely to parallel his own.

Through a forensic research process and an almost voyeuristic obsession with the Gearing archive dating from 1914 through to the 50s, new photographic work evolved in response to the locations, subjects and objects in the images. Intrigued by the odd and easily overlooked elements and repeating motifs of the collection, Ward explored the forgotten and extraordinary distant voices and still lives of the archive.

The book includes a companion text ‘Gearing: a coincidence’ by renowned author George Szirtes, and an interview between Ward and archivist David Govier which explores the role of research in contemporary artistic practice.

Five years in the making, this thought-provoking bookwork of archive photographs and new images, will be published in October by Dewi Lewis Publishing and Axis Projects, to coincide with a major exhibition at the Williamson Art Gallery and Museum.