Esteemed city photo archivist dies aged 60
Pays tribute to Library of Birmingham photographic historian Pete James whose passion put the city in the picture
PETE James, the award-winning former head of photography at the Library of Birmingham, has died at the age of 60.
He had been suffering from a rare liver disease for a number of years but had continued to work as a freelance curator and photographic historian since leaving the library in 2015.
His most recent project was Thresholds, a collaboration with artist Mat Collishaw, seen at the Museum & Art Gallery last year.
It used cutting edge virtual reality technology to reconstruct a pioneering exhibition of photographs by William Fox Talbot held in Birmingham in 1839.
Mr James moved to Birmingham in 1984 to take an MA in the history of art and design at the then Birmingham Polytechnic.
His supervisor suggested he should look at the library’s photographic collections, and what he discovered there became his life’s work.
The city was sitting on a treasure trove of photographic material, amounting to an estimated three million items including original prints, negatives, lantern slides, albums and books illustrated with original photographs.
But it was largely invisible because many of the photographs had been collected as illustrations by various different departments, and were spread over seven floors of the building.
He made a presentation to the then city librarian, Pat Coleman, who was sufficiently impressed to create first a part-time and then a full-time post for him. Over the years he continued to research the collection and produced numerous exhibitions and publications based on it.
Coming to Light, a book published to coincide with an exhibition of the same title in 1998, gives an overview of its breadth, ranging from Roger Fenton’s images of the Crimean War to then recent work by Birmingham photographers Matthew Murray and Peter Max Kandhola.
Sir Benjamin Stone, the Victorian Birmingham MP and a nationally important figure in establishing a tradition of documentary photography, was the subject of a major outdoor exhibition held in Centenary Square in 2008.
As well as working with the existing collection, Mr James actively added to it, commissioning or acquiring work by senior living photographers like Paul Hill, John Blakemore, Daniel Meadows and Vanley Burke.
Mr James’s enterprise made him a much-liked and admired figure not only on the Birmingham cultural scene but nationally and internationally.
This was officially acknowledged in 2009 when he was presented with the Colin Ford Award, named after the creator of the National Museum of Photography, which recognises major contributions to photographic history.
Sadly, his vision of a dedicated photography gallery in the new Library of Birmingham never quite came to pass.
Even worse, the financial cataclysm which slashed staff and opening hours shortly after the new building established itself as the leading tourist attraction outside London also swept away his post. Nevertheless, his achievement is remarkable, and it remains for others to build upon if Birmingham’s cultural life can ever re-emerge from the shadow of austerity.