Jo Spence. Gypsies and Travellers Archive (1973-75)

One of Jo Spence's major projects in the 1970s depicted the lives of gypsies or travellers and chronicled, especially, the lives of the women and children.

The Hyman Collection has acquired this entire body of work including:

1. 3 laminated large format A1 exhibition panels, made by the artist in her life time for touring exhibitions
2. 10 enlarged photographs, some with artist's labels on reverse, some mounted on board for exhibition
3. 80 photographs (approx. 10 x 8 or 5 x 7 inches), with various artist stamps on the reverse.
4. 405 large format contact prints (2.25 inches square), many with artists markings and/or artist stamps on reverse
5. 13 A4 sleeves containing small format contact prints
6. Related press cuttings and literature

The larger contact prints are especially significant because Spence would bring these images with her on her visits to show to the people that she had photographed.

These pictures mark are an important contribution to British social documentation of the 1970s and were also produced at a turning point in Spence's career. By the mid 1970s, after a number of years working as a professional portrait photographer, Jo Spence began to explore the political and documentary possibilities of the medium. This led to her involvement with the Children's Rights Workshop.

Spence's early documentary work took a particular interest in how children are represented within the family environment and attempted to break through the usually scripted depictions of children within archetypal domestic photography.

During this period, Spence met Terry Dennett who would become a lifelong collaborator. Working together, they photographed travelling communities living under the Westway in Notting Hill. Owing much to a social documentary tradition, the photographs explore issues around the representation of marginalised and underrepresented communities.