Photography and the Archive Research Centre (PARC) is a defunct organisation in London that commissions new research into photography and culture, curates and produces exhibitions and publications, organises seminars, study days, symposia[1] and conferences, and supervises PhD students. It is a part of University of the Arts London (UAL), is based at UAL's London College of Communication at Elephant & Castle[2] and was designated by UAL in 2003. PARC was shut down after twenty years of operating in 2023.[3]
According to PARC's website its activities span the history and culture of photography, particularly post-war British photography, the documentation of war and conflict, the photography of fashion and style, the visualization of the counterculture and photographers as filmmakers.
Val Williams is its director and Brigitte Lardinois its deputy director. The Centre has a core group of members including Tom Hunter, Alistair O'Neill, Patrick Sutherland, Wiebke Leister, Jennifer Good (née Pollard), David Moore, Paul Lowe, Corinne Silva, Paul Tebbs, Mark Ingham, Martina Caruso, Peter Cattrell, Monica Biaglioli, Anne Williams, Jananne Al-Ani, Sophy Rickett, Joanna Love and Sara Davidmann. Current staff are Corinne Silva (Research Fellow), Robin Christian (Projects Manager) and Melanie King (Research Administrator).
Many of PARC's activities are conducted in conjunction with other arts organisations and universities including University of Sunderland, National Media Museum in Bradford, Library of Birmingham, Canterbury Christ Church University, Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Ffotogallery in Cardiff, Imperial War Museum in London, Photoworks in Brighton, University of Western Ontario in Canada, Expressions of Humankind and Max Ström publishers in Stockholm, Sune Jonsson Archive in Umea, Tate Modern and University of Wales, Newport.
Two of PARC's divisions are War and Conflict Research Hub and Photography and the Contemporary Imaginary Research Hub.
PARC publishes Fieldstudy twice yearly, both in print and online, covering projects from PARC's staff, members and students.
PARC and Bloomsbury co-host the journal Photography & Culture, co-edited by Kathy Kubicki, Thy Phu and Val Williams, published three times a year by Berg.[4]
PARC leads the Directory of Photographic Collections in the UK, a portal to UK institutions holding publicly accessible photographic collections.
PARC currently houses three collections within its archive, ‘Camerawork’, ‘Photography Exhibition Posters’ and ‘The John Wall archive of the Directory of British Photographic Collections in the UK’. 'Photography Exhibition Posters' is a collection of over 300 posters dating back to the 1970s that features examples of partnerships between designers and galleries. The ‘Camerawork’ collection includes papers and objects from the Half Moon Photography Workshop and Camerawork’s early years, publication and touring exhibition programme. ‘The John Wall archive of the Directory of British Photographic Collections in the UK’ includes correspondence, research papers and file cards of this 1970s project.