Julia Winckler is a principal lecturer in the School of Art and Media at the University of Brighton and a member of the Centre for Design History. Here Julia shares her research and reports on her experience of co-curating a photographic exhibition drawn from the archives at Crawley Museum.

 

This exhibition features photographs made by the renowned photographer Wolf Suschitzky (1912-2016) of the early development of Crawley New Town more than six decades ago.

These images were commissioned in the summer of 1959 to capture life ten years after construction of the New Town had begun. Crawley was designated as a New Town in 1947, merging the old market town with surrounding villages. Nine new residential neighbourhoods, each based on a village concept, were originally envisaged along with a large industrial estate, shopping areas and public amenities.

During his Crawley visit, Wolf Suschitzky made more than 100 images featuring Crawley New Town’s architecture, shopping arcades, housing, schools, nurseries, green spaces and residents. In front of Crawley’s curved Tilgate Shopping Parade, he photographed a woman pushing a large pram and enjoying an ice-lolly. He gained access to local businesses and factories and made a series of images of female workers skilfully assembling motor protection relays at the P&B Engineering Co Ltd and he documented workers making lighthouse equipment components at Stone-Platt Crawley Ltd in the Manor Royal industrial estate.

A small selection of the Crawley photographs featured in an exhibition held at the Royal Academy in 1959 to highlight the progress of the first wave of home building and New Town development following World War 2. Most of the photographs remained unpublished and are being exhibited here publicly for the first time since they were taken, following their rediscovery by Julia Winckler during a research visit to Fotohof Salzburg gallery and archives in Austria.

Incorporating artefacts and archival documents from the Museum’s collection, which include the 1949 Masterplan for Crawley New Town by Anthony Minoprio, the Royal Academy 1959 New Towns Exhibition brochure and photographs of the chief architect of Crawley New Town, H.S. Howgrave-Graham, the exhibition provides new insights into the early phases of the town’s development.

Wolf Suschitzky’s photographs reveal fascinating details of the lives of the first generation of inhabitants as they commute, work, shop, learn and play. They can help spark conversations and serve as a valuable cultural and visual archive not only for town planners or photography, architectural and design historians, but most importantly, they constitute an invaluable resource for Crawley’s current residents.

Co-curated by Julia Winckler, Project PI, Georgia Wrighton, Project Co-I, University of Brighton, Kurt Kaindl at Fotohof Salzburg and Jo Pettipher and Mick Ludwig Waters at Crawley Museum.

The exhibition opened on the 6th February and is scheduled to run until the 29th March. For further information and upcoming event info, please see here:

https://crawleymuseums.org/exhibition/crawley-new-town-seen-through-the-lens-of-wolf-suschitzky/

This Ignite project received funding from the University of Brighton’s Impact Acceleration Account (IAA), funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).