I decided that I wanted to incorporate ephemera into my work, so I bought two sets of used postcards from Ebay. The first set of 40 addressed to Mr and Mrs Benbrow , has 28 postcards which have been sent, primarily from abroad, and these date back from 1928 at the earliest, almost 90 years ago! The handwritten notes and messages to loved ones are beautiful. Some of the London postcards are simply arranging meeting times/ places after train journeys. In a digital age, postcards are quickly becoming redundant, but they remind me back to my childhood.
I ordered another set of 160 postcards, and these were primarily addressed to the same couple Mr and Mrs Chamberlain, who lived in Nottingham. Some of the postcards were dated and I can see they span from the 1930s all the way to 2005. This larger collection documents the travels of friends and family of the Chamberlains over their lifetime. You can see the changes of address which they are sent to, and the changing handwriting of the people writing to the couple over the years. I found it fascinating seeing how the handwriting of Sarah, a grandchild, developed and changed over the years.
Originally I thought about printing over some of the postcards, but they feel too precious, so I might order them chronologically and display them on a wall instead. I also might project the scanned images using digital projectors to create a large-scale slideshow. I am considering using two projections, one of the front image of the postcard, and a second projection of the handwritten back of the postcard.
