ARTISTS TALKING

One image stopped me in my tracks: an extraordinary portrait of a woman by a gate. I was immediately struck by this woman's uncanny resemblance to my sister.

This double-take was heightened by another autobiographical connection to the portrait's original location. It was taken at Dimbola Lodge, Freshwater, Cameron's home on the Isle of Wight. I grew up in the same area and my sister still lives on the island. Many of Cameron's allegorical portraits featured local women and girls who were also her domestic servants. The power of her images, and the autobiographical connections raised a question – what happened to these sitters? So began Tracing Echoes, a two-year project that set out to combine a contemporary art practice of 'detection' and trace the sitters' descendants.

With the help of the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust, I undertook a residency at Dimbola Lodge. Here I traced possible sites for Cameron's images, and also photographed a number of islanders who bore an uncanny resemblance to Cameron's sitters. This was combined with the discovery that the granddaughters of one sitter – Mary Hillier – lived literally round the corner. From my collaboration with two family history researchers, it was becoming apparent that tracing descendents from the past to the present would be difficult. However, they were able to trace the descendants of Alice Keown, another sitter. These descendants generously agreed to participate.

Tracing Echoes was developing into a major bookwork, also made possible by an Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) small project grant award. A number of research visits to the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford, led to an important collaboration between myself and the Museum's curators, Russell Roberts and Philippa Wright. Here, the importance of artists working with 'historical' archives is recognised as another way of making history resonant with contemporary sources of meaning. To draw out the full potential of my research material, Roberts suggested a three-way interview that now features in the book. As this was taking shape, I turned my thoughts to a possible publisher. Artist Chris Taylor of Wild Pansy Press was an obvious choice being able not only to design and publish, but also to understand the conceptual concerns of an artist's bookwork. Last autumn, the project culminated in an exhibition at Dimbola Lodge and the publication of a limited-edition book that looks at a famous body of work in a new way. While museum archives throughout the world preserve Cameron's photographic legacy, Tracing Echoes revealed another: a living genealogy, the descendants of local women and children who appeared in her work.

For more information about Tracing Echoes E: nbird28888@aol.com. Julia Margaret Cameron's Hershel album is now accessible to the public in Insight: Collections & Research Centre at the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, Bradford T: 01274 202050E: insight.nmpft@nmsi.ac.uk
The Julia Margaret Cameron Trust can be contacted at Dimbola Lodge, Terrace Lane, Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight T: 01983 756814

UPDATE 2006
My practice investigates the contemporary relevance of found photographs. Archives, photography and bookworks continue in importance, but since 2003, the Internet and New Media have been significant to new works.

A Stills Gallery Artist Residency, Edinburgh (2003-4) was instrumental in bringing conceptual concerns together with developing flash animation skills. My website www.nickybird.com, produced on the residency, enabled the interdisciplinary collaborative project www.unknownsitter.com (2006). During the residency I began Question for Seller, a version of which was exhibited at Inside Out, Stills (2004). Question for Seller features family photographs nobody has bid for on eBay. In my forthcoming solo show at Belfast Exposed (December 2006) Question for Seller will have its final send off when a one-off physical ‘family album’ combining the original photographs and eBay sellers’ statements will be auctioned on eBay. Once the physical bookwork has been sold, an online version, supported by an Alt-W grant (2005), will remain as the ‘lasting’ documentation. a-n has helped draw attention to a practice that, in literal and metaphorical ways, visualises history on the edge of disappearance.