“Un Embarras de Richesses”: Making the Most of the Royal Photographic Society Collection, 1970–80

Abstract

The Royal Photographic Society (RPS) was instituted as a learned society in 1853. By the 1970s, it was viewed as little more than a gentleman's club: part of the Establishment against which angry young independents kicked. Recent re-evaluations of the 1970s appear to have done little to change this view, and yet such a diagnosis fails to recognize the fluidity of boundaries within the photographic world during that time, and refuses to acknowledge the calls for change that occurred within the Society. Against the backdrop of an emerging New British Photography, this essay offers one history of the RPS between 1970 and 1980, drawn from the Society's minutes and other contemporaneous documents. It demonstrates the ways in which the RPS tries to redefine itself as a consequence of changes in photographic education, the establishment of photographic galleries and organizations, the provision of Arts Council funding, and a burgeoning interest in the value of vintage prints. It argues that when the RPS is forced to leave its Mayfair premises owing to rising inflation and fears of bankruptcy, it ceases to view its world-class collection as “un embarras de richesses” or a “liability,” but as a potential source of revenue that might save the Society.