Art, photography & architecture

Long description:

Recordings in this collection are available to Higher and Further Education institutions only.

The life stories, in their own words, of British artists, including: architects, artists, painters, sculptors, designers, photographers.

The interviews, all recorded since 1990, feature personal memories and reflections about the individual’s work and family background, childhood, education and interests.

• Each recording has a searchable content summary.
• Some have been transcribed.

What the interviews tell us

One-to-one oral history interviews explore memories and recount narratives rarely found elsewhere. Personal testimony fills knowledge gaps, provides new insights, challenges stereotypical views, and overturns orthodoxies.

These recordings reveal collective memory, individual agency, gender, skill, influence and intentionality. Shifting consumer and educational trends and debates emerge alongside the impact of changing technologies, techniques and political context.

Ethical use of oral history

The interviewees have been generous in sharing their memories - often traumatic, confidential and intimate - and listeners are asked to treat this material with respect and sensitivity.

• Recordings should be analysed and presented in context, so that the interviewee’s meaning is not misconstrued.
• Quotations and audio clips should be referenced as, for example: "Interview with Julie Smith by Frank Best, 20 July 1999, Artists’ Lives project, reference C466/12/01, British Library Sound Archive".

Each interviewee whose recording appears on this site has assigned copyright to The British Library Board and given their consent for the recording to be used for educational study. We have made every effort to contact all the interviewees and inform them about this project. However should any participant wish to discuss their involvement they should contact the Curator for Oral History at the British Library Sound Archive.

Oral history at the British Library

The interviews on this site are a small selection from the many thousands held in the Oral History section of the British Library Sound Archive. These recordings go back over 100 years and cover many facets of life in Britain.

Many interviews were gathered through National Life Stories, an externally-funded unit within the Library established in 1987 to "record first-hand experiences of as wide a cross-section of present-day society as possible".

All recordings on this site are governed by licence agreements.