Hilary Roberts talks about Donovan Wylie

Blogger: Philippa Wright, Curator of Photography

What do you get if you mix up the talent of a world class photographer, the support of two National Institutions and a successful Fellowship programme? In this instance our future exhibition Outposts: Donovan Wylie Bradford Fellow in Photography 2010/11.

Hilary Roberts, the Head Curator of the Imperial War Museum Photograph Archive visited the Museum and spoke passionately about the importance of this collaboration. She said that our decision to award Magnum photographer Donovan Wylie the prestigious 2010 Bradford Fellowship was crucial in securing funding for the Outposts project.



The Bradford Fellowship is a partnership between ourselves, the University of Bradford and Bradford College and has been in existence since 1985.

Growing up in Belfast during the Troubles, Wylie became fascinated by military structures, which by their deliberate placement were intended to monitor and command their surroundings. His works there include the Maze (2004) and British Watchtowers (2007).

The Fellowship enabled Wylie to extend his interest in architecture of conflict to the distinctive landscape of Kandahar Province in Afghanistan. Wylie required military access in order to photograph in Afghanistan. The IWM were responsible for negotiating permission from the Canadian military for Wylie to embed with them in Afghanistan. In doing so, he became the first official IWM photographer to work in a conflict zone since the First World War.