A surrogate touch: Dick's Book of Photos

The Photograph and The Collection is a compilation of essays relating to photographic collections in museums and galleries around the world. Selected from an open submission of writings by academics from the Universities of Georgia, British Columbia, Montreal, Indiana, Florida State, Heidelberg, Zurich, Ulster, The National Museum of Ireland, and National Library and Archives, Canada; Pierse’s contribution focuses on a handmade album of photographs (c.1940) by Keith Vaughan in Aberystwyth University’s collection. Drawing extensively on unpublished material from Vaughan’s manuscript journals (Tate Archive TGA 200817), Pierse explores how the artist used the lens as a surrogate way of ‘touching’ the young male subjects that he photographed. Pierse’s essay was also published in Keith Vaughan Figure and Ground (Sansom & Co., 2013) to coincide with the exhibition of drawings, prints and photographs (1935-62), held at National Museum Wales, Cardiff, 7 July- 24 November 2013.