Fonds DMC - The Don McPhee Collection

65 boxes

Donated to the archive by Don McPhee, Lillian McPhee and Denis Thorpe between 2002 and 2010.

The collection holds a near complete set of portrait and photo-journalistic work produced by Don McPhee between c1970-2000. It also contains Index, cuttings and work books relating to aspects of McPhee's photographic practice. Where possible the collection has been catalogued to reflect McPhee's original system of arrangement.
Cataloguing is ongoing, please contact the archivist for more details on the collection.

Administrative/Biographical history: Don McPhee was a Guardian staff photographer based in Manchester. He began contributing to the paper in 1968 and joined staff in 1971 on retirement of Tom Stuttard. His extensive photojournalistic output includes series on miners' strikes, pensioners, Belfast riots, British agriculture, South African and United States presidential election campaigns. His portraiture work includes; Nelson Mandela, Jesse Jackson, Margaret Thatcher, Neil Kinnock and Enoch Powell. A Guardian photography enthusiast, McPhee conducted intitial research with Denis Thorpe on the '100 Years of Guardian Photography' project. Also discovered original glass plate negatives by the Guardian's first photographer Walter Doughty whilst cleaning out an old staff darkroom (see WHD). He said of his work 'You Have What I Saw'. Worked predominantly in black and white (but later with colour) using plate cameras, 120 square format film, 35mm film and digital formats. Received an Honorary degree from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2000. Solo exhibitions include; 'The View From Manchester', Manchester Art Gallery (2005), 'Don McPhee: Photographer', Guardian Newsroom (2008) and 'You Have What I Saw', Cornerstone Gallery, Liverpool (2011). Group exhibitions include 'A Long Exposure: 100 Years of Guardian Photography', The Lowry, Manchester (2008-9). Publications include 'Don McPhee: Photographer' (2008), The Guardian.

The Don McPhee Collection is divided into three sections:
DMC/1 - Black and white negatives, colour negatives and transparencies.
DMC/2 - Prints
DMC/3 - Papers

Copyright: Don McPhee / The Guardian

Many of Don's prints form part of the Manchester Picture Library - GUA/6/9/1/3-4 and he is also well represented within the Index negatives sequence of the Guardian Picture Desk - GUA/6/9/2/1 and its accompanying picture files - GUA/6/9/1/1. His work also appears, less frequently within the Sports and Personalities library of the Observer - OBS/6/9/2/6 and OBS/6/9/2/7/1.