Canadian photo artist Grahame Lynch and his partner Colleen Schindler uncovered a forgotten archive of nearly 2,500 glass plate negatives during an artists’ residency at the Château de Bouthonvilliers in France. The collection, belonging to photographer Maurice de Possesse, includes portraits of his family, images of early 20th-century society, and documentation of the 1900 Paris Exposition. Despite decades of neglect, the negatives survived two world wars and Nazi occupation but were in poor condition. The artists cleaned and digitized the collection, creating an exhibition titled 'Recovered Light: Studio de Maurice' at Gallery Stratford. The project highlights the artistic value of these historical images, which predate digital technology by over a century. The de Possesse family hopes to preserve the collection at the chateau while sharing its cultural significance with wider audiences.

Chats with Ffoton Wales and Offline Journal about my photographic archive, and how that has led to me publishing a series of photographic zines of photo-essays and documentary reportage photography wo...