The archive

The Belfast Archive Project is a not-for-profit association dedicated to preserve and present our vanishing photographic heritage. The ‘Project’ has been entrusted with collections of film negatives and prints in order to protect them for future generations. In all, there are over 100,000 images including 8 mm moving film. These images are at risk of deteriorating so our focus is to preserve, digitise and make them accessible through curated exhibitions, online galleries and print publications.
The Project has amassed its unique collection from many sources, images that are exciting, indelible, stimulating and moving. The archive includes the work of some of N. Ireland’s most respected photographers. The Project aims to keep our shared photographic heritage as a vital part of our future.

Two Communities

The project is the story of two of Belfast's working class communities. The project brings the work of photographers who have documented the last 40 years in each community in dialogue with the living memory of the residents. Through the use of old photographs from the area as a stimulus, this project encourages people from generations past to share their stories. We have created an online presence that showcases the oral history archive and also allow contributors from outside of the city to send us their own stories and images relating to the project themes. Along with our online presentation, we will create a publication to showcase some of the images taken by Bill Kirk over the last year including short transcriptions with some of the relevant stories and memories.

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