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Archival Description
Only top-level descriptions Archibald, Stephen
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Stephen Archibald's student protest photographs

  • MS-2-805
  • Collection
  • 1967 - 1971

Collection comprises 34 mounted photographs of political demonstrations and protest marches organized by Dalhousie students between 1967 and 1970. The photographs were taken by students for the Dalhousie Gazette and/or Pharos yearbook and were compiled and printed by Stephen Archibald for a show in the Student Union Building in Spring 1971. The scope and content notes for the images are drawn from the background information provided by Stephen Archibald, who writes: "The pictures were taken by young men in their late teens and early 20s who had no formal training, but who were drawn to photography because it provided a visual, aesthetic outlet that was missing from their academic university life. We also had no particular political beliefs or insight. The editors at the Gazette were left-leaning during this period so it is not surprising that we were assigned to photograph demonstrations that were organized, in large part or totally, by Dal radicals."

The photographs were printed and mounted by Stephen Archibald on F5 high-contrast paper to exaggerate their graphic nature, and printed full frame, which gives them a black border. As he explains in his notes, this was part of the contemporary aesthetic, ensuring that the viewer was aware that the images were composed in the frame, with nothing edited or cropped out. Most of the photographs are mounted, and the dimensions provided in the physical descriptions do not include the mount board.

Archibald, Stephen