After the death of Madame Yevonde in December 1975,
her work continued to feature in the occasional exhibition
such as 'Modern British Photography', organised by the
Arts Council of Great Britain in 1981. Although David
Mellor's critique in the catalogue for this exhibition
attempted to redefine Madame Yevonde's place in British
photography, it was only after the foundation of the
Yevonde Portrait Archive by Lawrence Hole in 1988 that
any concerted effort was made to re-establish her reputation
as one of the world's foremost pioneering photographers.
Having brought some semblance of order into the mountain
of negatives and other material left by Madame Yevonde,
the Yevonde Portrait Archive embarked on a strategy
designed to bring the artist's work back into public
awareness as quickly and effectively as possible. In
June 1988, the Yevonde Portrait Archive approached the
Royal Photographic Society - of which body Madame Yevonde
had been a member since 1921, and a Fellow since 1940
- and suggested that they should join forces to produce
a major exhibition covering all aspects of her work,
and drawing on all the material available in the archives
As there were over 3,000 sets of original VIVEX colour
separation plates and several thousand b/w images in
the archives, the vast majority of which had probably
never been seen, this was an exciting prospect and the
Royal Photographic Society was not slow to respond,
later inviting the National Portrait Gallery in London
to join in the project.
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