Anna Spencer

Social Inequality and British Documentary Style: Bert Hardy’s photographs for Picture Post magazine, 1940-57

I am an AHRC-funded CDP PhD researcher with a museum and visual arts background and over a decade of experience at the British Museum, followed by researcher and project coordination roles at Universities of Sussex (Sussex Baby Lab) and Cambridge (Memory Lab).

Originally educated in Fine Art and film, my own practice and research explores women’s rights, social class and motherhood. I gained an MA in History of Art/Museum Cultures in 2019 from Birkbeck University fully funded by the Daniel and Elizabeth Peltz Award. I am currently investigating an intersectional approach to social inequality in Bert Hardy’s Picture Post photography held in the V&A and several other archives, with a focus on working class women, mothers and children.

My supervisors are Martin Barnes (V&A Senior Curator of Photography, V&A) and Dr Tom Allbeson (Reader in Media & Photographic History at the School of Journalism, Media and Culture & Director of Postgraduate Research, Cardiff University).

Selected projects

• Researcher on Babies in Museums; an AHRC funded study with Prof. Anna Franklin (University of Sussex) and Sussex Baby Lab to assess infant responses to art and related spaces (museums, galleries).
• As a member of the British Art Network, I was awarded a Research Barriers Fund grant in 2024 to support an artist researcher collaboration with Peruvian Nereida Apaza Mamani, focusing on violence against women and femicide statistics and exploring ways of working across language barriers.
• CAST: Co-founder/curator of artist network, connecting emerging artists (predominantly those identifying as women) from Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia. Initiated at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I coordinate and co-lead the project that seeks to engage with societal issues through artistic collaboration. Instagram: @castartistnetwork