All of the works presented here emerge from the photographic archive of Hermann Marbe, whose images form the foundation of the exhibition. Hermann was a prolific and generous photographer whose practice was rooted in curiosity, attentiveness, and relationship. His photographs capture people, objects, and environments with humour, tenderness, and an eye for the quiet, often overlooked details of everyday life. Hermann passed away in 2018, but the images he created continue to move, circulate, and generate new meaning.

Rather than functioning as a retrospective, this exhibition treats the archive as active material, something to be worked with, responded to, and reimagined. The photographs are not presented as closed historical documents, but as points of departure for contemporary artistic engagement.

The exhibition is shaped through The Slow Camera Exchange, a project founded by Hermann’s partner, Jess Marbe, to honour his legacy through access, participation, and shared creativity. At the heart of the Slow Camera Exchange is a borrowing library of analogue cameras, housed at Cork City Library, alongside a wide range of educational programmes, workshops, and interactive activities. The project is grounded in a belief shared by Hermann and Jess, that creative expression is a right, not a privilege, and that meaningful artistic experiences should be open and accessible to all.

Alongside the Camera Library, significant work has been underway to establish the Living Archive. A large collection of thousands of Hermann’s photographs are being made available for public use with a creative commons licensing. This includes images printed in the darkroom, polaroids, a collection of photographs developed through commercial labs, and material from over 160 rolls of previously undeveloped film. The process of cataloguing and digitising this archive is well underway, with partnerships across MTU, Cork City Library and an amazing crew of dedicated volunteers and with support from the Digital Repository Ireland. The archive is being prepared for wider access through national and European digital platforms, supporting education, research, creative practice, and reflective work across disciplines.

The Living Archive is not fixed or complete. It is designed to support dialogue between artists, students, educators, communities, and viewers. The images are used as prompts, companions, and catalysts in creative, educational, therapeutic, and reflective contexts. Working with the archive allows participants to enter into a relationship with another artist’s way of seeing, reducing the fear of the blank page and opening space for response rather than invention from nothing.

The works in this exhibition reflect this ethos. Some present Hermann’s photographs directly. Many others are collaborative or responsive works, where artists engage with his images through painting, text, curation, and photographic practice. In each case, the archive is not treated as static material, but as something that continues to unfold through use, care, and exchange.

This exhibition offers a glimpse into that ongoing process, an encounter with an archive that remains open, relational, and alive.