Mitchell Collection
Edited by David White
24 black and white pages in an edition of 25

I purchased Photographic Album Letter N of the Mitchell Collection from a stall in Deptford Market in 2012.

The personal photographs within Album Letter N mainly cover what appears to be a short period of time in the summer of 1984, taken in various European countries by and of someone who I assume to be T.P. Mitchell.

The photographs are split between portraits of Mitchell and his travelling party, panoramas, and candid snaps of police and military figures, and it was this last category that intrigued me most.

It seems clear that as well as having a very nice holiday, which Mitchell was keen to document, he was also using the opportunity of touring Europe to somewhat covertly build or supplement an archive of photographs of state empowered officials.

After studying the photographs at some length, I have been unable to establish a firm theory as to why men and women in uniform played such an important role in Mitchell’s holiday, and perhaps his life.

Was he an ex-police or military man himself? Was this the latest instalment of a bid to document subtle differences in uniform and practice across the globe? Was this the moment an obsession was born? Or something more sinister?

Draw your own conclusions by purchasing the Mitchell Collection HERE .

– Dave