The Anonymous Project - Lee Shulman

The Anonymous Project is a vast collection of vernacular color slides and a unique preservation initiative. Nearly 800,000 have already been collected and preserved. 

The project began in 2017 at the initiative of London-based filmmaker Lee Shulman (born in 1973) when he purchased a box of vintage slides and became fascinated by all the unique stories they contained. He then undertook the meticulous task of collecting, selecting, and curating Kodachrome slides taken from the early 1950s onward. 

In 1950, color photography became accessible to the general public and thus became part of every aspect of daily life. Preserving these images and rescuing them from oblivion is a project dedicated to the individual and collective memory of an era. This project also highlights the process of selecting images, the importance of which is often downplayed in favor of the act of taking the photograph, even though it is an equally decisive process in constructing the photographic narrative. 

These amateur photographs—sometimes blurry and unclear—represent a unique legacy that tells the stories of our lives and those of our ancestors. The Anonymous Project is dedicated to preserving them and creating new ways of interpreting them so we can (re)discover our world.