Credit: Sophie Feyder
Luxembourgish historian and artist Sophie Feyder has launched a national call for contributions to the "Schmelz Archive", a digital collection of personal photos of people who helped shape Luxembourg's steel industry.
Whilst an abundance of aerial photos of industrial sites already exist in publications and online, the Schmelz Archive will focus on the human side of this story: portraits taken by former steel workers and amateur photographers, family photos collected by workers' wives, photo albums compiled by residents of Dudelange, Esch-sur-Alzette or Schifflange...
Sophie Feyder is invited residents of these three cities to dig into their personal archives and send their photos to her via email or WhatsApp / Signal (details below). With the agreement of the owner of the image, the photo will first be published on the Schmelz Archive Instagram and Facebook platforms. Ms Feyder expressed a particular interest in two Arbed sites: those in Dudelange and in Esch-Schifflange. These two sites are destined to become cultural third places, thanks to the FerroForum, Dkollage and Bâtiment IV, three initiatives supported by the Œuvre Nationale de Secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte. It is in the context of a publication on these cultural third places that the Schmelz Archive project was launched. A selection of these images will thus be published in the work commissioned by the Œuvre on cultural third places.
Forgotten in a drawer or in a box in the attic, this photo material is often considered too banal to be really interesting. However, for Sophie Feyder, it is quite the opposite. "These humble photos testify to a daily life that is very precious for historians", she explained. "They translate the intimate experience of the people photographed, how they wanted to be represented, what aspects of their life they considered to have enough value to be seized for prosperity. In other words, the family albums suggest the subjective and intimate gaze of the working world, which is not easily grasped via institutional archives". Ms Feyder expressed her hope to be able to gather some stories that are less often heard in connection with Luxembourg's steel history, particularly the perspective of women.
Those wishing to contribute to this project should contact Sophie Feyder via email: schmelzarchive@protonmail.com or via Whatsapp / Signal: +32 486 256 271.
