Fay Godwin died in May 2005 leaving Collections holding her commercial archive. We scanned the best and most familiar pictures but did no promotion because we had no idea who was responsible for everything. We supplied images occasionally because we knew she would have wished it but we worried.

Eventually, all Fay Godwin’s existing archival prints and negatives went to The British Library, along with her copyright. But the BL is not a commercial picture library, doesn’t have the wherewithal to supply the instant needs of picture researchers and intended the archive for study purposes. When we made ourselves known, they told us in so many words ‘to carry on as before’ until they sorted out the archive.

Practically every landscape photograph which has ever appeared in any of Fay Godwin’s books is available. Not everything is on-line but anything can be scanned quickly and supplied at any resolution for all editorial purposes . We don’t have the negatives, only the prints which Fay Godwin made - the prints which were used for the books and there are plenty of them. There is colour too but not much. Fay did not enjoy colour in the same way that she loved black and white.

Sadly we don’t have her literary portraits although we dearly wish that we did. They are cocooned somewhere in the BL and should be in the National Portrait Gallery.

To see what is currently online.