Governance & trust
Trust is part of the design, not fine print.
This page explains how the record is handled, and why those choices were made from the start, not added afterwards.
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The people who hold this to account are part of the record too. These frames fill as they join.
Consent comes first
Raw material (portraits, recordings, written answers) is never automatically public. Photographers decide what they share. That decision belongs to them, not to the project.
Submitting something does not mean publishing it. The two are separate steps, and the second does not happen without the first being given clearly and explicitly.
Consent can also be withdrawn. If a photographer later wants something removed, that request is honoured.
Publication follows review
Material is published only after two things have happened in order: consent has been confirmed, and the work has been reviewed. Neither step stands in for the other.
This is a deliberate sequence, not an automatic one. The review is a chance to make sure the material is complete, that nothing was submitted in error, and that the photographer is comfortable with what goes into the record.
The result is a slower process. That is the point.
Privacy and care are built in
Privacy is not something added to this project after the fact. It is part of how the project is designed. The questions asked at each step (who can see this, when, and why) were considered before anything was built.
The care taken with personal material is the same whether the record holds ten contributions or ten thousand. That posture does not change with scale.
The record grows slowly, on the terms of the people in it.
This project is not trying to collect as much as possible as quickly as possible. Volume is not the measure of success. The measure is whether the people who contribute feel their material has been handled with care.
2026 is a proof of concept. It is a chance to listen, to learn, and to make sure the process works well before it opens further. What photographers help us understand in 2026 shapes how the record grows in 2027.
Stewardship and advice
A group of advisors helps steward the direction of this project: people who bring perspectives on documentary practice, community trust, and the ethics of public records. Their role is to ask hard questions and to keep the project honest about its commitments.
Over time, stewardship is meant to become shared: a record its members help govern, with advisors and a board holding final responsibility, so trust is not vested in one person. We are building toward that deliberately, not declaring it done.