Introduction

This book is about a series of scholarly lectures that remember and honour the life and death of a photography student in Manchester, Tom Hurndall. The lectures have usually taken place in the institution where Tom studied, Manchester Metropolitan University, though the process of setting up and continuing the series has not always been easy. The lectures have been organised under the auspices of the Tom Hurndall Memorial Lecture Group. Many people have been involved in keeping the lecture series going over the years, and we acknowledge them here in a two-part introduction by two of the recent organisers. We first describe the history of the lecture series, drawing attention to the institutional and political issues that are raised by such a project, then, second, describe Tom’s life and death. We conclude the introduction with a list of the internationally-respected lecturers, dates and titles of their contributions from 2005 to 2021.