Ray EdmondsonRay joined the Film Section of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia in 1974. He is the recipient of the AMIA Silver Light Award for outstanding career achievement. In 2008 he was elected NSW Pioneer of the Year by the Australian Society of Cinema Pioneers. In 2010 he was made a Fellow of SEAPAVAA (South East Asia Pacific Audiovisual Archive Association) and received its Life Achievement Award. He also received the Distinguished Achievement Award of the Australian Society of Archivists.
His work as chair or board member of various professional or community organizations has included The Federation Line Inc., Music Roll Australia, Archive Forum and the Friends of the National Film and Sound Archive. Internationally, he was elected inaugural President of SEAPAVAA from 1996 to 2002, and was ex-officio Council member to 2008. He was inaugural chair of AMIA’s Advocacy Committee and inaugural co-chair of its International Outreach Committee. Since 1996 he has been involved in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program, authoring its current General Guidelines and Companion, and serving in several roles on its Australian and international committees; since 2005 he has chaired its Asia Pacific Regional Committee (MOWCAP). Ray is now the Principal of Archive Associates Pty Ltd, a consultancy organisation affiliated to SEAPAVAA, for which he has carried out missions in many countries, including (most recently) Papua New Guinea and Palestine. He writes, advises and speaks internationally and his regular teaching commitments have included the professional audiovisual archiving courses offered by Charles Sturt University (Australia), University of East Anglia (UK) and the George Eastman House School of Film Preservation (USA), where he is also a member of its Advisory Board. His best known monograph, Audiovisual Archiving: Philosophy and Principles was published by UNESCO in 2004. His major writings have been published in ten languages. Ray has been instrumental in championing the work of the Albanian Cinema Project and will work with us to pursue several funding options for our ongoing work. (Founding Board Member) |