British from the Thatcher years Susan Kismaric

Author Kismaric, Susan

Date 1991

Publisher The : Distributed by H.N. Abrams

ISBN 0870701916, 0810960931

Exhibition URL www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/329

The Museum of Modern Art's exhibition history— from our founding in 1929 to the present—is available online. It includes exhibition catalogues, primary documents, installation views, and an index of participating artists.

MoMA © 2017 The Museum of Modern Art BRITISH PHOTOGRAPHY

FROM THE THATCHER YEARS

Susan Kis marie The Museum of Modern Art , New

BRITISH PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE THATCHER YEARS

BRITISH PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE THATCHER YEARS

Susan Kismaric The Museum of Modern Art , New York Distributed by Harry N. Abrams , 7/?c., New York j\ r 1 HoHA

Published on the occasion of the exhibition TRUSTEES OF Mrs. Bertram Smith "British Photography from the Thatcher THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART Jerry I. Speyer Years," organized by Susan Kismaric, Curator Mrs. Alfred R. Stern Department of Photography Mrs. Donald B. Straus The Museum of Modern Art New York Mrs Jo|m „ Rockefe||er 3rd February 14 - Apr,I 28. 1990 ^ Q Robert L. B. Tobin E. Thomas Williams, Jr. Richard S. Zeisler Copyright © 1990 by David Rockefeller The Museum of Modern Art, New York Chairman of the Board *Trustee Emeritus All rights reserved **I lonorary Trustee Catalogue Card Number Mrs. Henry Ives Cobb 90-063972 Gifford Phillips ISBN 0-87070-191-6 (Museum of Modern Art) Vice Chairmen Ex Officio ISBN 0-8109-6093-1 (Harry N. Abrams) Donald B. Marion David N. Dinkins Edited by Susan Weiley President Mayor of the of New York Designed by Jody Hanson Production by Tim McDonough Elizabeth Holtzman Composition by The Sarabande Press, Mrs. Frank Y. Larkiri Comptroller of the City of New York New York Executive Vice President Printed by Franklin Graphics, Providence Bound by Sendor Bindery, Inc., New York Agnes Gund Joann K. Phillips Ronald S. Lauder President of The International Council Distibuted in the and Canada Vice Presidents by Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York A Times Mirror Company John Parkinson III Vice President and Treasurer Distributed outside the United States and COMMITTEE ON Canada by Thames and Hudson Ltd., Frederick M. Alger III PHOTOGRAPHY The Museum of Modern Art Lily Auchincloss 11 West 53 Street Edward Larrabee Barnes New York,New York 10019 Celeste G. Bartos John Parkinson III Sid R. Bass Chairman H.R.H. Prinz Franz von Bayem** Printed in the United States of America Gordon Bunshaft Robert B. Menschel Thomas S. Carroll* Paul F. Walter Marshall S. Cogan Vice Chairmen Front cover: . Robert R. Douglass Conservative "midsummer madness" party, Arthur M. Bullowa from The Cost of Living. 1987-89 Gianluigi Gabetti Lillian Gish** Mrs. Henry Ives Cobb Paul Gottlieb Anne B. Ehrenkranz Mrs. Melville Wakeman Hall Wendy Larsen George Heard Hamilton* Mrs. Ronald S. Lauder Barbara Jakobson Pierre N. Leval John L. Loeb Harriette Levine Mrs. John L. Marion Mark Levine Robert B. Menschel * Dorothy C. Miller** John C. Waddell J. Irwin Miller** Clark B. Winter, Jr. S.I. Newhouse, Jr. Mrs. Bruce Zenkel Philip S. Niarchos James G. Niven *Honorary Member Richard E. Oldenburg Peter G. Peterson John Rewald** Ex Officio David Rockefeller, Jr. Mrs. John I). Rockefeller 3rd Rodman C. Rockefeller David Rockefeller Richard E. Salomon Donald Marron Mrs. Wolfgang Schoenborn* Richard Oldenburg

The Museum of Modern Art library CONTENTS

British Photography from the Thatcher Years by Susan Kismaric

Plates:

Chris Killip

Graham Smith

John Davies

Martin Parr

Paul Graham

Selected Exhibitions and Bibliographies

Acknowledgments BRITISH PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE THATCHER YEARS

Within the last decade photography in Britain has expe Since 1980 British photography has assumed a new rienced a renaissance. Throughout the twentieth centu and vital identity. The work currently being produced ry, the tradition of British photography has been varies greatly and parallels developments throughout plagued by a kind of fitfulness, and to a postwar Amer the 1970s in the United States and elsewhere, and it ican audience, photography in Britain appeared to con includes of studio constructions, sist of the work of Bill Brandt (1904-1983) and, to manipulations, and choreographed narratives. But the slightly more knowledgeable viewers, (b. tradition in British photography that has been most 1929) and Tony Ray-Jones (1941-1972). In 1973 John strongly developed in the last decade is that of the Szarkowski, director of the Department of Photography "social documentary. This work is about the quality of at The Museum of Modern Art, described the situation life in contemporary Britain. It is the result of a conflu from an American perspective when he wrote in Look ence of cultural and historical circumstances that ing at Photographs : occurred throughout the 1970s and came to fruition in For purposes of approximate truth , it might be said the economic and social climate generated by the poli that the photographic tradition died in cies and legislation of the government of Margaret sometime around 1905. . . . When [Bill] Brandt Thatcher, who became Britain's Prime Minister in 1979 and retired late in 1990. returned to London in the thirties , England had for gotten its rich photographic past , and showed no Mrs. I hatcher and the Conservative party were signs of seeking a photographic present. 1 reelected in 1983 and 1987, making her the Prime Minister who led the British people longer than anyone While this statement caused something of a flap within else in the twentieth century. She emerged as the bold the British photographic establishment, the truth it est challenger to what she considered the destructive contained was not ignored. At the time Szarkowski's excess ol Britain's welfare state, which requires high words were read as a chastening voice from outside, levels ol taxation and ubiquitous state intervention. and subsequent writing about British photography by After moving Britain toward an American- style market the British often included a reference to the comment, economy in her first two terms, Thatcher introduced a an accurate description of the state of British photogra series of cutbacks in education, public housing, and phy until 1970. 2 Of course commercial and artistic health-care benefits during her third term that under photographs were being made in Britain throughout the mined the welfare system established in the 1940s on 3 twentieth century, however they lacked a cohesive and the principle of "freedom from want." visible context: they had not been organized into collec While conditions of poverty are endemic to any soci tions, published in books, orchestrated as exhibitions, ety, and the economic disparities between the classes in or analyzed in doctoral theses. England existed long before the leadership of Margaret

6 Thatcher, the new cutbacks rendered those at the bot rarely mounted photography exhibitions and very few- 4 tom of the economic scale more abject. It is also true photography books were published. It was not until that since the election of Thatcher the middle class has 1966 that Shadow and Light, a retrospective volume of increased significantly in Britain, so that an ever- Bill Brandt's photographs, was published. There was no expanding group now enjoys the comforts previously authoritative voice in Britain from w hich photographers available only to a much smaller segment of the popu might learn or against which they might react. There lation. These changes in the quality of British life are existed, for example, no moral support of photography, profound, and touch the core of the identity of the such as that provided to some degree in the United British as citizens. They have aflected as well those States by The Museum of Modern Art, which started photographers committed to extending the tradition of collecting photographs in 1930, and by George East social . man House in Rochester, New York, which began its photography collection in 1949. Nor did Britain have the benefit, as did Americans, of the work of such pio Although current British social documentary photogra neering figures as and Beaumont 0 phy began to evolve in the 1960s and came to fruition Newhall. It was not until 1976 that London's Victoria in the 1980s, to the American viewer it seemed to devel and Albert Museum created the new position of Assis op overnight. For the most part, this work was seen for tant Keeper of Photographs. The Royal Photographic the first time in America in books that became available Society, founded in 1853 as The Photographic Society beginning in the earlv 1980s. Since books of pho of London, held its collections in several largely inac tographs usually involve a long period of preparation, cessible locations until they reassembled them in 1971. these were to the discerning reader evidence of how The second major obstacle, as Badger saw- it, and intently, and for how long, British photographers had one not so unusual within the ragged history of the been enlivening their medium. published In medium, was the reluctance to accept what he termed Flagrante in 1988. Although he began the project in the "straight photographic aesthetic" over the aesthet 1976, it took him thirteen years to complete the work ics of "the traditional, academic, graphic media." 7 He and publish the book to his satisfaction. The photogra defined "straight" as "the employment of the raw, basi phers whose work is included here —Killip, Graham cally mechanistic recording faculty ol the , Smith, John Davies, Martin Parr, and Paul Graham — though with an expressive rather than functional end in have among them published twelve books since 1980. mind." By the second half of the twentieth century this In 1976 British photography critic aesthetic had been confined in England to the pages of published "On British Photography: Some Personal newspapers and magazines such as The Picture Post , Thoughts," a thorough and insightful account of British Weekly Illustrated , and The Daily Mirror. photography, in Untitled , the bulletin of the Friends of The documentor} r tradition ... was confined in the 5 Photography in Carmel, California. Badger s article main to the mass circulation journals , the product 7 provided a fairly complete overview and interpretation of a hard-edged and hard-boiled system which of the photographic tradition in Britain. It described the remained principally the province of the player, the British attitude toward photography as an art form, and working pro fessionals analyzed the forces that affected British photography through the 1970s and, ultimately, the 1980s. In the 1920s and the magazines provided new- According to Badger, one of the major difficulties in opportunities for photographers, but in time the pres forming a coherent British photographic tradition in the sures and restrictions of group journalism curtailed the twentieth century was the lack of acceptance of the photographer's creative power. Photographs were used medium as an art form. While this attitude had pre to illustrate particular ideas of the editors, and their vailed in many countries, including the United States, look was determined by the graphics of the two-page the environment was more inhospitable, and for a spread. This unsympathetic milieu worked against the longer period of time, in Britain. From the turn of the possibility of the photographer either regarding himself century until the 1970s British galleries and museums as an artist, or being accepted as one.

7 One photographer whose personal work survived the London (1877). A classic of social reform, this non obligations of his career as a photojournalist was Tony government project was published in twelve monthly Ray-Jones (1941-1972). During the late 1960s and installments at a price the workers, who were depicted early 1970s, Ray-Jones, after studying in the United in its pages, could afford. The authors' intention was to States with Alexey Brodovitch, returned to England and portray the working conditions, homes, and families of documented various aspects of English life. Ray-Jones's a variety of laborers, including pushcart peddlers and view went beyond the surface of photographic descrip dustmen, for the most part the occupations were of a tion to express a wonder and fascination with British "dead-end, soul-fatiguing kind. "9 Around the same mores. His work was widely reproduced and eventually time Dr. Thomas Bernardo, who ran schools and homes published in a monograph, A Day Off (1974). Having for destitute and wayward children, used photographs identified in his pictures that which is particularly to identify his wards and displayed them as an aid to English, he was perceived as an English photographer, raise funds for his social work. and to the generation of British photographers born at J his use ol photography to observe and record oth the end of World War II, his life and work were a par ers continued into the twentieth century. Mass Observa ticular inspiration. Among other photojournalists who tion was a project conceived in 1937 by a group of emerged as independent voices during the 1960s were upper-middle-class intellectuals, including several Donald McCullin and Chris Steele-Perkins. anthropologists. I heir idea was to observe the British In Britain the high-art tradition of photography was people as they "really"' were, as opposed to the way historically the province of amateurs and was securely they were represented by the mass media and in the based in Britain's rich literary tradition. In the nine rhetoric of politicians. Eventually Mass Observation teenth century it included the allegorical photographs of attracted 1,500 observers, mainly writers, painters, Julia Margaret Cameron, Oscar Rejlander, Henry Peach poets, sociologists, and a handful of photographers. Robinson, and the illustrations of Peter Henry Emerson. Reports by the group were published by Faber [May In the twentieth century the elaborately arranged por the Twelfth , a survey of the British on Coronation Day traits of and pictures by other society pho 1937) and Penguin (Britain by Mass Observation , tographers such as Eord Snowden comprised its ranks. 1939). Photographs by Mass Observation were pub Nevertheless, documentary photography has had a lished in The Picture Post. long, continuous tradition in Great Britain. In the nine Most notable among the precursors to contemporary teenth century British photographers documented life social documentary work are the photographs by Bill in the countries England ruled. They made portraits, Brandt. Made in the 1930s in London, Newcastle, and architectural views, and topographical studies for sale Sheffield, in the homes of coal miners and the English in Great Britain to an avid audience whose insatiable upper-class, they were published as The English at curiosity for information and whose passion for collect Home (1936). Brandt was a major force in British pho ing were well-served by photography. So intense was tography, and his influence cannot be overestimated. England's desire for a photographic record of "the Born in in 1904 (his father was a British sub other' and the experiences of Britons overseas, that as ject), the son of cultured parents who gave young early as 1855 it was recommended that British cadets Brandt and his brother drawing lessons, he decided in assigned to India be instructed in photography. The 1927 to become a photographer. After training with a documentation of "the other" was not restricted to portrait photographer in , Brandt worked in the those on distant shores. England's economic system, studio of Man Ray in for about three months in grounded in the hierarchy of social class, fueled the 1929. There he was introduced to the films of the impulse to observe those outside one's particular and French Surrealists and the photographs of Atget. familiar social station. Returning to England in 1931, he worked as a photo- During the second half of the nineteenth century, journalist. Brandt's photographs are characterized by photographer John Thomson and writer Adolphe Smith chiaroscuro printing techniques and the integration of a published the first major sociological text about British realistic style with theatrical illusion. As a photographic life to be illustrated with photographs, Street Life in artist in Britain, Brandt was an anomaly. Perhaps it is

8 the consistency of his vision across a range of sub In addition to the museum's publication program, as jects—portraiture, studies of the English classes, land it appeared in the pages of , the exhi d scapes—an his studies of the female nude, published bitions of the museum's Department of Photography as Perspectives of Nudes (1967), that established for figured prominently in the introduction of a straight Britons the idea of a photographer as a creative force. photographic aesthetic within the British photographic Brandt's life and work as an artist set an example for community. In 1969 Szarkowski mounted the first ret subsequent generations of British photographers. rospective exhibition of the photographs of Bill Brandt. The exhibition, the first photography show to be spon sored by the Arts Council of Great Britain, traveled to A variety of sources and influences led to a resurgence the in London in 1970 and toured of serious photographic activity in Britain after nearly over the next year to some eleven venues across Britain half a century. Creative Camera magazine was founded including stops in Newport, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Mid- 10 in the mid-1960s. The March 1967 issue stated the dlesborough and Oxford. It was not until this moment purpose of the magazine: "to present the best of inter that Brandt's position in British photographic history national creative photography,"' and contained a portfo was secured. Among the exhibitions organized by the lio of photographs by Alvin Langdon Coburn, work by museum that traveled to England in the 1970s was Aaron Siskind, three Polish photographers, and several "New Photography USA," which arrived at The Pho Britons. It has continued to bring to a British audience tographers' Gallery in 1972. It included work from the the photographs of a diverse group of significant figures museum's "New Documents' show by photographers from photography's history —Eugene Atget, Edward , , and Garry Winogrand, Weston, Harry Callahan, , and a generous as well as work by Bruce Davidson, Ray Metzger, Jerry representation of newer work by radical visionaries Uelsmann, and others. It was seen in Sheffield, London, such as Lee Friedlander and Diane Arbus. and Cambridge. Other Museum of Modern Art exhibi Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Creative Camera tions that were brought to London in the 1970s includ presented several important Museum of Modern Art ed "Lee Friedlander" (1974), "Walker Evans' in 1976, projects. (It should be reiterated here that the museum's and "" in 1977. program regarding photography was unique, and that In 1970 The Photographers Gallery opened in the its commitment to the medium, although limited, was heart of London under the direction of Sue Davies, and unmatched by that of any other art institution. By through the exhibition and sale of the work of a wide default its voice was the only institutional one speak range of international photographers, it helped create ing.) Szarkowskfs 1966 book The Photographer s Eye, an audience for photography in England. Over the past widely regarded as the medium s best primer of the two decades the gallery has held some 150 major exhi "straight photographic aesthetic," was excerpted in text bitions, as well as countless smaller shows. The pho and pictures in the July 1967 issue of Creative Camera. tographs of Walker Evans, W. Eugene Smith, Florence Peter Bunnell, former associate curator at The Museum Henri, William Klein, , Helen of Modern Art, published his article "Photographs for Levitt, and hundreds more have been on view there. Collectors" in the January 1969 issue. The next month Among the thematic exhibitions were "Concerned Pho Szarkowskfs article "Photography in the Mass Media tographers 1" (1971), "The Press Show (1973), was published, and in the same issue, Bunnell's article "European " (1978), and "Modern British Pho "Photographer as Printmaker." "Photo Eye of the 20s, tography" (1981). Many of the exhibitions in this eclec tic roster of shows traveled throughout England under an exhibition organizedO for the museum byJ Beaumont Newhall, the department's first curator, was presented in the auspices of the Arts Council of Great Britain. the October 1970 issue. As Creative Camera and the With the creation of The Photographers" Gallery and British photographic establishment began to form iden the inauguration of photography exhibitions at the Vic tities of their own, it became less essential for the maga toria and Albert Museum, British photographers had zine to report the Department of Photography's activi the opportunity to see the quality of vintage prints and ties with such regularity. to understand and be rejuvenated by the achievements

9 of their predecessors. Additionally, the experiments of precipitate a change in the social order; however, the their contemporaries could be seen as a challenge. Pho work of the photographers included here is not. If tographers encountered new ideas about print quality, asked directly whether the purpose of their work is to and by seeing photographs on a wall, scale and bring about social reform, each of these photographers sequence could be considered for a space other than would reply that it is not, but that if such change would that of magazine pages. occur because of their photographs, they would be glad Other galleries and exhibition spaces for photogra to see it. phy opened during the 1970s, including the Half Moon This transition in intention might be better under Gallery, later Camerawork, in London and the Impres stood if it is compared to a similar one that occurred in sions Gallery in York. One that had a decidedly positive the United States at the end of the 1960s. The "New influence on the continuation of a social documentary Documents" exhibition, organized in 1967 by John tradition of photography was the Side Gallery in New Szarkowski at The Museum of Modern Art, presented castle. It was organized in 1977 by Amber Associates, a the work of Arbus, Friedlander, and Winogrand. group of photographers and filmmakers, among them According to Szarkowski, the photographs included in Chris Killip and Graham Smith, who had been working the show represented a shift in the use of documentary in the North East of England since 1970-71. The func photography from social reform to more personal ends: tion of the photo gallery was "to encourage local pho "Their aim has been not to reform life, but to know 12 tographers, and indeed others of merit from outside the it."* Hie exhibition established the "documentary" region, to work in the North East on projects, exhibi approach of these photographers as a means of personal 11 tions and commissions with the support of the Side.'' expression, and was a watershed event in the develop As a result, a regional archive was formed through ment of postwar photography. (Photographs by Arbus, the purchase of this commissioned work. In addition to Friedlander, and Winogrand from the same period were exhibiting the photographs of historical figures such as included in Szarkowski s exhibition "New Photography Brandt, Sander, and Evans, the gallery showed the USA," which traveled to England in 1972.) Just as the work of contemporary documentary photographers work of the photographers in "New Documents" reflect including Ian MacDonald, Marketa Euskacova, Paul ed the effects of broader social issues, the work repro Trevor, and Magnum photographers and duced in British Photography from the Thatcher Years , and many others. The Side Gallery has concerns public issues (unemployment, use of the land, been responsible for touring dozens of the exhibitions it and social mores); yet the photographs in both exhibi commissioned and/or organized. tions originate from each photographer's intuitions The final ingredient needed in the formula for a about what is most worth looking at. British photographic renaissance was money. The Arts I he current radical changes in British life have Council of Great Britain, a government agency similar charged these photographers with an artistic mandate to the National Endowment for the Arts in the United to look closely at the people and at the landscape in States, appointed a photography officer in the early which they live. While the earlier British documentari 1970s. Over the next twenty years the Arts Council ans photographed the "other," those outside their social provided subsidies to publish books, funded exhibi class, and generally of a station less fortunate than tions, and commissioned dozens of photographers to theirs, these photographers embrace what is closest to make pictures in Britain. them. Their work reflects an affection for their country and fellow citizens that is unflinching in its description of the country's most extreme ills and the complex manifestations of economic change that are restructur While the photographs reproduced here are "social doc ing its society. umentary* in nature, it is important to distinguish I he second factor that differentiates their pho them from traditional social documentary photography. tographs from the work of previous generations is a loss The essential difference is one of intention: the work of of faith in the power of what has come to be understood traditional documentarians was conceived in order to as traditional documentary photography. The American

10 Lewis Hine is regarded as preeminent among social doc- attention to a way of life that was passing. For Killip umentarians. Hine made pictures of workers and the the is a place where generations of families effects of brutal working conditions specifically to have farmed the land and sustained the traditions of his improve their lives by changing the laws that deter forbearers with dignity and grace. In his introduction, mined how they were treated. As documents, Hine's th e social commentator and novelist John Berger photographs appear to be uninflected by his opinions describes their way of life as being under threat from and to provide irrefutable evidence of unfair labor prac wealthy outsiders who purchase the island s houses and tices. The seemingly effortless style of Hine's documen land as tax write-offs. The pictures follow the ideas tary photographs belie the intelligence, talent, and intu developed by Paul Strand in his photographic series on ition required to make them. Many of the cliched, sim the people and town of Luzzara, Italy, published in the plistic photographs made in the name of social reform early 1950s. Strand's profound respect for the people in within subsequent documentary work owe much to a front of his camera led him to make portraits that for misunderstanding of the complexities of Hine's work. the most part are devoid of personality. His subjects While the work reproduced here is a link in the chain of appear dignified, but rather lifeless, as though they are British social documentary photography, its place in demonstrating someone else's idea of who they are. photography's history reflects a more sophisticated Killip describes the harsh beauty of the landscape of understanding of how photography can be used, and the Isle of Man movingly. Although he is honorable in how complicated modern social issues are. For Hine and his intentions and respectful of his subjects, the people other early documentary photographers, social problems described in his pictures look as though they might were clearly defined, making obvious the path to have been called in from central casting. They wear the improvement. In this new British work the world costume of the farmer, the inevitable cap and sweater, described is often a place where the victims are not only and bear the wrinkles and pride of the hard-working, victims, but perpetrators. It is not easy to point a finger. but they do not seem to possess an identifiable individ It is the complexity of current British society that is uality. One may attribute the limited success of the manifested in the new British social documentary work. photographs to Killip's youth: he began the project in In a 1987 article in about the 1970. when he was twenty-four. state of Britain under the leadership of Margaret Killip's 1988 book. In Elagrante , also has as its nom Thatcher, Howell Raines wrote: inal subject a specific people and place. However, the two books differ significantly in the way the pho One effect has been an uneven distribution along a tographs tell a story. As a book of photographs the Isle 'North-South divide " that cleaves England into two of Man is quite conventional. The photographs are pre distinct vegions of decline and prosperity. The old sented in standard monographic fashion, one picture to industrial cities of central and northern England are a page, each picture the same size. They are sequenced pockets of decay , while London and the "home by alternating pictures of the land with pictures of the counties" of southeast England surf along on the people. The meaning created by this order inextricably 13 lead wave of the Thatcher boom. binds the people to the place, even though one rarely sees any people in the landscape. In Elagrante uses a similar but more sophisticated Chris Killip photographs in Newcastle and Graham documentary style to express Killip's anger. The result is Smith makes pictures in Middlesbrough, both in north a bitter poem. In Killip's view Newcastle is a place of eastern England, a "region of decline. In 1980 the unrelenting despair where an irrevocable, unidentifiable Arts Council of Great Britain published Killip 's first force has undermined the individual lives pictured. In book of photographs, Isle of Man. Killip, who was his photographs we see punk boys smashed against each raised on the Isle of Man and so has an intimate knowl other in a brainless, frenzied dance of fury; a young girl, edge ol his subject, offers a photographic portrait of life whose face is older than her years, plays with a hula- there and of the staunch moral fiber of its people. hoop in a debris-littered landscape; a rain-drenched W hen it was published a decade ago, the book called gaggle of protestors waits during the 1974 coal miners'

II strike. Nearly half of the fifty pictures include children the subject to reveal something of his inner self to the or adolescents; the remainder are of adults, the place photographer, and ultimately to the viewer. itself, or its details. The narrative of the book —deter The cast of characters in the photographs of Gra mined by the selection and sequence of pictures —is ham Smith are his friends and relations, including his woven in a complex interlocking of pictures. mother and father. For over a decade, Smith has pho The children who dominate the pages of In Fla tographed in Middlesbrough, England, where he was grante stand little chance of a future different from the born and raised. In a statement referring to this work, realized lives of their parents. Whatever glimmer of Smith wrote that his photographs are an attempt to innocence and pleasure we catch in their faces is oblit understand the people who have surrounded him erated by succeeding pictures of hopeless teens and throughout his life, and, in turn, to know himself: "It adults. We are persuaded that the emblematic weight of might be that I'm using the camera as a way of looking each picture represents the failure of those with power at friends, family, people from their past, and, in turn, 14 to contend with the terrible reality of a post-industrial my background." Britain. The cumulative work is Killip's cry of rage, a Fike the other photographers connected to the Side deeply original expression of his commitment as a Gallery, Smith strongly believes that in order to make social documentary photographer. pictures with conviction it is essential to know his sub Flie question is what happened between the publi jects. In 1979 Smith wrote the following for a catalogue cation of Isle of Man in 1980, and In Flagrante in 1988 that included his photographs, to encourage Killip's photographic development. Killip cites the 1974 miner's strike, which broke the back of 7 he group I worked with (Amber Associates) has for the miner's union, as the event that galvanized him the last ten years concerned itself with creating a politically. But for Killip and the other photographers lifestyle around independent film and photographic in this catalogue, what transpired was not only personal production in the North East. The keystone of our but universal: Britain's photographic scene evolved in production is "commitment " to a chosen region response to the changes in the political and social envi (with emphasis on the working class). The style is ronment. Killip projects himself into the story by plac unashamedly documentary in its basis. We main ing his shadow in the first and last pictures of the book. tain that documentary can be extremely personcd By doing so, he compels us to consider these pictures and feel it unfortunate that the word has become and their story as a fiction and as an expression of him synonymous with factual journalism. We see our self as much as he wants them to stand for a testament selves as artists working within that tradition which to life in post-industrial England. might be described as a "creative interpretation of reality. "15

The photographs in Smith's documentation of this depressed, disadvantaged community in northeastern It has been held by many social -documentary photogra England include a variety of subjects: people at work phers that it is necessary to know the people one pho and on the street, and later at leisure, enjoying them tographs: the photographer should live among his sub selves in the local pub —a stage on which the drama of jects and befriend them, gaining thereby an intimate their individual lives is played out. As Smith sees it, the knowledge that will do justice to the place or people pubs are used "by those who live on the edge, whose 16 photographed. T his idea discounts the successes of such future is the next good time, the next good drink." photographers as and Garry Winogrand, There imagination is released, a rousing good argument whose best pictures were often made away from home, is held, and personas are temporarily transformed. One in alien settings they were passing through. They made of the photographs in this series, The Commercial , pictures that, although candid, precisely defined the South Bank , Middlesbrough , shows two men and a character of the place they were visiting. It is neverthe woman seated at a table. Their delicately held cigarettes, less true that a trust between photographer and subject, braced between fingers a bit too cautiously, and their whether instantaneous or developed over time, allows half-closed eyes, are details of the oblivion that sets in

12 after many drinks. The woman, centered between them get away from this Romantic landscape because I and with her arm resting on the man to her left, bears a felt the pictures were mostly appreciated by viewers 17 faint resemblance to Elizabeth Taylor in the 1950s. The who appreciate that sort of thing anyway face of the man recalls that of Robert Mitchum. In con In 1981 Davies received a fellowship that took him to versation Smith affectionately refers to the picture by Sheffield, a major urban center in central England, using the names of these Hollywood stars. The allusion where his interest in the urban landscape began. Since is not without meaning, for it refers to the pursuit of then his subject has continued to be the uneasy relation identity, and the dreams, large and small, we all hold. ship between the bucolic English countryside and its There is a pervasive physicality in these pubs that is cities and towns, and to the architectural remnants of reflected in Smith's use of a large-format camera and post-industrial England. In the broadest sense, Davies's its attachment. The worn edges of a table, the photographs describe a landscape in constant transition, details of a pattern, the glints of light on drinking glass a landscape that is relevant because it is the one in es, and wrinkles of skin are drawn with fidelity in his which we live, the one with which we must reckon. prints. As photographic description, they comprise a While Davies says the motivation for this early work kind of evidence of the experience in the pub, a public was political, the pictures themselves have no overt place where seeing and being seen and animated social political content. His photographs made since 1981, interaction prevail. As a group, the pictures achieve a however, indicate a sharp eye for the telling details of sense of intense, compacted longing that strains against economic change and society's adjustment, or attempt to its surroundings. In The Dreams All Gone, Irish Club , accommodate its manifestations. Middlesbrough , a young woman looks at the camera In order to describe this accommodation Davies with an expression of despair as a drunken man weighs employs two important tactics. The first is to use a heavily on her shoulder. Although pretty and young, large-format camera, which combines a seamless her entrapment appears complete. description with great detail. The second is to make his pictures from a high vantage point so that the perspec tive is one in which the viewer stands at middle dis tance. Davies says: Until 1981 John Davies photographed the natural land scape of the British Isles, particularly in remote areas You could see how things work in relationship to such as the West Coast of . Davies studied pho one another , whereas down in the street all you can tography at the Trent Polytechnic in Nottingham, Eng see is buildings around you , you can 7 see what is land, with , a follower of the behind or whether there is a railway behind houses American photographer and teacher . The unless you walk around. From a high view point subjects of White's photographs made from 1950 to the you can see all these things at once. Not in as much 1970s were never chosen for their literal meaning, but detail , but you can see them as symbols of things. 1S for the congruence White found between his emotions The middle -distance viewpoint also creates the sense and the form he discovered in his pictures. The land that one is seeing things objectively —getting the full scape —the nominal subject of many of White's and story. Also, the large-format camera appears to describe Cooper's photographs —was also a symbol of their emo without prejudice. The discordance is fully seen and felt tions. This led to a mystification of the landscape, and when one compares the details. In Davies's photographs of photography. While Davies rejected the White/Cooper each detail within the frame is given equal visual approach to subject matter upon graduating from col weight, creating a sense of overall harmony between lege in 1974, he continued to the English O " O J nature and man. landscape untouched by man. Davies has said: In the foreground of his photograph Durham Ox I thought I was committing a political act in making Public House , Sheffield , Yorkshire, 1981 we see a lone pictures in which / wanted people to experience this pub, the architectural stalwart of British social life, at respect for the land , a respect which people like Mar the intersection of two superhighways, covered by the garet Thatcher don I seem to hare. But I decided to great shadow of a series of immense buildings. At the

13 middle of the picture, raked by bright sun, is a sprawl ol being surreal, especially when compared to the real ing urban landscape dotted with high-rise apartment world. Additionally, documentary photographs were in blocks. Above the city, which fills the frame to the hori because they were made for publica zon line, we see an expansive, bright sky. Our initial tion, and the technology of color reproduction was impression is ol breathtaking beauty and grandeur. unreliable. Until the early 1970s color was used in When we look into the picture's details, however, we advertising and , not because it pause. I he city is like an ocean enveloping the country more accurately described these subjects, but because it side, razing everything in its path. The pub stands like made them alluring and hyperreal. a bastion, its existence threatened by its solitary loca It was in the 1970s that color film and printing tion. Since it is no longer in a neighborhood, the pub's papers began to improve in response to an expanding only clients are those people who race the superhigh amateur market ol snapshooters, and a younger gener ways lining its sides. ation of serious photographers, who lacked the skepti Like the American photographer Robert Adams, cism of their predecessors, began to experiment with its whose subject is also the relationship between people possibilities. The movies, which had been persuasively and their landscape, Davies believes the landscape will made in color since the 19-tOs, and color television, endure. By bringing our attention to the places in which available to the general public since the 1960s, influ we live, he shows us in his photographs how we have enced their enthusiasm. To this younger group, color accommodated our needs to the natural integrity of the offered a more accurate description of contemporary land, or how we have failed to do so. life. To a photographer such as Parr it was essential to the meaning of his pictures. Parrs subject, Britain's middle class, is especially suited to description in color. Clothes, shopping bags, Martin Parr, who studied photography at the Manch newly built houses, furniture, and food take on a vitali ester Polytechnic, cites the publication of several of ty not available with black-and-white film. The seduc Chris Killip's photographs from the In Flagrante pro tiveness of their absolute newness charge Parr's work ject in Creative Camera as the event that excited him to with the energy of his protagonists' pursuits. His vivid greater confidence as a social documentary photogra describe with precision the new-found material pher. Parr has published five books of his own pho ism of contemporary Britons as they spend their money tographs, each characterized by a persistently dry sense and pursue their recreation. The middle class is a rela of humor as indicated by their titles: The Last Resort tively new subject within photography. Previous gener (1986), a study of Britons at the seaside; The Cost of ations of social documentarians were more interested in Living (1989), a study of Britain's expanding middle the extremes of economic classes, either the very rich or class; and Bad Heather (1982), photographs of Britons the very poor, largely because of their potential for coping with the country's often inclement weather con drama and exoticism. Brandt's 1930s London project 19 ditions. The humor of Parr's photographs is in sync includes photographs of the middle class, but it is those with the British literary tradition of satirical writers, of the upper and lower we most remember. including Jonathan Swift, William Thackeray, Anthony As Britain s middle class expands, more people can Irollope, and Evelyn Waugh, whose caustic wit lam afford the amenities that contribute to a comfortable pooned England s social hypocrisy, landed aristocracy, life, and the system devises methods of how they might and political institutions. spend their money. As more and more people immerse The most striking aspect of Parr's work, when con themselves in middle-class comfort, the stakes are esca sidered within the tradition of social documentary pho lated and aspirations turn from mere material goods to tography, is that it is in color. While color had been other rewards of the upwardly mobile: status through used by a few social documentarians in the past, the club memberships, social activities, and education. unreliability of the materials discouraged most photog While Parr's photographs document these phenomena, raphers interested in documenting the "truth" from he does not lose track of the individual. The photo using it. The color rendered was inaccurate to the point graph of the young public (private) school boy being

14 embraced by his mother describes a delicate young man tially resolved by their persistence in publishing their in uniform who looks at the camera with a steadfast, photographs in books. More importantly, in this series insolent gaze as though to say, "I've got it made, and of photographs made in Northern Ireland Graham has you, dear viewer, do not." Another of his uniformed attempted to consider his subject obliquely, rather than species stands to his left, suggesting that this young head-on, and by so doing has risked obscuring his man exists in other varieties. intention. The worry on the profiled face of the young father In the past Graham has worked in a fairly conven (>86) surrounded by his wife and children expresses the tional manner. His book Beyond Caring (1 is a weight of all fathers who feel concern for their families. straightforward documentation of the demoralizing con He and his charges appear stranded in the landscape of ditions in social service offices across Britain. While the a newly created housing project. The men who built it photographs are also in color, and are printed up to 27 appear at ease inside one of the houses; the father and by 35 inches, the subject is readily accessible. His book his family wait outside the gates, so to speak, seeking Troubled Land (1987) makes a somewhat greater and debating asylum. demand on the viewer. Each picture in this series of It is important that a sense of the individual emerges color photographs of the landscape of Northern Ireland in Parr s pictures, otherwise we might regard these pho bears traces of the conflict between the various factions tographs merely as a satire of increasingly self-centered of the I.R.A., the Catholic population, the Protestant contemporary life. Bv locating the individual within the population, and the occupying British forces. Upon first cultural and economic conditions that engulf this new viewing, these pictures of the pastoral countryside are middle class. Parr poses challenging questions. How do benign and lovely to look at. Closer inspection reveals, we come to terms with new-found prosperity? What are however, evidence of prior violence, the continuing our values? In documenting this new society, not yet British presence, or simply recognition of the omnipres weary of its opportunities, Parr thrusts the question ence of the relentless conflict. For example, a panoramic back to the individual viewer of his pictures (most likely view of a distant coastal town, Warrenpoint, is seen a member of the middle class) who must decide for him from the vantage point of an approaching road. The self or herself how they will be a player. photograph includes, in the near distance, an army stop-and-search of a passenger car. This activity is a small detail in the larger picture. In fact, the subject ol these photographs is Northern Ireland's enduring physi As the youngest of the photographers whose work is cal beauty, where life continues despite a ubiquitous vio included in the exhibition, Paul Graham has strayed lence. As an English photographer working in Northern farthest from the conventional vocabulary of social- Ireland, Graham is an outsider. As an English citizen documentary photography. In a sense his relative youth whose government has occupied Ireland on and of! for has given him the option to exercise artistic license. In centuries, his responsibility is clear. He takes his role of addition to making his photographs in color, Graham photographer-as-citizen seriously; it is, in fact a prime has printed them in radically varying sizes (from 8 by motivator of his work. 10 inches to 60 by 45 inches), and thought of them less The photographs in the series In Umbra Res ("in the as discrete objects to be appreciated individually, than shadow of it") are a logical artistic progression for Gra as an installation to be experienced as an environment. ham, who has steadily moved away from straight docu- Like many other photographers of his generation, mentary pictures toward photographs whose meanings Grahams photographs are conceived as wall pictures are locked in their symbolic potential. 1he subjects of rather than for reproduction in books or magazines, the the sixteen pictures in the project are common traditional venue for social documentary work. \\ hile enough —among them, a man looking up, a worn coun- the exhibition of documentary photographs in galleries tertop, and a commercial wedding portrait in a shop and museums appears contradictory to the aim of social window. It is not their ordinariness that is of particular documentary photographers — the dissemination of interest: most of photography is about looking at the their work to the widest possible audience —it is par ordinary. It is the casualness with which Graham pho

ts tographs them. His pictures are often out of focus, or NOTES partially blurred. The lighting is usually available light 1. , Looking at Photographs (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1973), p. 120. and therefore minimal, or it is supplied by the camera's 2. See Gerry Badger, "On British Photography: Some Personal Thoughts," flash, and therefore hyperbolic. The result is a series of Untitled , no. 14 (Garmel: , 1978), pp. 43-61. An pictures that are both intuitive and expressionistic. As updated and revised version of this account was published by Badger in viewers, we feel we are seeing the immediate and over 1989 as Through the Looking Glass: Photographic Art in Britain 1945- 1989, in a catalogue published in conjunction with an exhibition held in all impression the subject has made on Graham, and, at 1989 at the Barbican Art Gallery, London. the same time, the symbolic content —the stereotypical 3. According to I he New York Times, cutbacks in funding for the Nation characters and style of the photographs —seem to objec al I lealth Service, England s most venerated social service institution, put 680,000 people on waiting lists for surgery as of December 1987, 100 of tify Graham s inner experience. In the photograph of Britain s 192 district's health authorities were running out of money, and the green countertop, the foreground of the picture is 3,500 hospital beds were closed during the same time. By 1987 unem ployment had tripled to three million, almost 11 percent of the popula out of focus, leading the viewer to the sharply defined tion. Cited in "Bowing to Foes, Thatcher Backs Health Fund," The New portion of the counter where, among the names, num York Times, December 17, 1987, p. A18. bers, and other notations is etched the word "religion." 4. The government cut back a system that educates 93 percent of British children; provides free health care to all who want it; and supplies home I he picture of bricks pressed between the pavement nursing, meals, and free heat to elderly pensioners. and the skid is purely symbolic. The young woman 5. Badger, "On British Photography," pp. 43-61. feverishly inhaling her cigarette expresses the anxiety 6. Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864-1946) was among the most signifi cant influences in American cultural life in the period before World War implicit in other photographs in the series. The overall II. I le was editor of CameraWork , director of the 291 Gallery and, later, impression made by these pictures is one of an ol I he Intimate Gallery and An American Place. However, it is as a pho omnipresent tension that has crept into the very fiber of tographer that his place among twentieth-century artists is firmly estab lished. Beaumont Newhall (American, born 1908) was the cofounder, a place in which daily life is permeated by an insidious, along with , and the first curator of the Department of Pho unseen enemy. tography at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1940-1943), and the curator and director of the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York (1958-1971). His cata log for the first survey exhibition of the , Photog- raphy 1839-193 " (now in its fifth edition), has served as the classic text on the subject. While these photographs are, for the most part, inspired 7. Badger, "On British Photography," pp. 43-61. by Britain's particular social condition, they reflect the 8. Ibid. creative power of a photography that looks at the world 9. Publisher's note to 1969 edition of Street Life in London. Text by directly. It is heartening to know there is a younger gen Adolphe Smith, photographs by John Thompson. Originally published in 1877, reprinted in 1969 by Benjamin Blom, Inc., New York and London eration of Britons working in this style —, (n.p.). , , and , to name 10. It was published by Colin Osman and edited by Bill Jay. Until 1968 it was called Camera Owner. but four. Theirs is a photographic lifeline based in the 11. Brochure published by the Side Photographic Gallery, Newcastle origins of the medium. upon Tyne [n.d.]. The five photographers whose work is reproduced 12. John Szarkowski, exhibition wall label for "New Documents " Febru here are united by their exploration of life in Britain ary 28-May 7, 1967. today. They bring to their work radically different intu 13. "Thatcher's Goal: A Changed Britain," Howell Raines, The New York Times, May 13, 1987. itions about what is to be photographed. As a genera tion they formed their individual styles of working dur 14. Quoted in Gerry Badger and John Benton-Harris, Through the Look ing Glass: Photographic Art in Britain 1945-1989 , catalogue of the exhi ing a time when photography in Britain was again bition (London: Barbican Art Gallery, 1989), p. 195. being reconsidered as an art form. Their effort has 15. Quoted in Paul I lill, Angela Kelly, John Tagg, Three Perspectives on Photography , catalogue of the exhibition (London: Hayward Gallery, required a fierce commitment, independence, and a Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979), p. 36. faith in the potentials of the medium. 16. Badger, Through the Looking Glass, p. 195. 17. Quoted in an interview with Susan Butler, "Landscapes in Transi tion, Creative Camera (London), no. 251 (November 1985), pp. 16-23. 18. Ibid. 19. 1he photographs by Parr in the exhibition that accompanies this cat alogue are selected from two bodies of work: The Last Resort and The Cost of Living.

16 PLATES

CHRIS KILLIP

GRAHAM SMITH

JOHN DAVIES

MARTIN PARR

PAUL GRAHAM These photographs were taken in the North of England, 1976-87

GRAHAM SMITH The Commercial Pub. 1980-90

26

JOHN D AVI ES

Site of Groesfaen Colliery, Deri, Mid Glamorgan. 1984

7 he colliery,; which was sunk at the beginning of 1900 , was closed in 1968. A reclamation scheme began in 1975 to remove the workings and to relandscape the huge waste heaps. Transatlantic airliners use the nearby Brecon Beacons as an air traffic turning point.

30 Allotments overlooking Easington, County Durham. 1983

Before the coal industry was nationalized in the 1940s many mining villages , like Easington , were built without gardens. The hillier areas around Easington were turned into allotments.

31 1

Agecroft Power Station, Salford, Greater . 1983

Beyond the cooling towers is Agecroft Colliery , which provides fuel for this coal-fired electricity- generating station. The recreation grounds are owned by the C.E.G.B. for their workers.

32 Netherthorpe Housing Estate, Sheffield, Yorkshire. 1981

This housing estate was built in the 1960s. The area in front of the tower blocks was purchased by the City in 1887 and is part of the Crookes Moor Recreation Grounds.

33 Durham Ox Public House, Sheffield, Yorkshire. 1981

In the shadow of Hyde Park Flats , the public house was left isolated due to the housing clearance schemes of the 1950s. It now stands next to the A5T Parkway ; linking Sheffield to the Ml Motorway.

34 I "Bowling Greens, Ileaton Norris Park. Stockport, Cheshire. 1988

In 1872 the Parks Regulation Act was passed by Parliament to encourage local government to create public parks and open spaces. This was seen as a way to improve the health of the people living in densely populated aveas and . in particular, the areas dominated by the factory systems of the Industrial Revolution. The Ileaton Novvis Recreation Grounds was opened in 1896. MARTIN PARR Photographs from the series The Cost of Living. 1987-89

Bristol grammar school Royal Commonwealth Society "function for a summer evening Strawberry tea Dinner party Conservative "midsummer madness party

40 Garden Open Day

41 PAUL GRAHAM From In Umbra Res: Sixteen Photographs of Northern Ireland. 1990

Wedding photograph, Belfast Woman smoking cigarette, Belfast Religion graffiti on telephone table, Job Centre, Belfast Bricks under skip, Belfast Man watching T.V. news broadcast of lynching, Belfast Wire on post, Belfast SELECTED EXHIBITIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES

CHRIS KILLIP 1984 "Seacoal," Side Gallery, Newcas 1986 "British Contemporary Photogra tle, England. phy: Coming of Age," Foto Festi Photographs, Photo Gallery, Johannes val. V ilheim Gallery, Houston, (tour) burg, South Africa. Born on Isle of Man, England, 1946. 1987 Graz, Austria. 1985 "Another Country," Serpentine 1963-69 Photographic assistant. Lon Gallery, London. 1988 Musee des Beaux Arts, Nantes, don. . 1986 "Another Country," Art Institute 1969 Freelance photographer. "Towards a Bigger Picture," Victoria N of . Albert Museum, London. 1969-71 Photographing in Isle of Man. National Museum of Photography, Brad ford, England. 1989 "Towards a Bigger Picture," 1977-78 Director, Side Gallery, New Gallery, . castle, England. 1988 "In F lagrante," Victoria N Albert "The Art of Photography," Royal Acade Museum, London. my of Art, London. 1979-80 Photographer in Residence, Landes Museum, Minister. West Ger University of , Wales. Badger, Gerry, and John Benton -Harris. many. "Through the Looking Glass: Photo 198 1- Resident in Newcastle, England. Museum Het Princessehof, Leeuwarden, graphic Art in Britain 1945-1989." Barbi The . can Art Gallery, London.

1989 'in Flagrante," Miro Museum, 1990 "Photography Until Now," The AWARDS Barcelona. Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Working at Pirelli," Victoria N Albert 1973-74 Arts Council of Great Britain Museum, London. Photography Awards. ARTICLES AND REVIEWS 1990 I V.A.M. Valencia, Spain. 1975-76 Northern Arts Photography Fellow. Palais de Tokyo, Paris. 1972 "Chris Killip T.T. week visitors-- The Isle of Man. ' Creative Camera , no. 1977 Arts CCouncil of Great Britain Bur 91 (January 1972), pp. 458-63. (photo sary Award. essay) GROUP EXHIBITIONS 1989 Henri Ciartier-Bresson Award, 1976 British image 2, London: Arts Paris. 1973 "Two Views," The Photographers' Council of Great Britain. Gallery, London. 1978 Camera Mainichi. Tokyo. 1977 "Concerning Photography," The 1980 Steele- Perkins, Chris, ed. About ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS Photographers' Gallery, London. 70 Photographs. London: Arts Council of Great Britain. 1977 "North-East of England," Side 1980 "Old and Modern Masters of Pho Gallery, Newcastle, England. tography," Victoria N Albert Museum, London. 1981 Jeffrey, Ian. Photography: A Con 1980-82 isle of Man," AGGB tour. cise History. London: Thames and Hud son. 1985 "Quelques Angl ais," Centre 1983 "Askam and Skinningrove," Side Nationale de la Photographie, Paris. Gallery, Newcastle, England. 1983 - Booth, Mark. "Closely Observed Photographs." Camera Austria , no. 11/12. 1983, pp. 37-44. 48 1986 Ha worth- Booth, Mark. "Chris Kil- COLLECTIONS lip: Scenes from Another Country. Aper ture, no. 103 (Summer 1986), pp. 16-31. Victoria N Albert Museum, London

"Chris Killip," Camera International Arts Council of Great Britain, London Paris , no. 9 (Winter 1986), pp. 40-49. (photo essay) Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris

1988 Badger, Gerry. "We are Making a University of Texas, Austin New World: Chris Killip's 'In Flagrante," in Peter Turner and Gerry Badger, eds., Center for Creative Photography, Photo Texts. London: Travelling Light, , Tucson pp. 142-47. The Museum of Modern Art, New York

International Museum of Photography at BOOKS BY KILLIP George Eastman House, Rochester, New York 1980 Isle of Man. London: Arts Council of Great Britain/ A. Zwemmer Ltd. Stedelijk Museum, , The Netherlands 1988 In Flagrante. London: Martin Seeker N Warburg, Ltd., and Paris: Edi National Gallery of Australia tions Nathan. British Council, London

GRAHAM SMITH

Born in Middlesbrough, England, 1947.

For the last ten years I have photographed in Middlesbrough, nowhere else. Like my parents I was born and brought up in the town. My father, mother, stepfather, and their friends are all good drinkers, and they have always used the same few pubs, which we consider to be the best in Middlesbrough. They are used by those who live on the edge, whose future is the next good time, the next good drink. It s never clear to me why 1 photograph in these pubs. It might be that I'm using the camera as a way of looking at friends, family, people from their past and, in turn, my background. The truth might be that the camera is just an extension of my drinking arm.

49 JOHN DAVIES 1980 Albert Street Workshop, Hebden GROUP EXHIBITIONS Bridge, England. 1976 "Private Views," Midland Group 1981 "Landscapes" of Cumbria, Side Gallery, Nottingham, England, (tour) Born in Sedgefield, County Durham, Eng Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, land, 1949. (tour) 1978 Grundy House Museum, Black pool, England. of Photography, 1974 Graduated from Trent Polytech York, England. nic, Nottingham, England. 1979 Arts Centre, Chester, The Gallery of Photography, . England. 1976 Photographer for Sotheby's, Lon Salzburg College, Salzburg. Manchester Polytechnic Library, Manch don. ester. 1982 Uppermill Photographic Gallery, 1978-81 I^ecturer in Photography, Oldham, England. 1980 "A Sense of Ireland: Three Blackpool College of Art, Blackpool, Eng Views," Swiss Cottage Library, London. land. "Above and Beyond," Untitled Gallery, Sheffield, England, (tour) 1980 Museum of Art, 1982 Working and living in Manchester Brewery Arts Centre, Kendel, England. Birmingham, Alabama. and Stockport, England. Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool. 1982 "Presences of Nature," Carlise 1985-89 Visiting lecturer in Photogra The Jerusalem Theater, Jerusalem. Museum and Art Gallery, England. phy, West Surrey College of Art, West Surrey, England. Side Gallery, Druridge Bay, Northumber 1988 "Durham Coalfield," Side Gallery, land, England. Newcastle, England. 1986-90 Chair of "Counter Image," Film, Video and Photography workshop, "Durham Coalfield," Rochester Institute 1988 "The Prosaic Landscape," Ffoto- Manchester. of Technology, Rochester, New York. gallery, Cardiff, Wales. "The Intimate Eye," A Moment in Time "Art and Landscape," Rochdale Art 1989 Visiting lecturer in Photography Gallery, . Gallery, Rochdale, England. at Nottingham Polytechnic, Nottingham, England. 1985 "The Rhymney Valley," North- 1984 "Britain in 1984," The Photogra light Gallery, Tempe, Arizona. phers' Gallery, London, (tour: The National Museum of Film and Photogra AWARDS "On the Edge of White Peak," Buxton Art phy, , England) Gallery and Museum, Buxton, England. 1975-78 Four Art Council of Great "Brunei's Kingdom," Watershed, , "The Sky Show," The Cambridge Dark Britain awards. England. room, Cambridge, England.

1981 Photographic Fellowship, 1987 "A Green and Pleasant Land," 1985 Centre National de la Photogra Sheffield Polytechnic, Sheffield, England. The Photographers' Gallery, London. phic, Paris. "Skylines," Viewpoint, Salford's Photo "Brunei's Kingdom," Watershed, Bristol,

ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS graphic Centre, England. England. "Connections," Cornerhouse, Manchester, 1976 The Photographers' Gallery, Lon 1988 XYZ Gallery, . . and Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool don. L'Atelier Photographique de St-Cyprien, 1986 "British Contemporary Photogra 1977 The Institute of Contemporary Toulouse, France. phy: Coming of Age," Houston Foto Festi Arts, London. "Taking Stock." Stockport Art Gallery, val, Wilheim Gallery, Houston, (tour) Stockport, England. 1978 The Arts Council Gallery, Belfast. Columbia College Gallery, Chicago. 1989 Fbrum Stadpark, Graz, Austria. "Tomorrow," Royal Festival Hall, Lon 1979 The Gallery of Photography, don. Dublin. 1990 Counter Image, Manchester. Perspektief Gallery, Rotterdam, The "West Coast of Ireland," The Photograph Centro de Estudos Fotograficos, Vigo, Netherlands. ic Gallery, Southampton, England, (tour) Spain. "New Acquisitions," Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Side Gallery, Newcastle, England. 1991 "Phase II, Broadgate," The Pho 50 tographers' Gallery, London. 1987 "The Wall," Impressions Gallery, Gaskins, Bill. ed. British Image 5: Per BOOKS BY DAVIES York, England. spectives on Landscape . Arts Council of Great Britain, (photo essay) 1986 Mist Mountain Hater H ind. Lon "Poignant Sources," Artspace, San Fran don: Travellingo Light. O cisco; Granit, Centre d'Action Culturelle 1980 Steele-Perkins, Chris, ed. About (CAC), Belfort, France. 70 Photographs. London: Arts Council of 1987 A Green and Pleasant Land. Musee de la Photographie, Charleroi, Great Britain. Manchester: Cornerhouse Publications. Belgium. Mersey Basin Campaign — 1987 1981 Powell, Rob. "'The Fishing Indus The Art Gallery of the Saidye Bronfman Calendar. Manchester: HMSO, for the 1 try, by Nick Hedges and Landscapes by Centre, . Department of the Environment. JolmDavies at the Side Gallerv, Newcas tle." British Journal of Photography, vol. 1988 XYZ Gallery, Ghent, Belgium. 1989 Broaclgate: Visitors' Guide to the 128, no. 6290 (February 13, 1981), pp. Broadgate Development. London. Lon Granit, Centre d'Action Culturelle (CAC), 178-79. don: Rosenhaugh Stanhope Develop Belfort, France. ments. 1982 Clement, James. "Landscape: the Musee des Beaux Arts, Nantes, France. Yorkshire Group." British Journal of Pho Mission Photographique de la DATAR, tography Annual 1982. London: Henry COLLECTIONS Paris. Greenwoood and Co., pp. 22-23. "Towards a Bigger Picture," Victoria & Tagg, John. "The Geology of the City .' Arts Council of Great Britain Albert Museum, Fondon. Art Monthly, no. 56 (May 1982), The Museum of Modern Art, New York pp. 14-15. 1989 Mission Photographique Trans- Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris Powell, Rob. "John Davies at the Untitled manche, Centre Regional de la Photogra Gallery, Sheffield." British Journal of Victoria N Albert Museum, London phie Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. Photography , vol. 129, no. 6354 (May Musee de la Photographie, Charleroi, 1 Granit, Centre d" Action Culturelle, 14, 1982), pp. 518-19. Belgium Belfort, France. British Journal of Photography , May 14, Perspektief Gallery. Rotterdam Ruhrlandmuseum, Essen, West Germany. 1982. Side Gallerv, Newcastle-upon-Tvne, "Through the booking Glass: Photo The London Sunday Times, July 11, England graphic Art in Britain 1945-1989," 1982. Barbican Art Gallery, London. National Museum of Photography, Film 1985 Butler, Susan. "Landscapes in and Television, Bradford "The Art of Photography," Royal Transition: John Davies Interviewed by Academy of Art, London. The Photographers Gallery. London Susan Butler." Creative Camera, no. 251 (November 1985), pp. 16-24. Open Eye Gallerv, Liverpool 1990 I Aa Rumma Gallery, Naples. Rochdale Art Gallerv, Rochdale, England Zelda Cheadle Gallery, London. 1986 "The Wall." Creative Camera, no. 9 (1986), pp. 22-27. (photo essay) Buxton Art Gallery and Museum. Buxton, Association of Catalan Architects, England Barcelona. 1988 Powell, Rob. "After the Smoke: Ffotogallery, Cardiff. Wales Photography in Post-Industrial Britain. Camera Austria., no. 28 (1988), pp. 44- Rhymney Valley District Council ARTICLES AND REVIEWS 55. National Librarv of Wales 1976 British Journal of Photography, Titterington, Chris. "Landscape and the Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester February 1976. Fall." , no. 113 (Winter 1988), pp. 10-19. Granit, Centre d Action Culturelle (CAC), "John A. Davies: An Offering of Images." Belfort, France Creative Camera , no. 143 (May 1976), 1989 Badger, Gerry and John Benton- pp. 150-53. (photo essay) Stockport Art Gallery, Stockport. England Harris. Through the Looking Glass: Pho tographic Art in Britain 1945-1989. Lon Centre Regional de la Photographie Nord- 1977 British Journal of Photography don: Barbican Art Gallery, (exhibition Pas-de-Calais, France Annual 1977. London: Henry Green- catalogue) woood and Co. Ruhrlandmuseum. Essen. West Germany Weaver, Mike, ed. The Art of Photogra Association of Catalan Architects, 1978 British Journal of Photography phy 1839-1989. New Haven: Yale Barcelona Annua! 1978. London: Henry Greenwood University Press. and Co. 51 MARTIN PARR 1987 International Center for Photogra- 1989 "Through the Looking Glass: phy/Midtown, New York. Photographic Art in Britain 1945-1989," Barbican Art Gallery, London. "Spending Time," National Centre of Photography, Paris, (tour) "The Art of Photography," Royal Acade Born in , London, 1952. my of Art, London. 1988 Gallery, Tokyo and Osaka. 1970-73 Studied photography at Foto Biennale, Enschede, The Nether lands. Manchester Polytechnic, Manchester. 1989 Spectrum Gallery. Hanover. West Germany. 1975-82 Visiting lecturer at National College of Art and Design, Dublin, and "One Day Trip," Museum Grand Rue, ARTICLES AND REVIEWS Chelsea School of Art, England. Boulogne. "The Cost of Living," Royal Photographic 1974 "Photographs by Martin Parr," 1982-84 Visiting lecturer at School of Society. Bath, England, (tour) Creative Camera, no. 120, June 1974, pp. Documentary Photography, Newport, 206-1 1. (photo essay) England. 1978 "Beauty Spots," Creative Camera GROUP EXHIBITIONS 1982- Visiting lecturer at West Surrey Collection 5, pp. 113-23. College of Art and Design, , Eng 1978 "Personal Views 1860- 1977," land. 1979 "Three Perspectives on Photogra British Council touring exhibition. phy," Arts Council of Great Britain, Lon 1988- Nominee for Magnum Agency. Fotomania Gallery, Barcelona, Spain. don, pp. 32-35. "Art for Society," Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. 1982 "Photographes Contemporains en AWARDS Europe," Contrejour , pp. 62-65. 1979 "Three Perspectives on Photogra Damon t Foto 4: Fotografie in Europa 1975 Arts Council of Great Britain phy," Hay ward Gallery, London. heute. Koln: Dumont Buchverlag. Photography Award. 1981 "New Work in Britain," The Pho 1983 Ch iaramonte, Giovanni. Immagini 1976 Arts Council of Great Britain tographers" Gallery, London. della Fotografia Europea Contemporane a. Photography Award. Milan: Editoriale Jaca Book. 1983 International Photography Festi "Internationell Fotofestival," Malmo, 1979 Arts Council of Great Britain val, Malmo, Sweden. Photography Award. Sweden, pp. 32-33. 1984 "British Photographic Art," Geol 1984 "Nuova Fotografia Inglese," Maz- ogy Museum, Peking, PRC. zotta , pp. 67-73. ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS "Parks and Gardens," commissioned Watt, Dave and Neil Hanson. "And the exhibition on the parks of Merseyside, North." Creative Camera , no. 229 (Jan 1976 "Beauty Spots. Impressions Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool. Gallery, (tour) uary 1984). pp. 1218-44. 1985 "Quelques Anglais," Centre 1985 7 orino Fotografia 85. Modena: 1977 The Photographers Gallery, Nationale de la Photographie, Paris. London. Edizioni Panini. (exhibition catalogue) 1986 "British Contemporary Photogra 1986 "Foto 86, Amsterdam, pp. 114- 1981 "The Non Conformists." Camera phy: Coming of Age," Houston Foto Festi 16. work, London. val, Wilheim Gallery, Houston, (tour) "Ireland: A Week in the Life of a Nation." "New Documents," Museum of Contem 1985 International Museum of Photog Century , pp. 22-25, 36-37, 60-61, 76-77, porary Photography, Chicago. raphy at George Eastman House, 172, 186-87, 222-23, 228-29. Rochester, New York. 1987 "Mysterious Coincidences," The "f ifty Years of Modern Colour Photogra Fotograficentrum, Stockholm. Photographers' Gallery, London. phy, 1936-1986." Photokina , p. 258. 1986 Museum Folkwang, Essen, West "Inscriptions and Inventions," British "2nd Fotobienal Vigo 1986," Spain, Germany. Council touring exhibition. pp. 71-79. "Connections," Cornerhouse/Open Eye Manifestation, Amsterdam. 1988 "A British View," Museum fur U.K., pp. 12-20. Gestaltung, Zurich.

52 1987 Turner. Peter. History of Photog BOOKS BY PARR COLLECTIONS raphy. London: Hamlyn, pp. 168-69. 1982 Bad Heather. London: Zwemmers. Arts Council of Great Britain Inscriptions and Inventions: British Pho tography in the 1980s. London: British 1988 Calderdale Photographs. Cata Victoria N Albert Museum, London Council, pp. 20-21. (exhibition catalogue) logue by Calderdale Council. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris 1988 Mysterious Coincidences: New 1984 At air Day. Wallasey, Merseyside: British Colour Photography. London: The Promenade Press. Calderdale Council, Great Britain Photographers' Gallery, p. 48. (exhibition Prescot Now and Then. Merseyside: catalogue) The Museum of Modern Art, New Y Merseyside County Council. 1989 Foto Biennale Enschede. Museum of Art. 1986 The Last Resort. Wallasey, Enschede, The Netherlands, pp. 24-25. Philadelphia Mei seyside: Promenade Press. "Le Invenzioni dello Sguardo. AEM Milan," 5 photographers' interpretations The Actual Boot: The Photographic Post of Milan at night. (9 plates) card 1900-1920. Jolly Editorial (with Jack Stasiack). Weaver, Mike, ed. The Art of Photogra phy 1839-1989. New Haven: Yale Uni 1989 One Day Trip. Catalogue by Edi versity Press, (exhibition catalogue) tions de la Difference, Centre Regional de Through the Looking Glass: Photographic la Photographic, Nord Pas-de-Calais, Art in Britain 1945-1989. London: Barbi France. can Art Caller}-, pp. 50-51. (exhibition catalogue) 1989 The Cost of Living. Manchester: Cornerhouse Publications. PAUL GRAHAM ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS National Museum of Photography. Brad ford, England. 1979 Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol. XPO Galerie, , West Germany. Born in Stafford, England, 1956. 1980 Ikon Gallery, Birmingham.

1962-77 Educated at schools in Har 1981 Bristol Arts Centre, Bristol. GROUP EXHIBITIONS low, Essex, and at Bristol University, to Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth. obtain B.Sc. (honors) in Microbiology. 1979 "New British Photography," 1988 The Photographers' Gallery, I^on- Meyer Gallery, New York. 1977-84 Self-employed. don. (tour: UK) Ffotogallery, Cardiff, Wales. 1980 "British Colour Photography," The Photographers' Gallery, London.

AWARDS 1984 Axiom Centre for the Arts, Chel Salford International Photography Festi tenham, England. val. (tour) 1979 Arts Council Major Award in Pho Museum Comunali, Rimini, Italv. tography. 1981 "In Colour," Ikon Gallery, Birm 1985 Medway in Transition, Medway, ingham, England, (tour) 1980 South West Arts Major Award. Kent, England. 1982 "Houses and Homes," Arnolfini 1982 Winston Churchill Memorial F el 1986 National Museum of Photography Gallery, Bristol, and ICA, London. lowship, USA. (tour: Birmingham, Kendal, Cheltenham, "Recent Developments in British Photog Cardiff). raphy, Hansard Gallery, Southampton, 1988 "And the North" Photography (international tour) Commission. Ilie Photographers' Gallery, London. "Nine British Photographers," British "Real Fire Photography Commission. Watershed Gallery. Bristol. Council, Italv. 1984 "Britain in 1984" Photography 1987 Jones Trover Gallery, Washington, 1988 "And the North," Brewery Arts Commission. D.C. Centre, KendaF (tour) Aries Rencontre, Aries, France. 1985 Photographer-in-Residence, Med- 1984 "Real Fire," SFAS CCommissions way Township. Kodak Gallerv, Tokyo. exhibition. GLAA Award. FNAC Les Halles, Paris. "Britain in 1984," The Photographers' Stills Gallery, Edinburgh. Gallery, London and National Photogra 1986 Arts Council Publications Award. Cornerhouse Arts Centre, Manchester. phy Museum, Bradford, England. GLC Publications Award, London. Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales. "South West Survey," Watershed, Bristol, England. 1987 International Center of Photogra phy Young Photographers Award, New 1988 PPOW Gallery, New York. 1985 "European Photography 1985," York. Museum Het Princessehof, Leeuwarden, Frankfurt, West Germany. Hayward Gallery Commission, London. The Netherlands. 1986 "British Contemporary Photogra Channel 4/Arts Council Video Bursary. 1989 Galerie Claire Burrus, Paris. phy: Coming of Age," Houston Foto Festi val, Wilheim Gallery, Houston, (tour) 1988 Fhe Eugene W. Smith Memorial Centre Regional de la Photographie, Fellowship, New York. Douchy. "The New British Document," Museum of Fotobienale Enschede 1989, Fhischede, Contemporary Photography, Chicago. 1989 Fellowship in Photography, The Netherlands. "Force of Circumstance," PPOW Gallery, National Museum of Photography, Film, New York. and Television, Bradford, England. 1990 Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London. "Modern Colour Photography," Photoki- na, Frankfurt, West Germany. Esther Schipper, Cologne, West Germany.

54 "Recent Acquisitions,' Victoria & Albert "Corporate Identities," Cornerhouse Through the Looking Glass: Photographic Museum, London. Gallery, Manchester. Art in Britain 1945-1989. London: Barbi can Art Gallery, (exhibition catalogue) 1987 "New Photography 3, The Muse- "Framed," Artspace, . um of Modern Art, New York. 1990 Anthony Reynolds Gallery. Lon "New British Photography," Modern Arts don. BOOKS BY GRAHAM Museum, Tampere, Finland. XPO Galerie, Hamburg, West Germany. "Recent Histories," Hayward Gallery, 1983 A1 - The Great North Road. Lon London. don: Grey Editions/Arts Council.

"Future of Photography, Corcoran 1986 Beyond Caring. London: Grey Gallery, Washington, D.C. ARTICLES AND REVIEWS Editions/GLC. "Mysterious Coincidences," The Photog 1980 British Journal of Photography 1987 Troubled Land: The Social raphers Gallery, London. Annual 1980. London: Henry Greenwood Landscape of Northern Ireland. London: "Recent Acquisitions," The Museum ol and Co. Grey Editions with Cornerhouse Publica Modern Art, New York. Recent British Colour Photography. Lon tions. "Konigreich," Forum Stadtpark, Austria. don: The Photographers' Gallery, (exhibi tion catalogue) 1990 In Umbra Res: Sixteen Pho "Attitudes to Ireland," Orchard Gallery, tographs of Northern Ireland. London: Londonderry, England. 1981 In Colour. Ikon Gallery, Birming The National Museum of Photography, "Troisieme Triennale," Musee de la Pho- ham. England, (exhibition catalogue) Film and Television, in association with tographie, Belgium. Bradford and Ilklev Community College 1982 Houses and Homes. Arnolfini and Cornerhouse Publications. "Open Exhibition," , Gallery, Bristol, and Institute of Contem London. porary Art, London, (exhibition cata Spectrum Gallery, Prengel Museum, logue) COLLECTIONS Hanover, West Germany. Strategies: Recent Developments in British Photography: An Exhibition. John 1988 "A British View," Museum fur Hansard Gallery, University of The Museum of Modern Art, New York Gestaltung, Zurich. Southampton, (exhibition catalogue) "Third Fotobienal," Vigo, Spain. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1984 Britain in 1984. The Photogra "Camouflage," Curt Marcus Gallery, New phers' Gallery, London, (exhibition cata CCA/Seagrams Corporation, New York York. logue) "Selected Images," Riverside Studios, Watt, Dave and Neil Hanson. "And the Modern Arts Museum, Tampere, Finland London. North." Creative Camera , no. 229 (Jan "Recent British Photography," XYZ uary 1984), pp. 1218-44. Victoria N Albert Museum, London Gallery, Ghent, Belgium. 1987 Mysterious Coincidences: New Arts Council of Great Britain, London "Towards a Bigger Picture," Victoria N British Colour Photography. The Photog Albert Museum, London. raphers' Gallery, London, (exhibition cat British Council, London alogue) 1989 "The Art of Photography 1839- National Museum of Photography, Brad 1989," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1988 Hagen, Charles and Nan Richard ford, England (tour: Royal Academy, London; Aus son, eds. "British Photography: Towards a tralian National Gallery, Canberra) Bigger Picture. Aperture, no. 113 (V in Museum Communali, Rimini, Italy "Through the Looking Glass: Photo ter 1988), p. 27. graphic Art in Britain 1945-1989,' Barbi Musee de la Photographie, Gharleroi, Bel can Art Gallery, London. 1989 Saltz, Jerry. "The Scene of the gium Crime: Paul Graham's 'Republican "Hot Spots," Bronx Museum of the Arts, Parade,' Stabane, 1986." Arts Magazine , Private Collections in the LISA, Europe New York. vol. 65, no. 5 (January 1989), pp. 13-14. and Japan "Towards a Bigger Picture, Tate Gallery, Weaver, Mike, ed. The Art of Photogra Liverpool. phy 1839-1989. New Haven: Yale Llni- versity Press, (exhibition catalogue)

55 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to thank, first and foremost, the five photographers whose work is included here. I heir determination and commitment to photography is an example to be followed. I am grateful to the following curators and gallery administrators in England who made material available lor consideration, or offered advice: Sue Davies, Director, and David Chandler and Martin Craigie-Smith, Exhibitions Organizers, The Photographers' Gallery, London; Mark Haworth-Booth, Curator of Photographs, Victoria N Albert Museum, London; Alex Noble, Exhibition Organizer, The South Bank Center, London; Paul Wombell, Impressions Gallery, York; James Lingwood, Marketa Luskacova, and lorn Wood. Joyce Smith and Matt IToffman provided warm hospitality during my visits to England. At The Museum of Modern Art, I would like to thank Susan Weiley, who edited this manuscript with unfailing patience. I am grateful to Tim McDonough, who supervised the reproduction, and Jody Hanson, who designed the catalogue; the result demonstrates their keen understanding of the photographs. In the Department of Photography, I thank Andrew Stivelman and Clare Williamson, who assisted with the bibliographies with good cheer. Mary Klindt, of the Registrar's office, performed her tasks efficiently. Lastly, my gratitude to John Szarkowski, Philip Gefter, and Carole Kismaric, whose suggestions regarding the manuscript were essential.

—Susan Kismaric

56 The Museumof ModernArt

300063010 BRITISH PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE THATCHER YEARS

Susan Kismaric

The five artists whose works are illustrated in this catalogue —Chris Killip, Graham Smith, John Davies, Martin Parr, and Paul Graham —are representative of a new approach to social documentary photography. These photographers have lost faith in the simpler solutions and programmatic political stances of earlier documentarians. Their commitment is to the description of the world at hand, to their intuitive sense of the quality of lives lived in Newcastle and Middlesbrough in the depressed northeast of England, in Northern Ireland, and elsewhere in Britain's vast post-industrial landscape. Included are a background essay on the development of British documentary photography, and exhibition and publication chronologies for the photographers.

56 pages; 18 black-and white, 12 color photographs

The Museum of Modern Art 11 West 53 Street New York, New York 10019

0-87070-191-6 (MoMA) 0-8109-6093-1 (Abrams)