A British photographer who has focused mainly on work of his family, based in the east midlands.

He was the pioneer of squalid realism, documenting the harsh reality of life growing up in a council flat with his alcoholic father in the Black Country. The private part of family suddenly became very public. His photobook called Ray’s a laugh is about a close to home account of his parents. He documented their chaotic life with his camera from a young age. It is a classic depiction of Poverty in Britain in the 1980s. At the time this sort of candid photography was something new and it stood out as shocking.

I find the photos very interesting from a social history perspective, the decor in the flat adds to the overall feeling of deprivation. The way the shots are quite obviously not staged makes them feel somewhat voyeuristic.

The main subject, his parents are the main subject within the image, but there is balance with the numerous other objects in the images that represent the clutter within the house, one even has a cat in it. These are made to feel even more authentic as reality since the parents aren’t posing but going about their lives as if the photographer wasn’t even there. In reality they probably hardly noticed he was there taking photos because his father was drunk most of the time and his mother preoccupied with TV or keeping her husband in check.

Bibliography

Roupenian, K., 2020. A Photographer’S Intimate Self-Portrait Of Womanhood In Middle Age. [online] The New Yorker. Available at: <https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/a-photographers-intimate-self-portrait-of-womanhood-in-middle-age&gt; [Accessed 19 October 2020].