Bradford Impressions Gallery 10th December- 8th March 2014
The exhibition at the Impressions Gallery is the first major retrospective of Reas' work, spanning a 40 year career as one of the leading British documentary photographers. What is so successful about this exhibition is that there is a true sense of development and evolution in such a large collection moving into colour and the digital era. This makes it impossible for the viewer not to have an opinion on their favourite collection of his work.
Personally, while he successfully captures the tension of the recession, 'class, consumption and work' through his most recent pieces, I couldn't help but be drawn back to his black and white photography from the 70's and 80's. While in today's world Reas still has a place in the documentary scene, the subject of his images has changed as our country has moved on from its traditional industries. While capturing a real sense of community, personality and humour through his 'working men' series, moving into colour seems to lose the focus of the real image. While still humorous, particularly throughout the 1980's, as the issues have become more serious and as the working situation has changed, his work has reflected the different atmosphere of the country; as documentary photography is supposed to create a realistic image of the current climate. So while being successful, as viewer perhaps the most enjoyment comes from looking back into our country's past and drawing our minds to a time less culturally and politically troublesome.
Chris Harrison's 'Copper Horses' exhibition was a nostalgic journey spanning his fathers working career. What was so poignant about the exhibition was not the separate images themselves rather the personal stories that were told. Talking about his work, Harrison expressed a desire to "instill a feeling of pride in the skill and creativity of ordinary people and what they do for a living." Whether this was achieved or not is questionable but he certainly succeeded in drawing the viewers to his father, perhaps more through the pencil anecdotes attached to his photographs, rather than the focus of the images themselves.
When viewing the exhibition, I couldn't help but feel a sense of loss that the industries that built strong, hard working communities together are no longer here. Instead, we are living in a country that has abandoned primary industries to develop more financially rewarding quaternary, specialist industries, while a large percentage of the population remain unemployed and on benefits. What Harrison manages to achieve through this exhibition is getting ordinary people to question and compare the direction that our country and industries are heading. Particularly through the exhibition being in Bradford, it hit a strong note. Bradford once a driving force in the industrial revolution, playing a huge part in the textile industry, has disintegrated like most other post-industrial areas of the north into social unrest and economic deprivation.
While Harrison was merely taking a personal journey into the life of his father, the overall questions raised about post-industrialised society were more important to me as a viewer, which I view as a success on his part; creating a real sense of joy, nostalgia and community looking back into the lost industrialised past of our country.
The exhibition at the Impressions Gallery is the first major retrospective of Reas' work, spanning a 40 year career as one of the leading British documentary photographers. What is so successful about this exhibition is that there is a true sense of development and evolution in such a large collection moving into colour and the digital era. This makes it impossible for the viewer not to have an opinion on their favourite collection of his work.
Personally, while he successfully captures the tension of the recession, 'class, consumption and work' through his most recent pieces, I couldn't help but be drawn back to his black and white photography from the 70's and 80's. While in today's world Reas still has a place in the documentary scene, the subject of his images has changed as our country has moved on from its traditional industries. While capturing a real sense of community, personality and humour through his 'working men' series, moving into colour seems to lose the focus of the real image. While still humorous, particularly throughout the 1980's, as the issues have become more serious and as the working situation has changed, his work has reflected the different atmosphere of the country; as documentary photography is supposed to create a realistic image of the current climate. So while being successful, as viewer perhaps the most enjoyment comes from looking back into our country's past and drawing our minds to a time less culturally and politically troublesome.
