Not the usual bog-standard blog post
News, events and inspiration from the RRB Photobooks community
Image: Sick Hagemeyer shop assistant as a seventies icon posing in front of the United Trading Company headquarters, Accra, 1971, featured in Stories: Pictures from the Archive by James Barnor
Coming to Arles
James Barnor Stories, Pictures from the archive (1947 – 1987) will be the first French retrospective exhibition of James’ work. On display at LUMA from 5 July – 22 September 2022, the exhibition will showcase previously unseen images alongside some of his best-known work. Journeying from Accra to London and back again, incorporating studio portraits, press commissions, vintage prints and documentation, the exhibition aims to show the range and breadth of the photographer’s output over a period of 40 years. The English language edition of the accompanying book of over 300 pages is co-published by RRB Photobooks and LUMA in June – available for pre-order here.
Come and meet the RRB team at the France Photobook Arles book fair where we will be sharing a stand with our partners Maison CF.
Image: The Polish Priest on his way to a funeral, Loughborough, England, 1975, featured in Polska Britannica by Czesław Siegieda
Facing Britain on tour
“The strength of British documentary photography is that it always starts as a reaction to political and social struggles…All protests, conflicts, financial booms, and industrial declines have shaped these photographers, their attitude and empowerment.”
Ralph Goertz, curator of the exhibition ‘Facing Britain: British Documentary Photography Since the 1960s’ recently spoke to HUCK magazine about the process of curating this travelling exhibition. Works by RRB published photographers James Barnor, Ken Grant Markéta Luskacová John Myers, Martin Parr, Tom Wood are included in the show which is currently on display at Mönchehaus Museum Goslar and will travel to the Museum of Photography, Krakow where there will be a special section focused on the work of Czesław Siegieda.
Image featured in Benny Profane by Ken Grant
Ken Grant in Italy
Photographs from Ken Grant’s Benny Profane project are currently on display at the Fotografia Europea festival in Reggio Emilia, Italy until 12 June 2022. This series, published by RRB in 2019, was the result of long-term engagement in, and around, the dockland district of Birkenhead on the River Mersey. Ken first knew the region as a labourer in his youth and this project dwells on the river’s hinterland, its cinder paths, dockland and, at its heart, the relationship between the local people and the vast landfill site at Bidston Moss.
Image: Paul and banana, 1973, as featured in Life As It Is by John Myers
John Myers reflects
‘Although RRB have already published the landmark trilogy of John Myers we are fortunate that more photographs have recently come to light and are published here for the first time. Even more fortunate is the fact that many of these are Myers’ terrific portraits. This volume confirms Myers’ role as one of the key portraitists of post-war Britain.’ – Martin Parr
Life as it is, our newest book by John Myers was recently launched with a talk at the Martin Parr Foundation. This talk will be available online in the future, but in the meantime if you are interested in hearing more of John’s process you can watch this short film from his exhibition at IKON Gallery back in 2011.
Image featured in Epilogue by Peter Mitchell
The usual bog-standard slide show
In spite of eschewing email, a website or social media, Peter Mitchell has a cult following in Leeds and beyond. A recent event at Colours May Vary, billed as ‘The usual bog-standard slide show’ to launch his new book Epilogue was so popular that they had to re-run the event several times and the book is nearly sold out. If you weren’t able to attend the event, this short film by Ralph Goertz introduces Peter and the city of Leeds.
Image: Cricket Players looking for cricket ball, 1992, featured in A Year in the Life of Chew Stoke Village by Martin Parr
Another country and another Martin Parr book
Next month sees the launch of a new book by Gerry Badger, Another Country, British Documentary Photography which will be celebrated a seminar day at the Martin Parr Foundation on 11 June 2022 – more information here. Martin will be speaking at the seminar and his forthcoming book A Year in the Life of Chew Stoke Village, published this summer includes a new text by writer Diane Smyth, bringing the work from 1992 into a contemporary context.
Art Book Cologne
Although RRB Photobooks’ primary focus is British photography of the 1970s and 1980s, we have always looked beyond the UK for our audience and partners. For this reason we are delighted to be working with Art Book Cologne to increase our presence throughout Europe.
Image from Belfast by Krass Clement
Return to Ireland
Last but not least, Krass Clement's Belfast is due for publication at the end of June. In this long-awaited follow-up to 2017's Dublin, Clement revisits his work over 30 years on, gathering 114 unpublished images into this new volume.
Belfast is presented without caption or comment, Clement moves through the landscape mostly unobserved, presenting the scenes he found there; the children going to school, the shop fronts and the windows of private homes, the moments of open space between buildings, the British soldiers stationed in the front garden of a private home.