For my essay I have chosen to write about English photographer and artist Richard Billingham, who is best known for his photo-books which includes the critically acclaimed book "Ray's A Laugh" which was first published in 1996. Ray's A Laugh (1996) is a portrayal of the poverty and deprivation that Billingham experienced as a child growing up and it focuses on the lives of his alcoholic father Ray and his chain-smoking mother Liz.
In this essay I will provide a biography of Richard Billingham, which will include details of his personal life and how he initially became interested in photography and art. This essay will also feature an analysis of his greatest works and upcoming projects, and it will conclude with my own opinion of his work.
Biography
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| Portrait of Richard Billingham by Johnnie Shand Kydd (from internet pathshala.net) |
However, Billingham felt that his three years at the University of Sunderland had not really increased his knowledge of photography and art. " I learned more at my foundation course at Bournville than my three years at Sunderland. The only thing I learned was the ability to criticize my own work, and I didn't even learn that in any great depth." (Billingham, 2010, The Genius of Photography). He graduated from Sunderland University in 1994. His photo-book Ray's A Laugh was released in 1996 and it was a massive success for the then 26-year-old, and it made other photographers take notice of his talent for photography. In 1997 not very long after graduating from Sunderland University, Richard Billingham was selected to take part in the exhibition Sensation at The Royal Academy of Art, which displayed the collection of artist Charles Saatchi and it also featured the work of new up-coming British artists. Also in 1997, Billingham received The Citigroup Photography Prize in recognition of his work. Following the huge success of Ray's A Laugh, Billingham found himself invited to various galleries and socializing with people from the art world. On one such occasion, he met artist Anthony Reynolds who was greatly impressed by the young Billingham's work. Reynolds would later become his gallerist and he acted as a mentor to Billingham throughout his career. Although Richard Billingham has enjoyed a remarkably successful career in photography, he has never quite been able to re-create the success of his first photo-book Ray's A Laugh, which initially launched his career as a photographer. Richard Billingham currently lives in Swansea and he works as a lecturer in Fine Art Photography at the University of Gloucestershire. He still travels widely and often participates in exhibitions abroad.
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| Untitled, Ray's A Laugh, Richard Billingham(1996)from internet ameenanil.blogspot.ie/2011_07_01_archivehtml |
Work&Projects
Richard Billingham's greatest and most successful work to date would have to be his first photo-book, Ray's A Laugh, which provides us with a rare insight into what it was truly like growing up in the chaotic and troubled Billingham household. The photographs are primarily focused on Billingham's parents Ray and Liz, but his brother Jason is also featured in the series.His father Ray is observed to be an unstable and often violent alcoholic, while his mother Liz is an obese chain-smoker with an obsession for jigsaws and other knick-knacks which can be seen all around their home. It is immediately clear that both Ray and Liz are troubled individuals with some serious problems, but their charming personalities and obvious flaws endear them to us because we can relate to them in some way and that makes them even more lovable characters.
The photographs were taken on the cheapest film that Billingham could find, and the result is brash colours and a poor focus which adds to the authenticity and over-all frankness of the series. In a way the photographs may be likened to that of a family album as it features members of Billingham's family, but it is a family album that no family would ever make because it consists of photographs that are embarrassing and natural. Ray's A Laugh features scenes from daily family life that are both embarrassing and comical; it is basically a behind the scenes look at family life .Billingham manages to captures his family at their most relaxed, such as photographs of Ray and Liz eating their dinner as they watch television in the living room. This photograph is particularly comical because we see that Ray's eyes are actually closed, and it appears that he has either blinked or fallen asleep while eating. Meanwhile, Liz's expression is quite blank as she looks at the television and she is so focused on the screen that she is unaware of what Ray is doing.
Another comical photograph includes one where we see a startled Ray flinching back in his seat and throwing his hands up in the air defensively when one of their pet cats jumps in fright near where he is sitting. This is one of the more unusual photographs from the Ray's A Laugh , as Billingham
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| Untititled, Ray's A Laugh(1996) |
Billingham's other most prominent works include "Zoo", and "Black Country". In 2006 Billingham exhibited a major new series of photographs and videos which were inspired by his fond child-hood memories of visiting Dudley Zoo. He simply named this series "Zoo", and it features photographs of animals found at Dudley Zoo such as lions, gorillas, monkeys, giraffes and crocodiles. Meanwhile, "Black Country" was released in 1997 and consists largely of landscape photographs taken by Billingham close to where he grew up . He used direct snapshots to reveal the degenarated urban area where he was raised.
My Opinion
In my opinion Richard Billingham is an enormously talented photographer and artist. Billingham has overcome a child-hood of poverty and deprivation to become a renowned photographer and artist in his own right, and I greatly admire him from this. His photo-book Ray's A Laugh features real, genuine people with real problems, and it providers the viewer with a credible insight into the life of a chaotic family living in great poverty in Birmingham in Margaret Thatcher's Britain. From my research I learned that Billingham originally had his sights on becoming an artist and was not really interested in becoming a photographer. As a young student, Billingham first started taking photographers of his alcoholic father Ray, because he needed a patient model. His idea was to take the photographs and to use them as source material for his paintings. " But it was difficult to get him to stay still for more than 20 minutes at a time, so I thought that if I could take photographs of him, that would act as source material for these paintings and then I could make more detailed paintings later on. So that's how I got into photography." ( Richard Billingham, extract from The Genius of Photography:We Are Family episode ) Available at www.bbc.co.uk/photography/genius/gallery/billingham.shtml
Richard Billingham's greatest strength is his ability to change his focus and to make viewers really think about what his photographs actually mean, and he is never bound by one specific idea. Overall, I have enjoyed researching Richard Billingham as a photographer because his work is truly captivating and thought-provoking for viewers.
" It's your work that matters; you haven't got to bother what people think. You've just got to concentrate on your work and not be distracted- if you're good then you'll get recognised sooner or later." (Richard Billingham)
References/ Bibliography
- www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Billingham
- Black Country, The Public (2003)
- www.youtube.com/watch?V=NCQJlwrrVlK(Short 3min interview)
- www.pathshala.net
- Richard Billingham,(Internet), 2014, The Biography.comwebsite Available from http://www.biography.com/people/richardbillingham Accessed 17th March 2014
- www.bbc.co.uk/photography/genius/gallery/billingham.shtml
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