Peter Mitchell (photographer)
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Peter Mitchell (born 1943) is a British documentary photographer, known for documenting Leeds and the surrounding area for more than 40 years. Mitchell's photographs have been published in three monographs of his own. His work was exhibited at Impressions Gallery in 1979, and nearly thirty years later was included in major survey exhibitions throughout the UK including at Tate Britain and Media Space in London, and National Media Museum in Bradford. Mitchell's work is held in the permanent collections of the Royal Photographic Society and Leeds Art Gallery.
Life and work
Mitchell was born in Manchester in 1943.
In 1979 Impressions Gallery showed his work A New Refutation of the Viking 4 Space Mission, which considered what Leeds would look like to aliens arriving from Mars.[1] Martin Parr described this show as groundbreaking.[2]
His images of Quarry Hill flats were published as Memento Mori in 1990. His ongoing documentation of Leeds became the critically well received monograph Strangely Familiar.[3][4] Colin Pantall described this work as "a classic".[5] He told the BBC that it is a "gritty kind of sentimentality".[6] His follow-up, Some Thing Means Everything to Somebody (2015), shows inanimate objects looked over by scarecrows. Reviewer Karen Jenkins called it a "story of steadfastness and continuity".[7]
In 2007 Mitchell's work was included in How We Are: Photographing Britain - the first ever significant photography exhibition to be held at Tate Britain, that also included the work of Keith Arnatt, Jane Bown, John Davies, Anna Fox, Paul Graham, Chris Killip, Daniel Meadows, Martin Parr, Chris Steele Perkins, Paul Reas, Paul Seawright, Homer Sykes, and Tom Wood.[8]
Publications
- Momento Mori. Skipton, Dalesman, 1990. ISBN 9781870071482.
- Bristol: RRB, 2016. facsimile edition.
- Strangely Familiar. Portland, OR: Nazraeli, 2013.
- Some Thing means Everything to Somebody. Bristol: RRB, 2015.
- Scarecrows. Bristol: RRB, 2015. "A collection of 12 of the Scarecrows from Some Thing means Everything to Somebody, plus a few new suspects, in a perforated postcard book."[9]
Exhibitions
- A New Refutation of the Viking 4 Space Mission, Impressions Gallery, York, UK, 1979. The exhibition considered what Leeds would look like to aliens arriving from Mars.[1][2]
- How We Are: Photographing Britain, Tate Britain, London, 2007.[8] With Mitchell, Keith Arnatt, Nicholas Battye, Jane Bown, Vanley Burke, Stephen Dalton, John Davies, Anna Fox, Paul Graham, Nancy Hellebrand, Chris Killip, Daniel Meadows, Horace Ové, Martin Parr, Chris Steele Perkins, Martin Pover, Paul Reas, Derek Ridgers, Paul Seawright, Homer Sykes, Paul Trevor, and Tom Wood.
- Project Space Leeds (PSL), Leeds, UK, 2008. With Mitchell and Eric Jacquier. The exhibition showed how Leeds has changed since the 1960s.[10]
- Drawn By Light: The Royal Photographic Society Collection, National Media Museum, Bradford, UK;[11] Media Space, Science Museum, London.[12] Photographs by Mitchell, Roger Fenton, William Henry Fox Talbot, Julia Margaret Cameron, Don McCullin, Terry O’Neill, Martin Parr and others.
- No Such Thing As Society: Photography in Britain 1967-1987, toured 2008–2010. Works from the collections of the British Council and Arts Council England, Hayward Gallery, London; Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth; Tullie House, Carlisle; Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds; National Museum, Cardiff; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne; The Exchange, Penzance; Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland;[13] and Arbetets Museum, Norrkoping, Sweden.[14]
- Artist And Camera, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds, UK, 2008.[15] With Mitchell, Gilbert & George, Cornelia Parker, and others
Collections
Mitchell's work is held in the following public collections:
- Royal Photographic Society, Bath, UK[16]
- Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds, UK
References
- 1 2 Peter Mitchell: Peter Mitchell, accessdate: March 11, 2016
- 1 2 Photoworks Ideas: Martin Parr on Peter Mitchell | Photoworks Ideas, accessdate: March 11, 2016
- ↑ Nick, Enoch (16 July 2013). "Haunting portrait of a vanishing world: Photographer captures desperate decline of 1970s Leeds as the old way of life slowly died". DMG Media. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
- ↑ Popham, Pete (13 July 2013). "Northern echo: Extraordinary photographs of Leeds in the 1970s reveal a vanished world". Independent Print Limited. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
- ↑ Pantall, Colin (14 October 2013). "Review: Strangely Familiar". Photoeye Blog. Photoeye. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
- ↑ Killick, Cathy (13 July 2013). "Leeds back streets in 1970s caught on camera". BBC. "Look North", BBC. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
- ↑ Jenkins, Karen (31 August 2015). "Review: Some Thing Means Every Thing to Somebody". Photoeye Blog. Photoeye. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
- 1 2 Tate: How We Are: Photographing Britain: Room 5 | Tate, accessdate: March 11, 2016
- ↑ "Peter Mitchell Scarecrows". RRB Publishing. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
- ↑ Federico, Cherie (April 2008). "Strangely Familiar". Aesthetica Magazine. Aesthetica Magazine. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
- ↑ "Drawn by Light". National Media Museum. National Media Museum. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
- ↑ "Drawn by Light". Science Museum. Science Museum Group. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
- ↑ "Centre for Contemporary Art". Centre for Contemporary Art. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
- ↑ "Arbetets museum". Arbetets museum: Museum of work. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
- ↑ Bliss, Abi (18 August 2008). "Artist And Camera fuses photography and fine art". DMG Media. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
- ↑ Bush, Kate (23 February 2015). "Photography and the Science Museum Group". blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk. The Science Group. Retrieved 16 March 2016.