Richard Billingham

 
Photography Encyclopedia:

Richard Billingham

Billingham, Richard (b. 1970), British photographer who began making photographs of his family—mother, father, and younger brother—as studies for paintings while still a student at Sunderland University. The photographs show lives troubled by drugs, violence, and neglect, yet tempered with affection. His work appeared in the Who's Looking at the Family exhibition at the Barbican Gallery, London, in 1994, and drew worldwide attention as part of Sensation: Young British Artists in the Saatchi Collection in 1998. Billingham subsequently focused on the suburban landscape surrounding his home.

— Nancy Roth

Bibliography

  • Billingham, R., Ray's a Laugh (1996/2000)
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Wikipedia: Richard Billingham

Richard Billingham (b. 1970) is a noted British photographer and artist.

Billingham studied at the University of Sunderland as a painter, and came to prominence through his candid photography of his family in Cradley Heath, a body of work later added to and published in the acclaimed book Ray's A Laugh (1996). 'Ray's a Laugh' is a portrayal of the poverty and depravation in which he grew up. The photographs, which were taken on the cheapest film he could find, provide brash colours and bad focus which adds to the authenticity and frankness of the series. 'Ray' his father, and his mother 'Liz' are portrayed as grotesque figures, with the alcoholic father drunk on his home brew, and his mother, a chain smoker, with a fascination for bawdy, flowered dresses and Ventetian masks.

In 1997 Billingham was included in Saatchi's notorious Sensation show of young British artists, at the Royal Academy in London. Also in 1997, he won the Citigroup Photography Prize. He was nominated for the 2001 Turner Prize, for his solo show at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. He has also made landscape photographs at places of personal significance around the Black Country, and more of these were commissioned in 2003 by The Public, resulting in a book. He has also experimented with video films and video projections.

In late 2006 Billingham exhibited a major new series of photographs and videos inspired by his memories of visiting Dudley Zoo as a child. The series, entitled "Zoo", was commissioned by Birmingham-based arts organisation, VIVID and was exhibited at Compton Verney Art Gallery in Warwickshire. He now lives in Brighton, and travels widely. He is a lecturer in Fine Art Photography at the University of Gloucestershire.

Bibliography

  • Black Country, The Public (2003). ISBN 0-9540200-2-2.
  • Ray isn Witz, Scalo (2000). ISBN 3-931141-25-X.

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Photography Encyclopedia. The Oxford Companion to the Photograph. Copyright © 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
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