Peter Mitchell (photographer) explained

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 the National Science and 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.[1]

In 1979 Impressions Gallery showed his work A New Refutation of the Viking 4 Space Mission, the pictures showed the traditional urban landscape presented on a background of space charts, the concept being that an alien has landed from Mars and is wandering around Leeds with a degree of surprise and puzzle.[2] Martin Parr described this show as groundbreaking.[3]

His images of Quarry Hill flats were published as Memento Mori in 1990. Mitchell arrived in Leeds in time to record the passing of the great estate.[4] [5]

In 2007 Mitchell's work was included in How We Are: Photographing Britain a photography exhibition held at Tate Britain.[6]

The main body of his work documents factories and small shop owners. These photographs were shot throughout the 1970s whilst Mitchell was working as a truck driver in Leeds.[7] He photographed the city whilst commuting "in a very formal manner with the aid of a stepladder."[8] After self-publishing Memento Mori in 1990, his movements within the photography sphere were minimal. After many years of persuasion from Parr, Mitchell later agreed to publishing the monograph Strangely Familiar, published by Nazreali Press in 2013.[9] Colin Pantall described this work as "a classic".[10] He told the BBC that it is a "gritty kind of sentimentality".[11]

His follow-up, SomeThing Means Everything to Somebody (2015), shows inanimate objects looked over by scarecrows. Mitchell, a child of the Airfix generation, recorded this collection of scarecrows over 40 years and presents this array of objects and scarecrows as an autobiography. When talking about the book, Peter said "Scarecrows have always been a feature of my childhood...I've purposefully chosen ones that have no face on them because I didn't want people to laugh at them but imagine them as people... I've paired them with the objects that I've got which are my own scruffy little objects - treasured objects I've had since I was little. I chose them because I use them everyday. Everyday objects with the figure of Everyman."[12] Reviewer Karen Jenkins called it a "story of steadfastness and continuity".[13]

In 2020, RRB Photobooks published Early Sunday Morning, edited and sequenced by John Myers, which shows a different Leeds to Mitchell's earlier publications. The book is described as "neither the sombre look at destruction seen in Memento Mori, nor the detached view of 'the man from mars' of A New Refutation of the Viking 4 Space Mission, but a more intimate document of Mitchell's own Leeds."[14] The book's title is itself a reference to American artist Edward Hopper's 1930 painting by Early Sunday Morning. When discussing the book, writer Geoff Dyer said “It is as if Peter Mitchell has taken the atmosphere and mood of Edward Hopper's famous painting and established it as a matter of documentary fact in the north of England at a moment when collapse can lead to further desolation or possible renewal. So these beautiful pictures are drily drenched in history – social, economic and photographic."

Publications

Exhibitions

Collections

Mitchell's work is held in the following public collections:

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2022-06-30. What if a Mars rover landed in Leeds? Peter Mitchell's best photograph. 29 June 2022. The Guardian.
  2. Peter Mitchell: Peter Mitchell, accessdate: March 11, 2016
  3. Photoworks Ideas: Martin Parr on Peter Mitchell | Photoworks Ideas, accessdate: March 11, 2016
  4. Web site: 2022-01-13. The big picture: the decline and fall of a utopian social housing scheme. 28 November 2021. The Guardian.
  5. Web site: 2022-01-13. Quarry Hill: What happened to the utopian social housing in Leeds?. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/photography/quarry-hill-leeds-photos-social-housing-b1963119.html . 26 May 2022 . subscription . live. 13 December 2021. The Independent.
  6. Tate: How We Are: Photographing Britain: Room 5 | Tate, accessdate: March 11, 2016
  7. Web site: britishculturearchive . 2019-11-05 . Leeds, 1970s-80s Photographs by Peter Mitchell . 2024-02-08 . British Culture Archive . en-US.
  8. Web site: Peter Mitchell - Strangely Familiar (signed, First edition). 2021-05-19. RRB Photobooks. en.
  9. News: Popham. Pete. Northern echo: Extraordinary photographs of Leeds in the 1970s reveal a vanished world. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/northern-echo-extraordinary-photographs-of-leeds-in-the-1970s-reveal-a-vanished-world-8701461.html . 26 May 2022 . subscription . live. 16 March 2016. Independent Print Limited. 13 July 2013.
  10. Web site: Pantall. Colin. 14 October 2013. Review: Strangely Familiar. Photoeye Blog. Photoeye. 11 March 2016.
  11. News: Killick. Cathy. 13 July 2013. Leeds back streets in 1970s caught on camera. BBC. "Look North", BBC. 16 March 2016.
  12. Web site: Some Thing Means Everything To Somebody Peter Mitchell. 2021-05-24. Strangely Familiar. en-US.
  13. Web site: Jenkins. Karen. 31 August 2015. Review: Some Thing Means Every Thing to Somebody. Photoeye Blog. Photoeye. 11 March 2016.
  14. Web site: Peter Mitchell - Early Sunday Morning. 2021-05-24. RRB Photobooks. en.
  15. Web site: 2022-01-13. Photographs by Peter Mitchell that document the demise of the famous Quarry Hill flats in Leeds. 22 November 2021. Creative Boom.
  16. Scharf, Aaron, Grayson, Sue, Messer, Bill, Serpentine Gallery, and Arts Council of Great Britain. Summer Show 4 : The Work of 23 Photographers Selected by Aaron Scharf from an Open Submission ... Serpentine Gallery, 20 August-11 September [1977]. London
  17. Web site: Summer Show 4 [1977]]. Serpentine Galleries. en. 2019-06-08.
  18. Web site: Federico. Cherie. April 2008. Strangely Familiar. Aesthetica Magazine. Aesthetica Magazine. 11 March 2016.
  19. Web site: Drawn by Light. National Science and Media Museum. National Science and Media Museum. 1 May 2020.
  20. Web site: Drawn by Light. Science Museum. Science Museum Group. 18 March 2016.
  21. Web site: Centre for Contemporary Art. Centre for Contemporary Art. 18 March 2016.
  22. Web site: Arbetets museum. Arbetets museum: Museum of work. 18 March 2016.
  23. News: Bliss. Abi. Artist And Camera fuses photography and fine art. 16 March 2016. DMG Media. 18 August 2008.
  24. Web site: Past Exhibitions : Planet Yorkshire. 22 December 2016.
  25. Web site: Jimei X Arles 2018. 22 December 2016.
  26. Web site: 2019-01-11. Peter Mitchell. 2021-05-10. Wall Street International. en.
  27. Web site: Peter Mitchell. 2021-05-10. Galerie Clémentine. en-GB.
  28. Web site: IKS-Institut für Kunstdokumentation und Szenografie - Exhibition. 2021-05-10. www.iks-medienarchiv.de.
  29. Web site: Attractions proches Wallonia Belgium Tourism. 2021-05-10. walloniabelgiumtourism.co.uk. en-gb.
  30. Web site: Bush. Kate. 23 February 2015. Photography and the Science Museum Group. blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk. The Science Group. 16 March 2016.

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