Peter Mitchell (photographer)

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.

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] Colin Pantall described this work as "a classic".[4] He told the BBC that it is a "gritty kind of sentimentality".[5] 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".[6]

In 2007 Mitchell's work was included in How We Are: Photographing Britain a photography exhibition held at Tate Britain.[7]

Publications

Memento 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."
A New Refutation of the Viking 4 Space Mission. Bristol: RRB, 2017. ISBN 978-0993232367. Bilingual English and French language edition. With an essay by Val Williams.

Exhibitions

1977 `SUMMER SHOW 4', Serpentine Gallery, London, selected by Dr. Aaron Scharf, with artists Jane England, Heather Forbes, John Goto, Jim Harold, Paul Joyce, Chris Locke, et al.[8][9]
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.[7] 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, Martin Pover, Paul Reas, Derek Ridgers, Paul Seawright, Chris Steele-Perkins, 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 Science and 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
Planet Yorkshire, Impressions Gallery, Bradford, UK, 2016.[16]
A New Refutation of the Viking 4 Space Mission (Reprise), Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, France, 2016.[17]

Collections

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

Royal Photographic Society, Bath, UK[18]
Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds, UK
Tate Modern, London, UK

References

Peter Mitchell: Peter Mitchell, accessdate: March 11, 2016
Photoworks Ideas: Martin Parr on Peter Mitchell | Photoworks Ideas, accessdate: March 11, 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.
Tate: How We Are: Photographing Britain: Room 5 | Tate, accessdate: March 11, 2016
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]: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1977. Print.
"Summer Show 4 [1977]". Serpentine Galleries. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
Federico, Cherie (April 2008). "Strangely Familiar". Aesthetica Magazine. Aesthetica Magazine. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
"Drawn by Light". National Science and Media Museum. National Science and Media Museum. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
"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.
"Past Exhibitions : Planet Yorkshire". Retrieved 22 December 2016.
"Jimei X Arles 2018". Retrieved 22 December 2016.
Bush, Kate (23 February 2015). "Photography and the Science Museum Group". blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk. The Science Group. Retrieved 16 March 2016.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[projectspaceleeds.org.uk-1] Peter Mitchell: Peter Mitchell, accessdate: March 11, 2016

[photoworks-2] Photoworks Ideas: Martin Parr on Peter Mitchell | Photoworks Ideas, accessdate: March 11, 2016

[3] 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.

[4] Pantall, Colin (14 October 2013). "Review: Strangely Familiar". Photoeye Blog. Photoeye. Retrieved 11 March 2016.

[5] Killick, Cathy (13 July 2013). "Leeds back streets in 1970s caught on camera". BBC. "Look North", BBC. Retrieved 16 March 2016.

[6] Jenkins, Karen (31 August 2015). "Review: Some Thing Means Every Thing to Somebody". Photoeye Blog. Photoeye. Retrieved 11 March 2016.

[tate.org.uk-7] Tate: How We Are: Photographing Britain: Room 5 | Tate, accessdate: March 11, 2016

[8] 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]: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1977. Print.

[9] "Summer Show 4 [1977]". Serpentine Galleries. Retrieved 2019-06-08.

[10] Federico, Cherie (April 2008). "Strangely Familiar". Aesthetica Magazine. Aesthetica Magazine. Retrieved 11 March 2016.

[11] "Drawn by Light". National Science and Media Museum. National Science and Media Museum. Retrieved 1 May 2020.

[12] "Drawn by Light". Science Museum. Science Museum Group. Retrieved 18 March 2016.

[13] "Centre for Contemporary Art". Centre for Contemporary Art. Retrieved 18 March 2016.

[14] "Arbetets museum". Arbetets museum: Museum of work. Retrieved 18 March 2016.

[15] Bliss, Abi (18 August 2008). "Artist And Camera fuses photography and fine art". DMG Media. Retrieved 16 March 2016.

[16] "Past Exhibitions : Planet Yorkshire". Retrieved 22 December 2016.

[17] "Jimei X Arles 2018". Retrieved 22 December 2016.

[18] Bush, Kate (23 February 2015). "Photography and the Science Museum Group". blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk. The Science Group. Retrieved 16 March 2016.