Tate Modern Presents

Lives of the Intimate

Richard Billingham Larry Clark Jo Spence Sally Mann

Richard Billingham:

His Snapshots aren't your typical everyday family photographs, they go into detail of his parent’s

relationship and their lifestyle.

Sally Mann:

Her unconventional documentation of the wildness of her kids childhood is often

controversial and is explored throughout this exhibition. Larry Clark:

Born to be wild, Larry captures teenage angst, drug addiction, guns

and sexual exploration.

Jo Spence:

An intimate look into her life as she struggles to deal with herself and her personal life as she suffers with Cancer. ‘A photo therapy’ of this

moment in her life.

These photographers show different lifestyles that are commonly experienced, but not shown in the media or to the public. It’s normally hidden, as if it’s a secret; culturally mundane.

Tate Modern- Liverpool Originally we thought about displaying this exhibition at Tate Britain in London. Mainly because the Turner Prize is exhibited there. Tracey Emin was a nominee. If her work was there perhaps other similar work in the same theme would work well. However we find that the Tate Modern in Liverpool because they present more contemporary work.

“It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy;—it is disposition alone.Jane Austen

“It is part of the photographer's job to see more intensely than most people do.”Bill Brant

‘’At the end of the day, what I show is real life. I tell the truth. And the truth can be shocking.’’Larry Clark

Forget the typical posed family photographs. This body of work gives you the opportunity to revisit the notions of intimacy over the past 50 years in a new light. Consider how far your lives have changed and in which aspect. In today’s world our ideals of privacy are represented by the Facebook generation, these photographs will hopefully redefine your views.

Welcome to the Lives of the Intimate.

Lives of the Intimate

Blurb: Sally Mann

“I photograph my children growing up in the same town I did. Many of my pictures are intimate, some are fictions and some are fantastic but most are of ordinary things every mother has seen; a wet bed, bloody nose, candy cigarettes. They dress up, they pout and posture, they paint their bodies, they dive like otters in the dark river.” Sally Mann Born in Lexington, Virginia. Sally Mann was the only

daughter and the youngest of three to be born from Elizabeth Evans Munger and Robert S.Munger. Her father fostered her interest in photography, with him

lending her his 5x7 camera, which became the foundation of her use of large format cameras today. She earned a B.A., summa cum laude, from Hollins College

(now Hollins University) in 1974 and a MA in creative writing in 1975. After her work on her photographic collection “At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women” Sally Mann realised that there was a creative and artistic wealth in the beauty of her

own children’s youth whether it’s the innocent fun and games or the darker more painful times when they get hurt and are scared or angry. Sally Mann’s family

portraits, “Immediate Family”, contains some the purest imagery of childhood to exist in the medium of photography. Although it has been perceived as

controversial imagery by some, these photographs address more than just the family unit and innocence in childhood but also adult perceptions and loss of

innocence within ourselves, the work exhibited here is displayed as if in a play room to captivate the viewer physically into the innocent atmosphere of the

enchanting childhoods of their lives given a small stop frame of memories and the bubble of ethereal, angelic purity before the it becomes lost due to adulthood.

This selection from “intimate family” (1992) is a view from a mother’s perspective and a sight into a word with which we are familiar but secretive about. Even by today’s selfie obsessed, social networking standard it is a revealing insight into

the dynamics and entwined relationships that occur in every family unit.

“It’s not my intention to shock, to offend, sensationalise, be political or whatever, only to make work that is as spiritually meaningful as I can make it -in all these photographs I never bothered with things like the negatives. Some of them got marked and scratched. I just used the cheapest film and took them to be processed at the cheapest place. I was just trying to make order out of chaos.” Richard Billingham Richard Billingham The almost candid nature of photography in his set "Ray's a laugh" has caused shock and horror amongst some viewers, unable to take their gaze away from these stark and almost disturbing images. Billlingham holds a mirror up to society and the reflection summons feelings of shame and embarrassment, we want to keep it under lock and key but the pure honesty of Billingham’s imagery, filled with drunkenness, poverty and quarrels peeks our interests in a manner which we find sickening in ourselves, it’s a car crash, its poverty porn. Richard Billingham's journey to make sense of his own surroundings is very much on the edge of snap shots and art. The work is exhibited as if set in a living room forcing the viewer and the image to co-habitat the space, sharing the claustrophobic awkwardness of a ill-fated family gathering. The images confront with the denotation and challenges you with the connotation. The shots are commonly taken on cheap colour film, in almost disregard to the technical execution yet his use of the colour in his subjects and settings dances across the image. The subject matter itself makes it very different, it is a series which would not normally be seen and shown to anyone (although maybe social network sites are shifting this paradigm), to take such intimate and controversial moments and making it public as well as his dedication of documentation certainly elevates his work from more than that of just family snap shots.

Blurb: Richard Billingham

Larry Clark, an American photographer documents lives lived by young adults and teenagers. His first book ‘Tulsa’ was published in

1971 and he has published 3 other books since. They’re all showing sex, drugs and guns. The images in his first book , was a book

containing photographs he shot whilst he was in his twenties, with his friends. Each and everyone of his images depict his youth. A private look into the young adults lives. Larry started to have a

wider audience after releasing his independent film in 1995 ‘Kids.

Blurb: Larry Clark

Jo Spence started off her career by being an assistant for commercial photographers. She then, had her own agency specializing in family

portraiture, actor portfolios and weddings. Jo started to do more documentary projects. She is more famous for her documentary project’s on her own life. Jo started the document of her life in 1978, after she was

diagnosed with Cancer. One of the project was called was ‘Beyond the Family Album’ . Another was ‘Cancer Shock’ and the other ‘The picture of Health?’ this project was a response to the treatment from having cancer. In 1990 she was diagnose with leukaemia which took her life in 1992. This

was when her last project started, entitled ‘The Final Project’.

Blurb: Jo Spence

ROOM ONE: RICHARD BILLINGHAM

ROOM TWO: SALLY MANN

ROOM THREE: LARRY CLARK

ROOM FOUR: JO SPENCE