Exhibition: Only in England

[Bill Yates]

An exhibition I can heartily recommend is Only in England (until 16 March) at the new Media Space section of the Science Museum This features rarely-seen and mostly newly-printed works from two acknowledged masters of the photo documentation of English life – Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr.

Ray Jones (who died of leukaemia in 1972 when only 30 years old) was fascinated by the eccentricities of human behaviour. He spent much of the second half of the 1960s travelling around England photographing what he saw as a disappearing way of life and customs. His black and white pictures, often both humorous yet melancholy, had a profound influence on Martin Parr and were the inspiration behind Parr’s own 1970s black and white series The Non-Conformists, showing life in rural Yorkshire, which aptly complements the main display. Needless to say, the images by Martin Parr are nothing like the highly coloured uncompromisingly ‘in your face’ work that is now regarded by many people as so typical of his present work.