After the End of History:British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024, curated by Johny Pitts is an exhibition featuring the work of 26 artists spanning 35 years. The exhibition aims to look at the lives of working class artists through their own eyes, rather than by an outside perspective. The exhibition gives a sense of the working class identities of the artists, as well as showing their view of the world beyond their own communities.
The work itself is laid out to evoke the nostalgia of the nineties. There is a chequered dance floor complete with a display case in the shape of a DJ booth, and behind that, large photographs of nineties clubbing scenes span the length of one wall. The effect is completed by the inclusion of a cassette player which plays recordings of a nineties pirate radio station that were made by Johny Pitts’ sister, Chantal Pitts, a Birmingham-based artist. Other artists utilise nineties nostalgia in the finishing of their work, such as Nathaniel Telemaque’s scenes of North West London. Telemaque aims to look back and reclaim narratives surrounding the experiences of young black adults. The film roll burnout effects used in the work not only serve as a way of turning back time, but the white spaces created by the effect also conjure the idea of erasure, and what the artist describes as ‘Britain’s collective amnesia about its imperial past’.
Eddie Otchere’s images of Jungle raves were captured in the mid to late nineties, and also include the imperfections and restraints of the medium from that era. The burst effects and light trails give a sense of three dimensional space to the photographs, giving the viewer a feeling that they are present within the scene, and are invited in to be a part of it. I felt that being ‘invited in’ was a common theme in the exhibition, with many of the artists including the viewer in the both ordinary and personal aspects of their lives. An example of this is Richard Billingham’s chromogenic prints that capture his mother and father immersed in the comforts of their familiar environment. The portraits are at once unmercifully honest and deeply tender.
After the End of History:British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024, a Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition curated by Johny Pitts is showing at the Bonington Gallery, Nottingham, between 27/09/24 – 14/12/24