Bradford Study Visit

At the National Media Museum, Bradford, two exhibitions of documentary photography coincide to offer a tempting double-bill for a study visit led by photography tutor Derek Trillo on Saturday 5 April

Firstly, a joint exhibition by Martin Parr and Tony Ray-Jones, a photographer who Parr acknowledges as having a profound influence over his early works. Ray-Jones was a photographer who inspired a generation of British documentary photographers in the 1970s. Sadly he never saw the effect of this influence as he died aged just 30 from Leukaemia.
Given the short length of his career, his legacy is all the more astonishing. At just 19, Ray-Jones travelled to Yale University on a two-year scholarship, then stayed on for another four years, working with America’s leading documentary photographers such as Joel Meyerowitz and Garry Winogrand. He returned to Britain to tour the country in a campervan, looking for the typically British, slightly eccentric and often surreal images that became his trademark. The resultant book A Day Off was published posthumously.
Parr’s contribution to this exhibition shows work that resonates with Ray-Jones’. When Parr finished his studies at Manchester, he lived in the West Yorkshire town of Hebden Bridge; developing his personal style at the same time as documenting it’s community. The images in this exhibition date from that period, illustrating Parr’s transitory period between education and independence.
Written at the time of this exhibition’s opening at London’s Media Space, an insightful essay by Francis Hodgson is available here.
The second exhibition we’ll see is Open for Business. West Midlands community arts group Multistory commissioned a group project by nine Magnum photographers to document and record manufacturing industries in 9 British cities.
Places are free to OCA students, to book email enquiries@oca-uk.com