A new exhibition is coming to Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange to celebrate its opening on May 19 and will run through until July 3 2021.
The opening exhibition, named Seaside: Photographed, will examine the relationship between photographers, photography and the British seaside from the 1850s to the present.
Seaside: Photographed will present the seaside from a variety of different visions, and aims to celebrate the special relationship between photography and the coast.
On show will be images of hotel life, the beach, the holiday camp, dressing up and dressing down, wild waves, hotel interiors and coastlines to showcase the ever-transforming landscape of the British seaside.
The curators have included unknown works from across photography’s history as well as images by such celebrated photographers as Jane Bown (1925-2014), Vanley Burke (1951-), Anna Fox (1961-), Martin Parr (1952-), and Ingrid Pollard (1953-).
The exhibits include Raymond Lawson’s remarkable chronicles of family life in Whitstable (1959), Enzo Ragazzini’s images of the anarchy of the 1970 Isle of Wight festival and Stuart Griffiths’ bleak documentation of the 1990 rave scene in Brighton.
Grace Robertson records the raucous goings-on of a woman’s day out to the coast in the 1950s, while Daniel Meadows, Barry Lewis and Dafydd Jones all photographed at Butlins in the 1970s.
A more intimate narrative is revealed in the photographs that preserve the seaside haven created by composer Benjamin Britten and tenor Peter Pears, who were partners in both music and in life.
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In April 2019 the WILD Young Parent’s Project, in partnership with Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, commissioned photographer Steve Tanner to work with the Mums and Dads in their West Cornwall groups to investigate their relationship to the sea.
The project concluded in December 2020 with an invitation to poet Ella Frears to work with the Mums and Dads to capture their thoughts and feeling in print.
The outcomes of this sustained partnership will form a new addition to the main exhibition.
Curated by Val Williams and Karen Shepherdson, Seaside: Photographed is a touring exhibition organised by Turner Contemporary.
The exhibition was presented at Turner Contemporary in summer 2019, and tours to three other UK venues in 2020/21.
Curators Val Williams and Karen Shepherdson said: "The British seaside has always been a metaphor for the state of the nation.
"Decline and regeneration have become seaside descriptors.
"The coastal population is a complex one - new sets of urban colonizers repurposing seaside buildings and spaces, visitors, émigrés, retirees, all living alongside longstanding citizens."
To find out more about the exhibition, please visit the gallery's website at: newlynartgallery.co.uk
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