Taking place across all of the Grundy’s ground floor gallery spaces, this major exhibition looks at the relationship between photography and the British seaside from the 1850s to the present. Images of the beach, hotel life, the holiday camp, dressing up and dressing down, wild waves and coastlines all combine to create a rich picture of our resorts.
As well as featuring the work of well-known photographers including Jane Bown, Vanley Burke, Bill Brandt, Anna Fox, Paul Nash, Martin Parr, and Markéta Luskačová, the curators have included rich and often unknown work from across photography’s history, including Raymond Lawson’s remarkable chronicle of family life in Whitstable.
Dafydd Jones, Barry Lewis, and Daniel Meadows all photographed at Butlins in the 1970s and Grace Robertson records the raucous goings-on of a women’s day out to the coast in the 1950s. Enzo Ragazzini captures the anarchy of the 1970 Isle of Wight festival, while Stuart Griffiths makes a bleak narrative of the 1990 rave scene in Brighton.
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, touring to John Hansard Gallery in Southampton and Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange in Newlyn before arriving in Blackpool this summer.
A hardback catalogue of by Val Williams and Karen Shepherdson, to accompany the exhibition is available from the Grundy shop.
With support from Arts Council England’s Strategic Touring Fund.
This exhibition has been made possible as a result of the Government Indemnity Scheme. Grundy Art Gallery would like to thank HM Government for providing Government Indemnity and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England for arranging the indemnity.
As part of this project, Grundy Art Gallery’s Education Officer, has commissioned artist Amber Akaunu to work with early years children to explore what it is like to live in Blackpool and how they feel their town should be represented. These reflections will then be translated into a range of new souvenirs which will be fabricated and displayed as part of Seaside Photographed.