(DPA = Documentary Photography Archive)
I did ask if it was OK to put a picture of it up on my blog and he said so long as he wasn't in it. I said he might be but he wouldn't be recognisable. So if you recognise him, keep it to yourself please.
Tom was in Chester tonight for the second preview of the show. I can definitely recommend a visit, as any of his former students know, Tom is a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to printing his images and the quality of some of the images on show is stunning. Some of the larger prints had just been handed over to be hung and mostly worked very well. The show is on until 26th of May at the Contemporary Art Space in Chester, part of the University of Chester, Kingsway, CH2 2LB.
My own personal favourite was the image printed onto a solid board. Tom liked that one too. A lot of the images were simply pinned to the white walls and that was very effective.
There were many more images relating to Cammell Laird's than the Rainhill Hospital, but that I suppose reflects the public feeling at the time. There was quite a lot of public out cry when Cammell Lairds closed, I remember the day, I was working in Hamilton square at the time.
Mental health establishments were still quite a taboo subject at the time, so Tom's interpretation through his images is helpful in seeing where we are today by comparisson. As well as giving a voice to the plight of mental health patients of the time.
As a former voluntary resident of mental health establishment in Halton in 2000, I can safely say that we have come a long way and in the last 13 years, we have advanced a lot further, thankfully. Would it be worth doing some sort of retrospective Tom?
As for the Cammell Lairds documents, quality work as ever and definitely a book in the making here especially as he says that there is a lot more of it. If it's only one shelf of that lot he's got stored in his house, there will be plenty.
The gallery space itself is brilliant. I don't actually rate the area of Chester as that photogenic but I was more than pleasantly surprised. The Architecture of the building itself is great and is well matched by the roomy squeaky clean exhibition area.
Tom's exhibition Men and Women also opens tonight in the Thomas Erben Gallery in New York (In theory he could make it from Chester to NewYork for that but, as well as shutting down Cammell Lairds, market forces also grounded Concorde) , and I think that another set of his work is on show as part of the Liverpool Light Night event that is taking place in Liverpool tomorrow night between 4 and midnight, where a lot of art galleries will be open until late, with free admission. See Light Night Liverpool
I was looking forward to that event in Liverpool but budget constraints and all stopped play, is that what they call sod's law?
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