Author: Editor

Exhibition, The Photographers’ Gallery London, 23rd June 2023 – 24th September 2023
Johny Pitts – Home is Not a Place

Header image and all photos below Home is Not a Place © Johny Pitts

 Johny Pitts is an award winning photographer whose work spans portraits of working class Sheffield (2016) to Afropean: Travels in Black Europe (2020). His style is documentary meets drama, his compositions always complimentary to his subjects. Pitt’s touring exhibition Home is Not a Place is currently on display at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, having previously been shown in his hometown of Sheffield at the Graves Gallery, and at the Stills Gallery in Edinburgh.

Excerpt from the press release here:

‘The Photographers’ Gallery presents Home is Not a Place by photographer and writer Johny Pitts, a reflection on Black British culture, people and geographies, exploring the notion of home.

“My photographic practice involves trying to celebrate Black spaces, capture them while they’re still here and give them a home. If not in a literal sense, in a figurative sense, for me home is somewhere that you take with you” – Johny Pitts.

What is Black Britain? In 2021, photographer and writer, Johny Pitts, and poet Roger Robinson travelled around the British coast in search of an answer to this question. Their collaboration, Home is Not a Place, will be on display at The Photographers’ Gallery this June (to September).

Travelling in a red Mini Cooper, Pitts and Robinson’s circumnavigation encompassed the coastal, urban, rural and suburban, via the places in-between. Following the coast clockwise, together they set out to document and respond to the many manifestations of Black British culture, and to present an alternative to official and media narratives.

A bespoke ‘welcome table’ in the gallery will be a focal point for visitors to flick through Pitts’ family photo album, chat and exchange ideas. The welcome table, designed by the artist’s sister, Chantal Pitts, is inspired by American writer James Baldwin’s unpublished novel of the same name. The title of the show is also drawn from a Baldwin quote “perhaps home is not a place, but simply an irrevocable condition”. Pirate radio playlists and furniture from Pitts’ 1980s youth recreate the atmosphere, in which Pitts describes ‘a Black or working-class community could feel at home’. Many of his family contributed to this room set – everyone is welcome to take a seat and feel at home’.

An accompanying book Home is Not a Place, which combines Pitts’ photographs with poems by Roger Robinson, is published by Harper Collins.

Johny Pitts – Home is Not a Place runs from 23rd June – 24th September 2023.

All images and exhibition details are reproduced under permissions from The Photographers’ Gallery and are copyrighted Home is Not a Place © Johny Pitts.

You can find further details including opening times, ticket prices and concessions, and other exhibitions on their website.

The Photographers’ Gallery, 16 – 18 Ramillies Street, London W1F 7LW (nearest tube Oxford Circus)

Intro by Siobhan

Published 19th July 2023

Exhibition, National Portrait Gallery London, 28th June 2023 – 1st October 2023
Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm

Header image: John and George, Paris 1964
© 1964 Paul McCartney

When Beatlemania hit the 60s, it’s hard to imagine how it felt from the perspective of the band members. But this new exhibition gives an insight into Paul McCartney’s view of the world around him, and shows a keen eye for a good shot. Over 250 previously unseen photos taken by Paul with his own Pentax camera are on display now at the National Portrait Gallery until the start of October. From candid shots of his fellow band members to capturing the press as they captured him, the gallery offers the opportunity to see things from the other side of one of the most well documented stages of his career.

Photographers, Central Park, New York, February 1964
© 1964 Paul McCartney

Excerpt from the press release here:

“Millions of eyes were suddenly upon us, creating a picture I will never forget for the rest of my life” – Paul McCartney, 2023.

Self-portraits in a mirror, Paris, 1964
© 1964 Paul McCartney

‘While the exhibition’s narrative represents just four short months, McCartney’s photographs chronologically document the experiences of the band on their travels – from the grainy black and white portraits taken backstage in Liverpool, rehearsing musicians at a recording studio in Paris, wintry Manhattan skylines, to the gleaming colour shots of Miami Beach in the sunshine. The earliest images in the exhibition date from November 1963, just as Beatlemania was gripping the nation, and culminate with photographs taken in February 1964, during the final days of the band’s first triumphant trip to ‘conquer’ America. Indeed, the group’s appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964 was watched by an unequalled television audience of 73 million people, transforming The Beatles into global superstars and redefining fame in the modern era’.

George looking young, handsome and relaxed.
Living the life. Miami Beach, February 1964
© 1964 Paul McCartney

The crowds chasing us in A Hard Day’s Night were based on moments like this.
Taken out of the back of our car on West Fifty-Eight,
crossing the Avenue of the Americas, New York, February 1964
©1964 Paul McCartney

An accompanying book of photographs and reflections by Paul McCartney. 1964: Eyes of the Storm, is available now via Penguin Press in the UK and via WW Norton in the US.

Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm runs from 28th June – 1st October 2023.

All images and exhibition details are reproduced with permission from The National Portrait Gallery and are copyrighted as listed. You can find further details including opening times, ticket prices and concessions on their website.

The National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London, WC2H 0HE (entrances are located on St Martin’s Place and Charing Cross Road). 

Intro by Siobhan

Published 13th July 2023