Ray’s A Laugh
Richard Billingham is an English photographer who is well known for his book ‘Ray’s A Laugh’ which documents the life of his alcoholic father ray and his mother Liz. Born in Birmingham, he studied as a painter at the Bournville College of Art and at the University of Sunderland. He first came into ‘importance’ in the world of photography when he published his book about his family in 1996. The book shows the poverty and deprivation in which he grow up in. He took the photographs on the cheapest film he could find so that the photographs had a bad focus and had brash colours which adds to the authenticity of it. The book is very personal and shows Ray his alcoholic father in a very real way, I think he is portrayed as a vulnerable and troubled person. In 1997, Billingham also won the Citigroup Photography Prize. He was shortlisted for the 2001 Turner Prize, for his solo show at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. Critic Jillian Stallabrass describes the book as “what is in legend a particularly British stoicism and resilience, in the face of the tempest of modernity”.
After looking at Richard Billingham’s book I noticed that his dad Ray is trapped within the confined space of his home due to his addiction of alcohol. Looking at my photo book, I think that you also get the sense that my dad is trapped within my home although its for a very different reason due to his back problems. I also noticed that this has lead them to look like lonely and almost isolated characters. Both books are very personal, which I think makes it even harder to photograph because it allows you to observe through the lens of a camera which gives you a different perspective. I think that Richards photographs allows the viewer to imagine what his life would be like, just by looking at a few of his photographs I can picture his home, the smell and the noise. I think he manged to capture a genuine truth in the photos.
“Billingham’s book of the photos Ray’s a Laugh was taken to have invented a squalid realism. His pictures, surreal, claustrophobic, gave meaning to the idea of “too close to home”.
Recently, Richard Billingham did a interview for The Guardian where he talked about growing up in a tower block in the west of Birmingham with his parents and making the book. Richard said that he had never taken a photograph until he was 19 years old, he was going to use the photographs he took to paint them however he never finished any of the paintings as he thought the photographs were more realistic. The article is below:
