http://canterburymuseums.co.uk/events/only-in-england/This excellent exhibition is currently showing at The Beaney in Canterbury, if anyone is close enough to take it in.
100 prints of Tony Ray-Jones' brilliantly observed moments of English eccentricity (some of which, recently printed by Martin Parr), as well as 30 of Parr's early B&W prints from "The Non-Conformists".
Had youngest son with me, who is taking GCSE Art from September, which has a photography module, so thought it would be good for him to see... He kind of screwed his nose up and said he didn't really "get" them, 'cos it's not his era, they don't really mean anything to him. So I suggested he looked at the pictures and imagined them as a freeze frame in a story... what happened before that moment? what happened after? why was the sad old lady sitting alone? what was the man doing with the monkey?
Once he started developing thoughts and questions about the images we looked at composition and the visual balance of the images. I'm happy to say that I think he came away quite enthused and maybe a little more visually literate.
Anyway, I didn't plan on being in Canterbury today, so sadly was woefully unprepared (no specs), but happily it's a free exhibition, is only 10 miles away, and has a few more weeks to run, so I'll be making a second visit.
