Roger Mayne
'Photography involves two main distortions - the simplification into black and white and the seizing of an instant in time. It is this particular mixture of reality and unreality, and the photographer's power to select, that makes it possible for photography to be an art. Whether it is good art depends on the power and truth of the artist's statement.' (Roger Mayne, Peace News, 1960).
Born in Cambridge in 1929, Roger Mayne is an English photographer, most famous for his documentation of the children of Southam Street, London. He explained: "My reason for photographing the poor streets is that I love them, and the life on them (I am here concerned with what I see: for the moment it is irrelevant that most of these houses have no baths, and that their structure is endangered by disrepair). Empty, the streets have their own kind of beauty, a kind of decaying splendour, and always great atmosphere whether romantic, on a hazy winter day, or listless when the summer is hot; sometimes it is forbidding; or it may be warm and friendly on a sunny spring weekend when the street is swarming with children playing, and adults walking through or standing gossiping. I remember my excitement when I turned a corner into Southam Street, a street I have returned to again and again... I think an artist must work intuitively, and let his attitudes be reflected by the kinds of things he likes or finds pictorial. Attitudes will be reflected because an artist is a kind of person who is deeply interested in people, and the forces that work in our society. This implies a humanist art, but not necessarily an interest in 'politics'."
Mayne studied Chemistry at Balliol College, Oxford and began contributing to Picture Post after his graduation in 1951. In 1956 he had a one-man show of his portraits at the ICA (UK), and George Eastman House (U.S.). By 1957 he was established as a freelance photographer for London magazines and book-jacket designers. It was during the mid-1950s that Mayne began taking pictures of that which he knew best, the post-war streets of West London, namely Southam Street, an area that would later be demolished in an effort to clear the slums of the area.
The novelist Colin MacInnes asked Mayne to contribute the cover shot for Absolute Beginners (1959), which is set in the area around Southam Street. Mayne's photographs of Southam Street were exhibited as part of a major retrospective of his work at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1986. They have subsequently been used for concert backdrops, record sleeves and press-adverts by the singer Morrissey.
1929
Born in Cambridge.
1947-51
Studied chemistry at Oxford and made his first photographs.
1954
Arrived in London as a freelance photographer and began to photograph working class neighbourhoods.
1956
Exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London and at the George Eastman House, Rochester, NY.
1957-1962
Photographed in Southam Street, North Kensington and was active as a photojournalist.
Late 1960s
Taught photography at the Bath Academy of Art, Corsham.
1970s
Focused on landscape photography and worked in Rhodes, Corfu and Dubrovnik.
1986
Retrospective exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum revived interest in his work.
1989
Southam Street work was the subject of a BBC TV Timewatch film.
2006
Lucie Award, New York for Achievement in Documentary Photography
2007
Photograph chosen as poster image for Tate Britain's How We Are: Photographing Britain
2014
Died 7 June, 2014
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2012
Gitterman Gallery, New York
2007
Gitterman Gallery, New York
Grandpa's Eye, Town Mill, Lyme Regis
2004
Gitterman Gallery, New York
2001
St Ives Artists, Tate St Ives
1999
Zelda Cheatle Gallery, London
1992
Zelda Cheatle Gallery, London
1989
Prakapas Gallery, New York
1987-1990
South Bank Centre Tour
1986-1987
Parko Gallery, Tokyo and tour
1986
The Street Photographs of Roger Mayne, Retrospective, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
1978-1990
Landscape Photographs, ICA Gallery, London and tour
1974
The Photographers' Gallery, London
1972
Daughter and Son, Half Moon Gallery, London and tour
1965
Arnolfini, Bristol
1960
Portraits, Royal Court Theatre, London
1959
AIA Gallery, London
1956
ICA Gallery, London
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2013
Country Matters, James Hyman Gallery, London
2007
How We Are: Photographing Britain, Tate Britain, London
2006
Art of Documentary - Film, Photography, Painting, Tate Liverpool
2004/5
Art of the Sixties (mixed media), Tate Britain, London and tour
2002
Transition - Art Scene of the '50s, Barbican Arts Centre, London
1998
Paved with Gold (mixed media urban landscape), Kettle's Yard Gallery, Cambridge
1996/7
In the Cold - Photography 1946/65, National Gallery of Australia Canberra and tour
1993
Three Masters, Three Decades, with Cartier-Bresson and Helen Levitt, Lawrence Miller Gallery, New York
1989
British Photography 1945/89, Barbican Arts Centre, London
1983
British Photography 1955/65, Photographer's Gallery, London
1978
Art for Society (mixed media), Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
1967/71
Masters of Modern Photography, V&A Circulation Department Tour
1964 onwards
Weltaustellung der Fotografie, touring Germany
1959
Photography at Mid-Century, George Eastman House, Rochester
1954 & 1958
Subjektive Fotografie 2 and 3, Saarbrucken
1952/57
Three Touring C.S. Exhibitions
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Roger MayneGirl in the Snow, Bethnal Green, London, 1955Gelatin Silver Print16.5 x 24.1 cms
6 1/2 x 9 1/2 insView more detailsRoger Mayne, Girl in the Snow, Bethnal Green, London, 1955£ 3,500.00
