- Artist
- Roger Mayne 1929–2014
- Medium
- Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 287 × 255 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by Tate Members 2013 and forming part of Eric and Louise Franck London Collection
- Reference
- P81000
Display caption
Roger Mayne taught himself photography, after studying chemistry at university. From 1956 he photographed people in Southam Street and the nearby St Stephen’s Gardens, near Notting Hill in West London. Mayne wrote about the working-class neighbourhood he documented: ‘The reason for photographing poor streets is that I love them... I remember my excitement when I turned the corner into Southam Street, a street I have since returned to again and again.’ Mayne was aware that photography doesn’t simply record real life, but constructs it. He said, ‘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.’
Gallery label, September 2023
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