Now booking Tate Britain Talk

Spirit of the Times Photographing the 80s

15 March 2025 at 14.00–16.00

Roy Mehta, From the series Revival, London, 1989-1993. Roy Mehta, Courtesy of the artist and L A Noble Gallery

Hear readings, rememberings and reflections from artists featured in The 80s: Photographing Britain

Join us for a panel discussion with artists Grace Lau, Jem Southam, mitra tabrizian and Roy Mehta in the context of the exhibition The 80s: Photographing Britain.

In this critical decade, photography was used as a tool for social change, political activism, and artistic and photographic experiments. The artists will speak on the cultural memory of the 1980s and the legacies of that time in photographic practice and our wider culture.

Grace Lau

Born in London of Chinese parentage, Grace is a practicing photographer, artist, writer and lecturer. She has a MA in Photography & Culture from UAL. She has exhibited widely, including at the National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain, Photofusion London, Turner Contemporary, John Hansard Gallery and Aberysthwyth Arts Centre. Published books include: “Adults in Wonderland” (Serpents Tail UK, 1997); “Picturing the Chinese: Early Western Photographs and Postcards of China” (Joint Publishing HongKong, 2008). “Portraits in a Chinese Studio” pubs. (Parakeet Pubs, 2018.) Her work is in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, Tate, Sarah and David Kowitz, and Asia Culture Institute, Korea. 2024.

www.gracelau.co.uk

Jem Southam

Jem Southam (born 1950) is a British landscape photographer and educator. He has had solo exhibitions at Tate St Ives, the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Lowry, and the Royal West of England Academy.

Southam's work is held in the collections of the British Council; UK Government Art Collection; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Science Museum Group, UK; Tate, UK; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

This biography is from Wikipedia under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License. Spotted a problem? Let us know.

mitra tabrizian

mitra tabrizian is an Iranian-British artist and filmmaker. Her photographic work is widely exhibited and held in major museum collections. Solo shows include Tate Britain (2008). She received the Royal Academy’s Rose Award for Photography (2013) and the Royal Photographic Society Honorary Fellowship (2021). Her critically acclaimed debut feature Gholam (2018) had a theatrical release and is now available on BFI Player and VOD worldwide. She is currently developing her second feature The Far Mountains, with BFI.

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