Paul Reas is a British social documentary photographer and educator, born in Bradford in the north of England in 1955. Until he recent retirement, Paul was the Course Leader of the Documentary Photography course (established by Magnum photographer David Hurn) at the University of South Wales in Cardiff, UK. He has worked commercially and editorially for many years and publishes and exhibits work internationally.
Paul is perhaps best known for photographing consumerism and various aspects of daily working class life in Britain, especially during the 1980s and 1990s and is a member of a group of hugely influential photographers commonly referred to as the second wave of British colour documentarists.
Paul has produced the books I Can Help (1988), Flogging a Dead Horse: Heritage Culture and Its Role in Post-industrial Britain (1993) and Fables of Faubus (2018). He has had solo exhibitions at The Photographers' Gallery and London College of Communication, London; Cornerhouse, Manchester; and Impressions Gallery, Bradford. His work is held in the collection of the British Council and he is represented by the James Hyman Gallery in London.
On episode 164, Paul discusses, among other things:
- Thoughts on retirement.
- Being politically motivated during the Thatcher years.
- Creativity sometimes being finite.
- How he has started to paint and why he paints photographs.
- Reflections on the future for documentary photography.
- His life-long lack of confidence.
- His father and learning about his WW2 trauma.
- How his love of Northern Soul sparked an interest in photography.
- Why from the start he photographed what he knew and what felt familiar.
- The Valleys Project.
- I Can Help.
- Criticism of the portrayal of working class life.
- Flogging A Dead Horse.
Referenced:
- Andy Simpson
- Eileen Gibson Cowan
- Ian Walker
- Ron McCormick
- John Davies
- Paul Graham
- Martin Parr
- Charlie Meecham
- Bob Philips
- Jem Southam
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“Although I was photographing people, I never really think about my photographs as being totally about people. They’re about the systems that we’re all subjected to. Whether it’s consumerism or unempolyment or whatever, they try to be about those bigger themes. ”