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Quintessential England H ERE THEY COME. e bloody Eng- lish... in their Zephyrs, Wolseleys and Anglias. Off to their beauty pageants, caravan parks and penny ar- cades. Off on their day trips and annual marches. Off to watch the children’s parade. Off to their dog shows and fancy-dress competitions. To eat their buns under um- brellas. To sit in deckchairs in their suits and ties.” So begins writer Mick Jackson’s tribute to the Only In England exhibition, featuring the work of Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr, currently being hosted by the National Media Centre in Bradford. A wet evening welcomed us to the launch of the exhibition, a contrast to many of the sunny scenes taken by iconic photog- rapher Tony Ray-Jones. Sixty of his previously unseen images were selected by Martin Parr, himself a well-known photogra- pher who credits Tony Ray- Jones as being his inspiration. e exhibition, which is run- ning from 28 March-29 June 2014 in Galleries One and Two, also includes previously dis- played work by Ray-Jones and Parr, and shows how the two photographers were fascinated by the English population at large. Media Museum Curator Greg Hobson chose Martin Parr to select the images as throughout his career Parr has repeatedly referred to Tony Ray-Jones as being the singular most impor- tant influence on how he shoots his own work. Tony Ray-Jones died suddenly at the age of 30 in 1972. Greg Hobson talked of the interaction between Parr and Ray-Jones although it can only be seen in their images as the two never actually met. In the film that Greg showed, Parr reports that while he was going through 2500 contact prints by Tony Ray-Jones, he realised they had both been covering an event at the same time. It is obvious Parr would love to have met Ray-Jones. He speculates that they might even have seen each other at that event. I share a similar feeling. For a time, I lived in the same remote hamlet in Essex as Tony Ray- Jones – Little Baddow near Chelmsford – though not at the same time. We also seemed to share similar passions as we have both toured the UK in a camper van. As Greg Hobson pointed out, Tony Ray-Jones is not well known outside of the world of photographers, possibly as he died so young. During his life he never published any books nor had major exhibitions. is is such a shame. I was born in 1961 and my own childhood memories are full of the sort of scenes Tony Ray-Jones was shooting. I guess this is also true for a lot of you reading this article. When I look at the images I cannot easily recall the styles of cloth- ing but the images help. ey also remind me of the National Health glasses that people wore before chains such as Specsavers became established, and of the singular style adopted by men’s barbers at the time. I think anyone from England viewing this exhibition will see familiarity. I was amazed to see an image of Jaywick Sands in Essex. I know Jaywick very well. It is a community of former holiday homes, now occupied all the time, and was once categorised as the most deprived district in Britain. I used to park up on the exact spot in the background of Tony Ray-Jones’s Jaywick Sands image. I would pour a cup of coffee and start to read a news- paper. People in the tight-knit area knew my car and would approach to ask if I could take their photographs. I would book them in for a shoot in their home the following day. I only had this approach to “sales” in Jaywick and I had forgotten about it until I saw the Report and Pictures by Stewart Wall [email protected] ” Continued on Page 2 This way for the exhibition at the National Media Museum Jo Quinton-Tulloch, Head of the National Media Museum, opens the Bradford International Film Festival and the exhibition of Only In England Cloakroom: somewhere to store all the wet coats Michael Pritchard, Hazel Blackwell and Geoff Blackwell Only In England amuses viewers at Bradford In contact; the contact sheets of Tony Ray-Jones, left, and above, a board giving details of his history
