MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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Lowry of the lens
Peter Mitchell's photography reveals a poetic relationship with Leeds
(L to R) How many Aunties?, Back Hares Mount, Leeds, 1978; Max Babbin, Vulcan Street, Leeds, 1979
New releases from Mountain, Soul Asylum and Michael McDermott
ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
Peter Mitchell: Nothing Lasts Forever
The Photographers’ Gallery, London
PETER MITCHELL (born 1943) is widely regarded as one of the most important early colour photographers of the 1970s and ’80s. This important exhibition is dedicated to his work.
He is a self-effacing artist, coming across in interviews as rather Lowry-like: naive, unideological and uncomplicated. Taking photos, or as he says “taking pictures” is simply a necessity for him.
Born in Eccles, near Manchester, in 1943, shortly afterwards his family moved to Catford, south-east London, where Mitchell spent his formative years. Even as a youngster, he was a keen collector and diarist, beginning the archive that would later form part of his autobiographical publication, Some Thing Means Everything to Somebody.
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