A retrospective of the work of one of the leading colour photographers of the early 20th century opens in March at the Photographers’ Gallery.
For over 40 years, Peter Mitchell has been describing the people and fortunes of the city.
Described as ‘a narrator of what we were, a hunter of a vanishing world’ (Val Williams), his work reveals his love, and sometimes vision, of the people and changing face of Leeds.
The retrospective explores the breadth of Mitchell’s photographic practice. It brings together his celebrated ‘A New Refutation of the Viking 4 Space Mission’ series, which imagines England as seen through the eyes of an alien from Mars, demolished flats, shopkeepers and their shops, condemned and disused buildings, and his portraits of scarecrows. The exhibition marks Mitchell’s return to the Photographers’ Gallery, where he first exhibited in 1984.
A chronicler of a changing city, he said of his photographic work on the demise of the iconic Quarry Hills Estate in Leeds: ‘I know there was no point in keeping the Quarry Hill flats. But what it represented might have been worth preserving.
Calling himself a ‘man of the streets’, Peter Mitchell still regularly walks the streets of Leeds to photograph his beloved home town.
Peter Mitchell: Nothing Lasts Forever will include rarely seen works from Mitchell’s collection, personal ephemera and found objects.
Peter Mitchell: Nothing Lasts Forever is produced in collaboration with Leeds Art Gallery. Nothing Lasts Forever, published by RRB Photobooks, is available now.
Peter Mitchell : Nothing Lasts Forever
7 March – 15 June
The Photographers’ Gallery
16-18 Ramillies Street
London W1F 7LW
