This was the second of two exhibitions in the National Media Museum that we visited as part of the OCA Study Day, again Greg Hobson gave an interesting introduction to the work of Daniel Meadows. This exhibition consisted of several different projects, mostly from the 1970's and two where Meadows had worked with Martin Parr. My personal favourite was "June Street 1973" a series of images taken in each house on a terraced street in Salford which featured the occupants of the property, (including, in one image, a tortoise!) and gave a fascinating insight into ordinary lives. What really struck me when looking at these images was how our memories can be tied into ordinary objects, there were items in these images that I can remember from my grandparents houses when I was a child and they brought back a flood of memories.
Of the four exhibitions we visited on the day this was definitely the one that interested me most. I think the reason for this is because its photography of ordinary people and their lives which makes it much more accessible than, for instance, the work of Red Saunders. There's a massive amount of time, skill and technical expertise that goes into Red Saunders' images and in comparison it makes the work of Daniel Meadows seem very simple but there's a whole different set of skills required to take the ordinary and everyday and turn it into an appealing set of images and this type of photography is much more interesting and inspirational to me.
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