Photographer recorded fast-disappearing way of life

MOMENTS in time captured through the lens of acclaimed British photographer Tony Ray-Jones are to go on show at The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle next month.
Only in England, opening on February 25, draws on material from the Tony Ray-Jones archive held at the National Media Museum, which will be shown alongside The Non-Conformists, a major body of work by photographer Martin Parr, himself greatly influenced by Ray-Jones’ portfolio.
Tony Ray-Jones created most of his distinctive black and white images of the British at work and play between 1966 and 1969.
Travelling across the UK with his camera for company, he immortalised people from all walks of life, catching them in unguarded moments.
This exhibition, touring from the Science Museum, encapsulates a wide selection of his work – from the Durham Miners’ Gala in the North of England to lovers canoodling in public on a south coast beach – which illustrates the humour and eccentricity. He is credited creating images quite unlike anything else produced at that time.
Born in Somerset in 1941, Ray-Jones studied graphic design at the London School of Printing and in 1961, on the strength of his photography portfolio, won a design scholarship to study at Yale University in Connecticut.
Taking a year out from his studies to work in New York, he attended classes run by the influential art director of Harper’s Bazaar, Alexey Brodovitch, before returning to Yale where he graduated in the summer of 1964.
After returning to England he spent the latter half of the 1960s travelling the country, chronicling what he viewed as a fast disappearing way of life.
His works had a profound influence on photographer Martin Parr, who chose works from the Ray-Jones archive for this exhibition.
Parr, an internationally renowned photographer, filmmaker and curator, graduated from Manchester Polytechnic before moving to West Yorkshire. The final section of this exhibition features The Non-Conformists, his rarely seen black and white images from the 1970s.
Produced in Hebden Bridge between 1974 and 79, the pictures stemmed from Parr’s fascination with the variety of non-conformist chapels and the surrounding communities, evidencing the influence of Ray-Jones’ approach and photographic style, and highlighting the close relationships between the work of two important photographers from the 20th century.
Diagnosed with leukaemia in early 1972, Tony Ray-Jones died, aged 30, in March of that year, leaving a lasting legacy which has continued to influence and inform future generations.
A series of talks by academics and curators in the field of photography, will accompany the exhibition, which is called Only in England and is on until May.