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Tate Britain Talk

Spirit of the Times Photographing the 80s

15 March 2025 at 14.00–16.00
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Roy Mehta, From the series Revival, London, 1989-1993. Roy Mehta, Courtesy of the artist and L A Noble Gallery

Hear readings, rememberings and reflections from artists Grace Lau, Jem Southam, mitra tabrizian, Rosy Martin and Roy Mehta

Join us for a panel discussion with artists and photographers in the context of the exhibition The 80s: Photographing Britain. In this critical decade, photography was used as a tool for social change, political activism, and artistic and photographic experiments. 

The artists will share their distinct approaches to photographic practice. They will reflect on the cultural memory of the 1980s and the legacies of those years on contemporary photographic practice and our wider culture.

Grace Lau

Born in London of Chinese parentage, Grace is a practicing photographer, artist, writer and lecturer. She has a MA in Photography & Culture from UAL. She has exhibited widely, including at the National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain, Photofusion London, Turner Contemporary, John Hansard Gallery and Aberysthwyth Arts Centre. Published books include: “Adults in Wonderland” (Serpents Tail UK, 1997); “Picturing the Chinese: Early Western Photographs and Postcards of China” (Joint Publishing HongKong, 2008). “Portraits in a Chinese Studio” pubs. (Parakeet Pubs, 2018.) Her work is in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, Tate, Sarah and David Kowitz, and Asia Culture Institute, Korea. 2024.

www.gracelau.co.uk

Roy Mehta

Roy Mehta has been an artist and educator for over 35 years. Much of his work focuses on diversity and belonging. Through documenting everyday life, his work offers a poignant reflection on identity, belonging, and love within urban spaces.

His work is in the permanent collections of Autograph, Historic England, The Library of Birmingham, The Migration Museum, The Harris Museum and Art Gallery and IKS Collection, Germany.

He is currently senior lecturer and researcher in documentary photography and photojournalism, at London College of Communication, UAL. 

Jem Southam

Jem Southam (born 1950) is a British landscape photographer and educator. He has had solo exhibitions at Tate St Ives, the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Lowry, and the Royal West of England Academy.

Southam's work is held in the collections of the British Council; UK Government Art Collection; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Science Museum Group, UK; Tate, UK; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

This biography is from Wikipedia under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License. Spotted a problem? Let us know.

mitra tabrizian

mitra tabrizian is an Iranian-British artist and filmmaker. Her photographic work is widely exhibited and held in major museum collections. Solo shows include Tate Britain (2008). She received the Royal Academy’s Rose Award for Photography (2013) and the Royal Photographic Society Honorary Fellowship (2021). Her critically acclaimed debut feature Gholam (2018) had a theatrical release and is now available on BFI Player and VOD worldwide. She is currently developing her second feature The Far Mountains, with BFI.

Rosy Martin

Rosy Martin (born London 1946) is an artist-photographer, psychological-therapist, workshop leader, lecturer and writer. She explores the relationships between photography, memory, identities and unconscious processes using self-portraiture, still life photography and video. From 1983, in collaboration with the late Jo Spence, she evolved and developed a new photographic practice - phototherapy - incorporating re-enactments. Through embodiment, they explored the psychic and social construction of identities within the drama of the everyday. Exhibiting internationally and publishing widely since 1985, she has investigated issues including gender, sexualities, ageing, class, location, shame, loss, grief and reparation. In ‘Transforming the suit: what does a lesbian look like?’ (1987) she played with different historical and contemporary stereotypes to challenge simplistic assumptions.

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Date & Time

15 March 2025 at 14.00–16.00

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