I Can Help

Abstract

'How We Are' was the first major exhibition of photography ever to be held at Tate Britain. It took a unique look at the journey of British photography, from the pioneers of the early medium to today’s photographers who use new technology to make and display their imagery.

The inclusion of my work, "I Can Help" was a re-presentation and re-contextualisation of a selection from an earlier original body of work. The re-appraisal of "I Can Help" within the context of the exhibition looked at the impact it had made on British photographic culture. It was presented as a part of an emerging school of photographers who became known as 'New Colour Documentarists'. This was an influential group which also included Martin Parr, Paul Graham, Anna Fox, Paul Seawright and others.

The 'New Colour Documentarists' were deliberately challenging some of the received notions of documentary photography. Rejecting the humanist tradition (which tended to be a black and white tradition) and defining a new kind of representation. It dismissed the medium’s preoccupation with the whimsical and exotic and replaced it with a commitment to the prosaic and everyday. This was a movement that radically altered the direction of British Documentary Photography

'How We Are': Photographing Britain, by Val Williams and Susan Bright. London, Tate Britain. May 2007. ISBN 1854377140