Island Life: Photographs from the Martin Parr Foundation
Paul Reas
Born 1955, Bradford
Born 1955, Bradford
‘I would say I photograph people but I think the pictures are more about systems people find themselves in, people shopping in supermarkets, but it’s about consumerism and how we are caught up in that.’
Reas worked as a bricklayer before studying photography in Newport with David Hurn, where other tutors included Ron McCormick, Daniel Meadows, and Martin Parr. Originally photographing in black and white in the documentary style, he was inspired to work in a more subjective way by the colour photography of William Eggleston. Like Ray-Jones and Parr, he was often able to find the strange in the everyday, for example his images in supermarkets (I Can Help) or in the former mines and breweries turned museums (Flogging a Dead Horse). A stint teaching at the University of Brighton has led him full circle to head the photography course at Newport.
