Richard Billingham

Richard Billingham was born on 25th September 1970 in Birmingham. He is an artist and photographer. Billingham studied as a painter at Bournville College of Art and the University of Sunderland. He is most famous for the candid photography of his family living in a tiny council flat in Cradley Heath. This work later became the book Ray's a Laugh (1996). Ray's a Laugh shows the poverty and deprivation in which him and his younger brother, Jason, grew up.

The photos for the series were taken on the cheapest film he could find. It mostly shows his father, Ray, who is an alcoholic and his mother, Liz, who smokes rather than drinking. She also likes to collect nicknacks and loves animals.

In 1997, Billingham was a part in the exhibition Sensation at the Royal Academy of Art. He also won the Citigroup Photography Prize.Richard Billingham now lives near Swansea,and travels a lot. He is a lecturer in Fine Art Photography at the University of Gloucestershire and a third year tutour at Middlesex University.

Objectively, this image shows Richard's dad Ray, who is passed out in the toilet. The room is small and dark with brown wallpaper and blue carpet. The seat looks like it is broken and coming off and there is something on the front of the toilet bowl. There is also an old metal bucket on the floor. Ray is keeping the door open by sitting in front of it. Although he is passed out, Ray is sitting up as he is sat between the wall and the toilet. His left arm is resting on the seat, which looks like it is broken or coming off.
This image, like the others in this series, is extremely honest about the life that this family lived. It is not staged in any way, they are candid shots and Richard Billingham took these photos as they happened. The photo was taken on a film camera. Billingham did not try to alter the photos in anyway, and it shows as we can see the grain of the film and the completely honest way that he documents the alcoholism of his father and the domestic violence between his father and mother.

Subjectively this mage makes me feel sad. Ray looks very hopeless, and the image is very bleak due to the dull colours around him. It does not look or seem like a happy environment, and we know that this is true.

 

In response to Richard Billingham, I documented my sister Poppy's day. Like Billingham's photos, they are candid shots. This means that they are not staged in any way, a