Richard Billingham (1970 -) is an English photographer and video artist. Billingham graduated from the University of Sunderland in 1994 and in the same year took part in his first group exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery, London. The series of photographs for which he has become known shows the activities of his family at home. Taken over a period of years beginning in 1990 and initially intended as source material for paintings, these photographs are a stark, painful and often humorous documentation of the emotional, sometimes violent relationship of his parents and brother. They are noted for the extraordinary sympathy with which they explore their subjects and the domestic environment. The images were published together for the first time in book form in 1996. In the following year Billingham won the Citibank Photography Prize and was included in the exhibition ‘Sensation’. Billingham has also produced videos that explore his family life in an equally candid manner, for instance Ray in Bed (1999, London), a short video of his father sleeping shot in extreme close-up. The underlying need for closeness and the pain of revelations that such scrutiny can entail are central to Billingham’s project. He lives and works in Stourbridge, West Midlands.

Ray’s a Laugh

Billingham is known for a series of photographs he took of his family in their cramped Stourbridge council flat in the British Midlands between 1990 and 1996 called Ray’s a Laugh. Originally intended to be used as the basis for paintings, the photographs were shot on out-of-date 35mm film using a cheap instamatic camera in the spontaneous style of snapshots. Many of the images were published by Anthony Reynolds Gallery in the book Ray’s a Laugh in 1996. All the photographs in the series are untitled suggesting that they are to be seen as a series rather than as isolated images. Many of the images, both black and white and colour prints have been printed in large-scale prints, unframed and dry-mounted on aluminium in exhibitions. There is love, pain and violence in Richard Billingham’s photographs, yet for all the apparent immediacy of his work, there is an undeniable distance between the family and the viewer; the aesthetic and formal content and strong use of colour in Billingham’s domestic interiors fascinate and inform our reading of these images, although ultimately lessen our perception of the trauma of living with alcoholism.

Billingham wrote:

This book is about my close family. My father Raymond is a chronic alcoholic. He doesn’t like going outside and mostly drinks homebrew. My mother Elizabeth hardly drinks but she does smoke a lot. She likes pets and things that are decorative. They married in 1970 and I was born soon after. My younger brother Jason was taken into care when he was 11 but is now back with Ray and Liz again. Recently he became a father. Ray says Jason is unruly. Jason says Ray’s a laugh but doesn’t want to be like him.

Billingham’s photographs have the essence of feeling and the aesthetics of being like snapshots from family photo albums but in a more raw way, showing the nitty and the gritty side of his family, whereas conventional photo albums are usually full of holiday, celebratory snapshots. And this is why I’m intrigued by his series ‘Ray’s a Laugh’. As mentioned above, the series shows mainly his parents (and Billingham’s younger brother and the pets) illustrating their relationship from being ‘lovey dovey’ to violence and everything in between which to me, you don’t really get to see these kind of images or these more personal/harsher images of families in photo albums, as most people only like to portray the nice and the good side of their family, with everyone playing happy families, and Billingham goes against this which is quite gripping as a viewer to see. By doing this the audience get to observe and be a part of witnessing this family and this relationship between the parents and also as individuals. Getting a taste of what it is like to live with and/or be married to an alcoholic without having to experience it personally.

The use of lighting seems to be from natural light shining through the windows or by the use of ambient lighting, which adds to this snapshot style. The lighting creates a normal and natural look to the images, quite basic, the lighting doesn’t create much contrast of  highlights and shadows on the subjects giving a little interest on the faces however the lighting works with the theme and aesthetics of snapshots. The viewpoints Billingham has used, are subtle but work nicely, viewing mostly directly straight in front of the subjects at eye level or from either slightly higher up or just below the subjects which this helps the audience keep connected with the subjects in the frame.

I find the images of Ray on his own to be more favourable as they portray him in his drunken/ alcoholic state in frames, 4, 5 and 8. Within frame 4, Billingham has captured Ray in mid throwing of a cat, in image 5 Ray looks as though he’s fell or falling asleep leaning on toilet, probably ready for when he needs to throw up due to the alcohol and frame 8 looks as though it is of a very drunken Ray stumbling off the chair or just in general. I find images 4 and 8 to be more of a comical capture with Ray throwing a cat in the air and drunkenly falling compared to the fifth image where it shows a different side to the drinking, being ill. These images portray nicely and truthfully of alcoholism and I think that this honesty to them what the audience enjoys about this series. The images of Ray and Liz together are also compelling as the four images above (frames 1, 3, 6, and 7) show four different things about the relationship between them. In frame 1, Ray is ‘away with the fairies’ while Liz is trying to talk to him about shopping, frame 3, the pair seem content and happy  while eating being civil/ not paying much attention to eachother while doing so, then image 6 illustrates a more violent encounter between the two, looking as though physical violence might occur or has with Ray pushing Liz back and Liz looking as though she’s about to punch him, and then in contrast in frame 7, the pair are loved up showing one another that they’re still in love. This contrast between these photographs are intriguing as most people and families don’t show or like to show the negative side of themselves where as Billingham being their child is being very honest and brutal in allowing his audience to see this side of his parents.

I think these images are intriguing and oddly aesthetically pleasing with the way the images have been shot and with the moments Billingham decided to capture. The series feels like an unconventional photo album of possibly an unconventional family and relationships. The chosen moments have been perfectly caught telling the story of their lives, their personalities and relationships.