When it was first published in 1996, Richard Billingham’s Ray’s a Laugh captured the imagination of the art world and beyond, for its raw and unflinching portrayal of the photographer’s working-class upbringing. The images – of Billingham’s mother Liz, father Ray, younger brother Jason and their various pets – were all taken inside the family’s Black Country high-rise flat, where side tables were strewn with cigarettes, and brewing tensions immortalised on film. The images were intended as studies for paintings, but a tutor on Billingham’s Sunderland University course discovered them, eventually convincing the photographer to display them on their own. Inside that flat, Billingham’s lens never shied away from the bleaker side of their lives, and in doing so made Ray’s a Laugh one of the most enduring portrayals of 90s Britain.
Now, almost 27 years after the book’s initial publication, Ray’s a Laugh is getting a 2024 reissue, one that includes various unseen images and a new approach to the series’ original sequencing. Described as a “director’s cut” of the 1996 original, the new edition will also be accompanied by Ray’s a Laugh: A Reader, edited by Liz Jobey. The companion volume will delve into the history of the work, Billingham’s ‘discovery’ at Sunderland University and his career to the present day.
After the publication of Ray’s a Laugh, Billingham’s work was displayed in the 1997 exhibition Sensation, a now-iconic Charles Saatchi collection that also included Damien Hirst’s formaldehyde shark and Tracey Emin’s tent. In 2000, the photographer was given a major solo exhibition at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham which led to a Turner Prize nomination the following year. In 2016, the photographer adapted Ray’s a Laugh into the video short Ray, which was followed by the BAFTA-nominated 2018 feature film Ray & Liz, of which Billingham wrote and directed.
Ray’s a Laugh by Richard Billingham will be published by MACK in February 2024 and is available to pre-order here. The accompanying special edition is available here, and Ray’s a Laugh: A Reader ed. Liz Jobey is available here.
