Dark Tales and Darkrooms: Introduction with Isaac Blease & Michel Campeau

Curator Isaac Blease will lead a tour of the exhibition Dark Tales at the Martin Parr Foundation, which explorres the relationship between British documentary photography and the gothic tradition. Following this, the tour will head to Arnos Vale Cemetery where artist Michel Campeau will introduce his exhibition Darkroom, which is staged in the Anglican Chapel Crypt. 

ABOUT THE EXHIBITIONS

Dark Tales:

With images spanning a period of more than 80 years, Dark Tales explores the complex relationship between the Gothic and British documentary photography, depicting Britain from the post-war period to the present day. The photographs in the exhibition reveal waning industrial powers, claustrophobic domestic scenes, and menacing nocturnal activities.

The exhibition brings together a selection of renowned images alongside lesser-known photographs, drawn primarily from the Martin Parr Foundation Collection. Together, they reveal people and places that are both resilient and haunted, charged with both fear and desire. Throughout the exhibition, the Gothic principle that horror thrives in close proximity to the familiar resonates, uncovering the uncanny within the everyday.

Darkroom:

In 2005, the Canadian photographer Michel Campeau set out to document photographic darkrooms – spaces increasingly rendered obsolete by the rise of digital photography. Once essential sites of image-making, these workspaces are reimagined through Campeau’s photographs as places of ritual, labour and memory, prompting reflection on what is lost as they disappear.

This exhibition has been produced by Martin Parr Foundation to accompany the MPF exhibition Dark Tales: British Documentary Photography and the Gothic, curated by Isaac Blease.