Peter Mitchell

The Topography of Everyday Life and British Colour Documentary Photography in the Work of Peter Mitchell

 

The British documentary photographer Peter Mitchell (born 1943) is one of the most influential pioneers of European colour photography, although he worked largely behind the scenes for many years. Whilst Mitchell spent most of his life and career in the industrial city of Leeds in the north of England, over a period of more than four decades he developed a socio-topographical chronicle of his immediate urban surroundings. His visual practice is characterised by exceptional conceptual rigour and empathy in his engagement with the changing architecture and the realities of working-class life. Mitchell’s cultural and historical significance was most clearly demonstrated in his groundbreaking solo exhibition ‘A New Refutation of the Space Viking 4 Mission’, which was shown at the Impressions Gallery in 1979. As one of the first exhibitions devoted exclusively to colour photography in a British institution, this show exerted an immeasurable, formative influence on the history of contemporary photography in Britain by radically breaking with the tradition of social documentary black-and-white photography.

 

The ongoing exploration of this pivotal moment in British photographic history forms an integral part of the curatorial and archival work of the IKS – Institute for Art Documentation. Filmmaker Ralph Goertz, director of the IKS and curator of the large-scale exhibition project FACING BRITAIN. British documentary photography since the 1960s, accompanied the photographer exclusively on camera as part of a comprehensive documentary project.

 

The resulting documentary film ‘PETER MITCHELL. LEEDS.’ captures Mitchell in the intimate setting of his studio, as well as during a joint tour of those neighbourhoods in Leeds that he has been continuously documenting for over forty years. Through this cinematic interweaving of a site-specific artistic biography and art-theoretical studio discussions, the IKS production makes a significant scholarly contribution to the reception of British post-industrialisation.

 

17 original prints at the IKS collection

 

The material significance of Mitchell’s work is also directly reflected in the institution’s physical holdings: The IKS collection preserves a collection of 17 signed works by the artist in their original condition, thereby ensuring that the visual legacy of this formative era is permanently preserved for future research discourse.

 

 

Watch the documentary on Vimeo!

 

 

Peter Mitchell, Leed, 2019 © IKS-Medienarchiv