Signed in pencil, titled, dated in ink on verso. Copyright stamp on verso. Image size 18.4 x 13.6 cms; Paper size: 23.9 x 15.4 cms Paul Hill established his reputation...
Signed in pencil, titled, dated in ink on verso. Copyright stamp on verso. Image size 18.4 x 13.6 cms; Paper size: 23.9 x 15.4 cms
Paul Hill established his reputation in the 1960s as an award winning photojournalist. Influenced by working in art faculties, in his early work (1966-74) he moved away from traditional documentary photography to making psychological documents that became subjective reflections on the world around him and his own personal life. From 1974-78 he created arguably his important body of work Prenotations. This personal and psychological project often used members of his family. In Hill's words: "They consist of incongruous juxtapositions, visual metaphors and symbolic references that transcend the information that was in front of the camera at the time of exposure. They were 'ordinary' situations transformed into something 'extra-ordinary' and often surreal by precise framing and creative use of vantage point." Exhibiting regularly since 1970 Paul was the first professor of photographic practice in a British university. A major influence on contemporary British photography, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in 1990 and, four years later, was awarded an MBE by The Queen for services to photography Dialogue with Photography and has had two monographs White Peak Dark Peak and Corridor of Uncertainty published. Paul Hill was instrumental in curating the Three Perspectives on Photography, (Hayward Gallery) which was one of the most important institutional exhibitions of photography in Britain in the 1970s. At a time when photography was gaining new institutional support and developing in new directions, this exhibition sought to explore the ways in which photographers were moving beyond photojournalism towards "art photography" and more politicised approaches. Paul Hill curated the first section which explored forms of art photography that were heavily influenced by modernism, especially from America. His work is in the art collections of, amongst others, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford; Arts Council England; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm; Australian National Gallery, Canberra ; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Cleveland Museum of Art in the USA.