From the edition of 5 plus 1 artist's proof.

Printed credit, title, date and number on a gallery label affixed to the reverse of the flush-mount.

This work comes from Billingham's most celebrated body of work, Ray's a laugh, which depicted his family life. His father Ray appears in this picture and many related works. As Billingham explains:

"I was living in this tower block; there was just me and him. He was an alcoholic, he would lie in the bed, drink, get to sleep, wake up, get to sleep, didn't know if it was day or night. But it was difficult to get him to stay still for more than say 20 minutes at a time so I thought that if I could take photographs of him that would act as source material for these paintings and then I could make more detailed paintings later on. So that's how I first started taking photographs."


Richard Billingham / British Photography / The Hyman Collection.