This exhibition including over 120 prints takes place across two venues—be sure to visit both:
St Pancras International and Dog Eared Gallery.

Field Street is a small cul-de-sac/dead end. The easiset way to find the Dog Eared Gallery is to walk/drive down King's Cross Road (the A201 and  a one-way road) and take your first right into Field Street.

Embracing the spirit of patriotism with the upcoming Olympics and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, this show will present images from photographers working the length and breadth of the British Isles documenting the daily life, work and rituals of the British in their many incarnations.

A focus on street photography will be complimented by intimate documentary studies and portraits from a range of established practitioners including John Angerson (Ilford Photograper of The Year), Nick Cunard, Peter Dench (World Press Photo Award), Liz Hingley (Canon Female Photojournalist Award Winner), Zed Nelson (World Press Photo Winner), Martin Parr (Magnum), Ben Roberts (Magenta Flash Forward Emerging Photographer Winner), Simon Roberts (Official 2010 UK election artis), Arnhel de Serra, Chris Steele-Perkins (Magnum), Ewen Spencer, Homer Sykes and Giulietta Verdon-Roe.

This multidisciplinary exhibition will celebrate the extremes and quirks of life on our islands; from military funeral parades to centenarians; from pomp and pageantry to cottage industries; from Hackney in London to the most northernmost island of Orkney in Scotland, via New Brighton, the Black Country and beyond... all explored through print and multimedia in a large-scale exhibition across two sites.

It is rare that such a stellar collection of British artists are shown together in celebration of Britishness - this is one of the festival's headline exhibitions and should not be missed. Dog Eared Gallery will be a major festival hub and host the finale of the main festival launch night.

This exhibition is one of only two exhibitions in the entire festival programme which has an entry fee. Tickets cost only £6.50 and can be bought online or at the door (cash only). Please support the festival by buying a ticket.

The London Festival of Photography will be exhibiting a selection of work from The Great British Public exhibition at White Cloth Gallery in Leeds through August to 17th September 2012 as part of their 'Best of British' summer programme.

TALK

Date: 25 June 2012
Venue: Central Saint Martins
Time: 7 - 9:30pm
Chris Steele-Perkins, Homer Sykes, Peter Dench and Liz Hingley

Join these four photographers for a fascinating and lively discussion about the work they have on show in The Great British Public exhibition, their creative influences and their experiences photographing the British. Chris Steele-Perkins, Homer Sykes, Peter Dench and Liz Hingley will each present their work and discuss it within the context of the show, followed by a Q&A session. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to see some of Britain’s best-loved photographers discussing what they do best.
MORE INFO

The Great British Public is brought to you in proud partnership with The Colourhouse. The Colourhouse print all of the festival’s non-photographic requirements from the festival guide to posters, flyers and postcards.

BIOGRAPHIES

John Angerson was born in Bristol and started his career in the early 1990s, covering the fall of the Berlin Wall and the changing geopolitical landscape of Eastern Europe. Since then, his practice has continued to explore the different languages of documentary photography, focusing on how specific communities form, shift and develop. His personal projects have garnered critical acclaim and have been exhibited at major art institutions in the UK and overseas. His latest monograph, Love, Power, Sacrifice (Dewi Lewis), documented the Jesus Army over a twenty-year period and peers into a microcosm of fanatical religion.
www.johnangerson.com

Nick Cunard holds a degree from Cambridge in Social Anthropology, as well as further degrees in Photojournalism and Photography. He is currently based in London, dividing his time between personal and commissioned photographic work. Moving with the times and a hunger for new challenges has meant, however, that he increasingly works within a multimedia context, producing photo-films and video in addition to stills. This has also provided Nick with an opportunity to bring more of his background in social anthropology to the fore, as evidenced by a recent series of photo-films for the Life and Style section of The Guardian website. Other past personal projects of note have included Head Space, a partial collaboration with Will Self which took the form of a series of journeys through a select number of the capital's psychotherapeutic consulting rooms.
www.nickcunard.co.uk

Peter Dench is an English photographer based in London. He earned a World Press Photo Award and also participated in the elite World Press Joop Masterclass. His solo exhibitions include LoveUK in Cardiff and England Uncensored at the 2011 Visa pour l'Image festival in France and the Periscopio festival, Spain. In 2010, Dench placed 2nd in Advertising at the Sony World Photography Awards. Dench has a new book titled UK Uncensored, of which exclusive signed copies will be available to purchase at the exhibition.
www.peterdench.com

Liz Hingley graduated from Brighton University with a degree in Editorial Photography in 2007. She went on to receive a two-year scholarship with FABRICA research and communications department in Italy. She completed an MSc with distinction in Social Anthropology at University College London in 2011. Under Gods: Stories from Soho Road (Dewi Lewis) was published in March 2011. She recently received the Getty Image Grant to continue her work raising awareness about the cycle of child poverty in the developed world. Hingley is currently artist in residence at the Migration Research Unit based in University College London. She regularly works with other educational institutions, lecturing and leading workshops, and is also undertaking her own research into the trade of religious goods in Paris and China. She says: "My photography is about social engagement. I am constantly excited by how photographs can arouse curiosity, tell stories in different voices and help us see through different eyes."
www.lizhingley.com

Zed Nelson lives in London. Having gained recognition and received major awards as a documentary photographer working in some of the most troubled areas of the world (including First Prize in the World Press Photo Competition), Nelson has increasingly turned his focus on western society, adopting a more conceptual approach to reflect on contemporary social issues. His recently published second book Love Me (Contrasto) was nominated for the 2011 Deutsche Borse Photography Prize, shortlisted for the Leica European Publishers Award for Photography, and received First Prize in the 2010 Pictures of the Year International Awards. Nelson’s seminal first book project, Gun Nation, gained worldwide attention and incited significant controversy in the United States, resulting in demonstrations and death threats against the author. The series was published in twelve countries and received five photography awards including the Visa d’Or (France) and the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award (USA). Nelson’s work has been exhibited at Tate Britain, the ICA and the National Portrait Gallery and features in the permanent collection of the V&A.
www.zednelson.com

Martin Parr is a British documentary photographer, photobook collector and Professor of Photography at the University of Wales, Newport. He is known for his photographic projects that take a critical look at aspects of modern life, in particular provincial and suburban life in England. He has had almost 50 books published and work featured in around 80 exhibitions worldwide, including an exhibition at the Barbican Arts Centre, London. In 2007, his retrospective exhibition was selected to be the main show of Month of Photography Asia in Singapore. In 2008, he was made an Honorary Doctor of Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) in recognition for his ongoing contribution to photography and to MMU's School of Art. He is a member of Magnum Photos.
www.martinparr.com

Ben Roberts is an independent photographer based in London. He has photographed subjects as diverse as youth culture in Scotland, Australian gold mining and Spain's economic crisis. He is currently working on a body of work exploring social and physical geography on the periphery of London. In 2009 Ben was the recipient of the British Journal of Photography's Project Assistance Award for his series The Gathering Clouds – a contemplative look at the effects of the economic crisis on Spain's social and physical landscape. In 2010, he was named as one of PDN's 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch, and in 2011 he had his first solo show at the 3rd Floor Gallery in Cardiff. Ben is represented by Picturetank in Paris.
benrobertsphotography.com

Simon Roberts earned a BA Hons Degree in Human Geography at the University of Sheffield. His photographs have been exhibited widely with recent solo shows at the National Media Museum, UK, EX3 Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea, Italy, and Centro Brasileiro Britânico, Brazil. Roberts' images are represented in major public and private collections, including the Deutsche Börse Art Collection, George Eastman House and Wilson Centre for Photography. In recognition for his work, Roberts has received several awards including the Vic Odden Award (2007), offered for a notable achievement in the art of photography by a British photographer, and bursaries from the National Media Museum (2008) and the John Kobal Foundation (2008). Most recently he was commissioned as the official Election Artist by the House of Commons Works of Art Committee (2010) to produce a record of the UK General Election. He has published two monographs, Motherland (Chris Boot, 2007) and We English (Chris Boot, 2009). Roberts’ approach is one of creating wide-ranging surveys of our time, which communicate on important social, economic and political issues. His photographs exhibit a disciplined compositional restraint, a richness of palette and a wealth of narrative incident.
www.simoncroberts.com

Arnhel de Serra was born in 1964 in Brighton and is Anglo-Spanish. He studied photography under David Hurn at Gwent College, Newport, South Wales. Initially starting out as a portrait photographer his focus soon changed to a reportage based approach. The essence of his photographic practice is rooted in recording the moment in-camera rather than relying heavily on post production. His clients include the National Trust, Sunday Times, Stern Magazine, the Independent, BP, Saatchi and Saatchi and T-mobile. Arnhel is represented by photo agency Blunt.
www.arnheldeserra.com

Ewen Spencer In the late 90’s, Ewen's groundbreaking editorial for The Face & Sleazenation immediately spoke to an audience interested in subcultures, multiculturalism, music, graphic art, photography, fashion and youth culture. In 2001, Ewen embarked upon a project simply called Teenagers, documenting British adolescents as they come to terms with socialising, dating and sex. His signature flash style became synonymous with a close aspect to his subjects. What separates him from other social-documentarians is the feeling viewers get from the pictures that he knows and likes his subjects, that they trust him enough to allow him entry and that he has an understanding of what’s going on without being embedded in the scenes himself. Not surprisingly, in 2002 Martin Parr tipped him as the most promising newcomer of that year. In 2003, London’s burgeoning grime scene granted him access to open mic sessions in and around London—places where 'the music is really happening', as his friend Mike Skinner (aka the Streets) put it. The resulting book Open Mic is one of the best examples of Ewen’s work to date and led to him being awarded a commission by Massive Attack to produce a film around gang culture in Britain for their latest album Heligoland. He is currently working on an extended project concerning the coming together of cultures and movement of people into and around Italy.
www.ewenspencer.com

Chris Steele-Perkins was born in Burma and moved from Rangoon to London with his family in 1949. He graduated in Psychology from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and while studying, worked as a photographer and picture editor for the student newspaper. In 1971 he moved to London and started working as a freelance photographer with assignments that took him abroad, first to Bangladesh in 1973, followed by a variety of travel assignments and extensive work for relief organisations. In 1975, he worked with EXIT, a group dealing with social problems in British cities. He then joined the Paris-based Viva agency in 1976 and in 1979, his first book, The Teds, was published. Chris joined Magnum and soon began working more extensively in the developing world. His latest large-scale project was on the situation in Afghanistan and he now focuses on Japan and England. His reportages have received high public acclaim and won him several awards including the Tom Hopkinson Prize for British Photojournalism, the Oscar Barnack Prize and the Robert Capa Gold Medal.
www.chrissteeleperkins.com

Homer Sykes was a keen photographer as a teenager, with a darkroom both at home and at boarding school. In 1968 he started a three-year course at the London College of Printing. In the summer vacation during his first year, he went to New York and was vastly impressed by the work of current photographers — Cartier-Bresson, Davidson, Friedlander, Frank and Winogrand — that he saw at the Museum of Modern Art. Sykes has photographed for the Weekend Telegraph, Observer, Sunday Times, Newsweek, Now, Time, and New Society. He has worked with various agencies including Viva, and from 1989 to 2005 was with Network Photographers. Books include Hunting with Hounds, and On the Road Again. Sykes has exhibited his work in a number of international exhibitions (Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, as well as Tate Britain) and his work is held in a number of collections, including the British Council and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Sykes has recently been an instructor on the master's course in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication.
www.homersykes.com

Giulietta Verdon-Roe received a BA degree in English Literature at Newcastle University, and then moved to New York to study at the International Center of Photography. Graduating from ICP, she worked as photographer and assistant to the Photo Editor at the Village Voice, America’s largest weekly newspaper. Vernon-Roe also worked as Assistant Black and White Printer to Master Printer Teresa Engle Moreno, working with negatives by such photographers as Robert Capa, Bruce Davidson, Andreas Feininger and Ted Croner. Vernon-Roe is currently based in London, running her photographic production company Fovea Pictures. She is currently focusing her personal work on a long-term documentary project entitled As You Are about the land and people of North Ronaldsay, the furthest northern island in Orkney. Vernon-Roe has received recognition in the form of a number of awards and her work has featured in exhibitions both in the UK and internationally.
www.giuliettaverdon-roe.com

BOOKS BY EXHIBITION CONTRIBUTORS:

JOHN ANGERSON

Love, Power, Sacrifice: Life with the Jesus Army - Dewi Lewis Publishing (6 Sep 2007)

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  Image © Arnhel de Serra
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  Image © Homer Sykes
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  Image © John Angerson
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  Image © Ben Roberts
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  Image © Peter Dench
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  Image © Chris Steele-Perkins
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  Image © Zed Nelson
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  Image © Nick Cunard
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  Image © Liz Hingley
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  Image © Giulietta Verdon-Roe
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  Image © Martin Parr
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  Image © Simon Roberts
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  © Ewen Spencer