Mike Abrahams

Last updated

Mike Abrahams
Born
Michael Abrahams

1952
NationalityBritish
Alma mater Polytechnic of Central London
Known forPhotography
Notable workThe Holy Mountain
Awards World Press Photo: Daily Life (2000)
Website mikeabrahams.com

Mike Abrahams (born 1952) [1] is a British documentary photographer and photojournalist who is based in London. [1] He is best known for his photographs documenting the lives of ordinary people, [2] particularly his work in Northern Ireland [3] and on Christian pilgrimage around the world. [4]

Contents

Career

Mike Abrahams' photographs have been published by major British newspapers including The Times , The Sunday Times , The Observer Magazine , and The Daily Telegraph , The Independent Magazine and in magazines including Time and Forbes , Der Spiegel , Stern and Grands Reportages . His work has also appeared in several books, numerous exhibitions and TV documentaries. [1] His photographs "Faith" was awarded third prize in the 2000 World Press Photo awards: Daily Life [4] and he has been exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts.

He was a founder member of the Network Photographers picture agency. Subjects of Abrahams' photographic collections have included Northern Ireland, Christian pilgrimage, the Battle of Lewisham (1977), inmates at Pentonville Prison (1983), and the Crufts dog show. [1] [5]

As a portrait photographer, his subjects have included musicians (David Bowie, Brian Eno, Sinead O'Connor); playwrights (David Hare, Dennis Potter, Tom Stoppard); politicians (Diane Abbott, Gordon Brown, Margaret Thatcher); and other public figures such as Richard Branson, Howard Marks, and Benjamin Zephaniah. [6]

Early work

One of the earliest exhibitions of Abrahams' work was Camden Co-Optic, at St. Pancras Library, Shaw Theatre in 1975, alongside photos by Dorothy Bohm and Fay Godwin. [7] Other early exhibitions included Growing Old (Hampstead, 1977) [8] and No Nuclear Weapons (Bow, 1980) with Peter Kennard. [9] [10]

In 1977, Abrahams' work illustrated Gladys Elder's book The Alienated: Growing Old Today (Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative). [11] An exhibition of the photos from the book was held at the Half Moon Gallery in London. [12]

His pictures of the controversial National Front march and the Lewisham Against Racism counter protest in August 1977 were published by Time Out and Camerawork magazines. [13] [5] He was a regular contributor to Camerawork magazine, including a photo essay on the Sellafield nuclear site (then known as Windscale Nuclear Reprocessing Plant) in February 1980. [14]

Network Photographers

In 1981, Abrahams co-founded the Network Photographers picture agency [15] together with Barry Lewis, Chris Davies, Laurie Sparham, John Sturrock, Judah Passow, Mike Goldwater, Martin Slavin, and Steve Benbow.

Throughout the 1980s, photographs taken by Abrahams were included in several Network Photographers exhibitions at Impressions Gallery in Bradford, West Yorkshire, including Working the Surface of the Earth (1988). [16] The photographs have been archived by the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford. [17] [18]

Northern Ireland

In 1990, Abrahams' book Still War: Photographs From The North of Ireland compiled his images of daily life in a community at war. [19] The Irish civil rights leader and politician, Bernadette McAliskey, said the book "can be charged and found guilty of disturbing the peace. [19] Colin Jacobson, picture editor of The Independent newspaper, called his work in Northern Ireland, "documentary photography at its best – imaginative, comprehensive, confident and concerned". [19]

Positive Lives

Abrahams' photographs were included in Positive Lives: Response to HIV & AIDS (1991-2010), a collaboration between the Terrence Higgins Trust, Stephen Mayes and the photographers of the Network agency. Work started in 1991 and premiered in 1993 at FotoFeis, Glasgow and at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, accompanied by a book published by Cassell. [20] The project focused on the social responses to HIV/AIDS and the impact of fear and bigotry on sufferers, their families, and friends. From its inception in the UK in 1991 and its initial launch in 1993, Positive Lives evolved over two decades, with exhibits in more than 30 countries on six continents. New work was created that was specific to each territory. [20] The project was supported by the Levi Strauss Foundation and the Elton John Foundation. The other photographers involved in Positive Lives included Denis Doran, Mike Goldwater, Fergus Greer, Mark Fowler, Barry Lewis, Paul Lowe, Jenny Matthews, Gideon Mendel, Judah Passow, Chris Pillitz, Mark Power, Steve Pyke, Paul Reas, and John Sturrock. [21]

Faith

In 2000, Abrahams won third prize in the Daily Life category of the World Press Photo awards [4] for his photograph "The Holy Mountain", showing pilgrims climbing barefoot up Croagh Patrick to say a mass in honour of Saint Patrick. [22] The work was taken from Faith: A Journey With Those Who Believe, a collection of photographs documenting the passion of pilgrims throughout the world and exploring Christian mystery and superstition with a foreword by Peter Stanford. [23] Abrahams' photographs exploring Christianity were exhibited at the Association of Photographers gallery in April 2001. [24]

Work in film

Abrahams worked as a photographer on the 1984 documentary film, South Africa: A Land Divided, which was sponsored by Christian Aid. [25] He was the stills photographer for Terence Davies' 1988 film Distant Voices, Still Lives, starring Freda Dowie, Pete Postlethwaite, Angela Walsh and Pauline Quirke. [26] [27] His work was featured in Renny Bartlett's 1989 short film, No Explanation Is Necessary: The Nationalist community of Northern Ireland. The five minute film was part of a series called Moving Stills, focusing on documentary photographers living and working Britain, and also featured Abrahams' colleague from Network Photographers, Laurie Sparham. [28]

Other work

In 1992, Abrahams published a collection of six black and white prints entitled British Suburban Cowboys featuring British fans of Country and Western music. [29] His photography was featured in Revealing Views: Images From Ireland (1999) by Joanne Bernstein and Mark Sealy, published in London by Royal Festival Hall, alongside work by Seán Hillen, Mary McIntyre, Pádraig Murphy, Steve Pyke, Paul Seawright, and Victor Sloan. [30]

Abrahams' work has been used in educational textbooks such as 2015's Rights and Protest (Oxford University Press) by Mark Rogers and Peter Clinton, [31] and The Middle East: Conflict, Crisis and Change, 1917-2012, published in 2017. [32]

In 2019, his picture Gangasagar was exhibited at the Royal Academy as part of their Summer Exhibition. [33] A photograph of women washing in the Muri Ganga river in Gangasagar, India, It was selected by Amelia Windsor in Tatler as her highlight of the exhibition. [34]

As a corporate photographer, Abrahams has taken photographs for end of year reports by Premier Oil and Unilever among others. [35] [36]

Publications

The Alienated: Growing Old Today (Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative, 1977) – with Gladys Elder and JB Priestley [11]

Still War: Photographs From The North of Ireland (New Amsterdam Books, New York, 1990) – with Laurie Sparham [37]

Positive Lives: A Response To HIV & AIDS (Cassell, New York, 1993) – with Stephen Mayes, Lyndall Stein, and Edmund White [38]

Faith: A Journey With Those Who Believe (Network Photographers, London, 2000) – foreword by Peter Stanford [39]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Parr</span> British photographer

Martin Parr is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and photobook collector. He is known for his photographic projects that take an intimate, satirical and anthropological look at aspects of modern life, in particular documenting the social classes of England, and more broadly the wealth of the Western world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee Miller</span> American photographer and photojournalist (1907–1977)

Elizabeth "Lee" Miller, Lady Penrose, was an American photographer and photojournalist. Miller was a fashion model in New York City in the 1920s before going to Paris, becoming a fashion and fine-art photographer there.

Robert Carlos Clarke was a British-Irish photographer who made erotic images of women as well as documentary, portrait, and commercial photography.

Mark Power is a British photographer. He is a member of Magnum Photos and Professor of Photography in The Faculty of Arts and Architecture at the University of Brighton. Power has been awarded the Terence Donovan Award and an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Boughton</span> American photographer (1866–1943)

Alice Boughton was an early 20th-century American photographer known for her photographs of many literary and theatrical figures of her time. She was a Fellow of Alfred Stieglitz's Photo-Secession, a circle of photographers whose artistic efforts succeeded in raising photography to a fine art form.

Christopher Horace Steele-Perkins is a British photographer and member of Magnum Photos, best known for his depictions of Africa, Afghanistan, England, Northern Ireland, and Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christina Broom</span> Scottish photographer

Christina Broom was a Scottish photographer, credited as "the UK's first female press photographer".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rotimi Fani-Kayode</span> Nigerian photographer who migrated to the United Kingdom

Oluwarotimi Adebiyi Wahab Fani-Kayode was a Nigerian-born photographer, who moved to England at the age of 12 to escape the Nigerian Civil War. The main body of his work was created between 1982 and 1989. He explored the tensions created by sexuality, race and culture through stylised portraits and compositions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zanele Muholi</span> South African artist and visual activist (born 1972)

Zanele Muholi is a South African artist and visual activist working in photography, video, and installation. Muholi's work focuses on race, gender and sexuality with a body of work that dates back to the early 2000s, documenting and celebrating the lives of South Africa's Black lesbian, gay, transgender, and intersex communities. Muholi is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, explaining that "I'm just human".

Gideon Mendel is a South African photographer, based in London. His work engages with contemporary social issues of global concern. It was his work as a 'struggle photographer' during the final years of apartheid in the 1980s that first brought attention to his work.

Gisèle Wulfsohn was a South African photographer. Wulfsohn was a newspaper, magazine, and freelance photographer specialising on portrait, education, health and gender issues. She was known for documenting various HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns. She died in 2011 from lung cancer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Reas</span> British photographer (born 1955)

Paul Reas is a British social documentary photographer and university lecturer. He is best known for photographing consumerism in Britain in the 1980s and 1990s.

Nick Turpin is a British street photographer and advertising and design photographer. He is based in London and near Lyon, France.

Matt Stuart (1974) is a British street photographer. He was a member of the In-Public street photography collective. Stuart also works as an advertising photographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tish Murtha</span> British photographer

Patricia Anne "Tish" Murtha was a British social documentary photographer best known for documenting marginalised communities, social realism and working class life in Newcastle upon Tyne and the North East of England.

David Gibson (1957) is a British street photographer and writer on photography. He was a member of the In-Public street photography collective.

Richard Bram is an American street photographer. He is based in London and was a member of the In-Public street photography collective.

Janine Wiedel is a documentary photographer and visual anthropologist. She was born in New York City, has been based in the UK since 1970, and lives in London. Since the late 1960s she has been working on projects which have become books and exhibitions. In the early 1970s she spent five years working on a project about Irish Travellers; in the late 1970s two years documenting the industrial heartland of Britain. Wiedel's work is socially minded, exploring themes such as resistance, protest, multiculturalism and counterculture movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sue Davies</span> British gallery director (1933–2020)

Susan Elizabeth Davies OBE HonFRPS was the founder of The Photographers' Gallery in 1971, Britain's first independent gallery of photography, which she directed until 1991.

John Benton-Harris was an American photographer and educator who lived and worked in the United Kingdom.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "DC Photography - Photographer page - Decorative Collective". www.decorativecollective.com. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  2. ↑ LensCulture, Mike Abrahams |. "Mike Abrahams". LensCulture. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  3. ↑ "Luminous-Lint - Image". www.luminous-lint.com. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 "2000 Mike Abrahams DLS3-AL | World Press Photo". www.worldpressphoto.org. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  5. 1 2 Walker, John A. (2002). Left Shift: Radical Art in 1970s Britain (PDF). London: I.B. Tauris. p. 198. ISBN   9781860647659.
  6. ↑ "Portraits | mike abrahams". mikeabrahams.photoshelter.com. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  7. ↑ "Camden Co-Optic - Mike Abrahams, Dorothy Bohm, Joyce Edwards, Fay Godwin, Mike Goldwater, Nick Hedges, Lora Verner, Stephen Weiss". www.fourcornersarchive.org. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  8. ↑ "Growing Old - Mike Abrahams". www.fourcornersarchive.org. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  9. ↑ "No Nuclear Weapons - Peter Kennard & Mike Abrahams". www.fourcornersarchive.org. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  10. ↑ "No Nuclear Weapons - Peter Kennard & Mike Abrahams". www.fourcornersarchive.org. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  11. 1 2 Elder, Gladys, 1899-1976. (1977). The alienated : growing old today. Bernard, Christine, 1924-. London: Writers and Readers Pub. Cooperative. ISBN   0-904613-63-1. OCLC   3904577.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ↑ Adamson, Lesley (24 August 1977). "Look at what's over the hill". The Guardian .
  13. ↑ "Camerawork Magazine - Issue 08". www.fourcornersarchive.org. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  14. ↑ "Camerawork Magazine - Issue 17". www.fourcornersarchive.org. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  15. ↑ "Mike Abrahams | Science Museum Group Collection". collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  16. ↑ "The London Metal Exchange | Science Museum Group Collection". collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  17. ↑ "Steven Massey, Suffering from Asthma | Science Museum Group Collection". collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  18. ↑ "Ernest Goodwin Suffering from Asthma | Science Museum Group Collection". collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  19. 1 2 3 "Still War: Photographs from the North of Ireland by Mike Abrahams, Laurie Sparham | Waterstones". www.waterstones.com. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  20. 1 2 Photo, World Press (1 December 2018). "Positive Lives — A Living History". Medium. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  21. ↑ "Paul Reas". staff.southwales.ac.uk. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  22. ↑ Abbasi, Jibran (27 April 2017). "The Holy Mountain by Mike Abrahams". Brecorder. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  23. ↑ Faith on Amazon. ASIN   0953675629.
  24. ↑ Administrator, System (5 April 2001). "Exhibitions". Design Week. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  25. ↑ "South Africa - A Land Divided (1984)". BFI. Archived from the original on 30 August 2021. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  26. ↑ "Distant Voices, Still Lives". dev.tcm.com. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  27. ↑ "Distant Voices Still Lives (1988)". BFI. Archived from the original on 1 March 2016. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  28. ↑ "Arts on Film Archive". artsonfilm.wmin.ac.uk. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  29. ↑ "Southern Comfort Cruise | Science Museum Group Collection". collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  30. ↑ Revealing views : images from Ireland. Bernstein, Joanne., Sealy, Mark. London: Royal Festival Hall. 1999. ISBN   1-85332-194-X. OCLC   41170356.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  31. ↑ Rogers, Mark; Clinton, Peter (2015). Rights and protests : course companion. Oxford, United Kingdom. ISBN   978-0-19-831019-8. OCLC   923895762.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  32. ↑ Brash, Hilary. History. The Middle East: conflict, crisis and change, 1919-2012. Harlow. ISBN   978-0-435-18541-1. OCLC   1063649294.
  33. ↑ "842 - GANGASAGAR by Mike Abrahams". se.royalacademy.org.uk. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  34. ↑ Windsor, Amelia (8 June 2019). "Amelia Windsor shares her highlights from the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition". Tatler. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  35. ↑ "British American Tobacco: Performance Review" (PDF). 2012.
  36. ↑ "Unilever Annual Review" (PDF). 1998.
  37. ↑ Abrahams, Mike. (1990). Still war : photographs from the North of Ireland. Sparham, Laurie. New York: New Amsterdam. ISBN   0-941533-86-7. OCLC   22619644.
  38. ↑ Positive lives : responses to HIV : a photodocumentary. Mayes, Stephen,, Stein, Lyndall,, White, Edmund, 1940-. New York, NY. 1993. ISBN   0-304-32846-4. OCLC   29477675.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  39. ↑ Abrahams, Mike. (2000). Faith : a journey with those who believe. Stanford, Peter. London: Network Photographers. ISBN   0-9536756-2-9. OCLC   47897631.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.