Paddy Summerfield – Mother and Father

Dear Paddy has been an institution in Oxford for decades, he was the very first person to appear at the original Photographers Workshop on 6th June 1982, he shambled through the door and said, ‘hi I’m Paddy can I help’.  He has been a great source of inspiration and support for so many fresh faced new photographers that there is probably a book just on who has been influenced by the great man. Now as part of Photography Oxford he is showing his touching and long term body of work Mother and Father.

This first public showing of Paddy Summerfield’s Mother And Father is part of the new PHOTOGRAPHYOXFORD 2014 Biennale, and also marks the publication of his book (Dewi Lewis Publishing). The images will be installed in the actual garden where most of the photographs were taken. The exhibition and  book document the final decade of a 60 year marriage, that began in the summer of 1939 as war approached, and ended under the shadows of another struggle: the trials of old age and his mother’s loss of memory. Summerfield reflects through the lens of his own vision the bond between his mother and father, which even dementia could not break.

As Gerry Badger writes: “Nothing much happens in these pictures, just everyday, commonplace, important things. The Summerfields tend their garden, they walk and sit within its protective embrace, they embrace each other.”....READ MORE HERE

©Paddy Summerfield

 

 

©Paddy Summerfield

Location: PhotographyOxford 2014

Venue 22: 337 Banbury Road OX2 7PL

Opening Hours: 6.30-8.30pm daily

Paddy Summerfield

Mother And Father

14.09.14 – 05.10.14

PhotographyOxford 2014 / Oxford / England