C-Type Fujicolor photograph from Ray's a Laugh

Untitled C-Type Fujicolor photograph from 35mm colour negative by Richard Billingham about 1995.

Richard Billingham (b. 1970) was born in Birmingham. He came to prominence through his photographs of his family, who lived in a tower block in the city. The photographs were published in 1996 in a book entitled Ray's A Laugh, and depicted the chaotic lives of his alcoholic father Ray, his mother Liz and younger brother Jason.

The photographs, shot using a cheap 35mm camera, were made initially as studies for paintings whilst Billingham was studying fine art at the University of Sunderland. The remarkably frank images, reminiscent of family snapshots, depict a life of poverty, but are tempered by moments of intimacy between Liz and Ray. In this photograph, which is both humorous and desperate, the family's pet cat is thrown across the room by Ray.

From the `Ray's a Laugh' temporary exhibition held at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford, September to November 1996.