Chris Harrison (photographer)

Chris Harrison (Christopher Matthew Harrison,[1][2] born 1967 in Jarrow)[3][4][5] is an English photographer known for his work which has explored ideas of home, histories and class.[3]

For other people named Christopher Harrison, see Christopher Harrison (disambiguation).
Chris Harrison
Harrison at the private view of Copper Horses at the National Media Museum, Bradford
Born
Christopher Matthew Harrison

1 July 1967
Jarrow, UK
NationalityEnglish
EducationTrent Polytechnic, The Royal College of Art
Known forPhotography

Early life

Harrison grew up in Jarrow, England[1][3][4][5] and attended Valley View Junior School.[3][6] He left school at 15 when he became an apprentice fitter at Swan Hunter shipyard.[2] In 1985, he took up photography[7] and in June 1990, Harrison graduated alongside Simon Starling and Nick Waplington with an honours degree in photographic studies from Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham.[2][7] It was also at this time that Harrison served in The Light Infantry (7th Durham Battalion) and qualified as a sniper.[8][9][10][11]

Works

Whatever Happened to Audra Patterson?

In 1991, Harrison was awarded a Northern Arts Production Award to make the work "Whatever Happened to Audra Patterson?"[n 1][2][7][12][13] Taking as his starting point his own Valley View Junior school class photo from 1978, Harrison located all but one of his former classmates and photographed them.[3][6][7][10] Audra Patterson, who had hidden behind another pupil in the class photo was never found, thus giving rise to the title.[3] Consisting of twenty-nine large scale colour portraits,[12] the work has "the formal appearance of portraiture but the conceptual stance of documentary",[11] and has been described as countering the tradition of grainy black and white romanticism of the working class.[11] This work has been seen as "using documentary photography as a tool of history" and in which "there is certainly an implicit political critique…one which operates to disperse the accumulated romantic baggage which surrounds North-Eastern photography."[11] The work was shown at the Zone Photographic Gallery Newcastle in 1992[6][7][11][12][14] and featured in the Independent Magazine.[6]

Under the Hood.

In the spring of 1993, after Simon Grennan (Kartoon Kings) had seen "Whatever happened to Audra Patterson?" in the Independent magazine,[6][7] Harrison was commissioned by the Viewpoint Gallery, Salford to make the work "Under the Hood".[n 2][7][10] Working closely with a group of young men on the Pendleton Estate in Salford, Harrison used the conventions of Renaissance portraiture to show a different side of young men who were seen as dangerous and marginal.[7][10][13] The autobiographical nature of Harrison's work is apparent. When talking about the young men he photographed Harrison stated "The only thing that separates me from them is luck…I photograph to find out about myself, to find out where I'm coming from"[15]

Described by Val Williams as "one of the few photo series to emerge from the new British colour documentary which neither satirised nor objectified a group in society, which saw itself as marginalised, bound into, and emerging from, a culture of poverty and lack of opportunity."[3] "Under the Hood" was later shown at the 1998 Rencontres d'Arles photography festival, Arles, France. As part of the group show "Les Anglais vus par les Anglais" (trans. How the English see the English).[4]

Noblesse Oblige.

In 1995 Photoworks commissioned Harrison to undertake the first in a series of Country Life commissions in the English town of Petworth. The resulting work, Noblesse Oblige[n 3] was put on permanent display in Leconfield Hall.[5][14]

Sites of Memory

In 1995 Harrison began his long-term project, "Sites of Memory"[n 4] consisting of panoramic colour photographs of World War I memorials. The images serve to interrogate the place of memory in the contemporary landscape,[9][16] By using a large format panoramic camera and a slow shutter speed Harrison shows the viewer the memorials in isolation as opposed to how we normally see them, i.e. in passing. This emphasises the act of looking and "the result is to give objects we hardly ever examine an ironic splendour."[17] "Sites of Memory" has continued to be exhibited extensively most notably, the Imperial War Museum, London,[8][9] Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin.[3][14][16][17][18] and in 2007 "Sites of Memory" was exhibited at the Tate Britain, London as part of an extensive survey of British Photography curated by Val Williams and Susan Bright, "How we are: Photographing Britain from the 1840s to the Present".[14][19]

In 1997 Harrison was awarded a scholarship to attend the Royal College of Art and studied alongside Clare Strand, Anne Hardy, Bettina von Zwehl, Sophy Rickett, Gareth McConnell and Alison Jackson[2]

In 2001 Harrison moved to Oslo, Norway with his family and is a lecturer at Bilder Nordic School of Photography.[3][20][21]

I Belong Jarrow

In 2012 Harrison published his first monograph,"I Belong Jarrow"[n 5][3] about his hometown, Jarrow, England. In this, Harrison considers an understanding of the north and its place in photographic culture through memory and personal history. "I Belong Jarrow" consists of large format urban landscapes mixed with "an anarchic mixture of jokes, observations, and personal histories, he takes us to the heart of his own Jarra, and leaves us there to make of it what we will."[3] Photographs from the series "I belong Jarrow" have been exhibited in England and Europe, including the MACRO Testaccio, Rome.[22] and the Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, Sunderland, England.[23]

Copper Horses

In 2012, Harrison was awarded the 16th Bradford Fellowship at the National Media Museum, Bradford, England. The Fellowship enabled mid-career photographers to develop their professional practice. Previous recipients included Paul Graham, David Hurn, Donovan Wylie and Sarah Jones.[24][25][26][27] For the one year Fellowship Harrison photographed the boring machine his father had operated throughout his working life.[28] "The result is a complex visual metaphor for his thoughts and feelings about his relationship with his father and the many people who work hard to make ends meet in British industry".[29]

The work, titled "Copper Horses"[n 6] was exhibited at the National Media Museum in 2013. The title of the exhibition derives from the name given to a copper component for electrical substation produced by the workers in Jarrow.[30]

For the exhibition Copper Horses, Harrison produced a set of images which show some of his father's Tools and possessions (a set of Dominoes a Micrometer, a photograph of him when he was 16 and a champion swimmer) and the dismantled parts of the machine (Vertical and Horizontal boring machine) he operated, from the age of 15 years until retirement.[30]

Publications

Photobooks by Harrison
  • I Belong Jarrow. Amsterdam: Schilt Publishing, 2012. ISBN 978-9053307809. With an essay by Val Williams
  • Sites of memory: war memorials at the end of the 20th century. London: The Imperial War Museum, 1997. ISBN 187-0423461. With an essay by Dr. Catherine Moriarty.
  • Noblesse Oblige, The residents and interiors of the Somerset Hospital. Maidstone: Photoworks, 1996. ISBN 095-1742701. With an essay by Peter Jerrome.
  • Under the Hood. Salford: Viewpoint Gallery, 1994. ISBN 090-1952311. With an essay by Val Williams.

Other publications
  • Art from Contemporary Conflict. London: The Imperial War Museum, 2015. ISBN 978-1-904897-743. Edited by Sara Bevan.
  • Motherland, Fotografia Festival Internazionale di Roma. X Edizione, Rome: Quodlibet, 2011. ISBN 978-8874624102 With an essay by Marc Prüst.
  • How We Are: Photographing Britain from the 1840s to the Present. London: Tate Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-1854377142. Edited by Val Williams and Susan Bright.
  • Markus Brendmoe Paintings etc. Oslo, Galleri Brandstrup, 2007. ISBN 978-82-994352-2-2. With an essay by Kristin Ellefsen.
  • Der Weltkrieg Ereignis und Erinnerung 1914–1918. Berlin: Deutsches Historisches Museum, 2004. ISBN 386-1021293. With an essay by Rainer Rother.
  • For Evermore, Dublin: Gallery of Photography. 2000. ISBN 095-2674173. With an essay by Peter Neill.
  • Un Nouveau Paysage Humain, Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie. Arles. Arles: Actes Sud, 1998. ISBN 274-2717803. With an essay by Gabriel Bauret.
  • Fanny & Darko, Il mestiere di crescere. Milan, Edizione Gabriele Mazzotta, 1997. ISBN 882-0212234. With an essay by Stefano Benni.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions (selected)
  • Whatever Happened to Audra Patterson? Zone Gallery, Newcastle, England. 1992.[7]
  • Under the Hood. Viewpoint Photography Gallery, Salford, England. 1994.[7][10]
  • Noblesse Oblige. Leaconfield Hall, Petworth, England. 1996.[5]
  • Sites of Memory: war memorials at the end of the 20th century. The Imperial War Museum London, England. 1997.[8][9]
  • I Belong Jarrow. PUG, Oslo, Norway. 2012.[31]
  • Copper Horses. The National Media Museum, Bradford, England. 2013.[24][25]
  • Sites of Memory II. Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton, England. 2018.[32]

Group exhibitions (selected)

Collections
  • The Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK.[36]
  • The National Media Museum Photography Collection, Bradford, UK.[37]
  • The Imperial War Museum, London, UK.[38]
  • The British Council, UK.[39]
  • Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton, UK.[32]

Notes
  1. The series is reproduced here within Harrison's site.
  2. The series is reproduced here within Harrison's site.
  3. The series is reproduced here within Harrison's site.
  4. The series is reproduced here within Harrison's site.
  5. The series is reproduced within Harrison's site.
  6. The series is reproduced here within Harrison's site.

References
  1. Frisinghelli, Christine, ed. (1993). "Forum". Camera Austria (in German and English). Graz, Austria (42): 66. ISSN 1015-1915.
  2. Frayling, Christopher, ed. (1999). The Royal College of Art Show, 1999 (1st ed.). London: Royal College of Art. pp. 30–31. ISBN 187-4175438.
  3. Harrison, Chris (2012). I Belong Jarrow (PDF) (1st ed.). Amsterdam: Schilt. ISBN 978 90 5330 780 9.
  4. Bauret, Gabriel (1998). Un Nouveau Paysage Humain, Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles (in French and English) (1st ed.). Arles: Actes Sud. pp. 120–127. ISBN 2742717803.
  5. Harrison, Chris (1996). Jerrome, Peter (ed.). Noblesse Oblige, The residents and interiors of the Somerset Hospital (1st ed.). Maidstone: Photoworks. pp. 14–31. ISBN 0951742701.
  6. Mitchison, Amanda (8 August 1992). "Anatomy of a Classroom". The Independent Magazine. London: Independent Print Ltd.: 34–39.
  7. Harrison, Chris (1994). Williams, Val (ed.). Under the Hood (1st ed.). Salford: Viewpoint Gallery. ISBN 090-1952311.
  8. Dr. Catherine Moriarty. (1997). Sites of memory: war memorials at the end of the 20th century. London: The Imperial War Museum. ISBN 187-0423461.
  9. Kerr, Joe (November 1998). "War & Peace". Blueprint. London: Aspen Publishing (155): 40–42. ISSN 0268-4926.
  10. Val Williams (18 June 1994). "Salford Knights". The Guardian Weekend. London: The Guardian News and Media: 26–31.
  11. Mark Little (1992). "Whatever Happened to Audra Patterson?". Creative Camera (318): 44–45. ISSN 0011-0876.
  12. Jack Lithgow (1992). "Whatever Happened to Audra Patterson?". Iron Magazine. Newcastle: Iron Press (67): 38–41. ISSN 0140-7597.
  13. Stefano Benni (1997). Fanny & Darko, Il mestiere di crescere (in Italian and English) (1st ed.). Milan: Edizione Gabriele Mazzotta. pp. 117–126. ISBN 8820212234.
  14. Bright, Susan; Williams, Val, eds. (2007). How We Are: Photographing Britain from the 1840s to the Present (1st ed.). London: Tate Publishing. pp. 6, 173, 214. ISBN 9781854377142.
  15. Val Williams (November 1994). "Stories of the Self". Art Press (in French and English). Paris (196): 34–39. ISSN 0245-5676.
  16. Rainer Rother (2004). Der Weltkrieg 1914–1918 Ereignis und Erinnerung (in German) (1st ed.). Berlin: Deutsches Historisches Museum. pp. 350–353. ISBN 3861021293.
  17. David Brett (Winter 1999). "War Memorials". Source, Ireland's Photographic Review. Photo Works North (21): 44–49.
  18. Peter Neill (2000). For Evermore: Fading Evidence of the Great War (1st ed.). Dublin: Gallery of Photography. pp. 9–10 28–31. ISBN 0952674173.
  19. Billy Bragg (29 April 2007). "The view from here". The Observer. Guardian Media Group Ltd.
  20. "Faculty Profiles: Chris Harrison". Bilder Nordic School of Photography (in Norwegian). Oslo, Norway. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  21. "Interview with Chris Harrison". Beyond words. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  22. Marc Prüst (2011). Motherland, Fotografia Festival Internazionale di Roma. X Edizione (in Italian) (1st ed.). Rome: Quodlibet. pp. 67–69. ISBN 9788874624102.
  23. Chris Harrison. "I Belong Jarrow". The Social: Encountering Photography. North East Photography Network. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  24. "Copper Horses by Chris Harrison". National Science and Media Museum. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  25. Ruddle, Patricia Ann (Spring 2014). "I Belong Jarrow". The Royal Photographic Society Journal. London: 5–10. ISSN 0959-6704.
  26. Rhodes, Helen (February 2013). "I Belong Jarrow". Image. London (422): 35–39. ISSN 1361-2050.
  27. "I Belong Jarrow". Verve Photo: The New Breed of Documentary Photographers. 4 March 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  28. "Introducing Copper Horses by Chris Harrison". 2 November 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  29. Liddy, Brian. "Hidden in plain sight: Backdrops and drapery in photography". National Science and Media Museum blog. National Science and Media Museum. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  30. "Copper Horses". Professional Photographer. Norwich: Archant Specialist Limited. 30 August 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  31. "Chris Harrison, I Belong Jarrow". LensCulture. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  32. "Wolverhampton Arts & Culture". Wolverhampton Art Gallery. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  33. "Face Value – Contemporary British Photo Portraits". British Council Collection. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  34. "You Are The Company in Which You Keep". The Social: Encountering Photography. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  35. Bevan, Sara (2015). Art from Contemporary Conflict (PDF) (1st ed.). London: The Imperial War Museum. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-904897-743. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  36. "The Collections". The Victoria & Albert Museum. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  37. "The Bradford Fellowship". The National Media Museum. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  38. "The Imperial War Museum, Collections". The Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  39. "British Council Visual Art Collection". The British Council. Retrieved 12 April 2015.

"The Victoria and Albert Museum". The Collections. Retrieved 13 February 2018.

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