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- 10 - 19
In August 2024, an ordinary day on Lincoln High Street was captured by award-winning photographer Richard Ansett, documenting the beauty and drama of everyday life. With Ansett wearing a waist-level viewfinder camera, and his assistant holding a powerful flash on the end of a 10ft pole, shoppers were in no doubt that they were being photographed that day. The result is a series of spontaneous and striking images, and one of the largest exhibitions in street photography by a living artist.
Street photography is a departure and ‘an experiment’ for Ansett, who is best known for his portraiture held in national and international collections, including the National Portrait Gallery, The Smithsonian, and Bibliotheque Nationale de France. Underpinning Ansett’s practice is an exploration of people’s lives. Adopted from birth, with no knowledge of his biological roots, he has used the camera his whole life to examine how "other people do life", in an attempt to make some sense of his own. In this respect, his latest exhibition in street photography is not so different from previous work.
Ansett says, "I must have taken hundreds of thousands of pictures in the search for that elusive ‘perfect photo’ - it can sometimes feel like the quest for the Holy Grail! In Lincoln, I wanted to try a completely different approach, which is why this exhibition is called an ‘experiment’. I stopped trying so hard and just let whatever happened, happen and I feel like the universe returned the favour. I don't feel consciously responsible for these pictures, they are a document of me in the street with everyone else on the way to somewhere."
Lincolnshire was home to Chad Varah, who established the Samaritans charity in 1953. For Ansett, who has been a listening volunteer for over 20 years, this was a revelation that helped him form a relationship with Lincoln and its people when he was feeling like an outsider. Ansett rarely speaks of this connection but reveals that working for the charity has taught him much, and has undoubtedly informed the way he photographs people.
Commissioned by Usher Gallery, an extension of Lincoln Museum, and Lincolnshire County Council, the exhibition will feature 4 meter high prints of the images, wallpapered floor to ceiling and wrapping the entire gallery interior, with a special wall built to accommodate them. The exhibitions opens on 22 November and runs until 15 February 2026. Open Thursday - Monday, 10am-4p, free admission.
Artist:
Richard Ansett is a fine art, social documentary portrait photographer, creative director, writer and speaker with a distinctive and prolific personal and commercial practice spanning over 30 years. Many of his portraits have been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery. The portrait of the film director David Lynch was acquired by the Smithsonian and his portrait of film director David Cronenberg and Professor Margaret MacMillan acquired by the National Canadian Library and Archives. The portrait of Dame Hilary Mantel was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in 2023 on the event of her death and he was the only man whose work and testimony were included in ‘Reframing Narratives Women in Portraiture’.
‘BIRTH – A Portrait of Grayson Perry’ was awarded first prize at the Sony World Photography Awards 2019 and the previously unpublished archive of his 10 year relationship with the artist ‘MUSE- A Portrait of Grayson Perry’ was published by ACC Art Books in 2023 to critical acclaim.
The Usher Gallery, Lindum Road, Lincoln, LN2 1NN
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