Now the time returns again

摘要

Though far less polemical, Berry's work is not so far from the spirit that inhabits Bill Brandt's The English at Home (1936), A compilation of images selected to make a point, it offers a series of contrapuntal views stressing how Englishness is visually expressed through a series of oppositions: rich/poor, urban/rural, high/low-culture, work/leisure, and so on. McCullin's strong and moralistic vision contrasts greatly with another tradition of work on Englishness first exemplified by Tony Ray-Jones (1941-1972) whose now iconic but posthumous work, A Day Off (1974) is widely seen as the trigger that sent the bullet of a new sensibility through British photography, Martin Parr was and remains the most significant carrier of this strongly surreal take on the British approach to both leisure and heritage, and it informs his work to this day.