The Barbican in London has recently opened Strange and Familiar: Britain as Revealed by International Photographers, an exhibition exploring the way international photographers have been portraying the UK since the 1930s. The show was curated by Martin Parr. I’m quite the Parr fan so i raced there, expecting cheerfulness throughout the galleries. And I was certainly much entertained during my visit but i never expected to be moved to tears by one of the photo series.
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
In 1980, the Sunday Times Magazine asked Raymond Depardon to go and photograph Glasgow. Depardon was a French war photographer who had just returned from civil war-torn Beirut. Yet he wasn’t ready for the scenes of poverty and desolation he found in Thatcher-era Glasgow. Rows of tall, dark council flats. Drunk men on wobbly legs. Broken windows. Raw poverty. Rain and so much grey skies. But also smiling guys, children playing and stylish mums. Still, his images was deemed too upsetting and Sunday Times Magazine never published them.
I knew that Glasgow used to have a bad reputation but to me, it’s the city of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, of lovely accents, contemporary art and the UK capital veganism. A tour of the city in the early 1980s shocked me beyond words.
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos
More images online. Or in the freshly published book Glasgow, Raymond Depardon, préface William Boyd (amazon USA and UK
Strange and Familiar: Britain as Revealed by International Photographers, curated by Martin Parr, is at the Barbican in London until 19 June 2016.