The Makina Books Podcast: David Moore

September 2019
Publisher and founder of Makina Books, Robin Christian introduces a new podcast about narratives in publishing.

Episode 1: David Moore

David Moore is a widely published London-based photographic artist using and interrogating documentary modes. Moore belonged to a group that has come to be known as ‘the second wave of new colour documentary in Britain’, having attended West Surrey College of Art and Design, where he was taught alongside photographers such as Anna Fox and Paul Seawright.

In episode 1, David discusses, among other things:

  • Growing up in Derby, a City in the East Midlands
  • Discovering the ‘New Colour British Photography’
  • Photographing Miners Demonstrations
  • West Surrey College of Art and Design
  • Producing ‘Pictures From the Real World’
  • James Hyman, Collector
  • Archive Intervention
  • Val Williams, Curator
  • Representational Difficulties
  • Working in Theatre
  • The Lisa and John Project

Referenced:

In 2012, photographer David Moore returned to the site of his celebrated 1980s colour documentary series Pictures from the Real World. Moore offered the full archive of the project to Lisa and John, two subjects of the original series and asked them to make their own selections. The outcome released many previously unseen photographs and became the acclaimed script and play The Lisa and John Slideshow – a contemporary piece of documentary theatre addressing family memory, loss and the everyday.

The Lisa and John Slideshow is a powerful archival intervention from two original subjects of a significant collection of colour documentary photographs of families on a council estate in Moore’s home city of Derby, UK, made between 1987 and 1988.

David has had solo shows at The Photographers’ Gallery, London, Belfast Exposed, Impressions Gallery, Bradford; The Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool and many others. Current group shows include Home Sweet Home a survey show of British photography at Rencontres des Arles 2019 and touring and Civilisation -The Way we Live Now curated by William Ewing and touring internationally until 2022.

30 years after being made, Pictures From The Real World (Dewi Lewis/Here Press) offered a view on his early work and was published to critical acclaim with reviews in Time Magazine, The Guardian, The Independent, and many others in 2013.

davidmoore.uk.com

“What Lisa and John does is to open up the archive, it allows, both Lisa and John to voice their own thoughts on the photographs and reclaim part of the archive for themselves.”

The Lisa and John Slideshow limited edition book is published by Makina Books on October 7 2019. The book will be available in all good bookshops this Autumn, distributed by Cornerhouse Publications.

  • Front cover of the book, The Lisa and John Slideshow, a play about photography, by David Moore.