Richard Billingham: Ray's a Laugh: Books on Books No. 18

Photographer and painter Richard Billingham (born 1970) grew up in a cramped, high-rise tenement apartment with his mother and father in Birmingham, England. His father, Ray, was an unemployed, chronic alcoholic, often sleeping the whole day through, while Liz, Billingham s overweight and heavily tattooed mother, filled her home with porcelain dolls and jigsaw puzzles, housing ten cats and three dogs. These are Billingham s subjects. In stark comparison to conventional family photos around the dinner table or in front of the Christmas tree, Billingham s images are raw, intimate and often uncomfortably humorous. First published in 2000, Ray s a Laugh is now considered one of the most important British photo books of the recent past. This publication reproduces this renowned book spread by spread, including a contemporary essay by Charlotte Cotton.