Revisiting New Brighton by Phillip Lake (Collated Observations 21)
Phillip Lake is a documentary photographer and avid photobook collector based in Shropshire. He trained as a technical Illustrator and, through that work, became interested in photography. In 2006 Phillip opened the PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGE gallery in Shrewsbury, which he owned for eight years.
Revisiting New Brighton
"My first visit to New Brighton, a coastal resort on The Wirral Peninsula, was in July 2018 to see the 'New Brighton Revisited' exhibition organised and curated by Northern Narratives. It featured the work of three of my favourite British documentary photographers; Ken Grant, Martin Parr and Tom Wood. I had admired their work for many years through the photobooks I had collected, and witnessing their work, exhibited together in the town where it was created, proved to be an inspirational moment for me.
I can trace my love of documentary photography and photobooks back to the purchase of Tom Wood's 'All Zones off Peak', a fifteen-year project documenting bus passengers in Liverpool. I was equally inspired by his now-iconic 'Looking for love', taken in the Chelsea Reach nightclub in New Brighton during the 1980's. At a similar time, I came across 'The Close Season' by Ken Grant and the now much revered 'The Last Resort' by Martin Parr.
It was these books, this exhibition, and my first trip to the town itself that led to my own passion for photographing New Brighton. I would like to think my take on it is a 'quiet story told' of this beautifully faded British seaside town, slightly noir, even melancholy, but hopefully with warmth and affection. I will happily continue to visit New Brighton, adding to my archive and following in the footsteps and tradition set by these three documentary photographers, and someday we may even meet on the street."
As a nod of respect to Martin Parr’s seminal book ‘The Last Resort’, first published in 1986, this zine has a limited print run of 86 copies. The first twenty of these are available direct from Phillip with a signed print of the cover image. Visit his Instagram feed for more information.
40 pages cover-to-cover, perfect bound.
Digitally printed on 170gsm silk paper, 300 gsm cover with matt laminate.
