Paddy Summerfield (18 February 1947 – 11 April 2024) was a British photographer who lived and worked in Oxford all his life.
Summerfield is known for his "evocative series of black and white images, shot on 35mm film, which co-opt the traditional genre of documentary photography to realise a more personal and inward looking vision." He has said his photographs are exclusively about abandonment and loss.
Life and career Paddy Summerfield was born on 18 February 1947.Potted biography of Summerfield; in Gerry Badger and John Benton-Harris (ed), Through the Looking Glass: Photographic Art in Britain 1945–1989 (London: Barbican Art Gallery, 1989), p. 197. After taking an Art Foundation course at the Oxford Polytechnic, Summerfield attended Guildford School of Art, studying firstly in the Photography Department, then joining the Film department the following year. In 1967, when still a first-year student, he made photographs that appeared in 1970 in Bill Jay's magazine Album."Paddy Summerfield: New talent", Album, issue 2 (March 1970), pp. 43–45. Jay made a PDF of this available from his website (which no longer exists); here is a 26 April 2012 Wayback Machine copy of this. Between 1968 and 1978, Summerfield documented Oxford University students in the summer terms. His pictures published in Creative Camera, and on its cover in January 1974, were recognised as psychological and expressionist, unusual in an era of journalistic and documentary photography. Throughout his life, Summerfield has focused on making photographic essays that are personal documents. From 1997 to 2007 he photographed his parents, his mother with Alzheimer's disease and his father caring for her.
Like It Is was Summerfield's first London exhibition, a group show in Dixon's Photographic Gallery, Oxford Street, in 1967. Since then, his work has been exhibited at other London venues, including the ICA Gallery, the Serpentine Gallery, the Barbican, and The Photographers' Gallery in its Newport Street home. When Nicholas Serota was director of the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, he offered Summerfield the opportunity to exhibit Beneath the Dreaming Spires, his first one-man show, in 1976.
During his early career, he was awarded several Arts Council grants.
Summerfield died on 11 April 2024, at the age of 77.
Publications Books by Summerfield Mother and Father. Stockport, UK: Dewi Lewis, 2014. .Dewi Lewis's page about Mother and Father is here. The Oxford Pictures 1968–1978. Stockport, UK: Dewi Lewis, 2016. .Dewi Lewis's page about The Oxford Pictures is here. Empty Days. Stockport, UK: Dewi Lewis, 2018. .Dewi Lewis's page about Empty Days is here. The Holiday Pictures. Stockport, UK: Dewi Lewis, 2019. .Dewi Lewis's page about The Holiday Pictures is here. Home Movie. Stockport, UK: Dewi Lewis, 2021. . With an essay by Patricia Baker-Cassidy.Dewi Lewis's page about Home Movie is here.
Smaller publications by Summerfield Weekend Away. Southport, UK: Café Royal, 2016. Edition of 200 copies.Café Royal's page about Weekend Away is here . Remember Hope. Photopaper 17. Fotobookfestival Kassel, 2017. Edited by Gerry Badger.The page about Remember Hope at Photopaper's website is here . Distant Times. Southport, UK: Café Royal, 2018. Edition of 250 copies.Café Royal's page about Distant Times is here .
Publications with others Serpentine Photography 73: The Arts Council presents work by 43 young photographers. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1973. . 45 cards (90 sides) in an envelope. Family: Photographers Photograph Their Families. Edited by Sophie Spencer-Wood. London and New York: Phaidon, 2005. .
Exhibitions Solo exhibitions 1976: Beneath the Dreaming Spires, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London 1992: Retrospective, Ruskin School of Art, Oxford 2005: Empty Days, Ovada, Oxford 2019–2020: The Holiday Pictures, Flow Photographic Gallery, London 2025: Paddy Summerfield: the camera helps, Bodleian Library, Oxford
Group exhibitions 1967: Like It Is, Dixon's Photographic Gallery, London 1971: Young Contemporaries I Creative Camera Travelling ExhibitionBritish Journal of Photography, February 1971 1972: Young Contemporaries II Creative Camera Travelling Exhibition 1973: Serpentine Photography '73, Serpentine Gallery, London. Curated by Peter Turner"2008 – Serpentine Photography 73". Arts Council Collection. Retrieved 28 March 2017 1974: Co-Optic Real Britain, 19 February – 9 March. With Co-Optic group members Martin Parr, Chris Steele-Perkins, Peter Turner, and Nick Hedges. 1975: Young British Photographers, with Brian Griffin, Chris Steele-Perkins, etc, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; The Photographers' Gallery, London; then travelling UK, Europe, USA 1975: International Photography, Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo 1976: Previous Exhibitors, Serpentine Gallery, London 1977: Singular Realities, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; Side Gallery, Newcastle 1977: Concerning Photography, 6 July – 27 August, The Photographers' Gallery, London 1982: The Third Meaning, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford 1982: Under the Arches, Stedelijk Museum, Leiden 1984: Sequences, Cambridge Darkroom 1987: The Bradford Challenge, National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford 1988: Death, Cambridge Darkroom 1989: Through the Looking Glass, Barbican Centre, London 1989: Sun Life Photography Awards, National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford 2004: English Eyes, Leica Gallery, New York City. Curated by Peter Hamilton.
Film about Summerfield Mother and Father (2015) – FullBleed Productions
Collections Arts Council of Great Britain, London Bodleian Library, Oxford Victoria and Albert Museum, LondonRecord of a 1967 photograph (museum number PH.80-1984), Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 8 February 2018. Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol, UK
Notes
References
External links
Paddy Summerfield: Mother & Father – short film made by FullBleed, on YouTube