Roger Mayne at 80

A celebratory exhibition of photographs.
Roger Mayne (born Cambridge, 1929) became seriously interested in photography while studying for his degree in chemistry at Balliol College, Oxford. A few months after he graduated in 1951, six of his photographs appeared in Picture Post. In 1955 he met Paul Strand in Paris and Strand taught him the importance of print quality. He was also influenced by the ‘decisive moment’ approach of Cartier Bresson.

When he began to photograph in Southam Street, London W11, in 1956, his keen sense of timing and eye for the incidental became evident, especially when photographing children. He was to return often to this same street, where he took some of his best-known photographs. He also photographed at St. Stephen’s Gardens, Addison Place and other west London streets as well as in Soho and Brick Lane.

In 1956 he exhibited at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York and held his first exhibition in London at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (where Cartier-Bresson’s photographs had been exhibited in 1953). Through these exhibitions he gained a more prominent national and international reputation. A major exhibition of Mayne’s work was held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1986. Most recently his ‘Girl jiving’ was chosen for posters promoting Tate Britain’s major exhibition ‘How We Are: Photographing Britain from the 1840s to the Present’ in 2007.

This exhibition, celebrating Mayne’s 80th birthday, includes images full of vitality from Glasgow, Sheffield and Dublin as well as London.

Opening Times: Monday–Friday 9.30–5.30 (except bank holidays)
Underground: Piccadilly Circus or Oxford Street