Boy with mask and toy gun, Belfast, 1978
Photograph
1978 (photographed), 2008 (printed)
1978 (photographed), 2008 (printed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
The photograph is from the 'Survival Programmes' project, a social enquiry into Britain's inner cities by Chris Steele-Perkins, Paul Trevor and Nicholas Battye, working as the Exit Photography Group, between 1974 and 1979. The group self-consciously followed the tradition of pioneering studies into poverty by sociologists and documentary photographers, gathering thousands of photographs and over a hundred hours of interviews. This photograph is from a series made in Belfast by Chris Steele-Perkins during the height of the Troubles. It was taken in the Divis Flats, a housing development on the Falls Road area built between 1968 and 1972 populated mainly by poor Catholics and partially used as a base by the British Army. The complex was the site of frequent violence during the 1970s.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Titles |
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| Materials and techniques | Gelain-silver print |
| Brief description | Photograph, Boy with mask and toy gun, Belfast, 1978, Survival Programmes, Chris Steele-Perkins, 1978 |
| Physical description | Black and white photograph of a young boy dressed in black beret and coat, holding a ?machine gun, standing in a domestic interior with brocade wallpaper and repro painting of a boy's head behind. |
| Dimensions |
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| Credit line | Given by Chris Steele-Perkins |
| Object history | The photograph is from the 'Survival Programmes' project, a social enquiry into Britain's inner cities by Chris Steele-Perkins, Paul Trevor and NIcholas Battye, working as the Exit Photography Group, between 1974 and 1979. The project was self-consciously following the tradition of pioneering studies into poverty (including those by Engels, Booth and Rowntree) and photographers who have 'documented vividly and with compassion the less aceeptable faces of capitalism' (ie Thompson, Brandt, Hardy, McCullin). However, it dealt wtih a 'specific and significant historical moment' - that of an emerging post-industrial society at a period of a perceived crisis in inner cities. |
| Production | In Survival Programmes book the photograph is captioned 'Youth with toy gun, Divis Flats, Belfast, Northern Ireland'. The artist is happy with either title. |
| Summary | The photograph is from the 'Survival Programmes' project, a social enquiry into Britain's inner cities by Chris Steele-Perkins, Paul Trevor and Nicholas Battye, working as the Exit Photography Group, between 1974 and 1979. The group self-consciously followed the tradition of pioneering studies into poverty by sociologists and documentary photographers, gathering thousands of photographs and over a hundred hours of interviews. This photograph is from a series made in Belfast by Chris Steele-Perkins during the height of the Troubles. It was taken in the Divis Flats, a housing development on the Falls Road area built between 1968 and 1972 populated mainly by poor Catholics and partially used as a base by the British Army. The complex was the site of frequent violence during the 1970s. |
| Bibliographic reference | Survival Programmes in Britain's Inner Cities, Exit Photography Group: Nicholas Battye, Chris Steele-Perkins, Paul Trevor, Open University, 1981, pp.189 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.514-2008 |
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| Record created | August 6, 2008 |
| Record URL |
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