Paul Trevor Is In Your Face

Over 50 photographs from Paul Trevor’s “In Your Face” series will go on display at the Martin Parr Foundation tomorrow. Made on the streets of London between 1977 and 1992, this will be the first exhibition in nearly 25 years to focus on this series of spontaneous close-ups. The exhibition continues the Foundation’s commitment to highlighting important but overlooked work by British photographers.

Primarily shot during Britain’s “Thatcher years,” a time of polarized debate on market values vs. community values, “In Your Face” contrasts the people in London’s money market, The City, with those in the nearby street market of Brick Lane. “The idea was to say something about the two places without having to show what people did. The story would be in people’s faces. Needing a close-up approach, the project involved me in a new way of making photographs,” says Paul Trevor.

“The ‘In Your Face’ project was a very radical idea at the time when the notion of closing in on street walkers had not really been explored,” says Martin Parr. “Despite the subjects looking a bit dated, the images feel as fresh now as when they were taken in the 1980’s.”

Paul Trevor abandoned his job as an accountant at the age of 25 to take up photography, motivated by an enthusiastic social impulse. His work has been widely published in books, magazines, films and television and is held in private and public collections around the world.

In Your Face
By Paul Trevor
Martin Parr Foundation
Bristol, UK
September 26-December 22, 2018