Strangely Familiar: Peter Mitchell Paints The Everyday In Colour Film

“I had always believed a photograph could be as powerful as a painting.”

– Peter Mitchell

 

 

Peter Mitchell allows us to imagine the stories between his  colour photographer of 1970s and 80s England, particularly the northern city of Leeds he calls home. A self-described “man of the pavement”, his pictures cast the everyday in a new light,  making the new “strangely familiar”.

 

Born in 1943 in Manchester, England, Mitchell’s spent his early years in Catford, south east London, after his family moved there shortly after he was born. At 16, he began technical training in architectural mapping and drawing with the civil service. He then studied at Hornsey College of Art in London, where his interests in photography and typography grew.

In the early 1970s, Mitchell moved to Leeds to look for work and a lifelong connection with the city began. His job as a truck driver allowed him to travel around the city with his camera. He photographed factories, small shops and everyday scenes, capturing the city’s character during a period of significant change.  

 

His landmark exhibition, A New Refutation of the Viking 4 Space Mission, at Impressions Gallery in York in 1979, was the first colour photography show by a British photographer in a British photography gallery. 

In reaction to NASA’s Viking 1 and Viking 2 probes, launched respectively on 20 August and 9 September 1974, he mounted his images on space charts, as if aliens form outer space from had crash-landed in Leeds and were trying to understand the place. This imaginative narrative highlighted the ordinariness of everyday urban life, encouraging viewers to see their familiar surroundings in a new light.  

 

“Sometimes, I’d see something and think ‘I’ll come back when it’s not raining.’ Then I’d go back, and it had been knocked down.”

– Peter Mitchell

 

Throughout his career, Mitchell has been a dedicated chronicler of Leeds, focusing on its people, architecture, and the inevitable changes brought by time. He has always been fascinated by ‘the glory of the wreckage’. His series “Memento Mori” documents the demolition of the Quarry Hill Flats, once the largest social housing complex in the UK. Mitchell captured the essence of a community facing displacement, preserving the memory of a vanishing world. His photographs serve as both artistic expressions and historical records, reflecting the socio-economic shifts in urban England. 

 

Peter Mitchell: Nothing Lasts Forever is at London’s Photographers’ Gallery 7 until 15 June 2025. Book tickets here.