Who's looking at the family, now?

Who’s looking at the family, now? curated by Tim Clark engages with some fundamental questions about family life, its dynamics and complexity, represented by a group of contemporary photographers and artists working in the UK and internationally. 2019 marked the twenty-five years since British curator Val Williams’ seminal exhibition, Who’s looking at the family? which opened at the Barbican in 1994, offering the opportunity to consider the multifarious changes, both to notions of the family and photography, that have taken place during this time.

Ranging from documentary modes and found photography to conceptual approaches to the medium, and bringing together forms of construction or performative acts as well as sculptural interventions. The exhibited works meditate on what might constitute, or in some cases deconstruct, a family photograph. Many demonstrate the way images embark on a journey from a point of origin in the private sphere to enter the public gaze. Furthermore, boundaries between internal and external worlds become blurred to create part-spectacle, part socio-historical testimonies that provide windows onto issues of class, race and identity.