Red Saunders' exhibition of his large scale photographs, set out to recreate events in British history. They focus on names in history that are not as well known and maybe more hidden to the public. The body of work celebrates overlooked acts of bravery and the unrest between ordinary men and women in the nation's fight for equality by the working class people of Britain.
Red Saunders talks about his exhibition:
"It’s wonderful that the project will be exhibited in such fine company in the new museum and underlines the importance of shining a light on these important events and characters of working class history that are Hidden”.
All the images are presented in a different way and each scene has been extensively researched before hand and carefully planned and lit. Costumed models are used in the images in the style of 'tableaux vivants' that took much planning and some over a year to create. Together they suggest photographic ‘evidence’ for events that occurred before the creation of the modern day camera.
It can be seen in most of the images that the light sources, such as a candle, torch or light form the fire, seem to cast a larger amount of light than you would expect from such a small source of light. Much of Saunders work in this body of work of has been done in sections and layered together on Photoshop in post production. This helps to create a slightly theatrical quality to the photographs which encourage the explore the rich layering within the work and not take the image as it is.
These historical events are given a modern take through Saunders images and draw you in deeper, into the facts about the image and the historical event it is based around. The images show the unrest of the working class people towards there masters and leaders, and show social unrest and the issues from the time.
