Wellington-based photographer Anita Corbin has a major exhibition opening in Exeter next week. Visible Girls: Revisited revives a major 1980s project for Anita, when she photographed exuberant young women all over the UK. Now she has gone back, found them and produced images of the same women in later life.
In 1980, Corbin captured pivotal “coming of age” moments in the life of 56 members of different subcultures. The result was an extraordinary collection of portraits against a backdrop of heightened social, cultural and political change. The Skins, Mods, Punks, Rockabillies, New Romantics, Rasta’s and young lesbians that Anita photographed represented an emerging movement of female empowerment.
Now, 36 years later, Anita is finding out where those girls are? What’s happened to all those women who were so dedicated to their sub cultural tribes and what’s happened to their dreams and beliefs? With the help of an Arts Council grantAnita has re-photographed most of the original girls to create a set of images that will sit alongside the originals in a touring exhibition.
Corbin said she hopes Visible Girls: Revisited captured the spirit of a journey from youth to age. She said: “It highlights for me our society’s woeful inability to acknowledge and celebrate the magnificence of the older woman; more informed by her youthful experiences and innate energy than is commonly recognised. It is my hope that Visible Girls: Revisited throws a new spotlight on this.”
Visible Girls: Revisited is on at the Exeter Phoenix from Fri 17 Nov 2017 – Thu 21 Dec 2017 | 10am-5pm | free
http://visiblegirls.com/exhibition/#exhibiton