Paddy Summerfield: Mother & Father | FullBleed

FullBleed presents to you Paddy Summerfield and his photo essay, ‘Mother & Father’. Despite his images being shown in galleries such as the ICA, the Barbican and the Serpentine during the late 60s, Paddy has spent most of his career in obscurity. ‘Mother & Father’ gained recognition from the Guardian as one of the top 10 photography books of 2014 - “it’s an affecting meditation on age and mortality in sombre black & white”, says Sean O’Hagan. Having lived with his parents in Oxford for most of his life, Paddy eventually turned the camera on them capturing the gradual demise of the couple, from his mother developing Alzheimer’s and his father becoming her carer to the eventual death of them both. In doing so Paddy has produced a deeply saddening masterpiece that strikes a chord with our own mortality.